175. College Education and Continuous Learning | 學習不斷電! 大學教育與未來的你
Musings of Dr. Jamie C. Hsu, 11.8.2025
Many youths of Gen Z are either in college or getting ready to enter one. They are facing a world of fast-changing technology, climate, social norms, and scientific discoveries. Their options in selecting from a wide range of colleges and academic majors are numerous and daunting. In addition, the way education is delivered has also gone through huge changes: online classrooms, mass education through Coursera, home and personalized teaching, discussion forums, AI assisted teaching, and other innovative educational approaches are emerging everywhere in the world.
Yet regardless of all these changes and options, we must keep in mind the essential purposes and benefits of a college education (see accompanying Chart 1). It is to discover the joy of being exposed to deep and broad new knowledge. It is to learn how to learn effectively. And it is to identify the aspiration for continuous learning. These objectives can help the youth in selecting their majors, minors, course work, and extracurricular activities. Cross-disciplinary classes in the humanities, sciences, engineering, computing, and biology will broaden their understanding of how things work –of what new possibilities might emerge.
Of course, new scientific discoveries and the development of advanced technologies will make the half-life of our skills and knowledge even shorter than before. In human history, we have gone through industrial revolutions during which steam power, electricity, computing, and information have transformed our society, environment, and daily lives.
Now with the advents of AI, automation, robotics, biotechnology, brain imaging, stem cell therapy, and human-machine communication, we are entering a new era — the Fifth Industrial Revolution. Gen z will be both the ‘developer and receiver’ of this brand-new period in human history where harmonious collaboration of human and machine will create resilient and sustainable systems.
I hope your college education and continuous learning will prepare you well for this key role.
學習不斷電! 大學教育與未來的你 (2025/11/08)
-作者 許俊宸博士
-中譯 薛乃綺
現在很多 Z 世代的年輕人正在念大學，或正準備踏入大學。他們面對的是一個技術、氣候、社會價值、科學發現 都變化超快的世界。學校選項超多、科系也五花八門，真的會讓人看得眼花撩亂。另外，學習方式也完全不一樣了：線上課程、Coursera 大規模教學、在家自學、客製化教學、討論社群、AI 輔助學習…林林總總各式各樣新型態的教育模式在世界各地一直冒出來。
但不管外在怎麼變，我們還是要記得，大學教育的核心目的是什麼（可參考圖表 1）：
是去享受接觸新知識的樂趣；
是學會「怎麼有效地學習」；
也是找到自己願意一直持續學習的動力。
這些目標，可以幫助年輕人在選擇主修、副修、課程、或課外活動時更有方向。跨領域的課程—人文、科學、工程、電腦、生物—都能讓學生更理解世界怎麼運作，也能讓他們看到更多未來的可能性。
當然，新的科學發現和先進科技的發展，也會讓我們的技能與知識「半衰期」變得比過去更短。回顧歷史，人類經歷過多次工業革命：蒸汽、電力、電腦、資訊技術…每一次都改變了社會、環境和我們的生活方式。
而現在，隨著 AI、自動化、機器人、生物科技、腦成像、幹細胞療法、人機互動等技術的出現，我們正踏入下一個時代—第五次工業革命。Z 世代會同時是這個時代的「創造者」也是「使用者」，在人與機器協作的全新時代裡，一起打造更有韌性、更永續的系統。
我誠摯希望，各位在大學中的學習與未來的持續進修，都能幫自己準備好迎接這個重要角色的到來。
