Edsurge On Air

Seattle-based Lane Merrifield is an expert when it comes to selling to consumers--but he’s also becoming an expert on selling to schools, too. He’s the Club Penguin guy--remember that big massive multiplayer online game that was basically a virtual world for kids? Well, Club Penguin was acquired by Disney for $350M in 2007, and now, Lane’s in the edtech game with an assessment platform called FreshGrade. He’s got some good insights into the similarities and differences between selling to consumers and selling to districts, so we brought him on the podcast for your listening pleasure.

On this EdSurge Extra, we chat with Dr. Gisele Huff of the Jaquelin Hume Foundation. Gisele talks with EdSurge CEO Betsy Corcoran about the differences between charity & philanthropy, technology's ability to transform education and her new project to give education its north star.

One voice has been conspicuously absent from the discussion around #IStandWithAhmed: students. This week we chat with four K-12 students to hear their reactions to the plight of Texas teenager Ahmed Mohamed.

Being a teacher superstar isn’t easy, especially when you’re driven by a vision to help out kids, but are a loner in your school in regards to the way you feel. Esther Wojcicki, an American journalist, educator, and vice chair of the Creative Commons board of directors, is a firm example of one of those superstars. From her journalism classroom at Palo Alto High School in California, she has gained a reputation for being one of the foremost thinkers on education and technology. But even Esther knows that working alone and striving alone aren't as effective as joining together, and as such, she recently published a book entitled "Moonshots in Education". The book covers digital and online learning in the classroom and what it takes to make a "moonshot," or those superstar examples of teachers and schools. She interviews quite a number of moonshots--and so we decided to talk to Esther, the moonshot herself, to go more in-depth on what truly make a successful blended environment.

Michael Horn has been a powerful force shaping the changes in education over the past decade. In an interview with senior editor Mary Jo Madda at our California Summit, he spoke about how he defines the nebulous term "blended learning," why teacher autonomy is critical to successful learning, and how blended learning today differs from collaboration techniques teachers have used in the past.

There’s no question that the best part of hosting a podcast is speaking with the fascinating guests we have on the show. From newly minted edtech billionaires to students and teachers, podcasters get the chance to hear from people all over the country. So this week, we decided to go super meta and spoke with three of those edu-podcasters: Jeff Bradbury of "Teachercast", Jason Bodnar of "Principally Speaking", and Chris Nesi of "The House of #Edtech". We asked them what they’re hearing from their guests, and what they think will be the big trends of the upcoming school year. Check out their answers--do you agree?

We talk to companies all the time about how they test their products, fail quickly and learn. But what if schools did the same thing? That's exactly the concept behind the "Tiny Schools Project,” an initiative led by Matt Candler of the New Orleans-based nonprofit, 4.0 Schools.

A live recording of a focus panel from the EdSurge Davis Superintendents Summit. Panelists for this event included Barbara Nemko Superintendent, Napa COE; Jason Borgen Director of Innovation & Learning, Portola Valley School District; Michael Moody CEO, Insight Education Group; and Meera Vaidyanathan Vice President Content, TenMarks. Mike Lawrence, Chief Executive Officer of CUE moderated the panel.

Last week, Forbes writer George Anders put out an article entitled, "That 'Useless' Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech's Hottest Ticket." After reading the article, we here at EdSurge thought to ourselves... gee, what should edtech companies really consider when hiring new blood? To find out that answer and more (including whether or not Anders' feelings negate the relevance of tech training programs like Dev Bootcamp), we brought Anders into the EdSurge office to get his thoughts beyond the article. Listen up, CEOs and administrators--you might just want to hire that Romance Languages major.

A live recording of our Keynote Panel from our Davis Superintendent Summit. Panelists: Richard Culatta, head of the Office of Educational Technology for the Department of Education; Michael Horn, co-founder of the Christensen Institute and author of the book "Blended;" and Esther Wojcicki, award-winning Journalism and English teacher at Palo Alto High School. This panel was moderated by EdSurge's CEO Betsy Corcoran

A live recording of a focus panel from the EdSurge Davis Superintendents Summit Panelists for this event included Cary Matsuoka Superintendent, Milpitas USD; Kyle Brumbaugh Director of Educational Innovation, Presentation HS; Steve Ritter Chief Product Architect, Carnegie Learning; and Michael Hageloh Director, Global Education, littleBits. Michelle Spencer, Summits Director at EdSurge facilitated the panel.

A live recording of a focus panel from the EdSurge Davis Superintendents Summit. Panelists for this event included Bryant Wong CTO, Summit Public Schools; Devin Dillon CAO, Oakland USD; Gregory Firn Superintendent in Residence & Director of Strategic Partnerships, Dreambox Learning; and Alix Guerrier President/Co-Founder, LearnZillion. Mary Jo Madda, Senior Editor at EdSurge moderated the panel.

Edtech blogs are writing about all aspects of life around schooling these days. But why is it important that they do so? And if you want to get started as an education blogger, what should you do? Our advice: Learn from the experts. We talk to blogger Paul France (http://paulemerich.com/) and EdSurge CEO (and long-time journalist) Betsy Corcoran to hear their tips.

More than 1.6 million teachers are members of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the second largest teachers' union in the country. But how does this organization feel about technology's role in the classroom? EdSurge got the insider's perspective and sat down with AFT vice president Mary Cathryn Ricker to chat edtech, charters and more on the EdSurge podcast in this special "EdSurge On Air Extra."

Where and how exactly does the conversation between educators and entrepreneurs go awry? And when it does, is there anything we can do to fix it? To find out, we followed Kerry Gallagher (www.KerryHawk02.com) as she spoke to Justin Chando, CEO of Chalkup (www.chalkup.co)at ISTE.

We’ve got a gem of a interview for you this week. To hear what’s been going on at Google, one of edtech’s big kahunas, we sat down with Google Education evangelist Jaime Casap, and Jonathan Rochelle, Google Education Product Manager and a co-founder of Google Drive. Yeah, that’s no small feat. You’ll hear their thoughts on the origin of Google’s Education products, equity, and whether Google will eventually pull out of the education game at some point. Plus, our weekly roundup of the edtech news!

ShareMyLesson. BetterLesson. TeachersPayTeachers. How can an educator chart a path through the landscape of online content marketplaces and platforms? And where will Edmodo Spotlight and TES Global's new marketplace fit in? This week, grab your compass and come along as EdSurge CEO Betsy Corcoran gives us a guided tour of the world of content marketplaces—and offers up her perspective on what makes a content sharing platform stand out.

There's a lot going on at ISTE. A very tired Mary Jo and Michael break down what they saw on their first day of ISTE. (Correction: In our description of the ISTE pitch fest winners, we name Mathbreakers as one of the four finalists. The company that was selected to go to the finals, and that is described in the podcast, is Mathspace; Mathbreakers did not compete in the pitch fest.)

We hear about edtech from the perspective of entrepreneurs and educators. But what about the viewpoint of a student? This week, EdSurge hears from Kaela Quinto, a rising sophomore at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in San Jose, CA. Kaela's experiences with blended learning completely changed the way she thinks about math—but we'll let her tell you herself.

It's time for an edtech election update. We ask an expert what the leading presidential candidates are saying about education. https://www.edsurge.com/n/2015-06-22-edtech-election-update-what-we-know-about-hillary-jeb