Mikayla’s Thoughts on The Process
When Dave first explained the first step in this process, I was very intrigued to get started. I found it very interesting to look at all the SHRRC trends and explore all the potential possibilities for the future. The two that specifically caught my eye were 1) The Emerging Asocial Society and 2) Global Health and Wellness for the 21st Century. We were tasked with analyzing them further, and then begin to make connections between the two. We were also tasked with discovering how they relate to education.
The next step was narrowing down the future possibilities and focusing on the ones we were each passionate about. This led to The Emerging Asocial Society, Evolving Bio Age, Inhabiting Challenging Environments, and Exploring Governance Systems That Work. This next step then entailed us imaging a day-in-the-life with these futures. This included the good, the bad, possible courses offered, and even advertisements for the town. When it came to writing these fictional stories based on the potential futures, I was a little hesitant. I was not yet grasping the purpose of it all, as I could not see the bigger picture. It almost felt like we were in grade school doing an imagination project (sorry).
Once this step was completed, we thoroughly went through the document and tried to realize several skills that would be required in order to succeed in this type of environment. Some of the more prominent ones were adaptable, responsible, communicative, independent, etc.…
Finally, we reached the last step. This was to create a presentation from all the information gathered, including establishing a connection between the skills and the trends that we were talking about, the ways in which we are developing these skills (and ways in which we aren’t), and thoughts about what could help do more of that. At this point, it was very clear what Dave was trying to accomplish. In order to get to the final product, it was necessary to focus on one objective at a time. Once we grasped that, we could then move on to the next. When it came time to put it all together, it much so much more sense because we had spent so much time on each individual piece and got to understand how each one depended on the other and how maybe we would not be able to think a certain way if we did not go through all of these steps.
We went through each of the steps (good and bad) to really walk us through the whole thought process. Without taking the steps that we did, I can confidently say that it would have been much harder to draw conclusions and be able to present them. We would not have had as deep of an understanding or appreciation for the final product and would not have understood how it all tied together and came to be one. Ie. How would we know what “skills” we need to prepare for the future if we never did that hypothetical “day in the life.
