Future Scenarios: life and learning in the 21st Century
Keri Facer's work with Futurelab, proposes six future scenarios structured around increasingly individualised, increasingly collective or increasingly contested approaches towards life and education.
Scenario 1: Informed choice -- "Learning is a bespoke, life-long journey".
Scenario 2: Independent consumers -- "Learning is an individual responsibility, educational providers are suppliers responsible for ensuring quality of delivery".
Scenario 3: Discovery -- "Learners are encouraged to recognise that there are many communities in which they might participate, each with its own values, priorities, demands and focus, and to draw on a variety of these in constructing their course through education. They are supported in this by mentors, whose role is to guide learners around knowledge situated within a particular community and to help them access related communities. Mentors do not simply relay established practices or patterns of thought – learners are encouraged to challenge and debate the knowledge they encounter, developing new approaches and contributing to the community in which they’re participating".
Scenario 4: Diagnosis -- "People make less effort maintaining their wider networks and affiliations, and focus more on ensuring that they succeed within a limited set of associations: consequently, they have fewer alternatives and the need to invest their energy in supporting their chosen associations is greater. Making sure that they are equipped with the skills and dispositions that would most benefit the community is one way of providing this support".
Scenario 5: Integrated experience -- "Developments in network and communications technology have lessened the need for social action to take place within formal organisations and groups – people are able to speak, act and mobilise others more fluidly and responsively without necessarily needing the support of a particular organisational structure. Following this, there is less of an expectation that groups will achieve particular aims in isolation. At the same time, the complexity of the problems facing society in the 2010s and 2020s are such that interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral working is increasingly seen as the only way to generate new and appropriate strategies for change. Working within disciplines or sectors, or restricting your resources only to people within your immediate vicinity or workplace,is increasingly seen as an old-fashioned and unproductive way to do business. As a result, public action is seen as achievable only through the interdependent action of individuals working across diverse settings."
Scenario 6: Service and citizenship -- "Learning experiences are informed by a pedagogy of service in which the importance of the community or group is emphasised over the individual learner or civil society, and education’s purpose is to ensure that these groups have access to the skills and qualities they require."
For a comprehensive review see Beyond Current Horizons
Facer and Sandford (2010) engage in some serious thinking about four core principles:
1.Educational futures work should aim to challenge assumptions rather than present definitive predictions.
2.The future is not determined by its technologies.
3.Thinking about the future always involves values and politics.
4.Education has a range of responsibilities that need to be reflected in any inquiry into or visions of its future.
Bespoke educational hosts, such as the School of Everything and The School of Life use social media networks to remediate educational experiences and learning spaces, thereby, challenging traditional approaches to institutional structures and rethinking the relationships between social self and learning environment. These portals are characterised by a pull to the educational needs of local communities and active citzenship. Dougald Hine, co-founder of the School of Everything, acknowledges that the site’s pedagogical philosophy is an embodiment of Ivan Illich’s Deschooling society where Illich argued that the use of technology to create decentralised webs could support the goal of creating beneficial educational systems (Jennings, October 24, 2010; Illich, 2000/1971). These portals are examples of an emerging ‘agile learning’ philosophy, now possible through remediation of social media tools, that allows individuals to create, adapt, and remix their learning to meet personal and social needs.
References:
Beyond current horizons: technology, children, schools and families. Accessed on
February 24, 2011 from http://www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/scenarios/context/
Facer, K. (2011). Learning futures education, technology and social change. London: Routledge.
Facer, K. and Sandford, R. (2010). The next 25 years?: future scenarios and future directions for education and technology. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. 26 (1), pp74-93.
Illich, I. (2000). Deschooling society. London: Marion Boyars. (Originally published in 1971).
Jennings, D. (2010, October 24). Dougald Hine on School of Everything and asset-based development. ALCHEMI Accessed on February 24, 2011 from http://alchemi.co.uk/archives/ele/dougald_hine_on_school_of.html
Lievrouw, L. (2011). Alternative and activist new media. Digital media and society series. Cambridge & Malden MA: Polity Press.
Strober, M. (2010). Interdisciplinary conversations: challenging habits of thought. Stanford University Press.
Scenario 1: Informed choice -- "Learning is a bespoke, life-long journey".
Scenario 2: Independent consumers -- "Learning is an individual responsibility, educational providers are suppliers responsible for ensuring quality of delivery".
Scenario 3: Discovery -- "Learners are encouraged to recognise that there are many communities in which they might participate, each with its own values, priorities, demands and focus, and to draw on a variety of these in constructing their course through education. They are supported in this by mentors, whose role is to guide learners around knowledge situated within a particular community and to help them access related communities. Mentors do not simply relay established practices or patterns of thought – learners are encouraged to challenge and debate the knowledge they encounter, developing new approaches and contributing to the community in which they’re participating".
Scenario 4: Diagnosis -- "People make less effort maintaining their wider networks and affiliations, and focus more on ensuring that they succeed within a limited set of associations: consequently, they have fewer alternatives and the need to invest their energy in supporting their chosen associations is greater. Making sure that they are equipped with the skills and dispositions that would most benefit the community is one way of providing this support".
Scenario 5: Integrated experience -- "Developments in network and communications technology have lessened the need for social action to take place within formal organisations and groups – people are able to speak, act and mobilise others more fluidly and responsively without necessarily needing the support of a particular organisational structure. Following this, there is less of an expectation that groups will achieve particular aims in isolation. At the same time, the complexity of the problems facing society in the 2010s and 2020s are such that interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral working is increasingly seen as the only way to generate new and appropriate strategies for change. Working within disciplines or sectors, or restricting your resources only to people within your immediate vicinity or workplace,is increasingly seen as an old-fashioned and unproductive way to do business. As a result, public action is seen as achievable only through the interdependent action of individuals working across diverse settings."
Scenario 6: Service and citizenship -- "Learning experiences are informed by a pedagogy of service in which the importance of the community or group is emphasised over the individual learner or civil society, and education’s purpose is to ensure that these groups have access to the skills and qualities they require."
For a comprehensive review see Beyond Current Horizons
Facer and Sandford (2010) engage in some serious thinking about four core principles:
1.Educational futures work should aim to challenge assumptions rather than present definitive predictions.
2.The future is not determined by its technologies.
3.Thinking about the future always involves values and politics.
4.Education has a range of responsibilities that need to be reflected in any inquiry into or visions of its future.
Bespoke educational hosts, such as the School of Everything and The School of Life use social media networks to remediate educational experiences and learning spaces, thereby, challenging traditional approaches to institutional structures and rethinking the relationships between social self and learning environment. These portals are characterised by a pull to the educational needs of local communities and active citzenship. Dougald Hine, co-founder of the School of Everything, acknowledges that the site’s pedagogical philosophy is an embodiment of Ivan Illich’s Deschooling society where Illich argued that the use of technology to create decentralised webs could support the goal of creating beneficial educational systems (Jennings, October 24, 2010; Illich, 2000/1971). These portals are examples of an emerging ‘agile learning’ philosophy, now possible through remediation of social media tools, that allows individuals to create, adapt, and remix their learning to meet personal and social needs.
References:
Beyond current horizons: technology, children, schools and families. Accessed on
February 24, 2011 from http://www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/scenarios/context/
Facer, K. (2011). Learning futures education, technology and social change. London: Routledge.
Facer, K. and Sandford, R. (2010). The next 25 years?: future scenarios and future directions for education and technology. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. 26 (1), pp74-93.
Illich, I. (2000). Deschooling society. London: Marion Boyars. (Originally published in 1971).
Jennings, D. (2010, October 24). Dougald Hine on School of Everything and asset-based development. ALCHEMI Accessed on February 24, 2011 from http://alchemi.co.uk/archives/ele/dougald_hine_on_school_of.html
Lievrouw, L. (2011). Alternative and activist new media. Digital media and society series. Cambridge & Malden MA: Polity Press.
Strober, M. (2010). Interdisciplinary conversations: challenging habits of thought. Stanford University Press.
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