Futures Research

There are many opportunities and threats in the decision-making environment for managers, and an organization must use research and information systems to change, monitor, and anticipate this environment. Futurism reflects how tomorrow reality gives birth to tomorrow's reality is. The purpose of this research; Analyzing the role of futures studies in the existing patterns of critical factors of multi-criteria decision-making techniques in operations research using the philosophical assumptions of the classical and critical paradigms and finally determining the appropriate strategy based on these components, to increase success and life expectancy. The present study intends to formulate exploratory scenarios of this knowledge by using the critical uncertainty approach. To develop credible scenarios of knowledge of decision techniques, the opinions of 15 experts in this field were collected using the fuzzy Delphi approach and through the critical uncertainty questionnaire. After extracting the most important uncertainties, plausible scenarios of decision-making techniques were determined with the help of experts. According to the results obtained from the opinion of experts from the critical uncertainty questionnaire, four research uncertainties were identified, identified and the scenario design criteria were used. Each of the four cases, which includes low attention to social issues versus high attention to social issues, low attention to ethical models versus high attention to ethical models, low attention to soft approaches versus high attention to soft approaches, Low attention to complex issues versus high attention to complex issues indicates a specific dual situation in the future. Each of these dual situations indicates uncertainty about the future of multi-criteria decision making. Based on these uncertainties, three scenarios were identified. These scenarios include Achilles heel, phoenix, and heel. Also, semi-structured interviews with the theme analysis approach were used, and the philosophy of past and future approaches in this field was reviewed and critiqued.

Purpose: Futurology plays a significant role in advancing organizational goals and mitigating organizational problems and challenges. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the dimensions and components of Internet of Things development in schools based on future studies. Methodology: In a descriptive qualitative study, 19 academic and organizational experts from the educational sector of Tehran were interviewed in the academic year 2020-2021 using a semi-structured method. In this study, the sample size was determined according to the principle of theoretical saturation and was selected through purposive sampling. The research tool was a semi-structured interview, whose validity was confirmed through triangulation and whose reliability was calculated at 0.88 using the agreement coefficient between two coders. The data of this study were analyzed using thematic analysis in MAXQDA software, version 2020. Findings: The analysis indicated that the development of the Internet of Things in schools based on future studies encompasses 26 components across 7 dimensions. These dimensions include the elimination of time constraints (with 3 components), elimination of spatial constraints (with 4 components), reduction of infrastructure costs (with 4 components), knowledge management (with 3 components), professional competence (with 3 components), information technology (with 3 components), and effectiveness of the educational system (with 6 components). Ultimately, a thematic network for the development of the Internet of Things in schools based on future studies was established. Conclusion: The model of dimensions and components designed in this study can assist specialists and educational system officials in improving the development of the Internet of Things in schools.