In the Fourth Industrial Revolution we already have robots, also there are such technologies as genetic sequencing and editing, artificial intelligence, miniaturized sensors, 3D printing and much more. Digital technologies are constantly being developed with new methods and have been implemented worldwide into various processes and automation systems. The article describes modern digitalization components and analyzes its possible threats. Along with an increase in life comfort, modern civilizations must face with cybercrimes based on data collection, including cyber thefts and hacker attacks. Globalization enables exchanging goods and services between countries of the world. It also gives a tool phishing and illegally access vulnerable information of global enterprises to compete unfairly. Although Big Data can be helpful among organizations, it can also be a mark of the inevitable danger worldwide.

The article addresses selected problems related to the perspective on the development of Industry 4.0 and social and cultural changes that accompany this development and lead toward the so-called post-digital society. In the field of industry, the changes concern, among others, the functioning of various organizations, and in the perspective of post-digital society – human beings and their relations with the world of technology. These changes lead to an increase in the role of technological factors, hence the current revival of technological determinism, and this, in turn, has to do with questions regarding human subjectivity. In this context, questions regarding humans also revolve around the need to acknowledge their increasing capabilities and scope of freedom, and on the other hand, their loss of autonomy in relation to the world of technology.

The rapid pace of digital media development implies social and cultural changes. The role of the school is to prepare the human being for the world dominated by these changes. Education 4.0 is one of the concepts for the comprehensive development of the human being. The first part of the article presents the chronology of changes in education in relation to the evolving digital media. Hence, the source of the changes and the subsequent stages of the concept from Education 1.0 to Education 3.0 are described. The second part of the article describes Education 4.0 and its components, the implementation of which in the learning and teaching process is a challenge for the contemporary school. The components described include: -Internet of Things, -the Cloud Computing, -Big Data analytics, -Autonomous Process Organisation, -Augmented Reality, -Horizontal and Vertical Integration, -Advanced Robots and Co-robots. The practical considerations on Education 4.0 follow from the reflections presented by a primary school headmaster who is also an academic staffmember.

Information technologies, ICT and Industry 4.0 are developing particularly fast in the fourth technological revolution. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in the scale of digitisation and internationalisation of remote communication processes and various aspects of economic activity. Digitisation of the economy is currently taking place simultaneously in many areas of economic processes and the functioning of many economic entities and public, financial and other institutions. Many companies, enterprises and public institutions that previously operated mostly or solely offline during the pandemic have switched to remote, electronic operation via the Internet. The development of electronic banking is also increasing, including internet and mobile banking. The share of electronic, cashless payments via the Internet and payments with electronic bank cards is increasing. In addition, in recent years, the range of applications of Data Science, Big Data, and Data Analytics technologies in economics, finance and organisation management, including enterprises, financial and public institutions, has been increasing. Therefore, the importance of implementing analytical instruments for advanced processing of large Data Science data sets in enterprises, financial and public institutions is also growing, including the construction of Big Data Analytics platforms to support organisation management processes in various aspects of operations, including improvement relationship with customers. The scale of cybercrime has also increased during the pandemic, as has the importance of improving cybersecurity techniques and instruments.

The article is an attempt to characterize the methodology of multidisciplinary empirical research, designed and implemented within technical, exact, natural, social, and humanistic sciences. Three paradigms have been characterized: Education 4.0, Industry 4.0, and Society 5.0. The author’s attention was drawn to the need for a clear formulation of detailed concepts as well as their content and context. The types of possible empirical research and the methods and techniques used in them were presented, attention was also drawn to the importance of the model used in the research. It was considered necessary to disseminate methodological knowledge for the reliable execution of empirical research, allowing for its repeatability, verification, and evaluation.