Future Learning Design Podcast

Tim Logan
Future Learning Design Podcast

We are stuck in an old paradigm, with institutional structures that were built for a world that no longer exists. Within education, passionate entrepreneurs & committed citizens are no longer waiting for these broken formal institutions to be reformed. All over the world, they're designing & building their own local responses with relationships at their core. These are the education ecosystems that our young people need and out of which new institutions will emerge.  This podcast is an inquiry into these fundamental changes and an invitation to join the movement to help drive positive change.

  1. Supporting Disengaged Teens to Learn Better, Feel Better and Live Better - A Conversation with Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop

    6 DAYS AGO

    Supporting Disengaged Teens to Learn Better, Feel Better and Live Better - A Conversation with Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop

    This episode is a fantastic conversation with 2 brilliant women who have been whipping up a storm this week with the release of their amazing new book The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better! Dr Rebecca Winthrop and Jenny Anderson chat with me about the disengagement crisis facing our young people and what we, as parents and educators, can do about it. Jenny Anderson is an author and an award-winning journalist who spent over a decade at The New York Times before pioneering coverage on the science of learning at Quartz. She contributes to TIME, The New York Times and The Atlantic, among other publications. Rebecca Winthrop is a leading global authority on education. She is the director of the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, where she conducts studies on how to better support children’s learning, and is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Social Links https://www.thedisengagedteen.com/ Instagram: @jennyandersonwrites - https://www.instagram.com/jennyandersonwrites/ ; @drrebeccawinthrop - https://www.instagram.com/drrebeccawinthrop/ LinkedIn: @jennyandersonnyt - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyandersonnyt/ ; @rebecca-winthrop - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-winthrop-b36b0617/

    51 min
  2. Schoolishness and Alienation - A Conversation with Prof. Susan D. Blum

    5 JAN

    Schoolishness and Alienation - A Conversation with Prof. Susan D. Blum

    It's a strange thing that the concept of school has become almost universal over the last few hundred years. If you ask anyone almost anywhere in the world, they will be able to describe something that looks roughly like a shared concept of school. But maybe it didn't have to be this way. Maybe it could have been different. This week the amazing professor of anthropology Susan Blum Joins me to talk about 'schoolishness' which is her latest fantastic book, based on decades of research into the cultural development of the dominant ideas around formal institutional education. Susan D. Blum is a cultural, linguistic, and psychological anthropologist specializing in the study of China and the United States. She received her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and also has two MAs—in Anthropology and in Chinese Language and Literature (both from Michigan)--and a BA in Human Language from Stanford University. Professor Blum is the author and editor of 10 books and dozens of articles, as well as public-facing writing. Her latest book, Schoolishness: Alienated Education and the Quest for Authentic, Joyful Learning (Cornell, 2024), is the third in a trilogy about higher education. The other two books are "I Love Learning; I Hate School": An Anthropology of College (Cornell, 2016) and My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture (Cornell, 2009). She also edited a widely read book calling into question the centrality and necessity of grading, Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) (West Virginia, 2020). She has taught at Oklahoma State University, The University of Colorado Denver, The University of Denver, The University of Pennsylvania, and The University of Notre Dame, where she is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology. At Notre Dame, she has served as Director of the Center for Asian Studies and Chair of the Department of Anthropology. She is a Fellow of the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, a Fellow in the Institute for Educational Initiatives, a Fellow of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, a Fellow of the Eck Institute for Global Health, and a Fellow of the Shaw Center for Children and Families. She received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for her book, Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths (2007), and has received the Delta Kappa Gamma Educator's Award, 2010, for her book My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture (2009), which was translated into Chinese in 2011. Blum has also received an Excellence in Teaching award from The University of Colorado Denver (2000) and the Reverend Edmund P. Joyce, CSC, Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from The University of Notre Dame (2010). Social Links LinkedIn: @susan-blum - https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-blum-aba01212/ Instagram: @susandblum - https://www.instagram.com/susandblum/ Threads: @susandblum - https://www.threads.net/@susandblum

    47 min
  3. Humanising Education - A Conversation with Karima Kadaoui

    29/12/2024

    Humanising Education - A Conversation with Karima Kadaoui

    We're ending this final epsiode of 2024 in a beautiful place with Karima Kadaoui sharing in some co-reflections with me about the trustful and humanising society that she is seeing emerge in Morocco and beyond. It became really clear to me during this conversation with Karima, that the way that we talk about the work we are doing is a really important choice. This is because it sets up frames and expectations that really affect how we do the work. So for that reason, I'm not going to say much about the incredible work that is happening across communities, schools and government ministries across Morocco through the Tamkeen process as Karima describes it much more beautifully than I ever could. Karima co-founded Tamkeen Community Foundation for Human Development in Morocco in 2009 and holds the responsibility of its executive presidency. She refers to her organisation as a facilitating-dissolving structure living, with all its partners-in-flourishing, the answer to the question "how can our schools, communities, organisations, societal systems and societies be the expression and manifestation of our humanity; the shared essence that defines us and connects us to each other, to our natural world and the whole beyond our conscious grasp? Karima's Tamkeen process weaved and was woven with the threads of her 25 years experience working in private, public and social sectors. She worked with top tier companies in a big 5 management consultancy and as the associate senior consultant of a territorial development consultancy she co-founded.  In the Moroccan government, she worked on public policy and governance in quality of the advisor to the Minister of Employment, Vocational Training and Housing.  Her experiences in NPOs working with women suffering infra-human conditions in industries and with a community in a major shanty town have profoundly marked her. Karima is a full member of the Club of Rome. She is also a board member and advisor to Imal Initiative for Climate and Development the first independent non-profit North African climate think tank, as well to Africa Voices Dialogue "a space where the voices of Africa’s educators and learners are seen, heard and loved". As we discuss in the conversation, the paper written by Karima and Louis Klein is entitled ‘Realising metamorphic transformation in the mirror of Tamkeen: Growing a shared understanding from co‐reflected lived experiences’. It can be found in the journal, Systems Research and Behavioral Science 41(5):738-749, August 2024 and is linked here. Karima also mentions the poem, Sept saisis par l’hiver’, by René Char: Extract: ‘Ma Feuille Vineuse: Les mots qui vont surgir savent de nous ce que nous ignorons d’eux. Un moment nous serons l’équipage de cette flotte composée d’unités rétives, et le temps d’un grain, son amiral. Puis le large la reprendra, nous laissant à nos torrents limoneux et à nos barbelés givrés.’ From Chants de la Balandrane, Gallimard, 1977, p. 16. - https://www.gallimard.fr/catalogue/chants-de-la-balandrane/9782070298303 Website: https://tamkeencommunity.org/ LinkedIn: @karima-kadaoui - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karima-kadaoui/

    57 min
  4. “A Hopeful Education for the End of the World as We Know It”? A Conversation with Ginie Servant-Miklos, Raïsa Mirza, Will Richardson & Manda Scott

    20/12/2024

    “A Hopeful Education for the End of the World as We Know It”? A Conversation with Ginie Servant-Miklos, Raïsa Mirza, Will Richardson & Manda Scott

    The inspiration for this end-of-year impromptu gathering came from a recent flurry of ‘Collapse'-inspired exchanges in my (un)social media feeds! This was prompted largely by Ginie Servant Miklos’ recently published and brilliant book, Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for The End of The World as We Know It (quoted in the title of the episode) and Will Richardson’s equally provocative and inspiring, Confronting Education In a Time of Complexity, Chaos and Collapse. As regular listeners will know, this podcast is really focused on the need for radical and systemic change in ways that would be more loving, humanising, nourishing…, not just in education, but in all spheres of our lives. But seeing all of this Collapse chat, the question I was left with was something about the ‘how’ of inviting people towards this change. It made me think of this powerful quote from Adam Curtis: "We’ve retreated into a sense that there’s always a new apocalypse on the horizon; it’s a terrible teddy bear that the bourgeois greens hug to themselves and say, “We’re all going to die, it’s terrible.” That’s not the way you change the world. In fact, it frightens people, and when people are frightened they don’t want change. It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen. Of course, there are serious issues. And of course, they’re incredibly dangerous. But fear is the last resort of those who’ve failed to mobilise people to transform the world for the better. I get grumpy about this because it’s almost cowardly.” (https://crackmagazine.net/article/profiles/adam-curtis-nathalie-olah-interview/) So Manda Scott, Raïsa Mirza, Will Richardson, Ginie Servant-Miklos and I gathered yesterday to talk about all of this and more! Brief bios below, but you can find full show notes here: https://www.goodimpactlabs.com/podcast/a-hopeful-education Manda Scott - https://mandascott.co.uk/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandascottauthor/  Manda was once a veterinary surgeon and is now an award-winning novelist, smallholder, contemporary shamanic trainer and podcaster (https://accidentalgods.life). 2024 saw the publication of her sixteenth novel, Any Human Power, a ‘visionary’ contemporary political thriller that maps fictional – but plausible and workable – routes toward a future we’d all be proud to leave to the generations that come after us: human and more-than-human. Raïsa Mirza - https://raisamirza.com/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/in/raisamirza/  Raïsa is a Bangladeshi-Canadian photographer, educator, designer, facilitator and social entrepreneur. She is currently Head of Social Impact Initiatives & Lighthouse Changemaker Hub and Systems Transformation teacher (https://www.uwcatlantic.org/learning/academic/systems-transformation-pathway) at UWC Atlantic College, Wales. She is also Founder & Principal of WabiSabiJetty: Design for Resilience (https://www.wabisabijetty.com/).  Will Richardson - https://willrichardson.com/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/in/willrichardsonbqi/  Will is a co-founder of The Big Questions Institute which was created to help educators use "fearless inquiry" to make sense of this complex moment and an uncertain future. In 2024, he authored a "manifesto" titled "Confronting Education in a Time of Complexity, Chaos, and Collapse" aimed at provoking serious conversations about the future of schools.  Ginie Servant-Miklos -  https://www.clubofrome.org/member/miklos-ginie/; https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginie-servant-miklos/  Ginie Servant-Miklos is Assistant Professorship in Behavioural Sciences at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences in Rotterdam and founder and Chair of the Board of the ⁠⁠FairFight Foundation. She co-founded the Bildung Climate School with Prof. Rutger Engels, and is the author of the best-selling book, Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World as We Know It (https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?docid=b-9781350400528).

    1h 4m
  5. Creating New Institutional Architectures - A Conversation with Sir Geoff Mulgan

    15/12/2024

    Creating New Institutional Architectures - A Conversation with Sir Geoff Mulgan

    Systems change, or in fact any change, in formal education systems is notoriously hard. Research and innovation across the sector has been historically weak. But as the stakes get higher for much-needed change, we have to get better at harnessing the collective intelligence of what we know, from young people to practitioners in classrooms everyday to parents and leaders. This week’s guest has been working at the heart of this issue since the 1990s. Sir Geoff Mulgan is a Professor at University College London (UCL), in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Policy team (STEaPP) in the engineering department.  Before that he was Chief Executive of Nesta, the UK's innovation foundation from 2011-2019. From 1997-2004 he had roles in the UK government including director of the Government's Strategy Unit, director of the Performance and Innovation Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister's office. From 2004-2011 he was first CEO of the Young Foundation.  Geoff has been a reporter on BBC TV and radio and was the founder/co-founder of many organisations, including Demos, Uprising, the Social Innovation Exchange, the Australia Centre for Social Innovation and Action for Happiness. He has a PhD in telecommunications and has been visiting professor at LSE and Melbourne University, and senior visiting scholar at Harvard University. Geoff has advised many governments, businesses, NGOs and foundations around the world. He is currently an adviser to the European Parliament on science and technology and a senior fellow with Demos Helsinki. He was a senior fellow at the New Institute in Hamburg (2020-2022) and a World Economic Forum Schwab Fellow (2019-22). He recently chaired a European Commission programme on ‘Whole of Government Innovation’ and co-founded TIAL, The Institutional Architecture Lab.   Past books include ‘Good and Bad Power’ (Penguin, 2005), ‘The Art of Public Strategy’ (Oxford University Press, 2008), ‘The Locust and the Bee’ (Princeton University Press, 2012), ‘Big Mind: how collective intelligence can change our world’ (Princeton University Press, 2017),  ‘Social innovation: how societies find the power to change’ (Policy Press, 2019), 'Prophets at a Tangent: how art shapes social imagination' (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and ‘When Science Meets Power’ (Polity, 2023/24).  His books have been translated into many languages.  A summary of the books can be found here. He is a founding joint editor-in-chief of the journal Collective Intelligence (Sage/ACM). Many of the ideas Geoff has worked on have gone onto become mainstream, from creative economy strategies to social investing, open data to collective intelligence,  experimental and evidence-based government to challenge-driven innovation. Geoff has given TED talks on the future economy, happiness and education. His website is geoffmulgan.com. He has a CBE and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2020.  Social Links LinkedIn: @sir-geoff-mulgan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sir-geoff-mulgan-aa1079187/ Website: https://www.geoffmulgan.com/

    37 min
  6. Time to Question the Science? A Conversation with Subhadra Das

    08/12/2024

    Time to Question the Science? A Conversation with Subhadra Das

    One of the things that I enjoy doing on the podcast is problematising various ’school subjects’. In previous episodes, with various guests we’ve questioned maths, languages, economics, history, physical education. But we haven’t yet taken a critical look at science itself, which is not only a set of disciplines, but also an approach and methodology that underpins a lot of the logic of how many like to imagine that we direct education, through evidence-based practice and the sciences of learning. Apparently it tells us ‘what works’ in inverted commas… doesn’t it? This week, it’s a massive pleasure to be chatting with the delightful and funny Subhadra Das a historian, writer, broadcaster, comedian, curator, researcher and storyteller who looks at the relationship between science and society. She specialises in the history and philosophy of science, particularly the history of scientific racism and eugenics, and for nine years, was Curator of the Science Collections at University College London. She was also Researcher in Critical Eugenics at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. Subhadra has also appeared on radio and TV as a stand-up comedian. In this conversation we talk about her fantastic   recent book, Uncivilised: Ten Lies that Made the West. Subhadra Das (https://www.subhadradas.com/) is a historian, writer, broadcaster, comedian, curator, researcher and storyteller who looks at the relationship between science and society.  She specialises in the history and philosophy of science, particularly the history of scientific racism and eugenics, and what those histories mean for our lives today. For nine years, Subhadra was Curator of the Science Collections at University College London, where she was also Researcher in Critical Eugenics at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation.  She’s also a prolific writer, broadcaster on radio and TV and stand-up comedian. In this conversation we talk about her recent book, Uncivilised: Ten Lies that Made the West In which she brings the lens of the history of science to bear on Western tropes such as ‘knowledge is power’, ‘time is money’ and ’justice is blind’.

    42 min
  7. Education for the Age of AI - A Conversation with Charles Fadel

    01/12/2024

    Education for the Age of AI - A Conversation with Charles Fadel

    Back with another special episode on the status of the AI in education, cutting through the hype (again) with the fantastic Charles Fadel. This is quite a deep dive into the topic, so if you’re early exploring this topic, check out episodes 107 and 108 with a great selection of reflections on AI in education from young people, teachers, leaders, policy-makers and edtech entrepreneurs.  Charles is a global education thought leader and futurist, author, and inventor, with several active affiliations. His work spans the education continuum of K-12 schools, higher education, and workforce development/lifelong learning. He is the Founder and chairman of the Center for Curriculum Redesign and among many other accolades, he is the author of Education for the Age of AI, with co-authors Alexis Black, Robbie Taylor, Janet Slesinski and Katie Dunn. Center for Curriculum Redesign (CCR): https://curriculumredesign.org/ Four-Dimensional (4D) Competencies Framework: https://curriculumredesign.org/frameworks/competencies-framework/  Tools: https://curriculumredesign.org/tools/  Charles is also: Chair of the Education Committee of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), nominated by the U.S. Council for International Business (USCIB). He works with several teams at the OECD, most notably Education 2030, PISA, CERI, and the Expert Group on AI Futures. Senior Fellow, Human Capital at The Conference Board Board member at the United States Council Foundation (USCF). Global Education Lead at Cisco Systems for over a decade. Founder of Neurodyne, an ahead-of-its-time startup focused on Neural Networks/Artificial Intelligence. Member of the President’s Council of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Founder and President of the Fondation Helvetica Educatio in Geneva, Switzerland. Fondation Helvetica Educatio focused on global education matters. Product marketing and management in semiconductors for broadband and wireless applications at Analog Devices and M/A-COM. Visiting practitioner at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education in the Mind, Brain and Education program. He explored curriculum redesign issues in an age of artificial intelligence and taught the first-ever class on “Human Learning + Machine Learning.” Former Project Director at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education in the Laboratory for the Science of the Individual. There he explored “Machine Learning + Human Learning.” Visiting lecturer at MIT’s Experimental Study Group (ESG). He taught an innovative “special topics in mathematics” seminar, “Polymathy: The World in 10 Curves.” He then taught the seminar at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education for six years to student acclaim. Visiting lecturer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the Chief Learning Officer Program. Senior Fellow at the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Previous books Artificial Intelligence in Education (2018) was translated into Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic. His earlier, highly influential book Four-Dimensional Education (2015) was translated into ten languages, while its framework was translated into twenty-three languages. He co-authored best-selling 21st Century Skills (2009, Wiley).

    42 min
  8. Humane Education and the Solutionary Way - A Conversation with Zoe Weil and Julie Meltzer

    24/11/2024

    Humane Education and the Solutionary Way - A Conversation with Zoe Weil and Julie Meltzer

    A more humane education feels very necessary right now. Our planet and its inhabitants all over the world seem to be crying out for it.  Humane Educators Zoe Weil and Rae Sikora created IHE In 1996 to do precisely this. And so it is a huge pleasure this week to be able to welcome Zoe, and her colleague Julie Meltzer, from the Institute onto the podcast. Zoe Weil is the co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education (IHE) and is considered a pioneer in the comprehensive humane education movement. Zoe created IHE’s M.Ed., M.A., and graduate certificate programs, as well as IHE’s Solutionary Framework, which guides teachers in bringing solutionary thinking and action to their students.  Zoe is the author of eight books including Amazon #1 New Release in Social Philosophy and Popular Applied Psychology, The Solutionary Way: Transform Your Life, Your Community, and the World for the Better with a Foreword by Jane Goodall (2024), Amazon #1 Best Seller in the Philosophy and Social Aspects of Education, The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries (2021/2016), Nautilus Silver Medal winner, Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life (2009), The Power and Promise of Humane Education (2004), and Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times (2003). She has also written books for young people, including Moonbeam Gold Medal winner, Claude and Medea: The Hellburn Dogs (2023/2007), about 12-year-old activists inspired by their teacher to right wrongs where they find them, and So, You Love Animals: An Action-Packed, Fun-Filled Book to Help Kids Help Animals (1994). Julie Meltzer, Ph.D., is a self-described “pragmatic visionary” who is committed to creating schools that truly help students prepare to successfully meet their futures. She is a tireless advocate for literacy, justice and equity which she sees as integrally related. Julie supports teachers and administrators to develop collective efficacy to teach their students how to become changemakers. She agrees with Zoe Weil that our best hope for the planet is to educate a generation of solutionaries. After extensive experience in education including as a teacher, teacher education faculty member, district administrator, consultant, researcher, program evaluator, and project lead, to her current role as Director of K-12 and Teacher Education for IHE. Julie is also a published author, sought-after speaker and editor/reviewer. When not focused on teaching and learning, Julie enjoys hiking, dancing, writing poetry, reading international women’s and children’s literature, traveling, and working for social and environmental justice. Social Links

    43 min
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We are stuck in an old paradigm, with institutional structures that were built for a world that no longer exists. Within education, passionate entrepreneurs & committed citizens are no longer waiting for these broken formal institutions to be reformed. All over the world, they're designing & building their own local responses with relationships at their core. These are the education ecosystems that our young people need and out of which new institutions will emerge.  This podcast is an inquiry into these fundamental changes and an invitation to join the movement to help drive positive change.

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