Keynote: New higher education for lifelong learning

Abstract

Economical, societal and cultural developments in industrialized countries push for educational innovation with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as an important enabling factor. Moving from industrial to knowledge intensive economies there is a need for modern professionals, knowledge workers with new qualifications. For the modern professional, lifelong working is identical with lifelong learning; the modern professional is a learning professional. Innovation is the driving force in a knowledge intensive economy and for innovation new knowledge is needed. The modern professional therefore is a knowledge creating professional. Also businesses and organisations need new strategic business-knowledge to be able cope with demands from a rapidly changing environment. Modern organisations are therefore learning organisations. Higher Education, as a breeding place of modern professionals, needs to redefine its role. The more so, because a new generation of students is in the making: the media generation. A new educational paradigm of the learning organisation may serve both initial phase, and lifelong learning students. Situation based learning environments may be the materialisation of this new paradigm. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.