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Work and learning are becoming increasingly interrelated and interdependent and there is now this notion that education should be a preparation for work. The need for a new synthesis of education and industry arises as firms are now more inclined to employ highly-skilled individuals over low-skilled labour. Despite the largely and publicly funded infrastructure for schools, colleges, and universities, it is emphasized that individuals should be learning and practicing critical thought instead of merely being instructed. This chapter looks into past trends regarding the outdated educational models while exploring the potential for new learning technologies and the use of IT in educational processes. The chapter also examines the traditional suppliers of educational services and compares the risks and benefits of these with that of the new suppliers. Lastly, the interrelationships of learning with education and work are also analysed.

This chapter analyses the growth of the Chinese computer market and how Chinese companies are able to catch up in a high-tech industrial sector such as computers. It provides an overview of the case studies of four leading Chinese computer enterprises: Stone Group, Legend Computer Group, Founder Group, and China Great Wall Computer Group and how these enterprises acquired the technological competencies that enabled them to compete with foreign multinational companies. The rise of these indigenous Chinese computer companies was the result of a long-term process of capability building or technological training, which could be traced back to government initiatives reforming China's science and technology system in the early 1980s. This chapter proposes that Chinese computer enterprises followed a unique model of technology learning coupled with unique organizational and institutional arrangements. A combination of indigenous technology capabilities and specific conditions of local demand created the technology-push and the demand-pull for indigenous product innovations, hence leading to the possibility of the unique top-down mode of technology learning.

This chapter examines the consistent pattern with regard to the trajectories of technology learning or capability acquisition among the four enterprises from the case studies and describes the evolution of a unique top-down mode of technology learning. The enterprises' ready access to the science and technology resources that had been accumulated in the state sector was indispensable in permitting them to start directly with product innovation. In all four cases, indigenous innovations in technology stemmed from the need to process Chinese-language information. However, it was the organizational innovation in the institutional structure of enterprise governance that enabled these enterprises to bring the technological capabilities to meet the market needs. There was a coupling between the institutional structure of enterprise governance and the trajectories of technology learning.

Deaf children in Italy are provided with different types of schooling. Few public schools offer a bilingual curriculum for deaf and hearing students that involves consistent use of Italian and Italian Sign Language (LIS) within the classroom and in which LIS is taught as a subject. One of these schools, the Tommaso Silvestri Primary School, located in Rome, Italy, is discussed in this chapter. In particular, the way in which the program is organized and how it supports deaf and hearing students in cognition, learning, and social interaction will be described. Methodological aspects and the role of technology in enhancing learning processes will be also discussed. This kind of bimodal bilingual co-enrollment program is very useful for deaf students and constitutes a unique opportunity for hearing classmates, giving them the opportunity to experience innovative learning environments and to consider deafness as a status rather than as a limitation.