IdeaSpark: Big Ideas in Education

What if learning is not boring at all, and somebody simply engineered the fun out of it? In this new episode, Richard Culatta sits down with Joseph Baird, Senior Lecturer at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Before he became a professor, Joseph ran a mobile game studio whose learning apps topped the App Store education charts, won design awards, and earned him an invitation to a game jam at the White House. Recorded at ISTELive26 in Orlando, this conversation explores how Joseph brought that game designer's instinct into the business school classroom, where his students build fake sheep to fool their classmates, chase him across campus with GPS data, and learn Excel by solving the strangest problems he can invent. Joseph and Richard dig into why our obsession with measurement has drained the joy from assessment, how educators working inside rigid systems can still find room to experiment, and why the best defense against cheating is an assignment worth doing. Richard and Joseph discuss:…

Why do so many students feel invisible in their own classrooms, and what does belonging actually have to do with how much they learn? Two of the most widely read voices in education answer both questions with research, real school stories, and simple moves any educator can start tomorrow. In this new episode Richard Culatta, joined by cohost Winston Roberts, sits down with Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, professors of educational leadership at San Diego State University and co-founders of Health Sciences High and Middle College. Doug and Nancy have written hundreds of books and articles on literacy, instructional design, and school leadership, many of them as longtime ASCD authors. What sets them apart is that they still do the work, teaching and leading at the San Diego charter school they helped build. Recorded on-site at ISTELive26 in Orlando, this conversation unpacks the cycle that links belonging, engagement, and learning. Doug and Nancy explain why belonging for students depends on whether belonging…

Early childhood educators have the responsibility of helping shape a child's brain during its most rapid developmental window. How can we give them the respect and support they deserve, and what would it take to fix the broken economics behind early childhood education? In this new episode Richard sits down with Michelle Kang, CEO of NAEYC, joined by cohost Joseph South, Chief Innovation Officer at ISTE+ASCD, live from ISTELive in Orlando. Michelle Kang leads the nation's largest professional organization for early childhood educators, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Before taking the helm at NAEYC, Michelle spent more than 16 years at Bright Horizons building employer child care partnerships. In addition to discussing how the early childhood market actually works and where it is failing, Michelle walks Richard and Joseph through the broken economics behind child care tuition and educator pay, and the many different pathways into the profession of early childhood teaching. She also addresses how…

Why do fewer than 5% of adults use the math they learned in high school, and what would happen if a state legislator, school board member, or governor had to take the same standardized math tests they use to judge our schools? In this episode, Ted Dintersmith, an education advocate, venture capitalist, filmmaker, and author of Aftermath: The Life-Changing Math That Schools Won't Teach You, joins Richard Culatta to make the case for rethinking what, and why, we teach. Ted Dintersmith was once ranked the top-performing venture capitalist in the country. He spent two decades at Charles River Ventures before President Obama appointed him to represent the United States at the United Nations General Assembly. He then turned his attention to schools, producing the documentary Most Likely to Succeed. For his more recent documentary, Multiple Choice, he spent an entire school year visiting all 50 states to see what was actually happening in classrooms. In this conversation, Ted and Richard dig into why standardized…