Education 4.0 is an educational form with Internet as the information carrier and transmission channel, intelligent terminals and mobile intelligent terminals as the human-computer interaction interface, aiming at satisfying learners' mental experience and promoting their mental development, and combining other organizations (authoritative organizations) with self-organization (learning community) as the organizational form.
Education is about to enter the 4.0 era.
Education is a unique social phenomenon of human beings, which is always accompanied by the pace of human civilization. Whenever human civilization leaps to a new level, correspondingly, education in this era is bound to have a major leap-educational objectives, teaching methods and organizational forms will change accordingly. Educational objectives, teaching methods and organizational forms are the three core elements that determine the characteristics of education. When these three core elements have undergone fundamental changes, we can announce the arrival of a new era of education.
According to the changes of the three core elements, we can divide the development of education (mainly based on the development of education in China) into the following four stages (see the figure below):
The first stage: education 1.0 era
At this time, human civilization is in the era of "harvesting fishing and hunting civilization". The main goal of education is to develop learners' survival skills (hunting, gathering, fishing, sewing and fighting). The teaching method is mainly to set an example, and the organizational form of teaching is mainly group activities.
The second stage: education 2.0 era
At this time, mankind has entered the era of "farming and animal husbandry civilization". The main purpose of education is to teach people how to be a man and how to be an official. The main carrier and communication tool of knowledge (information) is books. In this era, the development of papermaking and printing has greatly promoted the spread of knowledge and promoted the great development of education. The teaching methods are mainly "face-to-face teaching" and "independent reading", and the organizational forms are mainly government-run institutions (such as Imperial College) and private school libraries (private schools).
The third stage: education 3.0 era
At this time, mankind has entered the era of "machine industry civilization". Socialized large-scale industrial production needs a large number of professional and technical personnel, so the main goal of education is no longer to cultivate "good people" and "good officials", but to impart modern scientific knowledge and cultivate professional skills. The carrier of knowledge (information) is still mainly books, but there are also carriers and communication channels such as radio and television. Besides face-to-face teaching and reading activities, there are many ways to listen to the radio and watch videos. Its organizational form is mainly modern schools run by the state, supplemented by private schools and educational consulting institutions.
The fourth stage: Education 4.0 era
With the rapid development of Internet and intelligent terminal equipment, human civilization has entered the era of "information intelligence civilization" from the era of "machine industry civilization", and education is about to move from the 3.0 era to the 4.0 era. With the rapid updating of knowledge and technology, "knowledge-based" will replace "knowledge-based", "academic ability" will be more important than "academic qualifications", and the educational goal is moving from "transferring knowledge" to "developing mind". The main carriers and communication tools of information are transferred from books to the Internet and intelligent terminals or mobile intelligent terminals. The teaching method is changing from "pure offline" to "online" or "combination of online and offline", and its organizational form is also changing from a single "other organization" (such as traditional schools) to a combination of "other organization" and "self-organization" (such as learning community).
The above contents are excerpted from the article "New Changes in Educational Technology in the Era of Education 4.0" published by Teacher Liu Zhuoyuan in China on August 23rd, 20th15th.