Silver Lining for Learning

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.

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.

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 

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/

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.

Our guests (Ariel Anbar and Norman Bier) propose a promising solution for tackling complex concepts in education: creating immersive, adaptive, and open resources that utilize digital personalized tutoring. By incorporating a curriculum that emphasizes real-world relevance and challenges learners, education can be transformed from an abstract and siloed experience to one that is responsive and engaging. Intelligent facilitation of interactions between peers and instructors can also enhance the learning experience, making it more powerful and relevant.Anbar and Bier also highlighted the importance of open-source in edtech. They pointed out that the industry has been stifled by an investment-driven model that has led to excessive protection of intellectual property (IP) and market domination. However, this approach is ultimately futile since education decision-making is decentralized, and costs must be kept low. An open-source approach to scaling out tech infrastructure is essential since it promotes community collaboration and affordability, thereby providing a hedge against IP capture. While there is still room for specialized, for-profit businesses to cater to specific needs, the adoption of open source can significantly improve education accessibility and affordability for all learners. More importantly, the goal is to create a model that addresses the full range of educational needs—i.e. systems that are effective, robust, reliable and a joy to use.Ariel Anbar is Center Director and President’s Professor at ASU. He is a scientist and educator exploring Earth’s past and future as an inhabited world, and the prospects for life beyond. He and his team study topics ranging from the origins of Earth’s atmosphere to detecting life on other worlds. Ariel’s passion for science combined with his desire to transform how students learn catalyzed the formation of the ETX Center which he directs, which is reinventing digital learning around curiosity, exploration, and discovery. A graduate of Harvard and Caltech, Ariel is a President’s Professor in ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and School of Molecular Sciences, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, and was named one of 10 “teaching innovators” by the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2017.Norman Bier is Director of the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University. His work sits at the intersection of CMU’s internal educational practice, ongoing learning science research and external collaboration.Norman has spent his career at the intersection of learning and technology, working to expand access to and improve the quality of education. His experience spans the higher educational sector, including 2-year and 4-year; public and private; domestic and international; and commercial institutions. Prior to joining OLI, he was Director of Training and Development at iCarnegie Inc., a CMU subsidiary chartered to deliver software development education through international partner institutions. Using technology and faculty support, iCarnegie reaches thousands of students who would otherwise not have access to a CMU-level education. He has taught computer science courses as an adjunct faculty member at the Community College of Allegheny County, philosophy courses at Carnegie Mellon University and served as a founding committee member of the Cook Honors College at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves as board member for the Kaleidoscope Project and the Shady Lane School.

Through The Staff (TTS) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in the United States created in the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. TTS aims to connect 2nd-12th grade students with volunteer university musicians from around the United States. For centuries, music education has favored the wealthy and privileged in society. Economically disadvantaged and marginalized students typically attend schools with smaller budgets for music education and fewer resources. In response, TTS is devoted to finding, developing, and promoting alternative forms of access to music lessons, webinars, and masterclasses. In effect, TTS is a story of racial, geographic, financial, and gender equity in musical education. Through providing free virtual private lessons and essential music education materials, TTS strives to make music more accessible to any student who wants to learn it. In so doing, they are breaking down barriers in access to classical music to make musical journeys possible for any student, no matter their geographic location or financial situation. In this episode of Silver Lining for Learning, we will meet three Through The Staff leaders, Matthew Garcia (Founder and Board Trustee), Ashton Prince (Board Trustee), and Jessica Wu (Director of Programs). We will hear about the state of music education prior to TTS and how TTS has made a positive change in music education. The guests will also speculate on the scalability and sustainability of a virtual volunteer platform in the arts education space. Matthew Garcia’s November 2020 TED Talk on “How global virtual communities can help kids achieve their dreams” provides a wonderful overview of the mission and goals of TTS.Some links Through the Staff: https://www.throughthestaff.org/https://www.ted.com/talks/matthew_garcia_how_global_virtual_communities_can_help_kids_achieve_their_dreams?language=enhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRx8ocxmmDIMatthew Garcia, hailed as an “Education Equalizer” by the TED Fellows, is a social innovator who has co-founded and sits on the board of two U.S. non-profits – Through the Staff and the Pre-College Research Institute. He recently delivered a World-Stage TED talk on the power of virtual nonprofits to bring educational resources to youth in underserved communities who would otherwise be unable to afford or access them. A graduating senior at Harvard, Matthew is a researcher and consultant at WolfBrown where he advises national non-profit clients in the arts and culture fields. His recent writing includes publishing a report for the National Endowment of the Arts on what factors predict student persistence in historically exclusive fields – like music and academic research. After graduation, Matthew will pursue his dedication to expanding equity, especially for communities of color, through a career in project management and social innovation consulting to address the most pressing social challenges of our time. He is Founder and Board Trustee of Through The Staff. He can be contacted at matthew@throughthestaff.org.Dominique Reilly is a flute performer, educator, and arts organizer based in Houston, Texas. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Flute Performance with a minor in Media Production from the University of Houston, and a Master’s degree in Flute Performance from The University of Texas. Her primary teachers include Marianne Gedigian, Jennifer Keeney, and Melissa Suhr. She has frequently performed with ensembles at her respective institutions and throughout the Austin and Houston areas. Dominique has maintained an active private studio of middle and high school students since 2016. Dominique joined Through the Staff in 2020 during a leave of absence from graduate school, when she discovered the organization through Instagram. She joined the founders as their first Director of Operations to build staying power in the organization’s systems, and in 2021 became Through the Staff’s first formal Executive Director. As a young professional, Dominique devotes her time and skills to empowering others and investing in an equitable future of art, media, and its audiences. She can be contacted at dominique@throughthestaff.org.Ashton Prince, a Houston based percussionist, is a young professional in the music community. He completed his undergraduate studies with Blake Wilkins and Alec Warren as a member of the percussion studio for the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. Ashton’s professional endeavors span several channels of work. He works as a freelance percussionist throughout varying Houston performing ensembles and artists. A budding leader in the non-profit community, Ashton works at the DACAMERA Society of Texas (a jazz and chamber performance organization), serves as Executive Director for ConcertiaHTX (a new ensemble using music to empower social causes), and is a Board Director and Director of Communications, for Through the Staff. He can be contacted at ashton@throughthestaff.org.Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Jessica Wu is a classically trained flutist that enjoys exploring a diverse range of repertoire. She enjoys collaborating with others in both the large ensemble setting and as a chamber musician. Passionate about pedagogy, she is constantly striving to better herself so that she can be the best teacher for her students. Jessica obtained a Performance Diploma from Boston University as well as a Master of Music Degree from the Longy School of Music and Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Houston, with a specialization in Music Education and Applied Flute. Her primary teachers have been Peggy Russell, Sergio Pallottelli, and Renée Krimsier. She is currently living in Houston, working as an elementary music teacher and teaching private flute lessons. Jessica started volunteering with Through The Staff in 2021 as an Education Team associate. In 2023, she now holds the position of Director of Program Operations, overseeing the management of educational opportunities and resources for all students and teachers. She can be contacted at jessica@throughthestaff.org.

Hosts reflect