Podcast 407, Pam Moran on 21st Century Education (1-11-20)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.

My guest on the podcast this week is Dr. Pam Moran who is the Executive Director of the Virginia School Consortium for Learning and is a former superintendent of Albemarle County Public Schools.

Among the points we discussed in the podcast were the following:

• The role of a superintendent in US education
• Desmos software that is used to teach mathematics.
• The reintroduction of maker skills into US education in response to narrow testing and the benefits of it

MAKER LEARNING

• Students who take making courses
• Safety in maker learning
• Involving the wider family in maker learning
• How maker learning is reflected in the school curriculum

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS

• Her thoughts on professional development that works best for teachers
• Professional development to help teachers teach online
• Flipgrid

EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

• What schools need to do to be more relevant to the twenty-first century (automation, climate change, working from home, demographic changes, superficial learning for tests)
• Edward Hess books: Learn or Die, Humility is the New Smart and Hyper Learning: Learning at the speed of change)
• How she would reform the mathematics and science curriculum to make it more relevant for students
• The book she co-authored, Timeless Learning: How Imagination, Observation, and Zero-Based Thinking Change Schools. Reimagining education using zero-based thinking
• Ira Socol.
• Yong Zhao episode on Inside Education.
• Catherine Cronin's interview on Inside Education.
• Pam O’Brien, Mags Almond, John Heffernan.
• Maya Angelou, Séamus Heaney
• Stories from the Pandemic.
• Website of Pam Moran and Ira Socol