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Future-Oriented
University: How Tamkang University Brings Futures Studies to Lives
Tamkang University is
not only the pioneer and driving force for futures studies in
Taiwan, it is also the base of one of the most prominent futures
studies programs in the world. Currently, all 20,000
undergraduate students are required to take at least one course
of Futures Studies before receiving a bachelor's degree from Tamkang. However, we face ever-frequent resistance,
indifference, and skepticism from leaders and bureaucrats on
campus and from a society that is largely ignorant of or
misinformed about futures studies. More and more, academics and
laypeople alike are questioning the legitimacy of futures
studies as a discipline within higher education. In this session
we will share our experience in seeking internal and external
support to sustain our presence as an independent department.
Who should attend: Educators at every
level, students, community leaders, and anyone interested in
teaching or promoting Futures Studies.
What you will learn: Attendees will learn the real process
of institutionalizing a Futures Studies program in a major
university, particularly how to fight skepticism within a campus.
Attendees will also learn some innovative and effective skills
for teaching or conducting Futures Studies curriculums.
How can this new knowledge be applied: Participants will
be able to apply practical strategies and effective tools in
teaching Futures Studies in and outside the classrooms.
Chien-Fu Chen, director, Graduate
Institute of Future Studies, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taipei,
Taiwan
Mei-Mei Song, assistant professor, Graduate Institute of
Future Studies, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taipei, Taiwan
Shun-jie Ji, assistant professor, Graduate Institute of
Future Studies, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taipei, Taiwan
key words: leadership, education,
collaboration, innovation
issue areas: Learning and Education, Futures Methodologies,
Governance and Communities
2021 Vision for
Elementary and Middle Schools in a Global Society
In 2021 U.S. elementary and middle school
principals will lead learning communities that prepare students
to be global citizens. Schools will become dynamic systems that
use technologies to serve both individual needs and
collaborative learning. The National Association of Elementary
School Principals studied provocative changes that lay ahead for
schools and principals and used their analysis to shape a 2021
vision for the profession. The Institute for Alternative Futures
assisted NAESP in a comprehensive futures project that included
scan research, provocative forecasts, scenarios, strategic
issues and a vision and strategic framework. This panel will
highlight the project’s major findings and features a visioning
exercise. Participants are invited to explore what it will mean
for other aspects of society if this Vision 2021 for elementary
and middle school principals is realized.
Who should attend: Educators,
futurists interested in learning, professional association
leaders, citizens who care about the future of schools
What you will learn: Key trends, provocative forecasts
and scenarios for education as well as the futures methods that a
national association used to explore a preferred future for its
members
How can this new knowledge be applied: Futurists can add
this futures research to their base of knowledge for key sectors
of society; educators can use this research to anticipate and
lead future changes; other associations can use this as a case
study of how to engage members in a visioning process.
Craig Bettles, Institute for
Alternative Futures, Alexandria, Virginia
Elizabeth Carlson, assistant executive director, Affiliate
Relations and Special Programs for the National Association of Elementary
School Principals, Alexandria, Virginia
Marsha Rhea, senior futurist, Institute for Alternative
Futures, Alexandria, Virginia
key words: learning, education
issue ideas: Learning and Education, Futures
Methodologies
Distance Learning:
Coming to a Theater Near You
We will start where distance learning is
today, explore technologies on the horizon, and cast light on
technologies that are only the on drawing board or not yet even
conceived. Parents seeking to communicate with their kids,
business managers who must communicate with their associates, or
world leaders and politicians facing demanding constituents
should find these ideas very useful. Whether macro or micro, new
methods of communication are emerging that reveal how today’s
methods of interactivity are only the first step in our new age
of open ended multi-sided communications. Whether you learned
from a blackboard or computer, today’s rate of learning has
surpassed the rate of scholarships. But over the next ten years,
ideas yet conceived will be the norm in educating others, whether
in the traditional school setting, corporate campus or anywhere
in the world.
Who should attend:
Anyone interested in how technology will continue to change the
way we learn, communicate and interact
What you’ll learn: New technologies on the horizon for
communicating ideas, information, and the interactivity of those
in the dialogue.
How can this new knowledge be applied: The presentation
can be used in your business, organization, and personal life.
Adam Cohen:
senior Web architect, The New York Law School, New York, New
York
Stan Cohen: former president, Earth Society, New York, New
York
key words:
education, technology, business,
social trends
issues areas: Learning and Education, Technology and
Science
Starting a Futures
Institute: Topics, Tools and Tasks
A futures institute is a catalyst for
change drawing on local resources to promulgate futures
thinking, to develop leadership in the art of foresight, and to
disseminate futures information and instructional expertise. As
a vehicle to actively support the community, a futures institute
provides local training opportunities grounded in the futures
perspective and utilizing foresight tools and methodologies, as
well as sponsors futures-based community events. Several active
models reflecting differing stages of developing a futures
institute are described. Presenters will overview the key elements their
futures institute while offering examples of successful
strategies.
Who should attend:
Educators, community strategic planners, local government
officials, and anyone interested in developing a local futures
institute.
What you’ll learn: Session participants will gain insight
for jump-starting a futures institute within their own college
and local communities.
How can this new knowledge be applied: Attendees will
gain basic "how-to" information for developing a comparable
model in their colleges. Participants will leave the session
with a fundamental vision and basic model for development.
Steven T. Henick, Director, Institute for the Future @
Anne Arundel Community College, 101 College Parkway, Arnold,
Maryland 21012
stehenick@aacc.edu
Mark Horstmeyer, futuring initiative, Moraine Valley
Community College, Palos Hills, Illinois
Margaret Lehner, futuring initiative, Moraine Valley
Community College, Palos Hills, Illinois
Maureen Sherer, assistant director, Institute for the
Future Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, Maryland
Stephen F. Steele, professor of sociology and futures
studies, Institute for the Future at Anne Arundel Community
College, Arnold, Maryland
Kay Strong, Initiatives for the Future, Bowling Green
State University at Firelands, Huron, Ohio
key words:
futures, learning, foresight tools
issue areas: Learning and Education, Governance and
Communities
End of the Written Word
While school kids'
reading and writing skills have fallen below grade level in many
electronically-developed countries, their ability to communicate
and access information using non-text technologies is clearly on
the rise. Cell phones, video games, ipods, MySpace, and YouTube
are the IT (information technology) instruments of choice not only
for young people, but for people of all ages around the
world. Voice-driven e-mail and voice-driven Internet search
(think Google Talk) are on the verge of replacing some of the
last vestiges of digital text. And text messaging, with its
unique grammar and spelling, seems to symbolize the devolution
of written language. Will we soon be using voice-recognition
software to talk with our computers while our keyboards gather
dust? Are we leaving the Age of Literacy behind and moving
rapidly into the Post-Literate Age? Are we on a "back to the
future" track to become a worldwide oral culture (again)? Is this
a positive or negative!
What potential
opportunities does this shift hold for the world's people? How
will it affect traditional education and the 3Rs (reading,
riting, and rithmetic)? How will it impact world business and
commerce, international relations, the arts, and human
consciousness itself? Panelists will analyze these trends and
address vital questions about the future of IT and our world.
Who should attend:
Anyone wanting to think about the future of reading, writing,
and the written word itself and how this will affect our lives
and livelihoods.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn about the trends
in IT that are affecting reading and writing around the world
and about the potential opportunities and dangers that lie
ahead. They will leave this discussion with a stronger
understanding and a more solid basis for forming an opinion
about this emotional topic.
How can this new knowledge be applied: Applications may
include rethinking and redesigning traditional school curricula
to include non-text IT-access skills, and installing
voice-recognition and language-translator technology in
businesses and agencies that would enable employees with certain
disabilities or with low reading/writing skills to perform their
jobs well.
Stacey Aldrich,
deputy state librarian, California State Library, Sacramento,
California
Les Gottsman, director, general education, Golden Gate
University, San Francisco, California
William Crossman, founder, director, ComSpeak 2050
Institute for the Study of Talking Computers and Oral Cultures,
Oakland, California
key words:
information technology, education
issue areas: Learning and Education, Technology and
Science, Social and Cultural Trends
Change in a Digital Age: An Impetus for a Collaborative, Educative,
Democratic Future
Technological advancement has always brought new jargon and
new-fangled gadgets to broader society. These terms and gadgets are becoming more
than just fads or trends; they’re converging with our everyday lives, causing a
corresponding--yet new--kind of accelerated change from the workplace to the
home and everywhere in between.
By realizing the precursors, phases, and essential components involved in the
dynamic, cyclical process of change in a digital age--including the recognition
and tending to resistive forces, the identification and utilization of digital
tools to facilitate change, and a continual assessment of the entire change
process--individuals, groups, institutions, organizations, and communities will
be better prepared for the transformations ahead.
Who should attend: Anyone interested in the possibilities and potential
of a connected, interactive, democratic future of change, learning, and
progress.
What you’ll learn: Participants will learn about: (1) How
technology-driven changes and tools are transforming our life; (2) How digital
tools are both the problem and the solution with regard to perpetual change; (3)
A new change model for the digital age, emphasizing the need for and importance
of communication, continual assessment, dissemination, vision including tending
to resistive forces; (4) How collaborative, educative, altruistic, and democratic
forces will shape the 21st century; and (5) Potential roles for individuals and
communities within the digital age.
How can this new knowledge be applied: In planning for the future at work
or play, as an individual or community, technology-driven change will continue to
affect our lives. The most important aspect of this new reality will be the
effective use of these new tools to facilitate the change process, with a focus
on a future of collaborative progress.
Carrie Rathsack,
assistant director, Bowling Green State
University's Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, Maumee, Ohio
key words: change, education, learning, technology, web 2.0, Internet
issue areas: Learning and Education, Technology and Science, Social and
Cultural Trends
"Stealth" Future Studies in Higher Education
Even when you don’t see "future studies" in the title of a
college course, that’s what students may be studying. This presentation uses
current examples to illustrate how futures studies can be important components
of graduate and undergraduate courses—of both traditional and outside-the-box
offerings. The examples provide a jumping-off point for facilitated discussion
of higher education courses and course components, examining participants
experiences, plans, concerns, and options.
Who should attend: Educators
who teach university-level courses and other attendees interested in higher
education.
What you’ll learn:
How futures studies can be woven into graduate and undergraduate curricula.
How can this new knowledge be applied:
Educators may choose to design or adapt mainstream courses to include futures
studies. Attendees who take college courses may find ways to use assignments as
vehicles for future studies.
Kenneth L. Nichols,
associate professor, University of Maine, Orono, Maine
key words: higher education,
future studies, strategic planning
issue areas: Learning
and Education, Governance and Communities
Future
City: Technology Education for the World
The Future City
program is already building the future in engineering and the
social sciences for middle school students in the United States,
India and other countries. In the United States alone, 30,000
young people compete each year in teams to design the transport,
energy, health, and commercial communities for the future. The
teams build scale models and explain their innovative ideas in
written and oral format.
Who should attend:
Educators, engineers, city planners, and anyone interested in a
highly innovative, multidisciplinary approach to involving young
people in science, social awareness, and intensive language
skill training.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn how to bring
excitement into engineering and the social sciences while
building social skills for students from around the world.
How can this new knowledge be applied: The knowledge
gained from this presentation allows for educational innovation,
team teaching, and new energy for engineers of the future.
Carol D. Rieg,
national director, Future City, Alexandria, Virginia; board
member, Maryland Transportation Authority, Gaithersburg,
Maryland
key words:
education, technology
issue areas: Learning and Education, Technology and
Science
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Special Event
Trends
in Education: Implications for the Future
The social and economic
changes sweeping our globe will profoundly
influence education programs everywhere,
especially in the developed world. While steady
growth is expected in that sector for another
five years, the ability of national and even
local government to support quality education
has been steadily declining. School populations
are growing and changing rapidly, due to
immigration and other forces, while schools
struggle to keep up with demands for new
technology training and resources. Finally, the
complexities of a teaching career have
discouraged many young adults raised on promises
of material prosperity and abundant leisure
time—neither of which are likely in the teaching
profession--from becoming educators.
Who should attend:
Educators, government and public policy
officials and anyone concerned with the future
of education and the next generation.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will better
understand the challenges and opportunities of
21st century education, and where the forces of
change will create the greatest effect. We'll
explore the power of technology in modern
education and the need for technology
specialists at all levels, as well as successful
models for school improvement. The impact of
mentoring for all ages of students and teachers
and the development of contingency plans for
coping with change are all part of this
presentation.
How can this new knowledge be applied:
Educators and policy analysts will be able to
better address the challenges of increased
demands on the system at a time of diminished
resources and conflicting program goals. This
session will provide new directions in coping
with change effectively.
Marvin Cetron,
president, Forecasting International, Inc.,
Falls Church, Virginia; author; member, World
Future Society Board of Directors
key words:
education, youth, mentor
issue area: Learning and Education
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For more information contact: World Future
Society, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite
450, Bethesda, Maryland 20814;
Tel: 1-800-989-8274 or 1-301-656-8274; Fax: 1-301-951-0394;
Web Site:
www.wfs.org; E-mail:
sechard@wfs.org.
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