Episode description

This year at the ISTE Conference, I had the opportunity to catch up with John Kao, a man dubbed “Mr. Creativity” by The Economist. John and I first met a few years back and spent some time together during an event in Seattle and I have always been fascinated by not only his point of view on today's educational landscape but by the way he is able to very clearly make sense of many of the things we take for granted every day in our classrooms.

This year, John wasn't alone. He brought his son Desi with him to the conference and it was a pleasure getting to meet Desi and as you will hear in this interview, Desi has a very similar sense of creativity and wonder about his surroundings just like his father has.

• What is Innovation in 2018?
• Is Innovation about “doing” or “thinking”
• What can teachers do to become more innovative?
• Are teachers the “heros” of innovation?
• Shat does Innovative Professional Development look like?
• What is Edgemakers doing in classrooms worldwide?
• How do we transform some of the issues facing education today?
• What is Authentic Education?

John Kao has spent the better part of 30 years creating compelling learning experiences for emerging innovators and entrepreneurs. His eclectic career mirrors the complexity of innovation and entrepreneurship. He was a professor at Harvard Business School, and he taught at the MIT Media Lab and Stanford’s Bowman House. John is the Global Innovation Advisor to the World Economic Forum (WEF), past Chairman of the WEF’s Global Advisory Council on Innovation and an advisor to countries on innovation policy. A best-selling author of books about innovation, John is also a Tony award-winning producer of stage and screen, Yamaha Music’s first “artist in innovation” and a Yale Medical School trained psychiatrist. Each experience has enriched his pedagogical approach. Dubbed “Mr. Creativity” and a “serial innovator” by The Economist, John Kao is a renaissance man and self-styled “innovation activist” whose creativity forms the DNA of EdgeMakers. Follow John on Twitter @johnkao

Founded by John Kao, EdgeMakers is an organization that empowers students to think more creatively and work on problems more effectively, so they become highly skillful innovators and entrepreneurs who can make a difference in the world. The company’s education programs are designed to supply the “missing ingredients” in formal education and close the gaps between current curriculum and future readiness. EdgeMakers believes every student can learn to be an innovator by combining their inherent creativity with a purpose that takes an idea to innovation and drives meaningful change.