As a student in the class, I have to say, I see what Nancy White and George Siemens are saying and I completely missed out the socio-political aspects of trends when I was thinking of future trends.

My thinking of the future is so much skewed towards technology and high-tech equipment that I completely forgot that we could possibly be in the midst of a global meltdown in terms of natural resources running out, drastic climate change, marked increase in natural disasters over a concentrated period of time, etc. These seem to be trends in themselves but because I’ve been “conditioned” to think of the future and future trends as a Star Trek / Star Wars future of touchscreens, iPads and holodecks, these other trends aren’t readily apparent to me and until they were mentioned by Nancy. Peak oil and pandemics will have a greater impact on technology than if Apple release the iPhone 4G or 5G or 25G, for example, so why aren’t I thinking of that? Good call, Nancy.

The trend of multi-membership is also one I found interesting; it’s something we mentioned when we talked about social networks in Point 19 (Growth in Social Networks and use of social networks in professional life) but didn’t really dwell much upon. I do think, though, that these will have a huge impact on the way people learn just because the breadth and scope of our educational resources have multiplied tenfold in the last ten years or so. Of course, this comes with it’s own difficulties. It calls up the problems of multiple identities (something we listed) as well as multi-tasking (the DREADED word). Does it make us more productive? Arguably, yes. Does it reduce the quality of the product? Arguably also, yes. But maybe that’s the age we’re moving into – the cookie-cutter, processed, packaged and served-in-a-pill age.

With Mark’s comments, I agree how he feels that we need to look more at the macro view of structures, evaluation models and government funding instead of the “sexy” technological aspects. I think these are there and I certainly am aware of them but I think we’re just picking out the micro details and working out the macros (which are always fairly constant and easy to identify but HARD to change) later. I don’t think it’s good to ignore them but I think them not being there in that list doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about them.

Finally, my favourite point (brought up by George and Nancy) is about patterns. I imagine everything we’re talking about, the socio-political, the technological, even the people themselves are intertwined in some strange way. It’s complicated to map and I don’t have a clue how to start (I’m sure you’ll guide us along, Dave – be gentle) and we’ve only got 4 days but I like thinking that everything is connected and with enough thinking, we can see the big picture emerge.

I guess this pattern thing to me, is kinda like watching the TV show, Lost. I’m confused yet excited yet fearful but I know (I hope) the ending’s going to pay off in some big connected pattern (my apologies if you haven’t seen Lost – where have you been?!)