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The Digital Futures Lab (DFL) is a distinctive module within the Kemmy Business School (KBS) that offers students a unique learning experience. Unlike traditional courses that present an established body of knowledge, the DFL provides an environment where students apply their existing knowledge, seek out and identify new information, and expand their understanding in new problem areas.

The philosophy underpinning the lab is Heutagogy, a self-determined learning model that extends beyond traditional learner-centric and learner-led approaches. Using a well-designed and flexible journey map, students embark on a design-led process, working collaboratively to define and understand specific problem areas.

Through a series of stages—ideation, prototyping, and testing—students develop and refine their solutions. In the DFL, students engage with real-world challenges, leveraging the knowledge and ideas acquired throughout their program. They are treated as disciplinary experts (e.g., data analysts) while being encouraged to incorporate their diverse, life-wide skills.

For example, students might explore how privacy and ethics can be integrated into new business models or examine how biases become embedded in technological devices, including software or data. The lab fosters a creative space where new ideas and possibilities are thoroughly considered. In today’s dynamic environment, assumptions about markets, governments, and individual behaviours are constantly being challenged.

This context, while demanding, is also ripe with potential. During the early stages of the lab, where divergent thinking is encouraged, students reflect on their worldviews, biases, and perceptions, contemplating how markets and societies might be reimagined in the future. The focus is not solely on blue-sky thinking; ideas developed in the lab must be robust and implementable. This practical aspect is reinforced through engagement with key stakeholders, facilitated both by the DFL team and by the students themselves, depending on the chosen challenge.