Podcast interview with Gary Brode 🎧

Class Futures: Patrick Foster on gambling, how he lost £58,000 on a single horse in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, his recovery from addiction, and the launch of his new book, Might Bite

Patrick Foster is Head of Delivery for Education and Corporate Social Responsibility at EPIC Risk Management, a company which aims to prevent gambling from harming people and organisations. He is also author of his new book 'Might Bite: The Secret Life of a Gambling Addict'. In his new book he writes about his pathological addiction to gambling which currently affects more than 1.4 million people per year in the UK. Worringly gamblers are getting younger and I was interested in speaking to Patrick about his story and creating awareness around this issue.

In this episode with Patrick Foster you will learn:

* His favourite subject and teacher at school. His love for cricket and why he is sharing his own story.

* The lack of education around gambling and addiction. How the education of gambling addiction is just as important as mental and physical health.

* Showing vulnerability as a sign of strength and courage.

* His first bet and the start of his addiction at university.

* Keeping gambling secret.

* How he won £35,000 on an accumulator.

* Why a lifesyle change in 2011 was not the answer to his gambling addiction by becoming a history teacher.

* The rise of mobile gambling.

* How he was found out in 2018 and how he lost £58,000 on one horse, Might Bite in the Cheltenham gold Cup.

* His darker secrets in his new book.

* Education as prevention.

* Advice for anyone who has a gambling addiction. Be careful, think about the time you are spending, monitor the relationship and talk about your gambling habits and addiction.

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Tara Baumgarten of Sora Schools on how the online school started, organising self-directed learning, how to develop new skills, pupil motivation, and why the future of learning looks like work.

Tara Baumgarten is the product manager at Sora Schools, an online school setup by the trio of Garrett Smiley, Indra Sofian and Wesley Samples. Instead of running a traditional school timetable, Sora is a project-based learning environment where students can start their own projects, choose their own timeline, and set their own ways of evaluating their work.

It has a timetable different to a traditional school too, with ‘stand ups’ instead of assemblies, and ‘check points’ instead of class form time. Lessons are self-directed and called ‘learning expeditions’. It really is an exciting new model which has emerged out of the global Covid-19 pandemic and it is enabling pupils to follow their interests and develop the skills which better prepare them for the future.

If you’re interested in the model you can read a bit more about it here.

Summary - In this episode with Tara Baumgarten you will learn:

* How she joined Sora Schools and why she got in to it. She talks about how the school started and her own experiences at school.

* Her favourite subject and teacher at school!

* What a typical day looks like at Sora Schools.

* How Sora Schools has grown from 12-150 students and how they organise their learning. How it started in Starbucks and grew to include pupils from all over America. The role of hybrid, colearning and maker spaces.

* Tracking student progress using a six week pace schedule. How pupils can follow their interests and how they are part of interest based houses.

* The role of self-directed learning and learning by doing. How students choose sequences and how progress is tracked. Why it accelerates learning!

* Why the future of learning looks like work and how the lines between schools and work will blur.

* Technologies being used in the online school such as Zoom and Discord.

Free analysis of the conversation at 32 minutes 20.

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Class Futures: Education Alliance Finland CEO Olli Vallo on why certification is important for learning solutions, tips on how edtech companies can become brands and his digital learning predictions

Ollie Vallo is CEO of Education Alliance Finland (EAF), a company which specialises in evaluating and certifying learning solutions against different teaching methods and curricula around the world. EAF works globally and has customers from over 25 countries. With an MSc in Education and a PhD, he is an expert in the education technology sector. He used to work as a teacher before moving into edtech and has spoken at many international education events. Through the work of EAF he has had the opportunity to evaluate hundreds of education solutions globally and report on their pedagogical design and learning efficacy.

In this episode with Olli Vallo you will learn:

* About Olli’s background and how he became CEO of EAF. Why his favourite subject was PE at school and how he got into teaching and then moved into edtech.

* How and why certification is important for learning solutions, especially if you are an edtech company or an educational institution. How EAF evaluate the quality of edtech tools and what report is produced.

* Why EAF is vital for edtech companies and how edtech companies can innovate and build their brand. There are over 300 products in the primary and secondary edcuation (K-12) sector.

* Why there is room for innovation and how digital is replacing print media in the sector. Why there are also few success stories in the edtech space and how this will increase.

* Tips on launching and growing a product for edtech companies. What companies need to do to simplify their marketing lanaguage and how to start with standard language.

* His predications for the future and digital learning. These include changes taking place slower than expected and the role of artificial intelligence (AI). He explains why AI will jump ahead compared to other areas of education technology and the impact of AI on the learning processes. Finally he predicts the trend towards more personalised and adaptive learning.

* The 5 minute Analysis: Tune to 27 minutes 08 seconds for a round-up and analysis of my conversation with Olli.

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Head of International Assessments for the Education and Youth Board of Estonia, Gunda Tire, explains why the Estonian model is successful and gives her thoughts on the future of digital learning 🇪🇪

My January interview is with Gunda Tire who heads up international assessments for the education and youth board for Estonia. Estonia is a small country with a population of 1.3m, yet its education model is extremely innovative. It has a high PISA ranking in its assessments for reading, maths and science. Gunda was able to provide me with some insight into the Estonian model and her thoughts on the future of digital learning. The country also has a strategy to provide individualised learning for pupils by 2035 which, when you think about it, is remarkable. In addition, each school has an education technologist who ensures that everyone is working towards the same goal and objective.

You can listen to my analysis and summary of the interview with Gunda at 19 minutes 46 seconds.

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Podcast interview with Gary Brode 🎧

In this podcast episode, I spoke to Gary Brode who is managing partner at an investment company called Deep Knowledge Investing. The company has recently produced a report on the online education industry. I spoke to him to find out more about the findings of the report and to get his insight on the sector. In the episode, he discusses why online learning is here to stay and his predictions for the next two years and beyond.

The Class Futures podcast is a series of episodes which aim to provide discussion and analysis on the changes taking place in education and learning. Previous episodes have featured Audrey Watters, author of Teaching Machines: The History of Personalised Learning, and Darren Collins who was Interactive Investor Personal Finance Teacher of Year 2021.

If you’d like to feature, please do get in touch and follow Class Futures on Twitter. Finally make sure you subscribe so you receive the latest posts straight to your email inbox.