Learning Nerd’s Diary #91

Learning Nerd's Diary
Written By Srishti Sehgal

Welcome back Learning Nerds!

I started last week at Quest Alliance’s annual Quest 2 Learn conference on ‘Building Radical Futures of Hope through Futures Literacy' and the event left me with SO many questions that I hope to unpack here.

👀 Sneak peak

Here is what I have in store for you this week -

💭 Learning About Learning: Ridiculous Futures of Learning

🥜 Learning Nugget: Future is not a forest

💥 Coolest Thing I Learnt This Week:

  • AI and Creative Learning: Concerns, Opportunities, and Choices

  • Collaboration & the Future of Work

  • Sensible Futures

🔦 Spotlight: The Magic of Offline Spaces

Let's jump right in!

💭 Learning About Learning

“Any useful statement about the future should at first seem ridiculous.”
- Jim Dator

Last week I attended a talk by Shakil Ahmed where he spoke about this idea of ridiculous futures. I couldn’t help but wondering what ridiculous futures I could think of for learning. So here are my 15 -

  1. Everyone everywhere loves learning.

  2. Everyone understands how they learn best.

  3. There is no new information that is created.

  4. There is no ‘content’ - no textbooks, videos to go through while you’re learning something.

  5. You can ingest a pill and learn something new.

  6. There is an Olympics for learning. Sports are memory, application etc. No pills there.

  7. There are no exams or assessments.

  8. There is a blood test equivalent of learning that objectively measures how much you have truly learnt.

  9. Homework is given in the form of video games.

  10. Your entire brain exists on a hard drive. You can ask it questions using ChatGPT.

  11. Un-learning is easy - you can ‘erase’ part of your mind.

  12. There are no ‘teachers’ only facilitators.

  13. You can also share parts of your hard drive with someone. They will understand information as you do.

  14. Classrooms are no longer just cross-country, they are intergalactic.

  15. You can communication with & learn from any living being.

These futures for learning are meant to be amusing and thought-provoking. While some of them might sound far-fetched, they illustrate the endless possibilities for the future of learning.

What Ridiculous Futures can you think of for the future of learning? Tell me in the comments below!

🥜 Learning Nuggets

We need to look at the future of learning as a carefully tended garden and not a wild forest.

It won't simply exist independently; it will thrive because of our nurturing and effort. So, let's cultivate it with care 🌱

💥 Coolest Thing I Learnt this Week

AI and Creative Learning: Concerns, Opportunities, and Choices

Everyone in learning seems to be talking about AI these days. We’re hopeful about this shiny new object that it’s suddenly changed the way we look at learning. But while doing anything new, a healthy amount of skepticism is good!

In this article, Mitch Resnick - Professor of Learning Research at MIT Media Lab explores the role of AI in learning both as an optimist & a pessimist. Here is an excerpt -

Too often, today’s AI technologies are used in ways that constrain learner agency, focus on “close-ended” problems, and undervalue human connection and community.

Collaboration & the Future of Work

Some of my favourite people have collaborated & worked on this amazing resource on collaboration & the future of work.

The resource talk about 4 trends:

  • Building collection & putting humans first

  • Focussing on the new skills that matter

  • Organisational policies & decentralised culture

  • Visibility & effective tools

Check it out!

Sensible Futures

I came across this amazing treasure trove of methods & activities on futures thinking. The process is broken down into 4 stages -

I can’t wait to get my hands dirty with this!

 

🔦 Spotlight

The Magic of Offline Spaces 🌟

I started my week by spending two days at QUEST Alliance’s annual Quest2Learn Summit on 'Building Radical Futures of Hope through Futures Literacy'

Here are 5 things that stuck with me:

  1. "We need to reimagine learners as the innovator and builders 👷🏻 rather than consumers." - Aakash Sethi

  2. There is no ONE future! There are multiple futures. 👀

  3. Instead of looking at past trends and forecasting the future. We need to backcast - imagine the future & build that together 🔭 - Shakil Ahmed

  4. We need to unlock agency 🔑. "Radical futures are something we BUILD not something we merely acknowledge" - Gautam John

  5. "One concerns with AI in learning are that it undervalues human connection." A good teacher can foster a sense of belonging 🫶🏼 - how can AI support that? - Prasanth Nori

I'm left with so many questions and a renewed sense of hope for the future of learning.

 
 

Love & Learning

Until we meet next week, don’t you forget -

You can get this directly in your inbox!

Srishti Sehgal
Previous

Ridiculous Futures ft Learning
Next

Learning Nerd’s Diary #90