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.
Travis Noakes on 27 Jan 11"Competency" is the watchword. So often we simply ask for people to have basic competency in their job, not excellence even, just competency! Yet the education system isn't based on a competency model. Instead, it's based on credit hours: how many hours a student sits in a class. This model persists like an old t-shirt we hate to give away because of all the good times we've had in it. But it's time to move on; it's time to introduce the competency model as an equal partner in the educational system.
