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Webinars

Beyond Crystal Balls: An Interactive Webinar on Designing Education’s Plural Futures

Thursday, October 9, 2025
11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)

What if the future of education isn’t something that happens to us but something we actively design? What if we embrace our role as architects of the futures of education? 

Instead of another tech-deterministic forecast or dystopian warning, this 60-minute interactive session will equip participants with practical tools to imagine and shape multiple possible futures for higher education. 

Too often, discussions about education futures swing between extremes: techno-utopian fantasies where AI solves everything or dystopian nightmares of human obsolescence. This webinar introduces the concept of “plural futures,” acknowledging that different communities will likely experience different education realities in 2035, and responses to the pressures and opportunities that higher education is facing are varied. 

In this session, you will examine how imagination becomes constrained by dominant narratives and use a scenario planning activity to engage in more expansive future-making. 

This webinar will be: 

•    Interactive, not passive: Rather than listening to predictions, attendees will actively construct education futures
•    Empowering, not overwhelming: Emphasis on agency and action rather than technological determinism
•    Expansive, not prescriptive: Space for multiple perspectives and possibilities
 

Host:

Dr. George Veletsianos
Professor of Learning Technologies

Professor of Learning Technologies and Bonnie Westby Huebner Chair in Education and Technology at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, blends rigorous scholarship with a knack for turning ideas into practical impact. He investigates how digital environments shape (or don’t shape) teaching, learning and the future of higher education. Veletsianos’ career spans two decades, six books, more than 100 peer reviewed publications and more than $4 million in competitive funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. His work introduced the influential concept of networked participatory scholarship and informed a technology rich computer science course now taught in 300+ high schools Formerly the Canada Research Chair, Commonwealth of Learning Chair, and Fulbright scholar, Veletsianos has led various organizations to advance educational excellence and guides institutions worldwide on online learning strategy.