Today’s episode is all about health. And though the theme is a bit different then a regular Getting Smart episode, it still ties in perfectly to schools and better education. What if every student had access to a doctor at school? It might help reduce the chronic absentees of the seven million students that are absent from school more than 10% of the time. In today’s conversation, Tom speaks with Josh Golomb, whose mission is to transform lives by providing all children with access to healthcare...
Feb 06, 2019•20 min•Ep. 185
In today’s episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Emily Liebtag is joined by Danish Kurani, a learning space architect and professor at Stanford and Harvard University. He’s also the Director of Kurani.us, a company that uses deep research on education and architecture to create spaces that improve learning outcomes. They design campuses, buildings, and interiors for K-12, university, and education initiatives for all ages. Together, Emily and Danish discuss learning spaces that inspire; how the ...
Jan 30, 2019•34 min•Ep. 184
In this week’s episode, Tom is joined by Tim Taylor. Tim is the Cofounder and President of America Succeeds, a national network of business organizations working to improve and modernize the education system. Prior to launching America Succeeds, he served as the founding President of Colorado Succeeds. Both Colorado Succeeds and America Succeeds are based on the core principles of business that apply to education: transparency, return on investment, accountability, competition, and customers fir...
Jan 23, 2019•45 min•Ep. 183
The Getting Smart team has learned a lot about opening successful, new schools in communities that need them but they’re still learning about transforming inherited factory-model schools into design studios — and it definitely provides many challenges. To make things better, it’s necessary to name and frame the problems faced — that’s the first step in design thinking. The next step is empathy research; it’s time to make the problems real by talking to kids and teachers about what’s really going...
Jan 16, 2019•19 min•Ep. 182
Today’s episode is all about competency-based education and professional development. Professional development in education is notoriously bad. BloomBoard was co-founded by Jason Lange in 2010 to try to fix the problem by powering the micro-credential revolution. The team behind BloomBoard are dedicated to empowering schools, districts, and states to help meet these needs by providing educators professional learning with purpose. They know how important teachers are to student growth and learnin...
Jan 09, 2019•21 min•Ep. 181
Today, the Getting Smart team is throwing it back to an interview they did at High Tech High in San Diego back in 2017. While there, they got the chance to chat with HTH leaders, Larry Rosenstock, Jeff Robbins, and Kalem Rashad — who all have such a contagious passion for their students. In today’s interview, they discuss projects, starting new schools, hiring teachers, and why making the city the text is so important. First to be interviewed by Tom is Larry Rosenstock, a carpenter from Massachu...
Jan 02, 2019•19 min•Ep. 180
The Getting Smart team visits a lot of schools, well north of 100 this year. Most were primarily public urban schools, about half were purpose-built schools opened in the last 20 years, and the other half were (at least partially) transformed schools. More than half were district schools, some were charter schools, and there were also a few private schools. And the key factor that tied them all together was that they almost all had some kind of “next generation” characteristics, such as personal...
Dec 19, 2018•32 min•Ep. 179
The Getting Smart team has been focusing on (and writing a lot on their blog) about artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications on the future of work and learning. This week, they’re bringing you an episode published back in October of 2016 on what AI means for our kids; featuring Tom, Emily, and thought-leader, Gerald Huff. This episode is dedicated to Gerald Huff, giving honor to both his life and his incredible body of work. Gerald passed away a few weeks ago on November 17th after a sh...
Dec 12, 2018•30 min•Ep. 178
In this special episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Erik Day and Mary Ryerse are (temporarily) kicking Caroline and Jessica out of the studio to talk about what they’ve learned (and shared) about competency-based education at the this year’s iNACOL Symposium. Getting Smart staff recently published a landscape report on the state of competency-based education (CBE), entitled: “Show What You Know: A Landscape Analysis of Competency-Based Education,” which was discussed at a panel with Mary and a...
Dec 05, 2018•50 min•Ep. 177
For the past two episodes, the Getting Smart team have envisioned what the future of learning might look like with the authors of Education Reimagined’s new paper, “School’s Out.” On their final episode of their three-part series, Tom speaks with Tom Rooney, the Superintendent of Lindsay Unified Public Schools. Lindsay Unified is located in the central valley of California. They are situated in one of the highest poverty areas in the nation. 100% of their learners are on free or reduced lunch, 5...
Nov 28, 2018•30 min•Ep. 176
Today, and for the next three weeks, the Getting Smart team is going to explore a new initiative from Education Reimagined. Education Reimagined recently released a paper entitled, “School’s Out,” which set out to explore how we could alter our perspective on the meaning, feel, and delivery of learning. Tom had the opportunity to sit down with the education leaders who authored “School’s Out,” and over the next three episodes, he will be digging deeper into what the future of learning may look l...
Nov 21, 2018•28 min•Ep. 175
Today the Getting Smart team is bringing you a bonus episode! Recently, they got the chance to interview a ton of great people at the recent iNACOL conference and want to bring it to you early as a little holiday gift this season. In this special bonus episode, Tom interviews Nicole Assisi and Shelly Kurt of Thrive to talk all about how they are building community and doubling proficiency rates for children from low-income neighborhoods. Nicole and Shelly originally met at a San Diego Starbucks ...
Nov 16, 2018•28 min•Ep. 175
Today, and for the next three weeks, the Getting Smart team is going to explore a new initiative from Education Reimagined. Education Reimagined recently released a paper entitled, “School’s Out,” which set out to explore how we could alter our perspective on the meaning, feel, and delivery of learning. Tom had the opportunity to sit down with the education leaders who authored “School’s Out,” and over the next three episodes, he will be digging deeper into what the future of learning may look l...
Nov 14, 2018•22 min•Ep. 174
Today, the Getting Smart team is going international. Tom recently visited the Singapore American School (for his second time!) and is incredibly excited to share all about the signs of progress happening over there. With a tradition of academic excellence, Singapore American School serves 4,000 preschool to 12th-grade students. After serving as a District Superintendent in Washington State, Dr. Chip Kimball joined SAS as Superintendent in 2012. The board asked Kimball to make the school as good...
Nov 07, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 173
Today Tom Vander Ark is flying solo — literally, he’s flying right now on a trip between SoCal and Singapore. Just this past week he visited twenty amazing personalized learning schools in Southern California and can’t wait to share everything he learned on personalized learning today. In this episode, Tom covers five main attributes of personalized learning, five ways teachers can support personalized learning, ten ways administrators can build systems for personalized learning, and some though...
Oct 31, 2018•18 min•Ep. 172
In this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast , the Getting Smart team is throwing it back to one of their favorite episodes from Season 1 where they explore and listen to some student stories around their experiences with project-based learning (PBL); have an interview with a project-based learning STEM teacher of Flight by Design; as well as hear from education leaders in the project-based world, Bob Lenz and John Larmer of Bu ck Institute for Education (BIE). The students in Flight by Design, ...
Oct 24, 2018•29 min•Ep. 171
If you follow education social media, you’ve probably heard of Salisbury Superintendent, Randy Ziegenfuss. Randy has been the Superintendent for almost four years but prior to that held different roles in education, teaching music and technology. Over the last few years, he’s become a leading advocate of learner-centered education and blogs all about it at WorkingAtTheEdge.org. With his Assistant Superintendent, Randy has also produced more than 40 episodes of the Shift Your Paradigm podcast, wh...
Oct 17, 2018•47 min•Ep. 170
In this episode of the Getting Smart podcast, Tom interviews Sam Seidel, the Director of K12 Strategy and Research at the Stanford d.school, to discuss how he and his team are teaching design thinking in order to hack school and prep youth for complexity. They talk about Sam’s early education and whether or not he had any experiences that resembled design thinking, what the K12 lab at Stanford d.school does, about his previous work at the Business Innovation Factory (BIF), and his (and d.school’...
Oct 10, 2018•50 min•Ep. 169
Today, Tom and Emily are taking you on a virtual field trip to Murie Ranch in Grand Teton National Park. Over the last year and a half, you may have seen a ton of blogs (from the Getting Smart website) on place-based education. The Getting Smart team is extremely passionate about this topic — so passionate in fact, that they’re currently writing a field guide to place-based learning, and they’re doing it with experts in the field at Teton Science Schools in Jackson, Wyoming. Tom and Emily take y...
Oct 03, 2018•32 min•Ep. 168
Today, Tom has a discussion with Rie Nøorgaard. Growing up in Denmark, Rie found design integrated into her life. After completing a design degree at the Danish School of Media and Journalism, she spent a decade as a Creative Director for several agencies. Three years ago, she joined San Francisco-based SYPartners, a consulting firm that behaves like a design firm. Clients of SYPartners include AT&T, eBay, Facebook, IBM, Google, and non-profits such as PBS and Planned Parenthood. What led he...
Sep 26, 2018•30 min•Ep. 167
In this episode, Tom interviews David Conley, a professor at the College of Education at the University of Oregon. For more than 20 years, Conley has been a leading authority in American education policy. His seminal book, College Knowledge , outlined what students need to know and be able to do to succeed in college and careers. His famous Think, Know, Act, Go outcome framework was foundational for Summit Learning and My Ways from NGLC. Conley’s new book, The Promise and Practice of Next Genera...
Sep 19, 2018•44 min•Ep. 166
This episode, Tom interviews Julia Freeland Fisher, the Director of Education at the Clayton Christensen Institute. For a decade, since Clay Christensen and Michael Horn published Disrupting Class : How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns , the team at the Clayton Christensen Institute has been known as a leader in blended and personalized learning — as well as the idea of disruptive innovation. In Julia’s new book, Who You Know: Unlocking Innovations That Expand Students’...
Sep 12, 2018•40 min•Ep. 165
Today, Tom interviews thought leader, author, and Apple Executive, John Couch. For 16 years, John served as Apple’s Vice President of Education. He launched some great programs and saw a lot of cool stuff but was left a bit disappointed by the reductive and ineffective uses of technology. In his new book, Rewiring Education, he urges a full rewiring of education. It is a call-to-action to parents and teachers to help them realize that the technology that’s now in place can empower both teachers ...
Sep 05, 2018•35 min•Ep. 164
Today, Tom talks with Pam Moran, who just wrapped up 32 years with Albemarle County Public Schools as she transitions into a leadership role at the Virginia School Consortium for Learning. Starting as a science teacher and concluding with a dozen years as superintendent, Pam has quietly become one of America’s leading educators because the work she leads is so compelling. With two of her Albemarle colleagues, Moran just published a book of lessons learned called, Timeless Learning: How Imaginati...
Aug 29, 2018•50 min•Ep. 163
Today, Tom speaks with Tim Stuart. Tim is an international educator who has lived in France and has taught in Turkey and Switzerland. After being the principal of a New Mexico school serving Native Americans, Tim was one of the first to earn a Ph.D. as a Gates Millenium Scholar. As Head of School in Jakarta, he was introduced to professional learning communities by Rick Dufour. Since then, Tim has used professional learning communities to create exemplary schools in Singapore and Ethiopia. And i...
Aug 22, 2018•38 min•Ep. 162
Today, Tom has a conversation with David Michael Slater. David is a teacher at Pine Middle School in Reno — he’s also an author of dozens of children’s books and has been writing and teaching for over 20 years. David believes that having another passion beyond the classroom is helpful for a teacher. In his first nonfiction work, Slater enumerates many of the bad, obsolete, and corrupted ideas that have become part of the basic operating system in American elementary and secondary education. The ...
Aug 15, 2018•32 min•Ep. 161
In today’s episode, Tom interviews Ryan Craig. Ryan is an attorney, an entrepreneur, and a venture investor — he’s also a leading critic of higher education. When he sees half of the people attending post-secondary failing to earn degrees (and many of them leaving with piles of debt) he sees an emergency. As he would say, “the patient is bleeding out on the table.” Ryan is the co-founder of University Ventures, an organization that is reimagining the future of higher education and creating new p...
Aug 08, 2018•40 min•Ep. 160
Recently, Tom went to Europe to visit the founders of MyMachine. MyMachine is a 10-year-old nonprofit in Belgium that helps brings dreams to life by recruiting college design students and high school prototypers to help bring to life the dreams of elementary students. While visiting MyMachine, Tom asked the three co-founders — Jan Despiegelaere, Piet Grymonprez, and Filip Meuris — about the origin story of MyMachine and how they’ve scaled up to help over half a million students worldwide gain cr...
Aug 01, 2018•31 min•Ep. 159
This week, Tom Vander Ark speaks with Lydia Dobyns, CEO of New Tech Network, to talk about their new book, Better Together: How to Leverage School Networks for Smarter Personalized and Project-Based Learning . Tom and Lydia are excited about the potential of personalized and project-based learning but worry about the degree of difficulty for teachers. Their book suggests that schools working together in formal (or informal) networks to share models, tools, and professional learning to achieve th...
Jul 25, 2018•44 min•Ep. 158
This episode is the second in the two-part series from Getting Smart’s time spent at SXSW EDU. Getting Smart was a media partner at the conference and while there got to meet and interview thought leaders, change makers, and even a few students. If you haven’t listened to part one yet, you can find it on GettingSmart.com. Emily Liebtag interviews SXSW EDU attendees on why they attended the conference and what their predictions are about the future of work and learning. This episode she interview...
Jul 18, 2018•26 min•Ep. 157
