Podcasts with Host LeiLani Cauthen, Author, Researcher and Thought Leader
Topics may include:
Education Legislation Change; Trends Analysis; Balancing AI with Humanities; Schooling Alpha Generation; Future Learning Structures; Any EdTech; UI/UX for Learning; “Science of” Curriculum; Tech Model Architectures; Hybrid Logistics; Networks; Security; Identity and Privacy; Change Management; Strategy Development; Trends; Research; Organizational Planning; Learner Motivation; Experiential or “Expo” Learning; Leadership & Planning
Unique Perspective
“People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s paraphrasing one of Steve Jobs’ famous quotes. Today in education, there are alternatives to traditional public schools that are not necessarily alternative. Yet the mood of society is practically mutiny against traditional schooling in its aspirations for something different, but to what? They don’t know. Certainly, a lot of school leaders think they know, but often the evidence is in their practice that they don’t really see how things should work today in teaching and learning because of tech.
Are we understanding everything we need to about true structural shift away from the industrial age models? Choice is no choice at all if you don’t understand structure and, particularly, the fact that tech changes everything. It’s not the individual devices and bits of software or the teacher’s practice, it’s the sum of the effect, and more interestingly, which technology or logistics or trend reckoning or teaching method is missing and unapplied.
The most important thing is to talk about, to show, the actual future."
Listen in as LeiLani hosts talks with both education and tech company leadership, presenting a unique perspective from her background as a researcher, author, technology developer and strategist.
Education Tech Chaos
LeiLani Cauthen discusses the general education tech chaos with Tricia Kennedy, Executive Director, Instructional Development and Support, Gwinnett County Public Schools in Atlanta, Georgia. Kennedy has led years' worth of preparedness to have a fully integrated learning ecosystem so that total chaos was never evident for them in America’s March 2020 move to quarantines with all schools shutting down. While other schools went into hyper-drive, Kennedy’s chaos was minimal. With 180,000 students, Gwinnett’s tech vision leans on Amazon Web Services for dependency to watch traffic load and manage downtime in real-time, ensuring equitable access for all students. Listen to find out the how this district kept it together in one of the most sophisticated operations nationally.
The Lost Learning Year: Intelligent Recommendations
LeiLani discusses recent findings by researchers Dr. John Bielinski and Dr. Kyle Wagner at Illuminate Education on the effect quarantines and remote learning have had on K-8 learning outcomes. Schools working through remote learning transitions have focused on engagement, but the data indicates that there is a clear hierarchy of needs and educators will need the tools to pinpoint risk quickly and make a recovery plan.
Avatar A.I. Helping Hybrid Learning
LeiLani and Lewis Johnson of Alelo discuss avatars used with artificial intelligence for asynchronous teaching and professional development. A technology that has been around for awhile in the corporate sector and military is now coming to the rescue in education to create engagement and efficiencies.
This technology is set to help teachers teach with more engagement and an iterative process where they can update an avatars response based on how students are learning, perfecting trainings over time. Teacher’s may soon be able to have dimensional libraries for addressing interactive learning on various topics so that they get a return of precious time to focus on direct instruction.
A Story about PODS
In this EduJedi Report Podcast, LeiLani talks about PODS, the new trend in homeschooling-tied-to-schools. With the advent of the pandemic, a scenerio she first talked about in her book, The Consumerization of Learning, is coming true. She reads a purely fictional account of a student’s journey in a POD from the last chapters of her book, giving a glimpse into the future.
Looking Back Before Looking Forward
Guests, Dr. Travis Taylor, Instructional Technology Specialist from Little Rock School District, Arkansas, and Berj Akian, CEO of ClassLink, have a lively conversation about one of the biggest organizational conundrums for schools as quarantines went into effect and how to better prepare for the future. Dr. Taylor shares how Little Rock is using single sign-on and analytics to bring order to remote learning in an evolving digital landscape.
New Norms of Hybrid Professional Development
Guests Tyce Miller, the CEO of Mobilemind and Sarah Porisch, Director of Technology, Brainerd Public Schools, discuss what’s happening now with teaching the teachers. Where schools once had those eight-hour days of intensive professional development, training is now shifting to on-demand and highly personalized through advanced technology. The talk focused on the success from Minnesota, and how Sarah helped lead change with all their teachers becoming immersed in how to use technology successfully for their student learners.
Remote Learning in the Hot Zone
What’s it been like to transition to digital remote learning in one of our nation’s hot zones? One district with a “Keep Learning, Don’t Miss Out” motto made every day in quarantines count.
Digital Instructional Design is Different and Getting More Different
LeiLani discusses what is happening with the intersection of regular instructional design and the new digital instructional design paradigm with one of the nation’s preeminently qualified UI/UX and instructional design experts found tucked away in District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), Sakon Kieh. In this podcast, Sakon and LeiLani discuss what’s happened with the national COVID-19 crisis and how design is different, and getting more different.
Let’s not screw up this Stimulus for Education
Guest: Dr. Barbara Nemko, Napa County Superintendent of Schools, Napa County Office of Education, CA
LeiLani Cauthen and Dr. Barbara Nemko, Napa County Superintendent of Schools, Napa County Office of Education in California discuss what the ARRA Stimulus of 2009 did compared to the new CARES Act Stimulus intention. Many important comments are made regarding caveats for schools and districts to consider. On superintendents just using the Stimulus to save jobs, Dr. Nemko stated: “I do believe there are a lot of teachers who are not going to want to come back, because of the fear. We’re going to see a very different but much more blended model.”
What Really Happened with Quarantine & Education
Guest: Senator Howard Stephenson, Utah
LeiLani Cauthen and Senator Howard Stephenson of Utah discuss concerns about the sudden shift of all schools to remote learning, and what it really means for the future. Just one of Stephenson’s great comments: “The thing you need to focus on is those tools that provide immediate interactive, adaptive feedback while the student is doing the work. It's not about PDFs online. It's not about worksheets.”