The future of education: Report from symposium in Iceland

Posted on March 26, 2012 by admin

The following is a somewhat quick & dirty reflection on the symposium on the future of education that I participated in in Iceland last week.

I was on a panel at a symposium on the future of education held at the University of Iceland (UI) last Tuesday (March 20, 2012). The key speaker was my advisor, Dr. Arthur Harkins, and with me on the panel were Dr. Svanborg R. Jónsdóttir, lecturer at UI, and Dr. Jón Torfi Jónasson, Dean of the School of Education, UI.

There has been little discourse on the futures studies, and in particular the future of education, in Iceland. Consequently, the Icelandic language lacks many of the concepts used in futures discourse (for ex. Icelandic philosopher Gunnar Dal suggests in his book published in 2005, Stórar Spurningar (transl. Big Questions) that perhaps there may at some time be a field of study referred to as “futures studies” – I guess he didn’t notice that there has been such a field since the 1950-60s developing increasingly rigorous methodologies). The symposium, along with a growing interest in the future of education in Iceland, provided a great opportunity to expand Icelandic discourse on education to include discussions about futures. Continue reading →

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Creativity Money Love: Learning for the 21st Century

Posted on March 26, 2012 by admin

Continually increasing evidence that future thinking is being taken, or should be taken, seriously.

Interesting free publication from Creative & Cultural Skills and A New Direction in the UK.

We asked over 40 artists, practitioners and thinkers to address issues around how the education system needs to respond to the needs of the creative and cultural industries. Go to the think pieces section to read contributions, watch videos and join the debate through your own contribution.

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Symposium on the future of education

Posted on March 13, 2012 by admin

Dr. Arthur Harkins and I will be participating in a symposium on the future of education in Iceland on March 20, 2012. The symposium is hosted by the University of Iceland’s School of Education. Dr. Harkins will present on some critical issues for the future of education. I will be joined by Dr. Jón Torfi Jónasson, Dean of the School of Education, and Svanborg R. Jónsdóttir on a panel that will reflect on Dr. Harkins’ presentation. More info:

“Tuesday the 20th of March 15-17 The School of Education in collaboration with the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota, will host a seminar on issues related to the future of education. This will be in H-101 in the School of Education.

Professor Arthur M. Harkins from the University of Minnesota will review some of the important issues in an opening presentation and answer questions on the issues he discusses.

In a discussion seminar Tryggvi Thayer from the University of Minnesota and Svanborg R. Jónsdóttir and Jón Torfi Jónasson from the School of Education, with other participants, will reflect on the presentation and speculate with professor Harkins on where we go from here.

The seminar is open to all interested in the issues.”

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Design Jams: Create Future-Relevant Educational Contexts

Posted on February 27, 2012 by admin

Design Jams are coordinated events meant to bring together a range of skills and expertise to apply “design thinking” to specific issues. All participants are required to pre-register for events and to indicate their skills and expertise so that design teams can be formed to make effective use of the range of skills available. Participants are introduced to design thinking principles and presented with critical views on the issue to be addressed. Then they split off into groups and go at it.

This is a very interesting method for applying design thinking principles to a range of topics.

Below is a link to the informative Design Jam Handbook and others that show how design jams have been applied to educational issues.

Design Jam Handbook

Design jam on educational games

“Learniverse” – Outcome of a design jam

‘Textbook’ of the Future – Outcome of an Open.Michigan design jam

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An excellent infographic for learners about using Google

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

Click image for the full infographic.

We tend to ooh and ahh over modern youth’s remarkable ability to adapt to rapidly changing technology, but, as I’m sure anyone involved in educating young people in whatever way shape or form can attest to, a lot of them kinda suck at using technology for meaningful learning. One of the things that often surprises me is that, even at the college level that I teach, students can be woefully ill-informed about the basics of using Google to search for useful resources. I came across this great infographic that illustrates some of the more useful techniques wonderfully. I think every student should have this permanently mounted on the main screen of whatever ICT devices they use for learning.

My one qualm about this infographic is what it says about citing Wikipedia. Yes, we should always be wary about citing Wikipedia but not because it’s Wikipedia; rather because we should be wary about citing any encyclopedic resource. Encyclopedias, like Wikipedia, are secondary sources that should clearly reference their primary resources. When using these for learning purposes we should always go to the primary resources; and, if we’re using a good encyclopedia, it should be easy to do this.

I love infographics and am fascinated by how this medium has developed and been popularized in recent years. When done right, it’s a great way to present useful information in a clear and concise manner. Educators should make more use of these, especially to encourage their learners to create infographics. It’s a wonderful way to learn.

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How has technology made a difference? An observant quote.

Posted on January 21, 2012 by admin

Another quote for my non-existent Quote of the Day feature (underline is mine):

“To date, I am not convinced that educational technology has made much of a difference in the classroom. What has made a difference is technology used by students to investigate, analyze, interpret data.“

Source: Some redditor’s teacher

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