Towards learning ecosystem of Education 4.0 in Vietnam

Towards learning ecosystem of Education 4.0 in Vietnam

The desired change in the Vietnamese context requires new ways of operating in professional networks. In our project plan, we stated that “Education 4.0 is based on equal cooperation, dialogue and transparency, which builds trust and common understanding between partners. The aim is to build a learning ecosystem 4.0 with communities of practice”. Based on the experiences of WP 1, we already have a strong engagement to continue the collaboration. During managers’ visit in Finland, managers showed a lot of support to each other and the spirit for common development was high. They mentioned that mutual collaboration is crucial to maximizing the usage of all the available resources such as the library, research facilities and online training materials. Regarding prior knowledge and expertise of Education 4.0, institutions have their own strengths and speciality areas which can be identified and collaboratively utilized later on in the EMVITET project.

In Vietnam, Education 4.0 is seen as a smart model that links three key partners: schools, administrator and industry in order to create a responsive environment to promote creativity, innovation and productivity in a knowledge society (Vietnam News Agency, 2017). A “closed” education might be changed into an “open” one that encourages a smooth communication among schools, administrators such as school managers, and industry partners. The role of higher education is to operate as a part of ecosystems providing flexible learning paths utilizing advanced technology.

Developing learning ecosystem for Education 4.0 means that all the stakeholders such as students, teachers and industry partners need to rethink their roles and many times go out of their traditional “boxes”, out of their comfort zones. In Education 4.0, students can be the ones who know the best and can teach each other. Teachers can learn together with them and be more like facilitators of the processes. Teachers can no longer restrict their work to a school environment but collaborate with the business and industry partners providing learning possibilities and innovation platforms also for them. Additionally, students can be encouraged to build their own professional connections. Industry partners need to recognize the added value of collaboration with education. All these advancements towards Education 4.0, need dialogical competencies and emotional intelligence. In our project, we will focus on cultivating these competencies in practice.

Conclusions

Rethinking learning towards Education 4.0 means that all the stakeholders need to consider them as learners. Not just teachers and students, but managers, educational institutions, business and industry need to learn new ways of building relevant competencies. Education 4.0 cannot be developed by relying on our traditional roles and structures. Learning can be most meaningful when we go out of our comfort zone and try to think differently. In the following steps, we will focus on establishing, piloting and ingraining Education 4.0 in practice.

Teachers are key actors in this process in engaging their students and industry partners to the development. It is important to notice that all the new responsibilities cannot be added to or embedded within more traditional structures and practices, but some practices and structures will need to be given up (Kunnari, 2018, p. 42). We also have to harness digital technologies for meaningful learning. However, in the time of change, we need to invest as much in humanity as we invest in technology (Leonhard, 2017). Keeping this in our mind, we can build sustainable, inspiring and relevant Education 4.0.