Digitization is changing the way we work. It gives us freedom, but also new tasks that have to be mastered. In the future, education will be increasingly responsible for preparing students for digitalization.
Fluid boundaries between companies and products without a sender
Who still knows today what kind of label “Hugo Boss” is? Italian? German? American? The boundaries between the companies and the products we use are becoming increasingly blurred. We order a product from Amazon and Co. without having touched it or seen it live. Which company made the product? Was it due to child labor? It is almost impossible to find out this information. Filter functions do not help us to think about it, but simply to find the right product for us. Services are also becoming more and more anonymous due to digitization. New company? New logo? No problem … order online. You get 99 suggestions and choose the right one from them. Who created it remains in the dark. Services are becoming more and more anonymous and offered by computers. Accounts are opened by a bank employee without any action; advice is provided by a bot.
For education, this means that students and learners must be prepared for it. You have to learn to classify and find information correctly. Is the information on the homepage correct? What does my product need in addition to the information offered in the filter? How do I find out where the product originally came from? Raising awareness of global grievances such as child labor, exploitation, etc. is becoming increasingly important. In summary, today’s students need the competence to be able to obtain information without being too influenced by communication tools. And they need the sensitivity and empathy to recognize that products achieve their value through sustainability and that it is worth paying more for them.
Commissioning instead of hiring
“Hire and fire”. What American presidents do on the running meter spills over into our working world. Self-marketing takes on a completely new status. Either you are perceived as competent or you disappear into the crowd. It is no longer important what you can effectively do, but whether you can convey what you can do to others. Platforms such as LinkedIn, Xing or Facebook are used to present yourself digitally. Only those who are aware of their appearance and its effect will succeed. The client will only find out later whether the reality reflects what is promised … just hire and fire.
For education, this means that in the future, students should be more prepared for performance skills, expression and self-marketing. It is not important to write essays, but to give presentations to the class. Making Power Points impressive is at least as important as being able to fill them with really relevant facts. If you don’t believe that, you are welcome to examine Trump’s Twitter profile. Even if he was not re-elected, 72,000,000 people voted for him.
Peer-to-peer instead of hierarchy
Bosses who believe they are above other people will no longer be taken seriously by the coming generation. In the new world of work, everyone is their own boss, everyone is a 1-man or 1-woman AG. Bosses are only deployed when someone is needed to keep track of things. Or when you need a head that you can get rolling when something goes wrong. Hierarchies are slow and competitive. Today, skills and not positions are required.
For teachers, this means that they should teach their classes at eye level from an early age. Teachers who believe they have to let the “boss” hang out in the classroom look just as embarrassing as bosses who are convinced that the company would go under without them. The focus is on the teacher as a coach. It enables learning in an infinite number of ways and does not stubbornly show the way. This demands more self-competence, more responsibility, more self-motivation from the students. Qualities that will also help them succeed in the new digital world after leaving school.
More on the subject in the second part, which will be published soon.