TeachLab Presents The Homework Machine

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

For TeachLab’s ninth Failure to Disrupt Book Club we look back at Justin’s live conversation with regular Audrey Watters and special guest Candace Thille, director of Learning Science at Amazon and former researcher and faculty member at Stanford University and at Carnegie Mellon. Together they discuss Chapter 8, The Toxic Power of Data and Experiment.“It wasn't just that they didn't know how to use the educational technology. It was their belief about their role as a learner and their belief about her role as an instructor. And so just like you talked about many times in your book, the technology can't do it. The human interactions are what really drive how the technology gets used.”    -Candace ThilleIn this episode we’ll talk about:Candace’s positive edtech story - Human interaction with edtech implementationCandace’s negative edtech story - Failure of interface designPrivacy/surveillance/autonomy concerns in edtechOpen Learning Initiative statistics courseComprehensive Assessment of Outcomes in a first Statistics course (CAOS)Systematically evaluating the variations between teachersDefining “experiments”Ethical data collectionData ≠ useful insightDemocratizing education research Resources and LinksWatch 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/bookclub9/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyRecorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

For TeachLab’s eighth Failure to Disrupt Book Club we look back at Justin’s live conversation with regular Audrey Watters and special guest Courtney Bell, a former research scientist at the Education Testing Services and now director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER), UW–Madison School of Education. Together they discuss the book’s third edtech dilemma, the Trap of Routine Assessment.“The assessment practice of observing Justin teach or Justin teaching in an assessment situation is not the same, by definition from Justin's real world teaching… My assertion is, that's always true in every assessment. If that's the case, then we think to ourself where can technology fit into this thing?”- Courtney Bell In this episode we’ll talk about:Courtney’s edtech story - PalmPilot and MursionComplex performance assessmentHistory of assessment technology - TUTOR and PLATOReal-world teaching vs. The observer effectCapturing teacher decision makingLack of social understanding in technology assessmentPeer-assessment technologyMeaningful feedbackStealth Assessment Resources and LinksWatch 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/bookclub8/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyRecorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

For TeachLab’s seventh Failure to Disrupt Book Club episode we look back at Justin’s live conversation with regular Audrey Watters and special guest Antero Garcia. He's a faculty member at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a former teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Together they discuss the book’s second edtech dilemma, the Ed Tech Matthew Effect.“Let's start with the community as the designer, and what it means to then imagine what schools and the tools that schools are going to need to build from there. That, to me, seems like the starting place of the conversation. I tend to get grumpier as I think about other kinds of tools because I think they all are generally bad. All of the surveillance stuff is... Not only do I not trust the tool, but I don't trust the motive or the intentions of the companies that are making and selling these tools or of the designers...” - Antero Garcia In this episode we’ll talk about:Antero Garcia’s edtech story - SMART boardAntero’s workIssues and shortcomings of edtechThe “Digital Divide”Dangers of proctoring softwareAligning business values with that of public schoolsCommunity designWiFi over wellbeingLack of imagination in education Resources and LinksCheck out Antero’s book, Good Reception: Teens, Teachers, and Mobile Media in a Los Angeles High SchoolWatch 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/bookclub7/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyRecorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

For TeachLab’s sixth Failure to Disrupt Book Club episode we look back at Justin’s live conversation with regular Audrey Watters and special guest Dan Meyer, the chief academic officer at Desmos. Together they discuss the work of Desmos and the section of Justin’s book on the “Curse of the Familiar.”“From our perspective, for us, we are not trying to subvert the school day. We're not trying to get learning outside of the four walls of the classroom. We're not trying to upend schooling and turn everyone into home schoolers. I'm not judging those necessarily, but I'm just saying, we know what we're not trying to do, and we're actually really eager to use the four walls, we understand that there are things that are possible when a bunch of people are together in a room that is impossible during asynchronous experiences. There's this sometimes collective effervescence, it's why we used to go to movie theaters, or why sports are interesting to watch in person, versus on TV. It's that bubbly champagne like feeling when you're all together. So we know what we're trying to change and not trying to change.” - Dan Meyer In this episode we’ll talk about:Dan Meyer’s edtech story and teaching experienceSuccess of QuizletCurse of the FamiliarCombat vs. Co-opt schoolingDesmos’ approachCommunity in edtechCreating a low, welcoming floorThe business of edtechAssessment in online learning Resources and LinksCheck out Dan Meyer’s blog!Learn more about Desmos!Watch 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/bookclub6/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyRecorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube

For TeachLab’s fifth Failure to Disrupt Book Club episode, we look back at Justin’s live conversation with regular Audrey Watters and special guests Scot Osterweil, a game designer and creative director for the MIT Education Arcade, and the esteemed games researcher Constance Steinkuehler. They discuss the history of learning games, their current work, and Failure To Disrupt’s Chapter 4: Testing the Learning at Scale Genres: Learning Games.“I've been studying kids in games for a long time. And oftentimes, when you try to tackle issues of how to treat other people online, how to deal with conflict, how to manage your screen time and also stay physically fit, it's very hard to create interventions around games, that kids just don't spit right back out. They just don't take because there are often layers added on top. They're not authentic to the space. In my efforts, and I'm sure people have done better than me, but in my efforts, it always seems to be colonizing and the kids will ignore me, and it comes off as, mom is wagging a finger saying you need to get up off that screen and go stretch.” - Constance Steinkuehler In this episode we’ll talk about:Scot and Constance’s background and edtech storiesSkinnerian learning and behaviorismCategories of learning games“Transfer” in educationThe social and community aspect of gamesExamples of effective game implementationsConnection through esportsLearning social skills through gamesThe industry of learning games Resources and LinksWatch 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/bookclub5/transcript Produced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett BeazleyRecorded and mixed by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab:FacebookTwitterYouTube