A Thanksgiving

As regular readers know, we are big fans of the Three Horizons framework developed by Bill Sharpe and his colleagues at the International Futures Forum. For us, the framework is a useful infrastructure for our imagination, providing us a space and process to think about the changing world and our current practices (Horizon 1), the future we desire (Horizon 3), and the innovations that will bridge the present and future (Horizon 2).

The thinking we do in Learning Futures is built around three questions grounded in these Horizons:

• What is happening in the world that worries us, that gives us cause for concern that our current practices are no longer relevant or fit for purpose?

• What new things are working in the world; what innovations are emerging that might disrupt or sustain our current practices?

• What gives us hope for the future? What signs of the future we desire are alive, even if imperfectly, in the world today?

While we do try to inject each issue with a bit of hope, we often find ourselves dwelling in our worries and focusing on the challenges and risks ahead.

However, since this is Thanksgiving week in the United States, in this issue we’d like to offer you three signals from the future that inspire us.

A heartfelt thank you to you, our readers. We appreciate your attention and hope that you find value in our explorations of the future. If you do, please take a moment to share Learning Futures.

Solutions-oriented Learning

Driven in part by their students’ anxieties about the future, teachers at Monarch High School and Peak to Peak Charter School are creating new, interdisciplinary, solutions-oriented, project-based approaches to learning and thinking about sustainability. Aside from increased engagement in learning and improved academic success, the hope, says Kristie Letter, who teaches innovation and design at Peak to Peak, is to give students “the capacity to be heard, to have a platform, to be changemakers, and to make that change . . .”

Why we’re thankful

This approach invites students and teachers to think across disciplines about how to tackle complex, interconnected problems. It encourages creativity and innovation, fostering the development of novel solutions beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. The approach also prepares students for a future workforce that values diverse problem-solving strategies and the ability to work across disciplines. Moreover, it promotes critical thinking and understanding of different perspectives, essential skills in a globally interconnected and diverse world.Perhaps more importantly, it seeds hope and invites young people to seek solutions not just see problems.  Stella Corzine, a 16-year-old student at Peak to Peak Charter School, captured the essence of this shift when she said, “A lot of the time when we focus on climate change and global climate crises (in school), we look at all of the negatives that we can’t change instead of looking to the future and thinking about how we can adapt as a society so that we can make a better future for ourselves.”

Crosstown High School

The Crosstown Concourse in Memphis is a million-square-foot renovated building that was previously a Sears office and distribution center. Opened in 2017, the Concourse is a unique example of urban redevelopment, combining retail, business, health, and art facilities.

Crosstown High School is a central part of the Concourse community, occupying three of the building's floors. The school offers a combination of project- and problem-based learning connected to opportunities in the Concourse and across Memphis. It is a school where, by design, students learn with people who don’t think and look like them, where they consider what it takes to be a thriving community, and where they work to make a difference now. This year, the school celebrated its first graduating class.

Why we’re thankful

We value Crosstown’s commitment to student-led, interdisciplinary learning, and its recognition that learning for adults and students is often not a linear path but rather a cycle of trial, error, reflection, and improvement. We love the idea that the academic year starts with a "Dis-Orientation" week, designed to encourage students to question norms and take ownership of their learning journey. And we appreciate that the school challenges every student to explore their identities, inviting introspection, self-awareness, and personal growth alongside academic achievement. Finally, we are inspired by the school’s commitment to involving the community from the start. The school's vision was not predetermined, but emerged from a process of discovery with the adults and students the school would serve. This human-centered approach led to a school that is “more like a basecamp than a container . . . a place that [is] agile, and emergent, and fluid,” qualities that will enable Crosstown to adapt as the world and community change around it.

(Watch the trailer at https://www.thefirstclass.org/#trailer)

Oodi

The Oodi Library in Helsinki, Finland, is a unique cultural space that serves as a community center, an alternative working and learning space, and a platform for citizen initiatives.

Each of its three floors has a unique purpose and design. The ground floor is a lively and noisy space, housing a café, a restaurant, a cinema, and multi-purpose rooms for workshops and events. The middle floor is a haven for creativity. It features a recording studio, rooms for group work, a makerspace (complete with 3D printers, sewing machines, and other tools), and a space for children and families. This floor embodies the concept of a modern library being a space for active learning and creation, not just passive consumption. The top floor is a "book heaven" where visitors can find the main collection of books. It's a serene and calm space for reading and contemplation, featuring comfortable seating and beautiful views of the city. This floor also houses a specific area for children and a multi-purpose room for studying and working.

Despite criticism regarding the high cost (€98 million) and the need for more traditional library services like book collections, Oodi has experienced significant success. In 2019, its first year, it received 3.1 million visits and hosted 7,000 events with over 300,000 participants. In 2023, up to 20,000 people are visiting Oodi each day.

Oodi's success is a testament to the effectiveness of engaging the public in the planning process which involved over 3,000 citizens and numerous workshops, discussions, and events to collect ideas, wishes, and feedback. One of the most significant efforts was a participatory budgeting process which allocated €100,000 of the library's budget to be spent according to citizens' wishes.

Why we’re thankful

Sam Chaltain, who writes about the future of learning, visited Oodi earlier this year, and came away wondering if it just might be the “ideal school” of the future. “Whereas  . . . schools are still characterized by a culture of teaching,” says Chaltain, “Oodi stands as a beacon of learning -- self-organizing, emergent, and overflowing with the life force of its inhabitants.”What if schools were spaces of aesthetic beauty, designed for social interaction and to create conditions that can ignite curiosity, creativity, and awe?What if schools prioritize the health and happiness of students and teachers as much as academic achievement?

What if schools, recognizing the rapid pace of change in the world, were designed to be adaptable and open to emerging needs in the community? We are grateful that Oodi inspires us to take these questions seriously and to imagine a transformative future for schooling.

What signals from the future of learning inspire you?

As we said above, noticing what inspires us today - especially the innovations thatthat are on the cutting edge, not yet widely accepted or implemented – can reveal, if we look closely, the Third Horizon future we desire. The work happening at Oodi, Crosstown High, Monarch High and Peak to Peak Charter School reveals many of our hopes for the future of learning:

• Innovation and Adaptability: These institutions show a commitment to innovative practices and flexible environments, which allows them to adapt to the changing needs of students, educators, and the community.

• Community Integration: These institutions are deeply integrated into their local communities, engaging the public in their operations and decision-making processes, and offering real-world learning opportunities.

• Student-Centered Approaches: In these examples, students are empowered to lead their own learning journeys, fostering personal growth, self-awareness, and the development of leadership skills.

• Holistic Wellness: These schools demonstrate a commitment to the overall well-being of students, staff, and community by creating supportive, inclusive, and aesthetically pleasing environments.

• Interdisciplinary Learning: The educational approach breaks down traditional disciplinary boundaries, promoting creativity, critical thinking, and solutions-oriented learning.

A future for education grounded in these values excites us. We also know that this list is both incomplete and shaped by our own biases and experiences. We would love to hear from you about how well these values align with your hopes for the future, and about the schools, programs, practices, and institutions that inspire you. Please share your thoughts in the comments below or send us an email at [email protected].

Generative AI Disclosure and Reflections

For this issue we worked with GPT-4.0 to help summarize key ideas about each inspiring signal. This process was very dialectic. Often what the AI left out of its summary revealed more about what we found important. We used that dialogue as the foundation for a first draft. With a draft in hand, we opened our new editor bot in Poe (based in GPT-4 and designed specifically for helping with this newsletter), and asked it for feedback, some of which we applied and some we ignored. After 3-4 rounds of revision and feedback, we had a draft we were ready to publish.