The Education Vanguard

Data, data, data and more data.  I often hear the call for data at meetings, gatherings or even the occasional happy hour.  Well not really, but you know what I mean. Today I talk with Dr. Damian Bebell, assistant research professor at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College. More germane to the discussion today, Dr. Bell also works for the International Research Collaborative, a group of in...

Ever heard of a 'mobile high school'? We hadn't, until we met THINK Global School at #ISTE2016!Connect @TGSTHINKGlobalEver

Imagine you had a successful education career spanning back over 40 years. What sort of things would stand out to you and what would you want to pass on to future generations? Those are the kinds of conversations I was fortunate enough to have today with Jim Perry, president of the California Interscholastic Federation and district athletic director for Huntington Beach Unified High School Distric...

The terms digital and media literacy have been around for a while now, but I am not sure we all know exactly what those terms mean or have a common definition for them. Is it just using the technology tools out there? Or is it using them in a certain way? Today I speak with teacher, author and consultant Kristin Ziemke about digital and media literacy and the exciting possibilities and learnings t...

Experiential education.  What does that really mean?  What is it all about?  More importantly, and after this interview you will also ask, why are we not doing it more in our regular classes? Today I talk with Nick Cotton, Executive Director for Outward Bound of Hong Kong. Nick takes us through the activities that are part of Outward Bound, the types of students that are part of the program and th...

As a part-time technology and learning coach I am keenly aware that the role of the technology coach is changing.  Maybe even disappearing.  But we also know there will always be a need for innovation, iteration and change as part of education. How else can we help our students keep up with the world? Simon Power of Shanghai American School is transitioning from a technology coach to an instructio...

Sometimes when you first meet someone you immediately sense a positive vibe, energy and preference for helping and reaching out to others. This happened to me today within a few seconds of my meeting Shelly Sanchez Terrell, my guest today.  Shelly is an instructional designer by day, and a connector by night.  Actually she might connect during the day too. She connects with people through her work...

The Twitter!  For many of us it is something we enjoy and use to connect, learn and maybe share what is going on in our lives. For others it is a mass of conversations with no obvious pattern and place where the Jenner family shares the most intimate details of their personal lives. For educators, though, it is valuable way to create and maintain a personal learning network that helps us all grow...

Parents are a huge part of our school culture and environment.  Sometimes we might feel, depending on the school and the parent, that they have an incredible amount of influence or say about the workings of a school. Especially when they are upset and feel the need to protect their child from something related to school. Today I welcome back Louise Favaro to discuss the overprotective parent and h...

That’s it!  My reputation, my career, my possibility of getting into a good university is over.  All because of some silly things I posted online. This is sometimes the conversation we fear having with others about something we said online.  Or more likely, something one of our students said online. Today I talk with Susan Bearden author of Digital Citizenship: A Community-Based Approach, about th...

Gamification in the classroom is all about creating something to motivate students in the classroom right? Well that is what I thought until I talked with my Michael Matera, my guest today. Michael, a middle school teacher and author of the book Explore Like a Pirate has changed, more like improved, my thinking on the topic of gamification. As he points out in our discussion, gamification enables...

21st Century Learning is a popular term today when talking about the future of learning for our students. So popular that I actual work for a company with that very name. Putting the shameless self-promotion aside of that statement, I came across Daniela Silva at the 21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong this past February. As the district coordinator of 21st Century Learning for the Qatar...

The world is flat. It was New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman who coined, or at least popularized that phrase. It basically means the barriers to communicating with each other have been largely lifted for large portions of the population. But just because we can talk to each other all over the world, does not mean we are always taking advantage and/or leveraging it for greater social awarenes...

I like to think overseas educators are a special group. Interested in adventure, new cultures, travel and working inschools with a group of students strongly motivated to learn. I think Dr. Leigh Martin, today’s guest, might agree with my view.  Leigh runs the Master's program in leadership for overseas educators for the University of Northern Iowa. Today we talk about what the program looks...

The research around game-based learning is very supportive of its ability to attract student attention, improving concept retention and bringing a positive feel to the act of teaching and learning.     Anne Tham, my guest today, has taken a big jump into the game based learning world with ChemCaper, the “world’s first chemistry role-playing game.”We discuss the benefits of game-based learning, how...

It is not everyday that I get a chance to interview a pirate, especially an “edu” pirate like Dave Burgess, my guest today. Dave is from the US and is on a mission to inspire outrageous teaching that creates life changing lessons and growth of the student spirit. He does this through presentations, his book and his publishing company. We talk today about what his movement looks like in and outside...

Teaching in an international school is one of the best decisions my wife and I ever made. Many of you out there are already international teachers, but if you are not, I, we, encourage you to take a look. But, as you know, just looking for a teaching position, internationally or in your home country, is the easy part. Landing a job interview and then having success during that interview is truly t...

For most of our time when we heard the word coaching we thought of sports. A woman or a man encouraging and moving an individual or team forward as they worked to perform at their best and earn the most points. Today, as education evolves, including our own specific roles, we see teacher-coaches becoming more popular at schools. But is it the same job as the traditional sports coach? Today I talk...

South Africa is an interesting country with an interesting history behind it. As educators, a window into the world of a the school system in this part of the world is sure to be interesting. I speak with Jaco Joubert, Head of IT at the Curro Schools Group in South Africa. With multiple schools already and looking to double their buildings, Jaco explains how they look to move forward and serve a p...

For the second year in a row I, along with a bunch of others from schools in Asia, have worked with the New Media Consortium to produce the international schools in Asia edition of the Horizon Report. Today I talk with Victoria (Vic) Estrada who managed the process as editor, writer and cat-herder-in-chief.  You know how teachers are!  We discuss what the report is about, how it is brought togethe...

A good teacher understands that the environment of a classroom impacts the behavior of students. A chaotic environment creates chaotic emotions and a calm environment creates (usually) calm behaviors. But what if, as teachers, we had an easy way to impact the arrangement of our room and thus define or encourage the emotional responses we want from our students? Today I talk with Sean Corcorran, Ge...

Are you familiar with Moby and Tim?  The dynamic duo (robot and human) that have been explaining and teaching students for more than ten years?  If not, you will soon will be. Today I speak with Kari Stubbs, Vice-President for Learning and Innovation at BrainPop.com. A former teacher herself, Kari made the jump to industry by offering her ideas and solutions to what makes good, effective learning...

Coding is the new literacy!  Sometimes I want to shout that from the rooftops until everybody hears it and jumps onto the movement dropping everything they are doing now to focus on bringing daily coding into the classroom. Guess what?  My yelling and screaming ain’t gonna make it happen. ;-)  Instead, today’s guest Tara Linney of Singapore American School, has an alternative to bringing coding to...

I am a guy and depending on how long you have been listening to this show, you might already that. I mention my gender because it makes me uniquely unqualified to talk about the role of women in leadership; specifically in education. However, thanks to this podcast, I am able to bring voices from the outside to talk about important issues such as this.  Today I talk with Dana Watts from HKIS and S...

Teaching is a great profession. Especially for those of us lucky enough to teach internationally.  However, sometimes we may wonder what life would be like on the consulting, coaching and speaking circuit. Should we talk the skills we have an put ourselves out there to the point that people hire us to help them out. High school Spanish teacher Matt Miller did just that. He took his writing hobby a...