Learning Futures

Hosts Clarin Collins and Sean Leahy talk with Jill Koyama and Daniel Liou about the continuing disparities that are present in education. Starting out on a global level, our guests react to the UNESCO report on reimagining the future of education, talking about the importance of recognizing and building curriculums that represent the diversity of the current student and teacher population. They invite us to think about a more humanistic approach to teaching and learning and to reimagine what schools will look like in the future.

You can learn more about our guest´s work by visiting the following links: Jill Koyama, and Daniel Liou. Daniel’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/liou_daniel

• UNESCO Report 
• GLSEN LGBT+ organization

The Learning Futures Podcast is produced at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Executive Producer is Dr. Sean Leahy, the show is produced by Dr. Clarin Collins and Karina Muñoz Baltazar.

Iveta Silova leads a roundtable conversation with international doctoral scholars Prince Kwarase, Esther Pretti, and Shagun Singha about the most recent UNESCO education report. The report outlines goals intended to create a new social contract for education, fueling the discussion on whether these goals are sufficient for our new post-pandemic world. In thinking towards the future, the guests discuss what topics they anticipate being in the next UNESCO report on education and how it could be approached.

Link to UNESCO report Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education

More Responses to UNESCO’s Report

(6:52) - Discussion on whether or not the ideas proposed in the UNESCO report are realistic or not enough.

(13:32) - Details on the backgrounds of the guests and how they relate to the report.

(24:20) -The last couple of years have been very challenging for everyone, how has that impacted your perspectives as new academics?

(35:53) - By 2050 these new academics are on-track to write the next UNESCO report; therefore, what would be the themes and how would it be approached? 

(40:36) - Closing comments

About our guests:

• Iveta Silova  | ASU Bio
• Prince Kwarase
• Esther Pretti
• Shagun Singha 

The Learning Futures Podcast is produced at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. The Executive Producer is Dr. Sean Leahy, the show is produced by Dr. Clarin Collins and Karina Muñoz Baltazar, with technical production provided by Jacob Snider.

Hosts Clarin Collins and Sean Leahy talk with Leigh Wolf and Audrey Watters about the futures of educational technology, how we have come into an era where technologies are present in almost all classrooms and how that has changed teaching and learning in significant ways. Our guests chat about how we could create a more humanistic approach to existing and emerging EdTech, and how EdTech can become a roadblock for teachers. Our panelist help us unpack what EdTech really means, and define it in a broader sense than a “computerized” or “digital” tool only. They invite us to think critically about what EdTech could be in the future and how to help it become more equitable and accessible.

About our guests:

• Audrey Watters | Blog | Hack Education
• Audrey's new book: Teaching Machines - The History of Personalized Learning available via MIT Press
• Dr. Leigh Wolf | ASU Bio

The Learning Futures Podcast is produced at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. The Executive Producer is Dr. Sean Leahy, the show is produced by Dr. Clarin Collins and Karina Muñoz Baltazar, with technical production provided by Jacob Snider.

Ben Scragg from eFuse joins host Sean Leahy to talk about the ins and outs of ESports - and the connection to education and learning. Ben and Sean explore some of the emergent ways in which Esports are becoming more mainstream and what opportunities that might hold for future generations of educators and young people.

• History and background of startup company eFuse 
• Building a role around education and learning in an esports company 
• State of eSports and online gaming
• Gaming leading to educational opportunities
• Role of eSports on literacies in educational systems 
• Academic and scholarship opportunities
• Statistics of eSports and growth market 
•  eSports market revenue worldwide (2019 to 2024)
• How young people can find eSport teams and sponsorships 
• Leading eSports games worldwide ($$$ 2021)
• Possible, preferable, and plausible futures of eSports 
• eSport audience will pass 500M in 2022

About our Guests: 

• Dr. Ben Scragg - Director of Education & Learning for eFuse
• eFuse - https://efuse.gg

The Learning Futures Podcast is produced at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. The Executive Producer is Dr. Sean Leahy, the show is produced by Dr. Clarin Collins and Karina Muñoz Baltazar, with technical production provided by Jacob Snider.

Tammy Reithmann and Erika Flores join our hosts Drs. Clarin Collins and Sean Leahy to discuss the state of preparing educators in Arizona and how the pandemic has provided new opportunities and challenges. Although an undisputed tragedy, COVID-19 had some unlikely positive effects on the education system, such as bringing teachers together as a team and demonstrating the resilience of their students. As the state of the world slowly returns to a new “normal”, the discussion turns to how we can retain and build off of these positive changes to bring educators across Arizona (and by extension the others) together into a better system. 

(3:22) -Tammy & Erika explain their roles with the teacher candidates and school districts of AZ. 

(5:13) - Were there any bright spots that we learned from the pandemic’s effect on education?

(7:54) - Have any of the pandemic-related changes been retained as we adjust back to normal?

(10:08) - How do you keep teacher candidates inspired/do they need to be inspired to begin with? 

(15:00) - During the pandemic, families had to become more involved with their children’s education – is that trend being sustained?

(16:24) - What can we do to make the environment around educators and teacher candidates better?

(20:49) - What are some of the challenges or opportunities in creating this next generation of educators?

(23:50) - What are the perceived and received reactions towards approaching teaching as a team effort?

(30:11) - How does a rural education district prepare for uncertainty vs. how does an urban district prepare?

(37:48) - How do we address the gap between the rural and non-rural communities to prevent it from getting wider?

(41:23) - What does the desired picture of education look like 30 years into the future?

(43:57) - Guests’ plugs and websites

About our guests: 

• Tammy Reithmann
• Erika Flores

The Learning Futures Podcast is produced at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. The Executive Producer is Dr. Sean Leahy, the show is produced by Dr. Clarin Collins and Karina Muñoz Baltazar, with technical production provided by Jacob Snider.

Clarin Collins, Sean Leahy, Robin Lake, and Brent Maddin come together to discuss the current landscape of challenges facing public education. The worldwide pandemic opened many eyes to the current struggles teachers face and encouraged many institutions to change their education models, one such example being the NEXT Education Workforce. Through discussion we are guided along the possibilities of where public education can lead, as well as the current challenges that many school districts are facing. 

In this episode you can learn about the work that is being done through the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and the Next Education Workforce, as well as the Center on Reinventing Public Education. 

(3:15) - Brent Maddin talks about his role and explains the mission and work of the NEXT Education workforce. 

(5:38) - Robin talks about the Center on Reinventing Public Education and how the Center became affiliated with ASU and MLFTC

(8:54) - The panel explores the new opportunities stemming from the partnership between MLFTC & CRPE.

(15:25) - We discuss the seriousness of the current challenges facing the public education system

(21:32) - We discuss how the pandemic affected school districts’ attitude towards working with the NEXT Education workforce?

(27:00) - The panel discusses the optimistic opportunities for positive change in the education structure

(32:50) - Futures projection - we get Brent and Robin’s take on where they see public education going in the next 30 years

(37:40) - We ask the question “How would someone from 30 years in the past react to our current education situation?”

(41:35) - Pushing the boundaries - we ask our guests “Where do you see public education going in the next 100 years?”

(48:00) - We get some great ideas on resources and other elements of our guests work at NEW and CRPE (links below in the show notes)

About our Guests: 

• Brent Maddin | Next Education Workforce | @bmaddin 
• Robin Lake | Center on Reinventing Public Education | @RbnLake
• CRPE’s Pandemic Learning Report
• Pandemic Pods & Crisis Learning

The Learning Futures Podcast is produced at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. The Executive Producer is Dr. Sean Leahy, the show is produced by Dr. Clarin Collins and Karina Muñoz Baltazar, with technical production provided by Jacob Snider.

Clarin Collins, Sean Leahy, Ruth Wylie, Danah Henriksen, and Maricel Lawrence discuss Futures Thinking and how that may look throughout our working spaces and how it affects the decisions we make regarding education. Our guests engage in a round table discussion on how we might look at our futures, the different categories of futures that exist and many more interesting points. 

(6:40)- What is Futures Thinking (FT)? What do we mean when we say that? 

(14:19)- Maricel´s choice of ASU´s PhD program, why did she choose it? Imagining new universities. 

(20:17)- Defining the different possible ¨futures¨.

(25:00)- Categorizing the different kinds of futures.  

(26:46) & (50:58) -How to get people thinking about Futures Thinking. How to create a ¨Futures Mindset¨?

(33:07)- Futures Thinking as a method to spark creativity in people. 

(41:29)- What is the role of Futures Thinking in the education system?

(53:28)- Uncertainty and its relation to Futures Thinking.

You can learn more about our guest´s work by visiting the following links: Ruth Wylie, Danah Henriksen, and Maricel Lawrence. 

If you are in the DC area, you can checkout the Smithsonian exhibit mentioned by Ruth: Smithsonian Institute Futures exhibition. 

The Learning Futures Podcast is produced at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Executive Producer is Dr. Sean Leahy, the show is produced by Dr. Clarin Collins and Karina Muñoz Baltazar.

This bonus episode is all about the ShapingEDU Global Virtual Summer Camp - that invites changemakers from around the world to convene for an experimental fusion of hands-on learning, storytelling, tech hacks and the good kind of shenanigans!

Sean, Stephanie, and Ruben chat about the origins of the ShapingEDU community and the history that brought about this innovative and forward focused organization. 

We explore this new virtual free event in detail and encourage people to sign up or access the resources after the fact, if you are not able to attend, or learn about this event after it has taken place. To learn more about this event (and to participate if you read this prior to June 21-23, 2022) Check out the event site: ShapingEDU Global Virtual Summer Camp. 

Ruben gives us a sneak peek into his keynote address where he explores the power of using Science Fiction as a metaphor to critically explore new and emergent technologies.

Some useful links from this episode…

• ShapingEDU Global Virtual Summer Camp
• ShapingEDU (main site)
• ShapingEDU 5 Calls to Action  
• Serious Play Studio

Learn more about our guests:

• Dr. Ruben Puentedura: http://hippasus.com | @rubenrp 
• ShapingEDU LinkedIn
• ShapingEDU YouTube Channel 

The Learning Futures Podcast is produced at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Executive Producer is Dr. Sean Leahy, the show is produced by Dr. Clarin Collins, with technical production provided by Jacob Snider.

The Learning Futures Podcast is produced at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. The Executive Producer is Dr. Sean Leahy, the show is produced by Dr. Clarin Collins and Karina Muñoz Baltazar, with technical production provided by Jacob Snider.

Join Dr. Sean Leahy for this bonus episode of the Learning Futures podcast to discuss the BioSense Network, a newly funded research project aimed at establishing a community of learners exploring biotechnology with a computational microscope.

Sean interviews his colleagues about this innovative research grant in collaboration with the Arizona State University School of Molecular Sciences, the ASU Biodesign Institute, and the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at ASU. 

Panel members: 

• Host: Dr. Sean Leahy - twitter: @seanthenerd
• Dr. Abhishek Singharoy - twitter: @abhisekhsingha1
• Dr. Punya Mishra - twitter: @punyamishra
• Cassandra Kellaris  

Details (in case you want to jump right to the action): 

(04:30) - Sean and team discuss what BioSense actually is… 

(05:25) - bridging textbook biotechnology with reality - what does this mean?

(11:45) - combination of the biotechnology team and education, crucial to creating this new approach to biotechnology education. 

(18:35) - a network of educators, how will this work change the landscape of STEM education and STEM workforce development etc.?

(27:10) - use of high-powered computing to create zero-cost technology access to educators and students

(30:10) - conversation around the four identified “tangible” goals / outcomes of the project, namely: communicate, promote, inspire, and enhance…

(32:50) - educational modules for educators, what is entailed in the development and implementation of these modules? How this process differs from a traditional learning approach?

This project has been made possible by funding from the Department of Defense STEM program @DoDstem.

The Learning Futures Podcast is produced at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Executive Producers are Dr. Sean Leahy and Claire Gilbert. The show is produced by Dr. Clarin Collins and Karina Muñoz Baltazar.