Descartes has said he is because he thinks. Perhaps we should say: we are because we learn. Learning is an essential human characteristic, look at children who self-learn empirically. In our times we are privileged to have special learning institutions while learning has become a hallmark of civilization. Teachers are among the key contributors to our society, but will they work the same as in the last millennia? Right now, just about everything in learning and teaching is changing. Traditional methods are replaced by newer ones and there is a host of new learning "technologies." It is of foremost importance that societies adapt to this and that is why this book has been created. Thoughts and experiences of the brightest minds of today offer an overview of what is going on and where we are heading. 

Written in an accessible, yet academically rigorous way, this volume explores the past dynamics and future avenues of learning and teaching. Its contributors are among the brightest minds of today with knowledge, experience and vision to shed a light of learning and teaching's past and future. 

Learning, and hence education, are in turmoil. Traditional learning techniques are challenged by powerful new approaches and insights while students and employers alike put new demands on education. The new insights come from quite different areas of science.

This book aims to provide a future-oriented picture of the various developments culminating in an educated speculation on learning and education in the near future. It has been written for leaders in education, scholars as well as practitioners and policymakers.

Learning will be a central issue in the decades to come. In the words of the recently deceased cultural anthropologist Catherine Bateson: "We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn."