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Everyone is a futurist. We all think about the future, imagining and evaluating possibilities, making plans, and implementing strategies for realizing our goals. Educators deliberate the future of education, both where it is heading and where we think it should be heading. I will outline here my vision for a preferable future for education, realistically anchored to certain fundamental features of contemporary affairs and human psychology.

"When machines anticipate needs and wants and solve problems without consulting their owners, we will be living in the future. I believe the infrastructure, the revenue model, the customer base and the deep learning techniques are finally ready to enable entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity and build the future."

"I'm a finalist for teaching a Coursera MOOC next year on "The History and Future of Higher Education."  Naturally, I am doing this because I want to improve the future of higher education and add as much innovation as possible.  I'm interested in ways that an online  course with a relatively static form could become a platform for innovation.    And I will use this hastac.org site as a testbed for analysis of the teaching and learning as it is happening and as a place of reflection on the process and possibilities."

I remembered it this morning when I drove past a Google self-driving car and then again a few minutes later when a Tesla whipped past me and a third time during the same commute when I dictated an email to my mobile phone. Sometimes living in the Bay Area does feel like the living in future. But to Gibson's point, not every region can claim to have self-driving cars on its highways or electric car ownership or smart phone penetration rates as high as the Bay Area. Why not?

"An open online course, Current/Future State of Higher Education, offering in fall 2012 will evaluate the change pressures that face universities and help universities prepare for the future state of higher education."

"The Fourth Industrial Revolution is interacting with other socio-economic and demographic factors to create a perfect storm of business model change in all industries, resulting in major disruptions to labour markets. New categories of jobs will emerge, partly or wholly displacing others. The skill sets required in both old and new occupations will change in most industries and transform how and where people work. It may also affect female and male workers differently and transform the dynamics of the industry gender gap. The Future of Jobs Report aims to unpack and provide specific information on the relative magnitude of these trends by industry and geography, and on the expected time horizon for their impact to be felt on job functions, employment levels and skills."

"Hands do two things. They are two utterly amazing things, and you rely on them every moment of the day, and most Future Interaction Concepts completely ignore both of them. Hands feel things, and hands manipulate things."

"The jobs of the future are only "low skilled" if you define "low skilled" as not requiring college. Being a good carpenter (56% growth, Jesus is still with us) or, for that matter, a good medical secretary (41% growth), takes smarts (actual smarts, not just book smarts), hard work, and dedication."

"However presently, few discussions and promotions of PLN's venture further than lauding specific benefits for teachers. But why just teachers, and not students? Could students benefit from a network of learners? Considering the importance of exams in determining futures, it seems that professional development for students not only has unbounded potential, but must be taught as a matter of urgency."

Learning analytics holds increasing potential for student agency and autonomy, highlighting a need for ethical discourse at all levels of higher education institutions. Topics central to this dialogue include student awareness of analytics, the future of algorithms and learning analytics, and the redefinition of failure.

"Video games are playing an increasing role in school curricula as teachers seek to deliver core lessons such as math and reading-not to mention new skills such as computer programming-in a format that holds their students' interests. Some herald this gamification of education as the way of the future and a tool that allows students to take a more active role in learning as they develop the technology skills they need to succeed throughout their academic and professional careers."

At Monday's meeting, Harker will discuss his vision in an address titled, "University of Delaware and the Future of Higher Education." Faculty will also be able to ask questions and share concerns. "One of my responsibilities as president is to anticipate the opportunities and threats facing us and higher education, with an eye toward continuing UD's role as an outstanding university," Harker wrote. "The University of Delaware has already made incredible progress. But we still have much work to do."

"This symbiotic relationship between human teacher and computer seems to be the next frontier for education. No, cyborgs are not going to take over our classrooms. But in the very near future, teachers and AI computers may team up to provide stronger, better educational experiences for students at every level from primary school up to university."

Tables, counters and whiteboards will eventually become displays. Meeting rooms will have touch panels, and chalk boards will be replaced by large systems that have digital images and documents on a display that teachers can mark up with a stylus.

"Our team is excited to be working closely with Michel Benard, Google's Director of University Relations for Europe, based in the Zurich office, on a qualitative market study about the future of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)."

" Cliff Lampe, assistant professor of information at the University of Michigan's School of Information, says those who abandon Facebook are doing so as the result of a single, uncomfortable event like a difficult interaction with an ex. A smaller segment of the population is discontinuing membership as a result of privacy concerns."

"The definition of "a state education" may also change. Far more money should be spent on pre-schooling, since the cognitive abilities and social skills that children learn in their first few years define much of their future potential. And adults will need continuous education. State education may well involve a year of study to be taken later in life, perhaps in stages."

"You are thinking from a professional perspective in that you will be connecting with other businesses, perhaps even the competition, as much as you will be with customers. It's likely that you will be engaging with people outside of your usual social circles and that's the key thing to remember. The fact that Google+ is still gathering a following is a testament to the potential influence it could have in the future."

"technologies to reprogram the "software" that underlie human biology are already a thousand times more powerful than they were when the genome project was completed in 2003, and will again be a thousand times more powerful than they are today in a decade, and a million times more powerful in two decades. Clinical applications are now at the cutting edge and will be routine in the early 2020s."

"Moving beyond improving career prospects, the conversation then turned repeatedly to the idea that literacy means more than using digital technology as a means of consuming things other people make. Digital literacy, Smith said, also is about "how to make it do what you want." Or as Geshner put it: "Are you an iPad or are you a laptop? An iPad is designed for consumption." Literacy, as he described it, means moving beyond a passive relationship with technology. "When you get down to coding, you're creating your own tools.""