Walter Fernando Balser
Clinical Assistant Professor | University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, UNITED STATES
Walter Fernando Balser explores technology, leadership and learning across emerging systems and decentralized futures.
Biography
Walter Balser is a clinical assistant professor whose scholarship examines the changing education ecosystem through the lens of decentralization. He explores how networks of agencies, nonprofits and private capital are reshaping schools, governance and leadership. His work connects digital acceleration with tensions between natural and rational, control and freedom, and how open source concepts might foster adaptability in naturally distributed systems. He is the founder of the Foresight Leadership Lab and author of the Recod/Ed framework, guiding leaders to revisit assumptions and reimagine the “source code” of schooling as we chart a path forward in an era of AI and continued, unstoppable demands for autonomy and choice.
Areas of Expertise (12)
Artificial Intelligence
Leadership Development
AI & Education
Public-Private Partnerships
Organizational Behavior
Foresight Leadership in Education
Education Ecosystems
Emerging Technology & Schools
Decentralized Governance
Blended capital and schooling
K–12 School Reform
Open Source Models and relation to Education
Media Appearances (3)
It'll Take More Than Joes to Get Us Through This AI Mess
Hackernoon online
2025-01-29
A comparatively lesser-known but prescient TV series, Halt and Catch Fire, tells the story of the dawn of the internet, captured perfectly by one of its taglines: “The revolution will be… coded.” You see, the characters in this tale aren’t just part of a scrappy tech company navigating the chaos of dotcom startup culture. Each represents something far deeper. They embody the forces, or better yet, the MGPs IRL, that emerge when we step into the unknown together. They reflect the story of a generation in flux—much like the one we are living in today.
What hackers can teach schools about thriving in a decentralized reality
Diplomatic Courier online
2019-10-22
It’s a cold but sunny afternoon in Denver, Colorado as students, educators, technologists, and content experts from across the world gather in a converted century-old department store to share ideas that might one day change the world.
What LinkedIn Taught Me About Being 'Just A Teacher'
HuffPost online
2016-09-27
Like millions of people exploring career opportunities, I have spent an inordinate amount of time on LinkedIn in recent years. I have a modest yet carefully curated network in place. I have fine-tuned my profile diligently to stand out from the pack (although according to the bots, I am only in the top 35 percent of my network). I have sifted through job prospects, clicked on applications, liked comments, and even dabbled with my own posts.
Articles (3)
Shifting Schools From Strategy to Foresight: Infusing Educational Leadership With Futurist Thinking, Planning, and Action
Reimagining the P-20 Landscape for School Leadership LearningBalser and Tafuro
2025-01-01
In this chapter the authors use the impacts of the global pandemic on educational systems as a muse to highlight the need for educational leaders to transition from strategic planning to foresight thinking. They analyze the shortcomings of traditional bureaucratic models and emphasize the importance of adaptive leadership in addressing contemporary challenges. They present the Three Horizons Framework as a tool for envisioning long-term educational innovations and integrating foresight into school leadership.
Societal Reorientation via Programmable Trust: A Case for Piloting New Models of Open Governance in Education
Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth SocietyBalser, et al.
2021-07-08
This essay proposes the need to infuse open innovation (OI) and open source (OS) principles and technologies into schools as a means of tackling many of the most pervasive challenges in education, and by extension, society at large. It is argued that the principles of OI and OS, which are rooted in innovation management and software development, respectively, may be applied to the way we conceive of and approach organizational governance structures related to schooling, particularly in regard to harnessing innovation, updating management processes, and codifying new systems of trust.
Beyond the Public-Private Nexus
Journal of Transformative Leadership & Policy StudiesBalser and Coleman
2020-01-21
Increasingly, school-based partnerships have been tied to education reform and the entrance of private capital into the PK-12 space, most prominently from a philanthropy sector that contributes nearly $60 billion annually to education causes. As a result, what may have been an at-will school-business partnership in the 1980s may today resemble an embedded multi-partner arrangement around professional development, teacher evaluation, or turnaround support.
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