When we talk about self-directed learning, we always talk about it in terms of educational experiences, how life learning can be very educationally enriching and how it prepares kids for the future. Is that really what is most important about self-directed education? Why do we feel the need to try to sell young people’s formative experiences as “academic” or “educational”? 

Ben Draper, a former MIT fellow and the founder/ executive director of the Macomber Center in Framingham, MA, a self-directed learning community for ages 5 to 18, believes that children who grow up with their basic needs being met will have the tools they need when they get older to figure out how to continue to create the kind of life they want to live. In this episode, Ben and I tried to come to the core of how self-directed learning unfolds today and the role digital technology plays in that delicate process.

For this episode, I had the honor to sit down with my long time hero Peter Gray, research professor at Boston College, famous for his studies of children’s play and self-directed learning.

What are the actual reasons why children and teens are so stressed out? By controlling their online lives, are we taking the last vestige of freedom that children and teens had? What is the tipping point theory of social change and when can we expect a wider acceptance of children’s ability to self-direct their learning and possibly less discrimination of youngsters as a minority? 

For this episode, I sat down with the digital freedoms nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). I hope you enjoy this conversation with Bill Budington, senior staff technologist on EFF's Public Interest Technology team and Jason Kelley, EFF’s associate director of digital strategy.

by Sophia Kornienko, journalist/ animation artist/ unschooling mom

Host: Sophia Kornienko, writer/ animation artist/ unschooling mom

Co-hosts: 

Martha Skinner, former professor of architecture, artist who works together with her daughter, now a young adult

Marta Obiols Llistar, unschooling mom of three, educator, author of the book 18, An Unschooling Experience

Resources:

Felix Marquardt, The New Nomads. How the Migration Revolution is Making the World a Better Place. Simon & Schuster UK, 2021

Cassidy George, The ancient origins of the new nomads, BBC, 21 August 2021

Aldous Huxley, Science, Liberty and Peace. T. and A. CONSTABLE LTD. Printers to the University of Edinburgh, 1950

Host: Sophia Kornienko, writer/ animation artist/ unschooling mom

Co-hosts: 

Martha Skinner, former professor of architecture, artist who works together with her daughter, now a young adult

Marta Obiols Llistar, unschooling mom of three, educator, author of the book 18, An Unschooling Experience

Guest Speaker:

Bovy Wongwattanakit, entrepreneur, educator, education solution developer, founder of Heyah Tribe 

Host: Sophia Kornienko, writer/ animation artist/ unschooling mom

Co-host: 

Marta Obiols Llistar, unschooling mom of three, educator, author of the book 18, An Unschooling Experience

Resources:

The Matt Walker Podcast https://www.sleepdiplomat.com/podcast

Matt Walker: Sleep | Lex Fridman Podcast #210 https://youtu.be/Hc4XvHTlW3s

Automated Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (AutoMEQ), New York State Psychiatric Institute

Juliann Garey, Teens and Sleep: The Cost of Sleep Deprivation: Lack of adequate sleep is linked to moodiness, risky behavior and injuries. Child Mind Institute

Danielle Pacheco, Can you Change Your Circadian Rhythm? Sleep Foundation

Molly Worthen, ‘When You Get Into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion’, The New York Times, September 25, 2020

Gina Riley, Ph.D. is an educational psychologist, Clinical Professor, and Program Leader of the Adolescent Special Education Program at CUNY – Hunter College. She is known internationally for her work in the fields of homeschooling, unschooling, and self-directed learning. Check out her publications here: https://education.hunter.cuny.edu/about/faculty-staff/gina-riley/

Host: Sophia Kornienko, writer/ animation artist/ unschooling mom

Co-hosts: 

Martha Skinner, former professor of architecture, artist who works together with her daughter, now a young adult

Marta Obiols Llistar, unschooling mom of three, educator, author of the book 18, An Unschooling Experience

Resources:

Alan Gratz, Refugee. Scholastic Corporation, 2017.

Davide Cali, Serge Bloch, The Enemy. Schwartz & Wade, April 14, 2009

Art Spiegelman, The complete MAUS Paperback. Pinguin, 2003

The Big History Project https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home

Host: Sophia Kornienko, writer/ animation artist/ unschooling mom

Guest Speaker:

Agustin Cortes, a self-taught co-founder of http://Lirn.io, building a web3 protocol that will help learners to track and validate their online educational journey

Co-hosts: 

Martha Skinner, former professor of architecture, artist who works together with her daughter, now a young adult

Marta Obiols Llistar, unschooling mom of three, educator, author of the book 18, An Unschooling Experience

Resources:

Scott Meyer, Blair Rorani, Vriti Saraf, Atish Mistry, From Web3 to Ed3 - Reimagining Education in a Decentralized World. December 14, 2021.

https://ed3.mirror.xyz/0U3QG8-4K6CD_ltU6SJyKN3-uBD3x6nEFs-YeShzYmk

Scott Meyer, Strategic DAO Frameworks: The Meyer Matrix and Smiling Dao Curve. February 8, 2022.

https://ed3.mirror.xyz/-ko2xt89AlznNaEtnwE5WvyOnsMdetFc33H8WtslMNo

Kassen Qian, DAOs as University Replacements: A Thought Experiment. Thoughts on building university experiences in web3. September 9, 2021.

https://kassen.substack.com/p/daos-as-university-replacements-a?utm_source=url

Rebecca Koenig, What Could Web3 Mean for Education? January 24, 2022 https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-01-24-what-could-web3-mean-for-education

Jennifer Cook DeRosa, Homeschooling for College Credit: A Parent's Guide to Resourceful High School Planning. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018

Lex Fridman’s interview with Elon Musk. December 28, 2021 https://youtu.be/DxREm3s1scA

Sir Ken Robinson, Changing Educational Paradigms (by RSA ANIMATE). October 14, 2010 https://youtu.be/zDZFcDGpL4U

Sugata Mitra, Can Kids Teach Themselves? August 27, 2008 https://youtu.be/xRb7_ffl2D0

Sugata Mitra, The Hole in the Wall and Beyond. March 1, 2017 https://youtu.be/svWynGmBQb0

Mirror https://mirror.xyz/

CCS (Srypto, Culture & Society) https://cryptosociety.notion.site/

InvisibleCollege https://www.invisiblecollege.xyz/

RabbitHole https://rabbithole.gg/

Friends with Benefits https://www.fwb.help/

Eduverse (Metaverse Hub for Educators) https://www.k20educators.com/

CryptoCollege https://cryptocollege.latecheckout.studio/

MintGate https://www.mintgate.io/

Host: Sophia Kornienko, writer/ animation artist/ unschooling mom

Co-hosts: 

Martha Skinner, former professor of architecture, artist who works together with her daughter, now a young adult

Marta Obiols Llistar, unschooling mom of three, educator, author of the book 18, An Unschooling Experience

Resources:

William Stixrud, Ned Johnson. The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives, Penguin Books, 2019.

Martha Skinner’s TEDx Talk: The Exponential Power of Design https://tedxgreenville.com/portfolio/martha-skinner/

Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Penguin Random House, 2020.

Learn Transcendental Meditation https://www.tm.org/learn-tm