Trending In Education

We open with a quick note on the Jacob Blake incident in Wisconsin and the ripple effects across our culture. It's something we'll continue to cover. Then, in this bonus episode from the soon-to-launch podcast, Running It Back, we transport ourselves back to November 7th, 1991 when Magic Johnson first announced that he had HIV. How do Tarlin and Mike remember this flashbulb event? What lessons can we learn from Magic's approach to sharing the news and leaning into his fight against the virus? How does this tie to COVID-19 and the NBA's design for life in the Bubble in Orlando? And who was on the dais with Magic when he had to share his difficult news? We answer all of this on today's show. And if you like what you're hearing, follow us on twitter and keep an eye on runningitback.fm as we gear up to launch Running It Back later in September.

Kristin Kearns-Jordan, the CEO of The Urban Assembly, joins Mike this week to describe the career-themed approach to public education that is driving social mobility in 23 schools in New York City. We begin by hearing Kristin's origin story and career arc which has led to her current role with The Urban Assembly. From there, we dive into the mission and educational philosophy of the organization and its schools, which is all about career relevance and social mobility. Kristin describes how The Urban Assembly's approach is making an impact in her students' lives by showing them how their public education ties to their longer term college and career paths. We discuss the impact of Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 on public education and emerge with a sense of optimism despite the suffering and genuine peril students and families are facing this year. As we conclude, Kristin spotlights the screening of entry into public schools in New York as something that limits diversity and subverts the true goals of public e

As a bonus gift, we're bringing you an episode of the upcoming podcast Running It Back. Tarlin Ray and Mike Palmer look to moments in sports history to give insights for our lives today. On this episode, Mike and Tarlin run it back to the 1999 NBA season and the historic run for the 8th-seeded New York Knicks all the way to the NBA Finals. They ultimately lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the Finals marking the beginning of the Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich dynasty. As we head into the 2020 NBA Playoffs in the Bubble in Orlando, what lessons can be learned by running it back to 1999?

Angela Siefer, Executive Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, returns to the show to join Mike in a conversation about how to open up access to the digital tools many of us take for granted. Last time we had Angela on the show in March, we were still in the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Now as we approach the Fall, there remains plenty of work to do and the focus is shifting. Digital inclusion is important work. You can learn more about what Angela and team are doing at digitalinclusion.org. Listen in to find out how you can help make a difference.

This week Dr. H. Richard Milner IV, Professor of Education at Vanderbilt University, joins Mike to explore how he is thinking about issues of diversity, opportunity gaps, and the mindsets that must be overcome to effectively engage diverse students and classrooms. Rich’s book, Start From Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There was just reprinted by Harvard Education Press to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of its initial printing in 2010. While many of the themes are enormously relevant to this day, several warrant further discussion in light of the Black Lives Matter Movement and the COVID-19 pandemic. Rich is a leading thinker on teacher education and diversity and we very much appreciate getting time with him on today’s show. Enjoy!

Dr. Shannon Clute joins Mike to share his broad and varied experiences in education, innovation, marketing, and digital media. He begins by telling the story of his early experiments with podcasting and other new media to innovate in higher education where Shannon was a Professor of French Literature. In the early 2000s, he launched an enormously successful podcast called Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir that began as an innovative project for his students but rapidly grew in broader appeal. From this experience, Shannon began to understand the value of pursuing your passion projects and being flexible and opportunistic in your career choices. From there, he transitions to a marketing role at Turner Classic Movies before ultimately returning to academia now leading The Hatchery, The Center for Innovation at Emory University. In a wide-ranging conversation, Shannon reinforces the critical importance of knowing your customers and shifting from push to pull dynamics when it comes to program development a

Howard Lurie, Principal Analyst, Online and Continuing Education at Eduventures, joins Mike this week to discuss recent research findings from the firm that dives into the mindset and sentiment of adult learners. Eduventures has published findings from two surveys of adult learners--one fielded before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and then a second survey fielded in June 2020. Howard shares his perspective on changes in demand, desired credentials, and delivery mode pre- and post-pandemic. We explore the short-term and longer-term implications of the economic and public health impact on adult learners as we expand the perspective beyond the graduating high school population to begin to wrap our heads around the much larger and more diverse population of adult learners writ large. Howard and Eduventures provide great insights on today's show. If you want to learn more from them, visit eduventures.com. Thanks for listening!

Fresh on the heels of the release of Coursera's second annual Global Skills Index Report, Melissa and Mike break down what's new and noteworthy in the 2020 report. How has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted global trends in course completion on Coursera? What's new and emerging in the key fields of business, technology, and data science and how is the US stacking up on the global stage? It's a fascinating report on the emerging skills that are relevant to career growth, earning potential, resilience, and lifelong learning in these wacky times. Check out the report, have a listen, and let us know what you think on Twitter at @trendingined

Dr. Stephen Kosslyn, President of Foundry College, returns to Trending in Education to discuss a new book he's been working on. The book has the working title of Active Learning in the Digital Age and covers the six key principles that drive active learning. The principles are deep processing, deliberate practice, incentives and consequences, dual coding, chunking, and associations. Join Stephen and Mike as they explore these concepts and how they can be applied to create great learning interventions in these tumultuous times. Thanks as always for listening!

Welcome to the second half of 2020. We made it to July. For this episode, Mike, Dan, and Melissa reflect on the year so far while tracking some of the more sensational stories that are breaking lately. Did Donald Trump hire someone to take his SATs? If he did, is that better or worse than Lori Laughlin paying for access to the USC Crew team? What do we think about Betsy DeVos's bookcases for her Zoom meetings? Or the administration's take on getting students back on campus and physically in our schools for the Fall? And how about the near miss of threatening to revoke international student visas for students at schools that are going entirely online? We lean into the crazy a bit this week as we spot emerging trends about class outside and schooling from home as we all agree online and hybrid learning in its varied forms is here for the long haul. Thanks for listening.

UNC Greensboro Chancellor, Dr. Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr., joins Trending in Education to share his experiences leading a university with a long history of opening up access to higher education. Beginning as a women-only university in the late 19th Century, UNC Greensboro has since opened up to non-white students soon after to men. Dr. Gilliam has been Chancellor since 2015 and he tells the story of how he got the job and what he's been able to do since joining the school. UNC Greensboro has eliminated race and ethnicity differences in retention for first-year students. They've nearly eliminated income-based gaps and are now focused on reaching rural students and providing access to the tools necessary for success in these changing times. We discuss the importance of digital inclusion, Dr. Gilliam's transformative experiences leading the university through the COVID-19 response thus far, and responding to the George Floyd murder and related unrest. We dig into the importance of having a mission-based culture an

Liz Leiba, an education professional, teacher, and podcast host, joins Melissa and Mike to discuss her personal response to George Floyd's death. In response to this travesty, Liz has become much more active on LinkedIn and on her podcast, The Ed Up Experience, telling her personal story as a black woman in higher ed and the corporate world. Melissa and Liz share their experiences, how their perspectives have changed, and how going along to get along just doesn't cut it anymore. Liz is a powerful voice on this and many other topics and we look forward to having her on again soon. Thanks for listening.

Dr. Terri Givens, the CEO and Co-Founder of The Center for Higher Education Leadership, joins Mike and Melissa this week to explore her experience as a Professor, an Administrator, and now as an entrepreneur focused on transforming higher education. Terri tells the story of her academic career spanning Stanford, UCLA, University of Washington, University of Texas at Austin, and most recently Menlo College. Throughout her journey, she's advocated for the importance of teaching and providing faculty, adjuncts, and graduate students access to leadership development tools to help them navigate their careers. We conclude with a deep dive into the ideas in Terri's upcoming book, Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides. We very much appreciate having Terri on the show and hope to have her back on again soon. Thanks for listening.

Dr. Mohanbir Sawhney, the Associate Dean for Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management, joins Melissa Griffith and Mike Palmer to explore how the traditional approach to Business School and Executive Education is ripe for disruption. As the McCormick Foundation Professor of Technology at Kellogg, Dr. Sawhney is launching and testing several varied and distinct approaches to providing business education both through the traditional two-year on-campus model and also through hybrid and online models. The Professor engages with Melissa, a Kellogg alum, in a conversation about providing continuous value and lifelong learning to alums through communities of interest, small private online courses (SPOCs), along with access to human-powered services like executive coaching, live webinars, and 1-on-1 office hours. We genuinely enjoyed the imaginative and impassioned perspectives Dr. Sawhney provides on this topic and hope you'll lean in with us to explore how graduate education will accelerate forward in the tumu

Elise Awwad, Vice President of Strategic Enrollment at DeVry University, joins Mike this week to explore how DeVry has been delivering proactive care as part of its educational philosophy for adult learners. We examine how they were able to respond to the twin challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the civil unrest in response to the death of George Floyd. DeVry's long history of online learning along with a holistic approach provided the tools to respond to a tumultuous 2020. Elise shares her passion for helping adult learners in need and, as a regular listener to Trending in Education, she reinforces the critical importance of digital inclusion in opening up access to higher education for adults who are ready to advance their careers.

Warren Kennard joins Mike this week to explore the current state of affairs in educational technology. Warren has been working in educational technology for the past 20 years and is the Founder of ConnectEd and the Managing Director of the Cahoot Academy. After defining the distinctions between small private online courses (SPOCs) and massive open online courses (MOOCs), we dig into the importance of delivering people-mediated programs especially as the waves of automation and artificial intelligence can be dehumanizing. Warren draws from his experiences at Get Smarter, the Cahoot Academy, and ConnectEd to round out a more human-centered understanding of what's emerging in the growing field of educational technology.

Melissa and Mike begin with a frank conversation about how we've been responding to the Black Lives Matter protests and related civic and personal upheaval in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis. What's the best way for organizations to navigate these tumultuous times? How should we think about acts of omission versus those of commission? How do we begin to lean into awkward conversations about race to begin to reach new levels of psychological safety, empathy and understanding. Then Dan Strafford adds his perspective as a father of three and someone who is frequently at a loss when it comes to reaching a clear understanding of what's going on these days. We reference a great Chalkbeat article that captures the perspectives of K12 educators across the US, touch on an article by Dr Howard Stevenson out of U Penn Graduate School of Education on how to talk to children about racial issues, and conclude by referencing a quick Forbes article by Adunola Adeshola that describes 3 Things You Should

Vikram Baliga, host of the Planthropology podcast, joins Mike this week to talk about his experiences as a horticulturist, a science communicator, and a podcast host. Vikram expounds on what brought him to horticulture and how the importance of setting has meaningful ramifications to education. As we explore the origin story of the Planthropology podcast, Vikram provides insight into what it means to teach people how to appreciate the plants in their lives. Whether you're officially "Plant People" or just interested in a deeper perspective on learning and the future, you should get a lot out of this week's episode. We hope you enjoy!

We are deeply saddened by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many other black men and women at the hands of police. We plan to cover the emerging trends of civil unrest, increased awareness of race and social justice, and how this relates to learning, media, and future trends in future episodes of Trending in Education. For today's show, we're releasing an upcoming episode of Running It Back with Tarlin Ray and Mike Palmer where we break down Blackballed, the new Quibi short-form docuseries about the 2014 Los Angeles Clippers and the Donald Sterling scandal. What leadership lessons can be learned from the Sterling incident and the responses by Doc Rivers, Chris Paul, Adam Silver, and Matt Barnes, among others? What parallels can be drawn between the reaction to the Sterling scandal and the response to George Floyd's murder and the Black Lives Matter movement that have been activated on a global scale today? We don't reach any tidy answers to the current situation, but by running it

As The Eurhythmics say, "sweet dreams are made of this." On today's episode, Ken Florence joins Mike for an expansive and imaginative exploration of lucid dreaming, something Ken's been drawn to since overcoming challenges with sleep paralysis earlier in his life. Ken is a musician and composer who created the original music for Trending in Education and its sister podcasts. We begin by discussing how there have been increased reports of vivid dreaming during the Covid-19 pandemic response citing the research of Deidre Barrett. Then we discuss tactics like dream journals and looking for "triggers" in dreams such as clocks and light switches to help us gain conscious control over many aspects of our dream worlds. We conclude by exploring how dreams relate to psychedelic and VR simulation experiences as the trend towards varied phenomenological experiences continues to grow. We hope you enjoy the ride!