Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Are you a Hooray, Hmm, or Hell No educator?

Change is hard. How can you get reluctant teachers to embrace change and try new innovations in teaching with technology? At ISTE 2016, popular ed-tech speaker Jennie Magiera shared several strategies for doing just that—turning those “yes, but…” objections into “what if…” adventures.

Magiera, a former Chicago Public Schools teacher who is now the chief technology officer for School District 62 in Des Plaines, Ill., said there are three types of people whom ed-tech leaders will encounter when they encourage their staff to innovate: “hoorays, hmms, and hell nos.”

The “hoorays” are those who are eager to try new tools and techniques in their classroom, she said. The “hmms” are those who watch with interest but aren’t ready to dive in right away, and the “hell nos” are those who actively resist.…Read More

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What do we really mean by risk taking in the classroom?

It’s important for students to learn risk taking skills. But how do schools do that without taking some big risks themselves?

Let’s face it. We are of two minds when it comes to how we feel about kids and risk taking. We know that the teenage brain is wired to ignore consequences and to take risks without any adult encouragement, so parents spend a lot of time trying to keep their kids from doing stupid things like drinking and driving or having unprotected sex.

In the classroom, however, risk taking is often viewed as a good thing. We educators tend to praise and encourage students to take gambles and learn from their mistakes. At least, that’s what we say.

This idea can raise a few hackles and more than a few questions. What characterizes a “good risk?” How can we create a culture of risk taking in our classrooms? And what might we currently be doing that discourages risk taking in our students?…Read More

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Watch 5,000 educators take a big risk to make 1 important point

Would you stand up and try a dance you’ve never done in front of 5,000 strangers? These educators did to show that risk taking and learning go hand-in-hand

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magiera-risks“It’s going to probably be a hot mess,” confided digital learning coordinator Jennie Magiera at the close of her keynote speech in front of nearly 5,000 educators at the Annual CUE 2015 conference in Palm Springs last month, seconds before she got everyone on their feet. But she did it to make one important point.

After showing the Uptown Funk dance popularized by Ellen, Magiera welcomed a handful of brave teachers on stage to dance, and then asked the entire audience to “get up with us and take a risk” to show that sometimes educators, like students, have to take risks and even fail in order to succeed in the end. (Watch the amazing video above).…Read More