Tour 1: Course Introduction

-- a university of arizona course on methods and approaches for studying the future

This page gives some links you should look over on how to work with the class, some comments abut the class organization and dealing with hypertext thinking, and a tour of specific web pages. You should be able to get to everything the web home page (http://ag.arizona.edu/futures), so learn that page well.

Important pages (links) to be aware of during the course (all these are off home page but this tour will move you along for the most important links).

 

The best way to use this tour is to quickly go to the link, scroll up and down to get a feel for what is there, and then use "back" on the browser to come back to this page.

Course Introduction (brief overview of the course)

Student Guide (an overview of what where you should be on a monthly basis)

Course Modules (an "outline" with topics and links for full course

Assignments (detailed specific assignments made weekly - includes all previous too)

Course objectives (these are short, but look at them now and then)

 

Focusing on the 6 key topics on the home page

Tutorials, Tours and Seminars

Expeditions and Exploring

Paradigms, Driving Forces and Trends

Scenarios, Foresight and Change

Futures Related Sites and Resources

Futures Literature

 

Other key items on the home page

The Big Picture (view from on high about a futures study)

Futures Overview (a quick look at futures studies)

Futures Short Course (a way to learn about futures in a short time)

Searching (this course web plus Internet in general)

Instructor's viewponts (a collection of ideas and approaches)

Course Summary (summarizing everything in a few pages))

Course Review (ideas on how to review the course content)

Course Study Questions (questions to guide your understanding)

How this course may be different than normal.

It is a combination of classroom, Internet, team exercises (in and out of class), and expectations you will go far beyond the "formal" material covered by class. This process is greatly facilitated by the use of Internet.

 

What should I watch out for?

The most common "problem" is students not keeping up on caucus and doing the assignments on time. I will sent an email message to everyone each Friday reminding them of what is due from the previous week, and will post the next week's specific assignments on the "assignments" web page (recall these are within the context of the general guidance in the syllabus. Your responses will be due the following Monday.

 

You can give me feedback or ask a question via a web form at this point.