Teaching methods and workplace demands are evolving rapidly, pushing educational institutions to adopt new paradigms that keep pace with the changing times

It is now being increasingly recognised that artificial intelligence and technology use are going to alter the nature of learning, as few things have in the last 100 years. The fundamental nature of change and its pace is nothing new if one goes back over six or seven decades ago.

The digitisation process altered the nature of learning numerals. The use of calculators rendered memorising multiplication tables substantially irrelevant. There was a sea change that has only increased its reach and depth with each passing decade.  From calculators to the computerisation and successive upward scaling of computerisation competencies rendered not only the tables and the algorithms only marginally relevant, but even the log tables became a matter of history. 

After some initial reluctance to allow a mechanical instrument into the classroom and the examination hall, the nature of learning was adjusted to the new realities. The machine-added reality became the new paradigm. The nature of learning changed slowly but surely from working through one’s memory to getting used to machines and their algorithm. The orientation changed from falling back on mental collaborations to machine-led solutions. Changes in technology also needed learning but of a different order.

The dualism of specialisation was more in demand for staying current in the employment market. Indeed, machines started competing with each other in a manner of speaking and a classical example would be the different technology modes used in the manufacture of a jet plane (Ilyushin) in Russia and the technology used in a Boing aircraft.The new realities required a new approach to what could be termed as ‘new learning’.

The nature of teaching arithmetic, mathematics, and more all underwent a change, and a revolution bigger than many had hit the classroom.

The nature of this revolution was significant because it was a continuing revolution, and today, it confronts the learner through various forms of artificial intelligence, also.  The notions of mechanical search have not only revolutionised the search for information but even rendered encyclopedias decoration pieces in fancy drawing rooms.

They have now, perhaps, become a showcase of how learning used to be not so long ago. All this has implications not only for the classroom but also for the workplace. The exact manifestation of this is not clear, but the rumblings go on. Whereas earlier on, learning organisations used to pay equal focus on how to teach. Now the focus is equally on what and how to teach. The pressure in both the classroom and the workplace is equally intense, calling for a paradigm shift. 

The real challenge for learning organisations lies in embodying the paradigm shift. It will be useful to remind oneself that learning organisations is nothing new. As a proposition, the need to keep reinventing oneself has been commonplace.  Not so long ago, the focus was on keeping the mind open. Much of that has now metamorphosed into almost a new paradigm: keeping the mind growing.  Enhancing of skills and competencies continues to be a defining trait of a learning organisation. It is simply not possible to confine oneself just to ‘keeping the mind open’. 

Today, learning requires the competence to appreciate the new and emerging patterns of technology. Not so long ago, literacy was important to the use of a machine because one had to punch through the alphabet. 

Now the situation has reached a context where even if one does not have the competence to punch an alphabet, one can speak into a machine and the machine will comply.  At the moment, this process is at an early stage, but the problems that it means to tackle are expanding every day. 

The change in the gamut of learning is important because if one can solve problems without being able to write, there indeed is a revolution in the entire paradigm of learning.  The proposition, therefore of a learning organisation is undergoing several fundamental reformulations.

There was a time in the 20th century when technology altered the nature of distance, and now there seems to be an emerging approach to technology that can alter the nature of time itself.  Time present and time future are ready to merge into each other through technological interventions, allowing one to pass through a time machine, even if only temporarily. These are fundamental postulates and need rethinking far more deeply than what we have been able to do at prese

(The writer is a well-known management consultant of international repute; The views expressed are personal)