|
The Future of Education into a Digital World[1]
Viorica Jelev
Faculty of Economic Sciences
Spiru Haret University, Bucharest, Romania
Abstract. The article investigate the role of communication in the digital age, between consumers and business and seeks to render highlighting changes within the Romanian society in the last 26 years, with the effects occurred in people's behavior, but also the changes of university education at the discipline I teach, Merchandising and International Marketing, with impact on the delivery of new information to the students of the Faculty of Economic Sciences, within Spiru Haret University. We live in an era where everything seems to change and evolve almost overnight. ”The world economic order went through a tectonic transformation, accompanied by, and in part caused by, groundbreaking advances in science and technology and the rise of globalization” . New industries start to develop, while others are on their last legs or already extinct in a world of advanced, emerging, and developing countries. As a result, lots of jobs from years past aren’t as relevant today as they once were, and many no longer exist. Therefore it’s easy to predict that eventually, today’s jobs will evolve into something completely different. And some will become obsolete. And it is those changes that lead to multiple consequences, affecting many other fields, one being education. We need a broad, flexible and motivating education that recognizes the different talents of all children and delivers excellence for everyone. Studying methods and curricula from the 20th century may no longer be relevant in the constantly evolving and changing world of the 21st century, in preparing you for your future job. And in order to maximize your chances of having a successful career in the field of your choice, you have to constantly adapt and evolve. Creative education involves a balance between teaching knowledge and skills, and encouraging innovation. New branches of industries will appear, and potential employers and employees will need to acquire new skills and abilities. And it is these new skills and abilities that should be taught and attained in schools, especially by those attending higher education, which is at an inflection point. It is this constant change, the need to permanently evolve and adapt, that has led to the development of various groups, organizations and networks, tasked with generating answers and solutions to present day problems, as well as predicting future trends in their respective fields of activity. Finally, I try to find the answer to the question "what is the future of humanity?" what typology of man must we form to save the future of the planet. The answer is "the beautiful man", as Dan Puric called in his book.
Keywords: economy, net, Facebook, communism, marketing, social media, web 3.0, consumers
JEL Codes: M310, M370
1. Introduction
The article covers the issues of changes in the Romanian economy, after the revolution, in consumer behavior and use of the new generation, the so-called "Generation Z or F" or "Facebook", of changes in economic education theory, which we teachers must take into account, and try to answer the question how the man of the new world, we created, be like, in order to save us from self- destruction. The problems addressed are of utmost importance for our adaptation as educators of the young generation, and changes in their behavior and changes we must make in our behavior in order to effectively respond to their demands of the education received. In order to answer the questions that I have asked myself in this article, I consulted the latest information published in specialized literature and have formulated solutions to the questions raised. I hope this article brings added information to the existing specialized literature.
2. Literature Review
The first work from which I have documented is of the famous professor Philip Kotler, "Marketing 3.0. From product to consumer and to the human spirit", Public Publishing, 2010, in which there is an overview of the evolution of marketing. In the last sixty years, marketing has moved from being centered on products (marketing 1.0) to focus on customers (marketing 2.0). And now marketing is transformed again, answering the new dynamics from social environment. Companies are expanding their area of focus from products to customers and then to problems of mankind. This is marketing 3.0, the stage where companies have a hum andocentric orientation and balance the profitability and corporate responsibility. Welfare, poverty, environmental concern pertaining to the human-centered approach brought by the new type of marketing, which not only proposes to sell some products or services, but also to participate with the rest of the partners (distributors, buyers, co-share holder) to change the world for the better. Radu Ghitulescu in the article "How the Web 2.0 era changes the customer-company interaction", published in the Journal Market Watch, 25/09/2011, connects with the subject of my investigation. What is Web 3.0. Next book studied is of the American professor, no less famous Seth Godin - "Tribes", Public Publishing, 2010, explaining consumption behavior of individuals. A tribe is a group of people who share a common interest, a way of communicating and a leader. For millions of years, people have sought to be part of a tribe or another, be religious, ethnic, political or musical. Now the Internet has removed geographical and financial limitations, and because of social networks and blogs, it’s easier than ever for a tribe to gain more followers. In addition, due to them the number of new tribes grows. The Internet can provide many, but not leadership. Hence the importance of the question to which Seth Godin answers in Tribes: Who will lead us? The answer that he gives in this book helps us to understand what exactly is at stake and how each of us can create and lead a tribe. Next work studied belongs to the actor Dan Puric - About Beautiful Man, Ed Sophia & Super graph, 2009, in which the author explains that the world is in a continuous process of ugly. "In the new empire of ugly beauty is just a memory that barely flickers under the triumphant march of a crippled world in full offense". The beautiful man is the last cry of salvation, the last stronghold of humanity in its fight against the unhuman ocean that is to come. The beautiful man is the last sigh of Christ for a world in a definitive freefall.
· In an attempt to answer all questions that I have asked myself in the work, I looked for information on the behavior the new generation that will follow us and which will ensure our pensions. This is the so-called Generation Y, which Biszok Bogdan speaks in the study "90% of Generation Y members check their e-mail and profiles on social networks before rising from bed," appeared in the magazine Capital, from 14.12.2012. Other books are: Grown Up Digital -How the Net Generation is Changing the World - Don Tapscott, Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America- Allan Collins and Richard Halverson, Andra Silvestru-Magazinele viitorului trebuie să țină pasul cu nevoile și cerințele consumatorilor-Revista retailului si industriei bunurilor de larg consum, Marketing direct - Wolf Hirschmann, Atentie la manipulare - Claudia Grozebach, Imaginea viitorului - Brad Dehaven, Ce doresc clientii nostri - Harry Beckwith, Jelev Viorica Marketingul serviciilor, vol. 1, Jelev Viorica- Generations and market economy, The 5th International Conference on Economics and Administration, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, Romania ICEA – FAA Bucharest, 7-8th June, 2013, Jelev Viorica, Merchandising, curs online, 2015, Oprea Dumitru http://blog.dumitruoprea.ro/tag/web-30/, http://www.realitatea.net/cine-este-generatia-z-si-ce-surprize-vor-avea-angajatorii_872467.html
3. New Approaches in Economic Science
I am teaching the discipline "Merchandising" and "International Marketing" at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, Spiru Haret University, and I'm required to constantly monitor changes taking place in these sciences, as a result of changes in the society. I cannot notice we are going through crisis and its effect on our behavior as customers or users of products and services. It's about change, customer 3.0, Web 3.0 and Sales 3.0. Therefore, marketing, as we know it and as defined many decades ago no longer works. In the last sixty years, marketing has moved from being centered on products (marketing 1.0) to focus on customers (marketing 2.0). And now marketing turns again, responding to the new dynamics of social environment. Companies are expanding their area of focus from products to customers and then to problems of mankind. This is marketing 3.0, the stage where companies have a human centric orientation and balance profitability and corporate responsibility. Welfare, poverty, environmental concern relate to a human centric approach brought by the new type of marketing, which not only proposes to sell some products or services, but also to participate with the rest of the partners (distributors, buyers, co-share holder) to changing the world for the better.
Marketers are faced with two major changes - the effects of the Internet as an environment for communication and the shift from consumer, as central character, toward groups and opinion leaders.
The Internet is a space with new rules and we just learn how to do all distribution on the shelves of this space, what price is put on things. Now, we talk about e-commerce, online sales. We learn that product promotion is not a monologue anymore, as was the televised communication of brands, but it is a dialogue between brand and consumer and social media (Facebook, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn, Pinterest ...) rise and fall any company. Things get complicated when it introduces into the equation the so called "influencers", the opinion leaders. It is here the beginning of the translation from the area of marketing centered on a single consumer toward what Seth Godin calls tribes, groups of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, who share one same idea. Perhaps the best example of a tribe are the fans Apple products, who are more than buyers, sharing passions and interacting with each other. The respective tribe allows the people from Apple to rely on certain sales figures, even increasing - see the iPhone, with increasing sales from one version to another.
People P (people) - thus become the fifth P in the formula launched some time ago by Philip Kotler for building brand, formula where we initially met only four, namely Product, Place, Price and Promotion. People, consumers, singular or plural, have changed. The consumer is better informed in the internet age and that of increased speed of movement of information. From an economic perspective, consumers have, despite the crisis, relatively speaking, and greatest willingness to purchase products and services, but have become more selective and more demanding. Therefore, companies must adapt the reporting of consumer profiles as identified by the research company Anamnesis in April 2010. "Research has defined three categories of people based on lifestyle, their aspirations and motivations, the way they look and plan the future or attitude to money, it's about "hedonists", those who enjoy life as much as possible, spend more for immediate pleasures and are optimistic about the future, "calculated people" who have the financial resources, but are very calculated in their spending, and the "entrepreneurs", people who like to fend for themselves and engage in many projects at once.
Now, in 2015, we can talk about another online consumer profiles as identified by the INSCOP research company:
1.Experts (29%) - those who know the system best
2.Searchers discounts (18%) - all those watching discounts
3.Those checks the offers (16%) - which analyzes the most offers
4.Beginners (13%) - those who have just started to buy online these products
5.Casual shoppers (12%) - those who buy online occasionally
6. Adventurers (12%) - those open to try new experiences.
The same Seth Godin said somewhere that the basic idea of the marketing of the 4Ps, that someone can program one's consumption, is obsolete. Online promotion has eliminated the limitations of space imposed on television or radio or by location in the case of publications or outdoor advertising. But in the case of the Internet occurs a strong limitation that related to attention. It is questionable whether the front page of the newspaper or magazine can be replaced with the same success by a link received from a friend or suggested by Google. "In a world of surfers you need to create the best possible wave. The real revolution is creating the wave, not just ride it," says Godin.
The main environment to create waves at this moment is the world of social networking, towards which almost all marketers are focusing. "Social media is now on everyone's lips, but I have rarely seen good campaigns in which on Facebook and Twitter and more recently on Google plus. There are instances where the print is extremely effective, especially for corporate communication, just as there are campaigns in which Facebook can do a lot on marketing communication.
In the late '90s, an article in Business Journals (One unhappy customer CAN multiply to many) stipulated that an unhappy customer shares his negative experience to other 8-10 people and that only one in five discusses with more than 20 people.
In the era of Web 3.0, the statistics cited is totally obsolete. Currently, an unhappy customer can make their complaint known almost instantly towards tens, hundreds or even thousands of others through social networks, posting on forums, blogs or websites of micro-blogging.
And according to recent studies, Generation Z or "Facebook", born after 2001 after the Revolution is classified by sociologists as the generation of " Net", "pragmatic" or "Facebook". There are those who grew up in front of the computer surfing the internet, are not interested in politics and have no associative spirit. It is more intransigent than previous generations.
The trends related about that more than 60% of customers prefer non-verbal methods to interact with a company (online methods), they using e-mail, instant messaging or chat. Online interaction begins to have an increasingly larger share among customer preferences. Which obliges Call / Contact Center to conform to these new trends to ensure optimal quality level customer interaction, so that a higher level of their satisfaction can be achieved.
Now, we need the innovative producers and the visionary agencies that integrate communication.
The innovation in communication is a big idea. It means achievement and efficiency. It is a strategic thinking. Performance of product should be judged both creative and technical: performance in marketing, programmatic in Cloud, behavioral data, predictive web.
"Doing good" becomes a must for producers and the message must be relevant for consumers.
Social media is the place where customers can learn about all other facets outside of the strictly commercial of a brand. It's where you get to differently communicate anything other than through promotions and discounts, is where brands can become real partners for conversation with their customers.
Nowadays the young people use technology in ways we could never imagine.
Instead of passively watching television, the “F Generation” are actively participating in the distribution of entertainment and information. For the first time in history, youth are the authorities on something really important. And they’re changing every aspect of our society, says Don Tapscott in his book, „Grown Up Digital -How the Net Generation is Changing The World”.
Marketing no longer means, as is well noted by the American journalist Michael Hyatt, to roar in a crowded market, but to reach out to travelers, or to generate transactions, but to build relationships.
Consumers are no longer looking for offers on the websites of companies, but on social networks. The decision to purchase a product comes much more from the experiences of other consumers. This means that things will look different in regards of marketing which is a science that takes various shades ingredients. And all these shades of a new type which occurred between the dialogue between company and customer have been adopted by marketing people and used as such as new marketing tools.
Therefore, what we consent somehow that has changed is that traditional, arrogant form, of monologue which brands, products, companies possessed with consumers. The consumer gets claimed in the dialogue between the product that addresses him, and him as a community.
We need to communicate relevant. It is a mission-critical information is an indispensable task in today's work environment as well as in our private lives. In marketing, the success is in part based on how much knowledge we have, which itself ultimately depends on how we communicate and how fast we process information in an innovate method.
In the past (this is history) few decades, for both our professional and private lives, we communicated using media such as paper and pen, typewriter, and the phone. Now who communicate with pen? In the business environment, the use of paper to communicate with companies outside caused vast quantities of paper to be transported over long routes, which resulted in long waiting times and inefficient flow of information. Introduction of the early phone system helped to greatly increase efficiency but was subject to the limited availability of the intermediate connector to the other party and allowed only audio data to be transferred. The inability to transfer other forms of data such as documents, screenshots, or other contextual information is a limitation when you are only able to communicate by audio.
This, however, does not mean that individuals or companies in the past were inefficient and unsuccessful because they were unable to communicate the way we are doing today. Being "successful" is a temporary condition, which once reached, does not automatically continue for a team or an individual. Success is the result of a consistent investment in the uniqueness of the company or of the individual, the use of performance-relevant core competencies, and the ability to learn faster than others and to change in a broader sense. The right strategies, visions, mission statements, organizational structures, competent managers, and especially employees are important for success. But correct and relevant information to make sound and informed decisions helps the organization to be continually successful. Thus, the critical role is to look into ways employees, departments, offices, and business partners communicate and collaborate with one another.
We live in an era where everything seems to change and evolve almost overnight. The world economic order went through a tectonic transformation, accompanied by, and in part caused by, groundbreaking advances in science and technology and the rise of globalization. New industries start to develop, while others are on their last legs or already extinct in a world of advanced, emerging, and developing countries. As a result, lots of jobs from years past aren’t as relevant today as they once were, and many no longer exist. Therefore it’s easy to predict that eventually, today’s jobs will evolve into something completely different. And some will become obsolete. And it is those changes that lead to multiple consequences, affecting many other fields, one being education. We need a broad, flexible and motivating education that recognizes the different talents of all children and delivers excellence for everyone. Studying methods and curricula from the 20th century may no longer be relevant in the constantly evolving and changing world of the 21st century, in preparing you for your future job. And in order to maximize your chances of having a successful career in the field of your choice, you have to constantly adapt and evolve. Creative education involves a balance between teaching knowledge and skills, and encouraging innovation. New branches of industries will appear, and potential employers and employees will need to acquire new skills and abilities. And it is these new skills and abilities that should be taught and attained in schools, especially by those attending higher education, which ”is at an inflection point.
It is this constant change, the need to permanently evolve and adapt, that has led to the development of various groups, organizations and networks, tasked with generating answers and solutions to present day problems, as well as predicting future trends in their respective fields of activity
My duty as teacher is bringing to the student knowledge all these changes made to the marketing discipline and thus help to form specialists able to adapt to future requirements of a job, through abilities and practical skills acquired in the university environment. It’s very important to put technology in my teaching, to use it to enhance course design, lesson planning, presentations, in class activities, assessments and student achievement and engagement.
Romania's future education depends on the development of a strong class of entrepreneurs, a community with innovative ideas to infuse the economy and that can change people's perception Romanian business. Because the future of education is digital.
Globalization, competition, old paradigms, new tools, information overload help us? We must refocus on what is important for us. We can’t download development, but we can thing at new purpose, deeper learning, new relationships, ethics. Because it is time to evolve!
The pace around us is staggering. Innovation has become not only differentiated but essential ingredient for success in business. New technologies, different business processes, culture conducive to innovative ideas - all contribute to success in business.
In Media and Marketing, the fragmentation of media consumption and diversification of communication platforms open up new horizons in brands strategies communication. But we cannot discuss in online versus offline paradigm. No matter the communication medium, but the power of the stories may give brands. In the era of multitude platforms, channels and various influencers, the attention can be captured only through the powerful messaging and personalized interaction degrees above we were used to in the past.
4. New Perspectives
The digital revolution has hit education, with more and more classrooms plugged into the whole wired world. But are schools making the most of new technologies? Are they tapping into the learning potential of today's Firefox/Facebook/cell phone generation? Have schools fallen through the crack of the digital divide? In Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology, Allan Collins and Richard Halverson argue that the knowledge revolution has transformed our jobs, our homes, our lives, and therefore must also transform our schools. Much like after the school-reform movement of the industrial revolution, our society is again poised at the edge of radical change. To keep pace with a globalized technological culture, we must rethink how we educate the next generation or Romania will be left behind.
Economics will change when man will change. Everyone is born with the ability to think with his mind creatively. Why do people get to think in time more after the minds of others? Why are they losing their meaning and original powers, with which were endowed by at birth and from their creation by the Universal Creator?
Maybe someone likes it that people are now just consumers.
But who can agree on that? Perhaps those who create, but want to be the only creators in the world, and sell as many consumer products and ideas to the others, thereby keeping to themselves the creative power. Perhaps to those who now create new legal laws and economic standards by which others cannot create anything except within the limits imposed by them. Perhaps to those who, deprived of the power to create a perfect world for all, a divine world, are satisfied with the idea of creating a world only by their limited strength, confining everyone to their ideas!
Since we were small we've been assaulted by our parents' ideas, who were raised in a particular system and were taught to educate their children to remain dependent on the same system. It's that system of limited ideas, where children are taught that almighty are the state, religion, economy, and other such things created by some of their predecessors. Because parents believe in certain things, small children learn that they are essential things for them too.
Thus children end up their parents little copies, with the same small ideals and with the same beliefs and ways of life. There is no progress from one generation to the next in terms of spiritual ideals. There is only spiritual stagnation. Technological progress does not meet the spiritual needs of man only makes him feel somewhat more refreshed and more dependent on technology, but without making him more alive, more real.
What is today's "modern" man ideal? To have a career, earn well and maybe also leave an inheritance to his children who could then just repeat the same ideal for them and their children. Others, scientists - would ensure to the world a technological progress, with which perhaps man could reach the stars, maybe colonizing them ... And while the small man feeds on this "ideal" perpetuated through education and advertising, propaganda and preaching, those who lead this petty mankind from the shadow of governments and banks, churches and armies, choose the destiny of all.
At the same time, there are those who know that man has a different destiny, which was intended since its inception. A much higher destiny, to create the world, and not to consume it. To know everything in order to create a better future for all. To build the future through everyone's contribution, not just at the orders of a few greedy for power. They are not in power officially, but they are the ones who inspire mankind for truly useful solutions.
They are the ones who heal without having to sell drugs, inform without having to sell television, communicate without using expensive phones and build around the world without demanding tithes. They are the ones that no army can take prisoners, and that no bank can indebted. They are the ones that no church can make its congregants, and no political party can make its followers.
They are The Creative People, in the image and likeness of God the Creator. Some call them Grand Masters, Guru, angels of Shamballa, initiate of the White Brotherhood etc. Others call them crooks, false prophets, esotericisms and so on. But they are the ones who, without seeking fame and power, are transmitting to all, telepathic and wisely, their message. That message is received well by only those who are on their frequency.
Each man should ask himself if he wants to be a consumer or a Creator.
The consumer consumes what others produce, and therefore he gets addicted to the products, ideas, theories and systems created and conducted by others. The Creator is the one who creates new meanings and solutions through his creative thinking, first in his life, and then in the life of others, and does it for the good of all, not just for his sake, his family, the clique, his party or his religion so on . The Creator can even achieve immortality if he can offer it to others.
And if today we have come to being more consumers than creators, it is not necessarily the fault of consumer society. It is the fault of every person who, when he feels he can be more than just a consumer, prefers to remain so only because he likes it or it's convenient for him to live just like others want him to.
5. Conclusions and Implications
After this picture of the development of our society, we can say that we live in the era of market greed created by the market economy. And analysts must adapt to change.
I teach the discipline "International Marketing" at the Faculty of Marketing and International Business, Spiru Haret University, and am required to constantly monitor changes taking place in this science, as a result of changes in the society. It is impossible for me not to notice the crisis where going through and its effect on our behavior as customers or users of products and services. It's about change, about customer 2.0, Web 2.0 and Sales 2.0. Therefore, marketing itself has evolved, arriving in the 3.0 era.
The communication in the digital age has a universal recipe- Passion:
- people passion with we work,
- advertising agents who understand the manufacturer's brand to match its vision
- working with people to watch each brief as a challenge.
Young people today, to whom we are responsible for the economic education which they had taken from us, the so-called "Generation Z" or "Facebook", born after 2001, form the new mass of buyers of existing products and services. Sociologists classify them as the generation of "Net", or "FaceBook", who grew up in front of the computer, surfing the internal, uninterested in politics and, worse, lacking associative spirit. They are the ones that will replace us and ensure the country's GDP.
The alarm signal that emerges from the paper is the type of man who should save the future of this country. "The beautiful man", useful and effective.
6. References
[1] Beckwith Harry Ce doresc clientii nostri -, Polirom, 2007
[2] Collins Allan and Richard Halverson Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America, Teachers College Press, 2009
[3] Dehaven Brad -Imaginea viitorului, Editura: BUSINESS TECH, 2010
[4] Godin Seth-Triburi, Editura Publica, 2010
[5] Grozebach Claudia- Atentie la manipulare, Editura: All, 2012
[6] Hirschmann Wolf- Marketing direct, Editura: All, 2012
[7] Howe Neil, William Strauss -Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation,Vintage Books, 2000
[8] Jelev Viorica Marketingul serviciilor, vol. 1, Editura Fundatia Romania de Maine, 2009
[9] Jelev Viorica Innovation in communication, ICESBA, 2015
[10] Kotler Philip-Marketing 3.0.De la produs la consumator şi la spiritul uman, Editura Publica, 2010
[11] Puric Dan –Despre Omul Frumos, Editura Sophia & Supergraph, 2009
[12] Tapscott Don- Grown Up Digital -How the Net Generation is Changing The World , Publisher McGraw-Hill , 2008
[13] Claudiu Sorin –Ce nu se vede la tv/razboiul generatiilor in epoca digital. – Q Magazine.ro, 27.08.2012
[14] Ghiţulescu Radu-Cum modifică era Web 2.0 interacţiunea client-companie, Revista Market Watch, 25.09 2011(http://www.marketwatch.ro/articol/10116/Cum_modifica_era_Web_20_interactiunea_client-companie/)
[15] Jelev Viorica- Generations and market economy, The 5th International Conference on Economics and Administration, Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, Romania ICEA – FAA Bucharest, 7-8th June 2013
[16] Jelev Viorica, Merchandising, curs online, USH, 2015
[17] Jelev Viorica Innovation in communication, ICESBA, 2015
[18] Kose, M. A., Ozturk, E. O. 2014. ”A world of change. Taking stock of the past half century”, Finance & Development Journal, pg. 6, published by International Monetary Fund.
[19] Lane, P. R., Gian M. M. F. Milesi-Ferretti G. M. 2007. “The External Wealth of Nations Mark II: Revised and Extended Estimates of Foreign Assets and Liabilities”, 1970–2004, Journal of International Economics, Vol. 73, No. 2, pp. 223–50
[20] Silvestru Andra-Magazinele viitorului trebuie să țină pasul cu nevoile și cerințele consumatorilor-Revista retailului si industriei bunurilor de larg consum, 8.10.2015
[21] Oprea Dumitru http://blog.dumitruoprea.ro/tag/web-30/ http://www.realitatea.net/cine-este-generatia-z-si-ce- surprize-vor-avea-angajatorii_872467.html
[22] NACCCE Report 1999. ”National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education -NACCCE Report”, UK.
[23] MIT 2014. ”Institute-wide Task Force on the Future of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Tecnology) Education Final Report”, http:// web.mit.edu/future-report/TaskForceFinal_ July28.pdf.
[1] The article was previous presented at International Conference on Economic Sciences and Business Administration 2015