The knowledge worker of the 21st century can no longer rely on the way learning was delivered in the 20th and preceding centuries. In fact, traditional education has seen little innovation since the inception of universities and schools. To address today’s challenge of lifelong learning in new ways, technology will play a larger role by enabling and enhancing learning processes with speed, flexibility and individualisation.

In a technology-enabled lifelong learning environment, digital literacy will be a critical prerequisite for access and participation. This is especially important for age groups who may not have grown up with information technology – the so-called “digital immigrants” – as opposed to younger generations, the “digital natives”. A term coined by Mark Prensky (http://www.marcprensky.com/) in his 2001 book with the same title.

Innovation and lifelong learning

In the universe of disruptive change and innovation, learning innovation is becoming essential. Learning’s focus is gradually shifting away from primarily providing predefined skills and competencies towards dynamically enabling knowledge workers to be more productive. Yet, the actual challenge of learning innovation has been grossly underestimated during the last 10 years.

With the advent of “e-learning,” some believed that the panacea for learning had been discovered. It was expected that technology, as such, would make the transformation of teaching and learning happen. However, technology is just one important element of an overall “learning system.” It is simply an enabler – not the answer.

A learning system encompasses several key elements and success factors that need to be in place to enable and support learning in an effective way. These include pedagogy, learn-ing design, user-centric collaborative learning environments, and social and cultural factors. Without this holistic understanding of learning systems, technology will be leveraged in a sub-optimal way.

In a world of active lifelong learning, as promoted by the European Commission, an individual’s skills portfolio will be built and documented based on a mix of real-life experiences, achievements and relationships, and formal learning certifications. While classroom-based learning will continue, especially in the early phases of education, it will play a decreased role during an individual’s lifetime.

Various studies report that 70 to 80 percent of what we learn is acquired on the job. In this sense, ePortfolio technology possesses the potential to transform cur-rent practice and improve the quality of life-long learning, including continuing professional development.

As a result, the interest in learning innovation is moving from the mere “formal” towards the “informal” side of learning.