DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
Foresight Education Guide for Curriculum
I. Reasoning for Foresight Education
The exponential pace of change has created a world in which the chance of discovering the right
answer is small and more the exception than the rule. Adapting to a changing stock of knowledge and
tolerating the consequences of ambiguities are required skills for the 21st century learner.
Today, most schools, even those with excellent graduation records, devote the vast majority of
their teaching hours to the understanding of history and current conditions. As centers of higher
education and workplace organizations experience the challenges posed in these uncertain times, they
recognize the need for students to be able to navigate successfully and to develop the skills and
knowledge for operating within increasingly complex societies.
We believe that in order for our younger students to succeed in their future they will need to
have skills to master the basics of change, to anticipate it, to manage uncertainty and ambiguity and
ultimately to proactively create the changes necessary to bend the future to more preferable outcomes.
Foresight Education is a pedagogical process that provides students with these skills.
Foresight Education embodies a systematic process that moves students from open-ended
inquiry, through rigorous research, and then opens again to reveal creative solutions based on logical,
valid conclusions, which address ethical and moral implications. The outcomes of Foresight Education
are to enable students to be able to develop, experience and apply their capacity for wisdom in the face
of uncertainties. Wisdom is often associated with having many experiences and judging with reason.
Aristotle identified two forms of wisdom -- Sophia which engages universal truths, and Phronesis, which
applies practical wisdom. Psychologists typically define wisdom as an integration of knowledge,
experience, and deep understanding that incorporates tolerance for the uncertainties of life.1 Wisdom,
does not rest solely in the realm of intellect. It also requires an ability to see the big picture with
considerable introspection.
We believe that wisdom has never been as important as it will become in the face of the great
challenges of the 21st Century. Further, while Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Objectives2 3does not
explicitly include wisdom, we believe that wisdom is going to be one of the most important learning
objectives in the future.
1
Psychologist Today, http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/wisdom
Mary Forehandv (o.J.) Bloom’s Taxonomy.- Georgia. Retrieved from
http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Bloom%27s_Taxonomy
3 Overbaugh, R., Schultz, L (2014). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Retrieved from
http://fitnyc.edu/files/pdfs/CET_TL_BloomsTaxonomy.pdf
2
1
DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
II. What is Foresight Education?
Foresight Education has evolved out of the intellectual and practical experiences of leading
futurists from both academia and enterprise. It represents over 30 years of practice in the corporate,
private enterprise and public sectors around the world. By the end of 2014, over 30 schools spanning
the globe have applied Foresight Education within their pedagogical practices.
Foresight Education guides students through a rigorous approach to thinking—without limits –
about alternative futures where the ultimate goal is to create an aspirational future for a topic students
find personally relevant. Foresight education is a pedagogical method for helping students to develop
innovation and problem-solving skills that consider the various ethical and moral implications of how
decisions made today may play out in the longer-term future. It provides students with significant
opportunities to use their imagination, to challenge their own assumptions and to articulate their
understanding of possible futures with confidence. Learning how to think wisely about futures and their
possible implications is a skill that transcends subject matter, lives beyond classrooms and can be used
throughout a purpose-driven citizenry. We believe that Foresight Education is one method for
experiencing applied wisdom.
It is important to understand that Foresight Education is not a content-laden curriculum. Nor is
it a subject for which there are “right” answers. It does not support a grading-system that awards those
who got the most correct answers. Rather, Foresight is a way of thinking – wisely – about possibilities
and the implications which may arise in the future – including ethical and moral dilemmas, and
addressing the most challenging aspects with authenticated solutions.
This Foresight Education's curriculum guide provides examples for engaging in futures methods.
Importantly, this guide offers flexible programming, which can be engaged in over any given amount of
time -- a semester, a week, etc. Teachers are encouraged to take from the curriculum guide and apply
those elements that resonate with the learning objectives and requirements for their classroom.
Foresight Education will equip students to understand and manage the long-term implications of
very complex issues and rapid change, and to do so with self-awareness and deference to others. As a
process or method, it evolves through a variety of learning experiences such as:
● Developing a foundational understanding of foresight and futures methods
● Gathering information from valid sources -- global and local in perspective
● Evaluating and synthesizing a wide spectrum of (often conflicting) information
● Projecting information into logical conclusions (set in the determined future)
● Identifying implications -- in a personal, local and global perspective
● Creating alternative scenarios which express three different futures and their implications by
using intuition and imagination
● Presenting conclusions via multimedia, dramatic or written products
2
DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
One of the most significant opportunities students gain from foresight skills and knowledge is
the use of their imagination to inform their own understandings and to substantiate their beliefs and
opinions with reliable evidence. Importantly, these skills are transferable to college, career and life in
general.
III Who is Foresight Education For?
Foresight Education is designed to be used for elementary and secondary-age students and for
general and advanced or honors-level learners. Foresight Education is currently being piloted in schools
around the globe. Teachers and students who have embarked upon futures work have told us that it has
been one of the most creative, yet challenging, units of learning they have ever experienced.
Foresight Education can also be used in just about any subject area. Some of our current
teachers are employing Foresight Education within English Language Arts, Social Sciences, Science, and
Geography, and so on. Foresight Education does not require that you give up a unit of learning. Rather,
teachers often layer a given unit with Foresight Education as a strategy for dive deeper into a given topic
or to bring a topic to life through this project-based approach. For instance, in a Human Geography
course for sophomores the teachers dedicated one class every two weeks to the foresight curriculum.
Student groups consulted with both teachers and took up topics ranging from global demographics 2030
to AIDS 2030, and from global criminal networks 2030 to global inequity 2030. In an English Language
Arts class for juniors, the teacher rooted an expository writing project on the “The Future of…” The
project included forecasting on a specific topic and was built around three core objectives- 1) intensive
self-directed non-fiction reading, 2) improving skill sets in researching and research paper writing and 3)
increasing student knowledge and understanding about a variety of topics, their impact and/or role in
our world and their probable trajectories in the near future.
Teachers can choose the topics or central futures-themes for the foresight project or can allow
students to choose their own topics. Additionally, teachers may ask students to work independently or
in small groups. We recommend that the culmination of a foresight project should provide students with
an opportunity to showcase his/her work in a formal presentation whereby peers, teachers and other
community members are present. Presentations may be produced using a variety of forms, including
multimedia, written, oral, art or dramatic interpretations.
IV Foresight Tools
Understanding the dynamics of change is a central skill in futures work. Foresight tools help
prepare students to provide long-term forecasts of expectable and plausible change that occur in the
future. The future is 2020, 2030 and 2040. Students work within this rolling three-decade period. Tools,
such as scenarios, can help distill the infinite range of possible futures into a limited number of polar
“types,” which stimulates consideration of the strategic choices to be confronted and the principal
dimensions of change. The scenarios invite students to ask, “how probable,” and “how desirable,” is
each future, which “would I want to make happen”? And importantly, “what are the implications of
3
DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
each futures?” The entire curriculum makes a contribution towards critical thinking, particularly in
reference to:
●
●
●
●
Identifying assumptions about each of three futures – including expected, collapse, and
preferred;
Creating alternative futures;
Gathering and analyzing supporting evidence; and,
Building the case for the preferred (aspirational) future
Students begin their forecast work by engaging in environmental scanning – a rigorous process
that requires students to research historical and current conditions and emerging trends along six (or
more) major categories (a) demographics, (b) economics, (c ) politics, (d) technology, (e) culture, (f)
environment. Students are also taught how to scan for weak signals of change before they become
apparent. Then, students engage in:
●
●
●
Trend Analysis – cross referencing emerging issues of potential interest from multiple
information sources including print, electronic and when possible, conduct personal interviews
with experts;
Scenario Development – an extension of current conditions (expectable future), a collapse
future (challenging future) and a preferred (aspirational future). Along the way, students are
taught to consider ethical and moral implications as well as the impact of wild cards (also
referred to as black swans;
Imagining and Designing various alternative futures
Students who have engaged in Foresight Education have said that it has given them the freedom
to “think on their own,” and “to make their own choices,” all of which students viewed most favorably!
V. Goals
The goal for Foresight Education is to help students engage in a global conversation about the
future without being encumbered by today’s problems and to encourage them to believe that they can
make a difference. It is also to empower them with the skills needed to influence their own future
opportunities. Furthermore, Foresight Education exists to help students develop their abilities to think
deeply about their own assumptions and beliefs as they build their capacity for wisdom.
The larger goal of Foresight Education is to train the next generation to responsibly and
compassionately handle the hard decisions and the complex issues and demands of a future in which
they will live and to: (a) give students the ability to develop a deep understanding of change so that they
can (b) think systematically about anticipating and managing change and its implications on the futures;
in order for them to (c) create their preferred future with wisdom.
Learning Objectives
Ultimately, students will be able to:
4
DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
1. + Apply skills and tools for gathering, analyzing and managing/planning for change
2. + Create (design) alternative scenarios of future within a three-decade long timeline
3. + Articulate long-term implications, especially concerning ethical and moral concerns
through a variety of multimedia, written and formal presentations
VI. Pedagogical Foundations
The Foresight Education Curriculum Plan is built on research and pedagogical practices drawn
from leading practitioners and academicians in Futures. Innovative educational frameworks including
21st Century Skills and Knowledge, Project-based learning, Student-centered learning and Common Core
States Standards for English Language Arts can be found within Foresight Education. However, Foresight
Education is not bound by these frameworks or standards because the aim of Foresight Education is to
break free of any boundaries and to explore all the possibilities for learning, thinking, creating and
innovating. The curriculum employs an experiential based approach in which teachers and learners
share knowledge to build their understandings. There are no right answers. But there are right
approaches. Foresight Education recognizes that there are many pathways to thinking about the future
and dealing with uncertainties and therefore encourages teachers, students and everyone to explore
their own pathways.
The curriculum steps students through a thinking process in a non-linear fashion. This is because
using foresight to solve problems and create solutions involves an iterative process. For example, once a
student imagines his future topic, he begins collecting data to develop a comprehensive understanding
of the past, and present condition of the subject. At the same time, the student is engaging in synthesis
of the data in order to make sense of what he is finding. He may also engage in dialog with others to
understand the ethical and moral implications of his findings and to develop a better understanding of
his own values and belief sets. These new understandings may require that the student collect and
analyze more data, or that he reflect more openly or compassionately to engage broader perspectives.
VII. Curriculum
There are many ways for teaching foresight and futures methods. The curriculum guide
presented here is offered as one way of teaching students foresight and futures methods.
Big Ideas
Young people own the future. They should and can influence the future for themselves, their
community and the world.
Essential Questions
We begin Foresight Education by helping to situate students within their own, personal sense of
the future. We begin by helping them to visualize events that have been personally relevant to them in
their past (learning to ride a bike at 6 or getting their driver’s license). Next, we ask them to visualize
what might their future look like in 5 years – will they be in college or working? We help them find
anchors along the way that they can relate to, such as for high school-age students recognizing that
young men and women just two-years older than them may be serving on the front lines in war-torn
5
DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
countries. Then we ask students, “What do you think will be the most important change for you in the
next few years? Followed by, “What might happen in your life over the next 10, 20, and 30 years?
Finally, we ask, “What do you hope for in your future?
This leads into the foresight project where the teacher provides an overview of what is
Foresight/Futuring. There is a very delightful video produced by one of our Foresight Teachers, which
gives an animated overview of how-do future. See: http://www.foresighteducation.info/page/learners.
The teacher then leads students through the foresight skills and knowledge building activities in a time
frame that is aligned to classroom goals. See Appendix A: Foresight Education Guide for Curriculum.
VIII. Evaluation
At Foresight Education, we believe that the most authentic way to capture what a student
knows, understands and has mastered is through authentic assessments. Authentic assessments provide
the student with opportunities to share what was learned within real life contexts and in forums where
the student receives immediate feedback and attention.
With this in mind, FE embeds assessment within lesson activities. This means that assessments
are not thought of as separate activities to be given outside of or in addition to lesson activities. Rather,
assessments are woven throughout topics, conversations, research, presentations and a final exhibit
(presentation, video/audio, open-mic/futures slam session). Additionally, the student is not thought of
as a separate unit -- to be judged by the teacher, who is also a separate unit. Instead, the student
participates alongside the teacher and classmates to determine the soundness of his/her
understandings.
The nature of these types of assessments (See Appendix A) reflects the pedagogical method for
future studies, where the student is guided to (a) think critically, (b) imagine and create, (c) solve
problems, (d) hone his/her abilities to make sense of factual evidence as it informs uncertainty and, (f)
synthesize the evidence into well-reasoned opportunities for success.
Importantly, these assessments reflect many of the core evaluation strategies found within AP
and IB schemas and the essential skills for 21st Century Skills and Knowledge. Beyond these wellregarded schemas, the assessments incorporate those skills and abilities essential for mastering
foresight and are aligned to our Learning Objectives.
6
DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
Appendix A: Foresight Education Guide for Curriculum
The following table contains the process by which Foresight can be learned and practiced. Its linear format represents the sequential steps by
which a student moves through the thinking processes and provides examples of learning opportunities, assessments and activities that typically
lead to achieving them. However, it is important to note that the “steps” may be iterative in that sometimes one step may require a student to
revisit a previous step to ensure reasonability. It is also important to understand that there is no single method to accomplish the “steps.” In
fact, there ARE MANY WAYS to help a young learner develop foresight capabilities! Teachers are encouraged to create their own pathways!
Learning Objectives and
Actions
Assessments
Activities
Teaching Activities
Develop a
foundational
understanding of
foresight and futures
methods
FORMATIVE
Student converses about futures using an
historical event as it relates to his current
life
Student shares examples of foresight and
futures from today’s media
Explore historical context related to
futures
Discover foresight / futures in the
Communicate
foundational
understanding of
futures and foresight
in real world context
FORMATIVE
Student presents to others an example of
an important foresight project and
discusses its application in today’s real
world context
Student shares narrative from his
interview with a futurist
Examine important futures programs
and projects (e.g. EU Horizon 2020),
Interview a futurist
Dialog with students about important futures
projects to guide their understanding of the
application of these projects in real world context
Provide students with contact information for
futurist and invite students to interview the
futurist concerning their careers
Topic Selection
FORMATIVEStudent chooses a topic of great personal
interest and which reflects local and
cultural values – or Teacher assigns topics
Brainstorm, dialog, reflective thinking
Guide students through an open brainstorm
session with the goal to spark their imagination
and land on a topic of their choice or teacherselected. Can be group or individual projects.
media
Guide students through historical events which
help them form understandings of how those
past events have impacted our current lives
Present examples of foresight in today’s media
and invite students to do the same
7
DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
Learning opportunities
Assessments
Activities
Teaching Activities
Imagine your topic in
2020, 2030, 2040
FORMATIVE
Student converses or writes about how he
imagines the future of his selected topic
Visioning and imaging what his topic may
be in the future
Guide students through a visualization* to help
them open their mind to the possibilities of the
future of their selected topics
Identify and investigate
the current conditions
of your topic
FORMATIVE
1) Lists 10 or more valid sources of
information that can inform his topic
2) Describes the “lens” which he gathered
information and dialogs with others to
develop his own perspective and
understand that of others
3) Documents his findings (GoogleDocs,
classroom blog, etc)
Engage in environmental scanning that
reflect STEEPV4 by
1) identify 10 or more valid sources of
information,
2) investigate the obvious and beyond the
obvious of historical and current
conditions, 3) identify “lens” (student’s
personal background, culture compared
with others) through which scanning,
investigation occurs,
4) report on the conditions of your topic
Guide students through the research process,
including:
1. Sourcing materials for STEEPV
2. Validating and checking for reliability of
resources (for tips see:
http://www.infotoday.com/mmschools/mar00/o
sullivan&scott.htm)
3. Provide a forum for dialog and communication
Identify and investigate
trends (scan) that might
influence your topic
FORMATIVE
1) Student lists 10 or more valid sources of
information that can inform his topic
2) Documents his findings (GoogleDocs,
etc)
Engage in environmental scanning to find
emerging trends and “weak” signals of
possible disruptions by
1) identifying 10+ valid sources of
information,
2) investigate the obvious and beyond the
obvious, including ethical and moral
issues
3) report on the trends concerning your
topic
Guide students through the research process,
including:
1. Sourcing materials for emerging trends
2. Validating and checking for reliability of
resources (for tips see:
http://www.infotoday.com/mmschools/mar00/o
sullivan&scott.htm)
3. Provide a forum for dialog and communication
4
STEEPV – represents the categories for research associated with broad and comprehensive understanding of a given topic, where S = social/societal, T =
technological, E = economics, E = environment, P = political, V = values
8
DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
Learning opportunities
Assessments
Activities
Teaching Activities
Identify unexpected
events that might
influence your topic and
trends
FORMATIVE
1) Reports on at least 5 unexpected events
that could influence topic/trends,
demonstrates critical evaluation and
impact
1) Imagine possible wild cards and black
swans that could influence topic/trends
2) Critically evaluate these
negative/positive forces as they might
impact topic/trends – with special
consideration for ethical and moral issues
3) Dialog with others to gain insight on
ethical and moral issues
1. Open discussion on the topic of “wild cards,”
“black swans” and how they may impact topics
2. Challenge students to consider ethical and
moral issues of their topic and potential
influences
3. Provide a forum for dialog and communication
Forecast relationship
between your topic,
trends and unexpected
events and
communicate
implications (potential
for change) by carrying
forward along a
timeline (no shorter
than 15 years)
FORMATIVE
1) Synthesizes information from findings
and communicates or illustrates
implications –potential for change – along
a timeline (that is no less than 15 years
out)
1) Synthesize data you gathered looking
for meaning and implications
2) Identify key drivers that will likely
influence or drive your topic In the future
3) Project (forecast) your findings along a
timeline of no less than 15 years out –
that represents potential for change –
and reveal ethical and moral issues
4) Dialog with others to gain insight on
ethical and moral issues
1. Guide students through process for
synthesizing data, and for layering meaning and
implications within their understandings
2. Guide students through methods for
forecasting – for tips see:
http://jcflowers1.iweb.bsu.edu/rlo/trends.htm )
3. Provide a forum for dialog and communication
– and check assumptions
Imagine and create 3
alternative scenarios of
the future of your
topic–include:
1. Expected (official)
2. Collapse (challenging)
3. Preferred
(asipirational)
FORMATIVE
1) Communicates, illustrates, dramatizes
the three alternative future scenarios he
created
1) Reflect on the forecasts you created,
the data you’ve synthesized and begin
forming assumptions about how your
topic may unfold in the future (a matrix is
a great way to take note of your ideas)
2) Imagine, day dream, envision three
alternative stories of the future of your
topic using your assumptions – add these
to your matrix
1. Provide a forum for dialog and communication
with the goal for checking assumptions
2. Engage students in visioning, imagining,
intuiting*, dreaming alternative futures -- make
sure there is plenty of time and space for
students to open their minds, and free
themselves from any worry about “getting it
right!” – Remind them that there are NO wrong
dreams!
9
DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
4) Create the narrative of your scenarios – 3. Provide opportunities for students to
making sure to address your own lens and communicate and express their stories
preparing to defend your ideas against
challenges that may arise from others
CAPSTONE project:
Communicate your
Preferred Future!
SUMMATIVE
1) Communicates preferred scenario in a
5-minute or more public presentation
(video, audio, drama, art, dialog, essay,
etc.).
2) Represents his PREFERRED future with
gusto! Rises to any challenges
Create a compelling narrative, play, video,
song that reveals your PREFERRED future
of your topic
Represent your scenario with gusto! Be
prepared for others to challenge your
assumptions of your future by knowing
the research you’ve done, standing up for
your own lens/values and articulating
your own thought processes
1. Guide students through developing a strong
communication piece that will convey their
PREFERRED future with reason, and empathy
2. Guide students through responding to
challenges
3. Provide time for students to practice their
presentations and dialog through challenges
Challenge your
colleagues
SUMMATIVE
Challenges others on their assumptions by
offering thoughtful questions and
constructive feedback (this can be done
publicly, anonymously, one-on-one ,etc)
Challenge the scenarios created by others 1. Provide students with Guidelines for
by offering thoughtful questions, and
constructive challenges/feedback
constructive feedback
*Listen to Oliver Markley’s “Opening to Intuition” available as an MP3
10
DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
APPENDIX B: ASSESSMENTS
At Foresight Education (FE), we believe that the most authentic way to capture what a student knows,
understands and has mastered is through authentic assessments. Authentic assessments provide the
student with opportunities to share what was learned within real life contexts and in forums where the
student receives immediate feedback and attention.
With this in mind, FE embeds assessment within lesson activities. This means that assessments are not
thought of as separate activities to be given outside of or in addition to lesson activities. Rather,
assessments are woven throughout topics, conversations, research, presentations and a final exhibit
(presentation, video/audio, open-mic/futures slam session). Additionally, the student is not thought of
as a separate unit -- to be judged by the teacher, who is also a separate unit. Instead, the student
participates alongside the teacher and classmates to determine the soundness of his/her
understandings.
The nature of these types of assessments reflects the pedagogical method for future studies, where the
student is guided to (a) think critically, (b) imagine and create, (c) solve problems, (d) hone his/her
abilities to make sense of factual evidence as it informs uncertainty and, (f) synthesize the evidence into
well-reasoned opportunities for success.
Importantly, these assessments reflect many of the core evaluation strategies found within AP and IB
schemas and the essential skills for 21st Century Skills and Knowledge. Beyond these well-regarded
schemas, the assessments incorporate those skills and abilities essential for mastering foresight:
Summative Assessments ask:
 Is the student investigating a wide range of sources that are global and local in nature and which













are appropriately culturally diverse and offer differing perspectives?
Is the student synthesizing information from a wide range of resources?
Is the student evaluating the reliability of information and resources?
Is the student comparing and contrasting evidence?
Is the student challenging his own assumptions?
Is the student challenging the assumptions of others?
Is the student making improvements based on the challenges posed by others of his work?
Is the student relying on his own values and experiences to inform the evidence and his
outcomes/product?
Formative Assessments ask:
Did the student develop a position on the relationship between certainty and doubt?
Did the student present evidence to substantiate his positions?
Did the student provide explanations, backed by sound evidence, that are convincing and which
also incorporates his own values?
Did the student present positions in a coherent, comprehensive way?
Did the student respond intelligently, coherently to challenges posed by others?
Did the student offer intelligent, thoughtful challenges to others?
NOTE: FE is currently in the process of linking our assessments to Badges. See Appendix B: Badges
11
DRAFT 4.0 – FORESIGHT EDUCATION GUIDE for CURRICULUM
Willis Goldbeck
Lisa Hasler-Waters
APPENDIX C: BADGES
At Foresight Education we believe that students learn best when learning is meaningful to them and when they are
recognized for their hard work in a way that transcends classroom walls. This is why we have integrated badges
into our assessment strategy. Badges are an innovative way to recognize student learning and mastery of skills
that stretch beyond the report card. The badging movement was initiated by Mozilla in partnership with
MacArthur Foundation and HASTAC5 and they are gaining traction among educators and supporters of education
reform. For example, in 2011, US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, announced at the Digital Media and
Learning Competition that the use of badges might be a “game-changing strategy,” that could contribute to the
education system.6 Some believe that badges represent more authentically signs of skills and knowledge
acquisition.
Badges are likened to badges earned in Boy or Girl Scouts, where children receive recognition for knowledge and
skills gained, that may not always be obvious, and which they can proudly display and share with others. A student
stores and displays the badges he has earned via his online portfolio, FaceBook, Twitter and just about any form of
social communication technologies. This enables him to share his accomplishments with his school, parents,
perspective colleges and employers, etc.
Badges are open source digital emblems that are issued by an authorizing agency, like schools, museums,
community service organizations, etc. The Smithsonian Institute is one organization that is on the leading edge of
the movement with its Quest programs. These programs inspire students to explore their own ideas and interests
online, in school, at home, and across the nation and then connect and reward learners as they learn through
discovery and collaboration. Teachers are using these programs in their classrooms and are already realizing
increase student motivation and learning success (See details at: http://smithsonianquests.org/about/).
Badges can be issued for any accomplishment, such as skill competency, knowledge competency, participation,
project completion, an internship and even self-directed tinkering. Even professionals are looking to badges for
credentialing purposes. Digital badging is also beginning to be integrated into undergraduate curricula.
Foresight Education badges are currently in development. They follow the Open Badges Standards (i.e. the
protocols and guidelines issued by Mozilla Open Badges to ensure accuracy, validity and reliability). 7 The two
prototype badges displayed below would be designated for students who participate in a Foresight Education
Program (Futurist Novice) and who master program outcomes (Aspire Futures). Badges can also be tied directly to
FE assessment strategies (See “Assessments” for details).
Prototype Badges:
5
Mozilla Open Badges. Retrieved on October 15, 2013 from http://openbadges.org/about/
US Department of Education. Retrieved on October 15, 2013 from http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/digital-badges-learning
7 Mozilla Open Badges. Retrieved on October 15, 2013 from http://openbadges.org/issue/
6
12