ABSTRACT
The metaphor of tilling garden suggests an organic process; creating conditions in which learners flourish who will be the leaders of tomorrow. This chapter discusses briefly four ways in which educators can promote skills essential for the future, skills of creativity and empathy in collaborative and connected environments as being positive cultures within which some aptitudes can flourish. Digital intelligence, or 'DQ', is the set of social, emotional and cognitive abilities that enable individuals to face the challenges and adapt to the demands of digital life. The notion of communities of practice has been important in education. Education should not just be aimed at producing pupils as products for capitalist society; arguably it should help foster creativity and empathy. Language learning is one route towards empathy of other cultures. In Western societies, that is often very challenging as students inhabit world where the great majority of computer language and operating systems are in English and where digital translation is easy.
