by Learning should be fun, right? And how can one resist the “gamification” trend? Indeed, we have been incorporating more experience/fun/gaming into the curriculum. We had a great time with the Innovate 2038 MOOG last semester. So, we kicked off our Professional Seminar class with a game I created over the break: Foresight Jeopardy. It kicked off our six-week deep dive into the foresight field. We want students to know the basics about the field they are about to enter — it’s a capstone class. We have created lists over the years of practitioners, books, organizations, movies and the like, and we usually start with that material. I put the material in the format of a Jeopardy game as a way for students to assess how much they could readily recall (sans Google). It was challenging. Of course, we do have Google, and rote memorization is certainly less needed. But, to network effectively with other professionals, I do think the basics need to be accessible. I cringe at the possibility that a prospective employer would say, “that person graduated from Houston and didn’t know who ____ was.” The game was great fun. We will play another round at the end of the module, and I suspect the students will be much better prepared this time. Let’s acknowledge the reigning Foresight Jeopardy champion, Karl Irish — way to go Karl! Andy Hines
About Andy Hines
Dr. Andy Hines is Program Coordinator at the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight, bringing together the experience he earned as an organizational, consulting, and academic futurist. He is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight.
Before that, he was Managing Director of Social Technologies/Innovaro, and served as an Adjunct Professor with the university since 2004. Hines enjoyed earlier careers as a consulting and organizational futurist. He was a partner with Coates & Jarratt, Inc., a think tank and consulting firm that specialized in the study of the future. He was also Futurist & Senior Ideation Leader at Dow Chemical with a mission of using futures tools and knowledge to turn ideas into new business opportunities. Before that, Hines established and ran the Global Trends Program for the Kellogg Company.
Hines is motivated by a professional hunger to make foresight practical and useful, and he believes that foresight can help deliver the insight that is so needed in today’s organizations and the world. His goal, he says, is to infect as many change agents as possible with this message. Thus, he has honed a skill set designed to make foresight more actionable in organizations.
In this pursuit, he has authored five books: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape (No Limits Publishing, 2011); Thinking About the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, 2007); 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society (Oak Hill, 1997); and Managing Your Future as an Association (ASAE, 1994) and has another in the hands of publishers: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education. He has also authored dozens of articles, speeches, and workshops, including the 2003 Emerald Literati Awards’ Outstanding Paper accolade for best article published in Foresight for “An Audit for Organizational Futurists” and the 2008 award for “Scenarios: The State of the Art.” He has appeared on several radio and television programs, PBS Houston, KRIV-26 News, and the CBS “Early Show.” He also co-founded and is former Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.
Leave a Reply