Learning is a lifelong process. This was determined by the EU Commission as part of its educational activities for the European area of lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is defined here as any targeted activity that serves to continuously improve knowledge, skills, and competencies. This covers the entire spectrum of formal, informal, and alternative learning. The goal is ambitious: to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge society in the world.
Wide-ranging and complex
Throughout all phases of life, education has a positive effect on one’s personal identity, social interactions, and professional abilities. But the framework conditions for learning are changing. Learners have changing demands, and findings in learning research call for a new methodological-didactic concept within the overall learning context. “The
traditional system needs to be loosened up,” demands German philosopher and publicist, Richard David Precht, in relation to schools and universities. He would like to get competent people more intensively involved with instruction, to better respond to student knowledge levels using electronic tools as well. As an example, Precht suggests that renowned specialists, both active and retired, should also teach in schools. Knowledge and experience would then be passed directly from one generation to the next.
New learning concepts
Sitting still, cramming for tests, chalk and talk – to an ever greater extent, the traditional program is becoming a thing of the past. Modern learning involves a much more individual approach, and experimenting with new projects. Instruction presented while standing in front of a blackboard is no longer the only teaching method, and it’s attracting more and more criticism, because new learning frees itself from location, space, and time. Alternative, mixed concepts are favored, such as working in groups, with a partner, or even alone using new technologies. E_learning, for example, not only permits independent use of learning processes, but the individual, flexible configurations of these processes as well, in order to better absorb the subject matter and the problem-solving thought-process. Merging the digital world with vocational training is logical, as well as a cost- and time-saving process.
Learning shapes our thinking
“It depends on how we’re prepared for life, how we’re educated, socialized, and ultimately formed, or in other words, which “alphabet” is imposed upon us, with which we are then equipped to go out into the world,” says Erwin Wagenhofer, who points out aberrations in the field of education in his documentary film "Alphabet" – which caused an international stir. He also stresses: “What we learn characterizes our stock of knowledge, but how we learn shapes our thinking.” And that is clearly evident: people are more likely to remember the things that move them.
Virtual, playful learning
In scientific fields, new approaches to virtual learning such as digital game-based learning, digital storytelling, and interactive dramaturgy are being intensively discussed. These methods assume that learning can be made more effective by means of stories and games, and the Internet is an ideal medium for doing so. Virtual reality fulfills the technical prerequisites for making the desired content come alive in a new way by integrating all of the senses. Immersion into the virtual world triggers a strong emotional response and strengthens the bond to the imparted content.
Structured procedure
The imparting of ready-to-use knowledge is not as useful as the creation of structures for thought and action. Knowledge builds hierarchically: the most important content is connected, the corresponding questions are arranged, and ideas are bundled. All of this is intended to promote better learning and thinking. Numerous teaching and learning methods have become established to this end – from mind mapping and brainstorming to clustering. The goal of these methods is to create a meaningful sequence for the individual learning modules, which can then be incorporated into a work plan. But they’re all based on gathering information in a topic-oriented manner, grouping it according to knowledge units, and systematizing training content. Even for individual work and writing processes, clustering is often helpful – to structure one’s own thoughts and ideas, or to overcome writing and thinking blocks.