Module 3 Think Like a Futurist: Goal and Objectives

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GOAL: Participants' overall goal is to gain a solid working knowledge of futures studies and what it means to think like a futurist. When you complete the course, you will know:

  • what futurism is,
  • a brief history of how futurism/futures studies came about,
  • a number of key terms associated with futurism and their definitions and applications,
  • numerous processes and methodologies employed when making forecasts,
  • notable futurists within the field worth knowing about,
  • available and probable futurist-type careers along with their characteristics and qualifications, and
  • know where to find pertinent information about organizations, conferences, and other valuable resources to use in your future studies.
    • Objective 1: Participants will be able to identify and understand a number of futuring methodologies, with which process they may work the best, and how they can be combined and applied for maximum strategic effect.
        • Read and review the futuring methods listed in the Terms & Definitions section and discover several that appeal to you.
        • Explore the resources to gain an understanding of what those methods are, what they can do and how to use them in a futures forecast.
    • Objective 2: Examine and develop a basic understanding of the various techniques/processes used by futurists to plan for change.
        • Once you have a firm understanding of those processes that appealed to you as listed in the Terms & Definitions section, you should be able to evaluate them and determine which ones are the most appropriate for personal or professional forecasting considerations.
    • Objective 3: Participants will learn about a number of notable futurists. After reviewing the material, you will understand how diverse futurists and their backgrounds and philosophies and approaches truly are.
        • Upon exploring several Noted Futurists, you should begin to grasp how they conduct their forecasts and their major areas of focus.
    • Objective 4: Read and review the Futurist Careers section to learn what some believe will be the careers of the future. You will then be able to point out what major concepts and rational are behind many futurist careers.
        • Evaluate what you discovered from the Futurist Careers section, then think about some of the positions you have seen recently or in the recent past
        • Compare the various attributes of the positions you discovered to ones you know of today.
    • Objective 5: Participants will be able to recognize significant historical people, places, and futuring terms and definitions that were and are crucial to the ongoing development of futures studies.
        • Once you have reviewed as many of the resources that you found interesting, test and solidify your understanding in the Think Like a Futurist Quiz.

A Think Like a Futurist Badge will be awarded for the following:

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