31 August - 5 September 2016

UCLAN, Pyla, Cyprus

Protopia Futuriser was a pro-active and living gathering of global changemakers and innovators who experimented with co-creating new educational ecosystem through exchange of practices, collective playing, and establishing a network of international transformative teams. 150 educational innovators from 12 countries attended the first meeting.

Futuriser aimed to create international student / teacher teams that establishing “points of attracting the Future” – transformative projects that can help bring new education & new society into being. It was particularly focused on projects that addressing, or combining, three types of educational “venues”:
* University / school as a heart of educational “ecosystem” that transforms its environment (re-shapes its city / region, creates new industry, etc.)
* Cultural/educational hub for life-long urban learners that attracts city activists and acts as a center of city transformation
* Educational online / offline platform for regional / country / global activism

1-3 March 2016

ASI Boiling Point coworking, Moscow

Meeting in Moscow was GEF pivotal event that brought key partners of Global Education Futures into the discussion on how to make GEF vision a reality.

The purpose of the gathering was to present current results of GEF initiative and reflect on its journey, to discuss practical collaborative activities that can start building bridge(s) from the present into the desirable future, and to connect with initiatives that exist in Russia and can become part of the global movement for education redesign.

The meeting brought together partners from Ashoka, GELP, ASI, WorldSkills, and other partners of GEF. The idea of Protopia Labs movement was created, and a number of experiments on whole educational systems were initiated.

2 & 6 August 2015

Berlin, Germany

The workshop on “Skills for Anthropocene Governance” was held in conjunction with ISSS Curating Emergence for Thrivability Special Interest Group. It was organized as a small Systems Lab where the collective intelligence of participants was be applied to map out and prioritize existing and future civilizational challenges that need to be addressed in the age of the Anthropocene, using formats of World Café and Rapid Foresight. General and specific skills that can be used to govern the Anthropocene were identified. Finally, attendees discussed changes required in the institutions of conventional and new education (including schools, universities, global online learning platforms, skills-related social movements, etc.) that are required to install and reproduce these skills on the global scale – and possible policies and arrangements that can accelerate the transformation of education in this direction.

Workshop background

It has been argued that the era of the Anthropocene calls for entirely new civilizational strategies. We must depart from behavioral strategies that take root in the time even before the emergence of modern civilization and lead to overconsumption of natural resources, destruction of biodiversity, disruption of climatic balance, and increasing chances of self-destruction of our species. The challenge we face requires multi-faceted responses that includes development of entirely new technologies (e.g. sustainable renewable energy, energy-efficient construction, efficient recycling, materials that come from renewable sources, etc.); policies that encourage individual & collective behavior that reduces, not increases, existential risks for our civilization, as well as negative human impact upon Nature – and cultural patterns that do the same; organizations and institutions that work directly with some of the Anthropocene challenges on the local, national, and global scale – e.g. preventing the loss of biodiversity or reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is also often argued that the crisis we have to overcome in the age of the Anthropocene is caused primarily by the faulty models of thinking and acting that are permeating our society. The key to sustainable and prosperous society lies with education – the skills of children and adults. Some governments (e.g. in Scandinavian countries) have successfully addressed some of the Anthropocene problems by introducing new kindergarten, school & university level programs regarding ‘greener’ behavior of their populations. However, the level of response still does not match the level and the urgency of threats that we as humanity have already created for ourselves and Nature. We need to identify general and professional skills that would help us deal with the challenges of the Anthropocene on a planetary level – and we have to make global effort to have these skills introduced in the standard educational curricula of developed and emerging societies.

22-23 May 2015

International Information & Conference Centre, Kazan, Russia

Global Education Futures partnered with WorldSkills Russia to conduct the foresight session aimed at creating a vision for the future competencies demanded in the emerging job markets. The FutureSkills Foresight session took place as part of the international sessions for determining the future direction of development and long term “rules of the game” for a global educational system. Participants of the foresight session were official and technical delegates from the WorldSkills movement, as well as international experts in the fields of economic growth and professional education.

Subject groups have been formed in such a way as to enable participants the greatest opportunity to discuss issues on changing various spheres of the economy and appropriate training systems.

Focal discussion topics were:

• What processes for technological and social change will provide the greatest impact for the sphere of activity?
• How specifically are processes changed in manufacturing and services, what new competencies (knowledge and skills) are required, and what competencies become outdated with the appearance of new technologies?
• What new processes for training personnel are necessary to introduce in connection with the change in necessary competencies?

1-3 April 2015

Menlo Park, California

Global Education Futures forum in California was conducted in conjunction with Global Technology Symposium. It explored main changes in education driven by technological innovations, major social & economic transformations, and personal & collective demands for education that meets 21st century needs. Education of the future is the learner-centered, community-based, life-long, 24/7, open & flexible process integrated into our daily routines and enhanced by diverse technologies. This education should cater to many learner needs previously unattended by formal education systems — and it will involve many new solutions for online and face-to-face learning.

Keynotes and panel discussions with education innovators and thought leaders set the stage for the Rapid Foresight session that focused on four big themes:
Theme 1: How to create global online learning platforms that serve better world’s education?
Theme 2: How to organize more productive models of knowledge creation?
Theme 3: How will educational ecosystems for emerging social practices be created?
Theme 4: How to increase the resilience of our cities and communities through collaborative learning?