Giving Compass' Take:

• Preparing for the automation age starts with following the current trends in education such as blended learning, personalized learning, student agency and more.

• Will all schools start preparing their students for these developments in the workforce? How can we help schools that don't have access to all the resources that will help prepare students? 

• Read another piece on how students should prepare for the fourth industrial revolution. 

The Information Age was a four-decade-long global sprint to incorporate information technology; the World Economic Forum calls it the Third Industrial Revolution. It changed how we live, work, play, and, just in the last few years, how we learn.

We’ve entered a new era with new learning priorities and opportunities. We’re only a few years into this automation age (WEF calls it the Fourth Industrial Revolution) but it is becoming clear that it’s changing the nature of work and skills required for contribution.

With philanthropic support, a few advocacy groups including iNACOL led the information age learning revolution, first with online learning, then blended and personalized learning. Contributions included field building, convening, and pointed to quality and equity.

This new era requires that we build student agency–that we put learners in the driver’s seat–for three reasons:

  • Confidence in the face of complexity: developing attack skills (problem-solving, design thinking) for new situations. Learners build confidence and pattern recognition skills by experiencing success in many different settings.
  • Initiative in the face of opportunity: learning to take initiative, to shape impact opportunities including projects, campaigns, and startup organizations.
  • Self-awareness in the face of diversity: becoming self-aware, learning to read social situations and build relationships, collaborating through difficult situations.

Worksheets don’t build growth mindsets, entrepreneurial mindsets or social and emotional intelligence. These new-era cognitive muscles are built through extended challenges, community-connected work, and a culture of strong supports and rich feedback.

Read the full article about skills for the automation age by Tom Vander Ark at Getting Smart