2020 Forecast Update Creating a World of Learning

Major forces of change are challenging us to realize a world of learning that puts learners at the center, leverages technologies and human capital in new ways, and incorporates new structures. This world of learning will make it possible for all learners to develop deep knowledge and abilities in order to thrive throughout their lifetimes. To make this vision a reality, new ways of thinking and acting will be required. Some are detailed below. Learners will:  Collaborate with educators and with experts in their communities and around the world to customize rigorous learning experiences based on competency and interest instead of time and age  Make an impact on their immediate and broader communities as they engage in service-based, project-based, and other types of immersive and authentic learning experiences  Contribute, co-create, take risks, feel ownership, and even make use of failure as they engage in a continuous learning process  Use data to track their progress and to understand their cognitive, social, and emotional strengths and challenges. Learning agents the educators of tomorrow will:   Work together to facilitate the use of next generation digital media such as immersive games, simulations, and technologies of cooperation to create rich learning experiences that are tailored to the learning proles and needs of each learner  Amplify their ability to serve the whole student by creating connections with their immediate communities and with experts and resources around the world  Integrate multiple types of data streams to make continuous authentic assessment processes transparent to learners, parents, and other key stakeholders. The learning system will:  Provide all students with high-quality learning experiences from a diverse range of institutions and organizations  Make use of exible and adaptive learning platforms that support the uid distribution of such learning experiences across geographic boundaries  Make nimble adjustments in response to frequent feedback coming from multiple data streams and enable learners to do the same  Ensure the development and use of high-quality performance-based assessments for all students  Create new partnerships and models for thinking innovatively about funding and about resources such as materials, physical space, and expertise. This world of learning will be customized, connected, amplied, authentic, relevant, and resilient, and it is beginning to unfold now.

2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning

Released in 2009, KnowledgeWorks 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning identies six major drivers of change that are giving individuals and organizations more options for creating a world of learning that will look very different from todays system of schooling. Here is our latest understanding of how those drivers of change could affect education and how you can begin taking action now to create the future of learning.

Pattern Recognition The Maker Economy A New Civic Discourse Platforms for Resilience Amplied Organization Altered Bodies

Altered Bodies

Update

Experimenting at the intersection of environment and performance

A proliferation of neuro-enhancement tools and networks will push the frontiers of cognitive rights, performance assessment, and ethical intervention. Brain-based interventions will move beyond neuro-enhancements for remediating and boosting performance to include analytical tools such as neuro-ngerprinting. Neurongerprinting uses brainwave analysis to map brain patterns and prole individuals by cognitive task. Such tools will enable educators to discern distinct cognitive pathways for individual learners. However, it will remain unclear whether such learner proling offers a real expansion of individualized learning or ultimately narrows curricula. In addition, individuals will create viral emotional networks that cluster learners online by emotional connections. Such social networks of super-enhanced learners will encourage positive social behavior while offering opportunities for emotional therapy. They will also create powerful collaboration spaces that link learners across learning experiences. Lastly, enhancement approaches that do not rely on technology will attract a new wave of support. For example, self-directed neuro-plasticity practices will teach learners how to quiet the mind, detect cognitive distractions, access insights, and regulate emotions that drain mental energy.

SIGNALS OF CHANGE
The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics Protects and advances freedom of thought. cognitiveliberty.org The Greater Good Science Center Studies well-being and fosters a resilient and compassionate society. greatergood.berkeley.edu/about Your Brain at Work by David Rock Explores strategies for personal cognitive management. your-brain-at-work.com The Dynamic Spread of Happiness in a Large Social Network by James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis Evaluates how happiness spreads and forms niches within social networks. bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a2338.full

Amplied Organization

Update

Extended human capacity remakes the organization

Amplied collaboration and augmented geographies will create new models for designing, organizing, and delivering learning experiences. Open, collaborative design platforms and social good challenges will attract broad participation in remaking learning and will draw inspiration from diverse industries, countries, and elds. Selfdirected and peer-based learning will take off, fueling a distributed learning system characterized by anywhere, anytime learning that makes use of many resources and platforms. Among these, embedded media and mobile devices will augment physical geography with a rich learning layer that prompts healthy learning habits. Neighborhoods will become amplied and will support inclusive learning through cues, alerts, and prompts that engage people of all ages in activities such as reading, problem solving, pattern recognition, game play, and exercise.

SIGNALS OF CHANGE
OpenIDEO Provides a collaborative platform for crowdsourcing inspiration and design around social good challenges. openideo.com Peer-to Peer University Enables learners to self-organize into online study groups that support their use of open courseware. p2pu.org Handheld Augmented Reality Project (HARP) Uses mobile devices to transform ordinary places into game-like learning spaces. isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=harp&pageid=icb.page69587 Layar Provides a platform for developing and sharing augmented reality experiences. layar.com

Platforms for Resilience

Update

Creating exibility and innovation amid system failures

Schools will become a part of an adaptive infrastructure that helps communities cultivate resilience through extensive service and social action platforms, modular learning systems, and new ways of funding teaching and learning. Service learning will evolve from disconnected volunteer work to high-impact, coordinated, and targeted community development work that includes energy audits, water monitoring, health advocacy, and urban farming. Location-based social media will transform such service learning experiences into game-like quests and collaborative missions. Those experiences will result in coordinated action networks that become vibrant sources of community transformation. At the same time, an expansion of mobile learning platforms will support diverse forms of provisional learning systems, pop-up schools, and ad hoc classrooms. Such approaches will especially benet those communities that are learning deserts lacking even minimal education infrastructures. New business and funding models will also expand access to teaching and learning opportunities. Such models include crowd-sourced fundraising, micro payments for education, mini school franchises, and learning kits. Similarly, mobile payment mechanisms will allow individuals to gift learning minutes that are redeemable in online learning communities and game environments.

SIGNALS OF CHANGE
GradeFund Connects students with sponsors to raise money for school. gradefund.com The Pocket School Experiments with mobile applications for learning. pocketschool.stanford.edu Pop Up Schools Schools and classrooms pop up and disappear but leave digital trails. creativepioneers.weebly.com Enzi Invites people to invest in the education of bright students in exchange for a share in their future income for a xed period of time. enzi.org

A New Civic Discourse

Update

Rearticulating identity and community in a global society

As the needs of constituents outstrip the capacities of civic leadership, experiments in bottom-up, collaborative governance will help close the gap. Educitizens who afliate around educational needs and claim their rights as learners will take the lead in lling gaps that cannot be met by school boards and other elected leaders. Using next generation social web applications, they will coordinate action to improve education in their communities and beyond. Civic debate and problem solving will take place in new forums, such as open multiplayer game sessions; public service software coding, or hackathons; and interactive town halls. Educitizens will take the lead in expanding the scope of education issues to include equitable access to energy, healthy food, clean water, sustainable communities, and cognitive enhancements. Ultimately, they will shift the public discussion away from narrow achievement metrics and toward learner wellbeing and happiness.

SIGNALS OF CHANGE
StreetsEducation Inspires students to make the changes they want to see on their streets and in their neighborhoods. streetseducation.org Evoke This World Bank-sponsored massively multiplayer game empowers social action and collaborative problem solving around global challenges. urgentevoke.com Code for America Recruits the brightest minds of the web to take on core problems facing communities. codeforamerica.org/issues/education Groundcrew Turns social networks into community action networks, assembling teams based on skills, location, and interest. groundcrew.us

The Maker Economy

Update

Personal fabrication technologies and open-source principles democratize production and design
A make to learn philosophy focused on real-world solutions will transform curriculum and assessment and will elevate the role of informal learning. As creative design studios, fabrication centers, and community-based manufacturing hubs become centers of learning, education will become more oriented around passion-based problem-solving with real world applications. Schools will act as test sites and co-developers of new environmental and conservation technologies, gaining access to labs, technical resources, and mentorships from entrepreneurial rms. At the same time, open neighborhood tinkering centers will provide intergenerational learning opportunities with broad social benets. Along with such place-based experiences, learners and educators will participate in global know-how networks in which they earn reputations based on their work and ideas. Growth in youth-led innovation and informal learning will be accompanied by new ways of assessing learning. As part of that, creative partnerships between learning providers and third parties will document and communicate valuable skills learned in non-traditional settings. New kinds of learning providers will focus on helping learners acquire resources, develop personalized learning paths, and gain credentials rather than on delivering instruction.

SIGNALS OF CHANGE
Open Accreditation Peer-to-Peer University and the Mozilla Foundation credential informal learning. sharing-nicely.net/2010/03/open-accreditation-next-steps Prototype 11th and 12th graders gathered to redesign the future of learning. prototypedesigncamp.com Clevelands MC2 STEM High School Opens a mobile fab lab. sites.google.com/site/mcstemhs/fablab FabLab Network Congressional Bill HR 6003 links fab labs across the U.S. into a collaborative network. thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h6003

Pattern Recognition

Update

An extremely visible world demands new sensemaking

Advances in the integration and visualization of data streams will enable new ways of measuring the value of learning experiences and keeping track of local resources. Lifestream technologies, which aggregate and display an individuals social media streams, will enable learners to create personal multi-media learning logs. By combining these learning logs with game-based interfaces and visualization tools, learners will be able to create learning footprints that show how they learn in different geographic locations and blended settings. Learners will be able to forecast their learning footprints to imagine possible future paths and to test out educational decisions, career choices, and personal health strategies. In addition, urban dashboards will track and manage diverse data streams from multiple city agencies and institutions, offering visualizations of a regions educational ecosystem. Such visual dashboard data will help school districts, charter school networks, and multi-agency alliances collabortively model strategies for addressing challenges such as dropout rates, community engagement, and resource allocation.

SIGNALS OF CHANGE
School of One Uses data to tailor unique daily schedules for students. schoolofone.org Quest to Learn A school that uses the underlying principles of games to create academically challenging, immersive learning experiences. q2l.org Personal Metrics Collects feedback about the effects of our actions and how we can change behavior. personalmetrics.us Lifestream Tools Provides an index of online lifestream tools and applications. go2web20.net/#tag:lifestream

This world of learning

Taking Action

will be customized, connected, amplied, authentic, relevant, and resilient.

How will you create the world of learning in your in your school, community, or state?
Here are some steps you can begin taking now.
Expand Leadership: As learning becomes more embedded across 1 communities and increasingly linked to real world challenges, an unexpected set of pioneers and leaders will emerge from outside education to help create the future of learning. Reposition Learning with Your Public. As schools embrace project4 based service learning, open challenges, and new community partnerships, teaching and learning will become more visible to the public. Learners and learning agents will come to be seen as valuable problem solvers, innovators, and catalysts of community change.

Now

 What are some external organizations and groups in your community

with whom you might partner to explore new ways of approaching learning?

 How might you contribute to making teaching and learning more

transparent and public in your school, community, or state?

 How might you work across traditional geographic barriers to encourage

exible, engaging learning environments?

 How could you use technology to help students, teachers, and their
larger communities connect with a broad ecosystem of learning resources so as to deepen knowledge and solve problems?

 Where could you adjust policies or build relationships with unexpected

leaders to break down existing barriers to innovation and push learning to a new frontier?

 How can you work with your organizations stakeholders to reevaluate

governance structures and delivery systems, to eliminate duplication, and to identify potential cost savings while moving toward a shared vision?

Grow Deep Connections in Place. Despite the growth of online 2  learning and virtual academies, the sustainability of learning systems will be enhanced by deep place-based relationships.

Develop Skills in Education Transition. The education system is in 5 profound transition from a mass production, teacher-delivery model to one characterized by individualized learning. Cycles of prototyping and experimentation will be necessary for the system to evolve fully into its new form.

 How might your community deepen partnerships and align services to

create a more efcient cradle-to-career education system?

 How could you and others re-think funding mechanisms and ways of
measuring returns on investment to help achieve shared community outcomes and ensure excellence for all learners?

 How could you invest in and encourage whole school reform that
integrates technology to drive student-centered, deeper learning?

 What kinds of data streams and accountability measures will you need to
help manage your contributions to your communitys learning system and where could you collaborate with other learning providers to align them?

 How could you help your organization become more effective at

managing change?

 In what ways could you involve todays students in redesigning learning

for the future?

Explore Diverse Learning Agent Roles. An expanded set of learning 3  agent roles and activities will support rich, relevant, and authentic learning in multiple settings, providing exciting career paths for existing educators and attracting new talent while also sparking creative thinking about learning.

Support New Forms of Assessment and Alternative Credentialing. 6 As more third parties experiment with ways of assessing and credentialing multiple modes of learning, there will be a richer set of options for learning providers to use and it will become easier to communicate their value to the public.

 What new learning agent roles can you imagine, and what distinct
niches could they ll in your communitys learning ecosystem?

 How could you invest in and make use of performance-based

assessments that measure the range of knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in college and in 21st-century careers?

 How might you begin to explore novel funding mechanisms or business

models to help fund and support those new roles?

 How could you help todays teachers work more collaboratively and begin
preparing for new roles while helping todays administrators embrace more distributive leadership practices?

 Where could you begin to experiment with assessments of

informal learning?

 Where do you see potential for alternative forms of credentialing, and

how might they impact the role of higher education in your region?

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