"We are poised at a crossroads between a past that is outgrown and a future we must choose. This book examines the multiple ways that wisdom, grounded in life experience, science and theoretical knowledge, can contribute to positive and sustainable local and global futures. The authors in this book have brought their thinking to various aspects of this existential challenge using the lenses of Wisdom and Wise Practice, in an effort to explore ideas by which society might make choices in planning and acting for a wiser future. Wisdom practices have developed over millennia to assist people in approaching and managing life experiences and difficulties. While such practices were originally considered the purview of academic and religious scholars; at this important time in history, it must become everyone's responsibility to wisely look ahead if we are to achieve a sustainable future for society. The authors of this book comprise international future-oriented leaders, scholars, practitioners, community members and commentators with a commitment to social justice, human service and development. The book explores the place of wisdom and wise living practices alongside other ways of knowing and acting, for shaping positive futures for people and the world we inhabit. The chapters examine major challenges across political, physical and social life worlds, aiming to promote a quantum shift in discourse and decision making to address current and future challenges. The four parts of the book follow forward thinking ideas of wise professional practice: Facing future challenges, Exploring practice pathways, Examining options and Future possibilities"--

Nautilus Gold Award Winner (Books for a Better World) in Social Sciences & Education Create inclusive, democratic classrooms that prepare knowledgeable, compassionate, and engaged global citizens. Today’s global challenges—climate change, food and water insecurity, social and economic inequality, and a global pandemic—demand that educators prepare students to become compassionate, critical thinkers who can explore alternative futures. Their own, others’, and the planet’s well-being depend on it. Worldwise Learning presents a "Pedagogy for People, Planet, and Prosperity" that supports K-8 educators in nurturing "Worldwise Learners": students who both deeply understand and purposefully act when learning about global challenges. Coupling theory with practice, this book builds educators’ understanding of how curriculum and meaningful interdisciplinary learning can be organized around local, global, and intercultural issues, and provides a detailed framework for making those issues come alive in the classroom. Richly illustrated, each innovative chapter asserts a transformational approach to teaching and learning following an original three-part inquiry cycle, and includes: Practical classroom strategies to implement Worldwise Learning at the lesson level, along with tips for scaffolding students’ thinking. Images of student work and vignettes of learning experiences that help educators visualize authentic Worldwise Learning moments. Stories that spotlight Worldwise Learning in action from diverse student, teacher, and organization perspectives. An exemplar unit plan that illustrates how the planning process links to and can support teaching and learning about global challenges. QR codes that link to additional lesson and unit plans, educational resources, videos of strategies, and interviews with educators and thought leaders on a companion website, where teachers can discuss topics and share ideas with each other. Worldwise Learning turns students into local and global citizens who feel genuine concern for the world around them, living their learning with intention and purpose. The time is now.

How to teach big understandings and the ideas that matter most Everyone has an opinion about education, and teachers face pressures from Common Core content standards, high-stakes testing, and countless other directions. But how do we know what today's learners will really need to know in the future? Future Wise: Educating Our Children for a Changing World is a toolkit for approaching that question with new insight. There is no one answer to the question of what's worth teaching, but with the tools in this book, you'll be one step closer to constructing a curriculum that prepares students for whatever situations they might face in the future. K-12 teachers and administrators play a crucial role in building a thriving society. David Perkins, founding member and co-director of Project Zero at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, argues that curriculum is one of the most important elements of making students ready for the world of tomorrow. In Future Wise, you'll learn concepts, curriculum criteria, and techniques for prioritizing content so you can guide students toward the big understandings that matter. Understand how learners use knowledge in life after graduation Learn strategies for teaching critical thinking and addressing big questions Identify top priorities when it comes to disciplines and content areas Gain curriculum design skills that make the most of learning across the years of education Future Wise presents a brand new framework for thinking about education. Curriculum can be one of the hardest things for teachers and administrators to change, but David Perkins shows that only by reimagining what we teach can we lead students down the road to functional knowledge. Future Wise is the practical guidebook you need to embark on this important quest.

THRIVING IN THE 21ST CENTURY Humans have a unique capability to both understand their situation in the world and to envision and act to realise their aspirations in the emerging world. And most of us would welcome knowing how we can become ever more skilful at both understanding, and shaping the future of, our emerging world, so that we can thrive in it. The 21st century is very different from the 20th century. Globalisation, the greatest economic prosperity uplifting machine humanity has ever invented, and mass education, are combining to sweep humanity into an emerging interdependent global village. It is creating a global educated middle class that will number 5 billion in 2030. In this emerging world, a world where our future prosperity will be increasingly based on metaphysical wealth, on what we know, 20th century nation-first, competitive, win/lose, mindsets and agendas can no longer work. These now yesteryear mindsets will instead undermine our best endeavours, including making our future ever more climate and pandemic safe. Humanity is now beginning to learn that it now has no option but to adopt planet-first, collaborative, win/win values and mindsets, if it wishes to shape our emerging global village so that it can become liveable for all: ever more prosperous, harmonious, inclusive, sustainable, healthy, and secure. Meeting these challenges successfully will require that humanity innovates for itself a new future knowledge curriculum so that it can economically thrive in a sustainable and humane manner. Peter Ellyard has asked the question: what would be the contents of such a curriculum? In The Future Knowledge Compendium: A Curriculum for Thriving in the 21st Century, he has sought to answer this question.

This book introduces the concept of the wise home. Whilst smart homes focus on automation technologies, forcing users to deal with complex and incomprehensible control and programming procedures, the wise home is different. By going beyond intelligence (or smartness) the wise home puts technology in the background and supports explicit (enhanced user-experience) as well as implicit (artificial intelligence) interaction adequate to the end-user’s needs. The theoretical basis of the wise home is explored and examples for its application for future living are presented based on empirical studies and field work carried out by the author. Principles of HCI and the meaning of the home from differing scientific perspective are discussed and a research model (based on the concept of user experience (UX)) and iterations is introduced. This has resulted in field deployment guides being produced through a systematic development process. The Future Home is Wise, not Smart will be essential reading to home system developers, designers and researchers, responsible for smart home deployment or Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) who will get insights on how to follow a novel approach in developing and adapting smart home systems to their users’ needs. Students with an interest in software design for pervasive systems will benefit by receiving information on how to develop and customise systems for the specific needs of living environments.

Mike Cooley One of the most remarkable features of modern industrial society, is the gap between that which technology could provide for society (its potential) and that which it actually does provide for society (its reality). We have for example, complex control systems which can guide a missile to another continent with extraordinary accuracy, yet the blind and the disabled have to stagger around our cities in very much the same way as they did in mediaeval times. There are advanced communication systems enabling messages to be sent around the world in a fraction of a second, but it now takes longer to send an ordinary letter from Washington to New York than it did in the days of the stage coach. Such a growing chasm between potential and reality, is giving rise to a thorough questioning of many of the orthodoxies in these areas and the priorities on which they are based. Similar contradictions, even if at this stage less obvious and dramatic, abound in the field of manufacturing technology. There, we find technologies which have the potential of liberating human beings from soul destroying, routine, backbreaking tasks and leave them free to engage in more creative work, but which in reality, often end up reducing the human being to a mere machine appendage, acted upon by the technology and becoming a passive, pathetic element in the productive system rather than a creative, dynamic human being.

"A must read for anyone in the business of leading others." Ken May, CEO of Top Golf; former CEO of Fedex "If you want your team to stay focused, you will want to read Can I Have Your Attention?" Chester Elton, New York Times Best-Selling author of All In, The Carrot Principle and What Motivates Me Inspire better work habits. Focus your team. Get stuff done in the constantly connected workplace. As our workloads expand, attention has never been more valuable. Or more difficult to keep. In Can I Have your Attention?, Curt Steinhorst shows business leaders how to cut through the noise and get their employees back to work. Curt has spent years helping Fortune 500 companies overcome distraction and achieve focus. With technology creating endless opportunites to "improve productivity", people spend so much time responding to the interruptions that they've lost the ability to focus and do their jobs. Yet, the potential for harnessing the power of your team's attention has never been greater--if you can capture it. You'll learn how to: Implement a comprehensive organizational strategy to increase focus and overcome digital distraction. Take back control of the technology in your organization and life. Establish a Communication Compact, defining how, when, and why your team will communicate with each other. Create a "vault" to increase productivity, decrease stress, and boost your creativity. Free yourself and your employees from the never-ending flood of emails and messages. Achieve unmatched focus in the age of distraction. The smartphone isn't going away. Learn the simple rules and guidelines that will improve focus and create the mental space needed for your people to work to their full potential.

"Futures - Open to Variety" is the easy-to-read manual for the wise use of the later-than-now. It will boost your appetite for futures work and provides many concrete suggestions for what you can do in your context. Selected futures methods are presented for practical use. The author shares personal encounters and deep insights from the many futures processes he conducted or advised. Meaningful illustrations facilitate your journey towards higher futures literacy. Contents 1. Talking to Each Other - Dialogue 2. Ask Powerful Questions 3. Dealing with Complexity 4. Involve Many Different People 5. Consider Different Systems 6. The Trend May Be Your Friend 7. Scenarios Open the Mind 8. Visions: Images of Desirable Futures 9. Where We Are: Indicators 10. Searching for a Common Future 11. Looking at Several Levels 12. News from the Futures Literacy Laboratory 13. Inquire Appreciatively 14. Discover the Future in a Playful Way 15. Digital Tools for Futures 16. Futures Dialogue of the German Chancellor 17. Futures of Cities 18. Government Strategy Wellbeing in Germany 19. Shaping Digitalization: #gutlebendigital This book was written for all those who are concerned with the future. Which is basically everyone. Because even when you cross the street, you are dealing with the future. Will the cyclist from the right arrive at a certain point at the same time as you will? Then you should adjust your plan for crossing the road accordingly. You do not need this book for this adjustment. However, future developments are often not so easy to predict, and it is often not possible to make reliable plans. While we might wish for this certainty and predictability, all too often it is unrealistic. The book offers some signposts, backgrounds, experiences, and ideas for action for the confident handling of uncertainty. These ideas should enable the readers to make the various images and assumptions about futures visible and usable in the present. There are many approaches and methods for this. The competency to use these methods for different purposes is called futures literacy. It could be one of the most important competencies of humankind in the 21st century.

The World Cafe is a flexible, easy-to-use process for fostering collaborative dialogue, sharing mutual knowledge, and discovering new opportunities for action. Based on living systems thinking, this innovative approach creates dynamic networks of conversation that can catalyze an organization or community's own collective intelligence around its most important questions. Filled with stories of actual Cafe dialogues in business, education, government, and community organizations across the globe, this uniquely crafted book demonstrates how the World Cafe can be adapted to any setting or culture. Examples from such varied organizations as Hewlett-Packard, American Society for Quality, the nation of Singapore, the University of Texas, and many others, demonstrate the process in action. Along with its seven core design principles, The World Cafe offers practical tips for hosting "conversations that matter" in groups of any size- strengthening both personal relationships and people's capacity to shape the future together.