Chris Bennett is the CEO and Co-Founder of Wonderschool, an education company whose mission is to ensure that every child has access to early education that helps them realize their potential. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about the critical role early childhood education can play in unlocking opportunities for children who need it.We learn what led Chris to found Wonderschool prior to the pandemic and how he and team weathered the transformations of recent years. We also learn what it's like to present on the TED stage coming off of Chris's recent appearance there. Chris shares how his experience with home-based childcare was transformative to him and how he's built Wonderschool to enable pathways to caregivers interested in building their own programs while scaling access to care in so-called childcare deserts.It's a thought-provoking conversation that you don't want to miss.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes on the future of learning.

As we continue to revisit our favorite episodes of Trending in Ed through the years, this week we're rolling back to March of 2019 when Mike Palmer met with the organizers of the SXSW EDU conference in Austin while the conference was taking place.Speaking of which, please upvote our PanelPicker submission for the upcoming SXSW EDU 2023 conference so we can continue our string of lively and thought-provoking conversations about the future of learning while engaging with a live audience at the conference.In this episode, Ron and Greg frame up the concept of a convergence zone as it relates to an education conference. We explore how they engage with a wide cross-section of education stakeholders and how that community is driving the continued growth and evolution of the conference. We also learn what was capturing Greg and Ron's imaginations then and how it still resonates now despite the many changes in recent years.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more insightful perspectives on the future of learning.

Adam Dalton is the CEO and Co-Founder of Imagine Robotify, a STEM learning company he started at age 23 to make coding and robotics more affordable and accessible for students and prepare them for the future of work.Adam joins Mike Palmer in a conversation about what sparked his interest in robotics and computer science and what led to him create Robotify to help K-12 students learn computer science by programming virtual robots. We explore how his experiences growing up in Dublin along with the transformations of recent years have informed his strategic vision for the company. By using virtual robots and incorporating relevance, gaming, and fun into the mix, Robotify has made such an impact that they were recently acquired by Imagine Learning to propel their growth even further.Join us for an imaginative, STEM-powered exploration of what resonates with today's youth as we look to make computer science and a maker's mindset more widely accessible and fun for all kids.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more inspirational stories in educational innovation.

In this edition of The Best of Trending in Ed, we return to a conversation from the early days of the pandemic where Mike Palmer and Melissa Griffith interviewed Dr. Mohan Sawhney from Kellogg's School of Management on the future of business education, innovation and much more.Dr. Sawhney is the Associate Dean for Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management, We explore how the traditional approach to Business School and Executive Education is ripe for disruption. As the McCormick Foundation Professor of Technology at Kellogg, Dr. Sawhney is launching and testing several varied and distinct approaches to providing business education both through the traditional two-year on-campus model and also through hybrid and online models. The Professor engages with Melissa, a Kellogg alum, in a conversation about providing continuous value and lifelong learning to alums through communities of interest, small private online courses (SPOCs), along with access to human-powered services like executive coaching, live webinars, and 1-on-1 office hours. We genuinely enjoyed the imaginative and impassioned perspectives Dr. Sawhney provides on this topic and hope you'll lean in with us to explore how graduate education will accelerate forward in the tumultuous times of the 2020s.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp perspectives on the future of learning.

Mike reacts to the passing of Bill Russell, Nichelle Nichols, and Vin Scully as we hope to shoulder surf off their dignity and grace.Then, we touch on the groundbreaking work released by Raj Chetty's team at Opportunity Insights looking at the impact of friendship on economic mobility. We introduce the study to the conversation here in the hopes of digging in more with experts down the line.We wrap up with some book talk with Mike providing some quick takes on The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman. Having recently listened to the audiobook, Mike gives Chuck props for voicing it. It's worth checking out for folks curious about generational zeitgeists and those of us who are basking in the glow of the 90s retro window these days.Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more!

As we continue our Best of Trending in Ed series through the summer, in this edition we're featuring our most downloaded episode ever where Dr. Rich Milner joins host Mike Palmer in the Summer of 2020 to talk about his book, Start Where You Are But Don't Stay There: Understanding Diversity, Opportunity Gaps, and Teaching in Today’s Classrooms for which the 2nd edition had just been published.Rich is a Professor of Education at Vanderbilt University where he focuses on Teacher Education with special attention to issues of racial equity. We explore Rich's thinking about issues of diversity, opportunity gaps, and the mindsets that must be overcome to effectively engage diverse students and classrooms. While many of the themes are enormously relevant to this day, several warranted further discussion in light of the Black Lives Matter Movement and the COVID-19 pandemic which were roiling in the Summer of 2020 when this episode was recorded. We explore much of this in a riveting conversation with Rich that you won't want to miss. Rich is a leading thinker on teacher education and diversity and we very much appreciate getting time with him on for this episode. Here's to having him back to continue the conversation in the future!Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes on the future of education.

Al Kingsley has been the CEO of NetSupport for over 26 years and an Edtech Industry veteran for 30+ years. He is a school governor in his native U.K. and was just named co-chair of Workstream 4 at the Foundation for Educational Development. He’s a frequent speaker on the global edtech circuit and has his own podcast NetSupport Radio. He authored a book last summer titled, My Secret #EdTech Diary. And he was recently named Edtech Digest’s 2022 Best Edtech Author/Speaker or Podcaster.Al rejoins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about the need for respect for educators in these challenging times. We explore pathways into careers in EdTech and School Leadership as Al imparts his broad experience in international education trends and online learningSubscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at Trendingined.com for more sharp takes on the future of education.

As part of our Best of Trending in Ed Series, we return to episode 202 of Trending in Ed from the Summer of 2019 where Mike Palmer interviews Annie Duke about her book, Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When We Don't Have All The Facts.We’re “all-in” this week, as we welcome Annie Duke, author of Thinking In Bets and retired poker pro, to the show. Annie begins by sharing the long, winding path she took to become an author and expert in decision science. From her time as a PhD student in cognitive science to her introduction to poker as a novice to her inspiration to write her books, Annie provides great detail on all of the influences throughout her life that have come together to write Thinking In Bets. We also dive into the non-profit, The Alliance for Decision Education, that Annie co-founded in 2012 and discuss how she hopes to push decision education at scale to millions of students in K12. How do we get decision-making wrong? How often do we worry about the result, see Pete Carroll’s play-calling in Super Bowl XLIX, rather than the process that led to the decision? If we were to teach students the basics of good decision-making, how might this improve their ability to decide quickly and adapt to a variety of environments and novel contexts critical to learning and the future of work? We discuss all that and more. So pull up a seat, ante up, and join us for an engaging conversation from back in the simpler days of 2019! Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes on the future of learning.

Mike Palmer is joined once again by Nancy in a discussion about the book The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie Murphy Paul. We begin with an excerpt from a recent conversation with Elliot Felix who introduced us to the idea of the extended mind based on the work of cognitive philosopher Andy Clark. From there, we dig into what's covered in Annie's book using examples like Nancy, Walkabout Mini Golf, and the method of loci and memory palaces along the way.Mike brings in sound from a stroll through Prospect Park and a round of virtual mini golf in a rain forest as examples of the critical role of context and how new technologies are expanding how we think about the mind. Mike references Above the Fog and Moonwalking with Einstein, among other things, along the way. We also touch on concepts like collective intelligence and transactive memory as we push to extend beyond the traditional understanding of individuals as brains in an abstracted, disembodied context. We also explore how gestures and other embodied aspects of cognition factor into a broadened understanding of consciousness. We conclude by exploring some of the learning implications of the extended mind and its connection to new and emerging technologies.It's an imaginative and wide-ranging exploration about thinking beyond the brain that you won't want to miss.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more.

Mike introduces one of his favorite episodes of Trending in Education from over the years. This week we're showcasing his interview with Dr. Jacqueline Bhabha.Dr. Jacqueline Bhabha is FXB Director of Research, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, and an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.Dr. Bhabha joins Mike to talk about her new book, A Better Future: The Role of Higher Education for Displaced and Marginalized People, which explores the critical importance of access to tertiary education to displaced and marginalized populations. We dive into the challenges faced by refugees, immigrants, and other marginalized groups in gaining access to educational pathways that are essential to living safe, healthy, and fulfilling lives.We also touch on the impact of the pandemic and the related explosion in online education on the lives of marginalized populations seeking access to learning pathways around the globe. It's an eye-opening and important conversation that you don't want to miss.If you like what you’re hearing, follow us at TrendinginEducation.com and wherever you get your podcasts!