16:1 - Education, Teaching, & Learning

Chelsea Adams, Katie Day

16:1 is a podcast about education, teaching, and learning. Join veteran educators for discussions about the classroom, educational psychology, policy, technology, and more. New episodes drop every other week during the school year.

  1. The Future of Community News: The Reporting Project at Denison University

    MAY 29

    The Future of Community News: The Reporting Project at Denison University

    Something about the newsroom of The Reporting Project at Denison University in Granville, Ohio feels different. It’s energetic— humming, even when the lights are dimmed and the computer screens are turned off at the end of a long day of writing, collaborating, and crafting stories from the raw materials of community and change in rural Ohio. From Intel’s $20 billion arrival in the region to local election night coverage to the antics and attire of the Buckeye Lake Pirate Festival, The Reporting Project weaves human connection together with a liberal arts approach to narrative journalism. In “the most egoless newsroom” around, a growing cohort of student journalists works alongside veterans of the craft—seasoned educators like Jack Shuler (founder of The Reporting Project and Director of Journalism at Denison) and Alan Miller (former Executive Editor and 37-year veteran of The Columbus Dispatch)— to shine a light on stories of deep significance to surrounding communities. In this episode, we are also joined by Julia Lerner (managing editor of The Reporting Project) and Caroline Zollinger (recent Denison graduate, editor, and reporter) to discuss how the revitalization of community news is fostering trust, awakening civic life, and driving a new generation of students toward curiosity and community engagement. To learn more about The Reporting Project, visit thereportingproject.org. Please support your local news organizations! Additional Notes & Resources: The Reporting Project The Observers Collaborative Center for Community News | The University of Vermont WCLT Radio

    46 min
  2. The Evidence of Your Eyes and Ears

    MAY 15

    The Evidence of Your Eyes and Ears

    This week we’re taking a break from the evolving civic situation in the U.S. to shine light on global stories in education that you may have missed. Nepal’s National Teachers’ Strike Lifted: Teachers and Students in Nepal are resuming classes more than a month after teachers began demonstrating across the country in protests that included clashes with police over issues of teacher pay, sick leave, grading systems, and other issues. Negotiators had faced setbacks after several rounds of contentious negotiations with the country’s teacher unions. Educators have been turning up the pressure on the Nepalese government to enact legislation directed by the country’s 2015 Constitution that transfers control of the nation’s schools to regional and local authorities. “AI tools are going to do to students’ critical thinking skills what social media has done to their attentive skills.” AI in Global Classrooms: National Experiments in China and Estonia: Prompted by emerging policy statements on AI use in U.S. classrooms, we take a look at how other countries are faring as the pressure to adopt AI tools and lessons increases with the ubiquity of AI products. In China, AI in schools is almost old news; we’ll take a look at their aggressive stance on implementing the technology and compare it to that of Estonia, which has recently announced a partnership with OpenAI for the use of a custom version of ChatGPT for education within its public secondary schools. Ashlie Crosson Named National Teacher of the Year: The Council of Chief State School Officers has announced the 2025 recipient of the National Teacher of the Year award. This year’s winner is Ashlie Crosson, an English teacher and media & journalism advisor at Mifflin County High School in Pennsylvania. Congrats, Ashlie! Discussion Questions High stakes make schools a precarious place to “move fast and break things,” but there are sometimes costs to falling behind. What is the appropriate pace of educational change? When we worry about being “left behind” in the race to adopt artificial intelligence tools in our schools, have we considered the net impact of AI, or are we focused on individual benefits and risks?  As we adopt more AI tools, do we risk learning becoming “artificial”? What does it mean to “personalize” the educational experience? For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website and click on Archives.

    25 min
  3. Seattle’s Search for School Equity feat. Vivian Van Gelder

    MAY 1

    Seattle’s Search for School Equity feat. Vivian Van Gelder

    Our conversation this week is with Vivian Van Gelder, Director of Policy & Research at the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition, a nonprofit that unites more than 50 community organizations, schools, parents, and caregivers behind advocacy for equitable education policy. Vivian is the lead author of a report called Left to Chance: Student Outcomes in Seattle Public Schools, A forensic history. It’s a sweeping and detailed analysis of one public school district’s leadership and policy choices over more than three decades and how those choices have shaped the educational experience of tens of thousands of students attending more than 100 schools. In her report, Vivian uncovers the story of how Seattle Public Schools embraced an experiment in local control, allowing parents and students to “vote with their feet” for support of their local schools. In theory, competition drives innovation; in practice, the story was more complicated, and it produced a fractured district with a hundred mini-systems that were unevenly funded, under-supported, and almost invisible to central leadership. We think there’s a lot to be learned from this report and from researchers like Vivian who are doing the hard work of holding intractable social problems up to the light in a way that can spark progress and ignite momentum behind reform. We spend significant time discussing Seattle Public Schools in this episode, but Katie and I were struck by just how familiar some of these tensions are to what we’ve heard from educators in Appalachian Ohio, or to friends in suburban Maryland and rural Alaska and the Deep South. Vivian’s work addresses universal questions of values and organizational leadership in public schools, and we encourage you to read it (we will link to it in our show notes). Thanks for listening to 16:1, and don’t forget to sign up for our email newsletter for the latest news, resources, workshop offerings, and episode announcements from Moonbeam Multimedia. For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website at sixteentoone.com/archives.

    58 min
  4. The Politics and Price of Free Speech in American Schools

    APR 17

    The Politics and Price of Free Speech in American Schools

    Higher education in the U.S. faces an unprecedented storm of political and financial upheaval, highlighting critical tensions around free speech, academic freedom, and institutional integrity. Columbia University's initial compliance with demands from the Trump administration—banning protest masks, revising protest policies, and ceding departmental autonomy—signals a troubling shift away from protecting academic freedom, but capitulation isn’t the end of the story. Harvard University is resisting similar pressures, fiercely defending the right to independent scholarship against federal overreach under Title VI. Universities like Cornell, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Pennsylvania are grappling with massive financial disruptions impacting critical research and community programs. In K-12 education, similar tensions emerge: the past few weeks have brought DHS/ICE interventions in LA schools alongside Maine's successful pushback against federal interference in childhood nutrition programs. Even internationally, students at Netzaberg Middle School in Germany experienced what they perceived as administrative retaliation for peaceful protest, underscoring global stakes in educational autonomy. In lighter news, this week we are also catching up on Ohio’s pending legislation around school cell phone use and the unresolved struggle over digital boundaries and mental health. Jonathan Haidt’s recent conversations on The Ezra Klein Show highlight the ongoing challenge of balancing protective measures without regressing into outdated moral frameworks. For all of this and more, check out the latest episode. Thanks for listening. For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website at sixteentoone.com/archives.

    37 min
4.3
out of 5
21 Ratings

About

16:1 is a podcast about education, teaching, and learning. Join veteran educators for discussions about the classroom, educational psychology, policy, technology, and more. New episodes drop every other week during the school year.

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