Silver Lining for Learning

Guests Fiona Holland, Aasiya Kazi, Katherine Javier, and Yuan Chang GinsbergCredentials discuss the increasing demand for micro-credentials and specializations. They delve into topics like the top countries for enrollment, demographics of participants, opportunity costs, potential payoffs, and future education plans. The podcast also explores the benefits and costs of alternative credentials, program fees, measuring recommendation and networking, and the importance of engagement in education during the pandemic.

Episode #152. Saturday May 27, 2023, 11:00 noon EasternThe notion of open educational resources (OER) as well as opencourseware (OCW) sprung up on April 4, 2001 when Charles Vest, President of MIT, declared let’s make education free and put all our courses on the internet for people to browse and use (see press release). With that one heavily publicized announcement, it seemed that there was a transformative shift or earthquake in the world of education. During the ensuing two decades since that announcement, myriad educational rebels have emerged to develop and promote free and open educational resources (OER) to counter the high price of textbooks, research articles, and courses. They believe that education is a human right, and, as a result, it needs to be more free and open. Two such rebels from outposts in Europe who are experts in the open education world will join us in Silver Lining for Learning on Saturday May 27 at 11 am Eastern. In this episode, we will talk Mark Brown, Chair of Digital Learning and Director National Institute for Digital Learning at Dublin City College in Ireland. We will also be visited by Juliane Granly from Olso, Norway. Juliane is project and development management coordinator with the International Council on Open and Distance Education. She will discuss the ENCORE+ project (https://encoreproject.eu/) which is the European Network for Catalyzing Open Resources in Education. This episode should prove to be informative, lively, and fun.Mark Brown has over 30-years experience of working in Higher Education and has played key leadership roles in the development, implementation and evaluation of several major university-wide digital learning and teaching initiatives. Before taking up his current position, Mark was Director of the National Centre for Teaching and Learning at Massey University, New Zealand. His is a recipient of a National Award for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching and remains a member of the New Zealand Academy of Tertiary Teaching Excellence. He is an EDEN Fellow and was recognised in 2017 by the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL) as a world leader in Open, Online and Distance Learning. In 2019, Mark was Chair of the ICDE World Conference on Online Learning, which DCU hosted in Dublin. Mark is an active researcher, has a strong publication record and contributes to a number of leading international bodies working in the area.Professional ContributionMark is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Distance and e-Learning Network (EDEN) and previously chaired (2014-2018) the Innovation in Teaching and Learning Steering Committee for the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU). He serves on the Supervisory Board of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) and is a member of the Advisory Board for the US based Online Learning Consortium's Research Center for Digital Learning and Leadership. In Ireland, Mark has previously served (2016-2018) as an Irish Universities Association representative on the Board of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Mark is past President of the New Zealand Association for Open, Flexible and Distance Learning (DEANZ now FLANZ) and served as Treasurer as well as an Executive Committee member of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education. ASCILITE is known as the peak professional body for blended, online and digital learning in Australia and New Zealand. Mark continues to have strong links down under and in 2019 was elected to the Executive Committee of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (OLDAA), which publishes the journal Distance Education (Q1).Mark Brown homepages: https://www.dcu.ie/nidl/people/mark-brownhttps://www.dcu.ie/nidl/director-nidlMark Brown in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-brown-dcu/Juliane Granly is project and development manager in ICDE (International Council for Open and Distance Education), the leading, global membership organisation for open, flexible and distance learning. Juliane holds a Bachelor’s in Business Economics from BI Norwegian Business School and a Masters in International Business and Development from the University of London. She is the coordinator for The ENCORE+ Network (European Network for Catalysing Open Resources in Education), a multi-stakeholder, collaborative network responding to the need for increased collaboration, sharing of best practices and coordinated efforts for increased adoption, use and impact of OER and open education. Juliane has a long background from education in development contexts, including as the director of an education NGO in Uganda. Inclusive and innovative education is at the core of her experience and interests, with a strong focus on access to relevant, quality education for all, and skills development for employment. LinkedIn; Article: ICDE page. Join the conversation at silverliningforlearning.org 

Education is typically considered a human right but for 450 million young people living in conflict zones around the world, schooling is an early casualty of war. Online education provides opportunity and hope for some of the world’s most disadvantaged young people and this episode explores one such initiative that began during the pandemic and has grown over the past four years.We feel a moral obligation to challenge inequities. We listen in order to develop understanding which informs our educational designs. We aim to promote hope and empowerment for individuals and, in turn, their communities.Research tells us that geographic remoteness and gender are two substantial factors impacting educational opportunity – particularly in STEM fields. To address this inequality, and to provide professional experience to our pre-service teachers during the covid-related lockdowns, we teamed up with the Invergowrie Foundation to begin a 'virtual' school in Victoria, Australia in 2020.During the first year, 12 of our pre-service teachers delivered senior high school revision classes to 300 school students.In 2022, the Virtual School grew to involve more than 50 pre-service teachers who taught 56 free online STEM classes. Over 25,000 students from more than 200 high schools registered that year. 80% of those participants lived in regional or remote locations, and 87% of participants identified as female. As a result of attending these revision classes, 92% of students reported enhanced self-confidence.The growth of the Monash Virtual School has attracted international attention from others who seek to provide opportunities for pre-service teachers and disadvantaged students. We now proudly support the work of David Falconer and Classrooms Without Walls who provide opportunities for young people in conflict zones, including Ukraine, Myanmar and Ukraine.David Falconer's volunteer work began in March 2022, soon after Russia invaded Ukraine. Witnessing the impact of conflict on students' education, David immediately volunteered to support Smart Osvita NGO, a Ukrainian non-profit organization, to coordinate an international volunteer program to deliver online lessons in English. The support David received from volunteers like retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, the Smithsonian Institution, the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the Edmonton Public Library, Winspear Centre, and teachers and non-teachers from around the world inspired him to start CWW, an organization that currently offers free online schooling to students living in conflict zones.By partnering with organizations such as Smart Osvita NGO, Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, Ocean Wise, Edmonton Public Library, OverDrive, Monash Virtual School, and hundreds of volunteer teachers, CWW is providing a lifeline to students who have been forced to abandon their education due to conflict. By offering free online schooling, CWW is breaking down barriers and providing access to education to those who need it the most. Most importantly, CWW is letting students in these countries know that the world has not forgotten them and that they can continue to dream, and set goals.Currently, CWW offers three programs for volunteers to join, Teachers for Afghanistan, Teachers for Ukraine, and Teachers for Myanmar.More below the videohttps://youtu.be/EzD7KOAckUkIn the newsThe Guardian, 2 April 2023: ‘Algebra under air raids’: the children in a Ukraine war zone who attend class in AustraliaABC News, 24 February 2023:  Learning During WareLearn Magazine, 25 October 2022: How Monash and a volunteer army is helping Ukrainians meet their educational goals with Michael PhillipsABC News, 31 July 2022:  Monash University joins international effort to educate thousands of Ukrainian childrenAbout our guests Tara Mannix is the Manager of the Monash Virtual School in the Faculty of Education, Monash University. Before managing the Monash Virtual School, Tara was a school leader and an experienced classroom teacher. Tara’s role involves supporting and mentoring teaching staff, developing curriculum programs and fostering a culture of innovation and growth for all students and teachers involved in the program. In 2022 Tara received the Monash Education Faculty Award for Equity and Inclusion, and the Vice Chancellor's Award for Professional Staff in recognition of her involvement in the Monash Virtual School.Mike Phillips is the Associate Professor of Digital Transformation in the Faculty of Education, Monash University and the academic director of the Monash Virtual School. His work aims to enhance teachers’ capacities to understand the opportunities and limitations of educational technologies. By enhancing educators’ critical perspectives of such technologies, Mike’s teaching and research seek to enhance opportunities for all students to receive higher quality educational experiences. Prior to joining Monash University in 2013, Mike was a senior teacher for 15 years in secondary schools and in 2023, Mike won the Outstanding Global Educator of the Year award from the Society of Information Technology and Teacher Education. (Mike's research profile)David Falconer is a name that is synonymous with education, passion, and dedication. With 34 years of experience in the field of education, David is an accomplished educator, a graduate of the University of Alberta, and Gonzaga University. He has served as principal, Head of School and Director in several schools across different parts of the world, including British Columbia, China, Myanmar, Nunavut, and is currently a Principal of a private STEM school in Calgary, Alberta.David's love for education and his ongoing desire to make a positive impact on the world led him to establish CWW (Classrooms Without Walls). A volunteer based non-profit organization dedicated to providing free online education and support to students living in conflict zones. The organization currently has three programs, Teachers for Ukraine, Teachers for Myanmar, and Teachers for Afghanistan, which combined have served thousands of students.LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/davidfalconerkolleCWW: https://classroomswithoutwalls.ca/ Join the conversation at silverliningforlearning.org 

How the Dominican Republic Overcame Educational Challenges of the Pandemic with guests María Waleska Álvarez from EDUCA and Eladio Jimenez from UNICEFThis episode will discuss the Dominican Republic's innovations in education, specifically focusing on three initiatives that were implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first initiative is the virtual training program for teachers and technical-pedagogical personnel that aims to provide the necessary elements for remote teaching. The second initiative is the Multi-platform Educational Content infrastructure, which provides students and teachers with access to educational resources through various digital platforms. The third initiative is the Presidential Project for Educational Excellence, which uses the methodologies of Theory U and Design Thinking to develop an inventive educational management project to improve student learning outcomes. The episode will cover the successes, challenges, and impact of these innovative programs on the Dominican educational system.Readings and Resources: Innovations in education in the Dominican RepublicEpisode GuestsMaría Waleska Álvarez is Executive President of NAP del Caribe and President of the board of directors of EDUCA, which is the leading private-sector think tank in education in the Dominican Republic and one of the most influential institutions in the education policy debate in the country. María Waleska is also a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of AMCHAMDR and member of the board of directors of Adofintech. In 2019, due to her leadership at an early age, she was recognized by the UK Government as part of the International Leaders program, becoming one of the 300 leaders worldwide to be part of this program. Due to her experience and expertise in digital transformation and technology, she actively participated in the negotiation process of the World Summit on the Information and Knowledge Society of the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union.Dr. Eladio Jiménez, Digital Education Specialist for UNICEF, is an education expert with over 20 years of experience in the sector with a special focus on the intersection of learning and technology integration. Currently serving as digital education specialist for UNICEF in the Dominican Republic, he currently leads the development and implementation of the digital education agenda at UNICEF DR. Previous to his role in UNICEF, Eladio dedicated his time to pre-service and in-service teachers’ professional development and to research focused mainly in the use of technology to bridge STEM learning at elementary school grades. Other areas of research have included MOOCS and teachers’ tech integration skills. Eladio holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, a masters in technology, learning and education and is a doctoral candidate in the same discipline. Join the conversation at silverliningforlearning.org 

Applying Human-Centered Engineering Methods to Learning with Jim Goodell, Janet Kolodner, and Sae Schatz“Learning engineering is a process and a practice that applies the learning sciences, using human-centered engineering design methodologies and data-informed decision-making, to support learners and their development.”In this episode of Silver Lining for Learning, Drs. Janet Kolodner and Sae Schatz, and Jim Goodell discuss the application of learning engineering. As a relatively nascent field, learning engineering extends principles of learning science and combines those approaches with human-centered design, technology, data, and organizational dynamics to scale-up learning to the speed and scope that today’s world demands.A core tenet of learning engineering is the multidisciplinary integration of various tools, and today’s guests reflect that diversity. They have experience from industry, academia, and government as well as different backgrounds in science, technology, and enterprise strategies. They’ll introduce learning engineering from these various lenses and then offer practical take-aways for viewers interested in studying learning engineering or applying it to their own work.Readings and Resources Dede, C., Richards, J., & Saxberg, B. (Eds.). (2019). Learning engineering for online education: Theoretical contexts and design-based examples. New York: Routledge.Goodell, J., and Kolodner, J. (2023). Learning Engineering Toolkit: Evidence-Based Practices from the Learning Sciences, Instructional Design, and Beyond. New York: Routledge.Schatz, S. & Goodell, J (2022). Learning Engineering at a Glance (Infographic). https://drive.google.com/file/d/12tVKiS2VJnT-P9uDLOxibWcOrPbr6w8J/view?usp=share_linkWalcutt, J.J. & Schatz, S. (Eds.). (2019). Modernizing Learning: Building the Future Learning Ecosystem. Washington, DC: Government Publishing Office. ISBN-13: 978-1097414925Episode GuestsJim Goodell is co-editor and co-author of Learning Engineering Toolkit. He is Director of Innovation at Quality Information Partners, where he helps lead development of the US Department of Education sponsored Common Education Data Standards. He is Chair of the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee, chairs the IEEE Industry Consortium on Learning Engineering Competencies, Curriculum, and Credentials SIG, the IEEE Competency Data Standards Workgroup, the Adaptive Instructional Systems Interoperability Workgroup, and serves on the ICICLE Steering Committee. He supports the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s T3 Innovation Network and co-led development of the Learning and Employment Record (LER) Wrapper Specification. Prior to QIP, he was Executive Vice President at the Center for Educational Leadership and Technology where he led the development of interactive learning technologies and provided information-driven process improvement solutions to state education agencies and school districts throughout the United States.Janet Kolodner is a  Regents’ Professor Emerita of Computing and Cognitive Science at  Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Computing and Professor of the Practice at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development. Her research has addressed a wide variety of issues in learning, memory, and problem solving, both in computers and in people. She pioneered the machine learning method called case-based reasoning, which allows a computer to learn from its experiences, and she used its underlying model to design a project-based approach to education called Learning by Design. She is lead author of a comprehensive middle-school science curriculum, Project-Based Inquiry Science, and is a collaborator on other curriculum design projects. Kolodner was Founding Director of Georgia Tech’s EduTech Institute, and she coordinated Georgia Tech’s Cognitive Science program for many years. She is founding Editor-in-Chief and Editor-in-Chief Emerita of The Journal of the Learning Sciences. She is a co-founder of the International Society for the Learning Sciences and served as its first Executive Officer. Kolodner was a program officer at the US National Science Foundation and led efforts to establish and sustain the Cyberlearning Program (now called SETTL). Currently, she is co-director of Boston College’s MA program in Learning Engineering, and she led its design and development. She is a co-author and co-editor of Learning Engineering Toolkit.Dr. Sae Schatz works at the intersection of learning, technology, and data. She recently founded The Knowledge Forge LLC, a boutique consulting company. From 2015 to 2022, Sae served as the director of the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, a U.S. Department of Defense program for research, development, and policy stewardship. Under her leadership, the U.S. ADL Initiative sparked the community’s pursuit of the “future learning ecosystem,” in part with her popular book Modernizing Learning: Building the Future Learning Ecosystem.Before joining the civil service, Sae worked as an applied human–systems scientist in both business and academia. From 2011 to 2014, she was the chief scientist at MESH Solutions (a defense contractor), where she led the U.S. Marine Corps’ Making Good Instructors Great project and the U.S. Joint Staff’s award-winning Blended Learning–Training effort. Prior to that, she held an assistant professorship with the University of Central Florida’s (UCF) Institute for Simulation and Training, and she was an instructor in the UCF Digital Media Department. Sae is a prolific writer and professional presenter as well as a graphic designer who often uses those skills to enhance books, presentations, and infographics. She holds a doctorate in Modeling and Simulation (M&S), with an emphasis on human systems. Join the conversation at silverliningforlearning.org 

The podcast discusses the impact of Finland's education system on higher education, the digitalization of teaching due to COVID-19, the transition to online learning, and the importance of phenomenon-based learning. It also emphasizes the freedom teachers have in choosing their teaching methods, preparing Finnish students for a globalized world, and the challenges of retaining international students.

Hosts reflect on the past few weeks and then focus on a deep dive into AI and other forms of alien intelligence and implications for education and educational research  Join the conversation at silverliningforlearning.org 

In Episode #145 of Silver Lining for Learning, Sophia Mendoza, Paul Kim, Kiran Bit Sethi, and Shuangye Chen discuss what the future of education might look like with a three-year lens. In Episode #146 we welcome back prior SLL guests Maxim Jean-Louis President – Chief Executive Officer of Contact North in Ontario, Canada. The pandemic “only” last three years and countless educational experiments and innovations arose to deal with it and potentially transform education as we know it; however, myriad educational challenges and obstacles remain. Of course, there are undoubtedly many periods of transformative change ahead of us. In this episode the guest and hosts will lend our education-related projections not just 1-3 years into the future, but 5-10 years or more. The impact of AI in education will undoubtedly be part of that conversation. We welcome you to attend this show and ask questions about the future of education that are relevant to your lives. It may be April Fool’s day, but there will be plenty of serious educational issues addressed.Maxim Jean-Louis is President – Chief Executive Officer of Contact North | Contact Nord, Ontario’s Distance Education and Training Network, headquartered in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Prior to arriving at Contact North | Contact Nord in 1996, Maxim worked in senior management roles for over 15 years at Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada’s open university. At Contact North | Contact Nord, Maxim leads a team of 300 staff supporting the delivery of education and training opportunities from the province’s 24 public colleges, 22 public universities, and 250 literacy and basic skills and training providers to Ontarians in 600 small, rural, remote, Aboriginal and Francophone communities through 112 online learning centres covering 1 million square kilometres. These local online learning centres are equipped with web conferencing, videoconferencing and audioconferencing distance delivery platforms, as well as computer workstations and high-speed internet for students to participate in their synchronous and asynchronous courses. Support services are available in English and French. Maxim is author and/or coordinator of major publications in the area of online learning and distance education and has been a participant / presenter at major conferences on distance education and alternative forms of delivery, such as the International Conference on Distance Education (ICDE) and the conferences led by the Canadian Association of Distance Education (CADE). He is married with two adult sons and lives in Sudbury, Ontario.https://teachonline.ca/about-us/maxim#https://contactnorth.ca/Contact North’s AI initiativeshttps://teachonline.ca/ai-resourceshttps://studyonlinequicktips.ca/ Join the conversation at silverliningforlearning.org 

The podcast explores the future of education, including the evolution of learning, the importance of agency, empathy, and joy. It also discusses the impact of external tools and individual choices, addressing mental health in education, and designing an innovative and inclusive learning environment. The hosts express gratitude and plan for future guests.

In this episode of SLL, we are celebrating 3 years of the series with Toks Bakare, Lea Anne Daughrity, Ragini Lall, and Annie Nam. They call themselves the “Volunteer Crew” as avid listeners and fans of the episodes, who have come together with the goal of moving Silver Lining for Learning over onto more accessible podcast platforms. YouTube was just not cutting it, and they wanted to listen on the move! They are truly a global bunch taking full advantage of the technologies of our times to make this work happen. They have been collaborating fully remote, joining across 2 continents, 3 countries, and 4 different time zones. They have met biweekly for the past several months with the goal of learning about podcast distribution platforms, setting up a system to move over 140+ episodes of Silver Lining from the website and YouTube over to a RSS feed, and manually formatting each episode as they got ready for the transfer. They are four education technology enthusiasts and our meetings turn into sharing the latest trends around learning sciences, chatGPT, workplace learning, and more.Tune in to learn more about the Volunteer Crew – how it came to form, our process, as well as our highs and lows and their takeaways from digging through the archives of SLL.About our guestsToks BakareHarvard Graduate School of Education EdM ‘20LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toksbakare/Toks is an XR enthusiast who seeks to further the use of immersive learning experiences for education and training. She is currently a Director of Business Development at Mursion, and sits on the Equity board at Classcraft. In the last three years, Toks has served as a teaching fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education; led a student organisation (LEAD) which brought conversations around tech in African education to four conferences; hosted a short series of webinars discussing the impact of COVID-19 on education in Africa; and has served as co-dean of the AR/VR Africa Bootcamp and hackathon judge.Before moving to the US, Toks spent more than 15 years working on improving access to quality inclusive education for neurodiverse learners in the UK, Europe and in West Africa. She founded a social enterprise called asktoks.com, which promotes inclusive education for neurodiverse learners.Lea Anne Daughrity,Research FellowPh.D. in Learning TechnologiesLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leaanne/Website: https://www.leaanne.me/Dr. Lea Anne Daughrity  has spent the past 16 years in education, serving students from Early Childhood all the way through to Graduate School. Her true passion is in Learning Experience and Instructional Design. She began working at SMU in 2022 as a STEM Research Fellow in the Technology Enhanced Immersive Learning (TEIL) Cluster in the Simmons College of Education. In her current role, she focuses on the learning experience design of immersive and embodied learning applications in STEM projects under the guidance of Dr. Lin Lipsmeyer. She holds a Ph.D. in Learning Technologies from the University of North Texas, a Masters in Instructional Technology and Library Sciences from Texas A&M Commerce, and a Masters in Public Relations and Bachelors in Communications from The University of Alabama.Ragini LallLearning Design ConsultantEd.M’ 2020 Technology, Innovation & EducationLinkedin: linkedin.com/in/ragini-lall-2202b825Website: www.thestudentact.comRagini is a learning design and innovation expert who leverages her decade-long expertise in design research, pedagogy, and technology to create effective learning strategies for curricula, products, and platforms. She launched her career at Quest Alliance, a leading edtech NGO in India, where she focused on improving learning outcomes for low-income communities in the vocational training, ITI, and government school ecosystems.There, she developed blended learning experiences, games, and workshops for young learners and educators. Amidst the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ragini contributed her skills and knowledge to the Harvard Graduate School of Education as a Teaching Fellow and Online Learning Fellow with the Teaching Learning Lab.Currently, Ragini is building a consultancy called “The Student Act” and wears multiple hatsas she continues to develop the practise around games for learning, workplace learning, and teacher education. She maintains a strong focus on human-centered design methods and digital learning pedagogy keeping up with the rapidly changing landscape of education technology. Ragini holds an undergraduate degree in Art & Design from Srishti Manipal School of Art, Design & Technology in India, and a Masters in Education in Technology, Innovation & Education from Harvard University.Annie NamHarvard Graduate School of Education EdM ‘20LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annienam/Portfolio: https://www.annienam.com/Annie is a learning advocate and research enthusiast with 10 years of experience that cross the frontiers of education, technology, and business. Her lifelong mission is to advance the role of learning in various organizations and aid in the advancement of human development and her passion lies in designing and deploying immersive, innovative learning experiences to users of all backgrounds at scale.She currently sits at the board of Girls in Tech Korea where she works on business development and partnerships with organizations like AWS, Microsoft Korea alongside various government entities. She was the former Global Partnership Lead at the Education Commission, Asia hub. Additionally she has worked at MIT Sloan and Berekley Haas as a learning designer.Her strengths include data analytics, learning design, strategic decision making, as well as writing for both academic and non-academic publications.She holds a Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Technology Innovation and Education. Join the conversation at silverliningforlearning.org