Learning Ecosystem approach in Education 4.0

For Education 4.0, educational institutions need to work closely with the world of work in order to provide students with an effective environment to learn relevant competencies for the rapidly changing world. Educational institutions and other stakeholders in institutions’ networks, such as industry, business and society partners can form learning ecosystems.

“The concept of the learning ecosystem is linked to the practical need to understand and to conceptualize the dynamic and interactive nature as well as the diversity of the relationships between VET, higher education and the world of work. In particular, the concept seeks to understand the new models of organising collaboration between businesses and educational institutions and practices enabled by digitalisation.” (Virolainen, et al, 2019, see English abstract https://journal.fi/akakk/article/view/89249/48524 )

Developing a learning ecosystem for Education 4.0 means that all the stakeholders such as students, teachers and industry partners need to rethink their roles and often go out of their traditional “boxes”, out of their comfort zones (Kunnari, et al., 2019, read more about Rethinking Learning Towards Education 4.0). Teachers can no longer just deliver knowledge, but need to design meaningful learning experiences hand in hand with work-life partners. These learning experiences can have added value for all. For example, students will get real-life cases to work with, teachers can update their professional knowledge, and work-life partners can benefit from extra resources and competencies. Further, educational institutions can establish networks to share and utilize each other’s strengths.