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People like predicting the hereafter. And people like reading predictions near the future. But at that place'due south rarely any accountability and many, many predictions fail to come up true.

KnowledgeWorks, an education-focused nonprofit, has a squad of people dedicated to thinking about the futurity of education, and every iii years since 2006 they accept released a comprehensive forecast nigh what to await 10 years out. They are conscientious to clarify that these forecasts are non meant to be read as "predictions," simply rather "insights about the broad range of possibilities for what might happen in the future," as Jason Swanson wrote at the end of 2015, kicking off a blog series looking back at how much of their first forecast became a reality.

Only for KnowledgeWorks, forecasting isn't merely near writing down expectations and waiting to see whether the world turns out the way they idea it would. "Navigating the Future of Learning: Forecast 5.0," released last week, offers educators physical ideas most what to practice now to ensure the time to come they desire.

The forecast describes a current reality in which organizations, including schools, are increasingly out of sync with what people demand from them.

"The new era could exacerbate the electric current misalignment and deepen existing inequities, or it could inspire new frameworks for how nosotros live, piece of work and acquire," the forecast reads. "The choices we make today will determine not simply whether people can thrive in the well-nigh term, just also who might be all-time positioned to thrive in the hereafter."

The forecast identifies v key drivers of alter for the next 10 years: automation; technologies that affect our brain functioning; toxic narratives virtually success and accomplishment; changing community landscapes (because of economic and climate factors) and the work of "civic superpowers," be they individuals, nonprofits or volunteer organizations, that are stepping in to fill gaps in traditional governance.

Katherine Prince, senior managing director for strategic foresight at KnowledgeWorks, said these drivers can be alternately mind-boggling, overwhelming, scary or exciting. The forecast is meant to create a bit of a road map, given the expectations for the time to come.

"KnowledgeWorks creates forecasts not but to inform people across the field about what'south on the horizon, merely really to attempt to encourage everyone to consider themselves active agents of modify in creating the future," Prince said.

The forecast aims to facilitate that. Fundamental questions follow a description of each commuter of change, to help readers consider their own roles. For instance, Forecast v.0 imagines a world in which people can use products to raise their brain performance. Already, Prince said, some companies expect employees to take drugs like Adderall to be sharper on the chore. If technologies are created to a similar upshot, they might be available unevenly, allowing wealthier or better-connected students to use them, increasing the existing achievement gap. Even if they are available widely, educators may take to consider the upstanding boundaries of asking students to use brain-enhancing technologies. The question prompt in the written report is, "How might learners retain their rights in deciding when and how to use new cognitive tools while as well navigating new expectations of performance in education?"

Forecast 5.0 imagines possibilities for the future of education. Prince finds i – about how education and learning systems might become oriented around a holistic understanding of human development – to be particularly accessible for current educators.

"We're already seeing increasing involvement in integrating social and emotional competency development aslope academic mastery," Prince said, adding that at that place is too growing involvement in personalizing learning, supporting students affected by trauma, and focusing student advancement on content mastery rather than simply their time spent in a classroom.

A last department of the forecast points to existing schools and educational programs that offer glimpses of the future. The I Promise School, for example, a joint initiative of the LeBron James Family Foundation and the Akron Public Schools, offers wraparound services with whole-kid development in listen.

The forecast is massive, with a lot to absorb. Prince imagines people will read sections at a time, coming and going to read what they notice about useful at any given time. She and her team didn't intend the reading experience to be a linear 1.

And while Forecast 5.0 describes some destabilizing visions of the future, Prince finds the forecast, on balance, to exist inspiring.

"I think engaging with the future invites us to be more informed about what could come up to pass and also exist more deliberate about what choices we make today," she said.

This story about forecasting future innovations was produced by The Hechinger Report , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign upwards for the Hechinger newsletter .

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Tara García Mathewson is a reporter covering inequality and innovation in K-12 didactics, nationally, and she oversees coverage for Hechinger en Español as the languages editor. She has been writing...