Eric Tsui

Prof. Eric Tsui Ph.D., Associate Director, Knowledge Management and Innovation Research Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

“In the 21st century, we are living in increasingly connected societies. As Steve Job once said, “Serendipity is by connecting the dots.” Therefore, in order to reap the most benefits, KM efforts and programs need paradigmatic changes. Firstly, in the past, most KM efforts were focused on an organization e.g. developing good practices, sharing lessons learned, and setting up communities or centers of excellence.

Moving forward, such efforts need to expand and become inter-organizational, probably with the use of technologies. Personal and professional networks need to be expanded with trust and by doing so, dynamic capabilities and collective wisdom can be enabled. Learning is another important aspect for knowledge workers in the 21st century as knowledge truly resides in the network. Successful learning leads to knowledge creation.

Therefore, learning in the 21st century needs to be networked-based, multi-directional, involve social content, and lifelong. Reflecting on these requirements, the current tertiary education model, as adopted by most universities, is outdated. Universities must apply digital and process transformations to enact new learning environments that demonstrate superior learning experiences to their students, graduates, and global learners.

The recent worldwide seizure by Covid-19 has triggered many universities to transform but most do not go far enough; together universities should be offering “Classrooms of the Future” where the world is the classroom with students, graduates, teachers, practitioners and other global learners all interact, co-learn and co-create deliverables under “Clouds of Knowledge”.