Open Course in Education Futures

Articles and readings have been very interesting. Elluminate sessions have been fun but disperse. Closing comments and a written summary is needed afterwards.

Discussion forums are sensed as unfinished and disperse. I think we are missing real discussion, integration and conclussions to be able to finally apply what we learn in the course.

The delivery of this course does not seem consistent with what was promised (the pertinent portions that make the point are in Bold):

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What's the course about?

Discussions and proclamations of the future of education, learning, training, and development are popular topics at conferences and in publications. For educators, leaders, and administrators, it's easy to "get lost" in the numerous predictions. What is the next wave of technological change? Are learners really different today? Is our current model of education unsustainable? What can educators do to anticipate and respond to trends?

Unfortunately, predictions of the future are often more of a guessing game than a rigorous process. This course will utilize methods of futures thinking to explore a variety of trends and statistics and provide a series of potential scenarios and future directions. Participants will be actively involved in tracking critical trends, exploring their educational impact, and plan for ways to prepare for important changes.

In order to explore potential paths for education, learning, and training, we will spend time developing a framework for analyzing trends and for generating and evaluating scenarios.

The course will focus on developing methods and mechanisms for making sense of change patterns. Future-focused thinking is an important skill for all educators, leaders, and administrators. During the eight-weeks of this course, we will explore approaches to separating "the nonsense" from "the potential" proclamations of education's future.
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Above quote taken from http://edfutures.com/content/about-project

Rather than experiencing a focused and rigorous process of learning a framework for trend analysis, the forums and blogs have been typical of the myriads of social networks already available to educators. There's no end to conjecture. I was hoping to learn the rigorous steps required to analyze trends. It has seemed more of a free for all.

I've been developing a semester Higher Ed course in Futures thinking and foresight trend analysis using specific techniques and methods (Like the Delphi method of forecasting). Therefore I was most interested to engage in this experience to see how it was being approached by others.

I've appreciated the insightful posts of my fellow classmates. But there is a science to forecasting and I was hoping to engage in that learning process.

In "A Theoretical Framework for Effective Online Course Design" Sarah Teo Siew Chin and Jeremy B. Williams list the following underpinnings of effective adult learning (I Bold what seems to be disconnecting herein):

1. Significant learning takes place when the subject matter is relevant to the personal interests of the adult learner.
2. Adult learning programs can capitalize on the wealth of experience of participants.
3. Adult learners must understand the rationale and purpose of their learning.
4. Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their learning.
5. The experience of adult learners (including mistakes) can provide the basis for learning activities.
6. Adults are most interested in learning material that has immediate application to their job or personal life.
7. Adult learning is problem-centric rather than content-specific.