Future Thinker - Roger Dennis

I was very lucky tonight to be able to listen to Future Thinker and Strategist, Roger Dennis.
He spoke about a variety of things but what mainly stuck with me was :-

What are we preparing our students for in the future? 
If  the world and technology are changing so fast, why are we thinking in terms of jobs that are available now?
What skills do our students need in order to live in the world of the future?

Here are my notes. They are unedited and I make no apologies for them at all as they were typed on a phone!

Impact of technology on society

Futureagenda.org

Open source from workshops around the world. 

Four certainties 

Higher densities of people in the planet. Resource shortages. Water problem at the moment in a lot of areas. 

Decline of America and the rise of China in the world. 

Big change in geopolitical areas of the world.  Building new power bases while america has not. The western influence and values will change around the world to eastern values. 

Cultural icons will be eastern and Chinese. 

Everything that can will go online. 

Cascading systems. 

Technology. Ai. Robotics etc. This affects jobs and gets attention. This affects political system and so there is an effect. 

Climate change. Climate refugees. Extreme weather. Rising seas. Coastlines disappear. 

Sea is pushed back up the system and affects life in a big way. Action is taken in a reactionary way. Infrastructure costs are high and difficult to deal with once it happens. 

Thinking about the future is not about being exact. 

Vuca 

How can government be prepared?

Technology is a key driver. It changes so fast. Building blocks. Each stack gets faster as they go and can combine together to create different things. 

BRAINE

Biology. Building blocks of life. Understanding and ability to change these. 

Gene sequencing in less than a day and about $1000. 

Gene editing $2000. $500 last year. Faulty genes can be edited to affect incurable diseases. 

Computing costs and speeds enable this to happen. 

CRISPR kit. 

Double sided coin. 

Robotics. Built for new types of environment or for our environments. 

Infrastructure is changed to fit robots or robots are designed to fit in with human environment. 

Boston Dynamics. 

Artificial intelligence.

Deep mind trained to play Go. 

Deep learning. Version of AI. Outperforms humans in medical situations. 

Machines and people work side by side at the moment but the feedback from the people is making the machines better. People won’t be needed to work with them in the future.

Internet

100,000 fb every second round the world. 

Block chain. Takes out third party so banks and providers and governments are interested. This will influence world trade and information exchange. Bit coin is based on block chain. 

Transactions are written to a digital ledger so the processes are not needed to maintain it like the process now. 

Personal records will be safer and have less risk attached to them. 

Nano tech. Tour de France is starting to X-ray the bikes as motors and batteries are getting so small you can’t tell. 

Energy. Smaller circuits means efficient solar panels. Price of batteries and power storage is dropping. 

Drones. Example of how tech blocks are combining in new ways and applications. 

Recombination of blocks comes out in unexpected ways. 

How does this all affect jobs?

When it affects jobs it affects politics as they react to what is happening. 

Job s replaced will be rules based. 

Empathy. Collaboration.  Intuition.   Things people can’t do and machines can’t.  

Macro changes. Industry implications. Strategic questions. Www.Rogerdennis.com

The biggest blocker to change in a school is parents. They succeeded on a certain path so they think that is what their kid should do. 

That process is so different now. 

What are we preparing the students for at secondary if the pathway after school is getting so different. 

Software can build software that is better than what humans build. Coding is anyways of time for students under the age of 12 and it will be useless to them. 

The world need more question askers / philosophers now not more programmers. 

Students need to be able to pick up new skills quickly in the future as things change. 

Reading writing and basic maths are skills that will be needed at the basic level so the needs of young children will be the same there.  

If / when the power goes off what do you do?

It takes a long time to change human behaviour and a short time to change technology. 

Getting to know my Year 11 group ...

I sent my Year 11 group a Google Form today in a bid to start to get to know them a bit better so I can support them more this year in the DVC work.

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I asked then this question as we have 2 graphics teachers in the junior school and we both teach graphics in very different ways (which is a good thing). This gives me a good idea on who is used to my way of working and who isn't.

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What did you like or not like about Graphics in Year 10?

i don't like editing, i most like actually drawing
i don't know
I liked making 3D designs on that website that I have forgot.
I like making design T-shirt
It was fun
I don't know because i'm not graphics in year 10
I dislike nothing about Graphics but i like the fact that every lesson is more knowledge.
I liked the activities... but I did not like the explaining and explanations that our teacher gave us weither they were a reliever or not
i like everything
everything
I didn't get to learn as much as I wanted to learn from my class.
I enjoyed everything to do with graphics. Last year, I did a painting for Mr Pineda, and the outcome was alright and I enjoyed that a lot.
Designing
I enjoyed the journey
Everything
I like everything.


It is good to read that they enjoyed the work and wanted to learn. Even their frustrations around certain aspects in this feedback are based around wanting to learn which is very encouraging.

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It is nice to see that most of the class actually  chose to be there. This makes it so much easier to "push" them towards the higher levels like I want to, as they are motivated to do it.

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What other subjects are you doing this year?

i have English, Science and Maths only
English and Maths
Bcats, Maths, English and Science.
Maths,2 English, Science , and Graphics.
Maths, science, english, art
maths
English
Science
P.E
Physical education/P.E
P.E.
idk
P.E (physical education)
Visual Arts
music
BCATS
Digitech
Automotive

There is the usual mix here of what I see when students come to DVC. 

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This was a very interesting result for me. Over half my group are thinking about University or other courses straight after school. This is even more reason to push / support them to gain high quality credits so they get into Level 2 and Level 3 with a knowledge of what it takes to gain at that higher level.

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Why did you choose Design and Visual Communication this year?

I need it for what I want to be after I leave school
I need it for what I want to be after I leave school
I needed another option to fill my timetable
I chose it because I enjoy it
I chose it because I enjoy it, I needed another option to fill my timetable
I need it for what I want to be after I leave school
It was put onto my timetable
I need it for what I want to be after I leave school
I need it for what I want to be after I leave school, I chose it because I enjoy it
I needed another option to fill my timetable
I chose it because I enjoy it
I need it for what I want to be after I leave school, I chose it because I enjoy it
I need it for what I want to be after I leave school
I need it for what I want to be after I leave school, I needed another option to fill my timetable
I chose it because I enjoy it, Because...
I need it for what I want to be after I leave school, I chose it because I enjoy it


This is a nice mix of knowing that they need this subject for what they want to do after school and enjoying it.

I must get them to fill in something for me so I know what they are thinking of doing after school as I did not ask this time. It is good to see them being on to it and knowing what they need in order to get where they want to go.

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I am pleased that the students like group work as I intend to build a lot more into the course. They have done a little bit so far in some activities.

I like that there is a range here. This challenges me to provide support in many different ways.

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What are you good at? (think about things in school and out of school - your main strengths)

im good at drawing, i like drawing and when im out of school sometime i do teakwondo by myself.
playing
Playing sports
In school I'm good at Sciences and at home I'm good at dancing and singing.
idk
i'm good to do a work by myself in school.
Designs and patterns
I really good at time management, creativity, explaining things for others that need help, skilled at drawing (freehand), organising, I am also really good at sports especially dancing, really good choreography, very intelligent for academics, i'm really good at creating posters, good at singing, writing fiction stories...etc
Online gaming, and Art
reading
I am talented at art, and creativity especially with free hand, I am also talented at dancing, hip hop dancing to be specific. I'm also good at some sports but prefer not to participate in a team. I am good with my time management when attending school and meeting the deadlines for my assessment.
I am familiar with technological devices, I am quite good at football, and visual designing. I am also good at making videos.
everything
I'm really familiar with the art of breathing.
Apparently, I'm good at toning in a sarcastic way
Skilled Basketball player, mastered the arts of breaking ankles
I am a Fast Typer
I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT I'M GOOD AT!!!!
chess

I love that they are so free with what they are good at. Apart from one!

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Where do you think you need more help? - Think about working in class and what you need support with.

i just need to improve myself how to speak english properly and to know the right grammar
nothing
Nothing
nothing i understand the work.
understanding whats going on sometimes
nothing
Online work, creative templates and being very creative
I need more help with knowledge and information about how a graphics designer would design different kinds of things (e.g logos, building structure, posters,...etc) digitally.
I dont know
idk
I need more help with some knowledge and experience in learning other ways to create amazing designs or pieces, Digital and on hand.
I could use more help with calculating similar triangles, and become familiar with a scale factor.
idk
I need support maths, science, and English
I need support in pretty much every subject.
IDK
communication with others and talking in front of people

I don't mind that some of them put "I don't know" here as we are covering new things and skills this year and you can't really know what you need help with till you have tired them.

I is good to see that they are keen to learn new things and skills.

I love that there is mention of grammar and english skills here as this is a big focus this year.