The primary story within our last forecast, the 2006 KWF/IFTF Map of Future Forces
Affecting Education, was about participation. Specifically, that forecast showed
how individuals and groups were taking advantage of participatory media, creating
“smart networks” to form groups, and creating value through bottom-up collaboration
in “grassroots economies.” Participants were beginning to exchange learning resources,
form smart education mobs, and release education from traditional institutions.
All this participation was converging with a host of other external forces to effect
real changes in the learning enterprise.
While participation remains important, the 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of
Learning illuminates how we are now shifting toward a culture of creation in which
each of us has the opportunity – and the responsibility – to craft our collective
future. We are seeing “edu-citizens” define their rights as learners and re-create
the civic sphere. Networked artisans and ad hoc factories are re-creating manufacturing
and production. These creators are highlighting the significance of cooperation
and cross-cultural intelligence for citizenship and economic leadership.
Furthermore, advances in neuroscience are creating new notions of performance and
cognition, and are reshaping discussions of social justice in learning. Communities
are beginning to re-create themselves as resilient systems that respond to challenges
by replenishing their vital resources.
The 2020 Forecast depicts a set of forces that are pushing us to create the future
of learning as an ecosystem, in which we have yet to determine the role of education
institutions as we know them today.