Pitch to the Futurist Community

Hello futurists!

My name is Venessa, I'm a graduate student at The New School in NYC, pursuing an MA in Media Studies. I'm in the process of putting together a proposal to introduce an "Emergent Media & Futures Studies" curriculum into the program, and would love any guidance, feedback, or collaboration from the community here.

I've been thinking a lot about how to get Futures Studies to go 'mainstream,' and I'm hoping that this project will be able to act as a template to that end. I'm envisioning a three step process at our university:

1. Begin integrating futures material into current course offerings, and roll out a series of foundational futures studies courses
2. Combine this coursework into its own Certificate program (the school offers 12 credit certificates than can be taken as part of the MA or separately by the general public)
3. Launch a MA in Futures Studies

Now, it may take several years to get from step 1 to step 3, but I'm prepared for that. My main focus is how to launch step 1.

I think I'm sitting at a dynamic spot here at the intersection of media and futures studies. I've looked through all the courses offered within my program, and though there are plenty that cover 'new media', there are very few that look at social technologies and study the emergent behaviors (crowdsourcing, smart mobs, mass collaboration, social mobile gaming, social change possibilities via social networking and collaborative mobile technologies, emergent democracy, etc) that are arising from them, and thinking about their social/cultural/economic impacts and implications. To me this seems like an opportunity to fill those gaps.

My idea was to introduce a series of courses that would cover these topics, and then pull futures studies into it as well. What are the core concepts or coursework that should be pulled in? How can this information be integrated in a way that will create a foundation for transitioning into a full accredited MA in Futures Studies program?

As a supplement to this curriculum, I also want to roll out an open source web portal that will be used as a learning center/resource/hub for media students to understand the implications of accelerating change within context. Part of the curriculum will be for students to create media that conveys these concepts. I'm envisioning 3-5 minute videos, that give an overview of a topic, and answer the 'so what' question of why it matters. The videos would be available for anyone to reuse or share. There would also be infographics and other visualizations to show trends and make sense of big picture ideas. The reason I think it's potentially so powerful to launch this from within a media program, is because the content the students will be creating will in itself be promoting Futures Studies by displaying the validity of how introducing foresight and systems thinking can lead to creating more effective messages. I see it as being a positive feedback loop, with the input of foresight education reinforcing the output of media content. Content informed by foresight = interest in content informed by futures thinking = interest in futures studies. (at least that's my logic) I think a big barrier to the acceptance or dissemination of futures studies education has been its accessibility; creating digestible media to explain things will open the floodgates to interest and integration.

The website will also have an educator section, where this template I mentioned earlier would be located, as well as sample syllabi, modules, and course topic ideas, all available for professors to use. This section will be in wiki format, so new material can be added by educators anywhere. It'll be similar to the Foresight Education Project wiki, but with a media education twist.

I'd like the site to be open source, where anyone can contribute or partner up. I'd like to set it up as a foundation/non-profit, rather than a site specifically affiliated with The New School or any particular program. I'd hope to get support from various organizations, such as the WFSF, WFS, ASF, colleges and universities, and anyone else interested in promoting the diffusion of Futures Studies into traditional educational programs.

Intrigued?

What I'm working on now is how to put together the perfect "pitch", which would include:

- A clear, concise, and easily digestible answer to the question "What is Futures Studies?"

- Why integration of foresight education is critical

- Guidelines/framework for integrating futures studies material into current course offerings

- list of 'core' futures studies coursework to roll out (ie - a methods course, a theory course)

- sample syllabi, concepts

Anyone interested in collaborating with me this, or offering resources to point me in the right direction, please respond here or email me directly at venessamiemis@gmail.com. Thank you!