Research Insights Day

Educational Futures Contextualising our work within a Futures perspective Dan Sutch [email_address] @Dannno # FLRI

Ways of thinking about the future Whomever whomever Flickr F1rstborn’s Flickr

Ways of thinking about the future
Futurology predicting what will happen
Foresight quantifiable forecasts of probability
(Critical) Futures studies partial descriptions of ‘preferable and possible futures’
Sociology of Future investigating dominant futures
Many different motivations, aims, methodologies for exploring the future

http://bit.ly/ MaintainingFutures http://bit.ly/ JournalFutures http://bit.ly/ BCHFinal http://bit.ly/ MaketheFuture

Space Signpost Grounded in today’s context Mobi Missions Discursive exploration of possible futures Exploratree Astroversity Scenarios Enquiring Minds Fizzees

Resist the temptation of ‘predictions’
Challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about ‘the future’
Explore and understand a very wide range of future possibilities
Understand which factors might cause these potential futures to come to pass
Develop plans and strategies that are sustainable in multiple potential futures
Consider the potential implications of actions now on possible futures
Education futures work… … to systematically investigating futures

Section title goes here Futures work ‘involved systematic and explicit thinking about alternative futures ... It aims to demystify the future, to make possibilities for the future more known to us, and to increase human control over the future. In the broadest sense, futurists hope to inform people’s expectations of the future and to help make their efforts to shape the future to their worthy values and purposes more effective’ Bell, W (2003) in Perrotta, Hague & Williamson (2010) http://bit.ly/MaintainingFutures

The BCH programme is aiming to build a challenging and long term vision for education in the context of socio-technological change 2025 and beyond
Educational goals
Educational ‘personnel’
Educational institutions
Educational methods
Educational tools
Educational outcomes
Beliefs about education
www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk

Section title goes here ‘ Educational futures work should aim to challenge assumptions rather than present definitive predictions’ Facer & Sandford (2010) p79

Visions of educational futures
Consider the parts of your ‘vision’ for education? (10 year timescale)
Articulate (in one sentence) your vision of education.
Twitter: # FLRI wholeeducation.org

Section title goes here Socio-technological trends – what are the sorts of trends that might challenge our assumptions? Keri Facer, 2009, BCH Final Report

Creating the personal ‘cloud’
The capacity to connect to a network and be constantly connected to knowledge, resources, people and tools
The ability to be ‘wrapped’ in an information landscape rather than managing it through institutions
Recognising the rise of the ‘mobile learner’
‘ Pulsating networks of learning’
New ways of connecting and accessing ‘educational offerings’
What does this mean for how we access formal and non-formal learning offerings?

Information landscape
Denser, deeper, more diverse – “know more stuff about more stuff”
Gather, store, use, share more data about more of our world than at present
Social movements towards accountability & transparency
Increased availability of data storage
Digitally tag entities in extended world
New forms of bio/genetic information
What does this mean for what we teach and when we teach it?

Institutional boundaries
Weakened & porous
Information not tied to institution
Greater number of ‘suppliers’ of education
Blurring ‘work’ & ‘leisure’
Personal networks/expertise/brand
Education/work/retirement no longer differentiated
Working life longer/education as leisure, lifelong etc
Public/private roles merging
Disaggregation of learning/resources from the institution
What does this mean for where learning takes place – and when people access it?

Demographic change
Aging population
2030 50% of Western Europe over the age of 50, 25% over the age of 60, 15% over the age of 70
Longer working lifespan
Greater distance between formative education and retirement
Shifts in family structures and challenges to intergenerational learning
Need to examine how consumption and resources are allocated at different stages of the life-course, including the stages of investment in education and learning
What does this mean for who is learning – and when people are ‘educated’?

Scientific-technological trends Profs Dave Cliff, Josie Fraser, Claire O’Malley
Moore’s law continues
Gordon Moore’s observation that the number of transistors on a chip doubles approximately every two years
£1000 today = £31.50 in 2020 and £1 by 2030
Device today = 32 times more powerful in 2020 and x1000 in 2030
Once per decade disruptions
Joel Birnbaum’s observation (1982) expected to hold true: mainframe – minicomputers – PC – internet – (cloud computing) - ?
Cloud computing; ubiquitous computing; digital display technologies; tangible and haptic technologies
What does this mean for how we remake our vision for education?

Section title goes here Responding to the challenges – What does a curriculum for a networked learner look like? – What does it mean to (digitally) participate? – What does it mean for accessing resources and information? – What roles do schools, families, networks play in education? – Who should have a voice in describing possible and preferable futures? What does this mean for our vision of education development?

www.futurelab.org.uk [email_address] @Dannno http://bit.ly/ MaintainingFutures http://bit.ly/ JournalFutures http://bit.ly/ BCHFinal http://bit.ly/ MaketheFuture www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk

Research Insights Day

by Dannno on Apr 29, 2010

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

2 Embeds 15

Statistics

Research Insights Day Presentation Transcript

http://www.slideshare.net	14
https://network.nationalcollege.org.uk	1