Yeah, I'm very happy to be here, compliment to the organizers.
I think you've assembled a very interesting program in terms of combining what the support
means and what, so to have a closer look on certain aspects in higher education and distance
learning and yeah, you asked me to talk about individualization, so I took the opportunity
to reflect on my personal observations on that.
So it's more a personal observation report and working with adult learners and I think
in the educational research area, the topic of individualization is more intensely discussed
in the school area, in the German speaking countries.
At the moment, there it's a very hot topic, how we can really treat pupils individually,
more individually.
In adult education we did, I think we have treated them during the last years very individually,
but now with the possibilities of blended learning, I think there are new developments
and I want to reflect some of them.
So you hear to our British guests, I'm speaking danglish, and pigeon English with a heavy
Austrian accent, so I apologize for that.
And first I want to make a step back, because what's the background of individualization?
And I think one educational political background is the concept of lifelong learning, because
I always understood that concept as a reaction from the side of European educational policy
towards modern trends in society.
They observed that society is becoming far more heterogeneous, a lot of diverse biographies,
new demographic trends, aging societies, at least in continental Europe, intercultural
societies, and of course knowledge-based societies.
So suddenly the topic of learning is not only in the sphere of I'm eager to learn, but it's
such a socio-economic topic, and suddenly there's an economic pressure on how well educated
are your people.
And we all in education observed during the last years a growing pressure that there is
more observation what's going on in the educational area.
That's because suddenly knowledge is a product, and everyone is looking whether the manpower
is well-qualified.
So that was one of the origins, employability.
I think in England you have heard that word for a thousand times, but I want to stress
that there's also another origin of this concept, and this is participation and active citizenship.
If you imagine a society more and more based on knowledge and learning, then you have to
be well educated to be able to participate in this kind of society.
So if we want to avoid a growing gap between those few that even know more and more and
more and are well and very well educated and a growing majority who doesn't find the entrance
into that knowledge-based society, so there are heavy social reasons to deal with the
concept of lifelong learning.
And coming from the German-speaking background, I'm always keen to see that in the Anglo-Saxon
world, let's say Canada, Australia, also UK, you stress much more the side of access
and participation in this concept of lifelong learning, whereas in the German-speaking
country we just discovered, we are starting to discover this, and we stress employability.
But we have these two origins, and that's why I'm, that's my introduction.
In the core of this concept is the individual.
It's the individual learner, and this is a complete shift.
It's not the educational institution, but it's the individual learner, and how she or
he can be supported in this complex knowledge-based society.
And in the world of institutions in Germany and in the German-speaking context, we are
used to look at education more from the institutional side.
We have a lot of institutions specialized, and the learner is not that much seen, so
that's why I want to stress this, because individualization for me is at the core of
this concept.
And there are two messages.
On the one hand, there's a good message for the individual learner.
You stress, you look at him or her and think about support.
But the other side might be a bad message.
It means that the individual has to take responsibility for his or her learning process.
And this is attention, and this is, I think, a tension or conflict area for the concept
of individualization, because without the learner taking the responsibility for the
learning process, you won't succeed.
And there's no anchor for support.
So I think we have to bear that in mind, because at least in Germany, maybe we have in the
discussion, I think I'm really looking forward to the experience in the Anglo-Saxon world,
but our tradition is much more institution-based in education.
So we have difficulties with this shift towards the learner.
So what are the new aspects or the aspects of higher education at all that lifelong learning
stresses?
First, there's this lifespan orientation.
As I said, biographies are very diverse.
So there's no more first education than occupational life and then retirement.
No.
Look around.
Look at your friends.
Look at your daughters, mothers, fathers.
They have very, very diverse biographies.
They restart several times.
And they always have to combine education, occupation, and spare time private life.
So this is a new challenge in a modern society, that you always have to find a way to combine
these different spheres of life throughout life.
So you don't, you have to think, how can I enable, elderly ones, you remember some years
ago when you were 40, in big enterprises, you were not seen as object of personnel development
anymore.
They said, you're sorry, too old.
So this is only slowly changing.
The second is, as I said, learner-centered.
This is easily said, of course.
We all are learner-centered.
But look how education is delivered.
It is not learner-centered at the majority.
I would say adult education is different.
But if you really look at the majority of educational institutions, I wouldn't say that
they really put the learner in the center.
So this, I always say, is very easily to proclaim, but very hard to do, very difficult to implement.
Like the saying, put human beings in the middle.
Yeah, we don't.
So if we take that serious, that the individual learner is important, then of course the individual
learner needs support.
So lifelong guidance is one of the buzzwords.
How can this person be accompanied in the endeavor to grow?
So how are the institutions, how are the means, where are the places to be consulted and supported?
Then the fourth is, I think, probably from a didactical point of view, the most important.
This is about outcome and competence orientation.
And this is even more difficult than to be learner-centered, you know?
So this not only means that we look at the outcome.
It also means that we have a broad concept of competencies.
International institutions are very good at cognitive competencies.
They know how to train them, how to examine them.
They have concepts for that.
So we know that, from school to university, wherever.
But they are not very good in a broader set of competencies.
What about the other kind, you know, social, communicative, personal, et cetera, et cetera?
I always make the observation that enterprises, if they invest in staff development
and personal development, have a much closer look on a broader set and range of competencies
than the educational institutions.
If you graduate from a big, from the University of Hamburg, you usually have a lot of competencies.
But some you acquire by chance, by surviving in a big university.
Then they say, oh, you must be social, communicative, competent.
But there was no one that really had a look whether you are accompanied and supported
in acquainting these kind of competencies.
So I think this is very important.
On Tuesday, I was at the symposium where we talked about aging society
and how lifelong learning is important to grow happily old.
But if we only take that narrow concept of competencies, I think it's not interesting
to learn by heart at 80 what the old Greek said.
So it's a different concept of competencies.
Competence has always something to do to make you able to act.
To act in a society.
So this is linked to that concept of active citizenship.
But do our educational institutions really support us in the ability to act?
I can tell you personally, at the end of my studies, I was unable to act at all.
I was just puzzled and thought, oh, no one needs me.
It's not very encouraging how we treat students very often in this cognitive way of competencies.
And of course, fifth guideline, not every individual is able to find the entrance and
to redefine her or himself at different stages of life.
So certain target groups need a lot of support.
And we have to have a very close look at different target groups.
What do they need?
And how can we enable access for them?
So I was very much impressed by that in the English context, that you really, for instance,
look at gifted pupils and how to get them to find them.
Have a look as a task for universities.
This is still something very new in the German context, for instance.
But really look where all the talents in the society and how can we help also target
group that have deficits or have bad conditions.
So I think this is fifth very important guideline.
And this is about individualization, because if we don't have a closer look, what is it?
What you already know, how have you acquainted it?
What is it, what you are still wanting to know and skills in terms of skills and competencies?
So these guidelines are closely connected with the concept of individualization.
It always means take a closer look at the individual.
And I see also in big companies, if you really, really want to develop people, then they all
start to switch from programs, the same standard programs for everybody, to having a closer
look what does the single person in a special situation need.
And this is not, I would say, the type of question that is usually at the beginning
of an educational process in our surrounding.
So why individualization?
To summarize, I think this lifespan orientation and diverse biographies means there is no
way for everybody.
There are so many different ways.
And I'm dealing, since 20 years, I've been dealing with adults with very, very different
biographies and shaping their own way.
So sometimes I have the impression the individuals are far more ahead than the institutions.
They are finding their ways, they are trying to deal with a complex society and new stages
in their life, new jobs, but new family situations.
Some start their career when they have grown their children, others come back from retirement.
So this huge variety, I think, is the most important social reason.
And of course, we think, we hope, that education, there's so much change in our lives.
I think no generation has had so much change to cope with such a lot of change in very,
very short instances.
And of course, education should help us to cope with change.
So I think this coping with change aspect is also very important.
Change occurs at every individual at different situations.
So you need to integrate learning into different stages of your life, and this has changed.
This means individualization, otherwise you can't be a lifelong learner.
And I think the second reason why is if we really take all our knowledge on learning,
in the end it's about, it's the individual and his or her competencies, if they should
be developed, it is a process within the individual.
That's maybe a bad message, but it's an interpersonal process.
You can't develop someone.
And I think this is one of the key issues of education, although we know that.
We still ignore it very often, and think, look, at least at schools, look there.
They still think if you pour knowledge into their heads, they will develop.
But you need this competence orientation and this interpersonal aspect, then you can
support these processes.
And if we take the word from teaching to learning series, it's about the individual, the individual
learns.
Yeah?
Teacher, teach.
And this is something completely different.
And we know that from teaching to learning, that's rhetoric, yeah, we say since years.
But is it really implemented in the didactical, in the curricular side of what we offer in
education?
I don't think so.
Second, we all deal with adult learners.
So we have to value experience.
So offering something that is adequate for an adult learner, maybe you're still in occupation
and working, then it's not only a matter on how we organize that.
We use distance learning, because then you are able not to be, yeah, there's a flexibility
in terms of space and time.
We always stress that.
But I think the other side is that we have to integrate their experience into the curriculum.
We have to connect to that and not just add some cognitive knowledge, but really to shape
the educational process in the way that experiences are valued.
Otherwise, I don't think that adult learners would go on learning, because they say I don't
need that.
But if you can connect to their experience, they suddenly get the feeling, oh, that's
something precious, that's something helpful, that's not only about blood, sweat and tears
and examinations, that helps me in coping with modern life.
But then we have to be serious at that point.
So how is the experience integrated in the curriculum?
And of course, if we take the life of a modern individual, it happens at many, many places.
You have to combine different sorts of life, as I said, private, occupation, education.
So it happened, learning could happen at very different places.
And whereas usually we take the individual and bring him or her into the educational
institution, we have to re-shift that and say, where is the individual and how can learning
come to where the individual is?
How can we build learning architectures that combine what is happening at home, what is
happening in the workplace, what is happening in between?
So I think you all are doing this, but it's difficult to do this systematically, and not
only in adult education, but I think building these new kind of learning architectures would
help really to put the individual, we are talking about individualization, in the center,
and then look where are the spaces we can integrate into that learning process.
How?
How can we individualize?
And first I have to say, in one point I'm a bit reluctant about too much individualization,
because I think knowledge is a creation of knowledge, is a social process.
You can't create it just yourself, you need the other.
So it's a relationship.
Knowledge creation, all kind of educational endeavor, is something about shaping a relationship,
a relationship between learners and teachers, but also between learners, experienced learners.
So we all are dealing in shaping relationships, so this has a very social side, this is not
only individual, so at least that's my personal hypothesis on that.
And if we take that serious, then we have to shape also relationships, if we want to
support the individual in an appropriate way.
So of course between the learner and the teacher, this is a special relationship.
We sometimes in higher education, in adult education, feel this tension, on the one hand
the learner is a kind of customer, on the other he's a pupil.
So you have, we found the word of she or he is a co-creator.
He's not a consummate, he's not the producer of knowledge, but he's a co-creator.
So you have to co-create something between teachers and learners.
And if you want to do this, and if you take this diversity in modern society serious,
you have to work with differences.
That's the big challenge in our schools, where the teachers are not used to work with the
differences that they find.
They always complain, oh they are so diverse.
In adult education, we know that.
These are people with a long biography, they have very, very diverse biographies and experiences.
But do we work with those differences?
And I think this is a very important aspect of individualization.
Take these differences serious and work with them.
Another point is flexibility.
Of course, individualization means also that you are in that sense supporting the student
by being flexible, because such a modern life is full of accidents and incidents.
So you can't go step by step.
Sometimes things happen in private life, in business life, health, that you have to be
flexible.
Is there flexibility to really treat somebody individually?
And is your institution ready for that?
Is your curriculum ready for that?
Because for an institution, flexibility is a horror.
The more you can standardize and the more everything is the same, the easier it is.
So flexibility is always a stress for an institution, as individualization is.
Then you need support and guidance.
How is this organized?
Is there enough support on different levels?
In five minutes, I'll show you some examples from our institutions.
But I think, I would say, at least in the German speaking countries, guidance and support
is not really organized on a very huge scale.
So the individual always is looking where his consultancy and support, and the individual
has to find his or her way, is not very much supported.
I've found, for instance, in the Scandinavian countries, a lot more of support structures
in helping, in guiding.
And I think we have to think of that if we individualize.
Because if you're not supported, then you're left alone.
There's nothing useful about that in terms of individualization.
Mix of methods, of course.
I mean, we are here in an association of distance education.
We know that, that new media have a lot of new possibilities.
So I think individualization means blended learning.
And this means to have a very, very sharp look which format can transport what kind
of knowledge.
So we invested at our institution a lot of energy into what can be shaped in terms of
booklets and how have these booklets to be written so that they are already in a kind
of dialogue.
So yeah, how can I address the individual sitting somewhere, not in the classroom?
So what is the next?
What can we do in online, online-based?
What are the possibilities of all those new media?
And after the first very euphoric attempts with, I don't know, web-based learning, many,
many found out also in e-learning, you have to think very sharply what do you want that
happens.
So the didactical question is always first.
We had to learn that all.
That's not enough to send some packages of knowledge by a computer and suddenly the learner
is sophisticated and well-educated.
There's also a lot of shaping the context.
And of course, what can only happen in face-to-face seminars?
There are certain aspects, certain aspects of competencies that can only be fulfilled
if you are really meeting.
But to be very, very distinct and sharp, which format do you need for which kind of competencies?
That helps the individual.
If we all meet just to get information, it's a waste of time, money, resources.
There are so many other ways.
So when we are meeting, then we should have really the possibility to have a kind of exchange
that doesn't happen in the other media.
So competence portfolios, I think that's something, a company, the individual, as I said before,
the individual has to have the idea, I am the one that steers the learning journey.
I'm the anchorman.
And portfolios can be something that helps me in reflecting the competencies that I have
already acquainted.
So it's a kind of reflection instruments and that can be supported on various ways.
There are nice things with portfolios.
But I think the important thing is that you find out what's the value of that, to find
out.
And the first thing is always to find out, oh, that's what I already know, what I am
able to do.
That's what I'm, these are my skills.
And so the first thing is in working with portfolio that people are very proud.
The next and more difficult thing is how can we examine that?
And how can we make that more in sense of giving credits and also put it into the formal
way of education, not to have only, also to acknowledge informal learning.
You know how difficult it is to examine this.
We know that we have to.
And we see the first good experiences, but the most complicated is how can we examine
that more properly so that informal learning really is connected with formal learning.
But as I said, this ownership of the learning process, that is for me at the heart of the
individualization concept.
And this I found is the most difficult point with adult learners that have thought a lot
how they want to progress and what they want to do.
It's easy.
They have already made a decision and they are very active self-conscious adults.
But there are certain groups that are not used to that and that have to be accompanied
by that.
That you have to take responsibility for your learning process and how can we help those
that are not able to do so.
And I think this self-concept of the learner, I'm the one, is very difficult but it's the
basic.
And the other thing is does the institution see its goal and objective really in accompanying
the individual?
So if you take those five guidelines, they also help as a kind of glasses that you can
take and have a look whether your institution is ready for lifelong learning.
So if they don't stress learning center, guidance, access, competence orientation, lifespan orientation,
they are not a lifelong learning institution.
They don't really help in modern society.
So I think it's easily said but it's difficult done in terms of the institutional challenge
that is connected with individualization.
And I think I very often find the individual more ready and the institution still relaxing
and reacting to that.
So conflict areas, as I said, preparedness of the learner, what's the self-concept?
Is this self-steering something in my head that I can accept?
Do I really want to self-evaluate my already acquainted competencies and my deficits?
Am I ready to have an evaluative look at myself?
Do I like that?
And how can I help by that?
Readiness of the institution.
What about supportive context?
So institutions react to financing, indicators, budgets.
Is the concept of individualization something that is supported by these indicators or is
the logic of steering the organization still in another world?
So there has to be a coherence between the logic of the institution and the concept of
individualization.
So we probably need in terms of finance a mixture of demand driven approaches, the learner
telling I want to do this or that and giving means also to the learner and more support
oriented approaches that support the institutions.
But we need a mixture.
Nowadays, at least in Germany, we have a heavy weight on the institutional and support driven
side.
And of course, governance is the same.
And what about the curricula, as I said?
And as I pointed out, there's a tension between autonomy and collaboration.
So I think I'll show this.
This is my last, for instance, in our institution dealing with adult learners.
We have these three formats, booklets.
So you're really very flexible and individual.
Wherever you are, you can do this yourself.
You need nobody else.
But then we say with the online part of learning, we want collaborative learning because we
say this is about co-creation of knowledge and this is about modern professional life.
You can't act as an individual only.
You need the others.
There are conflicts and groups and people you don't like.
So you'll find this also in the online units.
And there's a tension because the individual says, oh, this is not so flexible.
There are deadlines.
I have to work in groups.
This is this week.
I have to be in the online campus.
So there's a tension.
But we think knowledge creation is also about collaboration.
So this would be something that is important for me, at least in the concept of individualization.
Then you need these different levels of consultancy.
All people are very much in consultancy with us.
You need an intensive introduction.
What is the model?
What is expected from you?
What is your role in all that?
So if at the beginning of a study program, that's not clear, then you run into big difficulties.
Communities of practice, yeah, this is also more of this collaborative aspect.
But there you have to be active as well.
And I think individual knowledge can only be fruitful in these communities of practice.
So it's the individual knowledge you need there, but that's the environment.
Then they need continuous feedback.
I heard this morning, there was an interesting discussion that some students, the not so mature students said,
oh, no, let me, I don't like feedback too much.
That's completely different with the mature ones.
They are really loving feedback.
They know that they can only develop if they get feedback.
And this is something you learn throughout your life.
And of course, we always said you need a good project management.
If in distance learning you really want to be successful, you're very much individualized.
I think in distance learning you have a lot of concepts that really stress individualization.
But that makes it necessary that you have a really good project management.
And is that some project that is very important in your life?
And we always know from employers that they are very happy when someone completed a course in distance learning.
Because they said these people are very good in broad terms of competencies.
And they managed a very individual way, but successfully.
And that's also what makes you successful in the environment.
So that's to conclude, I think, in distance learning there is a lot of experience with individualization.
And I would be interested in discussion how you cope with the tensions.
Thank you.