Today, Tom interviews thought leader, author, and Apple Executive, John Couch. For 16 years, John served as Apple's Vice President of Education. He launched some great programs and saw a lot of cool stuff but was left a bit disappointed by the reductive and ineffective uses of technology.

In his new book, Rewiring Education, he urges a full rewiring of education. It is a call-to-action to parents and teachers to help them realize that the technology that's now in place can empower both teachers and the students if deployed correctly. He believes the classroom needs to be completely rewired to become more relevant, creative, collaborative, and challenging.

In this conversation with Tom, John explains what makes him enthusiastic about project-based learning and the future of learning technology, why design is such an important concept, what challenge-based learning is and why it is also important, and his take on technology today and how it can best be used in schools. John also talks about some of the key points from his book, Rewiring Education, how teaching is all about helping students recognize their natural talents, and moving from being a conveyor of information to a facilitator of information.

Key Takeaways:

[:20] About some upcoming changes to the Getting Smart podcast in the next couple of weeks.

[1:05] About this week's guest, John Couch.

[1:41] How John originally got interested in computers.

[4:07] What was the impetus behind John's most recent book, Rewiring Education?

[6:03] John explains the title of his book, Rewiring Education.

[7:04] Why design is an important concept.

[9:58] About the chart in chapter 5 that illustrates the difference between education and learning, and where to find John's other charts and slides for Rewiring Education.

[11:34] John describes what challenge-based learning is, gives some examples, and explains why it's so important.

[16:50] About the great team of people John has worked with.

[17:47] John's take on coding.

[19:55] What's the new role of the teacher John described in his book.

[21:57] John talks about how teaching is helping students recognize their natural talents and moving from being a conveyor of information to a facilitator of information.

[23:50] John's current take on technology and how it can best be used in schools today.

[26:18] John answers Tom's lightning round questions about new technology!

[32:57] Where to find John and his work online.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student's Potential, by John Couch and Jason Towne

Compiler Construction: Theory and Practice, by John Couch and William A. Barrett

RewiringEducation.com

DigitalPromise.org

CBL.DigitalPromise.org

For More on Design Thinking:

Listen to Getting Smart's episode: What's Up With All the Designed-Focused Schools?

Get Involved:

Check out the blog at GettingSmart.com.

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