The Educhange Podcast

Speaking with Laurate Professor John Hattie about impact and teaching practice.

Today we chat with Charles Fadel from the Centre for Curriculum Redesign at Harvard to explore 21st Century learning and the need for innovative teaching and learning in the face of technological disruption. 

Steve is a leader in the digital learning space and is Director of ICT & eLearning at Ivanhoe Grammar School. We chat with him about how he is using technology and leadership to evolve learning for kids. 

Ashanti Branch is an incredible educator and is the Founder and Executive Director of the Everforward Club. He works to change how men, especially those of colour, interact with their education and how their schools interact with them. Ashanti is an Education Fellow at the Stanford d.School and his transformational work was featured in the powerful documentary, The Mask You Live In. We chat with him about his work in schools, the #100kMasks initiative and how taking off our masks can help us all to be our authentic self. 

Today we speak with the amazing Jan Owen, CEO of the Foundation for Young Australians and YLab, the global youth futures lab. Jan is a highly regarded social entrepreneur, innovator, influencer and author who has spent the past 25 years growing Australia's youth, social enterprise and innovation sectors. She was awarded membership to the Order of Australia in 2000 and in 2012 Jan was named Australia’s Woman of Influence by the Australian Financial Review and Westpac. Jan’s lifelong mission is to unleash the potential of young people to lead positive change in the world and the Foundation for Young Australians continues to do brilliant work articulating and supporting the emerging future of work, education and social change.

Leon Hady is a UK-based educator and entrepreneur. He has been an English teacher and a Head Teacher in some of England’s toughest schools achieving some phenomenal results with students and school communities. He is currently doing some fascinating work with online and just-in-time learning for young people and their teachers, through a platform called TuitionKit. Today, Maddie chats to Leon to dive into his experiences as an educator and now entrepreneur, and what we can learn about learning.

We speak with Matt Noffs, the co-founder of the Street Universities and CEO of Noffs Foundation, Australia’s largest drug and alcohol treatment service provider for young people under 25. Noffs Foundation works with young people for up to 5 years after leaving residential treatment. The Street Universities work with over 10,000 young people every year, focusing on issues related to drugs, mental health, employment, education and crime. Matt is currently balancing work with a Master’s in Criminal Justice at UNSW and the sleeplessness that comes with growing small children. He was trained in freestyle rap by the young people he works with but feels he is a poor student and that his rapping is sub par.

Peter Hutton is the co-principal of TC, Templestowe College, a public school in Melbourne, Australia. Peter took over the school in 2009 and with the community, revolutionised the educational model that has seen it grow from on the brink of closure to now serving over 1000 students and scaling its philosophy. It is one of the most innovative high schools globally and has student voice, choice and entrepreneurship as the centre of its model, with no year levels, 150 subjects to choose from and 100 students employed by the school to help it run.

Brett Wood is the foundation principal at Music Industry College, an innovative school in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, Australia. Brett opened MIC in 2010 with only 27 students with the vision to give a specialised authentic learning experience to students passionate about music, helping them to forge a career in the music industry. Today, 82 students study at MIC, with Year 11 and 12 students studying the Australian curriculum whilst also benefiting from some of the best musical industry training possible. He shares his insights from opening a school and how the team at MIC have transformed the learning for this group of young people.

We speak with Shane Hancock, Deputy Principal in charge of Prep-Year 2 at Woodcrest State College in Springfield, Queensland. We were lucky enough to meet Shane during the Ipswich Changemaker program this year and he rolled out an awesome program to bring literacy into the community.  Shane has been working in education for 23 years and has taught in many interesting contexts both in Queensland and abroad. He has taught in large urban schools in Brisbane and Ipswich and in remote indigenous communities of Far North Queensland where he was also a curriculum advisor in the Torres Strait, supporting isolated island community teachers with their practice. Overseas, Shane’s taught in Papua New Guinea and Estonia. He now works in administration as a Deputy Principal for the early phase of learning. Outside of school, Shane owns and manages Queensland’s largest llama farm and is an official Ambassador for Australia Zoo, promoting wildlife conservation and sustainability in the community. Shane's passionate about literacy and getting reading into the homes of families in his school.

Professor Lea Waters is a global expert on helping people to flourish. She is the Gerry Higgins Chair in Positive Psychology at the Centre for Positive Psychology at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. She is also the president of the International Positive Psychology Association and holds affiliate positions at Cambridge University and the University of Michigan. She has been listed in the Financial Times and Westpac Bank 100 Women of Influence. She also developed the Positive Detective Curriculum used by schools all over the world. In 2017, she also published a book on the new science of positive parenting titled The Strength Switch.

Thanks for listening along to the Educhange Podcast this year. We've loved hearing the stories of change from innovators and educators from all across the globe. We're taking a break until mid January but have some brilliant people lined up to share their insights. Have a happy New Year and see you in 2018!  

Welcome back to Season 2! Today we talk with Kaila Colbin. She is the ANZ ambassador for Singularity University, a movement that seeks to use the power of technology to transform society in positive ways. A serial entrepreneur based in Christchurch, she is also the Curator and Licensee for TEDxChristchurch and TEDxScottBase in Antarctica. In this future focused interview, we discuss the implications of exponential technologies on society, and what this means for students, teachers and schools.

Professor Frank Oberklaid is an internationally recognised researcher, author, lecturer and paediatrician and speaks to us today on the importance of development and learning in the early years of life. He is the Foundation Director of the Centre for Community Child Health at The Royal Children’s Hospital – Melbourne, an Honorary Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne, and continues to advise Governments on how communities can provide the best start to life for children.

Lasse is Head of Operations and Partner at HundrED.org. HundrED seeks and shares 100 inspiring innovations in K-12 education worldwide every year through a supportive community. Lasse has worked in education and career-planning since 2003 and beyond his work with HundrED, he has been building Mentors of Finland, a non-profit organisation that mentors unemployed young people to find a job, free-of-charge, that now reaches 100,000 students monthly.  

Nicole Dyson has lead whole school curriculum change at some of Queensland’s top performing public schools. Passionate about project based learning and student entrepreneurship, she is the founder of Mayd, a curriculum aligned education program for high school students and a co-founder of Future Anything. She also contributes to the Foundation for Young Australians YLab program. Nic now also leads our Future Ready Program at EC, providing teachers with support to deepen engagement and learning.

Briony Scott is the principal of Wenona College, an independent girls school in North Sydney, Australia. A brilliant thinker and educational leader, Briony has run a number of schools and teams over her distinguished career. She hold a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, a Master of Education and a Doctor of Education, with expertise on girls' education, the utilisation of educational technology, and non-government school funding policy. Briony is a contributor to a range of publications.