Shows
EdSurge PodcastLive from ISTE+ASCD with Heather BrantleyCarl Hooker brings us a live podcast from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio, Texas. He connects with conference attendees, friends old and new, asking each to share a problem they're working to solve in their corner of the education world — or, as Carl puts it: “Tell me your idea spark."
In this episode, Carl sits down with Heather Brantley, Events and Community Specialist at Curipod. Listen to find out how Curipod replaces an expected AI bot with a human!
This episode of The Idea Spark is brought to you by EdSurge Solutions Studio.
2025-09-2204 minEdSurge PodcastLive from ASCD + ISTE with Lexi DalyCarl Hooker brings us a live podcast from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio, Texas. He connects with conference attendees, friends old and new, asking each to share a problem they're working to solve in their corner of the education world — or, as Carl puts it: “Tell me your idea spark."
Carl sits down with Lexi Daly, Learning Innovation Coordinator and Reading Teacher at Trinity Episcopal School in New Orleans. Find out how this self-proclaimed non-coder creates her own mini-games using AI.
This episode of The Idea Spark is brought to you by EdSurge Solutions Studio.
2025-09-2206 min
EdSurge PodcastLive from ASCD + ISTE with Victoria AndrewsCarl Hooker brings us a live podcast from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio, Texas. He connects with conference attendees, friends old and new, asking each to share a problem they're working to solve in their corner of the education world — or, as Carl puts it: “Tell me your idea spark."
Carl sits down with Victoria Andrews. She’s Partner, Professional Learning at Getting Smart. In this role, Victoria is focusing on closing the gap in AI media literacy.
This episode of The Idea Spark is brought to you by EdSurge Solutions Studio.
2025-08-2907 minEdSurge PodcastLive at ASCD + ISTE with Leo Ortiz VillacortaCarl Hooker brings us a live podcast from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio, Texas. He connects with conference attendees, friends old and new, asking each to share a problem they're working to solve in their corner of the education world — or, as Carl puts it: “Tell me your idea spark."
Carl sits down with Leonardo Ortiz Villacorta (aka Leo). Leo is a leader in communications, global social impact, and public affairs at Pokemon.
This episode of The Idea Spark is brought to you by EdSurge Solutions Studio.
2025-08-2907 minEdSurge PodcastLive at ASCD + ISTE with Bria JonesCarl Hooker brings us a live podcast from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio, Texas. He connects with conference attendees, friends old and new, asking each to share a problem they're working to solve in their corner of the education world — or, as Carl puts it: “Tell me your idea spark."
Carl sits down with Bria Jones. Her title is Customer Success, Wakelet & bulb, and in this role she is focusing on the curation space for both educators and learners. Find out how Bria defines an “unexpected idea spark.”
This episode of The Idea Spark is brought to you by EdSur...
2025-08-2905 minEdSurge PodcastLive from ISTE + ASCD with Jerod WrightCarl Hooker brings us a live podcast from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio, Texas. He connects with conference attendees, friends old and new, asking each to share a problem they're working to solve in their corner of the education world — or, as Carl puts it: “Tell me your idea spark."
In this episode, Carl sits down with Jerod Wright, a teacher and former coach who now teaches business and technology in the Frenship Independent School District in Lubbock, Texas.
This episode of The Idea Spark is brought to you by EdSurge Solutions Studio.
2025-08-2507 minEdSurge PodcastLive from ISTE+ASCD with Peggy HammondCarl Hooker brings us a live podcast from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio, Texas. He connects with conference attendees, friends old and new, asking each to share a problem they're working to solve in their corner of the education world — or, as Carl puts it: “Tell me your idea spark."
In this episode, Carl sits down with Peggy Hammond. She teaches technical theater at the Alabama School of Fine Arts.
This episode of The Idea Spark is brought to you by EdSurge Solutions Studio.
2025-08-1506 minEdSurge PodcastLive from ISTE+ASCD with Barbara BrayCarl Hooker brings us a live podcast from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio, Texas. He connects with conference attendees, friends old and new, asking each to share a problem they're working to solve in their corner of the education world — or, as Carl puts it: “Tell me your idea spark."
In this episode, Carl sits down with Barbara Bray, an author, speaker, podcaster, coach, story weaver, and difference-maker who is passionate about transforming teaching and learning.
This episode of The Idea Spark is brought to you by EdSurge Solutions Studio.
2025-08-1504 minEdSurge PodcastLive from ISTE+ASCD with Erika SandstromCarl Hooker brings us a live podcast from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio, Texas. He connects with conference attendees — friends old and new — asking each to share a problem they're working to solve in their corner of the education world. In other words: "What is your idea spark?"
In this episode, Carl sits down with Erika Sandstrӧm (aka Green Screen Gal), a Digital Learning Coach and Digital Media Teacher specializing in Green Screen and Video Production.
This episode of The Idea Spark is brought to you by EdSurge Solutions Studio.
2025-08-1306 minEdSurge PodcastLive from ISTE+ASCD with Crystal YangCarl Hooker brings us a live podcast from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio, Texas. He connects with conference attendees — friends old and new — asking each to share a problem they're working to solve in their corner of the education world. In other words: "What is your idea spark?"
In this episode, Carl speaks with Crystal Yang, a college student and entrepreneur, CEO + founder of Audemy Games.
This episode of The Idea Spark is brought to you by EdSurge Solutions Studio.
2025-08-1304 minEdSurge PodcastLive from ISTE+ASCD with Tony VincentCarl Hooker brings us a live podcast from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio, Texas. He connects with conference attendees — friends old and new — asking each to share a problem they're working to solve in their corner of the education world. In other words: "What is your idea spark?"
In this episode, Carl speaks withTony Vincent, an educator, speaker, and independent consultant.
This episode of The Idea Spark is brought to you by EdSurge Solutions Studio.
2025-08-1305 min
2025-05-0102 min
EdSurge PodcastHow a Vacant School Building Became a Symbol of Loss, and Then Hope, for a Dying Small TownWhen the only school in Donora, Pennsylvania, closed a few years ago, it hit the town’s residents hard. Now the building may be the town’s best hope, as a community college considers setting up in the former school. A University of Pittsburgh professor spent three years documenting life in this fading town for an unusual podcast series that ran late last year. Education was a key theme.
On this week's EdSurge Podcast, we talk to the professor about her takeaways for the role of education in the many forgotten small towns around the U.S.
2025-01-1454 minEdSurge PodcastHow AI Has Changed Student Cheating — And How to RespondOne long-time expert on preventing student cheating argues that understanding why students cheat is key to making adjustments in teaching to prevent cheating with AI. It's the argument of Tricia Bertram Gallant, a longtime expert in academic integrity who is director of the Academic Integrity Office at the University of California San Diego who co-wrote a new book, “The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI.
See show notes at EdSurge.com: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2025-01-07-ai-has-changed-student-cheating-but-strategies-to-stop-it-remain-consistent
2025-01-0758 minEdSurge PodcastWhat We Learned About Teaching and Creativity By Commissioning a New Podcast Theme SongWe found the theme song for the EdSurge Podcast on a free music library years ago, after spending hours clicking around searching for the right sound. The music turns out to have an unusual origin story, as we learned when we tracked down the artist this week for a conversation about the intersection of music, creativity and teaching.
2024-12-0343 minEdSurge PodcastThe Effects of Smartwatches on Kids, Schools and FamiliesShould kids wear smartwatches? Companies market the wearable devices to kids as young as 4 years old, while digital media experts and educators worry about potential downsides of what some see as an “electronic umbilical cord.” On the EdSurge Podcast this week, we talk with our reporter who spent months researching the issue, Emily Tate Sullivan, and hear her read the full story.
2024-11-0447 minEdSurge PodcastThe Power of the 'Grit' Narrative in Education. Bootstraps Ep. 7 (Encore Episode)It’s still popular to prize students who have “grit,” who overcome tough odds to succeed. A book by Alissa Quart called “Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream,” looks at why this narrative is so hard to shake — and proposes more community-minded alternatives that could improve equity. This episode first ran in 2022, as the final installment of our Bootstraps series on who gets the best opportunities in American education.
For more on the series, see: https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/bootstraps-a-podcast-series
2024-08-2044 min
EdSurge PodcastWho Deserves a Seat at the Nation’s 'Best' High School? Bootstraps, Ep. 2 (Encore Episode)What a debate about the admissions process at one of the best public high schools in the country says about who should get what in education. This first ran in 2021.
Find out more on this episode and the rest of the series at: https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/bootstraps-a-podcast-series
2024-07-1634 minEdSurge PodcastShould Chatbots Tutor? Dissecting That Viral AI Demo With Sal Khan and His SonShould AI chatbots be used as tutors? Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, has become one of the most vocal proponents of the idea, and he and his son are featured in a recent demo of ChatGPT’s latest version. But some teaching experts say tutoring should be reserved for humans who can motivate and understand the students they work with. For this week’s EdSurge Podcast, we talked with Khan to hear more about his vision of AI tutors and the arguments from his recent book.
2024-06-0455 minEdSurge PodcastWhat Brain Science Says About How to Better Teach TeenagersOne author who spent years researching what brain science says about adolescent learners says their behavior shouldn’t be seen as “deviant” or “immature,” but as a “time of possibility.” And this researcher, Ellen Galinsky, has strong feelings about how to address phones and social media in schools.
Read a partial transcript and see show notes at EdSurge: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-05-21-what-brain-science-says-about-how-to-better-teach-teenagers
2024-05-2142 minEdSurge PodcastWhat New Research Says About Fostering a ‘Sense of Belonging’ in ClassroomsThere are key junctures in education that are especially important for helping students feel they belong in school or college. And new research points to better ways to strengthen student-teacher relationships and a sense of belonging, argues Greg Walton, a psychology professor at Stanford University.
See show notes and partial transcript at EdSurge: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-03-19-what-new-research-says-about-fostering-a-sense-of-belonging-in-classrooms
2024-03-1954 minEdSurge PodcastAn Educator’s Podcast Aims to Be an Antidote to School Culture WarsA longtime educator worries that the raging culture wars in education create toxic environments that hurt academic learning. He’s started a podcast that brings together people with deeply different views on issues that are most dividing school communities these days and uses depolarizing techniques to try to model repairing such breaches.
2024-03-0557 minEdSurge PodcastHow Classroom Technology Has Changed the Parent-Teacher RelationshipIt can be harder than ever for teachers to manage their relationships with parents, even though digital tools make interactions more frequent. This week’s EdSurge podcast looks at why.
2024-01-3027 minEdSurge PodcastHow to Encourage Viewpoint Diversity in ClassroomsCan educators continue to teach troubling but worthwhile texts in this time of polarization and culture wars? And how can instructors make classrooms a welcoming place for debate as schools and colleges grow more diverse? This week’s EdSurge Podcast dives into the thorny issue of encouraging viewpoint diversity in classrooms.
2023-10-0359 minEdSurge PodcastIs Improving Reading Instruction a Matter of Civil Rights? (Encore Episode)A new documentary follows an educator and activist pushing to require schools to offer reading instruction that has been proven effective, calling it a matter of civil rights. But the main subject in the film started out reluctant to participate. Here’s why, and what he hopes comes of the film. This is an encore broadcast of an EdSurge Podcast that ran earlier this year.
2023-08-1545 minEdSurge PodcastUsing AI to Test Which Teaching Materials WorkA group of researchers developed a tool that uses AI to test and improve digital course materials. On this week’s EdSurge Podcast, two of those researchers talk about how their project won first place in a $1 million education XPrize competition, and what it says about how to best use AI in education.
2023-07-1152 minEdSurge PodcastShould Schools Adopt ‘Cellphone Jails’?When their school implemented a new policy requiring students to lock their phones in pouches during the school day, the students had some concerns. This week on the EdSurge Podcast, we share an episode of the student-produced Miseducation podcast that looks at the pros and cons of this unusual new approach to managing smartphone use at schools.
2023-06-2054 min
EdSurge PodcastInside the Quest to Detect (and Tame) ChatGPTEven before ChatGPT was released, AI experts were exploring how to detect language written by this new kind of bot. On this week’s EdSurge Podcast, we talk with one of those experts, and others who are seeking to build guardrails to help educators successfully adapt to the latest AI technology.
2023-03-2142 min
EdSurge PodcastA Teacher’s Podcast Got Him Fired. It Also Led to Greater Self-ReflectionThese days many teachers are documenting their lives on podcasts, Instagram or other social media. It all adds up to a kind of virtual teacher’s lounge. But as EdSurge Voices of Change writing fellow Patrick Harris II found out, sharing raw details of your teaching life online can bring big challenges, as well as unusual opportunities.
2022-12-0658 minEdSurge PodcastHow a Student Podcast is Calling Out Inequities in SchoolsWhat if you gathered a group of high school students in New York City, gave them fancy microphones and some training, and challenged them to make an investigative podcast about the issues they cared about the most?
That’s the premise of a nonprofit called The Bell, started in 2017 by two former teachers with a journalism background and a belief that one way to improve education is to elevate the voices of students.
2022-11-0139 min
EdSurge PodcastHow the ‘Computer Science for All’ Movement Fits In a Broader History of Social-Justice BattlesWhat can today’s activists and educators fighting for equity in computer science and the tech industry learn from past civil-rights struggles in America? That was one question posed during the recent Black Tech Policy Week event hosted by the Black Tech Futures Research Institute. EdSurge was invited to moderate a session, which we're bringing you as this week's podcast episode.
2022-06-2145 min
EdSurge PodcastThe Lessons Teen Moms Can Teach CollegesToday, one in five college students is a parent. Yet few higher ed institutions track parenting status or have programs designed to serve students who have children. For this week’s EdSurge Podcast, we spoke with author Nicole Lynn Lewis about what teen parents need to thrive at college.
2021-06-0130 minEdSurge PodcastApplying to College Has Changed During the Pandemic. This High School Senior’s Podcast Shows How.Many colleges aren’t asking for SAT and ACT scores this year, and students often can't tour colleges to see what campus is like. A new podcast by a high school senior in New Jersey gives candid reflections on what the college application process is like during the pandemic.
2021-04-0619 minEdSurge PodcastEdSurge Podcast’s Top Moments of 2020On this episode we’re going to revisit some of the most memorable moments from our podcast in 2020 -- and some bonus material that we wanted to get on but just didn’t quite fit.
2021-01-0633 min
EdSurge PodcastFirst-Year Teachers Reflect on the PandemicFirst-year teachers already face many challenges. The job is unpredictable, and for newcomers, that can be intimidating. Over the summer, EdSurge interview teachers whose first years were interrupted by COVID-19 last spring. On today’s podcast, we hear from three of the teachers we spoke to about the highs, the lows and the lessons learned from their first year teaching—face-to-face and from a distance.
2020-08-1121 minEdSurge PodcastWhy It’s So Hard to Lower the Cost of TextbooksThe college textbook publishing industry is offering colleges a new kind of deal: Order digital course materials in bulk at a discounted rate, then pass the savings on to students, who are automatically billed for subscriptions to online versions of their textbooks. These arrangements, often called “inclusive access” programs, tend to stir up controversy—and sometimes even lawsuits—when colleges adopt them. On this episode of the EdSurge Podcast, we examine why that is.
2020-07-2828 min
EdSurge Podcast‘Let Yourself Off the Hook’: Advice for Teachers and Parents During COVID-19The new realities of the COVID-19 pandemic are starting to set in this week, as schools across the country have closed and shifted to online learning. This week on the podcast, EdSurge spoke with Christine Elgersma, a senior editor of social media and learning resources at the nonprofit Common Sense Media. As both a parent and a former teacher, Elgersma understands just how much is being asked of educators and families right now. She offers some actionable advice for teachers and parents looking to better support their children—and themselves.
2020-03-2328 minEdSurge PodcastBonus Episode: Healing the Youngest Victims of the Opioid CrisisOn this bonus episode of the EdSurge Podcast we’re talking about the youngest victims of the opioid crisis. They’re preschoolers whose parents or caregivers misuse pain killers, or have moved on to addictions to heroin or other street drugs as a result. One expert called these kids “America’s lost children.” Of course educators haven’t given up on these kids. But teaching them brings unique challenges. EdSurge reporter Emily Tate talks about one program making a difference.
2020-03-0424 min
EdSurge PodcastThe Fight to Preserve African-American HistoryFor this week’s podcast, we’re looking at the role that African-American scholars and teachers have played in preserving the history of slavery and its aftermath, which in so many ways is still not widely known and appreciated. We talk with scholars who helped mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans in what would become America.
Episode page: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-09-17-the-fight-to-preserve-and-teach-african-american-history
2019-09-1720 min
EdSurge PodcastCan Online Education Lower Costs and Improve Quality?Inspired by the breakout podcast Serial, a few years ago two digital learning leaders at the University of Central Florida created their own podcast—focused on online learning instead of true crime.
It’s called the Teaching Online Podcast, or TOPcast, and co-host Thomas Cavanagh says he is driven by his quest to figure out one of the grand challenges of higher education: how to use technology to raise the quality of instruction while lowering costs. Not everyone thinks that’s possible, of course, and even Cavanagh, vice provost for digital learning at the University of Central Florida, admits that edtech...
2019-02-1222 min
EdSurge PodcastThe Professor Who Quit His Tenured Job to Make Podcasts and Lecture VideosListen to the EdSurge On Air podcast? We want to hear from you! Fill out this five-minute survey, and you can enter to win a $100 Amazon gift card. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/edsurgepodcast
What’s life like after quitting a tenured job as a professor to become a freelance educator, making video courses and podcasts for a living?
That’s one question we had for Kevin deLaplante, who did just that when he left Iowa State University in 2015 to focus on running his Argument Ninja Podcast and teaching courses on his online Critical Thinker Academy, both aimed at bringing conc...
2019-01-2937 min
EdSurge PodcastHow Much Artificial Intelligence Should There Be in the Classroom?Should we build robot teachers, or even robot teaching assistants? And if so, what’s the right mix of man and machine in the classroom?
To get a fresh perspective on that question, this episode we take you to China, where a couple of us from EdSurge recently traveled for a reporting trip. One of the events we peeked in on was a two-day conference about artificial intelligence in education organized by a company called Squirrel AI.
It’s vision felt unusually utopian. The company’s co-founder, Derek Li, said during a keynote that replacing some teaching functions with AI-powered softwa...
2019-01-2311 min
EdSurge PodcastAs OER Grows Up, Advocates Stress More Than Just Low CostOpen educational resources hit a turning point in 2018. For the first time ever, the federal government put forward funds to support initiatives around open educational resources, and recent studies show that faculty attitudes towards using and adapting these openly-licensed learning materials are steadily improving.
But, fans of OER are increasingly facing a problem. While OER started off as free online textbooks, it still costs money to produce these materials, and professors often need guidance finding which ones are high quality.
So OER advocates are realizing they need to change their pitch. While cost is still a big part of the...
2019-01-1516 min
EdSurge PodcastHow Can School Leaders Personalize Learning? New Book Offers a Guide.Personalized learning has been an education buzzword for several years. A recent survey of by the state education technology directors association, or SETDA, put personalized learning at the top of the list of state priorities. But how do school leaders really do personalized learning?
A new book offers something like a step-by-step manual.
It’s called Pathways to Personalization: A Framework for School Change, written by two long-time school innovators, Cathy Sanford and by our guest today, Shawn Rubin.
Rubin spent 10 years in the classroom, and he has been the Chief Education officer at the HIghlander Institute since 2011, and has le...
2018-12-1821 min
EdSurge PodcastIs Open Content Enough? Where OER Advocates Say the Movement Must Go NextOpen educational resources have been around for more than a decade, and the sheer number of these materials—in the form of textbooks, courses, videos, software and other public-domain resources—are increasingly available online. . But as more open materials become accessible, advocates for open education still see room for improvement.
This week on the EdSurge On Air podcast, we hear from Jess Mitchell, a senior manager of research and design at the Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University, and Kent McGuire, director of the Education Program at William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, who both keynoted the OpenEd conference in New...
2018-10-3023 minEdSurge PodcastHow to Bring Innovation to Campus Without Cheapening EducationDo you want fries with that education?
That question is one that many professors fear is essentially coming to colleges, as higher-ed leaders adopt practices from businesses in an attempt to rethink their operations. There’s even a growing body of scholarly work that outlines a critique against the corporatization of college—arguing that even when reforms are well-intentioned, they are making campuses more like burger franchises than centers of learning and research.
So how can colleges try new teaching practices, or data-driven experiments, or other new approaches without sacrificing their core values?
That was the topic of our latest inst...
2018-10-1622 min
EdSurge PodcastWhat Do Edtech and IKEA Have in Common? Persuasive Design.Technology shapes the way we interact everyday. We FaceTime with family across the country, we send snaps to our friends to let them know where we are and what we're doing.
But sometimes we fail to realize that the platforms and data that push us to interact, they don't always do it in objective ways. Our interactions are increasingly shaped by algorithms, and those codes are designed by some human. Those programmers literally write the script for the ways that tech will make us tick, for better or for worse.
The practice of intentionally guiding user behavior is known as...
2018-10-0218 min
EdSurge PodcastIs Running a Company Like Leading a Classroom?Entrepreneur Steve Blank has served as a founder, investor and even in the air force. But there’s another title he’s is known for: professor.
Blank has earned a reputation among budding and veteran business leaders alike as the father of the Lean Startup movement, a business philosophy that popularized startup concepts like “pivoting” and “minimum viable product.” And he’s taught these ideas on business and innovation at Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley, Columbia and New York Universities. His course on the “lean” methodologies, called Lean Launchpad, is offered at more than 75 schools around the world and was one of the...
2018-09-2524 min
EdSurge PodcastHow A Podcast-Turned-Startup Is Trying to Get Non-Traditional Students Into TechSome of the earliest and largest coding bootcamp programs shut their doors for good last year. And it left many people wondering if these short term tech training programs are actually worth the investment (for investors and students alike).
One person who’s remained optimistic about the shake ups in the industry is Ruben Harris. Harris is a CEO of Career Karma, which aims to help prospective students navigate the bootcamp market, and he also hosts his own podcast about breaking into the tech industry, called Breaking into Startups.
We spoke to Harris recently about how his company is trying to...
2018-09-0423 min
EdSurge PodcastWhat Students Want Colleges to Know About How They LearnEven the best instructors may not be able to reach every student. And often that’s because there is a disconnect between what students expect from college teaching and what actually ends up happening in the classroom.
In July, three members from EdSurge Independent, a student-run group that meets weekly to discuss ideas around higher education and technology, joined EdSurge Live to share what they wish faculty knew about students today, and propose ways to fuse instructional gaps.
The guests are Angele Law, an MBA student at MIT Sloan School of Management and a strategic summer associate at Boston Public Sc...
2018-08-0726 min
EdSurge PodcastWhy One Professor Says We Are ‘Automating Inequality’Often the algorithms that shape our lives feel invisible, but every now and then you really notice them.
Your credit card might get declined when you’re on vacation because a system decides the behavior seems suspicious. You might buy a quirky gift for your cousin, and then have ads for that product pop up everywhere you go online. In education, schools and colleges even use big data to nudge students to stay on track.
As we create this data layer around us, there’s more and more chance for systems to misfire, or to be set up in a way...
2018-07-2427 min
EdSurge PodcastWhy Purdue Professors Continue to Protest Purdue’s Purchase of a For-Profit U.If Purdue University’s purchase of the for-profit Kaplan University can be thought of as a wedding, there were plenty of people in the audience shouting objections throughout the ceremony. The loudest were Purdue professors, who argued that the pair were far too incompatible to unite.
Among those professors is David Sanders, an associate professor of biological sciences at Purdue and past chair of the university’s Faculty Senate. He organized a petition against the merger, which created what is now called Purdue University Global.
When the EdSurge On Air podcast featured an interview last week with Purdue Global’s chance...
2018-07-0326 min
EdSurge PodcastYou Know Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Now Meet Comedic Scientist Sophia Shrand.There is an art to making science fun and entertaining. Bill Nye has done it, and so has Neil deGrasse Tyson. Maybe now it’s time for a woman? For this episode of the EdSurge On Air podcast, we’re joined Sophia Shrand, host of the comedic YouTube show, “Science with Sophie.”
“Science with Sophie” mixes a bit of feminism with science, a difficult combination of things to put together in a comedic fashion. EdSurge talked with Shrand about her comedic history and how educators can learn from her work, making science entertaining.
2018-06-1919 min
EdSurge PodcastThe Case For a ‘Networked' CollegeThe campus of the future will be “networked,” argues Peter Smith, meaning that more and more academic-related services will be outsourced. That, in theory, will allow each campus to focus its energies on what it can do best and turn to outside companies and nonprofits for the rest.
It’s a key claim in his new book, “Free-Range Learning in the Digital Age: The Emerging Revolution in College, Career, and Education,” due out next month, and it’s one that might unsettle college administrators accustomed to directly overseeing more campus services in-house.
Smith has a unique perspective on innovation in education. H...
2018-05-1028 min
EdSurge Podcast‘They Demonize Us.’ Randi Weingarten Talks Tensions With 'Innovators’ (and Betsy DeVos)The eruption of teacher strikes in states all over the country caught national headlines, adding to the already heated debate about the questionable state of affairs in public schools. But the strikes aren’t over, so what is the next step for these educators? The quick-fix plans put together by legislatures in states such as Arizona and West Virginia feel more like a band-aid put on an ailing illness than an actual change. Educators in these states note that the "war" has not been won.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the largest teachers union in the co...
2018-05-0822 min
EdSurge PodcastSocial-Emotional Learning May Be A Limited Solution for Reforming School DisciplineThe United States Government Accountability Office recently released a report confirming decades of anecdotal research saying, among other things, that Black male students who account for 15.5 percent of all public school kids, represented about 39 percent of students suspended from school. That is an overrepresentation of about 23 percentage points. This report also found that students with disabilities were disproportionately disciplined in public schools.
To change this trend, some educators are looking to implement social-emotional learning (SEL) practices such as restorative justice—where students repair harm done with community service or discussions—and daily greetings, where teachers build relationships with students by addr...
2018-04-1028 min
EdSurge PodcastUnpacking Why Some Educators See the Word ‘Equity’ As a ThreatHow do you close achievement gaps when all your students don’t start with the same opportunities? It’s a question of equity, a goal that is generally assumed to be one most educators want to achieve. Yet, these days the issue seems more complicated, as political debates frame equity policies as in conflict with ideals of fairness and tradition.
Last month at the Aspen Institute’s States Leading for Equity event, North Dakota’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Kirsten Baesler, noted that in her community, this question of providing equal opportunities for all through schooling could be divisive. “There is a threa...
2018-03-2720 min
EdSurge Podcast'A Deal With the Devil': NPR Reporter Anya Kamenetz On Teaching With 'Addictive Tech' Like FacebookWhat does it mean to report on education technology from a student lens? How does the tech-health discussion impact teachers in the classroom? What are virtual school lobbyists doing to impact the national discussion on school choice and accountability?
NPR reporter Anya Kamenetz, joins the EdSurge OnAir Podcast to discuss her new book, “The Art of Screentime: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real Life,” and offer listeners some answers to challenging questions about the ever-evolving education technology landscape.
2018-02-2723 min
EdSurge PodcastThe Rise of ‘Outsider Education’In higher ed people often look to a few elite schools for big new ideas. But that might be changing. These days innovation seems just as likely to come from a state school, a small liberal arts college, or even some upstart from outside the traditional system.
That’s the argument made by Bernard Bull, vice provost for curriculum and academic innovation at Concordia University Wisconsin. He’s also a blogger, and he runs a podcast of his own, called MoonshotEDU. He’s optimistic about what he sees as a greater diversity of models and teaching practices at colleges and univer...
2018-02-2020 min
EdSurge PodcastPodcast Extra: Overcoming Barriers to STEM EducationHow do we crack a problem that has existed for decades? Jobs in science, technology, engineering & mathematics (STEM) jobs are projected to grow 17 percent between 2014 and 2024; non-STEM jobs are expected to rise only 12 percent. Even so, minorities, women and people with disabilities are still severely underrepresented in STEM-related fields. And if innovation springs from looking at problems from a very different perspective, then coaxing people who bring diverse perspectives should become a national imperative.
As part of Silicon Valley’s Commonwealth Club discussion series, EdSurge CEO and co-founder Betsy Corcoran spoke with three MacArthur Fellows actively involved in helping people fr...
2018-02-091h 05
EdSurge PodcastThe Challenges Of Teaching In The Trump EraCollege professors don’t often talk to each other about the intricacies of their teaching practices, and it often seems a mystery to scholars what goes on in other people’s courses.
Bonni Stachowiak has created a forum to spread those stories and techniques with her long-running podcast, Teaching in Higher Ed. Stachowiak says she is still growing as a teacher herself, as director of teaching excellence and digital pedagogy at Vanguard University of Southern California, and her sense of curiosity comes through in her weekly conversations.
EdSurge talked with Stachowiak about the biggest lessons she’s learned about teaching from t...
2018-02-0624 min
EdSurge PodcastAn Education ‘Intrapreneur’ on the Difficulties Innovating a Conservative IndustryLarry Singer is a CEO, but not the smug type, who’s likely to engage you in a long-winded conversation about himself, while you sip on your drink and wait for someone more interesting to come along.
Singer is different. Last week he pitched EdSurge a story about his nonprofit, Open Up Resources, but, after our conversation, we found a story about a struggling innovator. He, like many of our podcast listeners, is a person who wants to do well, but also do good.
In this podcast, we talk about his crazy 30-year journey in education, which took him from Pe...
2018-01-3024 min
EdSurge PodcastReady Player One: Science Fiction’s Vision for The Future of EducationHumans living in abject poverty are warring over the few of resources they have left. There’s an energy crisis, and fossil fuels are in low supply. The weather has gone to extremes. This is the setting of Ernest Cline’s science-fiction novel, Ready Player One, where human civilization is in decline, and life in virtual reality beats any day in the real world.
This page-turning novel (which is being turned into a film by Steven Spielberg) follows a geeky protagonist named Wade Watts as he undertakes a mission to win billions by finding an egg hidden inside a virtual vide...
2018-01-1630 min
EdSurge PodcastFrom Advocating to Letting Your Nerd Flag Fly, Educators Are Grateful For Lessons From StudentsWhen all the stuffing, sauces, hams, turkeys, and pies are out of the oven, there is often a moment of peace during the holiday season where families sit around the dinner table and remember what they are grateful for. This year, we gathered with a community of educators during EdSurge’s Tech Leader Circle at the MakerDepot in Totowa, New Jersey to pause and have a similar moment of reflection.
For this EdSurge OnAir holiday special, we cut through the noise of the 3D printers to ask educators, “What is the one lesson their students taught them, that they are most...
2017-11-2111 min
EdSurge PodcastWho Controls AI in Higher Ed, And Why It MattersIt’s a pivotal time for artificial intelligence in higher education. More instructors are experimenting with adaptive-learning systems in their classrooms. College advising systems are trying to use predictive analytics to increase student retention. And the infusion of algorithms is leading to questions—ethical questions and practical questions and philosophical questions—about how far higher education should go in bringing in artificial intelligence, and who decides what the algorithms should look like.
To explore the issue, EdSurge invited a panel of experts to discuss their vision of the promises and perils of AI in education, in the first installment of our ne...
2017-11-1439 min
EdSurge PodcastWhat Will It Take to Push the K-12 Maker Movement to Be More Inclusive?It’s not solely about having a “makerspace” anymore. These days, schools are trying to figure out how to bring making into every facet of the school day, with mobile kits, clubs and more. And when it comes to incorporating making into everyday curriculum, Cicely Day and Knikole Taylor are experts. Cicely Day works in Oakland, California at Burckhalter Elementary School as an instructional teacher leader, where she helps support teachers and students in ELA/math and in the computer lab. Two times zones over, Knikole Taylor is a blended learning specialist in a Dallas, Texas suburban school district, where she su...
2017-09-2623 min
EdSurge PodcastPodcast Extra: Personalized Learning’s Unknowns: Silicon Schools’ Five-Year JourneyFive years ago, a former high school principal named Brian Greenberg joined forces with an heir to the retail giant Gap, John Fisher, to start a fund to help scale promising charter schools.
This week the group, called Silicon Schools Fund, released a report reflecting on its efforts so far, which have supported 31 schools, 24 of which were brand new, with a total of $50 million. The bad news: They admit there isn’t yet enough hard evidence that personalized learning really works. The good news: There are plenty of positive signs, both when measuring students across standardized tests and when looking fo...
2017-09-1327 min
EdSurge PodcastQuestioning the Core Assumptions of Personalized Learning with Math Blogger Dan MeyerA few weeks ago, while perusing Twitter for news stories, a few folks on the EdSurge team came across a Tweet by math blogger, TED talker, and former teacher Dan Meyer. He had recently read an EdSurge article regarding struggles that had taken place during a Fulton County Schools’ personalized learning initiative in Atlanta, and in response, Meyer Tweeted, “Can you send me a calendar invite to the meeting where we question the core assumptions of personalized learning?”
Though the “invitation” wasn’t directed at anyone in particular, EdSurge decided to take him up on the offer. Last week, Meyer join in on a...
2017-09-1242 min
EdSurge PodcastWith 3D Technology, Special Education Students Can Focus on Content—Not AccessNeal McKenzie says teachers of visually impaired students “have been makers for a long time.” The assistive technology specialist has designed dozens of objects to help his students access content, including an award-winning device to teach Braille. In this special edition EdSurge On Air podcast, EdSurge's own Michael Winters reads McKenzie's article aloud, in which he offers tips for special-ed teachers to incorporate 3D design into curriculum, along with his favorite maker resources.
2017-08-1607 min
EdSurge PodcastWhy Late Adopters Are Skeptical of Edtech (and How to Get Them on Board)There are plenty of “innovators” and “early adopters” of education technology out there, from educators who make the rounds on the ISTE and SXSWedu conference circuits to consultants and entrepreneurs who push for adoption of certain tools or practices. But what about those who are more skeptical?
The “technology adoption life cycle,” inspired by the work of American communication theorist and sociologist Everett Rogers, argues that 50% of adopters fall into the “late adopter” or “laggard” categories. Despite making up such a huge percentage, late adopters and laggards rarely get invited to be a part of the edtech conversation. What do they need that early...
2017-08-1629 minEdSurge PodcastGirls Who Code CEO Reshma Saujani: Why An 'Hour of Code' Isn’t EnoughIt’s no shock to anyone—there is a gender disparity problem in the computer science world. The computing industry’s rate of job creation in the United States may be three times that of other industries, but the number of females attaining computer science degrees is falling, as U.S. News reports: “In 1984, 37 percent of computer science majors were women, but by 2014, that number had dropped to 18 percent.”
However, Reshma Saujani doesn’t think the issues merely lie in offering girls more opportunities to learn. Rather, it’s a problem of culture and consistency. “A girl doing an ‘hour of code’ is not go...
2017-07-1911 min
EdSurge PodcastHow Childhood Has Changed (And How That Impacts Education)It’s easy to forget that notions of childhood have changed radically over the years—and not all for the better, says Steven Mintz, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “Helicopter parenting” and habits around carefully guarding, protecting and scheduling kids have their downsides.
The history of the American family and childhood is an area Mintz has long studied. And he keeps that perspective in mind as he works to keep college teaching practices up to date in his other role, as the executive director of the University of Texas System’s Institute for Transformational Learning.
EdSurge sa...
2017-07-1124 min
EdSurge PodcastRadiolab's Jad Abumrad On Creativity, Diversity, and the 'Humanities Crisis'For those of you who listen frequently, you might be a little confused since normally, we put out only one episode of the EdSurge On Air podcast each week. But this week is special, because we’re coming to you live from the ISTE 2017 edtech conference in San Antonio Texas, where more than 21,000 educators, entrepreneurs and administrators have gathered to share the best in edtech practices and tools. To kick off the festivities, ISTE brought in Jad Abumrad to deliver the conference’s opening keynote.
Jad’s got quite a set of accolades: He’s a radio host, a composer, a produc...
2017-06-2617 min
EdSurge PodcastHow Students Running ‘EdSurge Independent’ Say Colleges Should ChangeDon’t even think of lecturing to these college students. The 14 students who just finished up the spring session of EdSurge Independent want something more active, and they want to have a voice as colleges rethink how they teach and support people on their campuses.
EdSurge sat down with three of these students--Amanda Wahlstedt, Jared Silver and Rosie Foulger--to talk about how they viewed the buzzwords and experiments happening at their campuses, and also to get a sense of what they saw as the problems with education that need to be solved.
2017-06-1426 min
EdSurge PodcastClint Smith on the Power of Twitter and How We (Often) Fail to Teach About InequalityThere are few individuals out there who can list both “two-time TED speaker” and “doctoral student at Harvard University” on their resume. Clint Smith is one of those people—though when you ask him about his work, he doesn’t immediately voice those accolades. Rather, he talks about his writings, and the time he’s spent teaching poetry to incarcerated men in Massachusetts.
There’s also something else he brings up—his beliefs, specifically his concerns that educators across the U.S. aren’t adequately teaching about the history of inequality and how it has come to manifest itself in this country. Smith...
2017-05-2330 min
EdSurge PodcastWhy Donald Graham Sold Kaplan University to Purdue for $1There are many unanswered questions about the unprecedented sale of Kaplan University, a for-profit institution with several online programs but falling enrollments, to Purdue University, one of the top public universities in the nation.
To try to get some answers, EdSurge recently sat down with Donald Graham, chairman of Graham Holdings Company, the group that sold the 15-campus Kaplan University to Purdue (for just $1). (Editor’s note, Graham Holdings is an investor in EdSurge.)
A look at some details of the deal revealed in an SEC filing suggest that Graham Holdings bears the bulk of the financial risk, and as on...
2017-05-1718 min
EdSurge PodcastDoes Tech Support Personalized Learning—or Distract Us From What’s Really Important?“Personalized learning” is a term that is no stranger to interpretation—even to the point that writers have started to argue about whether it’s worth defining or not (just check out here and here.) But no matter how a school or district defines it, is it worth including technology in that definition—or does edtech merely distract educators from understanding and delivering on what students really need?
In early March, three education research experts—Eileen Rudden of Boston’s LearnLaunch, Chris Liang-Vergara of Chicago’s LEAP Innovations, and Muhammed Chaudhry of the Bay Area’s Silicon Valley Education Foundation—joined EdSurge on a...
2017-05-091h 03EdSurge PodcastWhat Students With Learning Differences Really Want Us to Know: Q&A with Ben GurewitzA few weeks back, EdSurge traveled to SXSWedu to hear talks about technology and chat with educators and entrepreneurs. But while there, we met someone who spoke about how edtech could better serve students with learning differences in a manner we’d never heard before. In fact, that individual, Ben Gurewitz, is a student with learning differences himself.
Gurewitz is a Bay Area native and currently a freshman at the University of California, Davis—but that represents only a small fraction of how he spends his time. As cofounder of the Diverse Learners Coalition and an active participant in Student Voic...
2017-03-2824 min
EdSurge PodcastDealing with a 'Culture of Fear'—Administrators on PD in the Age of Blended LearningIt’s pretty clear that very few people in education enjoy those typical sit-and-get professional development sessions. And when blended learning gets thrown into the mix, the situation gets even more complicated—what happens when educators seem afraid of products? Who should deliver PD, the administrators or the teachers?
Talk to administrators, and they have some answers to these questions—as well as thoughts about what parts of PD should be left far, far behind. At the EdSurge Tech for Schools Summit in Riverside, EdSurge’s own Michelle Spencer led a panel with Steve Kong (instructional services specialist for Riverside Unified...
2017-03-1536 min
EdSurge PodcastWant to Teach Kids to Code? Why You Should Focus on the Teachers FirstIt’s here, it’s here! Once again, we’ve come upon that week in December when we celebrate all things programming. December 5 kicks off national Computer Science Week, and what better way to start the celebrations than with a perfectly-themed interview?
Today, we’ve got Jeffrey Martin on the EdSurge podcast. The founder of an organization called "honorCode" recently won the $500,000 Global Change the World competition for nonprofit entrepreneurs as part of the Forbes Under 30 Summit held in Boston in October. HonorCode is a nonprofit that provides curriculum and training to schools to help prep teachers to educate K-12 kids on...
2016-12-0317 min
EdSurge Podcast“A Better Future is Possible”: IDEO’s Sandy Speicher on Design Thinking in SchoolsWant to hear the full interview with Sandy? Check out the EdSurge On Air podcast.
For those who are familiar with the global design firm IDEO, a few words might come to mind. Consulting. Design thinking. K-12 and higher education?
Yes, IDEO has indeed carved out a space for itself in the education market. At the center of it? Sandy Speicher, the Executive Director of the Education practice and a designer by trade. She’s worked with organizations across the public, private, and social sectors. For example, recently, she and her team finished up a project with the San Francisco Un...
2016-11-1533 min
EdSurge PodcastEdSurge Extra: John Deasy on His LAUSD Superintendency, Mistakes, and Going ForwardThirty-two. That’s how many years John Deasy has spent in education as a teacher, high school principal, and superintendent in four different districts across three states.
Of all these roles, his stint at the Los Angeles Unified School District may be the most memorable—and controversial. As superintendent, he led one of the largest and most highly-critiqued 1:1 device deployments in the country—one that that led to a frenzy of media reporting, and a number of columnists from L.A.-based and national publications alike asking, “Where did it all go so wrong?”
After leaving LAUSD in October 2014, Deasy joined the...
2016-09-0725 min
EdSurge PodcastPitfalls and Triumphs—What I Learned From My Year in EdtechBlake Montgomery, one-half of the EdSurge On Air podcast team, is bidding EdSurge adieu to take on a role as a Tech Reporter at Buzzfeed. But before he leaves, he's got some thoughts about what he's noticed from his year at EdSurge. Specifically, what is he optimistic about? What was his biggest scoop of the year? Why has he become distrustful of edtech company pitches? Catch all that and more in Blake's farewell EdSurge On Air podcast.
2016-08-2919 min
EdSurge PodcastEdSurge Extra: Bridget Burns' Call to Edtech Entrepreneurs: 'Start With Empathy'Bridget Burns sees plenty of "superheroes"—26-year-old Silicon Valley types with good intentions, yet little understanding, for how to change higher education. Burns is executive director of the University Innovation Alliance, a coalition of 11 public research universities focused on making quality college degrees accessible to a diverse body of students. The UIA serves 400,000 students, more than a quarter of whom receive Pell grants. In this recording from an EdSurge Meetup, Burns shares what she wishes product developers understood about the challenges higher-ed institutions face.
2016-08-2509 min
EdSurge PodcastThe '$1000 Pencil'—Why Edtech Companies Aren’t Pushing the EnvelopeA few weeks back, EdSurge published a podcast interview with education consultant and commentator Alan November, and Director of Secondary Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment for the Houston Independent School District Mike Dorsey, after chatting with the two education experts at ISTE. The interview got quite a number of listens, likely because November said that the edtech industry had created a “mess” at one point in the interview. However, November was only able to be with us for about ten minutes in that interview, so we really didn’t get a chance to delve into what he meant by “a mess.”
Hence, EdS...
2016-08-1630 min
EdSurge PodcastEdSurge Extra: We Don’t Have Resources to Keep Up with Edtech--Teacher of the Year Jahana Hayes Q&AJahana Hayes, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, knows what it takes to be a good teacher. In fact, she’s been in the game for twelve years, currently serving as a history teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury, Connecticut. But she also believes that not everyone is cut out for the profession, especially if they aren’t willing to change with the times—times that have brought an onslaught of new technologies and practices into the classroom.
What does it mean, then, for the teaching profession to prepare for 2020? Last week, EdSurge had the opportunity to sit do...
2016-08-0221 min
EdSurge PodcastEmpathy, Technology, and How to Reduce School Suspensions by 50%Technology can do a lot of things in the classroom, but can it help educators be more empathetic towards their students? This week on the EdSurge podcast, we talk to Dr. Jason Okonofua, a postdoc at Stanford University, about just that.
Okonofua is interested in how the effects of one person’s stereotyping and another person’s threat reverberate and escalate over time. He currently researches this interest in the context of education and criminal justice, and recently completed a white paper hypothesizing that an empathetic mindset will eliminate school suspensions.
According to his research findings, published in a study in t...
2016-07-2929 min
EdSurge PodcastWhat Does a Superintendent Look For in an Edtech Product?The life of a district superintendent isn’t easy. You have to juggle a lot, from managing big of groups of administrators and teachers, to pushing a district forward. So, what is the hardest part of a superintendent's job, and is it related to technology?
In a series of interviews that EdSurge conducted at the ISTE conference in late June, EdSurge podcasters Mary Jo Madda and Michael Winters had the opportunity to interview Dr. Greg Goins, superintendent of Frankfort Community Unit School District 168 in Illinois. The man has made some pretty strong movements with edtech in his district, and EdSurge wa...
2016-07-1723 min
EdSurge PodcastIs Google Education Threatened By Amazon's Open Content Platform?With Amazon making its first big education platform debut in years, we were wondering: how are other blue chip companies—Microsoft, Apple, Google—reacting to this news? While at ISTE, Mary Jo and former EdSurge podcaster Michael Winters hosted an in-person taping of the EdSurge On Air podcast with a live audience and two Google leaders, Jonathan Rochelle and Jaime Casap.
Rochelle and Casap both have a long history with the Google for Education team. Casap is a Google Education evangelist, and Rochelle is a Google Education Product Manager, not to mention a co-founder of Google Drive. Between the two of t...
2016-07-1019 min
EdSurge PodcastThe Edtech Industry Has "Created a Mess"——Q&A with Mike Dorsey and Alan NovemberAlan November is a big-name educational consultant who was once a champion of technology in the classroom. But after EdSurge talked to him at ISTE, it seems that his message has slightly changed: technology isn’t having the impact we hoped for in schools.
Expectations were high for edtech. People said it would solve every problem in education, and some venture capitalists agreed. Now, November says, we’re facing a more sober reality as we see what technology can and, more importantly, cannot do.
EdSurge caught up briefly with November and Mike Dorsey, Director of Secondary Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment for...
2016-07-0514 min
EdSurge PodcastEdSurge Extra: SNHU’s Paul LeBlanc Wants Higher Ed to Back Up Its ClaimsLong before competency-based learning was trending, Southern New Hampshire University gave it a shot, largely driven by the vision of its president, Paul LeBlanc. Today SNHU is seen as a leader in closing the gap between what students learn and what the workforce wants. LeBlanc sat down with EdSurge CEO Betsy Corcoran and 1776 Partner Rusty Greiff to share his thoughts on “blowing up the delivery models” for higher ed.
2016-07-0127 min
EdSurge PodcastHow Does an Edtech Company Grow? A Look Inside EdSurgeMary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your edtech startup grow?
In our very own homage to the Startup Podcast, we're examining EdSurge's recent expansion. We've doubled in size in the past year, and a lot of things are changing. How can we keep what was good about the past while remaining open to the possibilities of the future? We interviewed our VP of Sales, our CTO, the product manager of the EdSurge Index and one guy who does a bit of everything about what they've seen and what they're hoping for.
Edited by Blake Montgomery.
2016-06-0622 min
EdSurge PodcastEdSurge Extra: Maker Movement Q&A with MIT's Mitch ResnickMitchel Resnick (or Mitch, for short) knows his making—from a lot of different angles. And he’s not too bought into the whole “electronics and gadgets” side of the maker movement.
Resnick has been in this business for more than 30 years, and it’s safe to say that he’s seen the maker movement—and the state of STEM education, in general—go through its phases, its ups and downs. He’s currently the LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research and head of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, where he and his team have developed products familiar...
2016-05-2326 min
EdSurge PodcastEdSurge Extra: EdSurge CEO Betsy Corcoran Interviews Edgenuity CEO Sari FactorIn addition to this week's regularly scheduled podcast programming, we're bringing you an exclusive conversation between executives. At the NewSchools Venture Fund Summit, EdSurge's own CEO Betsy Corcoran interviewed Edgenuity CEO Sari Factor about Edgenuity's rapid expansion to 17,000 schools, Factor's definition of blended learning and what makes a good implementation.
Edgenuity, formerly known as Education2020, was originally created, as Factor put it, for students who "couldn't be in the classroom, for one reason or another." Now, after five years of rapid growth, the company is expanding its products, services and focus this fall; tune in to hear more.
2016-05-1817 minEdSurge PodcastEdSurge Extra, Investor Spotlight: Brigette Lau of Social CapitalThis week, the EdSurge On Air podcast features three "Extra" editions focusing on investors: how they choose what to invest it, where the money is flowing, what personalization in schools means to them, and more.
On this episode, we speak to Brigette Lau of Social Capital. Brigette shares how her organization, Social Capital, measures and evaluates the health of the companies that she invests in, as well as the reality of free/freemium business models. Does she believe free products will work out in the long run?
2016-04-1922 min
EdSurge PodcastEdSurge Extra, Investor Spotlight: Brian Dixon of Kapor CapitalThis week, the EdSurge On Air podcast features three "Extra" editions focusing on investors: how they choose what to invest in, where the money is flowing, what personalization in schools means to them, and more.
On this episode, we speak to Brian Dixon of Kapor Capital. Kapor Capital holds a significant role in the space of investing: they do about 20 investments per year, and the average investment size is anywhere from $100,000 to $250,00. Dixon gives an inside peek into how Kapor makes its decisions.
2016-04-1936 min
EdSurge PodcastEdSurge Extra, Investor Spotlight: Jennifer Carolan of Reach CapitalThis week, the EdSurge On Air podcast features three "Extra" editions focusing on investors: how they choose what to invest in, where the money is flowing, what personalization in schools means to them, and more.
On this episode, we speak to Jennifer Carolan, a former educator who started a vertically-focused seed fund under New School Venture Fund as a non-profit back in early 2010, and has since made more than 15 investments. She talks impact investing, venture capital, and what efficacy really looks like in reality.
2016-04-1818 min
EdSurge PodcastEdSurge Extra: 'Kid President' Creator Talks Student Voice, Video in the Classroom, and BeyonceWith all this talk about candidates for Election 2016, it can be easy to forget that there’s someone else that’s had quite an impact—from a presidential perspective. And no, we’re not talking about Barack Obama.
About three years ago, a 9-year-old donned a suit, gave America a pep talk, and became a viral sensation with his fresh take on dancing, politics and joy. That young fellow is Kid President, the central character of a popular YouTube channel produced by SoulPancake. In real life, Kid President is Robby Novak, a current 6th grader from Tennessee whose brother-in-law, Brad Montague...
2016-03-2423 min
EdSurge PodcastLarry Cuban on Edtech and the Problem with Venture-Backed CompaniesLarry Cuban—whose been a teacher, a superintendent, and more—is an academic whose thoughts and feelings about edtech are the ones we’re featuring on the EdSurge podcast today.
Cuban’s writings have great impact and reach in the education. Every year, Rick Hess put out an “Edu-Scholar Public Influence ranking.” The metrics recognize university-based scholars in the U.S. who are contributing most substantially to public debates about education. And Larry Cuban, a former Stanford university professor, makes the top ten list every single year.
Talking with him in person reveals a whole new light about who he is as a voic...
2016-02-2044 min
EdSurge PodcastFamed Math Teacher Dan Meyer on the State of Math Education TodayWhat’s math got to do with it? Everything, says Dan Meyer, creator of the the popular blog dy/dan. Meyer is one of America’s most popular math educators—he has 43,400 followers on Twitter who are ready at any moment to talk about math—and he’s been through many transformations: Math teacher, math education researcher, now chief academic officer at Desmos.
What's changed? What's stayed the same? Are math students in America always doomed? We spoke with him about the stories math can tell, types of instruction and the state of math education today. Tune in for that and the ne...
2016-01-2734 min