Episodios
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The National AI Institute for Exceptional Education with Jinjun Xiong, Sean Redmond, and Dancheng Liu
Nearly 3.4 million children require speech and language services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and are at risk of falling behind in their academic and social-emotional development without timely intervention by Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs). Unfortunately, there is a significant shortage of SLPs and the COVID pandemic has further exacerbated this gap, making it almost impossible for SLPs to provide individualized services for children. The National AI Institute for Exceptional Education (AI4ExceptionalEd) aims to close this gap by developing advanced AI technologies to scale SLPs’ availability and services such that no child in need of speech and language services is left behind. Towards this end, the Institute proposes to develop two novel AI solutions: (1) the AI Screener to enable universal early screening for all children, and (2) the AI Orchestrator to work with SLPs and teachers to provide individualized interventions for children with their formal Individualized Education Program (IEP).
In this podcast, Dr. Jinjun Xiong, the Scientific Director of the Institute, will discuss one of the many projects going on at the Institute. The project is called AutoRSR, led by the Institute’s PhD student Mr. Dancheng Liu. AutoRSR aims to leverage the power of AI to automate an evidence-based screening method developed by an SLP expert, Dr. Sean Redmon. Evidence-based early screening for children with speech and language challenges is critically important as it provides opportunities for those impacted children to receive diagnostics early and hence the needed invention. But conducting screening instruments is typically time-consuming and requires specialized training for those who conduct the screening. Can we leverage the power of AI to automate some of those screening processes so that more children can receive such a screening test? What would be some of the research challenges and capability gaps in developing such a solution? What are some of the dos and don’ts of carrying out such interdisciplinary research? Through this podcast’s discussion about the AI4ExceptionalEd Institute and the development of the AutoRSR project, we hope to shed some light on those questions.
More resources and information about our guests below the video
https://youtu.be/ollQZW7JID8
Readings and Resources:
Hadley, P. A., & Xiong, J. Researchers Partner on AI to Free Up SLPs for Direct Services. https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/leader.FTR1b.28092023.AI-ethics-slp-aud.50/full The ASHA LeaderLive, 2023.
Episode Guests
Jinjun Xiong
Dr. Jinjun Xiong is an Empire Innovation Professor with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo (UB). He also serves as the Scientific Director for the $20 M National AI Institute for Exceptional Education (http://ai4exceptionaled.org), Director for the SUNY-UB Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (https://www.buffalo.edu/ai-data-science.html), and the AI Thrust Lead for the $10M National Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI (CELaRAI). Prior to UB, he was a Senior Researcher and Program Director for AI and Hybrid Clouds Systems at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. He was the former co-founder and co-director of the IBM-Illinois Center for Cognitive Computing Systems Research (C3SR), the success of which in 5 years has led to the 10-year $200M expansion of the center to the IBM-Illinois Discovery Accelerator Institute. His research interests are in across-stack AI systems research, including AI applications, algorithms, tooling, and computer architectures.
Professor Sean M. Redmond is a Fellow of the American Speech Language and Hearing Association and Board-Certified Specialist in Child Language. Dr. Redmond received his PhD from the University of Kansas in 1998 and joined the faculty at the University of Utah shortly thereafter. He has over 45 peer-reviewed publications as well as book chapters on the topics of pediatric language disorders, socioemotional behavioral disorders, and differential diagnosis. His scholarship has been funded by the National Institutes of Health. Dr Redmond has served as Editor in Chief for the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research and is a founding member of the website https://dldandme.org/
Dancheng Liu is a PhD student in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University at Buffalo, where he is also affiliated with the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education. Before joining UB, he completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of California, San Diego. His current research explores the intersection of AI and speech-language pathology, with a particular focus on advancing AI technologies to scale the availability of speech-language pathologists. He aims to create innovative tools to streamline SLPs’ tasks with state-of-the-art deep learning models and advanced algorithms. He led the development of AutoRSR which enables fully automated Redmond Sentence Recall assessments, allowing the entire process to be automated, opening up the potential for enabling universal speech disorder screening in the future.
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Episode Description:
In the last decade, education has exhibited a call for sweeping transformation across K-12, postsecondary, and workforce training, marked by the need for shifting from traditional lectures as the core of instruction to dynamic models of bridging formal and informal educational experiences with open, active learning using online, blended, and competency-based education models. These changes have not only redefined what is possible but also impacted student expectations of how to learn in K-12, higher education and career pathways. In Episode #213 of Silver Lining for Learning, we welcome Susan Patrick, a leader in the field of education technology and a champion of competency-based education. Susan's career includes leading the Aurora Institute (formerly iNACOL), where she supported innovations in K-12 online learning and new models of education that align with research on how students learn best. Beyond this, Susan's work spans state government, federal government, and two universities working in postsecondary education and workforce readiness, advocating for system-wide change that bridges gaps in opportunity and increases access for learners of all ages. Join us as we discuss the future of personalized, competency-based pathways and the role of technology in transforming education systems to serve all learners more equitably.Susan Patrick is currently an independent consultant and author. Susan is the former President & CEO of Aurora Institute and iNACOL. She is the former Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. Prior, Patrick served as legislative liaison for Governor Hull from Arizona. She served as legislative staff on Capitol Hill. She is a Pahara-Aspen Institute Fellow and an USA Eisenhower Fellow. She was awarded the AECT System Change Leader Award 2020 for making significant contributions to the evolution of learning, demonstrating systems thinking and positive impact aligned to future-focused education. She was awarded a 2024 Women in AI Fellowship from EDSAFE. She can be reached in LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-patrick-0a90a64/ and in Twitter/X: https://x.com/susandpatrick?lang=en
Susan Patrick Bio Continued:
Susan Patrick is a deep content expert in education innovation who has garnered significant influence and impact within the field of K-12 education. With a track record of success, she has founded successful organizations, provided professional learning and advised federal, state, district and classroom leaders, convened global, state, and local leaders, and shaped policy conversations at the highest levels. As the former leader of Aurora Institute and iNACOL, Susan cultivated a membership base of practitioners in the thousands, solidifying both her own reputation and creating the largest community of active practitioners in a networked organization serving as a resource and a national force in educational change for advancing policy and breakthrough practices for innovation in education.
Her expertise has been sought by several presidential administrations (including being the former Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education) and numerous states, districts, and foreign governments, where she has played a pivotal role in rethinking and reshaping approaches to education transformation. Susan is globally recognized for her leadership in making educational opportunities more equitable and effective. She champions competency-based and personalized learning, advocating for approaches that support human-centered approaches to building skills and knowledge with flexibility, learning anytime, anywhere, over traditional "seat time" requirements. She has published 120 publications on online, blended, and competency-based learning. She grounds efforts in research on how people learn, aiming to modernize education on a scalable level to meet the needs of a changing world.
Throughout her career, Susan has been dedicated to breaking away from the industrial-age model of education, working tirelessly to provide greater access and better opportunities for success to a wider range of students of all ages throughout their lifetimes. Her work has supported the growth of successful online and place-based learning opportunities. In the face of resistance to educational innovation, Susan has demonstrated exceptional foresight, listening to concerns, building relationships, and organizing networks to advance important ideas and threshold concepts. She has catalyzed discussions about the future of education worldwide, influencing key stakeholders and shifting the conversation towards student-centered, personalized approaches.
Susan’s impact extends beyond vision; she possesses the capacity to engage with key stakeholders, effecting deep cultural change necessary for meaningful progress. Her dedication and persistence have empowered others to take ownership of these vital ideas, making her a true change leader in the field of education. As co-author of a necessary future, Susan continues to contribute to the ongoing evolution of education. Her work ensures a brighter future for learners and communities of all backgrounds, solidifying her legacy as a pioneering figure in educational innovation.
Aurora Institute: https://aurora-institute.org/Video (6:58): iNACOL Is Now the Aurora Institute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYLA9T_N6z8&t=1sGetting Smart Podcast: Susan Patrick on Transforming Education Systems for Equitable High-Quality Learning (August 28, 2019): https://www.gettingsmart.com/podcast/podcast-susan-patrick-on-transforming-education-systems-for-equitable-high-quality-learning/One Good Question with Susan Patrick: How Can We Build Trust in Our Education System? (December 16, 2016): https://aurora-institute.org/blog/one-good-question-with-susan-patrick-how-can-we-build-trust-in-our-education-system/ -
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As AI reshapes the landscape of the world, workforce, and education, there emerges an imperative for Hybrid Intelligence—where human and AI capabilities co-evolve to achieve more than either could alone. Understanding how humans interact, learn, and work with AI across modalities is becoming essential, especially within the multiverse, where digital, physical, and augmented realities converge, unlocking new possibilities for learning, interaction, and collaboration.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we live, work, and learn, creating significant changes in the workforce, education, and society. In education, AI is increasingly integrated to facilitate personalized learning experiences, as discussed in the OECD Digital Education Outlook 2023, which outlines the necessity for adapting pedagogical models to embrace these evolving technologies and prepare the workforce for this era. This rapid shift brings the need for Hybrid Intelligence, where humans and AI work together to achieve more than either could alone. Hybrid Intelligence combines human abilities - like creativity, empathy, and ethical thinking - with AI's computational power, precision, and data processing speed. This approach is not just about working together but evolving together.
As Hybrid Intelligence continues to develop, understanding the nature of human-AI interactions across multiple modalities becomes increasingly critical. These interactions are not limited to text and speech but extend into rich, multimodal environments where gestures, visual cues, and even emotional responses come into play. Within the multiverse - a convergence of digital, physical, and augmented realities - these evolving interactions take on new dynamics and dimensions. The multiverse brings forth opportunities to innovate how we learn, work, and collaborate. Educational environments are no longer restricted to a classroom or a digital platform; they are expanded into immersive spaces where physical and virtual worlds merge, allowing entirely new forms of interaction. These hybrid environments offer unprecedented possibilities for experiential learning, critical thinking, and collective knowledge construction. Understanding how to optimize these interactions will be key to harnessing the full potential of Hybrid Intelligence in the years to come and that is what we hope to build in our team https://www.letxresearch.com/home
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-digital-education-outlook-2023_c74f03de-en.htmlAbout our guests
Andy Nguyen is an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in Hybrid Intelligence: Human-AI Co-evolution and Learning in Multi-realities (HI) profiling program and working at the Learning & Educational Technology (LET) Research Lab, Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Oulu, Finland. He holds the title of Docent (Adjunct Professor) in Applied Artificial Intelligence at the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE) at the same university. He is also a Research Council of Finland (formerly Academy of Finland) Postdoctoral Research Fellow. His work has been published in well-known journals and conference proceedings in the field of Educational Technology and Information Systems (IS), including in Studies in Higher Education and the European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS) (Basket of Eight IS Journal, A*-ranked under ABDC list). He is currently a co-chair of the Advances in Teaching and Learning Technologies minitrack at Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), an Associate Editor of ICIS2024 “Digital Learning and IS Curricula” track, an Editorial Advisory Board Member of Artificial Intelligence in Education (Emerald), an Associate Editor of the journal of Policy Futures in Education, and an Editorial Board Member of British Journal of Educational Technology.
Research Team Website: https://www.letxresearch.com/homeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andynguyenxuan/Belle Dang is a researcher at the Learning & Educational Technology Research Unit (LET) at the University of Oulu, where she focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and education. Her work investigates how AI can enhance learning environments, particularly through understanding and supporting how learners regulate their own learning processes. Her business background has shaped her interest in conducting research that not only advances theoretical understanding but also has practical applications with real-world impact.
Research Team Website: https://www.letxresearch.com/homeORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8734-6697.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belle-dang-402252b0/ -
Teenagers in Nepal have been learning from massive open online education (MOOCs) for much of the past decade. That use accelerated during the pandemic. Several of these young learners appeared on Silver Lining for Learning for Episode 33 in back October 24, 2020 and will return for this episode to give us an update on the benefits and challenges of MOOCs on their lives during the past four years. Attend this episode of SLL and learn how MOOCs and open educational resources can make a difference at the K-12 level. More about our guests below the video.
Richa Suri: Richa completed high school and now preparing for the earning a placement at a US institution. Amazingly, she ran two workshops on taking MOOCs for the teachers and students in her district last year. It had the participation of around 70 participants.
Sneha Adhikari: She completed her high school and now is studying Software Engineering at Pokhara University, Nepal. She has been fortunate enough to learn from Massive Open Online Courses since she was in Grade 10 and used them for her studies at her undergraduate level too.
Bivushi (Manushi) Timilsina is originally from Pokhara, Nepal. She is now a sophomore at Sweet Briar College, majoring in Engineering Science with a 4.0 GPA. Last year, she was honored with the Emerging Leader Award (2023-2024) during the annual Student Involvement Recognition Ceremony. Over the summer, she became the first-ever counselor from Nepal at Kennolyn Camps, serving as a STEM counselor. Recently, she received the Emilie Watts McVea Scholar Award (2024-2025), given to the highest-ranking member of each class. She is also involved on campus through leadership roles such as Vice President of the Multicultural Communities Council, Resident Advisor, and Communication Lead for the Google Developer Student Club, among others. This semester, she is exploring courses in Cybersecurity and Web Development through CodePath, deepening her passion for tech and community engagement.
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The NSF AI Institute for Engaged Learning with James Lester, Guatam Biswas, and Kip Glazer
This episode will feature the NSF-funded National AI Institute for Engaged Learning (EngageAI). The EngageAI Institute is one of the five education-focused AI Institutes supported by the National Science Foundation’s National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes Program. The EngageAI Institute is guided by a vision of learning that supports and extends the capabilities of students and teachers with AI. The Institute conducts research on narrative-centered learning technologies, collaborative narrative-centered learning, and multimodal analysis of engaged learning to create deeply compelling story-based learning experiences. Driven by a learner-centered vision of AI-augmented learning, the Institute develops learning environments that create narrative-centered learning experiences designed to promote student engagement. The Institute’s AI-enabled narrative-centered learning environments build on rapid advances in AI spanning natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning. Woven throughout the Institute’s activities is a strong focus on ethics, with an emphasis on creating AI-augmented learning that is deeply informed by considerations of fairness, accountability, transparency, trust, and privacy.
This episode will feature a discussion of AI-enabled narrative centered learning, collaborative narrative-centered learning, and multimodal learning analytics. The discussion will explore how narrative-centered learning capabilities draw on emerging advances in large language models to create interactive narrative planning and generation technologies as well as emerging narrative-centered learning authoring technologies that leverage generative AI to support both authoring and customization that will enable designers and educators to meet the specific needs of their students, classrooms, curricula, and research programs. It will also include a discussion of the Institute’s advances in core AI technologies that support its design and development of narrative-centered learning environments, as well as a discussion of the Institute’s connections with diverse stakeholders that ensure that the learning environments it creates promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Readings and Resources
James Lester, Mohit Bansal, Gautam Biswas, Cindy Hmelo-Silver, Jeremy Roschelle, and Jonathan Rowe. The AI Institute for Engaged Learning. AI Magazine, 45(1), 69-76, 2024.
Episode Guests
James Lester
James Lester is the Goodnight Distinguished University Professor in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at North Carolina State University. He is the Director of the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Engaged Learning. His research centers on transforming education with artificial intelligence. His current work ranges from AI-driven narrative-centered learning environments and virtual agents for learning to multimodal learning analytics and sketch-based learning environments. He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, four Best Paper Awards, and the International Federation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Influential Paper Award. At North Carolina State University, he has been recognized with the Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award, the Outstanding Teacher Award, and the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. He is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
Gautam Biswas
Gautam Biswas is a Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering and Professor of Computer Science and Computer Engineering in the Department of Computer Science at Vanderbilt University, where he is also a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Software Integrated Systems. He is Co-PI of the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Engaged Learning. His research focuses on AI-enabled learning technologies, including open-ended learning environments for learning and instruction in STEM domains. He has developed innovative learning analytics frameworks for studying students’ learning behaviors and linking them to their metacognitive and self-regulated learning strategies. His current work focuses on multimodal learning analytics. He is on the editorial board of International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. He is a Fellow of the IEEE Computer Society, the Prognostics and Health Management Society, and the Asia Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
Kip Glazer
Dr. Kip Glazer is Principal of Mountain View High School in Mountain View, California. She is a native of Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated to the United States in 1993 as a college student. In 2002, she graduated Cum Laude from California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. She earned her Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Chapman University in 2004, while receiving her California Single Subject Teaching Credential in both Social Studies and English. Since then, she has earned additional teaching credentials in Health, Foundational Mathematics, and School Administration. She earned a Doctorate in Learning Technologies from Pepperdine University in 2015. She has won numerous teaching and service awards. Most notably, she was named the Kern County Teacher of the Year in May of 2014. She received the 23rd Congressional District of California Inspirational High School Educator Award in May of 2015. In June of 2016, she won The Best of NMC Judges' Award from the New Media Consortium Idea Lab. She has appeared numerous on podcasts such as Principals of Success and Politico.
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Hosts reflect with Chris Dede, Yong Zhao, Lydia Cao & Punya Mishra
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The iSAT National AI Institute with Thomas Breideband, William R. Penuel, and Mai T. Vu
“What should the classroom of the future look like? And what is the role of AI in these classrooms of the future?” These are central questions studied by researchers at the NSF National AI Institute for Student-AI Teaming (iSAT). Research on how people learn has converged toward a perspective of learning as fundamentally interactive, collaborative, and supported by tasks that are authentic to students’ identities and interests. Yet, dominant approaches to learning—and by extension the incorporation of artificial intelligence in education (i.e., AIED)—still primarily operate with a vision where students individually interact with technology that “optimizes” learning. iSAT aims to reframe the role of AI in education, expanding from a current emphasis on intelligent tools supporting personalized learning through unimodal, individualized, unidimensional, instruction toward a future where AI is viewed as a social, collaborative AI Partner.
In iSAT’s envisioned future, classrooms have been transformed into knowledge-building communities, where student-AI teams engage in inquiry, critical thinking, and collaborative problem-solving as they investigate a scientific phenomenon, solve real-world problems, or develop solutions to a design challenge. Distinguishing characteristics of these communities are the ways in which teachers, students, and AI Partners systematically construct conversations that probe deep and sustained reasoning, enable all students to share and build on each other’s ideas, and collaboratively solve challenging problems. Yet, the field of AI currently lacks methods and processes to ensure that AI technologies reflect the needs, interests, and values of diverse community stakeholders. Accordingly, in this episode we chat with two members of the iSAT research team as well as a teacher practitioner about their experiences developing and navigating the emerging research field of Student-AI teaming.
Readings and Resources: [anything interested folks can reference ahead of the Episode]
From Learning Optimization to Learner Flourishing: Reimagining AI in Education at the Institute for Student-AI Teaming (iSAT)
Episode Guests
William R. Penuel is a professor of learning sciences and human development in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. His current research examines conditions needed to implement rigorous, responsive, and equitable teaching practices in STEM education. With colleagues from across the country, he is developing and testing new models for supporting implementation through long-term partnerships between educators and researchers. Currently, Penuel has partnerships with large school districts and a national association of state science coordinators focused on implementing the vision of science education outlined in a Framework for K-12 Science Education. As a co-Principal Investigator of the Research+Practice Collaboratory, he is developing resources to help people build and sustain research-practice partnerships. Penuel is currently Principal Investigator for the National Center for Research in Policy and Practice, which is focused on how school and district leaders use research. He is one of the developers of an approach to improvement research called Design-Based Implementation Research.
Thomas Breideband is an Associate Director at the NSF Institute for student AI-Teaming (iSAT). He is also a research associate who leverages his interdisciplinary background to support research conducted in each Strand and to conduct internal research studies that facilitate better cross-strand collaborations. In addition to investigating how the integration of Artificial Intelligence in the classroom affects the user experience, Breideband studies how iSAT’s in-house AI Partner may also meaningfully support collaborations beyond the classroom. He holds PhDs in English and Cultural Studies with a focus on Rhetoric and Digital Media from Georgia State University and Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz (Germany).
Mai T. Vu, J.D., is the AI Program Manager at the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley School District in the greater Denver area. With a decade of teaching experience in both the US and Singapore, she leads initiatives to integrate artificial intelligence into educational programs, fostering innovation and preparing students to solve real world problems with AI.
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The INVITE AI Institute with Charity Freeman, H. Chad Lane, and Blair Lehman
In this episode, we discuss the NSF-IES INVITE AI Institute that seeks to address the question of how AI-enabled educational technologies can address the grand challenge of “Education for All”? The INVITE Institute is motivated by the pressing need to address educational inequities and broaden participation in STEM fields, particularly for underserved and underrepresented students. By developing AI-driven learning technologies that support not only cognitive skills but also crucial noncognitive factors such as persistence, academic resilience, and collaboration, INVITE seeks to create more inclusive and effective learning environments. The institute's research goals include advancing foundational AI techniques in areas like machine learning, natural language processing, and adaptive systems, while simultaneously applying these innovations to create personalized, culturally responsive learning experiences that foster both academic success and personal growth. INVITE research focuses on formal K-12 STEM education with deep involvement of teachers and partnering organizations who are engaged in research with the INVITE team.
Beyond its core research agenda, the INVITE Institute is committed to extensive outreach and community engagement. INVITE is working to build capacity for AI in education through teacher training programs, undergraduate research experiences, and partnerships with K-12 schools and community organizations. The institute's efforts extend to creating a diverse pipeline of future AI researchers and practitioners through initiatives like summer internships for underrepresented students and the development of new AI-focused courses at the university level. By bridging cutting-edge AI research with evidence-based educational practices, the INVITE Institute aims to make a lasting impact on STEM education, ultimately working towards a future where all students have the opportunity to thrive in an increasingly technology-driven world.
More resources and information about our guests below the video.
https://youtu.be/upeaq2xI7PM
Readings and Resources:
http://invite.illinois.eduhttps://invite.illinois.edu/publications/Some resources that inspired us:https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/teaching-adolescents-become-learners-role-noncognitive-factors-shaping-schoolhttps://paultough.com/how-children-succeed/https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262533461/stuck-in-the-shallow-end/Episode Guests
Charity Freeman serves as K-12 CS Education Advisor and Community Engagement Lead at the INVITE AI Institute. As a certified high school CS teacher, professional development facilitator, and curriculum developer, she brings a wealth of expertise and perspective to the co-design processes of INVITE’s research agenda. Her work as a teacher educator and research advisor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign involves strategizing broadening participation in computing (BPC) initiatives to improve equitable access and outcomes in CS education throughout the state.
Charity is a Governor-appointed member of the Illinois P-20 Council, as well as a Co-Chair of its statewide task force on Scaling Equitable CS Education. She also serves as Chairperson and Teacher Education Representative for the Computer Science Teachers Association’s (CSTA) national Board of Directors.
Chad Lane is a Professor of Educational Psychology and Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is also the Associate Chair in the Department of Educational Psychology and the Director of the NSF INVITE AI Institute. Chad’s research focuses on the design, use, and impacts of intelligent technologies for informal STEM learning. He has over 100 publications in a variety of areas, including intelligent tutoring, educational games, computer science education, and narrative-based learning environments. Broadly, his work involves blending techniques from the entertainment industry (that foster engagement) with those from artificial intelligence and intelligent tutoring systems (that promote learning), as well as running studies to better understand whether and how the resulting learning experiences impact learners. His PhD is in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh (2004), and prior to joining UIUC, he spent ten years as a research scientist and Director of Learning Sciences Research at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. He can be reached at [email protected]. For more on Chad, see http://hchadlane.net.
Blair Lehman is a Research Scientist in the Personalized Assessment area of the Research Institute at ETS and serves as the co-lead of the Learner Modeling research strand on INVITE. Blair’s research focuses on understanding students’ experiences with educational activities (assessment, learning) and leveraging that knowledge to design tasks that promote positive experiences (e.g., engagement), provide personalized support to facilitate recovery from negative experiences, and leverage knowledge of students’ experiences to provide contextualized feedback reports. These different lines of research come together in the Culturally Enhanced Caring Assessments framework that has guided my research since 2017 and seeks to provide personalized educational experiences that consider who the student is outside of the activity through understanding of their personal, social, cultural, and linguistic characteristics along with their experience completing the activity.
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Open Education at Scale: Stories from the Open University of China
Anyone seeking a degree from a higher education institution today realizes that learning is more open and available (often for free) with the push of a button or blink of an eye. Not surprisingly, there are seemingly countless words that have sprung up to describe this increasingly "open" world. There are open access journals, open educational resources (OER), opencourseware (OCW), open teaching, open pedagogy, open educational services, open education practices, open-source software, and open universities. Clearly, there is a push toward open forms of education. This newfound sea of openness is moving us from an age of information scarcity to one of information abundance. Enter the Open University of China (OUC). The OUC is one of the largest open universities in the world, with an enrollment of five million adult learners for higher education and 20 million elderly learners. The OUC is dedicated to providing its learners with a wide range of educational opportunities and learning resources. The advance of digitalization has brought many opportunities for the development of the OUC, and challenges as well. We will share our understanding of these opportunities and challenges in this episode. We will also present an AI-supported language English teaching innovation project initiated by the Faculty of Foreign Languages at OUC. The project aims to promote large-scale and personalized learning with the integration of AI technologies. Join us for Episode #206 of Silver Lining for Learning and discover what makes OUC so unique and important in the lives of millions of people.
Dr Li Wei is an associate researcher and serves as Director of Department of Learning Resources of the Open University of China, and Deputy Secretary General of the Scientific Research Institute Working Committee of the Chinese Association of Adult Education. Her research areas include lifelong learning, online education, and digital resources. Dr. Li Wei has published five monographs, including "OECD and the Development of Lifelong Learning for All" and "Comparative Study of the World Open Universities." She has published more than 30 SSCI and CSSCI papers, led 6 national projects from the Ministry of Education, and participated in the drafting of more than 10 policies on lifelong education and continuing education. Dr. Li Wei won the Best Paper Award of the 26th ICDE World Congress and the National Young Adult Education Academic Scholar in China. She can be reached at: [email protected].
Dr. Qi Li is Vice-Chair of the Department of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages, at the Open University of China. She is a lecturer of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). She teaches EFL courses to both English and non-English majors at college levels. Qi Li’s research focuses on technology-enhanced language teaching and learning, CALL teacher education, and AI and open education. Before that, she received her PhD from Indiana University Bloomington, U.S.A., where she majored in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, and minored in Instructional System Technology. Her dissertation project was a design-based research study of building an optimal language learning environment by integrating multiple technologies to support authentic input, sufficient output, timely feedback, and personalized learning. Dr. Qi Li can be reached be at [email protected] or at [email protected].
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AI is changing the world of business as fast, if not more so, as the world of education. In Episode #205 of Silver Lining for Learning, Dr. Shameem Farouk will discuss how AI is being used at Maybank in Malaysia to reskill and upskill the workforce. There is a growing need to reconceptualize and recontextualize understandings of how employees engage in the learning process to keep up with the ever-increasing demands on their skill sets and expertise. We will discuss how Generative AI tools and platforms like ChatGPT are now being employed such as with rich cases and simulations for the business world. The conversation may also move to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in building an inclusive future ready organizational culture and workforce.
Shameem Farouk graduated Indiana University with a Ph.D. in Instructional Systems Technology (IST) and an MBA from Kelly SoB, in 2010. From 2013-2016, she was a Senior Talent Specialist at Axiata in Malaysia in change of group-wide talent management accountability which involved the identification and development of high potential leaders. She is now the Executive Vice-President and Head of Digital Skills Development, Malayan Banking Berhad, Malaysia. In this role, she is responsible for the development and implementation of the Group's FutureReady programme which was the first Digital mass up-skilling programme launched among financial institutions in Malaysia. In August 2022, Shameem presented in the first Global and International Engagement webinar at Indiana University of 2022-2023 in August, entitled, “Empowering Malaysian women in the FutureReady Workforce.” She is currently conducting research on innovative methods to accelerate Workforce Learning and Development in the U.S. as part of the U.S. State Department's Fulbright Research Programme. See video on Empowering Malaysia Women in the Future of Work (with Shameem Farouk and Curt Bonk; 1:01:54: https://youtu.be/z5QRT_XTeh0
Dr. Farouk is an organizational development practitioner-researcher in the Banking industry based in Malaysia with a regional leadership role in the Southeast Asian region. She has been conducting a variety of professional development (PD) programs for Human Resource and Organizational Development practitioners in the areas of organizational change management, organizational culture development, and instructional development training in Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Additionally, with the advent of digitalization she has implemented and trained human resource professionals on the adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the Human Resources and Learning functions. For more on Shameem, see https://www.linkedin.com/in/shameemfarouk/
Philip M. Parker is a Professor of Marketing at INSEAD and the INSEAD Chaired Professor of Management Science. Before joining INSEAD, he was a Professor of International Strategy and Economics at the University of California, San Diego. He has taught at Harvard University, MIT, Stanford University, and UCLA, and delivered courses in various countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, North America, and Europe. He has degrees in Finance and Economics, and a PhD from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
He is an economist and his research explores why existing theories governing macroeconomic growth and firm level competition yield unreliable forecasts of actual market outcomes. He introduced the idea that physical sciences (physics and physiology) should be directly integrated into macroeconomics. His contrarian research concludes that certain economic development measures, such as income per capita, can dramatically exaggerate the levels of poverty in a country, but also be poor indicators of future economic growth. Some of his work was published in his book Marketing Management: A Strategic Decision-Making Approach and Physioeconomics: The Basis for Long-Run Economic Growth (MIT Press, 2000) in which he forecasts global economic and demographic trends to the year 2100. He argues that critical economic axioms violate laws of physics and shows that convergence across nations is unlikely, if not impossible, in the long run. Free markets will, however, allow countries to converge to similar levels of well-being across individuals, but at dramatically different levels of income-based consumption (i.e. low-income countries may remain so, but will not be “poorer” than high-income countries) provided that citizens are given economic liberty. Wealth redistribution, from “richer” countries to “poorer” countries, in these cases, is not justified for the sake of “poverty reduction”, and may actually increase poverty.
He has also studied how firms generate market inefficiencies by relying on common forms of information asymmetry (creating markets for “sweet lemons” where low-quality products drive higher-quality products from the market, at higher prices). His work also debunks the notion that allowing more competitors in regulated markets (e.g. telecommunications) will lead to competition if remaining firms are allowed to cross-own or vertically integrate. His work has appeared in the leading journals including Rand Journal of Economics and the International Journal of Industrial Organization. For more details on Phillip Parker, see https://www.insead.edu/faculty/philip-m-parker
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Episode #204 of Silver Lining for Learning will explore global citizenship education (GCE) broadly, and education on the Thai/Myanmar border specifically. Andrew Swindell and Wanida Lertvorapreecha Chong will discuss how migrant and ethnic-minority communities access quality and inclusive education on the Thai/Myanmar border as well as a few specific projects that they have worked on together. During their collaborations, they have examined how global, national, and local citizenship themes are represented in curriculum materials being used in schools with migrant students along the Thai/Myanmar border. In their research, they have found that Thai government school materials are strongly oriented towards national Thai citizenship whereas the internationally produced Open Education Resources (OERs) digital materials are more oriented towards global citizenship. In addition, they have written a digital GCE K-6 curriculum that is currently being used in migrant learning centers (MLCs) along the border. Importantly, during the SLL episode, Wanida and Andrew will talk about the curriculum development process and what GCE looks like in the context of migration. In addition, they will discuss mixed-methods program impact research they collaborated on over the past year on Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) initiatives across northern Thailand. Finally, Wanida wrote her dissertation on multicultural education and GCE focusing on this region, and will speak to the larger education situation there, particularly around migrant and ethnic-minority access to quality and inclusive education.
Andrew Swindell has over 15 years of experience in international development, education, and research, and is passionate about advancing inclusive and quality education for all learners. He holds a PhD in Social Science and Comparative Education from UCLA and has worked in both online and in-person settings across the USA, Bangladesh, Liberia, Thailand, and Myanmar, specializing in emergency and forced migration contexts. He has published on topics like AI, digital literacy, education in emergencies, and curriculum studies in both popular and academic outlets, demonstrating an ability to convey rigorous evidence-based findings and complex ideas in varied formats for different audiences. He currently serves as a Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) consultant with education NGOs based in Thailand where he investigates multilingual education for migrant and ethnic-minority students. He has also worked as a K-12 teacher and his other research interests include online and digital learning, AI, and global citizenship. His career has been driven by a commitment to making education work better for all people, guided by principles of compassion and human dignity. More on Andrew can be found in LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/swindellandrew/ and he can be contacted at: [email protected].
Wanida Lertvorapreecha Chong is currently a part-time lecturer at Maejo University, in the North of Thailand with seven years of full-time position teaching experience working at the Faculty of Liberal Arts. She is from Thailand and earned her PhD in Multicultural Education from Chiang Mai University. Her work focuses on the study of migrant education and global citizenship education on the border of Thailand and Myanmar. She enjoys collaborating with migrant teachers in designing the Thai curriculum that is meaningful and relevant to the migrant community. She has served as a board member for Child Dream Foundation and been actively coordinating with any projects related to migrant education. Wanida aspires to work as an International Student and Scholar Services Advisor (ISSS) in Florida. You can find out more about Wanida at https://www.linkedin.com/in/wanida-chong-58aa13255/ and she can be contacted at: [email protected].
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The REALM is working to redefine what school means by offering real-world project-based classes, taught by teachers passionate about their subject matter, offered on a flexible basis, enabling families to build weekly schedules that work best for them, in an environment that will soon enable coworking for parents alongside the co-learning options for kids. For 13 years, The REALM has served kids ages 5-15 with classes offered in age bands or skill levels, not traditional grade levels. With over 110 current families in west Los Angeles and dozens on a waitlist, The REALM is working to expand into larger space, add a high school program in the fall and begin replicating the program design in other cities nationally.
As moms, friends, and educators, Jessica & Victoria came together in 2009 to design a new school model that would better serve the needs of individual students, offer creative and flexible solutions for families, and provide a safe space for teachers to truly teach what, how and when they wanted - all while building a physical space and community that is more reflective of a village than of a traditional school. They started with 1 student and through a lot of hard work and sweat equity, they have grown The REALM to be sustainable - serving over 3500 families over the past 14 years. As they say, on their website:
The REALM stands for our transformational goal: Redesigning Education and Living Meaningfully. Walking in, you can feel the difference in the fluid design or our spaces, the excitement of our teachers, and the sheer joy in the kids. Parents have freedom to create their children’s schedule, students take classes they are genuinely interested in, and our students score widely above “grade level” on Standardized Tests such as the Star 360 (conducted through charter schools) in core academic subjects. 100% of our graduates are now attending their high school or program of choice, with some rising 9th graders jumping straight into college courses.
Families come to The REALM seeking a learning environment for their kids and a community for their families where they feel heard, trusted, valued, and loved. They are looking for a choice in how, when and what their kids are learning and seek a customized educational experience. They are looking for passionate, inspiring teachers and relevant, experiential classes. Parents are frustrated with the outdated educational model that no longer serves our students or their future success and happiness. Parents want their children to be seen and treated as the unique individuals that they are, filled with possibility rather than a sum of test scores and grades. Parents want their children to be on a pursuit of discovery of their own strengths, passion and interests and be allowed to try on various learning styles and preferences.
At REALM, we offer customized experiential learning. Families have freedom, and every schedule is centered around the students and what they are interested in learning that semester. We actively help kids find their strengths and understand their areas of struggle. Students are not given labels to define their learning preferences or unique abilities. We do not issue grades or scores. Kids demonstrate learning through projects, written essays, spoken word performances, science projects - we value and showcase real-world knowledge.
The REALM trusts kids and families to discern for themselves who they are, what they need to learn, and which choices will contribute to their sense of living a meaningful life. We trust their self-determination and curiosity. We trust that their varied ways of knowing are valid, and their interdisciplinary interests add richness to our shared worlds.
Check out their website at at: www.realmlearning.com and on Instagram: @realmlearning
Our guests
Jessica Slayback, Co-Founder/Director
Jessica Slayback, a pioneer in non-traditional education, believes that we have the urgent responsibility to reinvent how we educate our children. Immediately after graduating from The University of Chicago, summa cum laude, Slayback taught 4th grade for two years in Harlem with Teach for America while obtaining her Master’s in Education. Through her 20+ years of experience in public, charter, independent, and private schools, Jessica has developed and run youth theater programs within inner city schools in Chicago and NYC, created and implemented a 6-12 grade Music and Theater Curriculum for North Star Academy, obtained a grant to travel with Newark High School students to New Zealand and spearheaded the development of a thriving K/1 program in Santa Monica.
Witnessing sparks of greatness and moments of brilliance when children are honored for who they are and are presented with opportunities in which to shine led her in 2009 to develop and co-found The REALM Creative Academy. This thriving center combines a unique and innovative approach to education. It offers creative and diverse educational experiences, igniting students’ minds with a passion for learning while allowing students to guide and shape their educational journey. While raising two beautiful boys with her video game designer husband, Sean, she relentlessly strives to innovate education to promote the growth of aware, empathetic, joyful, creative, purpose-driven humans.
Victoria Forsman, Co-Founder/Director
Victoria is a person who has a vision for greatness in all things and believes that change and creative freedom can guide us toward new levels of accomplishment. After graduating from Stevens College with a BA in Early Childhood Education, she received her MA in Education and Administration at Loyola Marymount. Throughout her 13 years in alternative education, she has recognized trends, disparities, successes, and the promise of education. She has witnessed schools producing successful lifelong learners and struggling to reach and inspire students during their journey. She has watched and experienced the roller coaster of trends impacting schools in Los Angeles, realizing the uphill battle many schools face. She has joined fellow professionals in the classroom, hearing their commitment, passions, and frustrations about the school system and its bureaucracy.
Victoria has discovered what works the best; a diverse, rich, individualized, supportive learning experience in which learning is meaningful, accessible, relevant, and memorable. She believes that when individuals diversify their experiences and dabble in every area simultaneously and with support, academics, leadership, arts, outdoors, structure, creative freedom, participation, observation, research, organization, problem-solving, processing emotions, and taking risks, it paves the way for pretty extraordinary people. Unfortunately, too few of these opportunities exist in a supported setting. It is because of this need that Victoria is committed to redesigning education. She passionately experiments with ideas and programs, encouraging a love of life and learning.
Hayden Harrower, High School Founder/Assistant Director
After studying instructional and small-group communication at San Diego State University for his master's program, Hayden began his teaching career in the university and community college ranks. After seeing so many students struggle to manage the workload like he had as a student, he began dreaming of a better way to prepare teenagers for the transition into adulthood and higher learning. After coaching hundreds of students to manage themselves better outside of class, he took a job working in an education department at a substance abuse and mental health program for young adults. Through this program, Hayden coached young adults into rebuilding their lives from the ground up, teaching them the necessary executive function skills while boosting their own beliefs about themselves to pursue what they found meaningful. Hayden continued this work when he transitioned to a facility that focused on high school students struggling with acute mental health issues. Hayden designed and led a program to help high schoolers regain confidence in approaching schoolwork, develop new work processes to better handle the load, and help them identify passions and interests to motivate them through the hard times.
After almost five years of helping countless students and families, Hayden arrived at REALM in the summer of 2023 where he is setting out to expand REALM into the high school ages, creating a program that is just as flexible and choice-driven while meeting the specific needs of high school students and the differing pathways they can enter. Overall, Hayden is focused on creating a "meaning-centered" high school experience, that will not only better prepare students for the world they enter, but will be a much more engaging and fulfilling journey as well.
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Ep 202 | Hosts reflect with Chris Dede, Curt Bonk & Lydia Cao
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As we kick off our 201st episode of the Silver Lining for Learning (SLL) webinar series, we're turning our attention to the future of education. Over the past 200 episodes, we've explored a wide range of topics and heard from educators, innovators, and learners from around the globe. Now, it's time to look ahead and imagine what's next for learning in our rapidly changing world. This episode will dive into some critical questions: How will technology shape the classrooms of tomorrow? What new approaches to teaching and learning are on the horizon? How can we ensure that education becomes more equitable and inclusive as it evolves?
To help us tackle these big questions, we've brought together four guests who are each making waves in different areas of educational research and scholarship. From rethinking how we use technology in schools to exploring new ways of training teachers, from leveraging AI for personalized learning to reimagining educational spaces, our panel has a wealth of insights to share. We'll hear from Dr. Marie Heath, Dr. Merve Basdogan, Dr. Seyedahmad Rahimi, and Priyank Sharma - each bringing their unique experiences and perspectives to the conversation. Join us for what promises to be a lively and thought-provoking discussion about where education is headed and how we can all play a part in shaping its future.
Our guests
Dr. Merve Basdogan is an Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the College of Education, Texas Tech University. As a post-phenomenological scholar, Merve’s research focuses on a diverse array of topics, including the philosophy of technology, technology-enhanced teaching and learning environments, critical AI literacy, digital ethics, and cyberbullying. In 2023, Dr. Basdogan was awarded an AT&T Foundation Grant for her project, "Fostering Digital Literacy in Rural Communities: A University Student-led Technology Mentoring Program," which connects adults over 65 with teacher candidates in west Texas.
https://www.depts.ttu.edu/education/our-people/Faculty/merve_basdogan.php
https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/settings?trk=d_flagship3_profile_self_view_public_profileDr. Marie Heath (she/her) is not a robot, but she refuses to prove it to Google’s CAPTCHA. She currently works as an Associate Professor of Learning Design and Technology at Loyola University Maryland. Prior to her work in higher education, Marie taught high school social studies in Baltimore County Public Schools. Her scholarship interrogates schools and technologies as current sites of encoded oppression, and labors to advance more just technological and educational futures. She is co-editor of the CITE Social Studies Journal, co-founder of the Civics of Technology project, and a faculty fellow at the Center for Leadership and Social Justice Education at Loyola University Maryland. If you ask generative AI a question about Marie, it replies with the Mariah Carey “I don’t know her” meme.
https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-heath-a26870240/Dr. Seyedahmad Rahimi is an Assistant Professor of Educational Technology at the University of Florida, where he directs the Game-based Assessment & Measurement in Education (GAME) Lab. His research enhances students' 21st-century skills, focusing on creativity, and STEM knowledge, focusing on physics, through technology-rich learning environments (e.g., educational games) using Stealth Assessment, Learning Analytics, and AI models. He holds a Ph.D. in Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies and M.S. in Educational Measurement and Statistics from Florida State University, and an M.A. from Multimedia University, Malaysia. Dr. Rahimi has extensive experience in instructional design, funded projects by IES and NSF, and has published and presented widely in top journals and conferences. His accolades include the Diane E. Haines Teaching Excellence Award from UF’s college of Education and recognition as one of the “rising stars” of creativity research by the Creativity Research Journal, where he now serves as an Associate Editor. He also consulted for the PISA 2021 Creative Thinking Assessment. Dr. Rahimi's AI in education work creates adaptive learning environments, supporting real-time, personalized student assessment and learning.
https://education.ufl.edu/faculty/rahimi-seyedahmad-ahmad/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yDnHbAMAAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/seyedahmad-rahimi-3870a673/Priyank Sharma, an engineer turned educator, is a faculty at Indus Training and Research Institute where he trains teachers of IB and Cambridge Boards. Pursuing a Ph.D. in Education Policy at NIEPA, Priyank focuses on the "Grammar of Schooling" in alternative educational spaces. Priyank's career is marked by significant contributions to educational research, policy analysis, and grassroot implementation. Beyond academia, Priyank has played pivotal roles in various educational initiatives. His work at OpenCurriculum involved building edtech products aimed at enhancing curriculum and instruction delivery and learning science research for K-12 education. Priyank is an ambassador for HundrED, a global organization focused on educational innovation. And, he also serves as an advisor to organizations like CITTA India, and CoLab, where he mentors teams to create equitable and inclusive educational experiences.
priyankeducator.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyankeducator/ -
Celebrating our 200th episode of the Silver Lining for Learning (SLL) webinar series is a milestone that speaks for itself. Over the past four years, we've had the privilege of hosting educators, students, and innovators from around the world, sharing insights on the future of learning and the role of technology in education. Guests have come from countries around the world and every educational sector with many utilizing forms of digitally enhanced learning and instruction to make a significant local or global impact. Notably, these podcast episodes are now more accessible to people on the go, since they can be listened to while engaging in other tasks, rather than watched over YouTube. This expansion in educational delivery formats has allowed for greater visibility for SLL across the globe.
Thus far, the guests have included prominent educators, educational leaders, practitioners from Facebook (now Meta), Google for Education, the World Bank, UNESCO, Sesame Street, Contact North in Ontario, Quality Matters, several open universities, and many others. These guests have come from places like Italy, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Bhutan, Myanmar, Antarctica, Finland, the UK, France, Bangladesh, Egypt, China, Canada, Chile, Afghanistan, Australia, Greece, Peru, New Zealand, Korea, Israel, Gaza, Mexico, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Nepal, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Thailand. SLL has touched on a broad range of topics including student autonomy and self-determination, remote learning, novel learning organizations, pioneering curricula and programs, school reform, grassroots innovations in teaching and learning, cross-cultural collaboration, and assorted ground-breaking pedagogical and technological inventions. No matter the location, topic, or initiative featured, each episode has contributed to a rich tapestry of knowledge and experience.
Some of the most exciting shows have featured passionate students working on meaningful projects while others have shown the spotlight on award-winning educators pioneering creative teaching methods and emerging digital technologies in challenging environments. Each conversation has offered a unique perspective on transforming education, making these 200 episodes a valuable resource for anyone interested in the evolving landscape of learning. As we celebrate this milestone, we look forward to continuing these important conversations and inspiring change in the education community.
We feel most fortunate to have had SLL recognized for several awards and recognitions over the past couple of years. It is hard to believe that we are in the fifth season of SLL. Each episode requires extensive planning, networking, coordination, and creativity.
This episode is also a testament to the dedication and synergy of our hosting team: Chris Dede, Curt Bonk, Punya Mishra, and Yong Zhao. Not to be forgotten are two of our starter members Shuangye Chen and Scott McLeod. And last but not the least, our newest co-host Lydia Cao. Over these four years, we've thoroughly enjoyed collaborating on this entirely unfunded project, driven by our shared passion for education and curiosity about the future of learning. Each episode has been a labor of love, reflecting our commitment to exploring and sharing innovative ideas in education.
For our 200th episode, we are thrilled to welcome two distinguished emeritus faculty members, David Berliner from Arizona State University and Tom Reeves from the University of Georgia. David is renowned for his extensive research in educational psychology and has significantly contributed to understanding teaching and learning processes. Tom Reeves, a leading figure in educational technology, has dedicated his career to improving educational practice through innovative research and development. Their participation will not only help us celebrate this milestone but also provide valuable insights and wisdom, enhancing our discussions on the future of education.
About our guests
David BerlinerDavid Berliner is a Regents Professor Emeritus in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College in the division of educational leadership and policy studies. He has taught at the universities of Arizona and Massachusetts, and Stanford University, as well as at universities in Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland. Professor Berliner is a member of the National Academy of Education, a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and a past president of both the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Division of Educational Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA). He is the recipient of awards for distinguished contributions from APA, AERA, and the National Education Association (NEA). He received the AERA's Outstanding Public Communication of Education Research Award in 2016.
Professor Berliner has authored more than 200 published articles, technical reports, and book chapters. Among his well-recognized works is the best seller "The manufactured crisis," coauthored (with B. J. Biddle). He was also of the coauthor (with Ursula Casanova) of "Putting research to work," and coauthor (with N. L. Gage) of the textbook "Educational psychology," now in its 6th edition. He is coeditor of the first "Handbook of educational psychology" and the books "Talks to teachers, and Perspectives on instructional time." His book, "Collateral damage" (with Sharon Nichols) is about the corruption of professional educators through high-stakes testing. His most recent book, "50 Myths and Lies that Threaten American's Public Schools," was co-authored with Gene V. Glass and students in 2014.
Tom Reeves
Thomas (Tom) C. Reeves, PhD is Professor Emeritus of Learning Design and Technology in the Mary Frances Early College of Education at The University of Georgia. Professor Reeves has designed and evaluated numerous interactive learning programs and projects. In recognition of these efforts, in 2003 he received the AACE Fellowship Award, in 2010 he was made an ASCILITE Fellow, and in 2013 he received the AECT David H. Jonassen Excellence in Research Award. He was a Fulbright Lecturer in Peru and has given invited presentations in the USA and more than 30 other countries, including Australia which is one of Tom's favorite places. He is the former editor of the Journal of Interactive Learning Research, and the author of nearly 200 scholarly papers. His co-authored books include Interactive Learning Systems Evaluation (with John Hedberg), A Guide to Authentic E-Learning (with Jan Herrington and Ron Oliver), Conducting Educational Design Research (with Susan McKenney; two editions), MOOCs and Open Education Around the World (with Curt Bonk, Mimi Lee, and Tom Reynolds), and MOOCs and Open Education in the Global South (with Ke Zhang, Curt Bonk, and Tom Reynolds). His research interests encompass educational technology in developing countries, authentic tasks for learning, educational design research, medical and public health education, and prison education. Tom currently lives at The Spires at Berry College in Rome, Georgia with his wife, Patricia M. Reeves, Professor Emerita of Social Work at The University of Georgia, and their West Highland Terrier, Button. He can be reached at [email protected] and his homepage can be found at http://www.evaluateitnow.com/.
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Episode 199: Connecting Alternative Education Around the World: The WEquil App Story, July 20, 2024, 12:00pm Eastern Time
Frustrated by the challenges of remote learning during the pandemic, two young sisters—Sumay Lu, 14, and Aila Lu, 11—took matters into their own hands. Instead of waiting for the education system to adapt, Sumay and Aila founded their own online homeschooling platform, which has since grown into the WEquil App, a digital learning platform, now serving families, students, and educators in nearly 50 states and more than 50 countries.
Families around the world are looking for alternative education for their children beyond traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Examples of alternative education include homeschools, microschools, learning pods, learning co-ops etc. Educators around the world are building solutions to leverage their strengths to serve students who can uniquely benefit from what they provide. WEquil App is building software that connects these families and educators as well as allowing educators to provide personalized education for all students at a low cost.
WEquil App is a global school connecting families, educators, and entrepreneurs in nearly 50 states and more than 50 countries. They provide a complete technology solution for homeschoolers, educators, microschool founders, and edupreneurs who lead hundreds of personalized learning communities on their platform such as clubs, classes, co-ops, learning pods, and microschools, streamlining communication, security, payments, assessments, and more! WEquil App is also free! You can check out "WEquil App" on any mobile device or visit the link below! https://WEquil.App
Our guests
Aila Lu is CEO of WEquil School, a global microschool that employs a project based learning philosophy to empower students to become self directed. Her program demonstrates a unique model for how educators can leverage technology and innovative learning philosophies to empower students to find success in the digital age. She has published hundreds of projects on various topics including the nature of learning, education in the digital age, personalized success, entrepreneurship, health, philosophy, and more. Her work has been featured on Scripps National News, Stand Together Trust, GoGaurdian and Falls Church News Press. WEquil App Profile: https://wequilapp.page.link/3jYx
Sumay Lu, CEO of WEquil App, is a multifaceted entrepreneur, writer, and developer with deep insights into the future of education. Her platform connects a vast global network of teachers, parents, and microschools. Formerly the CEO of WEquil School, she has contributed extensively, publishing a vast array of projects ranging from interviews, music compositions, and essays on emerging technologies to literary works and educational content. Recognized as a pioneer in leveraging technology for personalized learning in the digital age, Sumay has been a prominent voice in forums like Stand Together Trust, Scripps News and as a keynote speaker at the Virginia Education Innovation Conference and VELA Con. Her expertise was sought twice as a guest lecturer at Iowa State University. A Black Belt from Jhoon Rhee Tae Kwon Do, Sumay's passions extend to cooking, learning Chinese, creating educational YouTube content, and connecting with her global educational community. She resides in Falls Church, Virginia, with her family. WEquil App Profile: https://wequilapp.page.link/Ebw9
Allyson is the WEquil School Activities Director and a mentor at WEquil School, helping younger students follow a project-based learning philosophy to become self-directed. She has written projects on a wide range of subjects such as technology, mental health, education, history, mathematics and more! Allyson runs several learning communities on WEquil App including a debate club, art community, virtual museum community and homeschool game room. WEquil App Profile: https://wequilapp.page.link/w1jd
Justin Shell, COO of WEquil App, spent more than a decade as a marine engineer and yacht designer before finding his passion in the education field. In 2018, he began developing a software platform to navigate alternative educational options, often described as 'Google Maps for Alt Ed.' Recognizing that parents were struggling to envision non-traditional approaches, he expanded the business to include producing videos of innovative educators, showcasing possibilities beyond the conventional classroom. As COO of WEquil App, Justin leverages his experience with innovative educators to build a platform that expands educational opportunities, enabling students and families to create truly personalized learning journeys. Outside of WEquil, he is a homeschooling dad with 4 crazy, amazing kids who help him test out all the new educational tools he comes across.
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Given student demographics and fast changing societal needs, it is extremely difficult today for higher education institutions to maintain enrollments and even harder to grow them. In Episode #198 we will discover some of the ways that the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) has successfully addressed, and at times, grown its adult learner population through technological interventions like blended and fully online forms of learning delivery as well as massive open online courses (MOOCs), innovative professional development programs, and, most recently, experimentations with Generative AI. One key discussion item during this session will be Web accessibility requirements and compliance measures for online and Web-enhanced classes as well as the opportunities to improve learning experiences for adult learners. We shall also discuss strategies and opportunities related to marketing and enrollment management in a crowded competitive market.
Vickie Cook, Ph.D. is the Vice Chancellor for Enrollment and Retention Management and a Research Professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois Springfield. She has provided consultation to over 50 institutions seeking to expand or evaluate their online learning programs and leadership. She has published multiple journal articles and book chapters in a variety of national educational publications, and serves as a peer reviewer for six of the top journals in the field of Online Learning. She is one of the co-authors of the UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership and a co-author for the UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Alternative Credentials. She was named a 2017 University of Illinois President's Executive Leadership Fellow; 2017 Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Fellow; and 2020 University Professional and Continuing Education Outstanding Leader. She will receive the Mildred B. & Charles A. Wedemeyer Award recognizing her work in scholarship in the field of distance learning this summer. More on Vickie Cook can be found at: https://www.uis.edu/directory/vickie-cook.
Michele Gribbins, Ed.D., is the Director of the Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service at the University of Illinois Springfield. She is a Vice Chair for the Online Administration Network of the University Professional & Continuing Education Association and was the Treasurer of the Illinois Council on Continuing Higher Education for six years. She has been teaching online since 2005 for the Department of Management Information Systems and the School of Education at UIS. More on Michele can be found at: https://www.uis.edu/directory/michele-gribbins.
A nationally respected and connected leader in higher education online learning, Ray Schroeder is Senior Fellow of UPCEA (https://upcea.edu/) the Online and Professional Education Assocation, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois Springfield (see https://www.uis.edu/). After several years as an instructor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he came to the university in Springfield 1977, beginning as assistant professor, then associate, then full professor, prior to becoming an emeritus professor. During his tenure, he launched the online learning program at UIS in 1997. He founded the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service and became Associate Vice Chancellor for Online Learning in 2013, a position held until 2021. To continue research, publication and presentations, Ray was appointed Senior Fellow for Online Learning in the Provost's Office beginning in August, 2021, returning to Professor Emeritus in August, 2022.
Dr. Ray Schroeder is the recipient of numerous national awards and citations for individual excellence and leadership from many associations and entities including the Sloan Consortium (OLC), US Distance Learning Association, American Journal of Distance Education, Illinois Council for Continuing Higher Education, University of Wisconsin and University of Illinois, Ray received the honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 2023 from UIS and the inaugural UPCEA Leadership Award for the Advancement of Digital Learning also in 2023. That award is now named the Ray Schroeder Leadership Award for the Advancement of Digital Learning. Ray is the author of book chapters, articles, widely read curated reading lists, blogs and social media feeds on news and research in online learning / educational technology. Ray is a noted speaker, consultant, researcher, and author on topics related to online learning, emerging educational technologies, and technology-enhanced learning. For more details on Ray Schroeder, see https://rayschroeder.com/.
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Learning is changing. It is changing every day. It is changing in North America. It is changing in western Australia. It is changing in the Middle East. It is changing in Latin America and throughout South America. It is changing in East Africa. It is changing in Western Africa. North and South Africa too. It is changing across the globe; it is increasingly more open, online, blended, massive, flexible, global, virtual, visual, collaborative, hands-on, on-demand, and much more. One aspect of learning that is particularly important today is online (including blended) learning. However, it is in much flux. As a result, we need to think about the future of e-learning in this Post-COVID world. Such a world is no longer embracing the term emerging remote teaching as the COVID “emergency” has passed. However, education remains in a state of emergency in many ways. Attend Episode 197 of Silver Lining for Learning (SLL) and learn how three leaders from Nigeria, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, along with Rebecca Stromeyer from OEB Global and eLearning Africa, are helping shift the focus from emergency remote teaching to using technology to transform online education and skills training on the African continent and plan ahead for an exciting learning future.
Rebecca Stromeyer has made significant contributions to digital learning, EdTech, and international education. As the Managing Director and Founder of ICWE GmbH and co-founder and co-owner of ICEF GmbH since 1991, she has played a key role in establishing these organisations' events as leaders in their fields. Rebecca co-founded OEB (Online Educa Berlin) Global, the global, cross-sector conference on technology-supported learning and training, in 1995. She co-launched ONLINE EDUCA MADRID, the leading annual online learning event for Spain and Latin America in 2000, as well as similar events in Iceland (2017), Russia (2015), Singapore (1997), Korea (1996), and the Arab world (2003). In 2005, she founded eLearning Africa, a network and annual conference focusing on digital learning, training, and skills development across the African continent, bringing together over 1,200 African education experts each year.
Her expertise has been sought by international organisations, and she has served on various boards, including the International Council on Badges and Credentials and the Drucker Society. She has also been Vice-Chair of the Global Business School Network and a board member of the Global Development Learning Network. In 2012, Rebecca launched the eLearning Africa Report, further establishing her influence in ICT and digital learning. Her work continues to impact education and skills development worldwide, driven by her vision of a more connected and educated global community. She can be found in OEB Global and at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-stromeyer-abb4645/ and contacted at: [email protected].
Ambassador Rudo Chitiga is the Permanent Secretary in the newly established Ministry of Skills Audit and Development in Zimbabwe. She is a strategic thinker and negotiator with over 30 years senior management experience in government, civil society and inter-governmental organizations. Rudo Chitiga has held senior management positions in government, civil society, and international organizations including Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Ministry of Women Affairs Community Small and Medium Enterprises Development in Zimbabwe, Ambassador of Zimbabwe to France, Spain and Portugal and the Vatican and permanent Representative and member of the Executive Board of UNESCO and the UNWTO. She is currently a member of the governing board of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. She is the team leader of BellaRue Consultants offering services in governance peace building and conflict resolution, gender mainstreaming, relationship brokering, project management, capacity building and organizational development. In addition, she is also a Results Coaching Systems trained life coach. For more information on Ambassador Rudo Chitiga, you can find her on on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rudo-mabel-chitiga-822703/ and contacted at: [email protected].
Ify Obidi-Essien is a distinguished Edu-Tech Consultant and Microsoft Global Training Partner in Nigeria, renowned for her steadfast dedication to advancing digital transformation in education. As CEO of Tech-Savvy Teacher International, a leading EdTech Consultancy firm, Ify leads initiatives encompassing comprehensive technology services. “Tech-Savvy Teacher International is a leading Education and Technology solutions provider focused on equipping the African educator with technological skills so as to drive digital transformation in the classroom.” Her expertise spans training, consultation, school management software integration, and cutting-edge classroom technology installation, providing an educational transformation framework aligned with stakeholders' objectives.
A trailblazer, Ify's impact transcends borders. As a Speaker at the T4 Education conference in March 2022, she enriched the discourse on transformative education. Media features in The SUN, Wazobia TV, Wazobia FM, TVC, Kids and Mum TV show, and Guardian Woman Publication underscore her industry recognition. In February 2020, Ify organized the 12th Tech-Savvy Teacher Master class in Dubai, advocating for the Flipped Classroom Model's integration in Nigeria. Her global outreach continued with an Education Tour to Rwanda in October 2023, collaborating with the African Leadership University, exposing delegates to technology's impact on teaching and learning.
Beyond education, Ify champions young women's empowerment through the B.I.G Girls Foundation, while recently completing the Women in Leadership Program from the European University of Luxembourg with distinction. Furthering her influence, Ify launched the Animation Kids Club, fostering digital content creators through an e-learning platform in prestigious institutions like Corona Schools Lagos, Greenspring School Gbagada, and Learning Ladder Abuja. This initiative embodies Ify's vision to cultivate creativity and exploration in animation from an early age. Ify can be found in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ify-obidi-essien-980341116/ and contacted at: [email protected].
Paul Birevu Muyinda, is a Professor of Open, Distance and eLearning (ODeL) and the Director of the Institute of Open, Distance and eLearning at Makerere University in Uganda (Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922, and the oldest currently active university in East Africa). Paul is a certified blended learning developer and online instructional designer. He has research interests in digital pedagogy and andragogy where he has worked with different education and training institutions to champion this cause. He led a team that scaffolded Makerere University and other universities in Uganda to remain afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Prof. Muyinda is the author of more than 100 research articles in open, distance, and e-learning. He has recently consulted with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and other agencies on policy and strategy for open distance learning. He is the Principal Investigator of several internationally funded research grants, including: NORHED II, Mastercard Foundation e-Learning Initiative, KOICA distance education enhancement project, just to mention but a few. As per Bob Little’s 2018 ranking of online pedagogy gurus, Prof. Muyinda was ranked among the top 100 movers and shakers of online corporate education in Africa (see article). Paul can be found in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-birevu-muyinda-479600158/ and contacted at: [email protected].
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Hosts reflect with Chris Dede, Curt Bonk and Punya Mishra
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Using 21st Century Online Learning to Teach Girls in Afghanistan with guests, Timothy Stiven, Founder, Flowers for the Future; Jasmin Azizi, Advisor and Developer, Flowers for the Future and Andishvar Mohibi, student.
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