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• Future Studies and ICT in Education
• Austrian examples and the work of the IFS
• Institute for Future Studies, Innsbruck, Austria
• www.futurestudies.org
• Friedrich Scheuermann
• mail scheuermann_at_futurestudies.org

Conference Future Studies An Egyptian
Perspective, Cairo, 27-28 June 2005
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Contents

1. Intro
2. Dealing with the Future in Austria
3. Why future studies
4. Why future of education
5. Trends
6. Examples
7. Key challenges, barriers and limitations
8. Conclusions

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The Institute for Future Studies

• Founded by Association for Flexible Learning
• Applied research
• Goal to design the education of tomorrow by
  investigating the future dimensions and its
  impact to private and professional life
• Technological, pedagogical and organisational
  perspectives from a socio-economic background
• Areas Formal education (School, Higher
  Education, Adult education, Vocational
  Education), companies, Informal Learning
  Providers e.g. Libraries, Museums, Internet
• Target groups young, adults, senior,
  un/low-skilled people
• Partnerships Research networks, European
  schools, universities, EU Commission and agencies

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Forecasting some quotes

• This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be
  seriously considered as a means of communication.
  The device is inherently of no value to us.
  (Western Union internal memo, 1876.)
• Books will soon be obsolete in the schools. ...
  Scholars will soon be able to instruct through
  the eye. It is possible to touch every branch of
  human knowledge with the motion picture. (Thomas
  A. Edison, 1913.)
• I believe that the motion picture is destined to
  revolutionize our educational system and that in
  a few years it will supplant largely, if not
  entirely, the use of textbooks. (Thomas A.
  Edison, 1922.)
• I think there is a world market for maybe five
  computers. (Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM,
  1943.)
• Computers in the future may weigh no more than
  1.5 tons. (Popular Mechanics, forecasting the
  relentless march of science, 1949.)
• 640K ought to be enough for anybody. (Microsoft
  Chairman Bill Gates, 1981, referring to a memory
  addressing system that can only address 640 K or
  primary memory in a microcomputer.)
• (Source David Moursund Planning, Forecasting,
  and Inventing Your Computers-in-Education Future,
  2005)

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IFS - Approach

• Analytical work
• to analyse technological, economic or social
  trends (in order to identify the context of
  eLearning and potential applications/implementatio
  ns
• to investigate innovation in terms of educational
  models, tools and instruments
• to identify and contrast potentials and
  limitations of current strategies and
  implementations by connecting both extrapolated
  (exploratory) and normative research in order to
  explore better strategies
• to investigate the short-, medium and to a
  limited extent long term future of learning,
  education and training
• Experimental design and validation
• Pedagogical models, instruments and tools
• Evaluation, expert workshops
• Demonstration
• Outlining future potentials in terms of
  applications / scenarios and contrasting to
  current practices, guidelines, recommendations,
  information services, workshops, training

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IFS - Projects

• Analysis
• IT-Profiles, qualification, validation/certificati
  on (Harmonise, Advocate)
• ICT innovation in education (DELPHI, Merlin,
  Ivette)
• eLearning in enterprises (ICT VET)
• Experimental design and development
• Mobile technologies (Motfal),
• eLearning tutoring (eCoach, IseTT), multiple
  intelligences (MiAPP)
• 3D virtual environments for education (Crimcity)
• Internet-based operation of telescopes and
  classroom applications (Eudoxos)
• Special education, flexible learning, lifelong
  learning (Advocate)
• Evaluation models for eLearning (Eval3, ICT VET)
• eLearning tools for immigrants (Alphatrain)
• Models for online collaborative learning (Ikarus)
• eBooks on education (Metabook)

• 3. Validation
• Expert workshops (Ivette-W, Merlin, Advocate,
  Delphi)
• 4. Demonstration
• Observatory on eLearning practices (DELPHI)
• Multigrade school education (NEMED)

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Current trends and perspectives

• Technology
• Internet access is becoming a given at home and
  work.
• The advances in digital technologies have and
  continue to enrich the interactivity and media
  content of the web.
• Increasing bandwidth and better delivery
  platforms make e-Learning feasible and
  attractive.
• A growing selection of high quality e-Learning
  products and services such as content providers,
  authoring tools, training management systems,
  portals, delivery systems and integrated
  solutions are now available.
• Technology standards, which facilitate
  compatibility and usability of e-learning
  products, are emerging.

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Current trends and perspectives

• Technology Internet- Applications
• Open source
• Open content
• Ubiquitous computing
• Interactive Web, social networks, social software
• Mobile Technologies
• Etc.

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Current trends and perspectives

• Pedagogy / Learning
• Paradigm shift
• Shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered
• Shift from information transmission to knowledge
  construction creative thinking, critical
  thinking, problem solving, information
  management, collaborative learning

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Paradigm Shift

• Some significant trends in learning
• Many learners will move into a variety of
  different, possibly unrelated fields over the
  course of their lifetime.
• Informal learning is a significant aspect of our
  learning experience. Formal education no longer
  comprises the majority of our learning. Learning
  now occurs in a variety of ways through
  communities of practice, personal networks, and
  through completion of work-related tasks.
• Learning is a continual process, lasting for a
  lifetime. Learning and work related activities
  are no longer separate. In many situations, they
  are the same.
• Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The
  tools we use define and shape our thinking.
• The organization and the individual are both
  learning organisms. Increased attention to
  knowledge management highlights the need for a
  theory that attempts to explain the link between
  individual and organizational learning.
• Many of the processes previously handled by
  learning theories (especially in cognitive
  information processing) can now be off-loaded to,
  or supported by, technology.
• Know-how and know-what is being supplemented with
  know-where (the understanding of where to find
  knowledge needed).

(Source George Siemens, 2005)
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Current trends and perspectives

• Applications
• Personal learning, user generated content,
  ePortfolios
• Active learning
• Games and simulations
• Workflow learning
• Mobile learning

(Source www.cetis.ac.uk/members/scott/blogview?en
try20050125170206)
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Project Eudoxos
Source http//www3.ellinogermaniki.gr/ep/eudoxos/
htm/index.htm
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Project Motfal
(Source http//www3.ellinogermaniki.gr/ep/motfal/
)
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Project Crimcity
(Source http//www.futurestudies.org/crimcity/)
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Key challenges for European Education

• By 2010 half of the net additional jobs will
  require people with tertiary level qualifications
  80 Mio. EU citizen are low-skilled
• Demographic change and shrinking workforce
• High degree of innovation requires excellence in
  Higher Education and research, highly skilled
  work forces and with permanent update of
  continuing training
• Low level of transnational mobility
• Social cohesion and inclusion

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Requirements

• Ensuring equal availability and access to ICT
  infrastructures
• Improving information and media literacy
  competence
• Flexible learning solutions
• Educational reform (structures, curricula,
  teaching)
• More research in
• pedagogical practises
• informal learning
• Socio-economic issues (potentials, S/W, visions)
• Linking formal, non-formal and informal learning
• Approaches to validation of skills
• Updating teacher training

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Conclusion

• Why do we need to know more about the future of
  education
• and learning with ICT ?
• Overcoming existing performance problems
• Improving educational effectiveness
• Achieving better learning outcomes
• Ensuring availability and equal access
• Redefine values and strategies ICT in education
  is not a value itself, it is not more an
  instrument which should be more regarded in the
  light of the benefits to be achieved for the
  society.