Today, February 27, we continue our week of brainstorming a future of education project. Yes, it’s day #2 of the FOECast ideation week!
Yesterday we considered what value we obtained from the Horizon Report and similar projects. Discussion occurred across many channels (see notes and summaries below). We also held our first video conversation, which went very well.
The open, cross-platform, participatory ideation process is under way.
Today’s prompt is, Which forecasting methods should we consider, moving forward?
Think about this. Which strategies for thinking about the future have you used or heard about? Looking back over the past, what methods have been most useful? Reflect on your experiences, as well as what you heard from others.
We also have some links for futuring information and inspiration:
- The Wikipedia entry on forecasting
- A surprisingly readable intro article, “Apprehending the Future: Emerging Technologies, from Science Fiction to Campus Reality”. This explains a series of established methods, including Delphi, used by the Horizon Report.
- The eDelphi software
- The ShapingTomorrow tool
Then share your thoughts where you prefer: in comments on this blog post; in the Google Doc; on your own blog; in the Slack channel; on Twitter, using hashtag #FOECast; on other social media venues; other platforms. Comment on this post or ping me directly if you have questions or want to make sure we see your contributions.
Over the course of Monday, comments and ideas started to appear, then came faster, and I’d like to share some here.
The Twitter stream was fruitful. For example, one clear answer to our prompt:
I learned of the NMC Horizon report in my Masters of Educational Technology program at UBC. #UBCMET Invaluable. Glad you are keeping it, or the next version, alive.
— kate lenert (@Katelenert) February 27, 2018
In the blogosphere, Pat Tully brought a welcome librarian’s perspective to the prompt.
The Slack channel considered ways of looking at institutional change, criticism, assessment, and temporal horizons.
At T.H.E. Dian Schaffhausen wrote a very nice intro to this week’s ideation.
Meanwhile, the Google Doc took off. Dozens of comments appeared every few hours. As of this writing the single page spawned eight more. All told there are 4317 words responding to the prompt, covering questions of (inter alia) method, URL formation, readership, timeline, departmental responses, use and reuse, and the diversity of institutional attitudes. Some folks raced ahead to today’s prompt and tomorrow’s. I’m still mulling over points.
Here’s a quick word cloud to give you a sense of how much stuff is going on:
It might well emerge that the Google Doc is FOECast central, at least in terms of asynchronous discussion.
Please check out the discussions and add to them. Dozens of people have already started working together. This open, community process is rolling!
Questions? Responses to today’s prompts? Requests?
For the week’s plan, see here. For all FOECast posts, see here. For a one page guide to the week, suitable for framing printing, see here.
Yesterday I finally got around to looking at the #FOECast Google doc and will return when I finish wrapping up #engageMOOC, “officially” closed with yesterday’s hangout. Both relate to my own local community and online projects, perhaps more than to each other. Although still in post pop-up digest, sort and process mode, I’m looking forward to “engaging” in FOECast. My goal is to interest at least a few local education stakeholders and online colleagues in joining or at least checking out some aspect of the project.
If not, then I’ll try to encourage interest by keeping them informed without inflicting my own information overload in its entirety on either.
For now, I’m catching up on reading, will try to make as much of tomorrow’s video conference as I can — there may be a partial overlap with something local — and of course, Thursday’s Forum.
It was great seeing you on yesterday’s video, Vanessa. Thank you for contributing.
At a quick glance of the GDoc word-cloud…a single threaded statement was glaring back at me: “Look to community to think new and see good ideas and a future approach.” (right edge of prominence, read top to bottom). Likely some degree of pareidolia, but felt good nonetheless.
WHOA!
Now you can’t not see it right? That thread of verbiage is powerful.
It’s like Burroughs’ cut-ups.