On Learning: Recent Episodes
Sean Dagony-Clark
So much of what we focus on in education involves improving the brain’s unassisted functioning and skill: focus, motivation, understanding. Basically: how well does a person think, and how much can they improve that thinking. 🧠💪
But there are also natural and artificial substances that can modulate and improve brain chemistry and function. 💊🧠💪
Have you ever drunk a cup of coffee as a stimulant first thing in the morning (or, maybe more importantly, as an afternoon pick-me-up)? Or perhaps you have experience or knowledge of ADHD drugs like Ritalin and Adderall and how they make it more possible for people with that condition to focus and succeed.
This episode of Ways We Learn examines the world of nootropics: the spectrum of substances, from natural to fully synthetic, that are meant to improve cognitive function.
Our guest, @Dan Freed, is the founder and CEO of @Thesis, which offers cognitive performance products formulated to improve focus, energy, memory, mood, confidence, and motivation. Dan says his discovery of cognitive performance supplements changed his mental function and, in turn, transformed his life.
Contents:
- 01:29 Exploring Cognitive Enhancers
- 02:01 Introducing Dan Fried and Thesis
- 03:12 Adderall Usage in the US
- 07:44 Dan's ADHD Journey
- 10:09 Behavioral Interventions for ADHD
- 13:55 Nootropics vs. Prescription Stimulants
- 22:07 Dan's Transition to Nootropics
- 27:22 SSRIs and Natural Supplements
- 28:11 Regulatory Frameworks and ADHD Medications
- 30:27 Pharmaceutical Incentives and Multi-Molecule Approaches
- 33:52 GABA
- 41:01 Challenges in Supplement Research and Development
- 46:49 Psychedelics
- 50:32 Natural vs. Synthetic Ingredients
Further reading:
Website: www.takethesis.comSocials: @takethesisDiscount Code: "LEARN10" for 10% off
Today we have the pleasure of speaking with a friend from our time at Flatiron School! Juliana Stonebrook led the educational experience at Flatiron’s Austin campus. She’s studied teaching and web development and worked with all ages from elementary students to senior citizens. Right now she’s designing learning experiences for YPO, a global leadership community of chief executives, and is a dedicated homeschooling mom to her four children, all of whom are on the autism spectrum (ASD). (And speaking of: if you missed our episodes on neurodivergence, we’ll link to them in the episode notes.)
We got to discuss Juliana’s journey from traditional schooling to homeschooling, driven by the unique needs of her children. She shares the strategies she employs to create an adaptable learning environment, the importance of understanding each child's unique challenges, the joys of seeing her kids flourish through self-paced learning, her innovative techniques for blending education with experiential learning, and her plans to continue expanding her children's educational horizons.
Contents:
- 02:08 Juliana's Journey
- 06:54 Discovering Homeschooling and Early Challenges
- 09:04 Educating 2e Kids
- 14:20 Creating a Flexible and Adaptive Learning Environment
- 17:26 Strategies for Managing a Homeschool Environment
- 24:52 Getting Started with Homeschooling: Tips and Resources
- 27:43 Homeschooling Co-ops
- 29:20 Measuring Student Success
- 33:59 Incorporating Family Learning Experiences
- 50:59 Future Plans and International Adventures
Links and further reading:
- Juliana’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-juliana-s/
- Two other WWL episodes on Neurodiversity, featuring Kristin Eccleston and Nate Shalev
We first heard of Minna in the context of an event she ran. It was called, and I’m not making this up, “The First Qualifying Round of the World Championship of Powerpoint Karaoke.” Which was a subsequent event to the ACTUAL “World Championship of Powerpoint Karaoke.”
So what else could we do but reach out and meet her?
Minna Taylor is an accomplished speaking coach and a world-traveler. She’s the Founder of Energize Your Voice and the author of The Confident Body, and has activated programs all over the world for organizations such as UBER, Red Bull, TikTok, EY, and numerous start-ups and nonprofits.
We sat down to discuss the power of play in effective presentations, how it helps us operate in heart space rather than head space, using vocal dynamics, using play to captivate audiences, and the value of improv as a catalyst for your best presentation work.
Contents:
- 01:50 Minna's Superhero Origin Story
- 15:00 Using Improv in Corporate Settings
- 19:15 Engaging Your Audience Effectively
- 29:00 Adapting to Remote Presentations
- 31:30 Presence
- 35:25 Practicing with Play in Mind
- 37:30 Improv and Presentation Skills
- 44:00 The Power of Vocal Choices
- 52:30 The Importance of Play in Training
Links and further reading:
- https://www.minnataylor.com/
- https://www.minnataylor.com/thought-leadership-framework-communicating-with-purpose
- https://www.amazon.com/Confident-Body-Functional-Unlocking-Potential-ebook/dp/B09Z9QJ8RR
- https://slideslam.co/
Merritt Minnemayer, founder and CEO of Master of One Coaching, joins Ways We Learn to discuss the impact of executive coaching and leadership development. Merritt shares her journey from theater to leadership coaching, emphasizing the importance of asking powerful questions, maintaining presence, and creating agency for individuals. The conversation investigates the nuances of powerful coaching through powerful questions and explores strategies for fostering intentional leadership. With a focus on nonjudgmental inquiry, Merritt outlines how effective coaching can help individuals and leaders unlock their potential and navigate challenges effectively.
Contents:
- 02:03 Merritt's Journey from Theater to Coaching
- 08:36 The Essence of Good Coaching
- 15:16 Building a Coaching Business
- 28:35 Handling Pushback
- 32:35 The Importance of Powerful Questions
- 35:46 The Neuroscience Behind Asking Questions
- 44:41 Developing Skills to Ask Powerful Questions
Links and further reading:
- masterofonecoaching.com
Did you love Lena’s CEO wisdom in our last episode? Here’s a bonus!
Lena shares a lesson from therapy about personal responsibility, and discusses more about the “Order of Operations Framework” as well as its overall “inside-to-outside” approach.
Contents:
- 00:10 A Lesson from Therapy
- 01:33 Self Leadership
- 03:15 The Importance of Self-Awareness
- 05:05 Reparenting and Self Care
- 06:33 Facing Insecurities and Seeking Support
- 09:28 The Order of Operations Framework
- 10:42 Biggest Learnings as a CEO
- 15:17 Sean’s Insights and Reflections
Links and further reading:
- CEO Rising: https://CEORising.co
- Program overview: https://bit.ly/CEORisingCOREOverview
- Lena’s overview of the core principles: https://www.loom.com/share/b5a0e5af0fbc45faba119e8222bfa2ac
- Lena on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenawest/
Lena West is one of those people you just get the sense could do anything. She got her start in IT, then built and ran her own social media strategy company for 10 years, and since then has spent the last decade helping CEOs become better CEOs.
She’s the Founding Director of CEO Rising™, a first-of-its-kind business incubator/accelerator hybrid, dedicated to helping founders and entrepreneurs GROW the business they've built.
In this episode, Lena describes her "Order of Operations Framework," a system she developed from her extensive experience coaching over 5,000 founders. She details the importance of focusing on one's “CEO DNA” and establishing your vision, and overall working in an inside-to-outside approach to building your business.
Contents:
- 00:53 Meet Lena West
- 02:03 The Journey to CEO Rising
- 04:03 The Order of Operations Framework
- 13:52 The Importance of CEO DNA
- 26:12 The Struggles of Pricing
- 26:38 Learning Pricing the Hard Way
- 30:05 Adding 20%
- 31:48 Pricing is Based on You
- 36:38 Energy Behind Pricing
- 40:37 Building a Legacy
Links and further reading:
- CEO Rising: https://CEORising.co
- Program overview: https://bit.ly/CEORisingCOREOverview
- Lena’s overview of the core principles: https://www.loom.com/share/b5a0e5af0fbc45faba119e8222bfa2ac
- Lena on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenawest/
- $20K t-shirt on Etsy? Try this $50K t-shirt instead! https://www.etsy.com/listing/1660709899/the-most-expensive-t-shirt-on-etsy
- $20 handcrafted paperclips? These are a steal at $100! https://www.etsy.com/listing/661715870/handcrafted-paperclips
Check it out, it’s a bonus episode of Ways We Learn!
Amin Shaykho stuck around a bit longer after our main conversation about Kadama (https://open.spotify.com/episode/646angy3O2xLe38y8YlrqF) to discuss AI in education. We talked about prior learning revolutions in STEM fields, AI's potential across all subjects, the importance of AI specialists in schools, and overall the need for educational institutions to adapt and evolve teaching methodologies to better equip students for the future.
Contents:
- 00:53 The Role of AI in Modern Curriculum
- 02:41 Challenges and Risks of AI in Schools
- 05:15 Real-World Examples and Implications
- 06:48 The Future of AI Integration in Education
- 13:03 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Links and further reading:
- https://www.aminshaykho.com/
- https://www.kadama.com/
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We’re living in the gig economy. Uber and Lyft are verbs, you’ve stayed at an Airbnb, bought groceries from Instacart… but have you tried a tutoring-on-demand service?
Meet Amin Shaykho, Founder and CEO of the innovative education platform Kadama. Amin details his journey from immigrant roots to becoming a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, with help from his TikTok and Instagram wizardry that garnered 2.5 million followers and over 1 billion views.
Amin discusses building Kadama, his unique approach to making learning fun for Gen Z through social media and personal connection, and how Kadama approaches the tricky topic of cheating. Along the way, he shares valuable insights on perseverance, entrepreneurship, and the evolving landscape of education in the digital age.
Contents:
- 01:48 Meet Amin: From Apple Engineer to Forbes 30 Under 30
- 04:56 Early Challenges and Lessons
- 08:09 The Pivot
- 09:55 Cracking Social Media
- 19:44 Kadama's Impact
- 21:46 Popular Subjects and Use Patterns
- 22:52 Personal Connections
- 27:37 Cheating
- 38:37 Tutor Quality Control
- 43:33 Future Plans
Links and further reading
- https://www.aminshaykho.com/
- https://www.kadama.com/
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There’s a lot of buzz these days about AI, and in particular Generative AI. But Gen AI is just one facet of the huge artificial intelligence field.Today we’ll talk about another facet: one of the ways AI is advancing healthcare through medical diagnosis.Joining us is Dr. Akash Parvatikar, an AI Scientist and Product Manager for the PathologyMap platform at HistoWiz, a company accelerating scientific research and discoveries through the automation of histology and digital pathology solutions. Akash specializes in explainable AI for early breast cancer diagnosis and is an advocate of explainable AI in healthcare.In this episode, Akash highlights the importance of developing AI models that can 'speak the language of a pathologist' by not only classifying diseases but explaining the decision-making process behind the classification. We’ll get into the challenges of digital pathology, the concept of explainable AI, the process of training AI models with limited data, and the potential future applications of AI in medicine beyond pathology.Highlights: 00:53 Introduction 02:40 Akash’s Journey into AI and Healthcare 05:16 Explainable AI in Healthcare 09:33 High-Resolution Imaging in Pathology 35:00 The Future of AI in Medicine 38:48 Concluding ThoughtsLinks and further reading: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akash007/ https://akashparvatikar.github.io/ https://home.histowiz.com/--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/welearn/message
Eric Hudson is serious about creating meaningful learning, and his recent work has focused on AI in education. He says:
“How we frame AI for ourselves as educators will affect how we frame it for our students, and I believe strongly that how we talk to students about AI will have a lasting impact on how they see its role in their own lives.”
A few of our conversation topics:
- Students want to produce authentic and meaningful work (not just use ChatGPT for cheating).
- AI can serve as a tool for sparking ideas and offering 'positive friction' in the thinking process, ultimately enhancing the quality of student work.
- We should reimagine AI technologies as academic assistants rather than solely cheating mechanisms.
- AI has potential to empower students and enhance their work.
Eric is a facilitator and strategic advisor who supports schools in making sense of what’s changing in education. He specializes in learner-centered assessment, human-centered leadership, and strategic program design. Most recently, Eric spent a decade at Global Online Academy (GOA), first as an instructional coach and ultimately as Chief Program Officer, working with schools around the world to rethink where, when, and how learning happens. Prior to GOA, he spent 12 years in the classroom, where he developed his passion for designing learning experiences. Eric serves on the board of the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools (ATLIS) and writes the newsletter "Learning on Purpose" on Substack.
Highlights:
- 02:17 Eric’s Journey in Education and AI
- 03:43 Defining AI and Its Impact on Education
- 05:10 Exploring the Spectrum of AI in Education: From Skepticism to Empowerment
- 09:24 Navigating Academic Integrity and the Power of Productive Struggle with AI
- 12:30 Benefits of AI
- 18:42 Redefining Assistance: AI as a Tool for Enhancing Learning
- 21:39 Assessment in the Age of AI: Rethinking Educational Goals
- 23:16 Exploring AI in Education: A Model for Learning
- 24:01 Positive Uses of AI in Classroom Settings
- 24:13 AI as a Catalyst for Inquiry-Based Learning
- 25:23 AI in Language Learning: Bridging Gaps and Building Tools
- 26:35 Integrating AI into Academic Content
- 27:46 The SAMR Model: Revisiting Educational Technology Frameworks
- 28:29 AI and Creativity: Enhancing the Brainstorming Process
- 33:39 Addressing Concerns: AI, Copyright, and Equity
- 37:24 Strategic AI Integration: Policies and Flexibility for School Leaders
- 39:48 Concluding Thoughts on AI's Role in Future Learning
Links and further reading
- Eric’s Substack: Learning on Purpose: https://erichudson.substack.com/
- Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ejhudson/
- Po (Japanese translation bot: https://poe.com/JapaneseTutor
- SAMR model ed tech: https://www.edutopia.org/article/powerful-model-understanding-good-tech-integration/
- Article on AI being trained on writers’ work: https://crosscut.com/culture/2023/10/wa-authors-are-teaching-ai-how-write-without-their-consent
- Bloomberg study - racial bias in AI: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-generative-ai-bias/
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Everyone’s talking about AI these days, but it’s not that often that you get to speak with someone who can really pull back the curtain on how the future of AI is taking shape.
But that’s why you listen to Ways We Learn, isn’t it!
Claire Zau is a Vice President at GSV Ventures, an early stage edtech Venture Capital firm at the forefront of transformative technologies that are shaping the future of education and work. Some notable early investments from GSV are Coursera, Classdojo, Degreed, Guild Education and many more that you’d recognize if you’re in the education space. Claire spends a lot of her time at the intersection of AI & education startups, and writes a weekly newsletter on Substack that you should check out (it’s linked below). She has a B.A. from Stanford and an Masters of Education from UPenn’s Graduate School of Education.
We discussed the dynamics between incumbents and new ventures in the field of AI, the potential of AI deployment in educational spaces, retention and adoption rates of AI-enabled tools, the importance of user experience in AI applications, emerging trends in AI such as multimodality and personalized AI models and ethical considerations, and a lot more!
- 00:54 Introduction
- 02:15 Claire's Background and Interest in AI
- 03:35 AI in the Education Space: Current Trends
- 08:20 AI Tutors and the Challenges of Differentiation
- 10:42 AI and Privacy Concerns in Education
- 13:36 The Future of AI in Education: Predictions and Opportunities
- 19:25 AI and the Transformation of Video Content Creation
- 24:21 Navigating Privacy and IP Rules in AI
- 28:11 Adapting to New Educational Technology
- 28:24 The Rise of EdTech and AI in Schools
- 28:48 Differentiating Effective EdTech Tools
- 29:07 The Importance of Product Retention and Stickiness
- 29:49 The Role of AI in Lesson Planning
- 30:42 The Trend of Premium AI Products
- 31:11 Understanding Good Retention Numbers
- 32:54 The Future of Corporate Learning and Development
- 33:17 The Advantage of Incumbents in EdTech
- 34:00 The Emergence of Knowledge Search Platforms
- 35:23 The Potential of Personal AI Assistants
- 40:40 The Future of AI in Education
Links and further reading
Claire’s newsletter: aieducation.substack.com
Companies / AIs mentioned in this episode:
- Amazon Bedrock (https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/)
- Bard (https://bard.google.com)
- Caktus (https://caktus.ai/)
- Chegg (https://www.chegg.com)
- Degreed (https://degreed.com)
- Glean (https://glean.co)
- GoGuardian (https://www.goguardian.com)
- Gradescope (https://www.gradescope.com)
- Gradient Ventures (https://gradient.com)
- Jasper AI (https://www.jasper.ai)
- Khan Academy / Khanmigo (https://www.khanacademy.org)
- Labster (https://www.labster.com)
- Lensa (https://lensa.com)
- Mem (https://www.mem.ai)
- Notebook LM (https://notebooklm.google/)
- OpenAI (https://openai.com)
- Photomath (https://photomath.com)
- Power School (https://www.powerschool.com)
- Project Tailwind (https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/10/with-project-tailwind-google-aims-to-make-note-taking-smarter/)
- Quizlet (https://quizlet.com)
- Sana Labs (https://sanalabs.com)
- Speak (https://speakai.co/)
- Synthesia (https://www.synthesia.io)
- Tana (https://tana.inc)
- Turnitin (https://www.turnitin.com)
- Wolfram Alpha (https://www.wolframalpha.com)
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Ways We Learn is going even deeper into some of our topics by examining them in some short series! We'll start with AI.
Actually, we've already started! Our last episode was the first in this series: AI in Higher Ed with James Genone! Next week's episode will feature Claire Zau on What's Next in AI. And then we'll have Eric Hudson on to talk about AI policy and implementation in schools.
Find the next episode wherever you found this one, subscribe at welearn.fm, and always keep learning!
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In our latest episode, Joe, Sean, and Brian welcome James Genone, former Head of Innovation at Minerva Project and now Head of Product and Operations at Atypical AI.
James shares his perspective on integrating AI into education. He discusses Minerva University's approach to adopting AI, highlighting its potential to take on the labor-intensive parts of education such as grading and providing consistent formative feedback, and emphasizing that the role of human guidance will still be important. He forecasts the future of AI in education, applauds its potential advantages, and shares his views on the challenges the industry may face. The conversation also explores how AI can help improve a student's learning and overall educational experience, and discusses the importance of familiarizing oneself with AI. And along the way we learn more about the unusual and innovative Minerva University.
From 2015 to 2023 James led product strategy for Minerva's academic partnerships, overseeing general education and curriculum development. He was formerly a philosophy professor, teaching and conducting research in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science.
00:54 Introduction and Background
01:46 James' Journey into Education
03:05 Transition from Academia to Minerva
04:39 Understanding Minerva's Vision and Approach
06:49 Exploring AI and its Potential in Education
09:42 The Impact of Generative AI on Education
10:15 The Role of AI in Higher Education Strategy
13:05 The Future of AI in Education
15:57 The Role of AI in Minerva's Education Approach
19:32 The Challenges and Opportunities of AI in Education
31:18 Getting Started with AI in Education
32:55 The Speed of Learning Generative AI
34:41 The Power of AI in Education
36:14 The Limitations of AI as a Tutor
43:27 The Future of AI in Education
55:11 The Role of AI in Writing and Thinking
58:30 Wrap-up
01:01:30 Bloopers!
Links and further reading:
https://www.minervaproject.com
https://www.minerva.edu
https://www.minervaproject.com/integrating-ai-white-paper/
https://www.atypicalai.com/
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James Genone leads innovation at The Minerva Project. He joins us in our next episode to talk about Minerva University, his work with AI in education, and teaching today's students.
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If you have children (or have ever been a child yourself) you may have wondered whether education could be better.
A couple examples:
❌ Mistakes are when learning happens. Yet grades punish mistakes. 🤔
🤝 Situated and social learning experiences are extremely powerful and meaningful. Yet much of education is theoretical and individual. 🤔
So… why does much of our educational system work against what we know about learning? And could there be a better way? 🤔
Luckily for you, Ways We Learn is back with our latest episode: “Nerding Out on Education,” where we examine educational best- and worst-practices with @Dr. Michael Kolodziej. He’s the founder and Lead Nerd at @Instructional DesigNerd, Director of Educational Program Development for the @University of Phoenix, and a self-professed “smart kid who hated school.” Michael went from a childhood spent in the principal’s office for his mistakes to an adulthood spent in principals’ offices making education better!
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Yusuf Ahmed is a former MIT Media Lab researcher, and for education geeks like Sean, who taught kids to code, he was part of the group that invented both Scratch and LEGO Robotics. And if you're not an education geek, both of those platforms are used by millions of kids as accessible ways into computer science.
He was also part of the founding team of ALU, a pan African network of universities and bootcamps, and Yusuf is currently the VP of New Products at the Reinvention Lab at Teach for America, an accelerator where he supports the work of innovators, new school models, and startups. And so today we're going to get a retro on African Leadership University from Yusuf: the thesis behind it and how it grew from one campus to a huge presence across Africa.
Links and further reading:
https://www.yusufsa.com/
https://www.reinventionlab.org/learn
https://www.alueducation.com/
https://www.alxafrica.com/
ALU Science of Learning
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🧠 Students' brain waves synchronize with their teacher's when they're learning. 🧠
🤗 Feelings of belonging and connection are essential in a safe and productive classroom. For students who feel out of place, a 😊 from the teacher reads like a 😏 and can set off their fight or flight response!
Mark Williams, a neuroscientist, professor, and author of the just-published book “The Connected Species,” joins us to speak about these and other thoughts about human connection and its implications.
Links and further reading
Mark’s book: “The Connected Species”: https://rethinkingthebrain.com/books/
Website: http://www.drmarkwilliams.com
Brain wave synchrony study: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/sfufcjroisrmhg4xv1wnk/BRAIN-SYNCHRONY-WHILE-LEARNING.pdf?rlkey=6mprf90hiktw8fqaid83dygu8&dl=0
Online vs. paper learning: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kwoqyknwqll0gf87ui50y/journal.pone.0283863.pdf?rlkey=wnw1hi44o1e8vqg3feyrv36u1&dl=0
Rubber hand experiment: https://www.jove.com/v/50530/the-crossmodal-congruency-task-as-means-to-obtain-an-objective
Brian’s full-body haptic suit (which he may or may not have been wearing during our interview): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHl969qJS5c
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Did you know there’s a degree-granting university system for our armed services that’s separate from our traditional colleges and universities? Today we have the good fortune to learn about our military’s higher education system by speaking with a professor who teaches “lawfare,” or the use of law as a weapon, to our up-and-coming military leadership.
Dr. Jill Goldenziel is a professor at the National Defense University-College of Information and Cyberspace and a strategic advisor to business and government. At NDU-CIC, she teaches courses in International and Constitutional Law, Leadership, Strategy, Lawfare, and Information Warfare to senior civilian and military leaders from the United States and allied and partner nations. She is also an Affiliated Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fox Leadership International program and Penn’s Partnership for Innovation, Cross-Sector Collaboration, Leadership, and Organization. She is a Forbes.com contributor on National Security. She received the NATO SHAPE/ACO Legal Office's Serge Lazareff Prize for her work as a scholar-practitioner of legal operations (lawfare).
Jill's views expressed on Ways We Learn are her own. They do not represent the views of her university or any other part of the US government.
Links and further reading
Jill's Website: http://www.jillgoldenziel.com
Jill's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillgoldenziel/
Jill's Forbes Columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgoldenziel/
Jill's Research: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=409258
National Defense University-College of Information and Cyberspace: https://cic.ndu.edu/
Marine Corps University-Command and Staff College: https://www.usmcu.edu/Colleges-and-Schools/Command-and-Staff-College/Resident/About-CSC/
US Indo-Pacific Command's Counter-Lawfare Program: https://www.pacom.mil/Contact/Directory/J0/J06-Staff-Judge-Advocate/
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As an experienced mother of two young adults, Sue Groner knows how stressful and overwhelming parenting can be at times. She founded The Parenting Mentor to provide an ally for parents in their quest to raise confident and resilient children. In today’s Ways We Learn, Sue shares her approach to mentoring parents and some of her strategies for producing great kids.
Sue is the author of Parenting with Sanity and Joy: 101 Simple Strategies, the host of The Parenting Mentor Sessions Podcast, and a certified Positive Discipline parent educator. She is also the creator of the CLEARR™ method of parenting, developed through years of trial (and, as she says, her fair share of errors!) with her own family.
Links and further reading
Parenting with Sanity & Joy: 101 Simple Strategies (https://amzn.to/3M2DMMv)
The Parenting Mentor Sessions podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-parenting-mentor/id1556762961)
Sue is available for speaking engagements as well as for private and group mentorship sessions (in-person or virtual) nationwide for individuals and corporations. Visit her website (https://theparentingmentor.com) for more information.
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Caleb Hicks was the Co-Founder and President of Lambda School, where he designed and oversaw the entire academics process including admissions and student onboarding, learning experience design and delivery, as well as student services and community. In this retro he shares his learnings from building and running a well-known bootcamp.
Prior to Lambda School he was a Senior Manager of Instructional Design in the Worldwide Education Department at Apple, and he's now the Founder and CEO of SchoolAI (https://schoolai.com/), where he's building AI powered tools for schools such as a digital assistant called Coteacher that saves teachers 10 hours or more of planning time each week.
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In this episode we’re going to play. Or at least talk about play.
Play is usually not seen as serious work (it’d be called work if it was!), but today we’re speaking with someone about the importance of play in adult learning and work.
Mary Hendra is an executive leader and entrepreneur who brings curiosity, creativity, and compassion back into the workplace and into our spaces of adult learning. Redefining “play,” she engages equally with moments of serious reflection and playfully letting go of assumptions about ourselves and others. She embraces kinesthetic and visual processing along with the verbal. This creates space for teams and individuals to grow in curiosity and innovation, to open dialogue, and to turn vision into action.
When she’s not talking with us, Mary provides consulting to individuals and teams facing challenging transitions (https://maryhendra.com/), and hosts and produces the podcast Lead With a Dash of Play (https://maryhendra.com/podcast/). You can learn more about her on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/Mary-Hendra/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mkhendra/).
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Research has shown that most children who have ADHD have received more than 20,000 negative and corrective messages by the time they turn 10. “Try harder.” “Don’t be lazy.” As a child with not-yet-diagnosed ADHD, Dr. Kristen C. Eccleston heard these herself. After being underserved by traditional education, and after becoming a Special Education teacher, she built a alternative special education program where kids with ADHD and other neurodiversity could thrive.
Dr. Eccleston, also known as The NeuroDiverse Teacher, is an award-winning education consultant, keynote speaker, published author, and mental health thought leader currently living and working in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area. Her areas of focus as an education consultant are K-12 and corporate mental health and neurodiversity engagement. She has worked with thousands of students and families in addition to some of the major global management consulting firms. After more than 15 years in the school setting, Dr. Eccleston left classroom teaching to significantly amplify her impact on mental health and neurodiversity approaches in schools and workplace settings.
Links and further reading
Dr. Eccleston’s website: https://www.theneurodiverseteacher.com
Dr. Eccleston's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-eccleston-the-neurodiverse-teacher-keynote-speaker/
An ADHD Primer: https://www.nasponline.org/Documents/Resources%20and%20Publications/Handouts/Families%20and%20Educators/ADHD_a_Primer_For_Parents_and_Educators.pdf
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It's Autism Awareness Month. What better way to learn how to support autistic and neurodiverse people than to speak with someone from those communities?
Nate Shalev is a speaker, author, and inclusivity expert who helps to create workplaces where businesses and people thrive. Their expertise has been highlighted in the Harvard Business Review, NY Times, the Wall Street Journal and more. Nate earned a BA from Barnard College of Columbia University and an MA from New York University, and is the founder of Revel Impact, a consultancy that specializes in social impact and diversity, equity, & inclusion.
Nate is someone who has a compelling way of drawing on their personal life and experiences and using those to lead others by example. You should do yourself a favor after listening and check out Nate’s writing on LinkedIn (link is below) because it really will give you a view into their mind ... and give you some valuable information to put in yours.
Nate joined us to talk about building inclusive learning environments that benefit all learners, and we’ll look at that through a lens of autism. Let's go learn something!
Links and further reading
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nshalev/
https://revelimpact.com/inclusionroundtable
https://revelimpact.com
https://www.neurodiversityeducationacademy.org/_files/ugd/deee3c_cf0609c22b5349148ce0c6db87b05271.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Disabilities_Sunflower
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Motivation is a key predictor of student success in any type of class, but as the teacher/student ratio increases motivation becomes even more of a requirement for success. MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) and other online learning experiences are perfect for examining student motivation and self-directed learning because of the low-touch nature of these courses. In this episode, Joe and Sean discuss the research paper "Fostering self-directed learning in MOOCs: Motivation, learning strategies, and instruction" by Meina Zhu, Curtis Bonk, and Sara Berri, which examines intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, self-directed learning, and the instructional elements that support them.
Links and further reading
Zhu, Meina, Curtis J. Bonk, and Sara Berri. “Fostering Self-Directed Learning in MOOCs: Motivation, Learning Strategies, and Instruction.” Online Learning 26, no. 1 (March 1, 2022). https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v26i1.2629.
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Societies of our past were frightened by creativity. Did they understand something we don't?
Today, creativity is prized in all fields. Education is no exception. Schools of all varieties, from Pre-K through adult learning, strive to produce creative thinkers, through exercises in divergent thinking and ideation or even through assessment of their volume of creative ideas. The revised edition of Bloom's Taxonomy lists "Create" as its highest order thinking skill, and teacher education promotes cultivating higher order thinking in students. Students with unique ideas are praised while those who recycle old ideas might even be punished.
Historically, however, creativity has been controversial. Creative writing like Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" brings joy to some but simultaneously creates controversy and even strife with others. Creative breakthroughs in science like Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity help us understand the world but can simultaneously teach us the tools of its destruction. Creative inventions like the automobile revolutionize transportation but simultaneously produce pollution that threatens our future.
In this episode, Sean and Brian talk with Dr. Michael Hanchett Hanson about the history of creativity, how it should and shouldn't be taught, and why, in his words, "creativity is a dangerous idea."
Michael Hanchett Hanson is a developmental psychologist; leader of the Participatory Creativity Lab (www.participatorycreativitylab.org), a founding board member and Secretary of the International Society for the Study of Creativity and Innovation (ISSCI); Director of the Masters Concentration in Creativity and Cognition at Teachers College, Columbia University; and President of Contexts R+D, a research and consulting practice.
He is one of the leading advocates for the participatory framework of creativity. Working with colleagues internationally, he has helped developed the framework, which emphasizes the diversity of roles people take up as participants in change and the limits of earlier views of creativity as decontextualized individualism. He has written on the history of the construct of creativity within psychology; the ideological uses of the construct; creative practices in the construction of the self, and the pros and cons of educators’ use of the idea of creativity.
Resources and links:
The Participatory Creativity Lab
Creativity and Improvised Educations: Case Studies for Understanding Impact and Implications
Worldmaking: Psychology and the Ideology of Creativity
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The educational term “transfer” refers to a scenario in which the learner is able to apply their learning in a novel context — for example, learning a geometry concept in class and then applying it in a construction project. Transfer is a highly sought-after outcome in many schools and adult learning scenarios, and yet the conditions that make transfer possible are not always present. In this episode, Sean, Joe, and Brian discuss Elizabeth Roumell’s research paper “Priming Adult Learners for Learning Transfer: Beyond Content and Delivery,” which discusses “three practices to support mindful learning transfer” as well as the distinction between information transfer and transformative learning.
Links and further reading
Roumell, Elizabeth Anne. “Priming Adult Learners for Learning Transfer: Beyond Content and Delivery.” Adult Learning 30, no. 1 (February 1, 2019): 15–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/1045159518791281.
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We’ve got another fascinating guest for you today! Garrett Smiley is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sora Schools, an online accredited private school whose aim is to disrupt traditional education by creating student agency and deeply meaningful learning experiences. Garrett has a really interesting educational philosophy and approach to classroom learning and is someone we can all learn from.
Links and further reading
Sora Schools: https://soraschools.com/
Garrett’s EdTechDigest article on ChatGPT: https://www.edtechdigest.com/2022/12/20/every-student-is-cheating-with-chatgpt-and-thats-a-good-thing/
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Today we’re lucky to have Darrell Silver, a founder of the very successful online school Thinkful, who gives us a retro of an ed tech startup from launch through its growth through its very successful acquisition. It’s a rare inside look at what worked and what didn’t as a educational startup grew, and a valuable conversation about building an educational organization.
Links and further reading
- About Thinkful: https://www.thinkful.com/how-we-work/
- Crunchbase article on Thinkful’s acquisition: https://news.crunchbase.com/business/in-its-largest-deal-yet-chegg-acquires-online-coding-school-thinkful-for-80m/
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Storytelling is perhaps the oldest art form, dating back to prehistoric times and likely as far back as the beginning of speech, and has long been a way that people pass on morals and lessons down through the generations. Which is to say, passing on learning.
Come learn about storytelling from master storyteller Rebecca Sheir, host of the wildly popular storytelling podcast Circle Round and a new book called The Great Ballgame. We’ll talk about why storytelling is such an effective learning experience, how stories transcend cultural boundaries, and what Rebecca has learned from telling stories.
Links and further reading
Circle Round: https://www.wbur.org/podcasts/circleround
The Great Ballgame: https://www.storey.com/books/the-great-ball-game/
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Does cheating matter? Of course it does. But with the assistance of AI tools like ChatGPT, humans can now supplement their own ability to think and write by having a computer think and write for them. Is this good for humanity? How should the educational world adapt? Come learn with Sean, Joe, and Brian about ChatGPT, its implications for education and intellectual growth, and ways it can be meaningfully applied in learning and in life.
Links and further reading
ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/
What people are saying about ChatGPT:
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dagonyclark_chatgpt-experiments-activity-7005963281668399106-OZCy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dagonyclark_artificialintelligence-future-activity-7006698632687067136-PHZx?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/12/26/upshot/chatgpt-child-essays.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/21/technology/ai-chatgpt-google-search.html
- https://www.businessinsider.com/google-management-issues-code-red-over-chatgpt-report-2022-12
- https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/chatgpt-is-a-new-ai-chatbot-that-can-answer-questions-and-write-essays.html
Lensa (AI illustration app): https://time.com/6240648/lensa-ai-psychology-behind/
A few of Sean’s Lensa avatars: https://photos.app.goo.gl/YPfNS3WDeRMDzX6Z7
DALL-E (AI image generator): https://labs.openai.com/
And seems like it’s a good thing we didn’t let DALL-E make our cover art: https://labs.openai.com/s/DRZVLx1B4TyPaG6TJrdhbo2Q
And finally, here’s ChatGPT’s synopsis of our episode based on its transcription. Kinda like we were saying: solid B work.
We started by talking about how AI can be used to assess students' understanding and knowledge. We discussed the importance of both high level and low level understanding, and how chat GPT can be used to test for understanding without requiring writing ability. However, we also acknowledged that writing is a way to express and confront one's understanding, and that being able to both understand and express ideas is important. We also talked about the challenges of using chat GPT and AI in education, such as the possibility of cheating and the need to change the way we assess students' knowledge. We also touched on the importance of coherent thought and the decline of writing skills in students. Finally, we discussed the potential of using chat GPT and AI as a tool for dialectical thinking and the Socratic method, as well as the importance of considering how AI is used and the potential for extension versus replacement of human thinking.
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Welcome to “Ways We Learn”! This podcast will be an investigation of the ways people learn across all modalities: through storytelling, through experience, or through games; learning techniques like spaced-repetition; educational technology and computer-assisted learning; learning at scale; adult and career-change education; effective classroom practices and traditional learning approaches; intentionally non-technical educational approaches; educational research and theory; and much more. This episode kicks things off with our thoughts on what we want to examine and gives a little of our backgrounds.
Links and further reading
LinkedIn bios:
- Sean: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dagonyclark/
- Joe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmburges/
- Brian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-tobal-a4946911/
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