Geoff, thank you for the excellent expansion of Module 8 with Assignment
8.3. It really raises the final work product of the course to a hefty doctoral
level. As I reviewed it, I kept thinking that, yes, it is challenging; on the
other hand, I cannot imagine a student who completes this not taking personal
(intrinsic) satisfaction with hitting such a high level of synthesis and
professionalism. I really must thank you for providing this grand finale!
While we were in Toronto, my wife and I always, if they are home, visit
with our dearest friends. He was in grad school at U of Toronto for his Ph.D.
when I earned my M.A. there. We have remained loyal, lifelong friends. Here is
the point. He is head of science at York University, students body of 66,000,
in suburban Toronto. He has 10,000 students in his science department. Right
now, they are revising the curricula to make it competitive as we move into the
future. He was sharing with me how he is dealing with resistance to his concept
of change. Wow, I was able to share the core nuggets of EDU782 with him to
bolster him for the faculty meetings that he faced the next morning! Talk about
field testing EDU782! I carefully underscored the core of EDU782 – be sure of
your core values, your philosophy, before you go into the arena. Then stick to
your philosophy, and you will rally others. He sees the emerging theme of Apps,
although he does not call it this. He wants students to have a skill-based
curriculum that will enable them to constantly learn, unlearn, relearn, etc. as
the future emerges! He was in effect doing a future trend analysis big time
right there, but he did not have the concept to sum it up. I provided it. I
must share this because of how our private – the women were in the other room
catching up – pow wow. One, he validated the important of future studies, trend
forecasting as crucial today. Two, he validated the philosophical foundation
for leadership in the emerging – going into the future – age. He is a
scientist, so he did not have the management science language, conceptual
framework to provide the succinct summaries that future studies can. The great
part of it – besides having face-to-face time with a dear, old friend – was all
of this happened as I was getting ready to attend the World Future Society
conference that week in downtown Toronto. I am so very very pleased that JIU is
embracing these best of the best practices that I have put forward for course
development – futuring and philosophical foundations for leadership. Our
students are ahead of the “game” because of the JIU capacity to innovate; your
polishing of these courses with me speaks to your “strategic foresight,” to use
a futuring term. Yes, I am so very pleased with our directions this year with
course development. The World Future Society conference was stunning! I even
received an invitation to the annual conference of the Future Studies Society in
Azerbeijan! Yes, it was a global conference, literally. I look forward to the
next steps. Paul
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