Hat tip to Doug Belshaw for this. The 2006-2016 Knowledgeworks Foundation and the Institute for the Future have published this map of future forces affecting education. It definitely needs to be explored online – I tried printing it out so that I could work through it offline, but it will take better eyes than mine to achieve that!

It looks at family & community; markets; institutions; educators & learning and tools & practices. Each of these is looked at from the perspective of grassroots economics; smart networking; strong opinions, strongly held; sick hero (increasing signs of distress and health problems); urban wilderness and the end of cyberspace (from physical v digital to physical-and-digital).

A lot of what is covered has been discussed on the blogosphere already and, of course, my own area of interest falls largely within the category addressing the move towards a seamless integration of physical and digital learning environments and tools. However, all factors impact one another, so there is a risk involved in focusing purely on my own area of interest, and taking issue with the predictions, without giving the other influences a fair hearing.

This is when I am frustrated by my big-picture limitations in respect of the big picture view. Oh, to have the kind of brain that is able to make all these connections and grasp the potential impact of one field on another!