What does the future of 3D printing portend? Two new reports examine the potential impact of 3D printing and other forms of digital fabrication. The first, A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Fabrication (published in a newsletter from the business consulting firm Booz & Co.), takes a more optimistic view: "Rapid advances in manufacturing technology point the way toward a decentralized, more customer-centric 'maker' culture." The second, Could 3D Printing Change the World? Technologies, Potential, and Implications of Additive Manufacturing (published by the Atlantic Council, a foreign-policy think tank), takes a more cautious view: "The foreign policy and defense and intelligence communities must look more systematically at how new technologies such as [additive manufacturing] could transform the world in fundamental ways that affect the global economy, societies, and the overall strategic and security environment." 

10 Internet Technologies Educators Should Be Informed About (via EmergingEdTech). Museum educators should know about these technologies, too. They include video and podcasting resources, digital presentation tools, collaboration and brainstorming tools, blogging tools, educational gaming, open educational resources (OER) and more, with multiple links under each heading. 

In Who Says This is the Classroom of the Future?, brain fitness expert Alvaro Fernandez "question[s] the very premise behind naming some classrooms the 'classrooms of the future' simply because they have been adding technology in literally mindless ways? What if the Education of the Future (sometimes also referred to as '21st Century Skills') wasn’t so much about the How we educate but about the What we want students to learn and develop?" (See the entries immediately above and below this for different perspectives!)

The Mobile Education Landscape Report from the GSM Association (an international trade association of mobile phone service providers) starts with a broad view of "mobile education"—pretty much any learning that involves a handheld device connected to a mobile phone network—but then focuses more narrowly on "the demand for Mobile Education from the formal education sector." Includes detailed national studies of the U.S. and several other highly-developed countries. For the emergent uses of mobile technology in museums, see CHIN’s TechWatch for Fall 2011, which is "devoted to all things mobile. Mobile is probably the most significant new technology for museums, and no institution, big or small, can afford to ignore its implications."  

Note that any discussion of digital technologies in schools (or, for that matter, informal learning environments like museums) should also include a discussion of new media literacies. Project New Media Literacies goes a step further with "curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments."

100 Predictions for 2011-2012 from Fast Future (a futurist consulting firm), covering everything from a reeling world economy to a resurgence of corporate responsibility. This is Part 1 of a multi-part series with various thematic hooks: "Inevitable Surprises," "Big Conversations," "The Winds of Change," "Big Science" ...  and one more on the way. 

A flippant look at life in 2109 from the Guardian predicts "a life of equality—but no polar bears." Sci-fi legend Arthur C. Clarke did a more thoughtful job of predicting the future back in 1964.

OpenBuildings is an online clearinghouse for "architects, interior designers, contractors, engineers and other professionals to showcase their projects," including unbuilt concepts that are waiting for patrons or builders. See the Future is a collection of some of the most innovative structures on the website, including museums, cultural centers and other public buildings, but also (possibly) the homes and schools of the future.

What's Been Happening to Charitable Giving Recently? A Look at the Data. Looks at "trends in charitable giving and how the current economic turmoil has affected the nonprofit sector." Based on a roundtable discussion with 25 experts convened by Urban Institute.

Two great reference tools for finding demographic information: the American Demographic History Chartbook: 1790 to 2000 takes a retrospective look (in tremendous detail) while the DataFinder from the Population Reference Bureau helps you find and analyze the latest demographic, health, environment, and economic data.

Is technology moving us backward? In a recent speech to librarians gathered in Minnesota, author Nicholas Carr argued that "technology could be moving us away from innovation and progress, and closer to the Stone Age in terms of how we process information, a scary thought, considering the country's desperate call for 21st-century thinking." (Via eSchool News.)

A new report from the NEA, Artists and Arts Workers in the United States, looks closely at the 2.1 million artists in the U.S. workforce. Interesting fact: more than half work in the private, for-profit sector (unlike the museum workforce, which has a slight majority of public employees, with most of the rest employed by private non-profits). 

For an overview of recent research on arts education, see 10 Salient Studies on the Arts in Education. 

Many new reports on cultural organizations and communities: The impact of arts and culture organizations on specific regions is explored in reports from the James Irvine Foundation (California's Arts Ecology), the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (2011 Portfolio), and the New England Foundation for the Arts (New England's Creative Economy: Nonprofit Sector Impact). Some of the specific lessons from these reports are, in turn, generalized in reports from the Urban Institute (Building Community: Making Space for Art) and the American Planning Association (How Arts and Cultural Strategies Create, Reinforce, and Enhance Sense of Place).

A survey of zoo-goers commissioned by PGAV Destinations shows that "zoo-goers are generally more educated, more ethnically diverse and earn higher incomes than other attractions guests."

Two food-related resources: Booklist's Top 10 Food Books of 2011 and the Smithsonian's Food & Think blog, a "heaping helping of food news, science and culture."

New Art/Science Affinities is a fascinating "subjective snapshot of what the art & science community is up to right now," at the "intersection of art/science/technology with explorations into maker culture, hacking, artist research, distributed creativity, and technological and speculative design." From the smart folks at We Make Money Not Art.

A visit to the Kabul Museum in Afghanistan, which is (surprisingly) "not a depressing place." (Via Intelligent Life.)

ROBOTS—roaming the the shopping malls in Abu Dhabi by next year (the manufacturer says that "the healthcare sector, airports, museums and other public spaces" are next) and shampooing old folks in Japan sometime soon.

The Museum of Obsolete Objects: "Sadly, as our daily lives become more and more digital some things fall by the way side as they are replaced by newer, 'better' devices. Let us not forget those fallen appliances, tools and gadgets and relive those bygone times by taking a visit to The Museum of Obsolete Objects. Step inside to step back in time!"

A visit to the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, full of medical oddities in glass jars and other unsettling sights.

On a lighter note, Disney World at 40. (Via the Miami Herald.)

Finally, "Mimicking in Search of Enlightenment" is a fine poem about museums, childhood and the limitations of field trips by a teen poet in Teen Ink.