“How is digitalization changing our learning?” – This central question was the focus at LearnTec 2020. Futurist Christian Baudis, former CEO of Google Germany, presented exciting insights. We summarize the most important learnings about the future of learning:
Last week, we already reported on our visit to this year's LearnTec and answered the most frequently asked questions about blink.it.
Digital learning is an important topic in schools and universities. More interesting for companies is, how digital learning is implemented in the workplace – and what innovations await HR developers, trainers, and employees. Accordingly, former Google Germany CEO Christian Baudis delivered a keynote on “How digitalization changes the way we learn.” In the interview with Checkpoint E-Learning, he already presented some excerpts from it:
Learning will become individual, flexible, and cooperative
Baudis provides an outlook on how our learning environments will look in the future. Trainings are becoming increasingly individualized, with digital media playing an ever more important role:
The crucial difference from today will be that you will no longer have to search for a suitable course yourself. A speaking assistant will support you in this. Where you learn is, in most cases, up to you.
However, social interaction should not suffer, as the exchange among experts significantly contributes to the learning success of individual employees. This leads to a crucial role for HR personnel: They must ensure that employees have enough time to continue exchanging ideas with each other. For example, designated learning times in companies can help.
The understanding of further education will also change significantly in the future:
We will have to be much more flexible due to rapid changes.
Although there are already good role models, few companies are changing their learning culture. The learning culture is the foundation for successful learning 4.0 – and thus fundamentally determines the success of employees and companies. Baudis sees the reason in the past years of the successful German economy.
We have a lot of catching up to do. Digitality plays no role in schools, universities, or vocational training. In this regard, we are very sluggish and unfortunately also a bit arrogant.
When it comes to digitalization, many people also talk about AI. However, according to Baudis, very few people understand what it is really about.
In the professional field, AI is primarily a high-speed statistic that is very valid and helps me make better decisions. […] This understanding of AI as a second opinion must definitely be communicated within the company.
Without this knowledge about the correct use of AI, companies miss many advantages in further education. For Baudis, one of them is the individualization, which would make our learning processes significantly more efficient: When the technology adapts to us as individuals, learning becomes more motivating and significantly faster. However, we would also need to share our data.
To allay fears regarding data security, Baudis sees the legislator in charge and also gives praise – we are on a very good path!
He mentions one last significant aspect at the end:
We must become experts in our field. Without extensive expertise, we will find it difficult. Accordingly, we must handle our work and further education flexibly. Knowledge must be continually aligned and adjusted.
So we must not rely on new technology – we must use it and make further education the norm! Because: Those who continue to educate themselves not only become better in their job, but they will also be more satisfied with their work.
The most important learnings at a glance:
Germans have a significant catching up to do in terms of digital competence compared to our neighboring countries.
In the coming years, further education will become increasingly individualized. In addition, social exchange will play an increasingly significant role.
We must say goodbye to old patterns and approach digital innovations openly in order to be able to work with them.
In the future, we will have to prepare for rapid changes and act more flexibly to keep up with constant developments.
The most important learning trends at LearnTec
At LearnTec, we were able to exchange ideas with many companies and would like to share our personal impressions of the upcoming learning trends with you:
“We have not yet fully understood the digital learning world and do not know what will be possible in the future.”
Blink.it colleague Claudia Baudis wholeheartedly agrees with this statement. But what does it mean?
Before we can deal with specific learning methods, we must be clear about what digital learning means for us. At LearnTec, we were repeatedly asked the question, what E-Learning actually means. (If you're asking this question too, we have the answers for you here!) Many companies still have no proper overview of what is possible in the further education industry today.
In particular, large companies approached us with the question of how they can transfer offline content to online. And here comes Blended Learning, which remains one of the most popular learning trends! A good Blended Learning experience requires that in-person events and online content are perfectly intertwined.
Another innovation that we encountered frequently at LearnTec was extensive technical support in the form of VR, bots, or other digital media. This allows companies to promote individualized learning even more effectively.
And that brings us to the last point: We were often asked whether we provide ready-made learning content. We do not, and for a good reason: As Baudis already mentioned in his interview, learning is becoming more individualized, which is why pre-made mass content usually does not lead to the desired learning effect.
In summary, we can say that Christian Baudis's assessments align with our own experiences! Whether HR developers or trainers: You should continue to stay informed about digital learning methods to offer sustainable training and further education in the future.
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