This week, Mike sits down with bestselling author, keynote speaker, and disruptive storyteller Erik Qualman, aka Equalman, to explore how best to manage one's digital brand in the 21st Century. Drawing from examples from Erik's life, we dig into how privacy is eroding and how a thoughtful understanding of one's digital stamp, a combination of your digital footprint and your digital shadow, is key to success in modern life. Erik imparts nuggets of wisdom as only a motivational speaker can as he a...
Aug 12, 2019•39 min•Season 3Ep. 209
A recent survey of 3000 children between the ages of eight and 11 showed that a majority of US and UK children are more interested in becoming a YouTube star than an astronaut. In China, the majority of respondents preferred to pursue a career in space, with Vlogger as the least popular option. We welcome Brandon back as a guest to discuss all this, plus Legos, AsCans, Space X and more. Strap on your virtual (or actual?) space helmet and get ready for liftoff with a midsummer Extra from your fri...
Aug 08, 2019•27 min•Season 3Ep. 209
On the heels of recent coverage in The Wall Street Journal and Wired, the team digs into the news that a new form of Poker AI named Pluribus, has been winning in games versus poker pros. The surprising secret to Pluribus’ game? Surprisingly, it’s bluffing! Mike and Dan begin the conversation and are joined by an old friend to explore what this can teach us about human intelligence, machine learning, and game theory. We also pitch a few development ideas for a human/AI poker tournament along the ...
Aug 05, 2019•35 min•Season 3Ep. 207
As we’ve said on numerous occasions, you need 21st Century skills to pay those 21st Century bills. To that end, Coursera, the online learning platform, recently released its inaugural Global Skills Index, billed as "data-driven insights into the world’s top career skills.". Dan and Mike are once again joined by Melissa Griffith as we dive into the global insights this report has to offer. What skills are most sought after by Coursera’s users? How might this data be interpreted to understand glob...
Jul 29, 2019•36 min•Season 3Ep. 206
Amazon announced they'll be investing over 700 million dollars in upskilling and reskilling a large portion of their current workforce between now and 2025. Over the next six years, the retail giant will be providing training in AWS, machine learning, and other areas of work within the organization. Mike and Dan are joined by Melissa Griffith to dive into what this could mean to the future of work at Amazon and beyond. We also explore the implications to the broader field of workforce developmen...
Jul 25, 2019•33 min•Season 3Ep. 205
This week, we dive into the learning myth of "summer learning loss." Based on a recent article from EducationNext.org , we discuss the history of summer learning loss, where the current mythology stands, and how we might move forward with a better understanding of school calendars, summer assignments and more. If you’re in search of summer learning gain , this is the podcast for you!...
Jul 22, 2019•20 min•Season 3Ep. 204
Have you ever felt like you don't have one true calling? When asked what you wanted to be when you grew up, did multiple answers spring to mind? On today's extra, we dive into the idea of multipotentiality, spurred by a recent TED talk by Emilie Wapnick. In a world where much of the discussion around talent and career advancement has focused on deep specialization, what role can sharp, flexible generalists play in the future of work? How is the latest research pointing to the benefits of pairing...
Jul 18, 2019•27 min•Season 3Ep. 203
We’re “all-in” this week, as we welcome Annie Duke, author of Thinking In Bets and retired poker pro, to the show. Annie begins by sharing the long, winding path she took to become an author and expert in decision science. From her time as a PhD student in cognitive science to her introduction to poker as a novice, to her inspiration to write her books, Annie provides great detail on all of the influences throughout her life that have come together to write Thinking In Bets. We also dive into th...
Jul 15, 2019•49 min•Season 3Ep. 202
Following on the heels of our conversation with the researchers who studied the impact of environmental factors, including temperature, on performance, here we dive in to get more reactions from Dan, Mike, and a few friends of the show. The most buzzworthy component of the research has been the findings that women, on average, perform better on cognitive tasks in warmer temperatures while men, on average, tend to perform better in cooler temperatures. We welcome Dr Erika Blumenthal to the show f...
Jul 12, 2019•28 min•Season 3Ep. 201
You most likely saw a news article or morning television show covering a recent study on temperature and performance. Mike and Dan chat with the researchers behind the story! Debates have raged for decades on office temperature and how it might change the way we work. This research shows that women do perform better in warmer temperatures, while men perform better in cooler temperatures. We talk with Dr. Agne Kajackaite, WZB, Berlin Social Science Center and Dr. Tom Chang, Associate Professor of...
Jul 08, 2019•36 min•Season 3Ep. 200
On a very special Fourth of July extra, we share some news about co-host Brandon Jones. We talk through some of the highlights of Trending in Education over the past two-and-a-half plus years. We also discuss what topics we look forward to revisiting as the show accelerates into the future. We also bring back an old feature of our podcast, the quiz! Dan quizzes Brandon and Mike on July 4th history. Light your sparklers and tune in!
Jul 04, 2019•29 min•Season 3Ep. 199
We revisit the Meeker report after our high-level discussion last week, to drill down on Mary Meeker's outlook for education and online education throughout the world. The world is changing at an ever increasing pace. How is online education attempting to keep up? We take a look at the intersection of public and private partnerships with MOOCs. Have MOOCs made the move up the Gartner Hype Cycles' Plateau of Productivity? As more colleges and universities move online, have we solved for the prope...
Jul 02, 2019•38 min•Season 3Ep. 198
What might the global landscape of learning and education look like in 2030? We dive into a recent dynamic report from HolonIq.com on five key trends to watch for over the next 10 plus years. In a global market place that is set to reach over 10 trillion dollars in the year 2030, how might the world of learning and education evolve? Will learning be most influenced through regional change or will a global big bang in learning and education change the state of play? What demographic and technolog...
Jun 28, 2019•32 min•Season 3Ep. 197
It's that time of year again! Join us as we dive into the 2019 Meeker Internet Trends Report. Mike and Brandon take a high level look at the report in its entirety and explore what trends Mary Meeker thinks are most important. For the first time, over 50% of the world has access to the internet and that number should continue to climb. What does that mean for education, learning, and connectivity around the globe? How has our consumption of digital media changed and how important are mobile devi...
Jun 25, 2019•38 min•Season 3Ep. 196
A recent "click-bait " story out of the Washington Post describes a study in Italy that explores using Twitter to study a novel. The study, done at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, split students into two groups: one group used more standard classroom approaches to reading and understanding a novel while the other group used Twitter to learn about the book. The results showed that the students on who studied on Twitter struggled in retention and understanding of the novel. D...
Jun 21, 2019•27 min•Season 3Ep. 195
A recent study out of Stanford University shows that a new creation, Quizbot, proves to be more effective in students' knowledge retention than old school flashcards. We dive into how the Quizbot works and why it appears to be a welcomed addition to a student's studying tool box. How can the Quizbot's interactivity help students where analog study aides may fall flat? How might something like the Quizbot help augment study aides already in use? With chat and other text-based formats already popu...
Jun 18, 2019•25 min•Season 3Ep. 194
Happy Father's Day! On this extra, we tackle a news story out of Canada about the implementation of robot babies as a study tool for onboarding and training medical professionals. How might robot babies better prepare healthcare professionals for everything that could happen during the early days of life? Where might screen-based simulations be a better learning tool than a robot? Will future medical trainees get lost and creeped out in the uncanny valley? Listen in to hear all this and more....
Jun 14, 2019•22 min•Season 3Ep. 193
As IQ has been thrust into the mainstream news with folks measuring each other based on obscure psychometric quotients, we take some time to look at what it's supposed to represent and what exactly can be understood by this number. We touch on Howard Gardner's work on multiple intelligences and raise some questions about whether IQ is an idea past its prime. What value do we get from IQ numbers and is it something that is fixed or changes over time? We explore the weaponization of IQ and the dow...
Jun 11, 2019•29 min•Season 3Ep. 192
Octochamps? Octochamps! This year's Scripps Spelling Bee finished in an eight way tie. We discuss the fallout from the way it all ended and attempt to conjure up new innovations to the Spelling Bee and to Bees in general. We hit on some of the history of the National Bee along the way.. What went wrong at this year's spelling be too cause an eight way tie? How has spelling bee prep changed the game for some of the brightest spellers in the country? Would a few simple tweaks to the rules and prep...
Jun 07, 2019•28 min•Season 3Ep. 191
If you step into a classroom today, you're likely to hear the tap tap of keyboards and cell phones, as students attempt to type down as many notes as possible from the lecture. While technology in the classroom can help push students forward, does technology win out on note-taking or does the "old school" paper and pen(cil) approach win the day? This week we dive into the digital v analog note-taking debate! Recent studies have shown that retention rates are higher for students who take notes wi...
Jun 04, 2019•28 min•Season 3Ep. 190
Inspired by Robert Smith's announcement that his family would help pay off the debt of the 2019 Morehouse College graduating class, we dive into commencement season. We look at what makes a great speech to graduates. Looking at speeches from this year and hearkening back to the best from the past few years, what common themes tie them together? Do the best speeches combine compassion and humor? Mike muses about working on his own commencement speech and what that might entail. Brandon shares a s...
May 28, 2019•22 min•Season 3Ep. 189
On our latest episode of the Citadel, Brandon, Mike, and Dan break down the final episode of Game of Thrones. We talk through the all the major plot points, discuss what's next for those characters that are still with us, and share what we think could have been better. SPOILER ALERT!!! We talk about the conclusion of GoT in the show and in the rest of the description! Was Jon and Dany's final scene on par with the death of the Night King? Did the show runners deliver on story lines that have bee...
May 24, 2019•39 min•Season 3Ep. 188
Why did the engineer teach the robot to tell a joke? To see if they could be funny, clearly. On our latest episode, we dive into a recent article on teaching artificial intelligence to tell jokes and puns. The Wired article we dig into describes the work of He He, a postdoc candidate at Stanford, who is attempting to teach robots how to construct and tell puns and jokes. How might a world where robots can tell good jokes change what we find funny? How does a shared human experience inform how we...
May 21, 2019•21 min•Season 3Ep. 187
Our fifth episode of the final season of The Citadel breaks down The Bells, Episode 5 of Season 8 of Game of Thrones. Be forewarned, we discuss numerous details of the show so if you're not a GoT fan or if you haven't seen the third episode of Season 8, steer clear for fear of spoilage. Brandon, Mike, and Dan try to find bright spots in a season that's been headed in the wrong direction. We check in on the downward trend on Rotten Tomatoes and hope the final episode can correct the fall before t...
May 17, 2019•37 min•Season 3Ep. 186
This week, we welcome Jeanne Allen, Founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform, to the show to discuss school choice, innovation, and more. We dive into CER's history and goals on a national, state, and local level. Jeanne shares her views on what's wrong with our education system and how CER believes these problems can be fixed. She discusses where her organization spends its resources and time, as well as how they may find common ground they with folks on the other side of complex issu...
May 14, 2019•29 min•Season 3Ep. 185
Our fourth episode of the final season of The Citadel breaks down, The Last of the Starks, Episode 4 of Season 8 of Game of Thrones. Be forewarned, we discuss numerous details of the show so if you're not a GoT fan or if you haven't seen the third episode of Season 8, steer clear for fear of spoilage. Brandon, Mike, and Dan make their way through what's been seen as a disappointing episode four of season eight. We begin in Winterfell for the victory toasts and celebrations, make our way through ...
May 10, 2019•40 min•Season 3Ep. 184
First, we say thank you to all the teachers out there as we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day! Then, we dive into the latest wearable technology, hearables. As Fitbits and Apple Watches continue to flood the market, what is the latest technology available for our ears? Apple's Air pods are a popular example of the growing product area of smart, wearable audio devices known as hearables which are changing media consumption and have broad implications to learning. How can hearables be used for le...
May 07, 2019•24 min•Season 3Ep. 183
Our third episode of the final season of The Citadel breaks down, The Long Night, Episode 3 of Season 8 of Game of Thrones. Be forewarned, we discuss numerous details of the show so if you're not a GoT fan or if you haven't seen the third episode of Season 8, steer clear for fear of spoilage. We begin by checking in with Mike and Dan to set the stage for the podcast now that everyone has had time to digest and process this epic episode. Then we share highlights from our Sunday night live stream ...
May 03, 2019•45 min•Season 3Ep. 182
This week we dive into the topic of Summit Learning and some of the backlash it's seen in school districts across America. We react to a recent New York Times article that explores a spate of recents cases of community opposition to this program at high schools in Kansas. How is local activism intersecting with broad educational initiatives like Summit Learning which is back by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI)? How much of the reaction is in part driven by the perceived foreignness of Silico...
Apr 30, 2019•30 min•Season 3Ep. 181
Our second Episode of The Citadel breaks down Episode 2 of Season 8 of Game of Thrones, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms." Be forewarned, we discuss numerous details of the show so if you're not a GoT fan or if you haven't seen the second episode of Season 8, steer clear for fear of spoilage. This week we dive into the details of the episode that sets us up for the big battle of Winterfell that seems to be imminent heading into Episode 3. What was the significance of Jenny's Song? What happens no...
Apr 25, 2019•29 min•Season 3Ep. 180
