Trending In Ed with Mike Palmer

Mike and Dan break down our 2020 March Madness for Learning Trends tournament. We begin by reflecting on how crazy a month it was and by thanking all the frontline workers who are leading our response to the covid-19 pandemic.Then we talk through the trends that deserved more love while analyzing each successive round in our brackets. We then culminate the festivities with our takes on the Final Four, the Finals, and then announce the winner. And you know we get zeitgeisty along the way as we try to make sense of the transformative period in which we're living. Which learning trend wins the day? Listen in to find out.Thanks as always for listening. Despite the pandemic, we won't stop podding and we hope you won't stop listening. Take that coronavirus! Please be safe out there.

Mike is joined by Helen Lee Bouygues, the Founder of the Reboot Foundation, to discuss the research her foundation has published about critical thinking. We begin by exploring what drove Helen to found Reboot and why critical thinking is so essential to a healthy, relevant, and fulfilling life in these confusing times. Helen shares research into the adverse impact of social media use on understanding of the realities relating to the Covid-19 pandemic and provides tips and tools for parents who are trying to instill good critical thinking in their children beginning at an early age. Helen also warns of the dangers of fake news and deep fakes as it becomes increasingly tempting to seek instant gratification when searching for answers in the digital world.Helen and the Reboot Foundation are doing fascinating and relevant research and we're happy to help raise awareness of the essential importance of critical thinking skills in human development in the turbulent age in which we are living. We hope you enjoy listening.

Mike is joined by Zachary Davis, the President and Founder of Lyceum, an educational podcasting platform that is launching now. Zachary is also the organizer of the Sound Education conference and the host of the podcast Ministry of Ideas. He's also the host of a new podcast called Writ Large that is debuting now with the launch of Lyceum.. Zachary tells the story of how he became focused on educational audio after working at HarvardX, one of the early MOOCs associated with EdX. Despite doing great work there, he was frustrated by the low completion rate of the early MOOCs and eventually gravitated to podcasting as a way to make amazing educational content more broadly accessible to a global audience. This has led to the recent launch of Lyceum which is a curated educational audio platform with community features that allow for deeper engagement with folks who listen to educational podcasts.We explore why audio is such an emotionally powerful and affordable format and how in many ways it is a rising trend that is more flexibly available than video and more intimate and emotionally resonant than the written word We also explore some of the ideas discussed in Writ Large which dives into the impact that key books have had on the world around them after the ink has dried. Finally, we conclude with Zachary's thoughts about how the broader trends towards audio may signal the dawn of a new audio age in which longer form lectures and conversations may begin to supplant print formats in the future.It's a fascinating conversation and we hope you enjoy listening.

In today's episode, Angela Siefer, Executive Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, joins Mike to revisit the topic of digital inclusion in light of the new, stark realities of the Covid-19 pandemic. When we're told to shelter at home and engage in social distancing, what does this mean for those on the other side of the digital divide? Angela and her not-for-profit provide information and resources at digitalinclusion.org and they are looking for help from those of us who understand the digital world we're living in to help bridge in the elderly, those suffering from poverty, and anyone who for whatever reason does not have the tools, skills, and access necessary to engage with the digital world.What was once about digital equity is now about public health and safety. When you don't know how to access information and resources digitally, you're much more likely to seek those things by leaving your home and in light of the pandemic, that is a truly dangerous proposition. Angela and team are doing what they can to help in this global crisis. We thank them for their service as we grapple with new challenges to bridge the digital divide while respecting the new rules of social distancing.

Mike catches up with Adi Hanash, a virtuoso online instructor with deep experience in teaching, training teachers, and managing online programs for large organizations like General Assembly and Kaplan. In light of the rapid shift to remote learning (and teaching) driven by the covid-19 pandemic, Adi is running a series of webinars to provide teachers and learning leaders with insights from over 12+ years of experience providing amazing online experiences. We dive into much of this in today's show.While lamenting how the traditional conception of "webinars" is limiting, we explore how teaching online unlocks new opportunities to drive accountability and engagement. We also talk about the transformative power of taking a platform-agnostic and decidedly non-technical approach to innovating around synchronous learning.We close by exploring how the response to the coronavirus is a forcing function and potentially a watershed moment in the understanding of what can be done online. In the process Adi shares some tips and tricks on how to make the most of the rapid global shift to teaching online.Hope you enjoy the listen.

Mike engages in a fascinating discussion with Dr. Paul Reville, a Professor of Educational Policy at Harvard Graduate School of Education, Founder of the Education Redesign Lab, and former Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Paul recently wrote a book titled Broader, Bolder, Better: How Schools and Communities Help Students Overcome the Disadvantages of Poverty.We discuss why we have historically avoided the topic of poverty when establishing educational policy in the US. We also explore how reframing the context for education as something broader and more community-based opens up opportunities to fundamentally change how we think about education. This will help prepare the rising generations for the transformation of work that is on the horizon with the onset of the new industrial revolution we are beginning to see with the advent of automation and machine learning.Paul walks us through several case studies that expand the focus beyond the traditional triangle of Teacher, Student, Content which has been prevalent in education in recent years. Thinking more broadly (and more boldly) opens up opportunities to address educational challenges in ways that are more holistic and integrated into the support systems of the community.It's an important conversation and we very much appreciate the opportunity to speak with Dr. Reville about this critical topic to the future of education.

As part of our ongoing coverage of the. coronavirus, Mike sits down with Bryan Alexander, a noted futurist who focuses on Higher Education, to talk about the potential directions the outbreak may take. Using a wide-ranging collection of examples from both science fiction and our history, Bryan walks us through where there should be concern and where there may be hope as we brace ourselves to battle Covid-19.Bryan also points out critical resources to find good information on the virus and its impact on higher education which he curates on his blog bryanalexander.org. Which schools have canceled classes altogether and which ones have moved online? How might this play forward as we head towards the completion of the academic year in the US?As always, Bryan brings a thoughtful and informed perspective to a complex and evolving situation with a meaningful impact on our lives and the educational landscape of higher education in the US.

Melissa, Dan, and Mike regroup to discuss the cancellation of SXSW which hit us close to home at Trending in Education. We were planning to head to Austin to record a live podcast episode for SXSW EDU but were thwarted by the cancellation of SXSW by Steve Adler, the Mayor of Austin.How are we holding up in light of the cancellation? What does this signal about the response to the virus? What can conferences, cities, companies, and educational institutions do to maintain public health and safety while retaining what we value in our lives and lifestyles.We work through our grieving process and explore how we can continue to cover the trends and transformations that may be driven by the unprecedented response to Covid-19.And be on the lookout for more on this as we bring in more experts to understand the impact on education as an increasing number of schools are canceling classes and/or moving them offline. The world has changed fast and we'll be here to track it with you. As Mike says in the show, "If we stop podcasting due to this, the coronavirus wins!" So we'll keep podding. And we're hoping you'll keep listening and begin to spread the word.As the World Health Organization officially declares Covid-19 a pandemic, thanks again for listening to our podcast which is both safe and most likely good for you! Be safe out there.

Mike sits down with Ulrich Boser, the Founder and CEO of the Learning Agency and the Learning Agency Lab, to lean into a wide-ranging conversation about the science of learning and how it relates to social emotional learning, AI and Natural Language Processing, Cognitive Load and much more.You can learn more about what the Learning Agency Lab is doing at https://www.the-learning-agency-lab.com/Thanks again to Ulrich for a fascinating conversation.

We'd like to wish everyone a happy International Women's Day. In honor of the day, Melissa and Mike discuss an article in Forbes by Blake Morgan that spotlights 50 Leading Female Futurists.Do Mike and Melissa consider themselves futurists? How can we break our habits and biases to include a broader range of guests? We have at least one idea to pursue here.Listen in to find out more.