ActOnLearning

In this episode, Tuovi Ronkainen, talks about future skills, and invites pedagogy for teaching with the practice of students to imagine future, UNESCO agenda for FUTURES Anticipation talks about literacy of futures, competencies of critically thinking about multiple scenario and critcally imagining alternatives.

In this episode, we meet Joao Gabriel Almeida Doctor of Communication, Coordinador de Círculos at Instituto de Pensamiento y Cultura en América Latina. Reflecting on what kind of stakeholder engagement should we support in order to build platforms that support meaningful learning. Joao, combines the pedagogical with the technological challenges as well as ideas, with his experience of being an online teacher exclusively since 2016, and also researcher. In the first few minutes will introduce the context of our dialogue with Joao and then we invite you to a deep listening experience and co-creating with Joao's reflections and invitations. I am most grateful and so excited to be working with student agents and artists, T (13y old) and P ( 10 y old) that make all the editing.

In this episode, we meet Heli Aikio. Heli's work description in her own words " In Finland, we have three Saami languages and each Saami group has their own music tradition. We Aanaar Saami people have music tradition called livđe. I have written about livđe on Sámi musihkka akademiija homepage." We approach via Heli's music Integrative Practice, the practice of teachers and students leadership in the classroom. Livde the local music it is not sung to someone, "we sing them", " narrative songs describe people, events, and feelings without a sense of this relationship of dedication, or ownership". You can follow more on this topic in this article https://actonlearning.org/integrative-practices-how-we-step-and-show-up-in-the-classroom-matters/ 

In this episode, we talk with Tiina Otala about Reimagining upper Education, a case of Aalto University. I really appreciate the idea of  "how do we support multidisciplinary" and Tiina takes the examples of the different department spaces " they blend, nothing needs to stand up more than the rest". How is a space inviting well-being in very concrete ways, and how students can choose to experiment-based learning or a more academic approach setting foundation. The culture of " learn by doing mistakes", and my absolute favorite this time, how is your idea, your design, creation, prototype stands the test of " future proof", how Tiina calls it " students and teachers will challenge your creation with the future proof".  How do we practice imagination and vision for learning spaces where people- researchers, students, and teachers feel so easy to approach projects from many different perspectives, Tiina mentions " it is so easy, as all spaces are so transparent, you accidentally meet people", you cannot avoid cooperation, collaboration and getting your work supported by others work. Besides the transparency factor, is "scale it down" element, students don't want to leave this place, they learn, work, socialize, eat, and create their own personal events, "it feels like really your home,  comfortable place" although we are talking about the 2nd largest University in Finland. We talk about the ecosystem, and last but not least future thinking, as Tiina can see how her work will develop. In this article we develop more the topic of "future proof" spaces https://actonlearning.org/future-proof-spaces/

In this episode, we meet Angela and Annie, with "Moving through Reimagining education with parents, children, and facilitators from Kubrio". How do we learn and teach with feedback and feedforward, building on our strengths, you will have a clear example of this with our guests. Angela and Annie also dialogue on what is that we should unlearn like " bad habits", like bullying. What is the ideal or vision from students' perspective? How should we measure the impact of learning in schools? with "Happy Faces, not sad and worried faces", indifferent of what ages students have or what challenges ( like exams or tests). Angela and Annie also express how can we organize as teachers, educators, and facilitators students' agency (autonomy) from the earliest ages possible, a zone of praxis for students' responsibility for their own learning. This means teachers, and educators invest more time and skills in "more facilitation" in the spaces of learning. 

This episode's guest Katrina Hsu talks about bravery, pioneering, image of parenting, co-education, co-learning, and trusting the fact that everything is just fine. The role of an educator is that of empowering learners to listen and follow their interests, build and organize for themselves a community of other learners, creating a network to experience the joy of learning and making education meaningful. The transformative call, as with Janelle Schroy, (our guest in episode 2) Katrina invites this perspective of letting go of the idea that we need to receive quality education. Education is not something we receive. Katrina invites her daughters’ wisdom with their education, which makes this dialogue insightful and indifferent of where we perform as educators.
With 21st-century skills-based education we want to support access to wisdom from the youngest ages, so ‘bravery’ is a top skill both practiced and identified by Katrina. Be sure to follow with us in the next episode where our guests Angela and Annie, Katrina’s daughters continue with this idea. At the end of the episode, you will see the image of the Reimaged Education as seen by Katrina, this episode is about bravery in learning and parenting.

In this episode, we meet and interview Janelle Schroy - Author, TV show producer, educator, coach, entrepreneur, entrepreneur mentor, wife, partner, and mom of four amazing graces (this choice of wording is explained in the interview). Let us introduce you to why you should listen to this episode and get your family to listen to it too. First, it transmits so much optimism, getting you to dream or imagine wild and big. There is the invitation to the process of stepping into your power as a parent and imagine a future of education in which here are Janelle’s words “you are the CEO of your family education”. There is this need to PAUSE on that, as we shift from us parents expecting, moving away from our agency (with some frustrations, tensions, and blaming game) to stepping into educational leadership and "owning it for our family". You will have insights into 21st-century skills-based education from the perspective of the parent, the coach, the educator and also the observer of her 4 daughters like lifelong learning ( this is a big one), the pursuit of curiosity, Open Mind, I will add Open Heart( compassion/empathy) and Open Will (courage/action) because it involves the transformation and updates of the self. How am I changed by this experience the meaningfulness and wisdom in learning with this paradigm shift and learning by action by doing. Janelle moving through Reimaging Education and her family's vision of “traveling being educational rather than recreational” will take you on a journey.

In this episode with Mickelle Weary, teacher, mom of  17-year old daughter and 13-year-old son, world traveler, and much much more, we talk about really interesting matters like could we move through times of shifting paradigms by transforming small risks into small risks, or could we actually do the learning and education with conversations rather than assessing outputs and proof of learning. Mickelle courageously shares and inspires us with unlearning (letting go of) like "less planning" or how I call it " do that planning, thoroughly and then really be ready to through it up the window when the moment invites. Another interesting one is "looking at mastery", how one of very inspiring university professors from Reimagining Education Conference 2022 organized by Ecoversities very precisely explained about present math pedagogies " it is not about 3rd grade or 4th-grade math, these are just maths it is not about the age", you want to hear Mickelle moving through this math challenge we truly let's be honest face. You want to listen to this episode, it is joyful, relaxing and a friendly invitation to look at what you are already doing through this Journey as a student, teacher, parent, assessment expert, and facilitator and you would really like to do more of that.  

In this episode, we meet 6th graders from Galapagos Island together with their teacher Adi Benea. Many thanks to the school and teachers for organizing the interview.

In this episode, we are listening to the voice of students from Marie Curie Highschool, Giulianova, Italy, many thanks to the teacher Vanessa Ridolfi that has facilitated the dialogue. Multiculturality, epistemology, and practical issues like investing in diverse youth paths, their access to higher education, supporting women in STEAM, education prepared for web 3.0, more investments in culture are just some of the topics you will interact with. This is part 2 of the episode, where the other 2 students join and explore further. 

In this episode, we meet 4 students from Arkas Art& Science Center, Izmir, Turkey. Many thanks for their self-organizing effort and of course to the teacher for supporting their participation and making this interview possible. In this interview, we start from what we know " success feels possible when I achieve my learning objective" and we build towards hearing the courageous students' voices " should we be able to imagine many different jobs?", "imagining school leadership with human skills developed for teachers, besides the subject and pedagogical ones. Brave voices, inspiring ones.

In this episode, you will meet students from students from Radviliskio Lizdeikos gimnazija. Can we imagine a school and a learning context in which technology facilitates students' ability to open up to teachers and express their emotions in a safe way. And so much more, a short yet very deep chat with students. Many thanks to students joining, Skirma, English teacher, and to the rest of the teachers for helping us with all zoom organizational challenges. 

In this episode, we are listening to the voice of students from Marie Curie Highschool, Giulianova, Italy, many thanks to the teacher Vanessa Ridolfi that has facilitated the dialogue. Multiculturality, epistemology, and practical issues like investing in diverse youth paths, their access to higher education, supporting women in STEAM, education prepared for web 3.0, more investments in culture are just some of the topics you will interact with. This is part of one of the episode.

In this episode, we meet with the same questions about "Reimagined education", the students from Arc Metropolitan School Bucharest. You will hear what they think about the self-image of success and what one needs to feel successful in learning, how can technology transform learning relations, what kind of leadership we need in education, and one of my favorite future images for schools "..school should be close to nature, outside the city, so we can breath the fresh air". This episode hosts the voice of 15 students or more, for which we send many thanks for the self-organizing effort to teachers& students. This is a wonderful powerful episode with the voice of the many! Enjoy.

In this episode, we meet six students from Suvemäe Democratic Led School in Tallinn. The same questions will be addressed during the entire season to different students, young ones, as we explore a sense of destination from their perspective. What success feels like in education and learning, how can technology assist learning relations, how do schools of the future feel like, what can we do today so when we will think back 10 years from now we will consider we were wise. Some of the topics students explored, stay tuned, share, and join us in the next episodes.   

Sanjay Fernandes is from Bogotá, Colombia. He is the father of 2 beautiful boys, an economist, interaction designer, educator and electronic musician. His work at SOLE (Self-Organised Learning Environments) Colombia seeks to create a simple powerful solution to transform the future of education. SOLE is a disruptive education methodology developed by TED Prize winner Sugata Mitra. With his work he empowers communities to develop: autonomy, collaboration, deep learning, and most important of all: it helps them solve real-life problems! Since 2014, Sanjay has scaled the methodology to reach more than 417,000 people of all ages in more than 800 schools, 1,400 public libraries and hundreds of public spaces with connectivity, in collaboration with the government, private companies, the social sector, and citizens. Due to their work, SOLE Colombia was nominated for the 2017 Best Leaders of Colombia Award from the Leadership and Democracy Foundation, Semana Magazine and Telefónica.

Wellbeing movement, where we start with? Prototyping from Wellbeing Lab, with Shashi Nair, India

A meeting with the teacher, artist, and ecology Zoe Valerie. The originator of ‘Ensoma’, an amalgam of therapeutic methods, movement techniques, improvisation, and choreological study which cultivates the wisdom we embody. I am convinced that embodied learning, where the body is fully involved, can reinforce the ability to think, feel and therefore act autonomously and critically. I am committed to educational reform, protecting the freedom of choice in education, and safeguarding environments where human development is allowed and facilitated.

Uri is an artist, facilitator, and researcher of Social Arts. He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2009 (Theatre and Latin American Studies) and is based in central Italy. In his practice-based research he employs, Social Presencing Theater, Dragon Dreaming, Theater of the Oppressed, and Games to make visible trans-formative patterns in human ecosystems, building collective dreams, and empowering people and communities to act for future and earth, locally and globally.

Interview with Carol Williams Ph.D. & researcher in natural resources, following her calling to facilitate the emergence of regenerative potential in trauma-informed caregiving.