Silver Lining for Learning

SLL Ep. 160 | Hosts reflect on media, language and meaning making in an age of AI   Silver Lining for Learning is an ongoing conversation on the future of learning with educators and education leaders from across the globe. Hosted by Chris Dede, Curt Bonk, Punya Mishra & Yong Zhao, these conversations began under the “dark cloud” of the COVID19 crisis and continue today. We see these conversations as space to discuss the creation of equitable, humanistic and sustainable learning ecosystems that meet the needs of all learners. These  conversations are hosted live on YouTube every Saturday and are archived on https://silverliningforlearning.org

Are you wondering if your language needs a boost? Attend Episode #159 of Silver Lining for Learning and get some answers. In fact, in this episode, we will chat with Fabrício Cararro, speaker of 14 languages, and Lucas Bighetti, speaker of 16 languages, both originally from Brazil, who have started a language learning company called LanguageBoost. Their audience includes people who all-of-a-sudden are living abroad and need to learn the language of their new country or region as well as those who are planning or wanting to travel overseas. Other audiences include those needing to pass a language entrance exam, casual language learners, language hobbyists, and others. Learners from around the world have learned languages from Fabrício and Lucas using their unique methods to become conversational in a language of interest in an extremely short period of time. In this session, we will learn how YouTubers like them are using shared online video, blogs, interactive flashcards, generative AI, and other technologies to teach languages online. For instance, we will also discuss how Fabrício and Lucas have used ChatGPT to enhance their language instruction including their recent conversation about generative AI technology like ChatGPT with President Barack Obama. Along the way, we will find out what life is like for a polyglot and how long it takes Fabrício and Lucas to learn a new language. Russian anyone? How about Mandarin? Thai? Serbian? Finnish? Japanese? Attend this session and find out more.Fabrício Cararro, originally from Brazil, was a very curious child. The first moment he was faced with foreign languages was around 2nd or 3rd grade, when a couple of kids who studied in the same class with him started speaking English to each other. Their parents had a lot of money, so they could afford private English lessons. Fabrício felt admiration, but also a little bit of jealousy. He would also like to have a secret language to talk to other classmates and friends. Fabrício has always been interested in other countries and other cultures but could only speak some English. Everything started to change when he was 18. He got the chance to take an intensive Italian course in Brazil, which was a birthday gift from his godmother. At that moment, he saw that learning foreign languages was possible.Soon, Fabrício became a programmer, while keeping language learning as a hobby. However, the languages would keep calling him. So, when he was 27, he got a job in Europe and has not stopped traveling since then. On this journey, he learned from the world’s leading polyglots how people succeed in learning foreign languages, attended several polyglot conferences, and tested countless language learning methods. He can now speak 14 languages (at different levels). His current mission is to help people from all over the world to learn languages faster and more effectively, in order to show them it’s possible and for them to be able to reach their goals.Lucas Bighetti is a language enthusiast and polyglot who has dedicated his life to mastering multiple languages. Growing up in a monolingual family, he really struggled to learn languages at school, but decided to give himself a second chance. He conducted a lot of research and started implementing his own unorthodox methods for language learning. After realizing that the key to success was having a good method rather than natural talent, he began to thrive in his language studies. Today, Lucas speaks a total of 16 languages and uses his skills to help others learn languages more efficiently. He is a sought-after speaker at international events, where he shares his insights and experiences as a polyglot with audiences around the world. Through his work, Lucas is committed to helping others achieve their language learning goals and overcome the same challenges he once faced. He is passionate about sharing the techniques and strategies that have helped him succeed, and he is always seeking new opportunities to share his knowledge and inspire others to pursue their language learning dreams.LanguageBoost: https://languageboost.biz/LanguageBoost (About): https://languageboost.biz/about-us/

Episode #158 will highlight a design-first approach to online and digital education taken at the University of Leeds in the UK. Two initiatives will be shared, Curriculum Redefined and the strategic growth of Online Learning. Jeff Grabill, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Student Education at the University of Leeds, is leading on institutional change and an ambitious strategy to redefine the curriculum for an exceptional student experience. Margaret Korosec, Dean of Online and Digital Education at the University of Leeds, is leading on intentional design for fully online programmes and surfacing the transferability to campus and digitally enabled programmes. To build capacity and provide a reset for a design-first, programme level approach, Niels Floor was invited to facilitate a workshop on Learning Experience Design with a diverse group of academics, designers, technologists. We'll explore how this approach is one of several interventions to build an ecosystem of design at the institution and spark new ways of thinking about online and digital education, what key design principles apply, and how institutions can and should scale this support.Margaret Korosec is an innovative strategic leader bringing creativity, intentionality, and systems perspective to her leadership in scaling online and digital education. She is the Dean of Online and Digital Education at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom leading on establishing a design ecosystem to support and scale online education and a digitally-enabled student experience. As part of her role, she has academic oversight of the Digital Education Service. The service provides specialist learning design, development, production, media, creative and learning systems management for online and digital education. She led the development of a digital learning accelerator, Helix; a creative space to encourage experimentation, iteration, and exploration fostering sense making of emergent technology and enabling radical internal and external collaboration.Online Educa Berlin Keynote: https://oeb.global/oeb-insights/OEB Interview with Margaret (Creating an Ecosystem of Design): https://oeb.global/oeb-insights/creating-an-ecosystem-of-design/Interview: Inside Track | Expanding online education at Leeds, June 20, 2023, Margaret Korosec, Dean of Online and Digital Education, shares a view on how online degrees support lifelong learning at Leeds.Jeff Grabill is Deputy Vice Chancellor for Student Education at the University of Leeds. Prior to joining the University of Leeds, Grabill was at Michigan State University (MSU) in the United States for nearly 20 years. He served Michigan State University as the Associate Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. In that role, he was responsible for facilitating innovation in learning and educator professional development via his role as Director of the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology. Grabill’s research focuses on how digital writing is associated with citizenship and learning. That work has been located in community contexts, in museums, and in classrooms at both the K-12 and university levels. Grabill is also a co-founder of Drawbridge, an educational technology company.Book: Design for Change in Higher EducationCurriculum Redefined https://www.leeds.ac.uk/curriculum-redefinedNiels Floor, a Dutch LX Design pioneer, is the author of the new book: This is Learning Experience Design - What it is, how it works and why it matters. He is a pioneer in the field of Learning Experience Design (LXD/LX design). In fact, in May 2007, the term learning experience design was coined by him. At the time he started this website, mainly as a resource for the students he taught at Avans University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Over the last couple of years there has been a growing interest in learning experience design. So now is the time to turn this website into a platform that supports and connects the global LX Design community. He is on a mission to apply, develop, and promote learning experience design (LXD) around the globe. He believes that well-designed learning experiences can improve people’s lives and contribute to a wise world.Homepage: https://www.lxd.org/nielsfloor/Book: https://lxd.org/lxdbook/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nielsfloor/

Episode 157 | The Little Bookmates Smart Library as a Literacy InitiativeThis episode will air on Saturday July 8, at noon EDT.The Little Bookmates Smart Library as a Literacy Initiative with Ariadna Trapote and Federico Suarez.If the large majority of printed books in the world are in many households’ bookshelves, why not share these effectively instead of having them sitting idly for 99% of the time? Through a subscription model, lean algorithms and hard copy books, Little Bookmates’ clients have already read more than 100k books across Mexico, Colombia and soon the US. What started as a small-scale enterprise in Ari’s house has grown into a franchise model with a powerful platform that can virtually turn any living room in the world into a book lending hub.In 2017, Ari and Fede created Little Bookmates. It works as a library at home for Mexican families. Our goal is to help families to create long-lasting memories by providing printed books in the native language to read with their children. We have found that, when kids read at home without the academic pressure, it’s more likely they will start reading for fun, which will result in a love of reading.Little Bookmates is a subscription business, where our algorithm assigns the right next books for each child, administered by our platform. Each month families receive their books at home and are rotated to new ones over the next month. So far, we have sent more than 100,000 books across Mexico, with an office space of less than 3 hundred square feet and higher book rotation than any public library in Mexico.  After the pandemic, we created franchises, so now we are still lending books but with zero office space.  That is how we can scale this model anywhere; we have an active franchise in Colombia and a pending one in Spain, in addition to the 4 operating in Mexico.This month we are starting our new endeavor focused on the US market: 311Literacy. Over 10 million Hispanic students in US public schools read below grade level. Research shows that 67% of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade will end up in jail or welfare. We help kids to love to read, so they can read to learn. We do this through an integrated student-centered solution that sends a tailored series of bilingual books to their homes. Subscribers will also get support by mentors and an online reading platform with assessment tools. Through 311Literacy children are able to increase their reading abilities so they can have a brighter future, while teachers can be relieved of some of their work in personalizing instruction.More about our guests below the video https://youtu.be/9Ti-xU6kw8YReadings and Resources:Note from Publishing PerspectivesEpisode Guests Ariadna TrapoteBorn and raised in Mexico City, after completing a BA in Actuarial Science at ITAM, Ariadna worked almost 6 years for BBVA Bancomer where she was portfolio manager for equity markets. Ari also holds a Diploma in Econometrics (ITAM, Mexico) and a Masters in Pensions (U. Alcalá, Spain).In 2013 Ari moved to Cambridge, MA with her family (spouse, two children and dog) to study a Masters in Finance at Harvard University. While studying in Harvard, she devised her book lending concept. One of her favorite activities was to take her children to the Cambridge Public Library so, when it was time to come back to Mexico, she didn’t want her kids to lose the habits of reading together every night and practicing the English language. Public libraries were far from her house (almost two hours each way), and printed books were expensive to buy, with limited options of books in English. So Ari created Little Bookmates: a way to have access to hundreds of different books, at your doorstep, at affordable prices. This way, her children still ask to spend time together reading books every night while learning about different topics through a world of books. Federico SuárezBorn and raised in Mexico City, Fede’s background in Engineering and his high energy have taken him across the entrepreneurial ecosystem. While studying engineering, Federico worked in camps as a staff member and rapidly became director and consultant for many camps in Mexico and abroad. He also launched a company serving them with doctors and health insurance.A bit later, he was pulled into the entrepreneurial ecosystem. As such, he expanded a smart mobility company across Latam that was acquired by BlaBlaCar. Subsequently he launched a couple of tech startups, one of which strove to measure reading. His passion for reading and learning resulted in his partnering with Ari; they have been working together for the last 6 years.

Preparing Children in Africa for a Fast-Changing World with  Ms Shirley Eadie, Ms Salome Wenyaa, and Ms Hana Yoshimoto The world is undergoing rapid changes across multiple sectors, driven by trends such as digitalization, migration, automation, and societal polarization, among others. This volatile and uncertain context presents society with complex and interconnected social, economic, environmental, and political challenges. These circumstances require a broad range of social, emotional, and cognitive competencies to successfully navigate and transform the world for a more just and sustainable future. In this context, there is growing recognition of the integral role that education can play in enabling young people to fulfill their individual potential and aspirations, to think critically about the world in which they live, and to participate meaningfully in society as empathetic, ethical citizens with a concern for the ‘common good’.In this episode, we are joined by Shirley, Salome, and Hana, who will share their experiences in developing a breadth of skills in students across Kenya, South Africa and other countries in that region, to better prepare them for the fast-changing world. Shirley will provide insights into efforts by the South African Education Ministry to incorporate a breadth of skills more deliberately and systematically in the taught curriculum in schools. Salome will share lessons learned in Kenya, following their transition to a competency-based curriculum in 2017. Hana will share how UNICEF is working in the region to collaborate with countries in designing and implementing the Life Skills and Citizenship Education (LSCE) framework.More about our guests below the video https://youtu.be/BuXmc_IUGFI Episode GuestsShirley Eadie (South Africa)Shirley Eadie founded and leads the EdHub, the Education Innovation Unit at the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT ). Shirley is a technical advisor to the Department of Basic Education on their integration of skills and competencies for a changing world in basic education.Shirley has an M.Ed in International Education Policy from Harvard University. Her career has focused on education innovation and research. Prior to her work in education, she was founder and CEO of Pondering Panda - Africa’s first quantitative mobile research company, and was Business and Research Director of Instant Grass International, ethnographic youth research agency.Salome Wenyaa (Kenya)Salome Wenyaa  is a Regional Director Quality and Standards, Nairobi Ministry of Education, state Department  of Basic Education, Kenya. Salome is an expert in ECDE, Kiswahili, National Master Trainer of Trainers in Competency Based curriculum and Seasoned Quality Assurance and Standards.Salome has M.A Kiswahili and B.ed Arts from Kenyatta University. Her career has had a great impact in education  through policy development and dissemination. Before joining  civil service, Salome was a teacher as well as an examiner. Besides Education, Salome together with other stakeholders in resolving conflict and conserving the environment, mother 🌎Hana Yoshimoto (UNICEF, South Africa)Hana is Chief of Education at UNICEF South Africa, overseeing programmes related to Early Childhood Development, Quality, and Youth Skills Development. She is a former Regional Chief of Education at UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in the Arab States and co-authored “COVID-19 Learning Losses: Rebuilding Quality Learning for All in the Middle East and North Africa” – a joint report by UNESCO, The World Bank, and UNICEF. Before UNESCO, she served as Chief Education at UNICEF Egypt and Somalia and as an Education Analyst at The World Bank HQ.Hana holds an M.A. in International Education and recently completed her Executive MBA at TRIUM Global EMBA Programme

SLL Ep 155 | Hosts reflect with Chris Dede, Curt Bonk & Yong Zhao Silver Lining for Learning is an ongoing conversation on the future of learning with educators and education leaders from across the globe. Hosted by Chris Dede, Curt Bonk, Punya Mishra & Yong Zhao, these conversations began under the “dark cloud” of the COVID19 crisis and continue today. We see these conversations as space to discuss the creation of equitable, humanistic and sustainable learning ecosystems that meet the needs of all learners. These conversations are hosted live on YouTube every Saturday (typically 5:30 PM Eastern US time) and are archived on https://silverliningforlearning.org

As Martin Weller argued in his insightful free and open book nearly a decade ago, we educators find ourselves in a battle for open. Many of us are contributing to the battle for openness by publishing in open access journals or making our various research reports free and open to the world. Alternatively, we might be contributing an open educational resource (OER) of some type or placing our courses online for anyone to access and learn from, and perhaps even gaining a credential of some type from successful exploration or participation in that course. Others of us are taking the next step in the war with commercial publishers and educational platform vendors by publishing entire books online for anyone to download, use, share, and perhaps even remix. Still others have found the courage, stamina, and dedication to publish a series of such open access educational books or research reports. And then there is Royce Kimmons from Brigham Young University (BYU) who has ingeniously designed and developed a website for free and open educational technology textbooks and journals called EdTechBooks. Royce, along with Rick West and Jason McDonald of BYU have been active in using, promoting, and sharing the award-winning project. Attend this Episode #154 of Silver Lining for Learning and hear stories about their successes, challenges, and work left to accomplish at EdTechBooks. During the hour, Rick, Royce, and Jason will discuss different educational technology topics and trends in some of their most popular books as well as books and journal issues on emerging technology trends and topics that are about to be published. Come learn about this liberating world of open educational resources.More resources and information about our guests below the videoResources:Jason K. McDonald, & West, Richard E. Design for Learning: Principles, Processes, and Praxis (1st ed.). EdTech Books. Available: https://edtechbooks.org/idRichard West, Editor, Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology (second edition in process). https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundationsMcDonald, J. K. (2023). The future of the field is not design. In R. E. West, & H. Leary (Eds.), Foundations of learning and instructional designtechnology: Historical roots & current trends (2nd ed.). EdTech Books. Retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/foundations_of_learn/the_future_of_the_field_is_not_designRichard E. West (@richardewest on twitter) is a professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University. He teaches courses in instructional technology, academic research and writing, creativity and innovation, design psychology, and product/program evaluation. He studies how to innovate and advance education through improved and open educational Content, strong learning Communities, and open Credentials that better recognize student learning. He has presented his research in 11 countries, and has over 150 academic publications, along with several open textbooks for undergraduate/graduate students in the field, including:Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design TechnologyDesign for Learning: Principles, Processes, and PraxisBecoming an LIDT ProfessionalFailing Forward: Stories of Academic Rejection and SuccesTeaching with Asynchronous Videos: Strategies for Online PractitionersOpen AIMS: Assessments, Instruments, and Measurements for Educational ResearchHis personal website is http://richardewest.com. Rick's University homepage is at: https://education.byu.edu/directory/view/richardwest.com and his Google Scholar page is at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KZP3yKEAAAAJ. Rick can be contacted at rickwest@byu.edu.Jason McDonald is currently Professor of Instructional Psychology & Technology at BYU, having started in Fall 2016. He also received his PhD from BYU in Instructional Psychology & Technology in 2006. He currently teaches Introduction to Instructional Design, Project Management, Advanced Instructional Design, Design Theory and Learning Theory. He brings over twenty years of experience in industry and academia, with a career spanning a wide variety of roles connected to instructional design: face-to-face training; faculty development; corporate eLearning; story development for instructional films; and museum/exhibit design. He gained this experience as a university instructional designer; an executive for a large, international non-profit; a digital product director for a publishing company; and as an independent consultant. Dr. McDonald's research focuses on advancing design practice and design education. He studies design as an expression of certain types of relationships with others and with the world, how designers experience rich and authentic ways of being human, the contingent and changeable nature of design, and design as a human accomplishment (meaning how design is not a natural process but is created by designers and so is open to continually being recreated by designers). At BYU, Dr. McDonald has taught courses in instructional design, media and culture change, project management, learning psychology, and design theory. His work can be found at https://jkmcdonald.com/ and university page is at https://innovation.byu.edu/directory/jason-mcdonald and https://education.byu.edu/directory/view/jason-mcdonald. He can be contacted at jason@byu.Royce Kimmons received his Ph.D. in Instructional Technology / Learning Technologies within the curriculum and instruction department at the University of Texas at Austin in 2012. He is currently an Associate Professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University where he studies technology integration in K-12/higher education, open education, and social media. His personal homepage is: http://roycekimmons.com/ and his faculty website at BYU is at https://education.byu.edu/directory/view/royce-kimmons. He can be contacted at  nope@roycekimmons@byu.edu.

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.

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/