With 4,000 students on campus and 180,000 online, President of Southern New Hampshire University, Paul LeBlanc aims to transform lives at scale by putting students at the centre of the education experience.

In this episode, we talk a lot about the power of love, the difference between belonging and mattering, and why competency based education is finally taking off.

Show notes:

• More about Southern New Hampshire University, https://www.snhu.edu/

• More about Gregory Elliot’s work at Brown University:, https://www.brown.edu/academics/sociology/people/gregory-elliott

• More about David Graeber’s work: https://davidgraeber.org/

• Favourite book about learning: ‘Death at an Early Age’, Jonathan Kozol

• Favourite book: ‘Anna Karenina’, Leo Tolstoy

As Co-founders of Class Dojo, Sam Chaudhary and Liam Don have built a community of 51 million teachers, parents and students, to share kids’ learning moments. They’re now building a virtual sandbox for kids who already know each other, to hang out, create and play. We discuss their recent funding, privacy and data and how they continue to make progress on the mission they defined in 2011: to give every kid on the planet an education they love.

Show notes:

• Class Dojo: https://www.classdojo.com/

• Article about their previous successes: https://qz.com/791388/meet-mojo-a-monster-stanford-helped-create-to-teach-your-kids-that-effort-matters-more-than-iq

• Favourite books about learning: ‘Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students' Potential through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching’, Jo Boaler and ‘Theory of Fun for Game Design’, Ralph Koster

• Favourite books: ‘A Mathematical Theory of Communication’, Claude E. Shannon and ‘The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World’, David Deutsch

As co-founder and CEO of tiney, a venture capital backed social enterprise, Brett Wigdortz is looking to fix the very broken child care market. We discuss the exodus from the profession, the needed changes to government policy and how his tech platform provides support and a community for those caring for society’s smallest and most vulnerable.

Show notes:

• tiney’s website: https://www.tiney.co/

• Early years framework: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2

• Favourite book about learning: ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’, Daniel Kahneman

• Favourite book: ‘Never Let Me Go’, Kazuo Ishiguro

As Founder and CEO of Apna, an Indian jobs and networking platform, Nirmit Parikh believes employment is the tool to addressing poverty and accelerating education. In this episode we discuss how Apna matches their 25 million job seekers with employers, how they raised $190 million, and how Nirmit balances being both a pirate and a navy captain.

Show notes:

• More about Apna: https://apna.co/

With a career spanning education minister and employment minister, to digital technology executive, the Rt Hon Lord Jim Knight of Weymouth is advocating for greater climate education. We discuss a number of models of sustainable citizenship, changes to national funding formulas, the new British natural history GCSE and the role of legislation to make sustainable citizenship more equitable.

Show notes:

- Suklaa Education: https://www.suklaa.org/

- Teach the Future: https://www.teachthefuture.uk/

- Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education: https://www.eauc.org.uk/home

- Lorenzo Fioramonti’s work: https://lorenzofioramonti.org/the-author/

- The Eden Project’s teaching resources: https://www.edenproject.com/learn/schools/teaching-resources

- Aim Hi Earth: https://www.aimhi.earth/

- David Dixon, ‘Leadership for Sustainability: Saving the Planet One School at a Time’: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59205119-leadership-for-sustainability

- Stephen Heppell’s Learnometer: https://gratnellslearnometer.com/

- Favourite book about learning: Ken Robinson, ‘Finding Your Element’

- Favourite book not about learning: Vikram Seth ‘A Suitable Boy’

Building on our last episode, this week we talk to Sbusisiwe Myeni, Co-founder and CEO of Imbeleko Foundation, a South African charity based in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, running after-school programmes for children with academic promise but who face challenges getting an education. We discuss creative ways non-profits like hers can partner with platforms like UCT Online (a digital high school in partnership with the University of Cape Town) to fill critically important gaps, the difficulties of bringing online education to poor, rural communities, and what works (and what doesn’t) for vulnerable children.

Show Notes:

• More about Imbeleko Foundation: https://www.imbeleko.org/?mkt_tok=MzQ0LUFFWi04OTEAAAGFMDF0s6bpP9aVLVVJ9l8dTG6ds4GGE9Yki9RhPReSqxaprZwpZKbGFWFG4dfoCRRYIegh8MKdEaDeNO8odpA

• More about UCT Online High School: https://www.uctonlinehighschool.com/

• Our previous episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/48-robert-paddock-valenture-institute-addressing-the/id1518322612?i=1000565743400

With the need for new schools far outstripping the available budget to build them, how can South Africa meet the needs of its growing student population? As Founder and CEO of Valenture Institute, Rob Paddock is working to address this imbalance by scaling quality education through online learning. We discuss how the rise in online schooling during Covid resulted in a pivot in their business model, how their solution addresses the massive teacher shortage, lightens the load on teachers and how a coordinated partnership with University of Cape Town gets high quality learning to thousands of students across South Africa, at an affordable price point.

Show notes:

• More about Valencia: https://www.valentureinstitute.com/

• More about UCT High School: https://www.uctonlinehighschool.com/

• More about GetSmarter: https://www.getsmarter.com/

• Favourite book about learning: ‘The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle’ by Steven Pressfield

• Favourite book not about learning: ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’, Paramahansa Yogananda

Does the UK education system help learners develop a love of learning, acquire life skills and develop knowledge? As High Mistress of St Paul’s Girls’ School, a high achieving independent school in London, and Co-Director of Big Education, a multi-academy trust and social enterprise, Sarah Fletcher and Peter Hyman are convinced we need to change the way we assess students in the UK. We examine the condemning data which backs the case for change, what we should be assessing and what we can do to get closer to an education of head, heart and hand.

Show notes:

• More about St Paul’s Girls’ School: https://spgs.org/

• More about Big Education: https://bigeducation.org/

• More about School 21: https://www.school21.org.uk/

• HMC survey on curriculum and assessment: https://www.hmc.org.uk/blog/hmc-survey-finds-curriculum-and-assessment-is-no-longer-fit-for-purpose/