In Conversation with Stephen Hurley

The Umbrella Project is a teacher-led curriculum and school based program created to help teachers, students and parents reframe our perception of challenges and strengthen the skills of well-being to positively cope with the everyday stresses of life. https://umbrellaproject.co/ In this conversation, Umbrella Project founder, Dr. Jen Forristal, joins me to talk about the initiative and the import...

Ottawa-based educator, Rebecca Chambers, has been working to immerse her students in passion and inquiry-based learning for the past several years. Now she's taking her own passion and commitment to experiential learning one step further. Listen in as Rebecca introduces us to The Unlearn Academy! ( https://unlearnwithus.com )

Victoria Woelders, host of the Empathy Tales Podcast, in conversation with Stephen Hurley about a new project that brings a sense of hope and creativity to our current time. It's the COVID19ED Podcast. We talk about that project, the role of storytelling in times of challenge and the need for more creativity.

As we try to come to terms with the potential of long-term school closures in a COVID-19 world, many organizations are working to create learning environments that can help students, parents and educators keep the learning going. TED Ed (ed.ted.com) is a commitment to creating lessons worth sharing is an extension of TED’s mission of spreading great ideas. Today, I had the opportunity to speak wit...

The Honourable Mrs. Margaret McCain is a Canadian philanthropist, the 27th, and first woman serving as, Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick. She is, perhaps, best known for her work in the promotion of early childhood education. The first report of the Early Years study was released in 1999 and this month, more than 2 decades later, the Wallace and Margaret McCain Family Foundation has published...

Over the past few months, we’ve been exploring issues around our social commitments to public education, evidence that many governments have moved away from seeing education not as an investment, a cost centre, a market and, indeed, an industry. What’s at the heart of this apparent march towards privatization of public education? What can we, as a public do, to read the language that governments,...

Monica Kristin Blair is a Ph. D. Candidate at the University of Virginia and a Jefferson Scholars Foundation Fellow. Blair’s dissertation is entitled, “From Segregation Academies to School Choice: The Post-Brown History of School Privatization." Monica sheds light on the history of the privatization of public schools in the US and suggests some of the signs that we may want to be watching for in t...

Andréa Grebenc is Chair of the Halton District School Board. In this conversation, Ms. Grebenc shines a light on some of the aspects of public school funding that often go unnoticed and under-reported.

Amanda Brace is a grade 3 teacher based in Saskatchewan. She has also started a masters programme in education technology at the University of Regina. In this episode, we talk about the world of ed-tech, social media and what she is learning through her journey to begin her own podcast, EdTech Endeavours. You can find Amanda's work at https://edtechendeavours.wordpress.com

Ricardo Tranjan is a political economist and senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Recently, Ricardo released a calculator that would allow Ontario citizens to measure the impact that government cuts to class sizes and the introduction of mandatory e-learning would have on staffing at their local schools. In this episode, we discuss the calculator against the backdrop o...

Hetty Roessingh is a Professor at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. She is an advocate for restoring an approach to cursive writing grounded in current neuroscience research. In a recent article in The Conversation, Dr. Rooessingh points to the benefits of handwritten letters of love and legacy. Read Dr. Roessingh's piece in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/hand...

Harvey Bischof is the president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, representing over 70 000 teachers and education workers across the province. In this conversation we talk about contract negotiations in a social media world, a narrative for mandatory e-learning and stories that inspire us to stand up for public education.

Terry Greene is a Digital Learning Advisor in Fleming’s Learning Design & Support Team, ON November 26th he was in Milan, Italy where he accepted the Open Education Award for Excellence in Open Pedagogy. In this conversation we talk about his adventure to Milan with his youngest daughter, his impressions of the conference he attended, and his IRL sightings and encounters. For more of Terry, be sur...

Jael Ealey Richardson is an author, a broadcaster and the Artistic Director/Founder of the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD), held each year in Brampton, Ontario. In this conversation, we talk about Jael's book, The Stone Thrower, her own identity journey and the importance of diversity in the stories we tell, and the books that we read, as young people and as adults. For more on Jael, her web...

Meet Scott Kelly, the "S" in BS Games. I caught up with Scott at the Mindshare Workspace in Erin Mills Town Centre where he was demonstrating his newest game: Mathemagicians Duel. We talked about his personal passion for games, some of the current trends in game design and some advice for new game designs

Randy LaBonté is the CEO The Canadian eLearning Network (CANeLearn), a Canadian registered not-for-profit society with a vision to be the leading voice in Canada for learner success in K-12 online and blended learning. Michael Barbour is Associate Professor of Instructional Design for the College of Education and Health Services at Touro University California in Vallejo, CA Together, Randy and Mic...

Steve Kaufmann is known to his 100.000 Youtube subscribers as an internet polyglot. His platform, Lingq.com provides a unique set of resources that enable people to learn different languages. In this conversation, we discuss Steve's approach and, in the process, challenge some of our standard assumptions that we've developed about our ability to learn and understand other languages.

Latifa Soliman is a student, a researcher and Graduate Assistant in the area of Education Leadership and Policy at OISE/UT in Toronto. In this conversation, we begin to explore the policies and practices that would better support the success of newcomers to Canada—both young people and adults. Some simple ideas, but also an acknowledgement of the importance of policy.

Donna Fry is currently the Superintendent of the Pine Creek School Division in Manitoba. Donna has worked extensively in the province of Ontario on the mobilization of e-Learning strategies and Initiatives. David Porter is the CEO of eCampusOntario, an organization that connects and supports the development of e-Learning thinking at the post-secondary level. This is the first time that Donna and D...

Jennifer Binis is committed to complicated conversations about gender and/or education and/or assessment and/or history. Benjamin Doxtdater is a Canadian teacher and a member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy /Oneida Nation, now teaching in Belgium On. their own, they are actively involved in critical approaches to the way we talk about education. Together, they deepen our understanding and appreci...

Imogen Church is an actor, an author, an academic and and an audio book narrator. In today's conversation, we explore the re-emergence of the power of voice on a densely populated multimedia landscape. Learn more about Imogen Church through her website: https://imogenchurch.com/ Follow Imogen on Twitter: @ImogenChurch

Through her book, "Mourning Has Broken: Love, Loss and Reclaiming Joy", broadcaster Erin Davis has opened up a space for us to think more intentionally and deeply about how we can begin new conversations about grief and grieving in our workplaces, our homes and communities. Erin Davis joins us today on In Conversation.

Brian Woodland recently retired as Communications Director for the Peel District School Board in Ontario. He joins Stephen to reflects on some of the changes that he saw in his work over the course of the career, including how to nurture individuality and voice on today's social media landscape and the power of branding both inside and outside the organization. Currently, Brian speaks and consults...

Traci Browder teaches Kindergarten in the State of Texas, but she has an eye for the bigger picture. A strong supporter of ALL students, Traci brings a sense of confidence and self-efficacy o her work. I think that you'll agree that having Traci as a colleague would hold a vision of excellence and equity in front of everyone on your staff.

We have the vision. We have the policy. How do we support our school leaders to develop rich and vibrant cultures of inclusion in their schools? What are the dispositions, skills and tools necessary? And what happens when we continue to embrace this work? Joining the conversation are Steve Sider, Maggie Parker and Carolyn Treadgold. Steve Sider is Associate Professor at Wilfred Laurier University...