Children and Young People As Sources Of Weak Signals
Putting this placeholder here as I begin to think through what this might mean in practice. This article helpfully defines a weak signal (apologies it's behind a paywall). As I think about my project I am beginning to explore how children and young people (CYP) might (a) be both sources of weak signals and interpreters of them and (b) how we might engage with CYP to use weak signals in order to reflect on the future and use that to critically co-create their present.
Two quotes from this wonderful PhD thesis by Stuart Candy (2010).
This first one is from a talk by Bruce Sterling (who is paraphrasing Warren Ellis):
There's a middle distance between the complete collapse of infrastructure and some weird geek dream of electronically knowing where all your stuff is. Between apocalyptic politics and Nerd-vana, is the human dimension. How this stuff is taken on board, by smart people, at street level. ... That's where the story lies... in this spread of possible futures, and the people, on the ground, facing them. The story has to be about people trying to steer, or condemn other people, toward one future or another, using everything in their power. That's a big story.
The second is from Candy himself:
Humanity appears to be caught between two competing visions for society, two kinds of future: one appears to be unthinkably bad, the other unimaginably good. The paradox is that, vague though they are, the diametrically opposed potentials both have an aura of plausibility. Strangely enough, the balance between these competing images of the future seems to shift depending on what evidence you happen to attend to at the moment, and even on your mood as you consider them. It is as if the slider of the probable future moves depending on how you tilt your mind.
We would do well to keep both these ideas in mind we consider the future of education.
Learning Intentions and Success Criteria from the Near Future
The artefact below, a set of learning intentions and success criteria, below is an example of how design fiction/speculative design (see post below) might work in the context of education.
Introduction
The idea that, in the not-too-distant future, pupils could use ChatGPT or similar to write assignments has been making waves in education circles. Without getting bogged down in the wider debates, the artefact is an attempt to think through what a writing lesson might attempt to do in this possible future reality.
For the uninitiated, learning intentions (LI) set out what students should be able to understand, do or value by the end of a lesson; they provide focus for teachers’ planning decisions and guide student learning. Success criteria (SC) indicate the different levels of achievement in a task and support students in understanding those expectations.
The Artefact
The artefact above as a set of LI and SC are not perfect by any means, but I hope it highlights how a piece of design fiction might stimulate conversation around what a writing lesson in the near future might be, and, crucially therefore, what do we think is important about a writing lesson now.
What is Design Fiction?
Design fiction is the practice of creating speculative stories, products or services that explore how we might live and interact in future. As my interest is futures thinking about education, I use it as a way of imagining and speculating how things could be if certain technologies, pedagogies, and curricula were to be used within education in new ways. It helps us to consider social norms, ethics, economics, and other aspects of our contemporary education systems. Design fictions often use mediums such as films, books, audio dramas and interactive experiences to bring stories to life.
By using these methods, we can identify opportunities and challenges in order to have meaningful discussions about what we want educational futures to look like. In short, design fictions allow us to craft thought-provoking stories about what could be and consider collaboratively whether the scenarios are desirable and what we might do about them.
In my MSc work I am beginning to look at how we might use design fiction pedagogically – as a tool to help pupils reflect on the futures they want. This could be quite specific; for example, questions of the purposes and methodologies of education, or more generally to reflect on the societies(s) they inhabit.
Hi
This simple blog is a place for me to think aloud as I engage with my MSc studies and my professional work across e-Sgoil and the Northern Alliance RIC. You can find more me on Twitter & Mastodon.Scot.