Urgent Optimism: How to Turn Foresight into Action
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Urgent Optimism: How to Turn Foresight into Action
This course is part of Futures Thinking Specialization
Instructor: Jane McGonigal
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What you'll learn
Describe your preferred future
Create artifacts from the future
Build an action roadmap to change the future
Organize a community to change the future
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There are 5 modules in this course
When you get better at thinking about the future, you get better at changing the future.
This course will help you take all of the foresight skills you’ve developed so far and apply them to making real positive change in your life, in your work, and in the world around you. You’ll learn how to create and share “preferred futures”, which are highly persuasive, compelling visions of the changes you want to make real. You’ll use your preferred future to identify obstacles, recruit allies, collect resources, and plan action to make your vision real. You’ll also practice making “artifacts” from the future, which are creative representations of how everyday life might be different in the future. Artifacts can inspire others to join you in your quest to make a preferred future real. Leading futurists from the Institute for the Future will share with you their favorite future artifacts – and walk you through the entire creative process it took to make them. Every action we take today changes the future. This course will help you identify and take the actions that make the BIGGEST, most strategic impacts on the most urgent challenges you and society face. Many thanks to the Enlight Foundation and the Enlight Collaborative, which provided a grant to support the creation of this course.
Welcome to Urgent Optimism! If you're ready to act now to change the future, you're in the right place. This week, you'll learn all about preferred futures. A preferred future describes exactly what changes you want to make in the world, and it helps you strategize to make those changes real. Let's go!
What's included
5 videos6 readings1 peer review2 discussion prompts
5 videos•Total 28 minutes
- Welcome to this Course! Meet your professor, Jane McGonigal•3 minutes
- What's a preferred future?•10 minutes
- Tips on Preferred Futures•5 minutes
- Working Backwards from a Preferred Future•6 minutes
- Good news from the future!•4 minutes
6 readings•Total 63 minutes
- Take a two-minute survey about the future!•2 minutes
- Urgent Optimism Skills Brief (Your "cheat sheet" for the course)•15 minutes
- Important notice for Urgent Optimism learners•1 minute
- Hello from the year 2050: An example of a preferred future•15 minutes
- News of the Future•15 minutes
- TOOL: Headline the Future•15 minutes
1 peer review•Total 30 minutes
- What's your preferred future?•30 minutes
2 discussion prompts•Total 25 minutes
- Introduce yourself!•10 minutes
- Write a headline from the future!•15 minutes
You've defined the future YOU want to make. But who else shares your vision? This week, you'll learn how to find and analyze images of the future. An image of the future is any popular expression - in movies, books, TV, videogames, comics, religion, political manifestos - of what the future might be like. It can help you understand: What futures do others hope for? What futures do they fear? How can you present your preferred future in the most compelling way?
What's included
4 videos4 readings1 assignment2 discussion prompts
4 videos•Total 27 minutes
- What's an image of the future?•10 minutes
- Today's Images of the Future•7 minutes
- Measuring and Influencing Optimism About the Future•6 minutes
- 3 Images of the Future, Year 2027•4 minutes
4 readings•Total 70 minutes
- Images of the Future (excerpt)•10 minutes
- OPTIONAL: 7 Images of the Future from 1947•10 minutes
- A Golden Age for Dystopian Fiction•20 minutes
- OPTIONAL: Six Short Stories From the Future•30 minutes
1 assignment•Total 10 minutes
- Images of the Future•10 minutes
2 discussion prompts•Total 30 minutes
- +1 a Future Scenario for Yourself•20 minutes
- What's your reaction to these images of the year 2027?•10 minutes
This week, you'll learn another persuasive technique: how to make "artifacts from the future". An artifact is a real-world object that brings the everyday details of a possible future to life. A good artifact can blur the line between the present and the future, sparking "a ha" moments and conversations that lead to action today. We'll show you how we made our favorite artifacts. By the end of the week, you'll be ready to create your own!
What's included
4 videos1 reading1 assignment1 peer review1 discussion prompt
4 videos•Total 26 minutes
- What are artifacts from the future?•8 minutes
- More Examples of Artifacts from the Future•4 minutes
- Tips for Thinking of Artifacts•5 minutes
- DEMO: How I Made These Artifacts!•9 minutes
1 reading•Total 20 minutes
- How to Make Artifacts from the Future•20 minutes
1 assignment•Total 5 minutes
- Artifacts from the Future•5 minutes
1 peer review•Total 60 minutes
- Make an Artifact from the Future•60 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 15 minutes
- Made an artifact? Share it here!•15 minutes
Finally, it's time for the most practical tool in Institute for the Future's toolkit: the Action Roadmap. This week, you'll learn how to work backwards from your preferred future to plan actions you can take today, this month, this year, and this decade to make the biggest impact on the future. We'll show you our action roadmaps. Then you'll show us yours!
What's included
6 videos4 readings2 assignments1 peer review
6 videos•Total 35 minutes
- Introduction to Action Roadmaps•1 minute
- How to Build an Action Roadmap (Part 1)•4 minutes
- How to Build an Action Roadmap (Part 2)•8 minutes
- Mini-Masterclass: Group and Community Futures (Part 1)•13 minutes
- Mini-Masterclass: Group and Community Futures (Part 2)•4 minutes
- SCENARIO: Sudan 2030•4 minutes
4 readings•Total 60 minutes
- TOOL: Build an Action Roadmap•10 minutes
- Climate Action Map•20 minutes
- OPTIONAL: Kenya Youth Scenarios in 2030•15 minutes
- OPTIONAL: UNDP Foresight Manual: Empowered Futures for the 2030 Agenda•15 minutes
2 assignments•Total 25 minutes
- Climate Action and YOU•15 minutes
- What community would you bring together to future?•10 minutes
1 peer review•Total 60 minutes
- Build your Action Roadmap•60 minutes
You've made it! Let's celebrate your new Urgent Optimism skills with one more action: a Pledge to Make the Future. Learn how to use the tool, make your own pledge, and bring your community together to make many pledges that can truly change the future.
What's included
2 videos2 readings2 discussion prompts
2 videos•Total 5 minutes
- Take the Pledge to Make the Future•3 minutes
- Congratulations on finishing the course!•2 minutes
2 readings•Total 12 minutes
- Pledge to Make the Future•10 minutes
- An invitation to join our free alumni network•2 minutes
2 discussion prompts•Total 25 minutes
- How will you pledge to make the future?•10 minutes
- What's your biggest "a ha" moment from this course?•15 minutes
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Reviewed on Jan 26, 2023
I loved this courese and learnt so much. The tools are practical, well explained and demonstrated and I can't wait to put them to use in my work
Reviewed on May 9, 2020
Incredibly important class if you want to be a futurist or an entrepreneur, or even if you want to understand the future. 100% recommend this, you are not wasting time, rather you will be gaining it.
Reviewed on Jun 30, 2020
It´s interesting, the professor gives useful tools, i think they could make it shorter, there's repeating parts that could be avoid, also I haven't got my diploma.
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