Silver Lining for Learning

During the hour, we discuss Michael’s new book, “From Reopen to Reinvent: (Re)creating School for Every Child” published in 2020 by Jossey-Bass. Schools can now do much more than return to normal in a post-pandemic world; a one size fits all approach to education is quickly being replaced. New models of schooling may look something like learner agency and empowerment, learning apprenticeships, world-class schools, year-round schooling, etc. Michael B. Horn also takes a question or two from the YouTube livestream and provides thought-provoking insight into education and human potential. Michael B. Horn is the author of several books, including the award-winning Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. He is the co-founder of and a distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a non-profit think tank. Serving as a senior strategist at Guild Education, he partners with leading employers and organizations to help offer education and upskilling opportunities to America’s workforce. He serves on the board and advisory boards of a range of education organizations, including Imagine Worldwide, Minerva University, and the LearnLaunch Institute, and is a venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners. Michael holds a BA in history from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He can be contacted at michael.b.horn@gmail.com.

What is the future of education? What should it be? What can it be? How are policymakers in top PISA-performing education systems thinking about the future of education?  The High Performing Systems for Tomorrow (HPST) is a three-year partnership among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE), and a group of education system leaders from five jurisdictions that performed at the top of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). They are British Columbia, Canada; Estonia; Finland; Hong Kong; and Singapore. The goal of the project was to consider the impact of digitalization and other global trends on the future of work and civil society; explore what this means for what students should learn and how they should learn it, and consider how this might change the role of educators and the design of public education systems.  

For more than half a century, Sesame Street has pioneered and evolved a model for early childhood learning at scale. This episode discusses the key role research and evaluation play in Sesame’s success and evolution, including new forms of evaluation for work in developing regions with refugees and through the pandemic. Thoughtful evidence-based design has ensured that its brand is very distinctive and highly trusted across the world. International programming has become part of Sesame’s DNA, with an essential ingredient being the participation of indigenous collaborators. Its newest international projects include Ahlan Simsim and support for Rohingya in Bangladesh. Guests Joe Blatt, the Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology program Faculty Co-Chair at the Harvard Graduate School of Education alongside Sesame Street executives Kim Foulds and Shanna Kohn provides advice on developing early childhood learning through media.

Hosts Curt Bonk, Punya Mishra & Yong Zhao gather to reflect on the past four episodes (#113 - #116) and provide commentary. Tune in to our past episodes!Episode 116 | Taking a Venture into EduventuresEpisode 115 | Rethinking Creativity: Race, Culture, and EducationEpisode 114 | Free Immersive Education for All: From Greece to the WorldEpisode 113 | Addressing the Digital Divide: The Story of OaklandConversation topics include media, learning design, and of course, Sesame Street. 

For the past three decades, Eduventures has sought to understand fast-changing education market demands (e.g., student recruitment, retention, success, various technological innovations, and other challenges) and help colleges and universities take the lead and respond to them. Through data and feasibility studies, Eduventures brings an integrated and comprehensive approach to higher education problem-solving as well as a window into the entire educational landscape. Eduventures reports bring order to complex developments and generate actionable recommendations.  

Creativity has grown to become one of the most important concepts in education in the 21st Century. However, much research and thinking about creativity remain in the traditional framework developed in the 1950s. Creativity and entrepreneurship education has also been limited for the elite, the creative individuals. In 2021, Drs. Ron Beghetto and Yong Zhao co-edited an issue of Review of Research in Education by American Educational Research Association (AERA), with a focus on democratizing creative educational experiences. The published issue contains over 10 significant and powerful articles about various issues about creativity and creativity education. We have invited authors of two articles that redefines how to think about creativity in the new age.

The Virtual School (VS) project was inspired by the tragedy in Mati Athens, where a disastrous fire on 23 July 2018 resulted in 96 people losing their lives; the VS project was designed in the memory of the nine years old twins Vasiliki and Sofia who lost their lives during the fire. VS attempts to educate students to recognize good practices dealing with Natural Disasters and 3-digit emergency numbers through innovative technology-enhanced methods such as educational games and augmented reality (AR). In this episode, we learn more about the ARTutor, the augmented reality platform utilized to at VS alongside the teacher professional development program which provides trainees themselves with an active experience to help them to understand complex concepts and expands their efficiency to gain knowledge.

When COVID-19 forced schools to offer remote learning, access to computing devices and the Internet became a significant issue for many children. Although the digital divide has been talked about before the pandemic, remote learning made it a paramount issue for schools, teachers, and students. Oakland in California took an innovative approach to bring access to devices and Internet connectivity to all students in the city. The story was reported by Javeria Salman of the Hechinger Report in April 2022 (read the story here). In this episode, we have invited the reporter and two guests from the #OaklandUndivided project to reflect on their story.

Hosts Curt Bonk, Punya Mishra & Yong Zhao gather to reflect on the past five episodes (#108-#111 + Bonus episode) and provide commentary. Tune in to our past episodes!Bonus Episode 05 | Silver Lining for Learning goes to Space Camp!Episode 111 | K-12 Expansion into Higher EducationEpisode 110 | Big Data in Education: The Promise and the PerilEpisode 109 | It’s Time to Scale Up Global Education: A Chat with Laurence PetersEpisode 108 | InnovateHERs: Strategies from Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurial Women  Conversation topics include school closures, George Orwell’s 1984, and types of curiosity.

K-12 schools, especially those known for their own unique educational philosophies and pedagogies, have been working on preparing their own teachers and spreading their philosophies and pedagogies through their own graduate schools. Recent years have seen a number of K-12 schools developing their own graduate programs that offers masters and doctoral degrees. In this episode, we invited leaders and students from two recently emerged graduate schools to share their experiences. Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity in Education is an expansion from Bridges Academy, a group of K-12 schools that serve twice-exceptional students. High Tech High is a group of schools that have been known for their innovative practices. It has also built a graduate school called High Tech High Graduate School of Education.