DigiDemo asked Torben Momme from the University College of Northern Denmark to give his perspectives on this matter.
Education is a central part of a democratic society, according to Torben Momme: I see education as a life-long process. Perhaps even more nowadays than in the past. Because society develops so quickly, educating yourself is an ongoing process.
Most students are motivated and proactive. However, there is a “small” group of approximately 25 % with need of extra guidance and support during their study time. Some of the youth often don’t realize the purpose of being educated. Furthermore, these students need more structure once they have started their studies. We, therefore, need to find a good recipe to guide them.
In DigiDemo, we are developing a number of demonstrators aiming at different topics within mechatronics and sustainability. We hope that implementing and using “hands-on” demonstrators in our teaching activities will help the students to better and more easily learn. Especially the students in need of more structure and guidance. The demonstrators represent a very clear task to the students, supporting them to seek out knowledge by themselves: One of the problems is getting students to study long enough and stay on enough hours to get the knowledge to be on the front edge. With DigiDemo, we hope to change that.
However, Torben Momme also emphasizes that the majority of students are very motivated to learn, and they strive to be at the forefront of developments – and that’s in an education system in a good condition: Some parts of the education system are moving ahead, and that’s really good. We have a general understanding among most young people that they need to get an education. That’s really nice.
Where a small group of students needs structure and guidance, the majority of students are proactive in their search for knowledge: The young people who are moving forward are perhaps more industrious than we were, and they may have an even better framework than we had. They can quickly find additional things themselves that fit into what they are now researching. In comparison, the rest of us had to read a long series of books – and didn’t always finish.
Torben Momme is looking forward to a future, where even more students are at the forefront of developments: All in all, I think the education sector is doing well and that many of the programs are moving forward, he concludes.
Thank you for your thoughts.