Edufuturists

We are delighted to be joined by Ben Owens and Adam Haigler from Open Way Learning - the co-authors of Open Up Education and pioneers in innovative education from the USA. Ben Owens worked as a mechanical engineer for a multinational corporation for 20 years before becoming a STEM teacher for 11 years in rural Appalachia. While at Tri-County Early College, he helped transform the school into one that has gained international recognition for its unique approach to community-facing Project Based Learning. In 2018, Ben left the classroom and co-founded the nonprofit, Open Way Learning, which helps schools create the cultural conditions where authentic, learner-centered innovation will thrive. Adam Haigler worked with Ben at Tri-County Early College as a Science teacher before joining him to start Open Way. He also works with Education Evolving, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organisation focused on improving American public education and as a Digital Marketing Consultant for Launch Marketing. Watch this episode on YouTube to view all the links shared in this episode: https://youtu.be/yeE2P5ZGfmE

We are joined by the brilliant Laura McInerney, a former teacher and editor of Schools Week, who has spent over 12 years on the frontline of education policy and interviewed over 60 top education names — from Dylan Wiliam to Carol Dweck to Amanda Spielman. Laura has keynoted at events such as The Education Festival, the Headteachers Roundtable Summit and the BETT show and since 2013, has been a columnist for The Guardian. She has written for other publications including The Observer, the New Statesman, The TES, and Prospect. Laura is the author of two books - The Leadership Factor, co-authored with our good friend, Drew Povey from Educating Manchester - and The Six Predictable Failures of Free Schools (And How To Avoid Them). She is also the co-founder of Teacher Tapp - an app that was created to give teachers a voice.

We are joined by Mike Feerick, CEO and Founder of Alison.com. Mike is an internationally recognised and award-winning social entrepreneur. He is a key figure within the education industry and believes that free, accessible learning is the answer to many of the world’s problems and the solution lies within education. Mike started the business in 2007 as an avenue to increase employability for all. Alison is one of the largest, and first ever massively open online course (MOOC) provider. With 17 million members, the Alison platform provides free learning for basic education and workplace skills with over 3m graduates of its 1,700+ free courses.  https://www.edufuturists.com

Watch the episode on Youtube We are joined by Davis Chen, VP of Engineering at Kneron, a San Diego based AI solutions provider. Davis spent 21 years at Qualcomm and was the former Taipei Head of Engineering. In his time there, he managed six business units including Mobile, IOT/XR, Compute, Connectivity, Auto, and Audio, and won eight Qualcomm Annual Achievement Awards. Davis has a Master’s Degree focused on Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego. Kneron are passionate about education and about building trust in AI. They regularly test facial recognition terminals to ensure they work correctly and are interested in how the workforce is becoming increasingly more automated and the effect this will have on student skills that are needed. The Kneron dongle is being used in UCLA, Notre Dame and the University of Virginia and they are looking at how AI can be used in classrooms as virtual tutors. Kneron primarily solves three main problems for smart devices running AI — security, energy and cost, thereby enabling AI everywhere and for everyone.

We are delighted to be joined by Amber Harper, the creator of Burned-In Teacher and author of Hacking Teacher Burnout. Amber is a Teacher Burnout Coach, she coaches educators to help prevent and/or recover from burnout, so that they can live happier, more fulfilled lives. Amber is driven by her desire to support teachers to ensure that this current career and this one life they have, is the best, most fulfilling that it can be. This is done through various mediums including her podcast, book, membership, and free Facebook Community. Watch this episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/ZguPwh3dslU

We are delighted to be joined by two pioneers in a brand new innovation, known as The Critical Engineer. Louise Jones is a regular guest on the podcast and is Founder of Cairngorm Futures & Director of Education Community and Partnerships at ThingLink. Paul Fagan is Head of Enterprise and Employability at West College Scotland and one of The Critical Engineer Founders.   Find out more and sign up at https://www.criticalengineer.net/ for the upcoming events on January 21st | January 28th | February 4th

We are delighted to be joined by David Jones has over 30 years experience in FE/HE, most recently 16 outstanding years as CEO at Coleg Cambria. He stepped down in January to pursue a range of consultancy and non-exec roles. David was a key presenter at our New, Next or Never Normal roundtable in June to launch a report he compiled of the same name, which we will discuss today. We asked about how to figure out the changing world of further and higher education. David was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of Clwyd in March 2010 and was awarded an OBE in the 2015 New Year’s Honours List in recognition of his services to education. David also won the TES UK FE Leader of the Year Award in 2017. youtube.com/edufuturists edufuturists.com

Watch the video of this episode at https://youtu.be/mamE9OR1k3o We are delighted to be joined by Liz Pemberton, known on social media and education circles as The Black Nursery Manager. She is super active in the EYFS setting. Liz has worked in Early Years for over 16 years but has had experience in secondary teaching (Health & Social Care, Childcare & Drama) and university lecturing. She is passionate about many things and will inspire us tonight to rethink our attitudes to race.

In this episode we are delighted to be joined by Debra Kidd. Debra has worked across primary, secondary, FE and HE settings and is the author of four books on education. She works internationally now, in and out of classrooms with children and teachers, exploring how to make learning matter. Watch the video of this podast here https://youtu.be/B98pPjC1P1E www.edufuturists.com

We have a really exciting episode today and we have the CEO of Texthelp Martin McKay. Martin founded Texthelp in 1996 to help people with communication difficulties. What started as a company focused on people with profound Speech and Dexterity Disabilities has become a world leading Education Technology company creating smart, inclusive software that helps people read, write, express their thoughts and share information more accurately & fluently – across all stages of life.  His personal goal is to help 100 million people achieve their literacy goals. Martin has spent work life developing education technology. Current areas of R&D include learning analytics and the automated assessment of writing and oral reading fluency.  In the past, he has served on the Assistive Technology Industry Association Board as well as the NIMAS board for the USA Office of Special Education Programs. In 2017, he received the Presidential Award in recognition of lifetime contribution to dyslexia and literacy from the International Dyslexia Association. He is currently serving in an advisory capacity on the Universal Design for Learning council.