Trending In Education

Happy National Teacher Day and Teachers Appreciation Week. Today’s episode kicks off our week of interviews and spotlights on teachers from all across the learning spectrum. At the top, Mike, Dan, and Brandon discuss teachers who were influential on their lives and then our co-hosts talk with Steven Anderson, education technologist, lecturer, and innovator. They discuss a variety of topics with Steven, including the creation of the hashtag EdChat, growth of innovation in the classroom, student activism and so much more.

Mike sits down to chat with Lev Kaye, Founder and CEO of CredSpark.com. They talk through a variety of topics including the crisis of trust, ACT's SEL venture, unbundling learning opportunities, and much, much more.

This week, we focus on what's trending in the EdTech Venture space. Brandon recaps his trip to ASU-GSV, a conference that focuses on "elevating dialogue and driving action around raising learning and career outcomes through scaled innovation." The crew explores the current state of disruption in higher education and K12 and grapples with how to understand how Workforce Readiness fits into EdTech innovation and investment.

Dan, Brandon, and Mike take a look at Starbuck's plans to shut down over 8,000 stores and train over 175,000 employees on unconcious-bias training on May 29th. They discuss the arrests that led to a social media outcry as well as how Starbucks is going about putting this training together. Has Starbucks planned on how to assess whether or not this training works? Will this focus be part of their new employee training moving forward? Is this anything more than a PR move by the coffee chain? Listen in to join the conversation!

This week, Mike, Dan, and Brandon dive into the Congressional hearings held on the recent Facebook data privacy issues stemming from the 2016 Presidential Election, Cambridge Analytica, and more. They discuss Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, appearing before committees from both the House and Senate, as well as their own usage of the platform. What sort of influence can Facebook usage and data have on education and edtech platforms like Quizlet? Tune in to find out.

Mike and Brandon dive into the smash hit film Black Panther and explore its cultural implications, perspectives on technology and the future, and portrayals of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The duo dig into what they learned by watching the film and how it points to broader trends in the collective consciousness.

Michael and Brandon put a bow on the 2018 March Madness bracket. They take the opportunity to look back at the topics, lessons learned, and to assess some of Trending In Education's own ability to spot trends and shine a light on important changes in education.

After going through our Sweet Sixteen and Elite voting on Twitter, we present our Final Four and our finals match-up. Tune in to find out who moved forward from the Social Emotional Learning versus Fake News as well as number one overall seed Kidsolving taking on Laughing & Learning.

We dive into this year's gathering at SXSWEdu in Austin, Texas. Brandon, Mike and Dan break down two of the keynotes and some high level takeaways. The first topic is Michael Sorrell's keynote, discussing Paul Quinn College's focus on real-world problems in the classroom and experiential education on urban campuses. Next, they discuss Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' panel discussion focused on innovation in education and learning. Finally, we hear from Mari Kent and Walker Williams on their time in Austin, their favorite sessions, and how likely they are to attend again.

Let the madness begin. Brandon, Mike, and Dan discuss 21 topics from the past year of Trending In Education. Brandon and Mike then draft their own eight topic teams to go up against one another in our Sweet Sixteen March Madness bracket. Who will come out on top? Stay tuned for our final four episode later this March.

On this extra edition of Trending In Education, we celebrate International Women's Day. We welcome four inspiring women to discuss their education, careers, and experiences. We're joined by Deborah Berebichez, Chief Data Scientist at Metis, Nancy Lee Sanchez, Executive Director for the Kaplan Educational Foundation, Esther Lee, Director of Program Development for Kaplan Test Prep's Digital Media team, and Rochelle Rothstein, Executive Vice President, Innovation & Product Strategy at Kaplan Test Prep to talk about women, education, mentorship, access, and more. 00:55 - Deborah Berebichez with Mike Palmer & Brandon Jones 17:56 - Rochelle Rothstein with Dan Strafford 32:18 - Nancy Lee Sanchez & Esther Lee with Mike Palmer

The crew takes a look at the evolution of emojis in recent history and tracks the broader trend right up into the recent announcement of the upcoming release of 157 new emojis. Are emojis a new and emerging visual language, or are they a frothy distraction from serious learning? How can emojis be leveraged in the classroom to connect with students to foster better communication without devolving into something superficial? Esther joins the discussion to add her point of view on using emojis for learning and how they may be able to assist in breaking down language barriers through a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) orientation.

This week, Brandon, Mike, and Dan are joined by Amjed Saffarini, CEO of CyberVista, to discuss the cybersecurity industry and cyberlearning. Amjed sheds some light on the deep and dark web as the group stumbles through a questionable cybertrivia quiz. We talk threat surfaces, Mr Robot, and more than one Sandra Bullock film. Oh and War Games, of course.

We open this week's episode with some brief thoughts on the tragic events in Parkland, Florida before turning the episode to our previously recorded topic of the Winter Olympics. This week our trio of co-hosts turns their focus on the Winter Olympics. They take a look at the education and e-learning product used to bring production staff up to speed on the Winter Games and Pyeongchang, South Korea. What happens to elite Olympic athletes after their time performing at the highest levels is done? Mike, Brandon, and Dan all take a guess at which sport they think they'd have a chance at competing in. Brandon shares a childhood story of using the Olympics as classroom curriculum.

Mike catches up with Rohit Bhargava to talk about the latest edition of the Non-Obvious Trends 2018. They discuss key trends to track this year including Manipulated Outrage, Enlightened Consumption, and Virtual Empathy. In addition, the pair explore the process Rohit and his team use to cultivate, curate, and crystalize their topics. They recommend seeking out multiple and various inputs and staying curious to spot non-obvious trends and counter-trends in everyday life.

Brandon, Mike, and Dan take a look in their respective crystal balls for what topics will be trending in learning and education this year. We offer up two predictions each on subjects we think will "get some action" in the coming year. What new portmanteau does Brandon roll out? How do you "nappuccino" and why is Mike all in? Why will Social Emotional Learning go digital according to Dan?  :10 - Welcome 1:48 - Mike discusses time hacks 6:52 - Brandon introduces kidsolving 11:28 - Dan pitches SEL going digital 14:39 - SABRLearning and the quantified self from Mike 17:00 - Brandon talks strengthsing in 2018 22:38 - Dan rounds out the predictions with Grassroots Play

The crew takes a look at Slate's decision to focus on audio and text and related pivots away from video as more brands and media companies explore the power of podcasting and audio. They discuss the power of mixed media and omnichannel and question whether the focus on video, that's been all the rage of late (esp at Facebook), makes sense in all contexts.

Mike, Brandon, and Dan take a second look at CES 2018 to discuss some great review articles and the awards handed out. Mike shares one of his favorite stories that tugs at Brandon's heartstrings. The trio breaks down some more robot talk and Forbes top 18 trends from the event.

We take a look at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and try to find what trends are most exciting. From the blackout to the robots and beyond, we have you covered. What dating app is trying to get into the business networking world? How did LG’s kitchen robot presentation fail? All that and a trip outside the walls of CES for an unexpected robot art installation.

We turn our attention to the new year and what trends might be hottest in 2018. Brandon discusses his move away from a social media platform, Mike discusses some macro trends around attention economy, and the trio tackle the latest predictions from NPR on Education.