This Week with EdSurge

EdSurge Podcast

This Week with EdSurge is the essential weekly podcast that takes you past the headlines and deep into the fascinating, fast-evolving world of education. Hosted by Ira Apfel alongside our talented team of EdSurge contributors, each episode cuts through the hype to explore the human stories shaping our schools—from the rise of artificial intelligence in the classroom to student well-being, shifting policies, and the future of teaching. Whether you are a classroom educator, a district leader, an edtech innovator, or simply a curious mind, this show delivers the rigorous, empathetic, and trusted journalism you need to understand where education is headed.

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494 episodes
Updated Wednesday

Episodes494

Newest first

Apr 30, 2024 · 47 min
A Scholar Hopes to Diversify the Narrative Around Undocumented Students
Felecia Russell was born in Jamaica but moved to Los Angeles as a kid. It wasn’t until she started to apply for college that she learned that she was undocumented, which she worried could derail her dreams. She tells her story in a new book, “Amplifying Black Undocumented Student Voices in Higher Education,” which she hopes will help “diversify the narrative” about immigration and education.
Apr 23, 2024 · 1 hr 6 min
Why a New Teaching Approach is Going Viral on Social Media (Encore Episode)
When a professor’s research showed that standard methods of teaching problem-solving weren’t working, he set out to figure out what led to more student thinking. His resulting approach is spreading through classrooms, helped by teachers sharing examples on social media. This is a reissue of an episode that first ran in November.
Apr 16, 2024 · 43 min
Whatever Happened to Building a Metaverse for Education?
Two years ago the metaverse was getting all the buzz in education circles (and hardly anyone was talking about AI). We checked back in with two educators at the forefront of building a virtual realm for education to see where they see things going now that the hype has faded.
Apr 9, 2024 · 51 min
How VR Can Be an ‘Empathy Machine’ for Education
The biggest reason to use VR in education is to tap into a student’s emotional response through immersive experiences, argues Maya Georgieva, director of The New School’s Innovation Center and a leading voice about where VR is headed. Hear her insights in this new interview. Find more details and show notes at: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-04-05-how-vr-can-be-an-empathy-machine-for-education
Apr 2, 2024 · 43 min
Is It Time for a National Conversation About Eliminating Letter Grades?
There’s a growing movement to drop letter grades in favor of new systems that focus on mastery of material rather than chasing points. But opponents worry about losing rigor. A new book hopes to start a national conversation about the issue. More details and show notes at: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-04-02-is-it-time-for-a-national-conversation-about-eliminating-letter-grades
Mar 26, 2024 · 56 min
Could AI Give Civics Education a Boost?
Social studies has been ‘deprioritized’ for decades, in favor of STEM fields, according to some educators. Could AI essay grading help improve the quality of civics and social studies education in schools?
Mar 20, 2024 · 54 min
What New Research Says About Fostering a ‘Sense of Belonging’ in Classrooms
There are key junctures in education that are especially important for helping students feel they belong in school or college. And new research points to better ways to strengthen student-teacher relationships and a sense of belonging, argues Greg Walton, a psychology professor at Stanford University. See show notes and partial transcript at EdSurge: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-03-19-what-new-research-says-about-fostering-a-sense-of-belonging-in-classrooms
Mar 12, 2024 · 1 hr 4 min
How Is the ‘College Is a Scam’ Narrative Influencing Who Goes to Campus? (Doubting College, Ep. 3)
There’s growing skepticism of higher education, complete with popular memes on social media that “college is a scam.” Experts in policy and marketing have some suggestions on how to counter that narrative.
Mar 5, 2024 · 57 min
An Educator’s Podcast Aims to Be an Antidote to School Culture Wars
A longtime educator worries that the raging culture wars in education create toxic environments that hurt academic learning. He’s started a podcast that brings together people with deeply different views on issues that are most dividing school communities these days and uses depolarizing techniques to try to model repairing such breaches.
Feb 27, 2024 · 38 min
Can VR Help Preserve and Teach Indigenous Culture?
Could virtual reality be the key to teaching indigenous ways of knowing to a broad population of students? Jared Ten Brink, a doctoral student in education, is trying to record and teach some key practices of his tribal elders using VR video.
Feb 21, 2024 · 34 min
How Growing Skepticism of College Is Making Students Savvier Edu Shoppers (Doubting College, Ep. 2)
In part two of our podcast series Doubting College, which explores the growing skepticism of higher ed, we talk to students and counselors at a public high school about how students are thinking through their choices after graduation.
Feb 13, 2024 · 45 min
AI Is Disrupting Professions That Require College Degrees. How Should Higher Ed Respond?
A recent study ranked the top professions that are likely to be disrupted by ChatGPT and other new AI technologies, and most of them require college degrees. How does higher ed need to change what it teaches to respond?
Feb 7, 2024 · 48 min
What If Myths, Metaphors and Riddles Are the Key to Reshaping K-12 Education?
Did the education theories that drive today’s schools and teaching practices get off track and do they need a reset — one that gets back to earlier days of oral storytelling? That was the argument of philosopher Kieran Egan, whose educational writings have recently gotten attention.
Jan 30, 2024 · 28 min
How Classroom Technology Has Changed the Parent-Teacher Relationship
It can be harder than ever for teachers to manage their relationships with parents, even though digital tools make interactions more frequent. This week’s EdSurge podcast looks at why.
Jan 24, 2024 · 53 min
Inside the Push to Bring AI Literacy to Schools and Colleges
There’s a growing push to add AI literacy as a subject in schools and colleges. But what exactly is AI literacy, and can educators promote curiosity about the subject amid their own concerns, and in some cases fear, around ChatGPT and other generative AI?
Jan 17, 2024 · 1 hr
How Smartphones Have Changed Student Attention, Even When They’re Removed
Holding student attention may be harder than ever. Even if educators make students put away their smartphones, internet-connected devices have changed the way people relate to others and made it harder for people to be present, argues a Georgetown University professor.
Jan 9, 2024 · 1 hr 3 min
Lessons From This 'Golden Age' of Learning Science (Encore Episode)
Experts have described this as a 'golden age' of discovery in the area of learning science, with new insights emerging regularly on how humans learn. So what can educators, policymakers and any lifelong learner gain from these new insights? This is a rebroadcast of one of our most popular episodes of 2023.
Jan 2, 2024 · 56 min
Looking Back at the Biggest Education Trends of 2023
What were the biggest surprises and trends in education in 2023? Hear from five EdSurge reporters as they give their highlights and analysis and also talk about what they’re digging into in the coming year.
Dec 26, 2023 · 48 min
Why Do Some Schools Get Better Quickly and Others Get Stuck? (Encore Episode)
“Why do some schools get better quickly, and others get stuck?” That question drove MIT professor of digital media Justin Reich to write a new book about what he’s learned as a teacher, edtech consultant and professor about making small regular improvements. This episode originally ran this summer.
Dec 20, 2023 · 53 min
After Transforming a College With Online Offerings, a President Steps Down to Tackle AI
Paul LeBlanc grew Southern New Hampshire University to an online education powerhouse with more than 200,000 students. This month he announced that he’ll step down as president after the academic year, and he talks to EdSurge about online education, about how he responds to critics who worry that the university has borrowed too much from for-profit universities, and about why his next project involves rethinking teaching with AI.