Silver Lining for Learning

How to make education changes happen in schools? What can technology do for students and educators? How do you spread changes to more schools? Join us on in this episode as we have a wonderful guest, Gabriel Rshaid, who has been a principal of multiple schools, an author of many books, an innovator, and an entrepreneur.  Gabriel Rshaid is the co-founder and Director of The Learnerspace, a consulting company seeking to impact education advocating for effective change. He is also co-founder of The Global School, the first school of its type in Latin America, attempting to make educational change a reality. Formerly Headmaster of St. Andrew’s Scots School in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the oldest bilingual school in the world. He is a passionate educational futurist who is intent on sharing his belief that it is the best time in history to be an educator. Gabriel is the author of five books: “Learning for the Future”, “The 21st Century Classroom”, “From Out of This World: Leadership and Life Lessons from the Space Program”, “Extreme Curriculum Makeover: A Hands-On Guide for a Learner-Centered Pedagogy” and “The Whole Teacher: a One Way Journey to Rediscovering Joy and Passion in Teaching”, a co-author of “The Take-Action Guide to World Class Learners”, and has contributed to numerous other books and anthologies. A former board member of ASCD and chair of ESSARP, he has spoken and led professional development workshops all over the world, working with educators to help create the future of education.

On Saturday, December 19th, the hosts of Silver Lining for Learning gather to reflect on conversations with guests over the past nine months and look forward to the future.

How does one teach from a boat or an ice shield in the Antarctic? Dr. Cassandra Brooks, an award winning Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and others have used mesmerizing stop-motion videos to showcase their journey through pristine waters and months cutting through the sea ice. Cassandra’s groundbreaking (and ice breaking) adventures on and around that frozen continent have led to her extensive work in environmental education and policy. Today, she discusses how her research and extension work has provided unique educational possibilities for the people of this planet through The Last Ocean project.*This episode contains slides and can be watched here.

From their outset, MOOCs have been envisioned as engines of change. Whereas early conceptions of MOOCs centered around providing universal access to high quality education, our goal is for MOOCs to be key actors or springboards in spurring local sustainability practices.Guests today include are Marianne Krasny, Professor of Natural Resources at Cornell University, Gail Woon, Founder of EARTHCARE in the Bahamas, Zahra Golshani, research associate at the Institute for Health and Environment University in Albany, USA, and Michael Schrenk the division manager: Environment, Wild Serve NPC in Gauteng, South Africa.

The SLL guests this week are Dr. Edgar León, who teaches online graduate courses for the Education, Technology and Curriculum Graduate School at the Caribbean University;Carmen Noble, who teaches Physics, Meteorology, Astronomy, and Scientific Research at the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Specialized School in Sciences and Mathematics in Ponce, Puerto Rico; and Betzabeth Pagán, a poet and educator in Puerto Rico. Together they  discuss the challenges and possible solutions for teaching online after Hurricane Maria in September 2017, various tropical storms, a 6.4 earthquake in January 2020, and the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020.

Fulden Ergen a Teachers Network Communications Expert and Tuğba İnanç, CEO and Co-Founder of Da Vinci Learning Academy in Turkey, discuss education inequalities in Turkey, such as inaccessibility of technology, resource imbalance between private and public schools, gender inequality, and challenges of immigrant and refugee kids. The discussion focuses on how teachers and other stakeholders collaborate to overcome these difficulties through the Teachers Network

Education innovations do not only happen in schools. Cross-school collaboration is necessary for students and teachers to expand their access to different and more educational experiences. The Global Online Academy (GOA) represents another type of innovation that is much needed in the world, especially during COVID.

Hla Hla Win and Yau Min Aung, co-Founders of 360ed discuss how their partnership with the Myanmar Ministry of Education has accelerated Myanmar education reform and helped to address  the dramatic shortage of teachers, texts and interactive learning aids in Myanmar.

Few SLL listeners know much about Nepal’s education system. Even fewer likely realize the innovative attempts in Nepal to take advantage of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and open education. But can they be replicated in other parts of the world? And should they be? An intriguing look at how MOOCs are being used by high school teachers to spark learner interests and increase the level of educational engagement of young Nepali students.

The hosts of Silver Lining for Learning will gather together to reflect on the conversations they have had with guests over the past few weeks and look forward to the future.  An engaging and insightful conversation.