The Learning Future Podcast with Louka Parry

How might we reconcile the human species with the natural environment through excellent design?This week on The Learning Future podcast, we speak with Ewan McEoin, Hugh D.T Williamson Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture at the NGV. We discuss the power of design to transcend pure aesthetics and ergonomics to include the political, social and ecological contexts in which things emerge. What are the consequences of our design choices, and how do we make the true cost of choice visible? Ewan takes us through increased transparency, empathy through an object, educating educators around design, and how we can support all people to be designers. Everyone can have a go at coming up with a better way of doing something. Ewan McEoin is Hugh D.T Williamson Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture at the NGV. His role at the NGV includes collecting, advocating, and curating exhibitions, including solo, survey and thematic exhibitions. Key projects include the NGV Triennial (2017 and 2020), the annual NGV Architecture Commissions program (2015 – 2020) and the annual Melbourne Design Week program, Australia’s leading international design festival. Ewan comes to the NGV after two decades of working in design strategy, curating and publishing. He is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Design and the Social Context at RMIT University and a member of the Board of the Robin Boyd Foundation.

What does the future of productivity look like? And how does it influence the shape of organisations?This week on The Learning Future podcast, we speak with Dr Amantaha Imber, founder of Inventium and in 2019 one of Australia’s 100 Women of Influence. Packed with insights and research, Amantha journeys with us as we explore designing organisations for deep work and greater job satisfaction. Using self-determination theory, OKRs, holacracy, the four-day working week and different chronotypes, we discuss how we might enable organisations for the future of productivity.Dr Amantha Imber is an organisational psychologist and founder of behavioural science consultancy Inventium. Amantha is also the co-creator of the Australian Financial Review’s Most Innovative Companies list and the AFR BOSS Best Places to Work list. Amantha has helped companies such as Google, Apple, Disney, LEGO, Atlassian, the Commonwealth Bank and many others innovate more successfully and reinvent the way they approach their work.In 2019, Amantha was named as one of the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence. Amantha is also the host of the number one ranking business podcast How I Work, which has had over 2 million downloads, where she interviews some of the world’s leading innovators about their habits, rituals and strategies for structuring their day.Amantha’s thoughts have appeared in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Entrepreneur and Fast Company and she is the author of two best-selling books: “The Creativity Formula” and “The Innovation Formula”.

How might we put humanity at the centre stage of education?This week on The Learning Future Podcast, we speak with Sarah Mercer, Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria, where she is Head of ELT methodology. We discuss how we might extend the cognitive component of empathy to develop critical thinking and critical reflection, how structures create inequitable contexts, and how self-efficacy and agency within education may lead to a richer human ecosystem.Professor Sarah Mercer's research interests include all aspects of the psychology surrounding the foreign language learning experience and the purpose of education, and the role of social-emotional learning, wellbeing and compassion. In short, how we make our education systems more human. She is the author of many books, most recently Teacher wellbeing and Engaging language learners in contemporary classrooms. Sarah has also been a principal investigator on various funded research projects and serves on numerous editorial boards.

How might we support every young person to be prepared for the present and ready for their future?This week on The Learning Future Podcast, we speak with Professor Michael Anderson, an internationally recognised educational leader who has taught, researched, and published in education and transformation for over 20 years. We discuss how we might support every young person to have the opportunity for collaboration, critical reflection, communication and creativity to harness their present. How integrating the whole learning experience can inform our understanding of curriculum rather than a syllabus and that we change is possible, and transformation is achievable. Professor Michael Anderson is an internationally recognised educational leader, having taught, researched and published in education and transformation for over 20 years, including 13 books and many journal articles, and is currently at the University of Sydney. His international research and practice focuses on how the 4Cs (collaboration, critical reflection, communication and creativity) can be integrated, using coherent frameworks to meet the learning needs of 21st Century learners.His latest book is 'Transforming Education Reimagining Learning, Pedagogy and Curriculum', which takes a future-oriented re-imagining of schools focusing on innate human capacities: collaboration, critical reflection, communication and creativity.

How do we ensure that we can all be creators with emerging technologies? Ariam Mogos is a futurist fellow in the Stanford d.school K12 Lab. She designs prototypes with K-12 educators to engage, evaluate, and create with emerging technologies, crucially grounded in ethics and digital agency. She is currently working on a set of play-based analog resources focused on machine learning, blockchain, the IOT and other technologies. A constructivist educator passionate about computing, Ariam has worked at the intersection of education, technology, equity and play in the United States, Asia, Africa and Europe.She holds a B.S from Cornell University Industrial and Labor Relations and an MA from Columbia University in Human Rights and Global Development.

How does our diet impact our health and ability to live well? What must we know and do to decrease metabolic disease as parents, educators and citizens?In this episode, we speak with Dr James Muecke AM, an eye surgeon, humanitarian, social entrepreneur, and the Australian of the Year for 2020. James lived and worked as a doctor in Africa and subsequently as an eye surgeon in the Middle East, battling malaria, wild animals, and rebel soldiers, he then co-founded Vision Myanmar and also Sight For All, a social impact organisation aiming to create a world where everyone can see. 80% of world blindness avoidable and James treats blindness as a human rights issue.His focus now is type 2 diabetes – the leading cause of blindness in adults and a spiralling epidemic that's impacting nearly one-in-ten Australians. It's the fastest-growing cause of vision loss in Aboriginal people and the sixth-biggest killer in Australia like many other parts of the world. James wants to challenge our perception of sugar and the impact it has on the development of type 2 diabetes.

Does the collective good allow for greater individual growth? Are networks evolving to become the heart of peer-to-peer collaboration rather than a tool to elevate an individual’s contribution? On The Learning Future Podcast episode, we speak with Dominic Regester, a not-for-profit executive, convenor, educator, and interim-Program Lead for Salzburg Global Seminar. We discuss educating for the common good, the fundamental importance of collaboration, and how to make space for new initiatives that support educating for a different paradigm.Dominic is responsible for designing, developing and implementing programs on education, conservation, and the future of cities. Dominic worked for the British Council for 14 years, primarily on projects connected to global citizenship education, teacher professional development, education collaboration and internationalism in education. Dominic has an M.A. in Chinese studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and an M.A. in education and international development from University College London's Institute of Education. Dominic is a founding member of the Executive Committee for Karanga - The Global Alliance for Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills, a contributing editor to Diplomatic Courier and a Director of Amal Alliance. He is the co-editor of two recent books, 'Education Disrupted, Education Reimagined: Thoughts and Responses from Education’s Frontline During the COVID-19 Pandemic' and 'Beyond and Social and Emotional Learning across the Mediterranean: Cross-Cultural Perspectives and Approaches (2020)'.

What masks do you wear in the world? How can we all step into vulnerability and self-love to create safer, kinder communities as men?In today's episode, Louka speaks with Ashanti Branch, an inspiring educator, advocate and social entrepreneur raised by a single mother on welfare in Oakland. After studying engineering at California Polytechnic, Ashanti found his passion for teaching while tutoring struggling students. In 2004, as a first-year teacher, Ashanti started The Ever Forward Club to provide a support group for African American and Latino males who were not achieving the level of their potential. The Ever Forward Club has since helped 100% of its members graduate high school. Ashanti is on a mission to change how students interact with their education and the way schools interact with students. After being featured in The Mask You Live In documentary, a Fellowship at the Stanford d.school, Campaigns for Black Male Achievement, and The Gratitude Network, Ashanti has launched the #MillionMaskMovement. The #MillionMaskMovement connects people worldwide in a self-reflective experience that helps people visualise and realise, "I am not alone."