Matt and Courtney have TWO interviews today! First up, Brandon Goon is the CEO and Founder of Beanything.co, a project management tool for learners and teachers. He talks about the tool and what it means for education. Second, we have Brandt Redd, the creator of edmatrix.org, a potential standardization of education tech tools to make it more efficient for school districts to coordinate their tech purchases and make them work together! He also blogs at ofthat.com. You can follow them both on Twitter at @brandonisagoon and @BrandtRedd.  Follow us as always at everything PLearnMC wherever on social media.

Matt and Courtney talk with Dr. Derek Wenmoth, a keynote speaker at the 2019 Aurora Institute Symposium (formerly known as iNACOL).

Derek is currently a Principal Consultant at CORE Education, a not-for-profit education research and development organization that he co-founded with two colleagues in 2013, based in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

He has been a teacher, principal, teacher educator and policy advisor across all parts of the education system, from early childhood to tertiary. Derek is regarded as one of New Zealand education’s foremost future-focused thinkers, and is regularly asked to consult with school leaders, policymakers and government agencies regarding the future directions of New Zealand education. 

Derek has been at the forefront of much of the system level innovation in New Zealand over the past few decades, including setting up the Virtual Learning Network for students in rural and remote schools around the country, assisting with the establishment of new schools and pioneering work in the area of modern learning environments, establishing new models of practice-based initial teacher education and more recently, in pioneering thinking about learning ecologies involving the whole community in the education of our young people.

Derek is regularly invited to speak at conferences both nationally and internationally, and maintains a blog on matters relating to e-learning and other aspects of interest to educators. 

In recognition of his work in this area, Derek was designated one of the “Global Six” in 2008 by the George Lucas Educational Foundation that recognizes individuals making a difference in education.

You can find Dr. Wenmoth on Twitter @dwenmoth and his blog is at wenmoth.net.

Matt and Courtney talk to Wendy Surr and Krissy Zeiser about a study exploring the relationship between collaboration, personalization, and equity.

They had three questions they wanted to answer: 

• What are the relationships among opportunities for collaboration, classroom experiences, and outcomes, particularly for students who identify as Black?
• To what extent do students have opportunities to participate in high-quality collaborative learning experiences?
• What contextual, school-level factors do teachers identify as helping or hindering their ability to provide opportunities for high-quality collaboration in diverse, student-centered classrooms?
• 
  
• You can read the study here.

Matt and Courtney talk with five young learners at the Aurora Institute Symposium. There are lots of great lines in here from the learners about how they learn, how they want to learn, and what educators can do to help support them: mainly, let them take charge of their learning!

We talked with:

Aidyn Grice, Learner, Norris Academy (WI)

Matt and Courtney interview Dr. Patrick Hardy at the Aurora Institute Symposium 2019. He talks about how buy-in is something we shouldn't be waiting for anymore, how we can inspire teachers and learners in little ways - not necessarily all at once, and how we can challenge each other to get better at what we do. This was one of our favorite interviews!

Matt and Courtney traveled to California to manage the VoicesHub at the annual iNACOL Symposium, and not only did they come away with a month's worth of episodes, they changed the name of the symposium while they were there! iNACOL is now the Aurora Institute, and the energy out of this gathering was evident in the amazing interviews Matt and Courtney wrangled from the attendees. 

These interview episodes will be out every day Monday through Friday starting November 18. They are a collection of some of the leading minds in the personalized learning field, and we hope you will like listening to them as much as we had talking to them. Look for the pods in this feed, and check out the Aurora Institute Innovation Spotlight podcast, where Matt and Courtney host long-form interviews with the Aurora Institute's leaders.

Matt and Courtney return from their travel break to start off trimester two - what does critical thinking have to do with personalized learning? We also talk about the Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye, and THEME!! (A++++++++++ for Matt)

Courtney mentions the criticalthinking.org site, check it out!

Matt and Courtney return from a small break attending the Aurora Institute Symposium in California (more on that soon) to do a mailbag in between our trimester formats! Four listener questions are answered, with a learner-centered focus.

Matt and Courtney interview Jenni Donohoo, the author of Collective Efficacy: How Educators' Beliefs Impact Student Learning. She discusses what collective efficacy is, how it helps learners, and what you can do to start today.

Follow Jenni on Twitter at @Jenni_Donohoo and engage with her! Follow us @plearnmc everywhere, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and our website plearnmc.com. Got a question or comment? Ask it on our Parking Lot!

Matt and Courtney talk about the sixth and final enabling condition for collective efficacy - effective systems of intervention. What isn't it, what is it, how does it all work to make collective efficacy happen?