Knowledge, creativity and communication
This challenge was particularly concerned with understanding trends in the creation, circulation and communication of knowledge, the role that developments in science and technology may play in these processes and the implications of any emerging trends for education.
The challenge was led by Dr Carey Jewitt (Reader in Education and Technology, London Knowledge Lab). Some of the areas covered by this research challenge are listed below. Outcomes are available in the evidence section.
Social/economic/political trends
What flows of creation, recreation, sharing, representation, repurposing and circulation of knowledge are developing?
How are traditional sites and practices of communication and creation of knowledge being challenged or modified? And what sites and practices are persisting and flourishing?
What emergent ‘ways of knowing’ are developing and are they distinct from previous modes? For example, what might the fields of complexity, chaos theory or futures thinking mean for organisations and individuals?
How might trends in aesthetic and popular versus commercial and commodified ‘ways of knowing’ play out? How might these different ‘forms of knowing’ be valued differently by different social groups and institutions?
How will trends towards new forms of knowledge ‘ownership’ play out – for example, how will issues of copyright, privacy, ownership and control of personal information?
What trends are developing in research and innovation practices? What communities of research, common interest and knowledge sharing are developing?
What subversive/non-economic forms of knowledge are developing (surviving?) – the cultural, creative and playful?
Are trends towards participatory, collaborative media cultures likely to continue? What factors might impact their continuation?
What are the different socio-economic, gender and socio-cultural patterns of participation in different forms of knowledge production and communication – and how might these play out over the next 17 years?
How might these different trends and tensions interact to create diverse potential futures? And what are the factors that might contribute to these different futures coming to pass?
Scientific and technological trends
What trends are emerging in the media, form and modes of communication in the context of developments in digital technologies?
What trends are emerging in how individuals combine, manage and navigate between multiple modes of communication?
What impacts may new forms of representation have on processes of creation, communication and knowledge production?
What issues of credibility, ethics and trust are raised by potential changes in modes of communication and knowledge production?
How might knowledge processes be distributed among skilled, knowledgeable experts, less knowledgeable actors such as ‘the community’, and machine-based processes?
What implications for individual, group, organisational and cultural ‘memory’ will digital and bio technologies have?
What biological (chemical, neurological) enhancements might have an impact on how people ‘know’, and how they learn and remember, solve problems, think and create? What are the potential ethical implications of this?
How might these different trends and tensions interact to create diverse potential futures? And what are the factors that might contribute to these different futures coming to pass?
What risks around knowledge and communication emerge in the context of distributed and networked communications systems?
Education, technology and society
What new literacies might be required to participate in these practices of knowledge production and communication?
What new forms of inequalities might develop in these contexts?
What concept of ‘knowing’ should underpin educational assumptions and practices?
What forms of knowledge production and communication should characterise educational practice?
What concept of ‘curriculum’ should underpin education 2025 and beyond?
What ‘critical’ literacies might be required to participate and navigate new knowledge and communication practices?
How should formal education respond to challenges of credibility/trust/ownership of knowledge?
What new kinds of learning, teaching and assessment might become possible in the context of new ways of creating, knowing and communicating?
