Edufuturists

Les McBeth is an educator on a mission to empower students to solve the world's big problems. With 15 years of experience at the intersection of design and education, Les has worked in design and public policy in Switzerland and NYC and as a teacher in Toronto. As Director of Special Projects at Future Design School, Les designs programs and products that help educators and school leaders break down classroom walls and develop future-ready skills. Les has worked with 10,000+ educators around the world. She has been the Design Coach for the Google Certified Innovator program worldwide since 2016.

A few weeks ago people using the online forum Reddit managed to drive up the stock price of an American company called Gamestop, which lost a lot of Wall Street investors billions of dollars. This worldwide news was on our screens for days and had a lot of commentators hailing a revolution for the stock market.  With our guest Jamie Smith, we are going to delve into what happened, what it all means and how the education system can help prepare our learners for understanding the stock market.  We are joined by a great friend of Edufuturists Jamie Smith. Jamie is Executive Chairman at the educational technology company C-Learning and author of “Making Money From Stocks and Shares”. 

We are delighted to be joined today by Martin Illingworth. Martin is Senior Lecturer in English Education at Sheffield Hallam University and Associate with Independent Thinking. Martin is a consultant for The National Association for the Teaching of English and a regular speaker for Independent thinking. His first book ‘Think before you Teach’ urges teachers to reflect deeply on their motivation and reasons for being a teacher. His latest book ‘Forget School’ argues that if schools don’t respond to the real world of change, challenges and possibilities that face young people, they will become.

We are delighted to be joined today by Professor Rachel lofthouse. Rachel is a Professor of Teacher Education and Director of CollectivED at Leeds Beckett University. Rachel has 30 years experience  as a teacher, teacher educator, writer and researcher, and is working weekly with students, teachers and school leaders as well as being involved in a range of European projects. She is passionate about professional learning that crosses boundaries, brings educators from different sectors together and respects the individual motivations and authentic concerns that drive change.   Follow us on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/edufuturists Check out all past episodes at https://www.edufuturists.com Subscribe on iTunes https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/edufuturists/id1347592880

#TeacherHugRadio @Edufuturists @TeacherHugRadio The Edufuturists launch show for TeacherHugRadio.com which aired on 31st January. In this special episode about the exam fiasco of the last 10 months we are joined by Lord Jim Knight, Laura McInerney, David Price OBE and Dr. Debra Kidd. After 10 months of dithering and delay in England on many political issues, one important decision that teachers up and down the country won't have missed is that surrounding exams. A Levels, vocational qualifications, GCSE's and SATS. They've all been affected by lockdowns, the government and mutant algorithms. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is adamant that exams are the best and "fairest" way that students can show what they have learned. Is this true? Winston Churchill once said that "democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time". Are we in danger of lazily appplying this logic to exams, in that exams aren't perfect but it's the best we have? Many of us want to avoid just teaching to an exam, however year 11 engagement in online learning dropped last year when exams were scrapped. Implying that many students think they are just being taught to pass an exam. Leadership tables based on exam results dominate our education system and pressure to achieve certain grades causes many teachers to leave the profession every year. All this when many companies are now saying that exam results are not what they primarily consider when hiring employees. So our question today is: Has a year of exam fiascos revealed that when it comes to end point assessment, the tail is wagging the dog? And if so, are there better solutions?

We are delighted to be joined today by Paul Dix. Paul is an Award-winning Behaviour Specialist who has helped schools all over the world transform their behaviour policies. He is author of the book “When the adults change, everything changes” and leads the very popular Ban the booths campaign. Paul starts a new venture this coming weekend when his new radio station for teachers, Teacher Hug Radio, launches at TeacherHugRadio.co.uk.  www.teacherhugradio.co.uk

We are delighted to be joined today by Bob Harrison who has had extensive experience in schools and colleges as a teacher, lecturer, senior manager, principal and governor. Bob was recently shortlisted for the TES FE “Lifetime Achievement award” for services to Further, Vocational and Adult Education. You can join his following on twitter @bobharrisonedu

We are delighted to be joined today by our good friend, Al Kingsley, Managing Director of NetSupport Group. Al joins us to talk about educational leadership and learning during lockdowns and into the future.    Follow us on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/edufuturists Check out all past episodes at https://www.edufuturists.com Subscribe on iTunes https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/edufuturists/id1347592880

Kenyatta Forbes is the former Edu Content Manager for Google for Education where she managed content across the Google Teacher Center, Chromebook App Hub, Google Certified Exams Level 1/2, and Google’s Edu Equity Initiatives.  She now works as Great Lakes Senior District Manager - Adoptions for Nearpod and Flocabulary. Kenyatta spent two years working with Mozilla Foundation as a Community Manager stewarding the internet as a tool for innovation and learning globally. She previously worked as an Educator for the Chicago Public School district for over 10 years, including teaching technology and special education. Kenyatta holds an M.A. from National Louis University in Education and an M.F.A in Film/Video/Animation from the University of Illinois-Chicago.  You can follow her on Twitter at @kenyatta_forbes.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ais8vbEeGcg We are joined in this episode by Bukky Yusuf and Mark Anderson. Bukky is a senior leader, science teacher and coach. She is also a Network Leader and coach for WomenEd & BAMEEd. She is a judge for The EdTech50 Schools, BETT Awards and serving as an Education Board Member for Innovate My School.  She is a co-chair of the EdTech Leadership Group to support the Government’s EdTech strategy.   Mark Anderson taught ICT and Computing for more than twenty years. He is a multi-award-winning blogger, best-selling author who now runs his own consultancy and training business, ICT Evangelist. His business sees him working alongside teachers, schools, colleges, universities and leadership groups exploring effective use of technology, deployment and digital strategy. He also works with and supports a wide variety of educational technology companies around the world.  Together Mark and Bukky host Teach Meet UK EduStories. A live show on YouTube and social media.