| Foresight Development
Futures Studies Education + Personal Foresight Skills Practice
The
ASF community has developed a required (core) introductory undergraduate
course in Foresight Development (futures studies
education plus personal foresight skills practice) in Fall 2007.
The first instance of this unique course now exists at the University
of Advancing Technology, a distinguished four year
university in Tempe, AZ, whose mission is educating innnovators
of the future.
Course materials are being placed online, creative
commons licenced, for all futures studies educators to use or borrow
from in coming years. Promoting the spread of futures studies curricula
and personal foresight enrichment programs at the undergraduate
level are major priorities for our organization.
Interested in keeping tabs on our efforts in this
space? Join ASF's Facebook group, Global
Futures Network, for more. Would you like to sample
or help improve course resources? Visit our Course Wiki,
FD@UAT-CourseWiki.
Course Intro:
Today's students face a very different world than
their parents did. They will live longer, change careers faster,
learn new skills more frequently, and have more freedom than ever
to choose their experiences, social networks, and values. The rollercoaster
of scientific and technological (sci-tech) change runs faster every
year, spinning us irreversibly toward a very extraordinary future.
Our planet is wiring up into a vast, instantaneous, transparent
and increasingly intelligent global network, just one of many sci-tech
innovations creating amazing new opportunities for business and
society.
Yet there are great challenges ahead as well. Fundamental
problems (hunger, drought, disease, overpopulation, poverty, underemployment,
corruption, human rights violations, violent conflict) persist in
the developing world, and the most developed countries (MDCs) are
gaining new problems (obesity, addiction, dependence, institutional
educational decline, media centralization, erosion of democracy)
related to their affluence. What’s more, several global problems
(environmental degradation, climate change, global security, rising
energy cost) are likely to get worse before they get better, and
the world is now so interconnected that big problems anywhere are
becoming everyone's problem. At the same time, cultural change is
in some ways slowing down as our technology speeds up all around
us. Economic, political, legal, social, environmental, and even
ethical standards—a broad set of global human rights and entitlements—are
beginning to appear in every nation on the planet.
In our lifetimes, benefits and leverage from the
positive use of science, technology, business, politics, and social
activism will only get more powerful, while "immune systems"
guarding against the rising potential dangers in our high-tech world
will only get more important. Meanwhile automation, computers, robots,
and avatars/agents are progressively exceeding our biological capabilities,
and becoming increasingly intimate extensions and representations
of our individual selves. What will tomorrow's "biologically-inspired"
information technology do in this regard? What an extraordinary,
special time to be alive.
Humans have practiced creating, discovering, planning
for, and benefiting from change since the dawn of our species. Foresight
is an empowering skill to have, and something you can get better
at every year of your life, with practice. Come learn how.
Course Description:
Foresight is the act of looking to the future. This course helps
you learn better global, business and personal foresight, so you
can better enjoy and manage your own future. This course will
explore the big picture history of accelerating change from universal,
historical and technological perspectives, and consider global
trends that are affecting individuals, society, businesses and
governments. Additionally, the course will examine how organizations
make bets on the future, and gives the student a chance to explore
career prospects in a variety of fields. Finally, discussion of
how biology, psychology, community and culture help and hinder
personal thinking about the future will be discussed. We will
explore four fundamental foresight skills: creating the future
(innovating products and services); discovering the future (models,
trend identification and analysis); planning the future (developing
shared goals and processes); and benefiting in the future (achieving
measurable positive environmental, social, or economic results).
Assignments will be personalized to your own foresight goals,
and include brief readings, writing, discussions, debates, visuals,
film, podcasts and games.
Learning objectives include:
- Critical
Thinking
- Integral
Thinking
- Systems Thinking
- Foresight
Development
- Acceleration
Awareness
- Lifelong
Learning and Study Skills
- Evolutionary
and Developmental Models of Change
- Creating,
Discovering, Planning and Benefiting Skills
- Universal,
Global, Societal, Organizational, and Personal Systems Thinking
- Basic Technology,
Economic, and Sociopolitical Literacy (History, Current Affairs,
Futures Studies)
Contact John
Smart if you would like to join ASF's curriculum development
or review communities for this course.
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