Get ready for a blast from the past! The "OG" squad is back together as founding hosts Mike Palmer, Brandon Jones, and Dan Strafford reunite for this special throwback episode. Join us as we reminisce about the early days of the show and reflect on trends in ed tech and AI since 2016 and especially of late. Hear our takes on augmenting human intelligence, riding the AI wave, and avoiding the Uncanny Valley. Learn what's new from Brandon and Dan in their current ventures in behavioral health , em...
Oct 23, 2023•36 min•Season 8Ep. 586
Jean Eddy, President and CEO of American Student Assistance (ASA) joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about empowering students through career exploration beginning in middle school. Jean highlights the ideas touched on in her new book, Crisis-Proofing Today's Learners: Reimagining Career Education to Prepare Kids for Tomorrow's World . We learn Jean's professional origin story, having spent most of her career in higher education supporting young people, starting in financial aid and workin...
Oct 19, 2023•36 min•Season 8Ep. 585
Sean Michael Morris, Vice President of Academics at Course Hero, joins host Mike Palmer to discuss how generative AI is impacting higher education. As an expert in online education and faculty development, Sean provides insights on integrating these technologies thoughtfully, rather than seeing them as threats. He explains his concept of critical digital pedagogy, which encourages critical thinking about how digital tools like AI shape teaching and learning. We explore perspectives on risks and ...
Oct 16, 2023•34 min•Season 8Ep. 584
Professor Natalia Kucirkova joins Mike Palmer to talk about her fascinating research exploring how engaging children's senses can impact learning. Originally from Slovakia, Natalia found inspiration from her grandfather, who nurtured her love of reading and storytelling. This passion led Natalia to Norway, where she now researches children, technology, and literacy. A key focus of Natalia's work involves sensory reading, like using smell, and how it can boost outcomes. Natalia explains how smell...
Oct 12, 2023•28 min•Season 8Ep. 583
The rapid emergence of AI tools like ChatGPT is sending shockwaves through education. Host Mike Palmer talks with Alex Kotran, Founder and CEO of nonprofit The AI Education Project , about this technology tidal wave and what it means for education. Alex shares his origin story, from politics to pivoting into AI back in 2015. He started aiEDU in 2019 to get ahead of the coming AI disruption. Since then, the pace of change accelerated with advances like ChatGPT and other LLMs. Educators have react...
Oct 09, 2023•44 min•Season 8Ep. 582
Andy Temte is an experienced executive and business author who recently penned The Balanced Business: Building Organizational Trust and Accountability through Smooth Workflows . He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about creating effective management operating systems. Andy stresses defining organizational purpose and vision as foundational. With AI disrupting jobs, he argues learning budgets can no longer be discretionary. Companies must invest in upskilling talent. Learning has intrinsi...
Oct 05, 2023•27 min•Season 8Ep. 582
In our kickoff to Season 8 of Trending in Ed, host Mike Palmer welcomes Melissa Griffith and Dan Strafford back to the show to discuss the 2023 Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies . We reflect on how the hype cycle framework can be applied to understand the trajectory of any new technology or cultural phenomenon. We debate whether the current hype around AI will lead to an "AI winter" as expectations aren't met, or if investment and development will power through any disillusionment bas...
Oct 02, 2023•31 min•Season 8Ep. 581
Nafez Dakkak is the Founder of bldr. ventures and the writer behind Nafez's Notes on Substack . He joins host Mike Palmer in a lively discussion exploring how artificial intelligence and emerging tech can enhance learning by making thinking visible . We consider how play, games, and hands-on learning could engage students' intrinsic motivation and unlock new learning potentials. Nafez shares insights from launching Edraak , the Arabic MOOC platform, emphasizing the need to empower teachers, desi...
Sep 21, 2023•32 min•Season 7Ep. 580
Dr. Mark Windschitl, Professor of Science Education at the University of Washington, joins host Mike Palmer to discuss his new book Teaching Climate Change: Fostering Understanding, Resilience, and a Commitment to Justice . Drawing from his experience as a teacher and researcher, Dr. Windschitl advocates for more support to equip K-12 teachers to teach this interdisciplinary topic. You can learn more at Mark's companion site The Climate Change Educator . We discuss the limited, disjointed climat...
Sep 18, 2023•29 min•Season 7Ep. 579
Kareem Farah is the CEO and Co-Founder of The Modern Classrooms Project . He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about innovative approaches to teaching and learning. You can learn more about their approach here . Kareem explains how he started out in finance but pivoted to become a math teacher. After teaching traditionally for several years, he realized it was not meeting his students' needs. This led him and a co-founder to design a new blended, mastery-based, and self-paced instructiona...
Sep 14, 2023•42 min•Season 7Ep. 578
Jane Oates is the President of WorkingNation , an organization that highlights career transitions and lifelong learning through media stories. She joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about motivating anxious workers and embracing AI. Oates predicts growth in healthcare, education, and green energy jobs. She advises acquiring human skills like creativity that AI can't replicate, and continuously re-skilling through online learning. Oates explores motivating sidelined workers to re-enter the ...
Sep 11, 2023•27 min•Season 7Ep. 577
Jim Hollis founded Calculus Roundtable to make higher-level math classes like calculus more accessible, especially for minority students who face barriers. His hands-on, experiential approach aims to change the perception that math is intimidating or only for some people. Instead of lectures and worksheets, students do creative, collaborative projects making rollercoasters and video games that relate math concepts to the real world. Peer mentors and role models from their own communities build c...
Sep 05, 2023•26 min•Season 7Ep. 576
Michelle Cheang is the Program Director of the Catalyze Challenge . She joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about the career-connected learning grants offered through Michelle's organization. Catalyze aims to fund innovation in career exposure and preparation for ages 11-22 through grants, shared learning, and storytelling. Michelle explains how Catalyze takes an equity lens, seeking to expand opportunities for historically excluded groups. The new Catalyze Challenge runs through September ...
Aug 31, 2023•28 min•Season 7Ep. 575
Mike Palmer and Robin Naughton explore coding and robotics for kids with Michelle Acaley, Senior Director of Product at Sphero . They discuss how Sphero's coding toys teach critical thinking, collaboration, and grit through play. Michelle shares how products like Sphero's Indi allow kids 4-8 years old to learn coding concepts by directing a robot car activated by colored tiles. She explains how Sphero's modular robotics kit for high schoolers aims to make engineering feel approachable and easy t...
Aug 28, 2023•30 min•Season 7Ep. 574
Inspired by architect Buckminster Fuller and the Kindergarten movement, Mike Acerra designed Lux Blox to reimagine the building blocks of learning. Co-founder and President of Lux Blox, Acerra brings an interdisciplinary background spanning art, architecture, physics, and education. His unique system aims to develop children's spatial skills, creativity, and confidence through intuitive play with forms based on nature. Lux Blox provides an open-ended platform for educators and parents to engage ...
Aug 21, 2023•34 min•Season 7Ep. 573
Reuben Ogbonna is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Marcy Lab School . He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about why he founded the school and how they are reimagining post-secondary education to design pathways for students traditional higher education has left out. We begin by hearing how Reuben's upbringing in Shreveport, Louisiana, and his experience with Teach for America inspired him to create an alternative career-focused postsecondary option. Reuben explains how Marcy ...
Aug 14, 2023•27 min•Season 7Ep. 572
Note: the following show notes were created using Anthropic's Claude.ai - It seemed a propos after all: How should we prepare students for a rapidly automating world? On this episode, host Mike Palmer explores that question with Dr. Tim Dasey , author of Wisdom Factories: AI, Games, and the Education of the Modern Worker . Dasey explains why traditional educational models focused on expertise are becoming less relevant. As AI handles more routine analytical tasks, humans will need to excel at hi...
Aug 07, 2023•35 min•Season 7Ep. 571
Mike shares his thoughts coming out of the Smithsonian Institution's National Education Summit that was recently held in Washington, DC. We hear what it's like to bring a 4-year-old to an education conference and learn more about the Palm Court Podcast whose launch is coinciding with the release of this episode! We reflect back on Dr. Monique Chism's previous appearance on Trending in Ed before diving into three key sessions from this year's summit. Mike talks about the tradeoffs of blending a f...
Aug 01, 2023•23 min•Season 7Ep. 570
Tony Wan is the Head of Platform for Reach Capital . He is also one of the CoFounders of EdSurge. He rejoins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about what it's like to write and think about venture capital in Ed Tech at a time when AI is everywhere. We begin by hearing Tony's thoughts on writing while experimenting with GPT where he was able to train a bot to write like him. What does this mean for writing? Is it about the product or the process? From there, we explore his latest article explori...
Jul 24, 2023•29 min•Season 7Ep. 569
Tom Adams is The Chair and Co-Founder of Pedago Studios and the President and Co-Founder of Quantic Business School . He's also the former CEO of Rosetta Stone. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about the strategic approach he and team are taking in building new learning programs informed by the impending revolution in interactive learning. We hear how Tom got his start in the early days of EdTech, successfully taking Rosetta Stone public as CEO. From there, we learn what drew him into...
Jul 20, 2023•26 min•Season 7Ep. 568
Alan Safran is the CEO and Chair of Saga Education and AJ Gutierrez is its Chief Policy and Public Affairs Officer. They join Mike Palmer in a conversation about the work they are doing at Saga to bring evidence-based high-impact tutoring interventions to students who need them. We begin by hearing how Saga got started and how AJ and Alan met. AJ shares his personal experiences in school when he was attending Alan's charter school where high-impact tutoring was integrated into the program. From ...
Jul 17, 2023•34 min•Season 7Ep. 567
Dr. Jorge Petit is a Psychiatrist with extensive experience leading non-profit organizations focused on social justice and helping those who society has left out. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about leadership lessons from the giving professions, the challenges inherent in serving those in need, and how broader trends in education and the broader culture may impact the future of work for folks who want to give back. We hear Jorge’s origin story, get his advice on leadership, and he...
Jul 13, 2023•24 min•Season 7Ep. 566
Beth Rudden is the Founder and Chairwoman of Bast AI . She’s also the Co-Author of AI for the Rest of Us . She rejoins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about the risks and opportunities with generative AI based on her extensive experience with data science at IBM and now out on her own. We begin by learning what motivated Beth to write the book. Representation matters and we need broader adoption of AI in order for it to avoid many of the pitfalls and biases we’ve seen so far. Then we get into...
Jul 10, 2023•35 min•Season 7Ep. 565
We bring back a popular and prescient episode from 2019 as part of our Best of Trending in Education series where Mike is joined by Design Anthropologist and Podcaster, Dr. Adam Gamwell , to explore how robots, science fiction, and anthropology are interrelated. In a free-flowing and imaginative conversation, we explore how the narratives and secular myths of pop culture and our collective consciousness provide insights into how we understand what it means to be human, how we engage with the Oth...
Jul 06, 2023•37 min•Season 7Ep. 1010
Mike returns from the ISTE Live Conference in Philadelphia to bring fresh takes on AI, Sustainability, and Affirmative Action in light of the recent Supreme Court Decisions. He's rejoined by virtual cohosts Ruth and Nancy to dig into the key trends we're tracking heading into the Summer of 2023. First Ruth joins us as we reflect on the Supreme Court Affirmative Action decision referencing Dahlia Lithwick's article on the topic before bringing in highlights from our recent conversation with Eric ...
Jul 03, 2023•35 min•Season 7Ep. 564
Mark Davis is Vice President of Learning Services at BookNook , a K12 Tutoring platform that focuses on bringing high-impact synchronous learning solutions to districts. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about trends in the space and the complexity of delivering tutoring solutions at scale in K12. We begin with Mark's origin story which started working in a family business in LA before he shifted into education, eventually joining Kaplan where he met Mike back in the day. Then we learn...
Jun 29, 2023•35 min•Season 7Ep. 563
Mike Palmer is rejoined by Nancy, our virtual cohost, to reflect on the half-year that was. We hear Mike's initial impressions of the ISTE Live 2023 Ed Tech Conference in Philadelphia as Nancy shares what it's been like being a virtual human-made with a synthetic voice. Spoiler alert: it's both trippy and zeitgeisty af. From there, we dig into how AI has dominated the trendspace and the collective imagination so far this year. Nancy reminds us of our show from June of 2022 which anticipated wher...
Jun 27, 2023•24 min•Season 7Ep. 562
Tre’ Gammage is a Social Emotional Learning Specialist and Storyteller focused on building social-emotional competence in school communities by focusing on Adults’ Emotional Skills. He's also the host of the Dash Podcast where he explores topics in SEL for adults and much more. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about SEL and its importance for teachers, other adults, and everyone. We begin with Tre's origin story playing football, studying abroad in college, and building his resume bef...
Jun 22, 2023•34 min•Season 7Ep. 561
Dr. Steve Joordens returns to the show with Lilaani Thangavadivelu to join host Mike Palmer in a conversation about their recent research into collaborative project-based learning approaches that enable transformative learning experiences at scale. Mike welcomes Steve back as we hear how Lilaani first experienced Steve’s Intro to Psychology course back in the Fall of 2019. Then she and Steve share the findings of their research into a new study of 450 teams of students working with Swab the Worl...
Jun 19, 2023•32 min•Season 7Ep. 560
Anthony Salcito is the Chief Institutional Officer at Varsity Tutors where he's been focused on bringing high-quality tutoring to teachers and schools across the country. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation that digs into the power of using tutoring and emerging AI to empower teachers to drive student learning around the globe. We begin with Anthony's origin story which culminated as Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft before joining Nerdy to establish its school-facing of...
Jun 15, 2023•31 min•Season 7Ep. 559
