I’ve been spending a lot of time over the past few weeks re-visiting issues relating to CORE’s Ten trends, and thinking at a strategic level of where we’re moving to in our education system, so this morning was delighted to receive an email from The KnowledgeWorks Foundation telling me about their Map of Future Forces Affecting Education.
It’s an interactive map that matches six categories of “change drivers” with five key areas of activity where major trends are revealed from different perspectives. Within this matrix are a range of click-able ‘hotspots’, ‘dilemmas’ and ‘trends’, each of which is linked to a discussion forum where readers are adding their own perspectives, thoughts and opinions.
The map itself is a usefully organised collection of the trends and patterns that are familiar to most who live and breathe in this sort of world – but its the way each links to the discussion forums that I found particularly useful as a way of developing some depth to the debates and discussions. What I am still looking for is some sort of rationale as to why some of the trends/hotspots etc are positioned where they are.
That aside, I found browsing the various hotspots and trends very interesting, and there are a number of links from the side bar that are worth exploring, including reference to a video resource titled “Schools Designed for Learning” that I’d like to pursue.
Having worked closely with the creators of the map, as well as the American Architectural Foundation, I can tell you that the potential of the ‘map’ is stunning. But it takes a willingness to climb inside it, play around, and push your team to really explore new language and possibilities when we look forward to education/society in the future.
Love that you are posting this. The more momentum the map gets, the better!
If you’d like to meet the folks who created it, let me know.
Cheers,
Christian