The Concept of a Digital Twin and Its Potential for Learning Organizations

The digital transformation of organizations in the industrial sector is primarily driven by the opportunity to increase productivity while simultaneously reducing costs through integration into a cyber-physical system. One way to fully tap the potential of a cyber-physical system is the concept of the digital twin, i.e., the real-time digital representation of machines and resources involved – including human resources. The vision of representing humans by digital twins primarily aims at increasing economic benefits. The digital twin of a human, however, cannot be designed in a similar way to that of a machine. The human digital twin shall rather enable humans to act within the cyber-physical system. It therefore offers humans a power of control and the opportunity to provide feedback. The concept of the digital twin is still in its infancy and raises many questions in particular from an educational perspective. The contribution aims at answering the following questions and refers to the example of team learning: Which and how much data should and may the digital twin contain in order to support humans in their learning? To what extent will humans be able to control and design their own learning? How may skills, experiences, and social interactions of humans be represented in the digital twin; their growth and further development, respectively? With cyber-physical systems transcending corporate, national, and legal boundaries, what learning culture will be the frame of reference for the involved organizations?