Foresight Education Project - Recently Updated Pages

Houston Public Schools

ProfessorWantanabe — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:17:21 CDT

TT5712 - Futurizing K-12 Teaching Practices

6-Hour TAGT Workshop 16 October 2009
_____________________________________________________

For all the handouts, except Dr. Strong's PowerPoints, go to http://tech.uh.edu//faculty/bishop and click on 'HISD 16 Oct 09.zip'

For Dr. Strong's Powerpoints, go to --

Part I: HISD Workshop

Part II: HISD Workshop

The LESSON BANK

To submit material (lesson plans, activities, experiences, etc.), either --

Apply to be a writer for this wiki by clicking the link above
Or send material to Dr. Bishop (pbishop@uh.edu) or Dr. Strong (kestrong@uh.edu) and we'll post the material for you.

Lesson / Grade Level/ Subject / Author

CONTACTS:

Margaret Fitzgerald ( MFITZGE2@houstonisd.org )
Kay Lynn Fenn ( KayFenn@KATYISD.ORG )
Joan Moreno ( JMORENO1@houstonisd.org )

Dr. Peter Bishop ( pbishop@uh.edu )
Dr. Kay E. Strong ( kestrong@uh.edu )

News

ProfessorWantanabe — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:22:47 CDT

from the World of Foresight Education!

Post your recent and upcoming events, accomplishments, and, most importantly, new developments in foresight education.

Instructions: Include 1) the date, 2) a headline (BOLD), 3) a description (one to three sentences), and 4) a link to further information, if any (Links can point to attachments on this page or to other pages on this wiki or to other web locations.)

6 October & 9 November 2008 -- Educational Service Center of Cuyahoga County

Peter Bishop traveled to Ohio twice in the last month to address different groups on the future of public education in general and the Foresight Education Project specifically --
The North Coast Quality Consortium -- a group of 10-11 school districts that began implementing Baldridge improvements in their districts
The Council for Academic Excellence -- another group of school districts that share best practices on school improvements
Here are the two presentations that Dr. Bishop shared with the groups -- Education in the Digital Age and Teaching Foresight.

18 August 2008 -- The first formal presentation of the Foresight Education Project to teachers.

Peter Bishop appeared at the opening inservice for teachers in Katy ISD, a suburb of Houston, Texas. Many teachers said they would consider including some or more futures material in their courses during the year as a result. Here are the slides he used. An overview of the presentation is contained in the Notes section of the Title slide. You are welcome to use these in any non-commercial setting when you are asked to speak about the project.

27 July 2008 -- World Future Society (WFS) holds Third Learning Summit at its Annual Meeting in Washington DC

Foresight educators met to discuss how to advance the state of foresight education. Steve Steele from the Institute for the Future at Anne Arundel Community College is leading this effort. Revival of the WFS Education Section, renamed the Futures Learning Section , is goal of these foresight educators. Look for updates in WFS Futures Learning Section.

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

Instructions

realfut — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:20:10 CDT

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu.

Subscribe to the listserve
Send an email to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UH.EDU.
Include the words subscribe foresighteducation in the body of the email.

Starting a thread
Select THREADS at the bottom of any page.
Add a Subject and Text (and optionally tags).

Attaching a file
Select MORE TOOLS on the toolbar.
Select Add attachment.
Browse to the file and add a description.

To Add a link
Select EasyEdit.
Select LINK from the EasyEdit Toolbar.
Enter the URL.

To link back to a page, thread or attachment on this site:

Save the page you are on.
Go the page, thread or attachment you want to link to.
Copy the URL from the browser.
Return to the original page, select EasyEdit, and paste the URL into the page.

To Edit a page
Select EasyEdit from the toolbar.
Work on the page just like a word processor.
Press SAVE (or CANCEL).
Wetpaint allows you to make a note about your changes. You can SKIP it or turn it off completely by going to your PROFILE and pressing PREFERENCES.

To Add a new page
Add pages to start new Collaborations or any time you think it would be easier to start with a new or copied page.
Select ADD PAGE at the bottom of the left-hand navigation bar.
Enter the page name and away you go!
The page will appear as a subpage of the page you are on when you enter Add Page.

Adding a link, photo, table or widgets to a page
Select EasyEdit.
Select the appropriate symbol on the EasyEdit Toolbar.
Follow the directions from there.

Adding and deleting rows in a table
Place the cursor in the last row (or any row before or after which you want to enter the new row).

You will see three symbols to the left of that row -- an Up Arrow, a Circled X, and a Down Arrow.

Press the Up Arrow to add a row before the row you are in
Press the Circled X to delete the row you are in
Press the Down Arrow to add a row after the row you are in

We will also try to keep blank rows on the tables.

Renaming, moving or deleting a page
Select MORE TOOLS from the toolbar.
Follow the directions from there.

To subscribe to FUTUREtakes
No subscription necessary! Simply visit www.futuretakes.org to download the latest issue at no cost. FUTUREtakes is presently published in newspaper-magazine format; however, a more Web-friendly format will be added soon.

Celebrating the FUTURE!

ProfessorWantanabe — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:11:07 CDT

Upcoming 35th Anniversary celebration of the UH FS program (1974-2009) & '09 Alumni Reunion.

The live streaming URL is located at http://mediaweb.uh.edu/live/live.qtl

Mark your calendars for 1 May 2009 (Friday). The University of Houston’s Futures Studies Program will celebrate its 35th Anniversary (1974-2009) as the world’s longest running free-standing futures program and will recognize the lifetime achievement of its program director---25 years of tireless devotion!

The program, Celebrating the FUTURE!, begins at 4:30 PM in the Rockwell Pavilion at the UH M.D. Anderson Library. Among the speakers will be Dr. Jib Fowles, the first Chair of the UH Clear Lake Futures Studies Program (1974-75), Dr. Christopher Dede and Dr. James Bowman, two faculty members initially hired to staff the program, Dr. Oliver Markley who joined the Faculty in 1978 and Dr. Peter Bishop (1983). Join us in Celebrating the FUTURE! physically or virtually. Open access through the Internet will be available. Plan to jump in with a word of congratulations or a raised cup of cheer! A Social Hour will follow. Just like old times :) !

The Second Alumni Reunion '09 begins as we gather for an evening meal--graduates and current students (7 PM). Do plan to attend! The challenge will be to have at least one member from each graduating class present!

The Alumni Reunion '09 continues on Saturday morning with Open Space discussions on the “next 35” in the Cameron Building, the program’s new home. A Night on Houston will wind up the day.

It is our vision :) that futurists all around the globe have an opportunity to share in this historic milestone together! Please, join us in Celebrating the Future!

Count for planning purposes:

A. Plan to Attend 35th Anniversary Celebration (1 May @ 4:30-5:50 PM Houston time)

Instructions: futurega@uh.edu Subject line [35th Anniversary Attendance]

In Body of email: Choose Physical Attendance or Remote Attendance
Add Name: & guest count: (#)

B. Plan to Attend '09 Alumni Reunion (May 1 & 2) Both Current Students & Alums

Instructions: futurega@uh.edu Subject line ['09 Alumni Reunion]

In Body of email: Add Name: & guest count (#)
Will need Hotel Arrangements: Yes or No

For our out-of-town guests, we will attempt to negotiate a group rate at the UH Hilton on campus, if you wish.

C. If you have "ideas" or wish to share the "excitement" by volunteering :), please, let us know.

Instructions: futurega@uh.edu Subject line [Volunteering]

Or Post your ideas to the discussion "Threads" below.

As the program continues to develop, information will also be posted to the houston futures wetpaint wiki. Leave us questions, comments or responses at http://houstonfutures.org < http://houstonfutures.wetpaint.com/ >.

Connections

thryller — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:35:55 CDT

Making connections with Foresight Educators

Foresight Education & Research Network (FERN wiki)

Foresight / futures educator network community to improvement & expansion of post-secondary futures studies courses globally.

Foresight Education and Research Network (FERN) inside STFN (presently 156 members in a public group).

Global Futures Network (GFN) A Community-edited Resources Directory for Global Foresight Culture

Listing of Foresight Educators-global
This is a list of educators who teach courses in foresight at the secondary (high school) and tertiary (university) level, or who publish foresight research in academic journals.

Global Futures Network - Facebook
For general futures and foresight networking (presently 986 members)

Global Futures Network - LinkedIn. Join us by clicking http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/3037/535E6A2B648E
For business futures and foresight networking (presently 436 members)

Shaping Tomorrow's Foresight Network (STFN)

For professional futures and foresight networking (presently 1,911 members on Ning)

U of Houston Master's in Futures Studies (UH homepage for Master's degree)

U of Houston Futures Studies Facebook

houstonfutures.org

LinkedIn Search: University of Houston + Futures Studies

The Futures of the US (project of the UH Futures Studies program)

Undergraduate

realfut — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:00:35 CST

Readings

Articles:

Books:

Interactives (simulations, games)

Superstruct IFTF
Play the Game
Gamers’ scores will reflect personal role in humankind’s survival Palo Alto, CA - (Sept 22, 2008) — The Institute for the Future (IFTF) announced today the launch of Superstruct, the world’s first Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game (MMFG).

Personal Collections & Assignments developed by teachers for teaching foresight [activities, exercises, assignments, assessments, other].

Videos

Websites

Courses

Stuart Candy, Future Jamming 101. More a blog than a syllabus, but a great description of a very creative course that linked foresight and design at the University of Hawaii.

Foresight Development. A required undergrad course in FD (futures studies curricula plus personal foresight skills development). Taught first at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, AZ, Sept. 2007. Teaching Template. Syllabus. Open Access, CC-licensed Course WIki. (ASF and John Smart)

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

General Resources

thryller — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:11:35 CST

Readings*art3y free

Quotes:

A nice way of relating futures terms in a picturesque way --

"Let us assume you are standing on the bridge of a ship. You scan the horizon (Horizon Scanning) and see an iceberg and your supply ship. You work out the likely speeds and direction of the iceberg and supply ship (trend analysis) and put the information into the ship’s computer (modelling) and then plot a course (roadmapping) so that you meet with the supply ship and not the iceberg. While you are doing this you dream of eating some nice chocolate that you hope is on the supply ship (visioning).

You realise that the speeds and directions of the iceberg and the supply ship might change, so you work out the range of options to make sure you have the greatest chance of meeting the supply ship (scenarios). Even with all of this planning, you know there is a chance of the unexpected and hitting the iceberg so you get the crew to do an evacuation drill (gaming). While they are doing it, you work back from the most likely future position of the supply ship to work out the steps you need to get there (backcasting).33"

The citation is from Office of Science and Innovation, Strategic Futures Planning: Suggestions for success: A toolkit, www.foresight.gov.uk. as quoted in Governing the Future: Second Report of Session 2006-07, Volume 1, House of Commons, Public Administration Select Committee, Published on March 6 2007, London: The Stationery House Ltd., 49 pp., p. 13

From Catherine Cosgrove, adviser to the Premier of Quebec and advanced student in futures studies at the University of Houston.

I really like this quote, but I would have put the backcasting earlier in the process, like between trend analysis and modeling. And I wish the visioning had been something more substantial than chocolate cake, though I guess that chocolate is quite substantial in some people's lives! Nevertheless, a nice way of relating the concepts -- Peter Bishop, University of Houston

Articles:

Jennifer Gidley, Debra Batemen, and Caroline Smith, "Futures in Education: Principles, practice and potential," Australian Foresight Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, Monograph Series No. 5, 2004. An extensive analysis of foresight in the curriculum within Australian elementary and secondary schools.
Richard Slaughter, "Futures Education: Catalyst for our time," in Alternative Educational Futures:Pedagogies For Emergent Worlds, by Marcus Bussey, Sohail Inayatullah and Ivana Milojević (eds.), Sense Publishers, 2008. Richard Slaughter's experience of introducing futures thinking to public schools in Australia.
"The Art of Foresight," World Futures Society. A great introduction to foresight for classes at all levels, contributed by Marcy Norwood, Consumer Science, University of Houston.

Books:

On Foresight Education

Richard Slaughter, Futures Education: Why We Need to Teach for Tomorrow, Center for Peace Studies, 1983.
Jim Dator, Advancing Futures: Futures Studies in Higher Education, Praeger, 2002.
David Hicks, Lessons for the Future: The Missing Dimension in Education, Trafford, 2006.
Jill Loukides and Lawrie Gardner, Building the Future: A Workbook to Accompany Futuring: The Exploration of the Future, World Future Society, 2006.
Richard Slaughter and Marcus Bussy, Futures Thinking for Social Foresight, Foresight International.

Arthur Shostak, Anticipate the School You Want: Futurizing K-12 Education, Rowan and Littlefield Education, 2008.

Special offer from Art Shostak:
While the publisher's ad cites a paperback price of $25, I can provide paperback copies of Anticipate the School You Want - a one-of-its-kind publication - for $20 each plus $5 Shipping and Handling for the first copy, and $1 S&H cost (plus $20 each) for any number of other copies (this is my cost from the company).

Purchase requests should be e-mailed to me at shostaka@drexel.edu - and orders for several copies (excellent gifts for rising administrators and teachers of special merit) are especially welcomed.

Futures Survey abstracts Anticipate the School You Want, by Art Shostak
Michael Marien says, "Brimming with ideas and enthusiasm, and open to a broad range of values and methods." See the complete abstract below.

Foundational books in foresight

Wendell Bell, Foundations of Futures Studies, Vol I: Human Science for a New Era: History, Purposes, Knowledge, Transaction, 2003.
Edward Cornish, Futuring: The Exploration of the Future, World Future Society, 2005
Richard A Slaughter (ed), The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies, Foresight International, 2005, CD-ROM
Thomas Lombardo, Contemporary Futurist Thought: Science Fiction, Future Studies, and Theories and Visions of the Future in the Last Century, AuthorHouse, 2006.

Activities

Exercises from the Institute for the Future at Anne Arundel Community College.

Interactives (simulations, games)

Superstruct IFTF
Play the Game
Gamers’ scores will reflect personal role in humankind’s survival Palo Alto, CA - (Sept 22, 2008) — The Institute for the Future (IFTF) announced today the launch of Superstruct, the world’s first Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game (MMFG).

Personal Collections & Assignments developed by teachers for teaching foresight

Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe - an approach to developing curriculum materials, widely used, but quite complex in its full approach. The barest elements, however, are useful for establishing learning objectives for a specific course such as 1) terms or concepts, 2) propositions or understandings, 3) provocative questions, and 4) activities crossing four basic topics in foresight -- change, methods, forecasting change and creating change (planning or leadership). The material on change would be the fundamental for any foresight course. --contributed by Peter Bishop

World Map of Futures Organizations -- an unbelievably impressive collection of futures organizations by continent and country assembled by foresight educator Samuel Bohman.

Videos

Our friends in the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame (Tom Frecka, Jay McIntosh and Margot O'Brien) are piloting an undergraduate futures course to be required of all business majors there.. They have included this great set of videos from Erik Peterson at the Center for Strategic and International Studies called The Seven Revolutions -- population, resource management, technology, knowledge, economic integration, conflict and governance.

Canada@150 -- Peter Bishop introducing futures thinking to a group of Canadian civil servants who are investigating policy challenges for Canada in preparation for its 150th anniversary.

Websites

Practical Foresight This free guide from Shaping Tomorrow provides commercial, not-for profit, government
organisations and future interested people with a concise approach to developing systematic collaborative foresight
capabilities with limited external help and at low-cost:

practical guidance on how-to accomplish specific foresight tasks,
information and examples of best and next practice,
advice on designing strategic foresight projects and programmes,
a reference guide,
a refresher and reminder of ways to approach different issues,
the ingredients to achieve successful outcomes and observable improvements,
the potential to create 'disruptive' innovation, and
bulleted check-lists to remind, provoke, and ensure completeness.

Shaping Tomorrow The main Shaping Tomorrow website offers practical tools to conduct Horizon scanning (partly
free), Strategic Thinking, Action Planning and Networking

Shaping Tomorrow Foresight Network The networks goals are to help members listen and learn from each other,
anticipate change, explore next practice, find new opportunities to collaborate and to co-create the future.
Completely free.

Members include leading future thinkers, strategists, change agents and policy makers from commercial, not-for-
profit and governmental organisations around the world as well as many Directors and Executives. Trends,
Innovation, Intelligence, Marketers and Risk Managers and others needing to know ‘what's coming next’ will also find
the network a valuable source of open foresight.

Foresight Resources: Free database of international links to futurists, organisations, methods, courses and general futures studies material from Shaping Tomorrow.

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

FAQ

ProfessorWantanabe — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:40:28 CST

Listing of Frequently Asked Questions (& answers, we hope!) about foresight education.

Format: Each item should contain at least 1) a question (bolded), 2) one or more answers and 3) links to additional information, if there are any. (Links can be to attachments on this page or to other pages on this site or to other web locations.)

*****Aspiring foresight educators post your question(s) through the Threads link below!

1. Are there any concise online sources for "getting the sense" of what foresight has to offer? Yes!

For Video:
Peter Bishop's 5-part overview on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eycMk32qmNI

For Text:
The Practical Foresight Guide (you can browse it in an hour) created by associates of Shaping Tomorrow.
The FOR-LEARN Online Foresight Guide developed by the JRC-IPTS at the EU for applying foresight in planning and policy.

2. How many colleges and universities teach foresight?
The quick answer is "more than ever before." But of course drawing the line between those who do and those who teach something related is not easy to do.
One excellent list was produced by John Smart, host of the Foresight Education and Research Network. His list is pretty complete and a great place to start.
Another excellent list was produced by Jose Ramos at the Australian Foresight Institute (now the Strategic Foresight Program) at Swinburne U. (Melbourne) in 2003. Jose is currently updating the list for publication. Not sure if it's online, however. If anyone has a link, add it here or email it to foresighteducation@uh.edu.

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

K-12 Collaborations

ProfessorWantanabe — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:33:34 CST

Project #2: West Briar Middle School Futures Learning Community

Brief Description: Informal group of teachers and administrators meeting to build "futures" capacity into the learning environment of school children

Next Meeting: 7 March 10:30 am
West Briar Middle School, Houston, TX

Contact: Margaret Fitzgerald (MFITZGE2@houstonisd.org)
Kay Lynn Fenn (KayFenn@KATYISD.ORG)

Dr. Peter Bishop (pbishop@uh.edu)

THREADS for discussion can be entered at the page bottom. Responses are then open to the whole of the futures community!
Classroom activities, projects or ideas can be entered "ad hoc" to the space on this page. Let's do it!

Instructions: Use the EasyEdit button to add content or More tools to add attachments. Use the EasyEdit Toolbar's "Link" to supply URLs!.

Project #1: The Future of the US http://thefuturesoftheus.wetpaint.com/

Brief Description: Welcome to The Futures of the US! Browse the Issues. Listen to the Presidential candidates on the Issues.

Resource needs (who, what): USERS at the high school level
Deadline: none
Contact: strongkaye@yahoo.com

Name of Project (URL, if available):
Brief Description:
Resource needs (who, what):
Deadline:
Contact:
Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

Projects-in-Motion

ProfessorWantanabe — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:18:46 CST

A. Meet our esteemed Colleagues working toward the same vision!

Project: Future Generations Fund to Support Youth Projects

Support is needed for young people struggling with the future, says World Future Society president. The World Future Society has now embarked on an exciting new program, the Future Generations Fund, which will provide support and resources to young people everywhere as they prepare to participate in a rapidly changing world, one in which foresight will be an increasingly vital skill. Contact: tmack@wfs.org

Project: Wikiversity [Search: futures studies; Select: Introduction to futures studies from listing]
Development of content for "Introduction to Futures Studies" course
Contact:

Instructions: Use the EasyEdit button to add content or More tools to add attachments. Use the EasyEdit Toolbar's "Link" to supply URLs!.

B. The Foresight Education Project's action list:

1. Establish a listserve for experienced and aspiring futures educators.

To send a message to all the people currently subscribed to the list, just send mail to FORESIGHTEDUCATION@LISTSERV.UH.EDU.
This is called "sending mail to the list," because you send mail to a single address and LISTSERV makes copies for all the people who have subscribed.

2. Actively support teachers interested in adding foresight materials to their lesson plans.

Telephone consultations
Syllabus and module reviews
Faculty lectures and training sessions

3.Contribute to and “manage” the futures Wikipedia pages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Studies

4. Initiate annual/regional foresight teaching conference(s).

5. Approach other professional educators/administrators to promote teaching foresight in their disciplines or areas.

Professional Service Day events

6. Approach teaching groups in various disciplines, such as science, math, language arts, history, social studies, etc.

Give presentations at their conferences
Write/submit articles in their journals, magazines and newsletters

7. Advocate a foresight requirement in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs.
List of Potential Outlets:

Chronicle of Higher Education

8. Advocate foresight learning objectives for state curriculum standards.

Create a catalog of state-by-state curriculum standards on futures studies
Develop a proposed standard for adoption by every state
Identify how state curriculum standards are set in each state
Recruit teachers to begin the process of proposing the standard or some modification into their state’s curriculum standards

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

About this Wiki

ProfessorWantanabe — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:22:12 CST

The Foresight Education Project serves as a one-stop open-source grazing site for foresight educators.

Materials are licensed under the Creative Commons agreement.

All material is distributed for non-commercial use only.
Where feasible, it should be attributed to the Foresight Education Project and optionally to the educator who contributed the material.

The site supports two types of foresight educators --

Aspiring foresight educators will have open access to curricular materials, a newsletter, an off-site listserve, and the open forums (Threads & FAQs).

Experienced foresight educators are encouraged to be active contributors and proponents in mentoring aspiring foresight educators. To identify yourself as an experienced foresight educator, send at least one foresight module, unit or course toforesighteducation@uh.edu. We will post your material and invite you onto the site as a contributor.

To get the full details of the Project, read the full Prospectus.

LINKS to –

News – Upcoming events, accomplishments, and, most importantly, new developments in foresight education.

Connections - Links outbound for making connections with Foresight Educators.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions (& answers, we hope!) about foresight education.

Discussions – Open Forums (threads) on topics introduced by our aspiring and experienced educators.

Easy Submissions – Contributors' drop off-site for "new and slightly used :)" course materials. We'll handle the redistribution and give you the credit!

Contributors – Listing of experienced foresight educators and their profiles.

Programs – Listing of institutions offering degrees or teaching foresight courses on a regular basis

Course Materials – Four sections ( general, K-12, undergraduate and graduate) containing 3 types of materials (syllabi, units, resources and other, teacher-developed activities, assessments, and such)

Collaborative – Collaborators working together to build foresight materials, modules and courses in a wiki environment.

Projects-in-Motion – & the people advancing the teaching of foresight.

Instructions – How-To negotiate this site.

Pages are comprised of "basic descriptive content" and "collaborative add-ons" such as hyper links, comment(s) and attachment(s) pages.

Secondary

ProfessorWantanabe — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 11:24:49 CDT

Readings

Articles:

Stephen M. Millett, et. al., "Scenarios by Sophomores: Report on a Scenario Workshop with High School Students On the Future Importance of Mathematics and Science in Their Lives," Working Draft, August 2008.
Steve is a member of the State Board of Education in Ohio and conducted this scenario exercise as a way of demonstrating how to include futures techniques in public education. A very detailed treatment of how to use scenarios in the secondary school.

WFS Forecasts for the Next 25 Years Forecast #1: The world will have a billion millionaires by 2025. Globalization and technological innovation are driving this increased prosperity. But challenges to prosperity will also become more acute, such as water shortages that will affect two-thirds of world population by 2025. [... check out the other 24 & add your own!]

Books:

Interactives (simulations, games)

Superstruct IFTF
Play the Game
Gamers’ scores will reflect personal role in humankind’s survival Palo Alto, CA - (Sept 22, 2008) — The Institute for the Future (IFTF) announced today the launch of Superstruct, the world’s first Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game (MMFG).

Activities & Assignments

Videos

Websites

The Futurist at MySpace

Competitions

Two different organizations organize competitions for secondary school students:

Global Millennium Prize. Students write essays on ways to respond to the global challenges identified by the Millennium Project.

High School Essay Contest. Students write essays about important trends in one of six trend (STEEP) categories identified by the World Future Society.
Future Problem Solving Program conducts extra-curricular, interscholastic competitions on scenario writing and community problem solving.

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

Graduate

ProfessorWantanabe — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 09:12:09 CDT

Readings

Articles:

Books:

Wendell Bell, Foundations of Futures Studies, Vol. 1, Transaction, 2003. The definitive review of the field for graduate students.

Andy Hines & Peter Bishop, Thinking about the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight, Social Technologies, 2007. A compendium of the best advice on conducting foresight projects contributed by foresight practitioners from around the world.

Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline (1990) and The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (1995), Doubleday. A great introduction to many of foresight concepts, such as mental model, systems thinking, visioning and the learning organization.

Handbooks

Knowledge Society Foresight, Ian Miles, University of Manchester, 2003. An excellent compendium of all the steps in designing and managing a foresight project from beginning to end.

Presentations

An Overview of Foresight Methods, Ian Miles, University of Manchester, 2008. A review of the methods most often used in foresight work, arranged using the twin dimensions of Expertise vs Interaction and Creativity vs Evidence (ppt).

Introduction to Technology Foresight: The Role of Foresight in Strategic Thinking and Policy Formulation, Ian Miles, University of Manchester, 2008. More an history of technology foresight with many interesting stops along the way (ppt).

Interactives (simulations, games)

Superstruct IFTF
Play the Game
Gamers’ scores will reflect personal role in humankind’s survival Palo Alto, CA - (Sept 22, 2008) — The Institute for the Future (IFTF) announced today the launch of Superstruct, the world’s first Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game (MMFG).

The International Futures (IFs) simulation by Barry Hughes, Denver University, is public access, large-scale, long-term, integrated global modeling system that operates off an XP or Vista operating system. Corresponds to Hughes' textbook, Exploring and Shaping International Futures "IFs is excellent for use in World Futures courses to allow Masters and Doctoral students to create casual models of issue areas and turn these into long-range alternative forecast of a nation/region's future." --Jay Gary

Personal Collections & Assignments developed by teachers for teaching foresight [activities, exercises, assignments, assessments, other].

Courses

University of Houston

Introduction to Futures Studies (Fall semester) The introduction to the Master's degree in Futures Studies. Terry Grim, Peter Bishop.

Social Change (Fall semester) 8-10 general explanations on how organizations & societies change [Progress, Development, Technology, Cycles, Markets, Conflict, Power, Evolution and complexity, Chaos, Post-modernism]. Cindy Frewen, Peter Bishop.

Systems Thinking (Spring semester) An introduction to cybernetic and complex adaptive systems, showing how a system's behavior is a function of its structure. Peter Bishop.

Futures Research (Fall semester) A review of the techniques used in alternative futures forecasting. Peter Bishop.

University of Manchester, School of Business, Dr. Ozcan Saritas and Mr. Rafael Popper

Foresight Concepts and Methods: Foresight and Future Pathways

Strategic Foresignt for Organizations

Videos

Websites

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

Our Contributors

reed.riner — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:35:54 CDT

The people making it happen!

Get the notice YOU deserve!

Tell us about yourself, by simply completing the applicable grid of info below:

1) name (Link your email address)
2) institution (Link your institution’s URL)
3) location (city, state/province, country)

Instructions: Use the EasyEdit Toolbar above to add content. Select "Link" to supply URLs!

Our K-12 Contributors

Name (Link to profile)	Institution (Link to website)	Location (city, state/ province, country)	Discipline (degree or teaching area)

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

Our Undergraduate Contributors

Name (Link to profile)	Institution (Link to website)	Location (city, state/ province, country)	Discipline (degree or teaching area)
Reed D. Riner (see below)

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

Our Graduate Contributors

Name (Link to profile)	Institution (Link to website)	Location (city, state/ province, country)	Discipline (degree or teaching area)
Peter Bishop Contact	University of Houston	Houston, Texas USA	Futures Studies, Sociology
Jay Gary contact	Regent University	Virginia Beach, VA, USA	Strategic Foresight, Leadership
Cindy Frewen Wuellner cfw@frewenarchitects.com	U of Houston, U of Kansas	Kansas City, MO/KS, USA	Future Studies, Architecture, Communication Studies
Reed D. Riner rdr@nau.edu	Northern Arizona University	Flagstaff, AZ	Anthropology

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

Foresight Education Project

realfut — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:31:40 CDT

Nurture the Future!

Become an Advocate of Foresight Education

Welcome!

Our Vision – “To teach as much about the future as we teach about the past.”

Why bother?

Modern society is awash in a sea of change; therefore, anticipate a future starkly different from the past and unlike the present.
People really DO try to influence the future, particularly, that of families, work spaces, and community with good intentions in mind.

Unfortuately, most are novices at best since formal education offers little preparation for "divining" the future.
As such, each new graduating class is set adrift on this sea of change called the future with little more than "a wish on a wing!"

The partial truth only!

The future hasn’t happened yet, how can one teach it?
The future is too complicated, how can anyone know it?
I myself have no formal training about the future.
My state’s curriculum standards don't include "futures-related" content.

Teaching more about the future in all of education is the mission of the Foresight Education Project!

Strengthen our collective FUTURE by partnering with teachers in secondary, college and graduate programs around the world

--to facilitate access to Ready-to-GO! instructional materials
augmenting regular lessons with a tip, tool or strategy involving foresight education.
developing foresight units and stand-alone courses within the regular school environment.
promoting "foresight" enhancing programs.

--to facilitate access to Foresight Experts (both educators and others).

--to serve as a link in the worldwide Foresight Community

among teachers who teach/have taught foresight courses
among the graduate foresight programs located around the world
with professional futurists in business, government and not-for-profit organizations

So, here is what you can do --

If you have taught a foresight module, unit or course, send your material (at least one) to foresighteducation@uh.edu. We will post your material and invite you to be a contributor to this site. After that, you can add as much material as you like.

If you are interested in teaching a foresight course, you may use the material on this site for your classes.

And anyone can subscribe to the Foresight Education listserve by sending an email to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UH.EDU with the word subscribe foresighteducation in the body of the message.

Our Partners–

The Foresight Education Project proudly introduces "Our Partners"

Futures Studies, University of Houston's graduate program; and the student-alumni site for the program
Futures Learning Section, World Futures Society ("Futurist Update" free: www.wfs.org/futuristupdate.htm)
Online Centre for Pedagogical Research, World Futures Studies Federation
FutureTakes, an online newsletter
I nstitute for the Future, Anne Arundel Community College
Futures Education and Research Network, Acceleration Studies Foundation
Foresight International, Brisbane, Australia
Texas Future Problem Solving Program
Future Problem Solving International
Global Millennium Prize, Millennium Project
Proteus, U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Center for Strategic Leadership at the U.S. Army War College
TechCast, A virtual think tank on technology developments.

A note on terminology: As opposed to the term “futurist,”commonly understood to be a professional who deals with the long-term future, the field of foresight and futures studies is still looking for a name. Among thecandidates are futures studies, futures research, futurology, futurism, futuristics and foresight. We have chosen to use “foresight” because (1) it is now the common term for describing and influencing long-term change in most of the world and (2) it carries less baggage than the older terms do. We hope you agree.

Distributed for non-commercial purposes with attribution to the Foresight Education Project and optionally to the educator who contributed the material.

Programs

jaygary — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:18:58 CDT

Institutions on the forefront of Foresight Education

Instructions: Use the EasyEdit Toolbar above to add content. Select "Link" to supply URLs!

K-12 Programs

Institution (Link* to institution, department, division)*	Location (city, state/province, country)	Courses taught (Link* to attached syllabus under Material or course URL)*

Undergraduate Programs

Institution (Link* to institution, department, division)*	Location (city, state/province, country)	Courses taught (Link* to attached syllabus under Material or course URL)*

Graduate Programs

Institution (Link* to institution, department, division)*	Location (city, state/province, country)	Courses taught (Link* to attached syllabus under Material or course URL)*
University of Houston	Houston, Texas USA	Intro to Futures Studies Social Change Systems Thinking Futures Research Advanced Strategies World Futures ProSeminar in Futures Studies


Regent University	Va. Beach, VA, USA	22 foresight courses spread across the MBA, Master of Strategic Foresight, Doctor of Strategic Leadership, PhD, Program Director: Jay Gary, web link

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

Collaborative

ProfessorWantanabe — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:25:00 CDT

Where the real fun begins!

Collaboration begins by letting us know a little about "your idea."

From the navigation bar at the left, please, select one of the groups: K-12, Undergraduate or Graduate, then fill in the requested on that page.

Name of Project (URL, if available):
Brief Description:
Resource needs (who, what):
Deadline:
Contact:

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

Graduate Collaborations

ProfessorWantanabe — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:14:37 CDT

Name of Project (URL, if available):
Brief Description:
Resource needs (who, what):
Deadline:
Contact:

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

Undergraduate Collaborations

ProfessorWantanabe — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:14:03 CDT

Name of Project (URL, if available):
Brief Description:
Resource needs (who, what):
Deadline:
Contact:

Still need HELP? Contact foresighteducation@uh.edu .

Course Materials

ProfessorWantanabe — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:00:26 CDT

A treasure trove of materials for adoption

-test driven by one or more contributors
-often not exclusive to a particular level
-readily adaptable across disciplines

Navigational links divide resources into General + K12 + Undergraduate + Graduate.