The Future of Learning: Education in the Era of Partners in Code is KnowledgeWorks fourth comprehensive forecast on the future of learning and explores the intersection of three impact layers — people, structures and society — and five drivers of change.

We are rapidly entering a new era in which our economy, our institutions, and our societal structures – indeed, the very bedrock of our lives – are shifting at an accelerating pace.

This new era promises to change learning so dramatically that both the ways in which education prepares learners and the reasons why people pursue learning could look drastically different than they do today.

A new era of partners in code

Many factors are contributing to this era shift, among them new social norms, organizational approaches and economic models. Above all, exponential advances in digital technologies are changing our world at an unprecedented pace. Our devices are becoming increasingly smaller, more efficient, connected, and affordable. We do not just use them; we wear them as extensions of our bodies and adornments to ourselves. Data is captured in vast amounts, creating ever more detailed images of our realities, behaviors, and patterns. Increasingly sophisticated computational tools and algorithms are ushering in smart machines such as driverless cars; robots that work alongside humans; and digital helpers that can think, learn, anticipate our needs and wants, and even create art. Such developments are disrupting organizational and business models, reconfiguring civic relationships, and changing the role of employment in people’s lives. They will also have a profound effect on how, when, and why people learn. Over the next decade, our lives will become so inextricably linked with our digital companions that we will find ourselves living as partners in code, creating the next generation of human-digital co-evolution. Code will become increasingly ingrained in our lives. It will come to function as a sort of white noise in the background: always there and only noticeable when missing. The key challenge of the era of partners in code will be to define how people foster productive relationships with technology that leverage, elevate, and celebrate the unique contributions of our humanity so that we can thrive amid intensifying complexity.

From drivers of change to possibilities for the future

• Optimized Selves – Discovering new human horizons
• Labor Relations 2.0 – Negotiating new machine partnerships
• Alternate Economies – Finding the right niche
• Smart Transactional Models – Creating self-managing institutions
• Shifting Landscapes – Innovating in volatile conditions

Where the drivers of change meet the impact layers, provocations suggest possibilities for what learning could look like in ten years. As you explore them, we invite you to unleash your imagination, examine new possibilities for learning and consider what role you might play in shaping the future of learning.

Over the next decade, our lives will become so inextricably linked with our digital companions that we will find ourselves living as partners in code, creating the next generation of human digital co-evolution. Code will become increasingly ingrained in our lives. It will come to function as a sort of white noise in the background: always there and only noticeable when missing.

The key challenge of the era of partners in code will be to define how people foster productive relationships with technology that leverage, elevate and celebrate the unique contributions of our humanity so that we can thrive amid intensifying complexity.