EdTech Adventures

Makerspaces are collaborative learning environments where students and teachers can come together to create, invent, and learn. In this conversation, Bob discusses the key components to making a successful school makerspace and also the struggles that educators might face when trying to build and implement their own makerspaces. Throughout this conversation, Bob emphasizes the importance of projec...

In an increasingly digital world, cybersecurity and practicing data care are necessary to protect yourself, your devices, and your online accounts from cyber threats. In this episode, Laura Nelson, President & Chief Executive Officer of the National Cryptologic Foundation (NCF), discusses the importance of introducing cryptology and cyber safety to kids. In this conversation, Laura discusses t...

Shaunak Roy, Founder and CEO of Yellowdig , discusses how he’s used social and learner engagement to build compelling EdTech experiences. Yellowdig is a community-driven active and experiential learning platform on a mission to transform educational experiences through student-centered learning communities. In this episode, Shaunak shares how a curiosity for how people learn and a passion for tech...

For learning and game designers, data science isn’t just analyzing numbers. It’s having a conversation with the people who are playing your game. Our guest, JD Calvelli, has witnessed how game design can influence a wide variety of educational experiences and how data science can further elevate and personalize those learning experiences for different audiences. In this episode, JD Calvelli discus...

In this episode, Julie Molnar, CodeCombat’s former Director of Education and current Director for Efficacy and Learning Research at LEGO Education, discusses the importance of efficacy in education and how the outcomes of efficacy studies can impact decision-making in the world of education.    The key to positive efficacy reports is to first identify the learner outcomes that matter most to the s...

For several years now, Esports has been gaining popularity and momentum across the globe. Imagine the impact Esports could make when it’s brought into the classroom and beyond! In this episode, Marcus Howard shares how he’s enabled students, parents, teachers, and business owners to make a positive impact with Esports education. Esports or “electronic sports,” is gaming on a competitive level. Wit...

Flipping the classroom empowers students to take control of their learning process. It gives students a voice and choice in what they're learning and how they're learning it. Our guest, Tim Selgrat, is an educator who has used his background in basketball coaching to embrace the strategies of flipping the classroom and has seen how it pays off with students. Selgrat has been a technology teacher f...

Surveys and case studies are useful tools in understanding the mindset of teachers. This year, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s 8th Annual Educator Confidence Report asked teachers about issues that impact them daily, with a focus on technology and their current needs. The purpose of this report is to give voice to educators and for those who didn't participate to learn from their colleagues. The key t...

Whether it’s robotics, virtual reality, or artificial intelligence, how do we help students prepare for future careers in technology? In this podcast episode, our guest Tatenda Mapesa, shares how his work has been impacting the future readiness of kids in South Africa. In this conversation, Tatenda explains how an interest in aeronautical engineering and a growing passion for education led him to...

Computational action is an approach that provides students with opportunities to impact their lives and their communities while learning programming and computational thinking. A computational action approach provides students with real world problems and real world contexts to apply their computer science knowledge. This approach can make computing education more inclusive, motivating, and empowe...

Game-based learning is an effort to redirect the learning that naturally occurs very organically in games and to channel that towards subjects and skills that are useful outside of the game itself. In this episode, Bobby Lockhart and Valentin Bryukhanov, two game developers who were key to creating our text-based coding adventure game, Ozaria, discuss game-based learning and how to use the princip...

Professional engineer and founder of homeschool kit Tinker the Robot , Kay Yang, shares how the gender gap in engineering inspired her company and tells the “aha moment” that led her to widen the scope of Tinker the Robot’s impact on families. She reveals how being intentional about giving kids some ownership over the content and fast small wins are key ingredients to the kits’ success. “The goal...

In this episode, the incredibly inspirational high school graduate Mohamed Haggag discusses how using “learner agency” has been a cornerstone of his education in Egypt. From tutoring peers at a really young age to implementing a foreign language program that is now used nationwide, Haggag has taken on different leadership roles throughout his academic career.  Today, he balances many roles. Haggag...

In this episode, Brian Freyermuth reveals how he’s used storytelling and game design to engage players throughout his career.  Starting at the beginning — Freyermuth’s entry into the gaming world would begin as one would imagine: as a child. He explains how a simulation game set in the Caribbean sparked his interest in programming. By senior year, Freyermuth had decided to make games for a living....

Studies show a strong social and emotional learning (SEL) foundation has positive outcomes, from increased academic achievement and graduation rates to improved prosocial skills that support a child’s success in school and beyond. In this episode, Darri Stephens discusses how she has used and built SEL measures in the classroom, in subsequent roles at Common Sense and Wonder Workshop , and now as...

Kevin Carrington discusses how his scenario-based The C3 Initiative takes kids on secret STEM-based missions to teach the practicality of STEM concepts taught in classrooms. The elaborate sets and characters create a learning theme park experience where kids feel free to unlock their STEM potential. In this episode, Carrington shares how a message left in a public bathroom led to the development o...

Educator, Author , and Director of Education at Microsoft’s Makecode Kiki Prottsman describes how her college experiences of being the only female in the room propelled her into her work.  Prottsman expresses how a single question drove her into her career. She wondered, “why don’t people realize how expressive computer science is?” She became convinced that if people knew how fun and creative cod...

Knowing how to code gives a person a remarkable advantage in life and access to high-paying careers. CodeCombat’s CEO and cofounder Nick Winter has helped millions of students learn to code through his game-based platforms CodeCombat and Ozaria . In this conversation, Nick explains how an awful introduction to coding in college, a burning inclination to create a startup, and a volunteer trip to Ch...