One of the workshops at the recent LIFT12 conference focused on the future of schooling and education.

Looking at how technology has brought about profound changes in the way we relate to information and knowledge; how we’re all connected to the Internet; that there are OpenCourseWare curricula available for all; that physical mobility is an issue and so on…

Entitled “Rebooting Higher Education“, participants were asked to look at the influence of digital technologies on people and society and imagine they were now in the year 2049. Then they were asked to backcast to twenty-five years before. That was in 2025!

Working groups were given the task of imagining a day in the life of a persona such as a high school graduate entering university, a freshly tenured university professor (does tenure still exist?), a mid-life worker with a life-long-learning mindset, a parent, employer…

Groups came up with all sorts of imaginative responses, but what is absolutely incredible, none of them questioned the existence of electricity. Technology was available to all and was used extensively. People no longer were paid in money as we know it today, but in credits.

The food in the fridge was supplied by people who in return were provided services: websites, security, transport. The screen on the fridge informed householders of the need to exchange new credits in order to obtain refills. But the very fact of keeping the food fresh wasn’t questioned. Obviously it was kept cool by the fridge…

NO-ONE STOPPED TO WONDER WHERE THE ELECTRICITY CAME FROM, WHO GENERATED IT, WHO SUPPLIED IT…

Electricity is taken for granted