TeachLab Presents The Homework Machine

This week on TeachLab, host Justin Reich is joined by Neema Avashia to discuss the recently released Teaching Systems Lab report Healing, Community, and Humanity: How Students and Teachers Want to Reinvent School Post-COVID. Together they reflect on what educators have seen in their classrooms since the pandemic, and how we can learn and grow from these experiences.“I'm a pretty firm believer that the old normal didn't work already for too many young people. And that a lot of our young people, even if they're going through the paces of education or complying, that didn't mean that education was meeting their needs, or providing them with the educational experience that they deserve.”  - Neema AvashiaIn this episode we’ll talk about:How Neema adapted her class in the face of the pandemicThe research and methodology from Healing, Community, and Humanity: How Students and Teachers Want to Reinvent School Post-COVID The pressures of “learning loss”What the students missed most about being in schoolHow the pandemic served as a window into longstanding school inequities and how we are adapting school based on what we’ve learnedWWays that Neema is incorporating these new insights  into her classroom teachingHow Neema incorporates these new ideas into her classroom Resources and LinksCheck out the full webinar Healing, Community, and HumanityCheck out the report Healing, Community, and Humanity: How Students and Teachers Want to Reinvent School Post-COVIDCheck out all of Teaching Systems Lab COVID-19 resources Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/healing-community-humanity/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan. Recorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

TeachLab returns! Our host Justin Reich is back in the studio and excited to bring you a new season of episodes, starting December, 9th, 2021. Stay tuned!

Justin Reich is joined by Joel Breakstone, director of the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG), and co-lead on Beyond the Bubble and Civic Online Reasoning projects. Together they discuss assessing online information, the research of SHEG, and the methods used by fact checkers to determine the validity of information.“For one thing, when they did a search, they didn't immediately click on the first search result, which is what many of the Stanford students, and even some of the historians did. Instead, the fact-checkers engaged in what we refer to as click restraint. They paused, and they looked at the snippets about the search results. And they took a moment to check out the URLs, and then made a decision about where they should begin their search. Because that initial click often greatly influences the kind of search that you end up conducting.”  - Joel Breakstone In this episode we’ll talk about:The challenges of evaluating online informationThe Stanford History Group researchCognitive Task AnalysisThe fact checker approachLateral Reading, Click Restraint, and Strategic IgnoringNew study published as a follow-upDigital literacy in educationWikipedia Resources and LinksLearn more about Stanford’s Civic Online Reasoning!Check out their most recent article: Student's Civic Online Reasoning: A National PortraitLearn more about Beyond the Bubble!Check out Justin Reich’s book, Failure To Disrupt!Join our self-paced online edX course: Sorting Truth from Fiction: Civic Online ReasoningJoin our self-paced online edX course: Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/joel-breakstone/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett Beazley. Recorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

Justin Reich is joined by Mike Caulfield, a digital information literacy expert working at Washington State University who has worked with a wide variety of organizations on digital literacy initiatives to combat misinformation. Together they discuss critical thinking, issues with traditional forms of evaluating sources, and the SIFT method.“SIFT. S-I-F-T. First is just “Stop”. If you find yourself emotional, if you find something that you've just got to share... Whatever is the trigger, the emotion, your excitement about sharing it, your rage, seeing something that just strikes you as a little bit odd... Whatever is the trigger, stop and ask yourself, do I really know what I'm looking at here? And you might… You might look at the source, and you might be like, oh yeah. I know this person. Most of the time, a lot of the time, you don't. A lot of the time, it just landed on your doorstep.”  - Mike Caulfield In this episode we’ll talk about:Mike’s introduction to this field - Critical consumption and CRAAPStudents are “shockingly bad” at verifying sourcesThe issues with CRAAPEvaluating online sources with SIFTCritical thinkingCUNY Staten Island intervention Resources and LinksLearn more about SIFTCheck out Mike Caulfield’s Sifting Through the Coronavirus Pandemic!Check out Mike’s book Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers!Check out Mike Caulfield's blog: Hapgood!Check out Justin Reich’s book, Failure To Disrupt!Join our self-paced online edX course: Sorting Truth from Fiction: Civic Online ReasoningJoin our self-paced online edX course: Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/mike-caulfield/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett Beazley. Recorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

Justin Reich is joined by Barry Fishman, professor of education and information at the University of Michigan where he studies the use of technology to support teacher learning,  video games as models for learning environments, and the role of education leaders in fostering classroom-level reform involving technology. Together they discuss the 50th Anniversary edition of Wad-Ja-Get? The Grading Game in American Education with Barry Fishman’s new introduction, as well as grading systems during the pandemic, “Gameful Learning”, and issues with grading in general.“Grades remove information from the system. Rather than me knowing what a learner has learned, I know that they have an A or a B or a C. What does that mean? It doesn't mean really anything at all, especially if it's a B or a C... And maybe you throw a curve in. That's even worse. Curves really remove information from the system, and they ration success. This is one of the worst problems with grading, I think, is that they were really designed for ranking and sorting. They were never designed to encourage learning.”  - Barry Fishman In this episode we’ll talk about:50th Anniversary edition of Wad-Ja-Get?What are the problems with grading?Pandemic grading systemsStudent autonomy and dealing with ambiguityCommon objections over Pass/FailAlternative forms of evaluationGameful Learning Resources and LinksLearn more about Barry Fishman and his work!Check out Wad-Ja-Get?: The Grading Game in American Education with a new introduction by Professor Barry Fishman!Check out Justin Reich’s book, Failure To Disrupt!Join our self-paced online edX course: Sorting Truth from Fiction: Civic Online ReasoningJoin our self-paced online edX course: Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/barry-fishman/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett Beazley. Recorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

Justin Reich is joined by John Palfrey, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, former director of the Berkman Klein Center of Internet and Society, as well as an educator, author, and legal scholar. Together they discuss philanthropy in education, the work of the MacArthur Foundation, and the challenges of making large changes in institutions.“And particularly when we look at a society where I think most of us, anyway, those of us on the left, broadly global left, would say, ‘We're not where we ought to be, right, from an equity perspective, from all sorts of dimensions we want to improve. And certainly the quality of K-12 education in the United States, that's not something we're that good at overall. Therefore, we need to disrupt it. We need to do it better. - John Palfrey In this episode we’ll talk about:What role does philanthropy play in addressing inequality?Thinking about “who is being served?”The natural inclination to give locallySupporting individual leaders to influence the worldLever for Change organizationSmall financial help can facilitate larger financial helpPalfrey’s new book The Connected ParentParenting with technologyBringing equity into educational technology Resources and LinksCheck out The Connected Parent by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser!Learn more about the MacArthur FoundationCheck the MacArthur Foundation’s demographic report!Learn more about Lever for ChangeLearn more about the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and SocietyCheck out Justin Reich’s book, Failure To Disrupt!Join our self-paced online edX course: Sorting Truth from Fiction: Civic Online ReasoningJoin our self-paced online edX course: Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/john-palfrey/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett Beazley. Recorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

Justin Reich joins Jal Mehta and Neema Avashia for the live webinar panel How to Learn from the Pandemic: Name, Nourish, Connect, and Grow!  Together they discuss their collective research and experiences from COVID remote learning, what positivity emerged, and what stakeholders want changed as students and teachers look to re-enter the classroom. Hosted by Elizabeth Foster.“We actually used last year's Imagining September report that was put out, as the basis for redesigning our school schedule for rethinking curriculum. Really using what young people were saying and what educators around the country were saying, to say, ‘We're going to put our stake in doing what's right for young people and we're not going to let the fear of accountability, or the fear of standardized testing be the thing that drives’. We can't let compliance or obedience to external measures be the thing that makes us not do the right thing in this moment.” - Neema Avashia In this episode we’ll talk about:Introducing our panelistsJal on the common changes we saw throughout schoolsNeema on the “in-classroom” experienceJustin on the Imagining September (August) activityWhat was most important during the pandemic is still the most important post-pandemic Resources and LinksWatch the full webinar How to learn from the Pandemic: Name, Nourish, Connect and GrowLearn more about the Imagining September Report!Check out Justin Reich’s book, Failure To Disrupt!Join our self-paced online edX course: Sorting Truth from Fiction: Civic Online ReasoningJoin our self-paced online edX course: Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/learn-pandemic/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

Justin Reich is joined by Matthew Kraft, associate professor of education and economics at Brown University to discuss the efficacy of tutoring, scaling tutoring for equity, and how COVID exposed the inequities of the status quo. “If we are to not think about changing how schooling works, it is in effect a default acceptance of that current world. So what I'm saying is given the empirical evidence, given the just willingness of parents to pay a whole bunch of money for tutoring, I think it's likely that it can be effective. There's no guarantees. It has to be done well. It won't work great at first, and you're going to have to improve. There's a whole bunch of landmines, as there always are. But with a sustained commitment to continuous improvement and problem solving, there's, I think, potential here, as much as there is for any other things that we do in school. So, lets have that be part of the school day so that it's equitably accessible for all kids, particularly those kids who most need it. ”   - Matthew KraftIn this episode we’ll talk about:Lack of social emotional learning for young studentsWhat role does tutoring play in supporting students and teachers?The difficulty of scalingThe costs of tutoringIntegrating tutoring into the regular school dayWhat do we continue post-pandemic?Adding time to the school dayStigmas around receiving tutoring Resources and LinksCheck out A Blueprint for Scaling Tutoring Across Public Schools by Matthew KraftCheck out the Boston Globe article: For schoolchildren struggling to read, COVID-19 has been a wrecking ballCheck out Justin Reich’s book, Failure To Disrupt!Join our self-paced online edX course: Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/matthew-kraft/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyRecorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

Justin Reich is joined by Matthew Mugo Fields, the general manager of supplemental and intervention solutions at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a learning technologies company. Together they discuss Matthews career, the direction and values at HMH, and the responsibilities of designing and implementing effective educational technology.“...it can never be about the technology alone. It has to be about sort of more comprehensive instructional systems that leveraged technology, and that technology can play a key role, but if you're going to be serious about... instructional technology at scale, you've got to be as thoughtful about implementation and how you're going to support teachers and using it, how you're going to coach them, et cetera, as you are about what algorithms you are going to optimize.” - Matthew Mugo Fields In this episode we’ll talk about:Updates on education in their livesMatthew’s edtech story -  “Tracked to the bottom” / TutoringBeginning of Redbird Advanced LearningWork with Dr. Patrick SuppesThe importance of building relationships in educationMatthews work at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt“Unfinished learning”Designing for users Resources and LinksLearn more about Matthew Mugo FieldsCheck out the HMH podcast Shaping the FutureCheck out Justin Reich’s new book, Failure To Disrupt!Join our self-paced online edX course: Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/matthew-mugo-fields/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyRecorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

For TeachLab’s tenth and final Failure to Disrupt Book Club we look back at Justin’s live conversation with regular Audrey Watters and special guest Kevin Gannon, professor and director of the Teaching and Learning Center at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. Together they discuss the final chapter of Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education.“My institution is where you have students who are living in their cars, students who can't get basic needs, students who are working three jobs and need some technical solution to help them manage this workload. But they're not in those conversations about the tools that we have available to us, to adopt. I don't know what the solution to that is. But I don't think Ivy League graduates designing these products that look like the app students use, so they're more comfortable with it- I don't think that's the answer.”   -Kevin GannonIn this episode we’ll talk about:Kevin’s edtech stories - Gopher/PearsonTakeaways from the final chapter and the whole bookEdtech amnesiaTheories of Change“Disruption”Responsibilities of schools vs. society“Clunky” Student Information SystemsLack of student voice in edtech decision makingNext book recommendations Resources and LinksCheck out Kevin Gannon’s book Radical HopeCheck out Audrey Watters' book Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized LearningCheck out Sustainable. Resilient. Free.: The Future of Public Higher Education by John WarnerCheck out Schools That Learn): A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education co authored by Peter SengeWatch the full Book Club webinar here!Check out Justin Reich’s new book, Failure To Disrupt!Join our self-paced online edX course: Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/bookclub10/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyRecorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube