Teaching - Tom Vander Ark on agency, self-directed learning, and inspiration

Tom Vander Ark is a titan in the world of education technology. Few have experience as wide and deep as he.

His career journey ...

- Superintendent of Federal Way Public schools.

- Managed $3.5 billion dollars and one-on-one with Bill Gates as the Executive Director of Education for the Gates Foundation.

- President of X Prize, an organization that runs multimillion dollar contests for innovation in learning, exploration, energy & environment, global development, and life sciences.

- Director of INACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning.

- Partner at Learn Capital, an education VC firm that’s invested millions in companies like General Assembly, Edmodo, Minerva, AltSchool, Coursera, and Make School.

-Runs one of the most popular education blogs: Getting Smart [lesson]

Given his 360 view of education I wanted to get down to the basics. How to teach. How to engage students, how to motivate students, help them direct their own learning. We also cover the big picture on where innovation is happening in education, the biggest impact per dollar and how we as learners can benefit from all of this. It’s jam-packed. The episode is an index into many of Tom’s favorite education thought leaders, methods and students. That’s just the start!