I had a good opportunity the other day to sit in a short training by Dr. Andy Hines, Futurist and Fulbright Specialist, at the international office of MHESI (the newest ministry that has included higher education......SIGH!) I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to write about it ka.
Before then I asked what was the difference between 'Future Studies' and 'Foresight'. He said it was interchangable and so I said maybe the latter sounded sexier and he agreed ka. I also wondered whether the scenerio planning and horizon scanning were similar. Interesting to see how terms can be changed as time goes by to mean similar or different from another set of perspectives..... that could confuse different generations na ka nia:))!
Andy started by saying that 'Horizon Scanning' is an approach. framing issues of focus, scanning to get the information we look for, forecasting how to tell stories, visioning what future looks like before planning and taking actions ka. Thanks to Andy Hines for sharing the slides with us to make it easier for us to review after his talk ka.
Originally from industry for 25 years before joining University of Houston, Andy has had some good hold of how the private sector thinks and I find it so valuable ka. When he discussed three 'horizons', from present status to next 5-10 years and then distant future, he said clients like to know the second one which is 5-10 (if not 5) as they want to see more immediate results of their business success ka. Futurists will look past the second to the third while trying to find more evidence from the first two domains to support the foresight alternatives.
For the Domain map, STEEP as one of the 'bubbles' (key issues to focus) has to be included (something like environment scanning mai ka) to look at the world outside from Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political.
By using different tools among others, Coggle to come up with focus areas to explore, and Diigo (those who are in research must have known and been using it na ka) to share related research and articles, the team can share the same themes and learning platform to sieve the most relevant ones for further discussions and alternatives selection.
To choose resources to be on baseline scenario, go to those that send same information with strong signals. Futurists will be keen to probe into the weaker signals with lots of disagreement and even they may not seem to be that credible, they could become alternative scenarios! Some could impact our decision making like an example of the future of NASA when most labs may not be a must since they can work from their computers, it means more investments into other priorities, not buildings and equipment as much anymore
He's set up Diigo to focus on 'Future of IZN in Thai higher education' and so I'm learning to read more from what Andy has got and even on the daily basis to get to read new articles. I feel I need to contribute too ka.
When asked if we should be scared of the future now that it seems things have been changing so fast, he said 'no' ......look at GM which has started the tests on 'autonomous vehicles' since 1991 and 3D printing which began in 1996 for us to see how they could work at present! We'll see some big change but not surprising ka. I felt a little better loei ka!
Before, during, and after his session, I'm so very convinced I love to learn more about 'future' kaaa!
Happy weekend na ka.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น