Driving Student and Family Engagement with Chatbots

Joanna Smith is the CEO and founder of AllHere, an edtech company improving attendance and student success with mobile messaging powered by AI. Before founding AllHere, she taught middle school mathematics and served as Director of Family Engagement at a charter school in Boston.

Joanna joins Mike Palmer to talk about the problem of low student attendance in K12 and how she and team are building AllHere to create a scalable way to begin to address it. What’s the best way to design an ecosystem that is available 24/7 and allows its teachers to focus on the highest-yield human activities? How has the pandemic impacted this problem? How did the team at AllHere listen to the community to respond quickly to needs around food insecurity? In what other ways might chatbots help improve educational experiences for students and families?

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The Global EdTech Landscape with Michael Spencer

Michael Spencer is the CEO of Global Expansion Strategies, a firm that specializes in helping EdTech companies scale through broad adoption in international schools. Michael joins Mike Palmer to talk through his experiences in the field of international educational technology. Michael highlights the shifts that have taken place since the pandemic where we’re seeing a seismic shift from predominantly print curricula to a majority online. This is especially true in the International English Language programs, which are among the primary drivers of global EdTech. Michael also highlights how leading English language companies used to deliver across all four components of reading, writing, speaking, and listening whereas now he’s seeing increased specialization within each component.

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Free Expression and Education with Dr. Jonathan Friedman from PEN America

Dr. Jonathan Friedman is the Director of Free Expression and Education at PEN America. He joins Mike Palmer on this episode to talk about emerging trends in K12 and Higher Ed in the US relating to Free Speech and Free Expression. You can learn more about what Jonathan and PEN are doing at pen.org

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Learning to Read Write Code with Author Jeremy Keeshin

Jeremy Keeshin is the CEO and Co-founder of CodeHS, the leading coding education platform for schools used by millions of students. He joins Mike for this episode to talk about his new book Read Write Code. We begin with Jeremy’s origins teaching computer science while at Stanford before founding CodeHS and becoming an expert in computer science education and education technology, visiting hundreds of schools all over the world.

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Workforce Development and Career Alignment with Julissa Baez and Lindsey Dixon from The Urban Assembly

Lindsey Dixon and Julissa Baez from The Urban Assembly join Mike to talk about Postsecondary Readiness, Workforce Pathways, and the Future of Work. We hear Julissa and Lindsey’s origin stories and learn what drives their passion to make a positive impact on students and families overcoming poverty and striving for social mobility. We explore how to move work readiness programs further upstream into high school and K12 to ensure graduates are making smart decisions planning for the careers of the future.

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Live Online Special Education with Kate Eberle Walker

Kate Eberle Walker is an education industry leader with 20+ years of experience in leading, managing, advising, acquiring and investing in education companies. She is the CEO of Presence Learning, the leading provider of live online special education related services for K-12.

On this episode, Kate returns to Trending in Education to talk through what it was like to lead her organization through this difficult and transformative year. We talk about the emerging trends involving teletherapy and remote care for students with special needs. Then we explore the challenges and opportunities for speech pathologists, occupational therapists, and school psychologists as those services have moved rapidly to live online delivery.

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The State of US K12 Education in Fall 2020 with the Team from Chalkbeat

In a Special Fall 2020 K12 Education episode, Mike is joined by Sarah Darville, Matt Barnum, and Kalyn Belsha from Chalkbeat to talk through trends they’ve been seeing while reporting on K12 throughout the challenging year that is 2020. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization committed to covering one of America’s most important stories: the effort to improve schools for all children, especially those who have historically lacked access to a quality education.

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The Power of ASSISTments to Augment Teaching with Dr. Neil Heffernan

Dr, Neil Heffernan, the William Smith Dean Chair Professor at Worcestor Polytechnic Institute (WPI), joins Mike to talk about how his career interweaves great teaching, computer science, and “ASSISTments” – a set of digital tools designed to make homework assignment and evaluation more efficient. Neil tells us his origin story which includes meeting his wife Cristina while teaching and doing research in K12 Education right through their creation of the ASSISTments Foundation for which Neil serves as the Chair.

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School Architecture for The 21st Century with Prakash Nair

This week, Mike is joined by Prakash Nair, the Founder of Education Design International (EDI) and author of Blueprint for Tomorrow from Harvard Education Press. Prakash describes how the design of K12 schools can and should be completely rethought. School buildings and their institutional designs contribute to a “cells and bells” culture that stifles learning, creativity, and joy.

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Talking Social Emotional Learning with David Adams

David Adams, the Senior Director of Strategy at The Urban Assembly, joins Mike to explore the many facets of Social Emotional Learning or SEL. David shares his career journey which charts a path through many of the key centers of research in the field along with practical experience in schools in New York City and around the world.

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