LearningDust: Recent Episodes
Dave Leonard
LearningDust aims to promote harmonious relationships between teachers, technicians and leadership teams in schools. Each episode examines a theme through the eyes of people who perform these roles in schools. Our motto - pedagogy and technology in harmony - refers to the aspiration that teachers and 'techies' can work with, rather than against each other.
@JoseFlorido from @Freepik joins us to discuss his career in UX design and the importance of parental involvement in children’s education. He shares the benefit of his experience working for @Facebook, @Google & @Spotify and tells us about his work creating beautiful presentations for educators using @slidesgo
William Lau, Assistant Head and Learning Tech Lead at Great Ormond Street Hospital talks about the similarities and differences between mainstream and hospital education, he also extols the virtues of giving admin rights to all staff!
Robert Elworthy, Senior Solutions Engineer at Malwarebytes shares his experience working as a teacher and IT Director as well as for one of the biggest cyber security companies on the planet. The episode is notable for Dave & Andy being nice to each other as well as Robert placing himself in both the Hall of Fame and the Cupboard of Shame.
Gemma Drinkall, creator of Teachers With Boundaries and HeadSphere joins us to discuss the dangers of being a "yes" person, how being a teacher can become all-encompassing, and how doing your best doesn't have to mean doing it all.
The wonderful Laura McInerney, founder of Teacher Tapp joins us to explain how research helps to develop policy, perceptions and products. We discuss the development of the app over time and Andy realises that he is getting old.
At the end of the academic year we were joined by Tara Durham, Learning Resource Manager (EdTech) at Shipley College, the smallest college in the UK. Tara shares her, and the college's, edtech journey, talks about the rate of change in that journey and underlines the importance of the partnership between leaders and technologists.
In our first ever LearningDust road trip we visit UA92, via the Death Star, to speak to Aaron Saxton, Director of Disruptive Learning. Sax tells us about the opportunities they provide for the region's young people to gain experience working with multinational tech companies; and how he is much faster than Andy at running!
Phil Bagge, Computing Inspector / Advisor stars in the latest episode of LearningDust. He talks with Dave and Andy about how PRIMM works really well in KS2/3 in different programming languages whilst completely forgetting to promote Phil's new set of KS2 curricula books, details of which can be found at https://code-it.co.uk/
James Griffiths, ex-military and GCHQ IT and information security expert joins us to discuss what schools can do to keep their systems, staff and data safe. We also ask James what teachers need to be aware of to support themselves and their students and what to do if your school is hacked.
We are delighted to be joined by Dan Fitzpatrick, educator, Edufuturist, expert in the use of AI in education, and soon to be best selling author. Dan tells us about the power of ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies and their potential to give us back the most precious resource - time.
After a not so brief hiatus, LearningDust is back for season four. Join Dave and Andy to hear about what has been going on at LD Towers, and to learn more about what you can expect for the new season.
David is a passionate and talented educator and self confessed pedagogy nerd. He joins us to take us through his progression in education and speaks with relish about his new role with Replit who aim to bring the next billion software developers online.
*Replit's EdFest is over for 2022, but the recordings of keynotes and amazing sessions (including one by our very own Andy Colley) are available on their YouTube playlist.
Louise Campton is a careers adviser and entrepreneur, an unusual mix to say the least, but she has taken the lemons that life threw at her and made lemonade in the form of Primary Goals, a company providing digital apprentices with opportunities to develop their schools’ use of edtech in the classroom.
Anna & Harry Wake share their remarkable tale of how at 15 years old they created Mission Encodeable, a website designed to teach people to code. They discuss the benefits of brand guidelines and even manage to dissuade Andy from joining TikTok!
CEO of Heart Academies Trust David Morris shares his experience of joining a Trust lacking in trust and how his military background helped him to break down barriers and develop the culture of his schools.
Concord College IT Manager Ian Stockbridge shares the benefit of his expertise and experience in cyber-security, bemoans the lack of SLA’s in education and champions the importance of making connections with human beings.
Concord College IT Manager Ian Stockbridge shares the benefit of his expertise and experience in cyber-security, bemoans the lack of SLA’s in education and champions the importance of making connections with human beings.
We are delighted to be joined by Michael Bodekaer, CEO of $100 million edtech company Labster. Michael discusses how his product can benefit teachers and students, the implications of the Metaverse on education and how failure can be productive.
Ryan shares his experiences of moving from the classroom to learning tech company @aspire2be. He also shares details of his Google Innovator project, @IncludEduOnline which provides a framework of tools for supporting learners' needs when using technology.
Simon Antwis, a consultant for STEER education explains how a student voice tool has transformed his schools’ approach to student wellbeing. He also discusses the results of a recent survey focusing on the mental health of young people.
We are thrilled to be joined by Google’s Clay Smith, who talks with us about his journey from talent agent through computing teacher, coding superstar and breaker of things, to Solutions Engineer for Google.
Andy Murden, Head of Learning and Development at Go Live Services joins us in this episode to discuss his career progression through teaching to his current role delivering a course for EdTech Leaders. He also discusses the importance of coaching in schools and how the coaching model is used in his course.
LearningDust kicks off the new year with a look at how we can support learners from both a curriculum and digital wellbeing perspective through the use of edtech. The expertise is provided by Sky Caves, Senior Learning Technologist at BCOT.
LearningDust draws 2021 to a close with a guest who was so good that we recorded him twice. Simon joins us to talk about innovation, how to visit BETT effectively, and the benefits of public speaking for both the individual and the school.
In this episode we hear from marketing guru, parent governor, vice-chair of NAACE and erstwhile ice-cream salesman Ed about the importance of relationships, digital strategies and how to be a better buyer.
Alan fulfils his lifelong ambition in appearing on a podcast that he describes as “not terrible”. In the episode we discuss the usual wide range of topics, introduce our first listener giveaway and exclusively reveal the winners of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
LearningDust is back for season three and for our first episode we are joined by James Garnett of United Learning. James talks about the importance of strategic thinking, how to translate between network managers and senior leaders and much more.
Jonathan’s company HeadteacherChat provides information and support for school leaders across the UK and now he is sharing his experience and insight with LearningDust listeners. Join us to learn about support models, using tech to improve staff wellbeing and whether there is a place for technical staff on a school’s leadership team.
Managing editor of CogSciSci and author of Middle Leadership Mastery, Adam Robbins joins us to talk about how we can use cognitive science to empathise with our colleagues, the curse of knowledge, and much more that your brain probably doesn't have room for after reading this far!
Headlining LearningDust Series 2 is Ark’s director of Strategy, Lauren Thorpe. Lauren talks about her delight in solving problems, how MAT’s determine whether centralisation or personalisation is best for their schools, and how to oil the wheels of a large organisation.
Tom shares his experience as a teacher, school leader and erstwhile network manager and reflects upon the challenges of maintaining a modern school IT infrastructure, the benefits of AI and automated feedback tools, and the importance of a real world audience for student work.
We are thrilled to be joined by Tristan Kirkpatrick who digs deep into forming relationships, the power (or otherwise) of edtech tools and the joy to be had with oversized mini-whiteboards.
We are delighted to be joined by the wonderful Gemma Gwilliam; teacher, leader and educational technologist. Gemma demonstrates the importance of being part of a team who can call upon each other for support; communicating in ways that we can all understand, and team building on buses with no sides.
Neelam joins us to talk about the importance of digital strategy, ensuring that technology supports the needs of teachers, and the lessons that UK schools can learn from international schools, and vice versa. She also reflects on the benefit of introducing digital KPI’s to schools.
We are delighted to be joined by headteacher, author and football scout Phil Denton. We discuss the similarities and differences of the cultures in his spheres of operation and look at the lessons that can be learned from them.
Dom has worked in a number of roles in his time in education and he shares with us his insights into what makes a successful team. He also suggests a new potential official beer sponsor for the show, although we haven’t given up on the other two yet!
MFL EdTech legend and curator of the #MFLtwitterati Joe Dale joins us to share his extensive experience in sharing the best voices, practices and technologies in language teaching.
Seth shares his experience of launching the Outward Mindset programme at Witton Park Academy and brings along the MD of Arbinger Institute UK, Alec Grimsley to help explain the benefits of the scheme and the ways that it can help staff build better working relationships.
In this episode we are joined by Jamie Portman, Executive Head at XP East in Doncaster. Jamie shares with us his experiences in setting up a new school and the unique way in which staff and students at XP forge relationships.
José brings a touch of class to LearningDust, sharing his experience as a user of tech, a school leader and a linguist. The discussion covers topics as diverse as one to one device schemes, etymology and pancakes. His calm, considered conversation was a joy to experience; we hope that you enjoy it as much as we did.
We are delighted to be joined on this episode of LearningDust by EdTech stalwart and thoroughly nice guy, Paddy McGrath. Paddy discusses the important role that technology plays in improving accessibility to learning for all students and shares stories and experiences from his distinguished career at TextHelp.
Andrew sits astride all three of the LearningDust core groups. He talks with ease about teaching, supporting and leading IT in schools and academies and shares some of the secrets of his success.
Professor Steve Peters’ book The Chimp Paradox offers a model of understanding our psychological make up. Tim and Adam join us to share their work with Steve’s company, Chimp Management and help us to understand how to tame our inner chimp. Featuring a guest appearance from King Terence III.
Laura joins us to talk about thinking skills, PHSE, digital wisdom and empowering young people to understand how to use digital media safely and effectively. She is pursuing a PhD investigating how combining tech and reflection can inform teachers.
We are thrilled to be joined by the wearer of many hats and voice of reason, Al Kingsley. Al shares his considerable experience in many areas of education and discusses the importance of digital strategies, apprenticeships and his “zen approach to life”.
LearningDust heads East to the UAE for this episode where we are joined by Olly Lewis. Olly shares his thoughts and experiences on education in the UK and abroad and flips the tables on the LearningDust team by firing questions back at Dave!
We are thrilled to be joined by stalwart of the C-Learning Virtual Staffroom, champion of tech in the maths classroom and recent #VIA20 graduate SJ White. In this episode we discuss maths, engagement with adult learners and how to integrate tech into lessons. There's even a rare performance of Andy's charts and graphs song!
Damian shares his vast experience of working with leaders in the arenas of sport, business and education. He discusses how the culture of an organisation is intrinsically linked to outcomes, and provides anecdotes from sporting greats to illustrate his points. Don't miss this one if you are a sports fan, but don't be put off if you aren't; Damian's experiences are fascinating for all.
Cat Lamin joins us to talk about the importance of looking after our mental health and that of our colleagues and loved ones. She shares valuable strategies including yoga, meditation and running away from zombies!
We are joined by the ICT Evangelist himself - Mark Anderson to discuss the tyranny of shiny things, how to get the most out of staff working at all levels of an organisation and one or two shouts out to colleagues who have helped Mark on his journey to EdTech stardom.
Season Two of LearningDust kicks off with a bang as we are joined by teacher, tech coach, host of the Educational Duct Tape podcast and all round legend of EdTech - Jake Miller.
As we reach the end of Season 1 of LearningDust, we are joined by Dan and Ben from the Edufuturists to help us decide which of our listeners choices will be granted entry to the Cupboard of Shame. Listen in to hear made up words and dodgy festival references. It's not like you've got anything else to do this summer...
Miles brings a unique perspective to this episode as he has worked as teacher, techie and school leader. His current role at Roehampton University allows him to impart his considerable knowledge to his students, some of whom just happen to be the next generation of Computer Science teachers. When you couple this with Miles’ well respected work for a plethora of computing organisations, you can see why we were so pleased that he agreed to speak with us.
For the first time LearningDust features a double bill of top educators. Zaitoon Bukhari and Dan Manley work together at Witton Park Academy in Blackburn. Zaitoon teaches science and is the whole school EdTech teaching and learning lead, while Dan is the Network Manager and heads up the Inclusive Digital Services team. Together they have created a culture of growth at Witton Park which has benefitted staff and students. We talk to them about their career paths, hopes for the future and how they work together.
In this episode we investigate some of the challenges that support staff encounter in schools, discuss the merits of mobile phones in the classroom and get into deep philosophical debates with Mariana Martins.
Mariana is a former teacher and deputy headteacher who now works as a librarian at a school in South London.
We are thrilled to be joined on this episode by the co-owner and Executive Chairman of C-Learning, Jamie Smith. Jamie joins us to share his thoughts on the skills required by school leavers to succeed in employment. His calm, thoughtful and insightful comments are a must listen for anyone involved in shaping the lives of young people, or anyone who wants to build harmonious relationships with other human beings.
Emma's experience of teaching in a hybrid school has given her a great insight of how to engage with students working remotely. She has been in great demand recently as teachers around the world try to get to grips with having to work in this way.
Emma shares her views on what makes a great remote lesson and explains how teachers, techies and school leaders work together to deliver high quality education from afar.
David is one of the great thinkers in our education community. He has travelled the world advising schools and organisations about some of the biggest challenges that we face as a society. His first book, the Amazon best seller OPEN: How We'll Work, Live and Learn In The Future is regularly cited as one of the must read educational texts.
In this episode David joins us to talk about his follow up to Open, We’ll Figure It Out: Mass Ingenuity & The Power Of Us which is due to be published in Autumn 2020. He shares with us some of the stories and characters that feature in the new book, and we chat about how education has been forever changed by the outbreak of COVID-19.
Scott joins us to talk about how he manages to speak the language of teacher, techie, SLT and apprentice as effortlessly as if he had one of Douglas Adam's tiny fish implanted in his ear. His empathy and self-awareness make for fascinating listening.
We've gone global for episode two of LearningDust! Georgina Dean has worked in schools in five countries and is currently working as an Education Technology Consultant in Amman, Jordan. In this episode Georgina shares her perspective on how teachers, techies and school leaders work together around the world and offers us hope with her suggestions for the Hall of Fame and Cupboard of Shame.
Join Dave & Andy for a special bonus episode as they discuss how working from home as a result of a global pandemic is affecting them as teachers, techies and parents. There's also a special guest appearance from Andy's ONLY son...
Ben joins us to talk about his experiences working in education and we discuss what it means to be a part of the Edufuturist movement; the barriers that we face when attempting to implement technology in schools and colleges; and how teachers and techies can support each other in their attempts to be innovative. We also find out what Ben has added to the LearningDust Hall of Fame and which products he consigns to the Cupboard of Shame.
LearningDust aims to promote harmonious relationships between teachers, technicians and leadership teams. In this special preview episode Dave & Andy introduce what to expect from future episodes and place the first products into the Hall of Fame and the Cupboard of Shame.