Futuring

• How does consciousness change throughout history? Jeremy Rifkin on “the empathetic civilization” (RSA Animate)
• U.K. report on Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World
• You can listen to my interview with NPR’s Word of Mouth about the future of education.
• A European report: Mapping major changes to education and training in 2025 (PDF)
• 10 Changes to the World of Work in the next 10 years by Gartner Analysts
• “Beware any scenario that does not sufficient explore changing attitudes along with changing technology.” from @ericgarland [via @WorldFutureSoc]
• The Future of Video: Becoming People of the Screen [via @hrheingold and @iftf]
• Today “texting is mainstream” from fresh Pew Research stats: Texting among adult mobile phone users is up to 72%, teens at 87%.  [via @sidneyeve]

• How to crowdsource the presentation of your syllabus.
• Social Networking Made Easy (Geek&Poke cartoon about learning how to participate in “Real-World Chat“)
• Great video called What Should Everyone Know? – RSA Events interviewed all sorts of people to find out what they think is important to learn.  (8 minutes and embeddable, which means you can put it up as an announcement in your LMS)
• Email’s Dark Side: 10 Psychology Studies [via @arossett] If  you haven’t managed Inbox Zero yet, Gmail’s Priority Inbox looks pretty cool, especially for the start of the school year!  And finally, if you’re trying to get email all together, read A World Without E-mail.
• Here’s a list of all TED Talks to date.
• Some basic etiquette if you play FourSquare, from Geek&Poke.
• Great video about the “old” technology of 1986.
• Bloom’s Taxonomy according to Pirates of the Caribbean.
• Great visualization of How to Be an Expert.
• I loved @hjarche blog post about “Active Sense-making” … reminds me of my own “Random But Organized Thoughts.”

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-29-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-22-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-15-10)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-8-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-1-2010)

This is the 3rd year I’ve attended the WFS Conference and it’s a difficult event to describe.  You might imagine a collection of Nostradamus-like individuals, making predictions about the future, and I’ll admit it; this conference does have a larger proportion of older, bearded men than most conferences I attend.  However, the vast majority of attendees are completely serious professionals who are in the business of making informed predictions and hedging bets against uncertainty.  All of us participate in futuring – at least all of us that have ever made a budget or participated in some kind of strategic planning. The difference between your futuring and the futuring that these folks do is that they’ve gone the extra mile to learn the tools of long-term foresight planning.

What follows are the snippets of wisdom (mostly from tweets) that I collected at this year’s WFS Conference.

WFS: Scenario Building Workshop (Adam Gordon, @FutureSavvy)

Scenario planning is used when your institution is not governed by “well-behaved change.”  The idea is not to make a single prediction about what will happen in the future, but to explore the options, looking for commonalities in the cone of plausibility.

• If you’d like to see the slides from the Scenario Planning workshop, here’s a link to a 2008 version of Adam Gordon’s presentation.
• Well-behaved change happens in predictable environments: information rich, not prone to technology upheavals, well-established markets, stable players, high barriers to entry, a stable regulatory environment, consistent demand, or no great social pressures.
• Badly behaved change: uncertain technology evolution, uncertain demand for products/services, uncertain performance of new business models, unstable macro-economic conditions (inflation, interest rates), shifting values, shifting morals, shifting preferences, shifting regulations.
• Scenario planning is NOT determining the most likely outcome & planning for it, it IS assuming every important outcome might occur, and planning the best business options for each case.

WFS: Education Summit

I have hopes for what the WFS Education Summit could be … but it’s not there yet.  The problem is that the Education Summit is a mix of K-12/Higher Ed folks with no clear direction about whether the discussion is about teaching futuring skills or predicting the future of education and technology related to education.  Personally, I think that many conferences look at the “edge of learning” – what’s going to happen.  The specialty at the WFS Conference should be on linking educators who teach aspects of futuring skills in their educational programs.

With that in mind, here are some resources and links about Foresight/Futuring Education that might be helpful to you or your college:

• Institute for the Future at Anne Arundel Community College
• Certificate in Strategic Foresight from University of Houston
• FERN: Foresight Education and Research Network (be sure to check out the Resources page)
• Foresight Development (an open-source course for undergraduates, by John M. Smart)
• Regent University Masters in Strategic Foresight Curriculum Pyramid

If what you are looking for is really how to prepare graduates FOR the future, or introduce skills that will withstand the rapidly-shifting job market of the future, then you might find these links helpful:

• Center for Future Consciousness
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills
• Equipped for the Future
• Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age

WFS: Humans 2020 (Ramez Naam, @ramez)

• Presentation on Humans in 2020 by @ramez can be found here.
• It is acceptable in society to bring someone who is below the human baseline up to the baseline.  It is societally unacceptable to take someone AT (or above) the human baseline of intelligence and enhance it further.
• It is considered socially acceptable to use medical intervention to improve lower cognitive abilities or to combat loss of cognitive function (especially as you age).
• The same biological discoveries that cure disease are also the ones that can enhance humans. Power to heal = power to enhance.
• Our genome is basically digital – it encodes us with a finite number of “bits” (ATCG). A gene sequencing facility looks like a server farm for a data center.
• How much of who you are is coded by your genes? See slide #39.  [really, you should go look, it's shocking!]
• Wouldn’t it suck if your parents make genetic decisions for you (code you for an artist) … but then you’re bitter your whole life.
• Prediction: Parents WILL readily opt to do genetic manipulation to remove diseases.
• Shuddering at the thought of a virus to carry genetic modification in adults. At the same time, if I can have a faster metabolism …

WFS: Internet Evolution (@Pew_Internet)

• Two-thirds of adults are now using the cloud for something in their life. 61% of those adults are on social networks.
• Bandwidth doubles every 2 years, but I would argue that it only doubles for those that already have it. The haves/have not gap widens.
• Bumper stickers about the future of the Internet: The cloud is the 3rd phase of the Internet. -Mike Nelson [would love the rest of these, but I couldn't catch them fast enough and there were no slides or visuals to make it easier]
• Nelson recommends reading “Let IT rise” from the Economist (subscription required).  You can get part of “Let IT rise” (Economist article) free here.
• The cloud is going to be the platform that enables the Internet of things.  We will have 100s of net-connected devices. -Mike Nelson [... once again, what about the population that lacks broadband internet?]
• Most of this presentation was simply results published on the Pew Research Center website (they have an RSS feed if you click on Subscribe in the upper right-hand corner). If you’ve never read their reports, you should start.

WFS: Building the Human Mind (Ray Kurzweil)

• Note: You’ve probably seen Ray Kurzweil on TED Talks: How Technology Will Transform Us.  If not, go watch that, this was a more up-to-date version of that talk.
• Whether you agree with the coming singularity or not, the research is certainly interesting.  If you go to KurzweilAI you can subscribe to receive all the links to the latest scientific research that support the eventual interface between humans and technology.  Prepare for the singularitweets.  #
• So many mentions of the exponential curves of invention … it’s so nice to hear in a presentation when you teach math. #wf10 # As a matter of fact, you could easily play a game of “Math Bingo” where you count the number of times the words exponential, log-log plots, or linear are used in a Kurzweil presentation.
• How long do you go without updating the software you use? But we haven’t updated our genes in 1000 years.
• “If this is all going to happen anyways, why don’t we sit back, party and let it happen .. because of course, then it WON’T happen.”
• “The tools of disruptive change, in every field, are in everybody’s hands … FB, Google, all started by couple kids with laptops.”
• Very cool animation on “The Law of Accelerating Returns” that takes us through history of technology. Wonder if it’s on the web? Anyone know?
• Kurzweil is using a slide deck, but many of the slides are a mix of static images with an CG animation. Seamless and very cool. However, I’m not sure if the animations are distracting … do I stop listening when there’s an animation to watch? Hmmm.
• I wonder if Kurzweil has a graph of the average amount of information we have to process as adults in each decade of human existence.
• “Ignoring exponential progression would be a mistake [speaking about photovoltaic technologies]
• In 15 years, according to models, we will be adding 1 year of life expectancy every year.
• Kurzweil slides at http://www.KurzweilAI.net/pps/KurzweilPowerPoint and in a truly old-fashioned way, they will DOWNLOAD to your computer when you go there instead of bringing you to a site where they just play.  They wouldn’t OPEN on my computer, but I can confirm that they did download.

WFS: Levers of Change in Higher Education (Maria H. Andersen, @busynessgirl)

Thanks WFS staff for letting me do a fill-in presentation for a cancelled session. I am grateful for the opportunity to reach a wider audience!

• Interactive Prezi presentation: http://bit.ly/LEVERS
• Video of the live presentation: http://bit.ly/LEVERSVIDEO
• iPad / Smartphone-friendly version on YouTube: http://bit.ly/LEVERSIPAD

WFS: The Future of Men and Women (Karen Moloney)

• Housework is feminism’s final frontier. Very unequal distribution in the U.S.
• Thought experiment: What would happen if there was a sex-specific pandemic?
• Note: I’m not sure how much information I got from the talk, but it was well-designed and entertaining.  Plus I got a book suggestion to get the information I want.

WFS: Future of Faith: Conflict or Creativity (panel)

• Cosmodeism: Evolution of the cosmos creates God- not God created the cosmos-that’s the proposition advanced by Tsvi Bisk (who made me flashback to sermons I listened to in my youth).
• Some of the graphs about religion are available at AtlasOfGlobalChristianity (go to sample pages). They are great and I wonder if they’ve considered putting the data through Gapminder?  I think all libraries should buy this book – it is a great resource, but mere mortals? It might be out of our price range.
• Did the influence of television shift the culture of religion? Good question. We’ll have to include this in our themed studies this fall.
• Really enjoyed Rex Miller’s part of the Future of Faith talk, where he discussed the four “Ages” of religion: Oral, Print, Broadcast, and Digital [good speaker and presentation, would recommend]
• How will religious groups get things done in the future? For 500 years we’ve relied on the institutional structure to get things done. The new “institution” is collaboration. The adaptive challenge will be dealing with the loss of the “institution”
• Thought: Professional organizations are built around physical institutions (at least physical conferences) What does this shift mean for them?

WFS: Future of Academia (Bryan Alexander)

• Unfortunately, I have no tweets from this talk, which was great.  I lent my WiFi to Bryan and didn’t want to burden the signal by using it myself.
• Five Visions for Liberal Arts Campus (Scnearios) – which is a great thought experiment for those of you planning for the future of Higher Education (the prezi is here)
• NITLE Predictions Market

Books, etc.

• Future Saavy, by Adam Gordon
• The Essential Difference, by Simon Baron-cohen
• The Millenium Matrix, by Rex Miller
• Rhythms of the Brain, by Gyorgy Buzsaki
• The China Study, by Campbell, Campbell, and Lyman
• More Than Human, by Ramez Naam
• The Singularity is Near, by Ray Kurzweil
• Radical Evolution (and possibly Edge City), by Joel Garreau
• The Practical Futurist (columns), by Mike Rogers

Just for Fun (other suggestions)

• Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood
• Into Great Silence (movie)
• Anathem, by Neal Stephenson (my recommendation)
• Directive 51, by John Barnes
• Ark and Flood, by Stephen Baxter
• The Dune Trilogy, by Frank Herbert
• Hostile Takeover, by Susan Shwartz
• A Fire Upon the Deep or The Peace War , by Vernor Vinge

Conversations

The thing that makes the WFS conference so unique is that you are interacting with people from all over the world and from all sorts of different disciplines and professions.  In the same room at any presentation there are educators, military personnel, scientists, technology experts, authors, press representatives, students, business leaders, religious leaders, and of course, professional futurists.  The space between presentations is roomy (usually 30 minutes or more) and the conversations that you find yourself wandering in to are incredibly stimulating.  This year, I had several conversations that will push me to do even more reading and video watching (especially at the Acceleration Studies Foundation (ASF) Archive … not even sure how to BEGIN here).

Final Thoughts

I attended three game design conferences this year, and the presenters are starting to have this tradition of making the second slide the games they’ve been playing recently.  In all seriousness, at WFS, I think the second slide should be the Science Fiction you’ve been reading recently.   After my experiences last year at WFS 2009, I wasn’t sure I would come back – the conversations and networking had been great, but the presentations in the general conference were mostly “misses.”  However, at WFS 2010, most of the presentations I attended were “hits” so I’m thinking that I’ll probably find a way to attend (and hopefully present) at WFS in Vancouver, July 8-10  in 2011.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random But Organized Thoughts (9-5-2010)
• Twitter Weekly Link Roundup for 2010-07-11
• Levers of Change in Higher Education
• Teaching Math with Technology
• Mindmap: Play and Learn

• Just sat on the back porch (in the shade) for 3 hours and read DIY U – good overview/reminder of a lot of alternatives/disruptors to ed. #fb #
• Cup of coffee, then returning to the back porch to read several bookmarked articles about what others think about future of higher ed. #
• Musing about the Educause Tapscott article which lists students as a possible change agent in higher ed … #
• I think it’s wishful thinking … when have 16-18 yr-olds demonstrated the ability to work together to change a national system? #
• I think for higher ed to change, it has to change in the 1st-year experience. The only students who can push that are the incoming ones. #
• I would like to believe that students will be able to get the system to change, but in reality, I don’t see students having much power here. #
• Just spoke with my illustrator … this prezi is going to rock! wait and see. #
• Don’t you love it when a new idea hits you with such force that you are speechless? #
• I think we should sell empty seats in upper level courses at deep discounts, like last minute travel sites do. Encourage lifelong learning. #
• The open seats would become available onlin the final week before classes and only to those who have earned a degree at that level already. #
• Those who know they want participate would complete some kind of pre-registration to verify they are eligible. #
• Another thought … a subscription model where you pay 19.95 per month to be able to take one class a year. Use it or lose it. #
• I think we need to develop education models that are based on the notion of true lifelong learning. The world moves fast now. #
• The other beauty of such models is that transferability is less of an issue with such learners … allowing for more innovative courses. #
• Industrial model of ed: Raw materials (students) are processed thru assembly line (courses) resulting in product (graduates). #
• Customization of the Industrial Education model creates graduates who are athletes, intellectuals, socializers, and leaders. #
• When we worry that something is missing in the online education model, it is that customization of our product (graduates). #
• Anyone know what percent of couples meet their partner in college? #
• Imagine higher education as a car factory. The brand is the college you attend, the model is the degree you get. #
• The car has many customization options: socializers, leaders, intellectuals, performers, researchers, athletes, partners, explainers … #
• A student may attend college and get all the way through with nothing but the “base” model. #
• Alternatively, they may end up with the equivalent of a sunroof, chrome extras and stereo upgrade (athlete, socializer, & performer) #
• Continuing on with the car model: Athletes = upgraded engine, Socializers = chrome package, Leaders = leather seats … #
• … Intellectuals = sun roof, Researchers = GPS package, Organizers = roof rack, Explainers = DVD player #
• … Engaged citizens = fog lights, Performers = upgraded stereo, Partners = multi-zone temperature control #
• … Critical thinkers = air conditioning, Creative thinkers = ??? Entrepreneurs = ??? #
• If workers shift careers every 7-10 years, how will they “retrain” each time? How can education adapt to this model? #
• The Industrial model was designed for one-career workers, not multi-career, fast-changing workplaces. #
• Question: Do those of us who really LIKE learning just tolerate academia as a required formality – necessary to get our fix? #
• What we’re seeing now (with catalyst of technology) is the separation of content, learning, and certification. #
• RT @joshgiesbrecht: My biggest revelation as a learner was academia *isn’t* required to get my fix. Just helps w/structure & recognition. #
• RT @annmariastat: Academia CAN lend structure. Took data mining class this semester to learn those things I was always GOING to get to #
• .@annmariastat Totally agree, although I’d say it is more the role of a learning coach that we need: http://is.gd/dgq7p #
• My first pass at a new @prezi is entirely words and random ideas, organized in the physical space. http://screencast.com/t/ZjkzYThl #
• I’m starting to worry that I might “break the bank” on illustrating this one. I can think of so many illustrations I want. #
• Now finding first round of images on Flickr Advanced Search CC share-alike non-commercial use … like this one: http://is.gd/dgsfV #
• Interesting (although general) ideas in Todays Campus this issue … almost every single “Master of Change” is male. http://is.gd/dgSAu #
• OMG. This illustration is AWESOME!!!!! Suddenly I feel the need to give a better @prezi presentation! You all are going to LOVE it. #
• Still just spellbound looking at the background for Thursday’s @prezi … wow. Sneak peak in low res: http://screencast.com/t/ZDA2MWY2Z #fb #
• Slightly more detailed view (zoomed in on one part): http://screencast.com/t/NWU3OGMyMmMt #
• Seriously, I wouldn’t keep building new presentations if I didn’t have such an awesome illustrator! Thank you Mat!  #
• Still working on the #wf10 presentation: Levers of Change in Higher Education … here’s a preview: http://twurl.nl/7mquzr #
• I am at a conference hotel … AND I have Internet. Love my new anywhere mobile-hotspot on the HTC EVO. #wf10 #
• Still working on the presentation for tomorrow. I’ve been thinking about this one for over a year. Pedal to the metal time. #
• At what point is a presentation done? #
• RT @IanSchreiber: The same point a game is done: when it ships! RT @busynessgirl: At what point is a presentation done? #
• .@prezi Any way to use time stamp feature to get a youtube to start at a particular time in prezi? Just tried way I know and it didn’t work. # [answer is no]
• Help! One of the major for-profit universities has a “first 3 weeks free” promotional strategy. Which one and website? #
• RT @mathhombre: @busynessgirl Do you mean the U Phoenix 3 week orientation course? http://bit.ly/cgNRtF / well, there’s a marketing gimmick #
• There’s SO much I want to say in this presentation … it very likely might be > 1 hour now. Will have to watch the time. #wf10 #
• Who thinks it’s appropriate to use a picture of a cricket (as in chirping) for Learning Object Repositories (or should it be dusty books?) #
• So, I have a twiiter borg image, now I need one for Facebook … a zombie with the facebook logo as the face? @ohmgee  #
• Okay, I think I am FINALLY ready to lay the path through the @prezi … ready, set, GO! #
• Anyone know how to delete one point on an @prezi path? I know how to add a point, but not how to get rid of one. #
• RT @RobinThailand: @busynessgirl Just drag the ‘dot’ off the path and let go. /// Doh! @msgregson #
• Levers of Change in Higher Education http://prezi.com/irqborz3hmd2 #wf10 Still making minor tweaks here and there. Something odd? Tell me. #
• Well, that was anti-climactic. My eyes are burning from staring at tiny details on the screen. My contacts might fall out. #
• Levers of Change in Higher Education is easy to find at http://bit.ly/LEVERS (I will post the video we recorded later) Future of Educcation #
• Here is the video of the Levers of Change presentation (recorded live at #wf10 http://www.screencast.com/t/MTE2MzUzY #
• There will be a repeat of Levers of Change in Higher Ed Saturday at 8am in Alcott. See you there! #wf10 #
• Now producing a version of my presentation for iPad users. I wonder, will they produce products that work outside iPad software? (doubtful) #
• For the record, I am ALSO producing a transcript of the presentation for the visually impaired. That will take a little longer. #
• The encore presentation this morning was a full house! Much thanks to WFS for letting me present again in general conference. #wf10 #
• Levers of Change in Higher Education (for iPad users): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC7-R3KwDLU #wf10 #
• Adult Education Classes (a Ziggy cartoon) which fits nicely with the Levers presentation: http://twurl.nl/7ndxfk via @mathhombre #

Miscellaneous …

• RT @MathEdnet I love good data visualization. This isn’t it. http://bit.ly/9jKiTE #
• Well well … look who’s playing in the tweetbox … welcome to twitter John! (@mathhombre) #
• I am really looking forward to hearing what you all think about my insights into “The Open Faculty” when it’s published. Curious & nervous. #
• RT@lisagualtieri: Stroke education humor: You can’t use the Internet when your arm is numb http://is.gd/dgd8Q @Power2EndStroke #
• Just discovered (completely by accident) that my computer/mouse do this: http://screencast.com/t/ZmY2ODBhZDE (way cool!) #
• RT @chronicle The death of tenure: http://bit.ly/bTG3GR “There will not be good, tenure-track jobs for the great majority of good people.” #
• .@chronicle What makes the tenure thing worse is that at same time tenure has decreased, enrollments & the cost of college have increased. in reply to chronicle #
• RT @Wolfram_Alpha Stephen Wolfram shares his thoughts on computation and the future of the human condition: http://bit.ly/ctL0P5 #
• RT @ruth4916 RE http://bit.ly/aJAxQI @busynessgirl Another reference to Calculus Wars here — you are now an influencer! // cool! #
• Somehow I think I’m getting the better deal out of the $40/month unlimited data mobile hotspot. I’m like the piggy person at a buffet.  #
• Is it just me or is there very little information about http://2tor.com on the website? (Possible alternative to standard LMS? Can’t tell.) #
• Did You Know 4.0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8 #
• A new reason to dislike Apple. Everyone with iPhones and iPads just ignore content running in Flash. Save for later = never. Thanks Steve. #
• Who finds it ironic that I, a non-iPad, non-iPhone user knows how to turn off the sound on an iPad. #
• Great Idea: Let students go to B&N or Amazon and choose 100 important books for the college library each year. #
• The mindmap on Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age http://bit.ly/DigitalAge … teaching with the future in mind. #wf10 #
• I think it’s time to pull up that Blackborg graphic again! @jryoung @marcparry in reply to jryoung #
• RT @JaneBozarth A-MEN! RT @chrisstjohn: Today I learned again that the world is ruled by those who show up #lrnchat #
• Having breakfast with a friend from high school that I haven’t seen since 1992! #
• RT @kiwicarol Android Steals Market Share From All Other Smartphone Platforms [REPORT]: http://bit.ly/bn8VpW / just bought one #
• Is it just me? When a cell phone goes off in a packed room full of people, there is a 90% chance the phone owner has white/gray hair? #
• I bring a small surge protector / usb charger to conferences. Means I can glob on to any power outlet. Very compact. http://twurl.nl/atgg7u #
• Very happy to see a woman, @zephoria, at the top of the FORTUNE list for smartest tech academic http://bit.ly/d7xlbR #
• Why is it that every iPad user tries to “convert me”? Now I just say “Let’s just agree to disagree and drop it, okay?” #
• I stopped really blogging when @ProfHacker started up and I haven’t gotten my mojo back since then. Feels like smaller voices are lost. #
• Are there any mindmapping platforms using HTML5 ? I’ve used mindomo for years, but no idea what their plans are. #
• RT @kprentiss Impressively bad United Airlines chat and phone service. Outsourcing only goes so far. Zappos, please start your airline. #
• Do any of the slidesharing web platforms work in HTML5? Will Google Presenter work on an iPad? #
• Sidenote: I’m sick of receiving iPad spam from various companies selling iPad accessories. (irony: this will result in MORE spam) #
• I need a fold over the screen keyboard for my HTC EVO… like a QWERTY convertible. Miss the QWERTY, but love the WiFi. #fb #

WFS Conference

There were a LOT of tweets from this conference, but I’m going to publish them in a separate post with some additional thoughts and links to resources.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random But Organized Thoughts (9-5-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-29-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-22-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-15-10)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-8-2010)

Here’s the latest Prezi on Levers of Change in Higher Education.

We’ve seen many major industries undergo dramatic change in the last decade (i.e. manufacturing, newspapers, and customer service).  While education seems “untouchable” to those within the system, there are many “levers of change” that have the potential for dramatic restructuring of higher education as well.  Online courses, adaptive computer assessment systems, open-source textbooks, edupunks, pay-by-the-month degrees, … these are just some of the levers that are prying at the corners of higher education.  In this presentation I will identify many of the levers of change that have the potential to shift higher education, resources to learn more about these, and a few scenarios that describe some of the possible futures of higher education. You can also watch the video of the live presentation here.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random But Organized Thoughts (9-5-2010)
• Math Technology to Engage, Delight, and Excite
• World Future Society Conference 2010
• Twitter Weekly Link Roundup for 2010-07-11
• Mindmap: Play and Learn

At the end of yesterday’s presentation, I included a link to a new interactive Mindmap called “Play and Learn” (shortcut is http://bit.ly/PlayLearn).

This map is organized by subject and includes games or simulations that are available for each.  If you know of other games that are useful (focusing on high school / college age), please send them along to wyandersen at gmail dot com.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random But Organized Thoughts (9-5-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-29-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-22-2010)
• World Future Society Conference 2010
• Twitter Weekly Link Roundup for 2010-07-11

This is a rebuild of the Presentation I did in Texas called “Playing to Learn Math?” It is focused on a general audience in education and includes many more games and simulations than the prior version.  Before you click through, think about this …

• 99% of boys aged 12-17 play video games
• 94% of girls aged 12-17 play video games
• 50% of teens played video games “yesterday”

Pew Research, Teens, Video Games, and Civics, 2008

Since 2006, the rate of Internet use for teens aged 12-17 has been 93-94%, with roughly 40% using the Internet “Several Times a Day” (Pew Research, Millenials: A Portrait of Generation Next) The next time you have a student who says they don’t have access to the Internet, stop and consider.  To not teach students to use the Internet (and use it appropriately) is akin to leaving out a crucial job/life skill like reading.  If that same student said they “didn’t have access to books” how would you respond?  Our campuses have both computer labs and libraries. Is it unreasonable for students to be expected to use both if necessary?

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random But Organized Thoughts (9-5-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-29-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-22-2010)
• World Future Society Conference 2010
• Twitter Weekly Link Roundup for 2010-07-11

I saw this last fall at the AMATYC Conference, and I’m just getting around to posting it now (how sad is that?).  Thanks to Fred for showing us this one!

This is just a design vision – what could computing be like in the future? But I would say that it’s a vision that totally “leaves the box” and it’s really a beautiful solution to the multiple uses issue.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random But Organized Thoughts (9-5-2010)
• World Future Society Conference 2010
• Twitter Weekly Link Roundup for 2010-07-11
• Levers of Change in Higher Education
• Mindmap: Play and Learn

This presentation, built yesterday, is my philosophical argument for why we should be actively pursuing games as a way to teach algebra. In fact, you’ll find that many of the definitions of games and game design principles sound like they are describing algebra. Of course, the presentation misses something without my accompanying talk, but it has enough to get you started thinking about where we could be going with math education.

It took me 12 hours just to build the presentation you see below … and collaboration with my assistant and an illustrator.  I’ve been obsessively reading and thinking about this topic for about two years.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random But Organized Thoughts (9-5-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-29-2010)
• Random But Organized Thoughts (8-22-2010)
• World Future Society Conference 2010
• Twitter Weekly Link Roundup for 2010-07-11

A few months ago I was interviewed by the  guys from the Business Innovation Factory.  We talked about a variety of things, including the transactional nature of college education today (when it should be a transformational experience).  At some point in the interview, they asked me to explain how I am “hacking” education.

This is an interesting phrase and It gave me a bit of a pause, “am I hacking education?”  What exactly would that mean?  There are many ways we can consider the phraseology of hacking. Some connotations of hacking are positive and some are negative. A lot depends on the perspective. If you think there’s nothing wrong with education. Then “hacking education” would be seen as derogatory — someone who is working outside the accepted structures and norms of the environment.  In an earlier post, Everybody Teaches Everybody Learns, I mentioned that it’s difficult to be a “prophet in your own land.” As soon as you mention changing the system, you imply (whether you mean to or not) that there’s something wrong with the current system, which in turn seems to imply someone is not doing their job.

On the other hand, suppose we see “hacking” education from the point of view of someone who thinks education is broken.  If this is the case, then you may consider hacking to be an alternate definition: an elegant solution to a difficult problem.

Now, the group in charge rarely wants their system to be hacked.  Apple doesn’t want the iPhone to be hacked.  The music industry doesn’t want their DRM to be hacked.  Many administrators and faculty don’t want higher education to be hacked.  And yet there are those of us working within the system, who are trying to find that “elegant solution” to move this mountain.

Why do I think the system of higher education needs a good hack?  In my opinion, education should be a transformational experience, but somewhere along the way, higher education became transactional: student pays x dollars, completes x courses, receives (insert name) degree. Instructor creates several “hoops” for students to jump through. Students jump through these hoops. They receive credit.

I hear over and over that the most important skill we can teach students is how to learn.  But think about the last time YOU sat down with a textbook to learn something. Let me guess – it was the last time you were in school?  Outside of academia (in the “real world”), we learn by discussing problems with our social networks. We learn by trial and error. We learn by exploring and by experience.  We learn by play.  We learn from reading (from a variety of sources, many of them on the Internet).  We learn from watching videos.  When did higher education lose this?

Learning in education is judged, for the most part, by strange transactions between the student and the instructor: papers are submitted, homework is completed, and discussions are moderated. On exams, we look for holes in what the student may know.  Maybe (watch out, radical unjustified idea coming) we should just be asking one thing: Tell me what you have learned. If it’s enough, you pass.  If it’s not enough, you keep learning.

Let’s get back to this transactional system of education.  Consider the discipline-silos of higher ed.  In elementary school (you know, when students still enjoy learning) the instructor teaches a variety of subjects to the same group of students.  If we ignore NCLB and high-stakes testing, we can imagine that these instructors are able to weave subjects together in a cohesive manner and plan class time around themes.  A theme might include a blend of English, science, humanities and mathematics.   In higher ed, we’ve separated all the ingredients.  Math, English, Chemistry, Humanities, Philosophy, Economics, … these are all stand-alone subjects.  In many of these disciplines (math and science in particular) the huge content requirements (breadth not depth) leave little room to stretch outside the discipline.  Is this still appropriate today?  Like lonely ingredients, the disciplines are, by themselves, bland.

As the lines between careers become more blurred, the courses we teach in the discipline-silos of Higher Ed become increasingly removed from reality. Although we do strive to create programs that are well-rounded (i.e. the foundation courses of Liberal Arts), each individual course exists in something of a contextual vacuum.  To prepare students to understand the complexity of our modern society, the core liberal arts curricula should include courses like :

• Trend Analysis (Math + History)
• Biology and Human Enhancement (Biology + Philosophy)
• Science of Exercise (Science + Health & PE)
• Exploring Water Issues (Science + Politics)
• Design and Digital Presentations (Graphic Design + Communication)
• Data Analysis and Information Presentation (Statistics, Graphic Design, and Communication)
• Exploring Recycling and Refuse (Science, Government, and Humanities)
• Chemistry of Nutrition (Chemistry + Health & PE)
• Poverty and World Culture (Humanities, Government, and Sociology)
• Sociology and Psychology of the Web (Sociology + Psychology)
• How Computers Think (CIS + Philosophy)
• Art, Media, and Copyright (Fine Arts + Law)
• Writing for the Digital Age (CIS + Communication + English)
• Energy (Physics, Chemistry, and Government)
• Information, Query, and Synthesis (Literacy, Logic, English)

There are two big problems with teaching these courses.  First, most instructors would feel uncomfortable crossing these discipline lines.  That’s not to say they wouldn’t be willing, but it would require some learning and retraining at the faculty level (and that costs money).  Second?  Transferability.  For example, at community colleges, all of our courses are ultimately given final judgment on one tenet:  Does this class transfer? If the answer to this last question will be no, there’s little point in going through the work to walk a proposed course through the approval process.

We need a swift, national movement to create a set of universally-transferable, interdisciplinary, 21st century courses so that any school with faculty who are ABLE to teach these courses can immediately BEGIN teaching these courses. But how to do it?

Here’s my proposed higher education hack:

In a manner similar to Perkins funding, suppose the government offered an extra federal education stipend to any college or university that offers at least 5 of the courses on the interdisciplinary list (what list? well, some group of “experts” would have to propose the master list).  Instantly, every college in the country would begin scheming about ways to get their faculty ready to teach these courses. Within a year or two, most colleges would have these courses on the books, and they would be immediately transferable.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random But Organized Thoughts (9-5-2010)
• The Open Faculty
• World Future Society Conference 2010
• Twitter Weekly Link Roundup for 2010-07-11
• Levers of Change in Higher Education

This is a follow-up to my recent research about Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age.  I’ve spent considerable time thinking about how to alter the classes I teach to re-center them on a core of flexible learning.  In all of my classes this semester, students will be completing a variety of learning projects that involve alternative ways to learn (e.g. blogging, making mindmaps, teaching a lesson, making a video presentation, or designing a non-digital game).

The difficult part about including these alternative learning methods is teaching the students all the necessary technology skills first.  Most of my students are the traditional freshman-level age-range  (18-25).  For the most part, they “get” technology (cell phones, facebook, video games, and gadgets), but they haven’t been taught how to do anything productive with technology – at least, not with regards to learning or career skills.

If America wants to continue to be a world-leader, we can do it with a technology advantage – but only if we actually know how to leverage that technology to continue to be more productive.

So, I began to write out a list of the tech skills that I think students should learn before they leave college.  Ideally, these are skills that would be integrated throughout K-12 and college curricula.

Basic Web Stuff
1. Basics of HTML (bold, underline, italics, special characters)
2. How to use EMBED code or make a live link
3. How to make and share a screenshot
4. How to make and share a short video explaining something or asking for help
5. Learn basic abbreviations and emoticons (e.g. ROFL, IMHO)
6. How to build a landing page for your web-based stuff (e.g. iGoogle, NetVibes)
7. How to add gadgets or plug-ins for various sites
8. How to make a simple website (e.g. Google Sites)
9. Build a clickable resume / digital portfolio
10. How (and when) to use collaborative documents or spreadsheets
11. How (and why) to create tags and labels
12. How (and why) to use URL-shortening sites (e.g. TinyURL)

Organization
13. How to set up a web-based calendar and use it to manage your time
14. How to set up and manage an RSS reader
15. How to find a common meeting time (e.g. Doodle)
16. How to set up a communication aggregator (e.g. Digsby, Trillian, TweetDeck)

Communication
17. How to manage email
18. How to write a good “first-contact” email
19. How to write a good subject line
20. How to write a good email response
21. Texting etiquette (when it’s appropriate, when it’s not)
22. How to summarize your thoughts in 140 characters or less
23. How to use Twitter (reply, retweet, direct message)
24. How to determine whether you should share it in a public forum (will it affect your future job prospects, your current employment, etc.)
25. How to manage an online meeting
26. How to give an effective webinar
27. What are the differences between various social networks and how they are used? (e.g. Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn)

Finding and Managing Information
28. How to use web-based bookmarks
29. How (and when) to use library search databases
30. How (and when) to use an image-based search engine
31. How (and when) to use alternate search engines (e.g. Clusty)
32. Who writes Wikipedia articles and when can they be trusted?
33. How to build a custom search engine
34. When can you trust the information you find?
35. How to use article citations to find better references
36. How to manage a bibliography online (e.g. Zotero)
37. How to set up web alerts to track new information (e.g. Google Alerts)

Privacy, Security, and the Law
38. Creative Commons – what is it and how to choose appropriate license?
39. How to read the legalese that tells you who owns it after it is shared online
40. What should you share and how does that change for different audiences?
41. How to manage usernames & passwords
42. How to find and tweak the privacy settings in common social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter)
43. How do data-mining sites get your information? (e.g. participating in FB quizzes)
44. What are the security concerns with GPS-based tracking systems?

Presentation
45. How to determine the audience and appropriate length for your presentation
46. Good presentation design principles
47. Principles of storytelling
48. How to share a set of slides on the Internet
49. How to build a non-linear presentation
50. How to build a flashy presentation (and when to use it)
51. How to find high-quality images that can be used in presentations (with appropriate copyrights)
52. How to find audio that can be shared in a presentation (with appropriate copyrights)
53. How to create a captioning script for a video
54. Ways to caption an internet-based video
55. How (and when) to use a virtual magnifier with your presentation

Ways to Learn
56. How to build an interactive mindmap to organize ideas
57. How to use a blog to track your learning process
58. How to find good sites, blogs, and other online publications for the topic you are learning about
59. How to cultivate a personal learning network (PLN)
60. How to participate in a live learning chat (e.g. TweetChats)

Okay, that’s sixty items and I’ve just scratched the surface (I haven’t even touched on virtual worlds, for instance).

The big problem?  How many educators do you know that have these skills?

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random But Organized Thoughts (9-5-2010)
• The Open Faculty
• World Future Society Conference 2010
• Twitter Weekly Link Roundup for 2010-07-11
• Levers of Change in Higher Education