Today we talk with Patrick Vennebush, Chief Learning Officer at The Math Learning Center. The Math Learning Center is a nonprofit organization serving the education community, with a mission to inspire and enable learners to develop their mathematical confidence. For over forty years, the Math Learning Center has been providing innovative and standards-based tools and resources, including the comprehensive Bridges in Mathematics PK–5 curriculum. With this rich heritage in mind, Patrick explains what he considers to be effective math instruction, how Math Learning Center adapted their resources for the pandemic, and how he envisions math instruction evolving in the future.

Last time, we talked with Laylah Bulman, Business Program Manager for Minecraft: Education Edition and Founder of the Florida Scholastic Esports League. Laylah discussed the academic and social-emotional power of scholastic esports, how interested educators can become dynamic esports coaches, and the vital entrepreneurship skills students can learn while participating in the esports ecosystem. In this episode, Laylah continues to share her knowledge of scholastic esports, by revealing how schools can justify funding an esports team through the alignment of CTE pathways and how scholastic esports proved pandemic-proof, connecting kids so that they could compete and celebrate alongside their peers.

Today we talk with Laylah Bulman, Business Program Manager for Minecraft: Education Edition and Founder of the Florida Scholastic Esports League. Laylah is considered a global expert in immersive, game-based STEM education and scholastic esports for K12 and higher ed, and has been an avid gamer ever since her father brought home an Atari 64-bit gaming console when she was a little girl. Laylah covers a number of esports topics, from how scholastic esports affects the academic and social-emotional well-being of students to how the esports ecosystem boosts vital entrepreneurship skills.

We continue our fascinating conversation with Suzie Boss, National Faculty emeritus for PBLWorks. PBL Works has adapted nearly all of their services to work within an online context because of the pandemic. And while some educators may be unsure if their projects will meet learning objectives, Suzie assures that the essence of project based learning remains intact when taken online. Suzie also shares some powerful examples of remote PBL, and how they connect the learning experience with real-world relevance.

Clarity Innovations Learning Experience Designer Stefanie Hausman talks with Suzie Boss. A long-term member of the PBL Works National faculty, Suzie works with teachers from all over the world who are shifting to project based learning as a way of engaging students with authentic learning experiences. Suzie shares how teachers have shifted their practices with online and hybrid learning, and are utilizing project based learning approaches to create experiences that are more connected, more relevant, and more urgent.

The pandemic has completely disrupted the ed-tech industry’s usually packed schedule of face-to-face conferences. Today we talk with Irene Spero; CEO of Next Chapter Consulting. Irene recently conducted a survey of companies and associations called The Virtual World of Conferences to capture the changes taking place due to the pandemic, and the impact they are having on the industry. The responses map out the challenges, practical realties, solutions, and even opportunities that virtual conferences pose. Hear Irene explain how conferences may be handled, not only into next year, but for the foreseeable future.

Across the country, millions of students and teachers have gone back to school. Well…sort of. It’s an incredible and challenging time, with remote learning becoming the only feasible means in many schools and districts for keeping learning alive. We talked with five members of Clarity Innovations—all current or former teachers—about what they’ve seen work well and not-so well in terms of remote learning this fall.

Last episode, we talked with Mark Finstrom, CTO for Washington State’s Highline School District. He shared his school district’s amazing efforts in the realm of preventing student self-harm utilizing technology. Today, we’ll hear more from Mark as he explains the process behind the technology. After all, technology is useless if there isn’t a strategy and structure behind it. Discover how Mark and Highline School District realized that the way that people work together is critical for success with any student safety applications.

Mark Finstrom is CTO for Washington State’s Highline School District. He shares his school district’s amazing efforts in the realm of preventing student self-harm. Using technology and a carefully considered process of district-wide inclusion, Mark estimates that— in the past six years —he’s had over two dozen conversations with parents saying, “Your child is just about ready to harm themselves.” Hear how Mark and Highline School District are literally saving lives with technology.