EduCon 2027

If we are anything as learners, we are forgetting machines, and one of the primary things many of us forget after even just five years of teaching? We have already answered many of the questions we currently face. Is it any wonder, then, that we become so tired of having to reimagine ourselves and our teaching in the face of the latest administrative push to make kids “future ready?”

Rather than trying to predict the future barreling toward us and reacting by inoculating kids with the things they need to survive it, this session asks us to become futures thinkers, reexamining what we think about the futures our kids are entering into, and working with them to create more preferable futures.

We will use a Futures Thinking simulation with game play inspired by Buckminster Fuller's World Game. During our 45-minute simulation you will practice a condensed version of futures thinking using “signal recognition” and “horizon scanning.” Gameplay is driven by table groups trading for limited resources like “adult attention,” “schedule time,” “learning space,” and “community partners.” The goal? A vision of the "Tuesday Afternoon Teenager of 2040."

You’ll leave this session with the digital files to run your own Futures Thinking simulation and information on how to learn more.

The session seeks to make us "good ancestors," remembering that we already have what we need to shape preferable futures populated by the kinds of kids we will need. We just fell asleep.