Futurelab in conjunction with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England are conducting a research programme, Beyond Current Horizons, to investigate the future of education and technology and produce a long term and challenging vision for education in the context of socio-technological change to 2025 and beyond.

The futures review paper gives an overview of the futures studies field, summarises some previous futures work from organisations such as the UN, Shell and the UK Ministry of Defence, and begins to explore some of the implications this work might have for education. The paper has a distinct programme purpose and therefore I found it a tough read, but the three broad categories; automation and artificial intelligence, ubiquitous computing, and brain/world interface are particularly interesting (from page 38)

The paper is designed to stimulate debate. Supportive of this is the opportunity to contribute in multiple ways including the getting involved with the ‘Power League’ consultation tool contribute to some of the issues around the Programme’s research. Within the consultation tool are links to a wealth of research & publications on futures in areas as diverse as;

Coping with complexity
Institutional spaces
The meaning of work
Childhood & knowledge

Future visioning is part of developing our roadmap, but trying to synthesis ‘beyond horizon’ scenarios certainly challenges me on how to cope with complexity. It also highlights the comfort of working with ‘current’ future, and, more importantly, the challenge, opportunity and potential impact of what we do with ICT in Scottish Education in the near future has on the Horizon we will achieve.

Categories: future, technologies