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Recordings of the sessions presented during the Learning Futures Festival, held 13-15 April 2011, are now available to view online. Among them are presentations by delegates from ICDE member institutions, Athabasca University, The Open University, Unisa, University of Leicester and the University of Southern Queensland.

Education, and in particular higher education, has seen rapid change as learning institutions have had to adapt to the opportunities provided by the Internet to move more of their teaching online1 and to become more flexible in how they operate. It might be tempting to think that such a period of change would lead to a time of consolidation and agreement about approaches and models of operation that suit the 21st century. New technologies continue to appear,2 however, and the changes in attitude indicated by the integration of online activities and social approaches within our lives are accelerating rather than slowing down. How should institutions react to these changes? One part of the answer seems to be to embrace some of the philosophy of the Internet3 and reevaluate how to approach the relationship between those providing education and those seeking to learn. Routes to self-improvement that have no financial links between those providing resources and those using them are becoming more common,4 and the motivation for engaging with formal education as a way to gain recognition of learning is starting to seem less clear.5 What is becoming clear across all business sectors is that maintaining a closed approach leads to missing out on ways to connect with people and locks organizations into less innovative approaches.6 Higher education needs to prepare itself to exist in a more open future, either by accepting that current modes of operation will increasingly provide only one version of education or by embracing openness and the implications for change entailed. In this article we look at what happens when a more open approach to learning is adopted at an institutional level. There has been a gradual increase in universities opening up the content that they provide to their learners. Drawing on the model of open-source software, where explicit permission to freely use and modify code has developed a software industry that rivals commercial approaches, a proposed

News article on Cornell developing 'malleable' buildings (aka future proofing).

Short video of an AR future. Interesting. Commercialism and ads still rule!

Thoughtful article by George on the future of education and the role of business, entrepreneurs and innovation.

RT @drtonybates: New blog post: Designing online learning for the 21st century http://t.co/AlhaRY7Q (via @TerryNeal) #elearning #future

Marcus Wilson on the rise of the new moocs.

Free book on future of the internet download under read now) Bunch of essays about impact of internet on society, how internet should be managed, privacy, intellectual property etc . Various perspectives but published by a libertarian think tank. Critical of Lessig for proposing controls on internet development. Some good reads (Dean, beware - lawyers). Also check out the video presentations - panel discussions - some fascinating stuff. This book is both a beginning and an end. Its publication marks the beginning of TechFreedom, a new non-profit think tank that will launch alongside this book in January 2011. Our mission is simple: to unleash the progress of technology that improves the human condition and expands individual capacity to choose.

A set of tools and techniques for scenario planning by looking at possible 'different futures'. Could be some good stuff here for us.

Brian Lamb with another insightful and inciting post on the poverty of critical thinking in Higher Education regarding the future of that self same education. If they don't pull their fingers out their fundaments we are all doomed is the message. And by the way, the 'they' is us.

Guest editors Gail Boldt and Bill Ayers have asked 14 leading educators to address the politics of the teacher accountability movement in America. Who benefits and who is hurt? What is gained and what is lost? How can we move forward with a more hopeful and inclusive vision of our educational future? >>> All of the contributors are motivated by an abiding commitment to democratic ideals and respect for the complex work of teachers even as they encourage the reader to take back the conversation about school reform in America.

five experts - Times Higher Education online article - views include those of the head of JISC in the Uk

Post describing the use of a Connectivist approach to aggregating, curating and learning from content created as part of the Future of Learning event at Harvard. Very promising stuff.

Opinion piece on the place of online lectures in the future of education.  Get your world class expert via YouTube, MIT, etc and use your time with students to really interact with them and the material.

Downes writes on what is faddish and what is passing on the internet - might not agree with everything , but good discussion points on future trends