That complexity demands non-simple responses. Each of the techniques sketched above offers one way of helping groups to think through these emergent forces and to apprehend the future. Crowdsourcing, scenarios, prediction markets, the Delphi method, and environmental scanning are complementary strategies. Using several of these methods can teach us to learn about the future in more sophisticated, pro-active ways. If the methods appear strange, resembling science fiction, perhaps that is a sign of their aptness for the future, since the future often appears strange just before it becomes ordinary—or, in our case, just before it becomes a campus reality. As higher education budgets clamp down and the future hurtles toward us, we need these methods and techniques as allies that can help us to survive . . . and to learn.
Hanna Wiszniewska on 30 Jan 09Social networking in education is a flattener, this breaks down barriers that would otherwise exist between the student, the program and the instructors. This also makes information on demand as long as there is a good way to find that information that students will work with and use. Reliance on the old static school room or black board computer system is not necessarily the way that things are going. Education 2.0 should be breaking down these barriers, and it is great to work for a school that is doing this, because it is all about how people learn, and if people learn, then we are doing our job.
