Die zwölf Themen der New Economy lauten

1. Knowledge
2. Digitization
3. Virtualization
4. Molecularization
5. Integration/Internetworking
6. Disintermediation
7. Convergence
8. Innovation
9. Prosumption
10. Immediacy
11. Globalization
12. Discordance

In the new economy, learning will more and more be provided by the private sector. This will come about not out of social responsibility but, rather, because working and learning are becoming the same activity for a majority of the workforce and because knowledge is becoming an important part of products. Moreover, the traditional educational institutions are failing to meet the needs of the economy, and there are huge and growing opportunities for learning products and services. This places a greater responsibility on individuals (those who can afford it) to achieve lifelong learning—potentially increasing social chasms. Furthermore, teachers and their unions need to participate and lead in the transformation of education if the old industrial-age type of schools are to have a hope of transforming themselves and surviving. But increasingly, learning can be done without formal institutions, and learning in schools can be done through technology, requiring fewer teachers. This leaves teachers in a Catch-22 situation—become irrelevant by resisting change or possibly become irrelevant by leading it.