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

Mar 7, 2023 · 33 min
What Traditional Colleges Can Learn From a Free Online University
A free-tuition online institution called University of the People has grown into a mega-college. Its founder and president says other colleges can learn from the model to drastically cut their costs.
Mar 1, 2023 · 31 min
Do Active-Shooter Drills in Schools Do More Harm Than Good?
Active-shooter drills are now common at schools and colleges. But the sometimes-intense simulations can be traumatic for some children, and some parents are asking to let their students opt out of the experiences.
Feb 22, 2023 · 42 min
Why All of Us Could Use a Lesson In ‘Thinking 101’
Human brains are wired to think in ways that often lead to biased decisions or incorrect assumptions. A Yale University psychology professor has gathered highlights of what research says about the most common human thinking errors into a popular class at the university that she recently turned into a book.
Feb 15, 2023 · 45 min
Joyce Carol Oates On Teaching Creative Writing
The acclaimed author has a passion for working with students, but it’s one she has trouble putting into words. Maybe, she allows, it’s “like a chess grandmaster might play chess with a really brilliant 12-year-old and come close to losing — the experience is somehow pleasant in itself.”
Feb 7, 2023 · 33 min
How Hollywood Stereotypes About Teachers Stifle Learning
Romanticized depictions of teaching in popular culture fail to capture the way teaching actually works — and they create an unattainable model that stifles the impact of teachers and professors, argues Jessamyn Neuhaus, who teaches courses about popular culture runs the Center of Teaching Excellence at the SUNY Plattsburgh.
Feb 1, 2023 · 46 min
Hoping to Regain Attention of Students, Professors Pay More Attention to Them
Getting and holding the attention of students is more difficult since the pandemic, according to many college instructors around the country. So they’re looking for inspiration from other sectors — including video game design and elementary school classrooms — to keep lectures interesting.
Jan 24, 2023 · 30 min
ChatGPT Has Colleges in Emergency Mode to Shield Academic Integrity
Many professors are expressing frustration and even “terror” over ChatGPT, the latest AI tool that students may be using to write their papers for them. That has academic honor committees scrambling to revise policies and provide resources to instructors.
Jan 17, 2023 · 40 min
How to Best Teach Immigrant and Refugee Students, and Why It Matters
Schools are finding better ways to teach recent immigrant and refugee students. A new book by a high school history and civics teacher collects innovative strategies, and argues that getting the issue right is crucial for building a strong democracy.
Jan 10, 2023 · 29 min
How Instructors Are Adapting to a Rise in Student Disengagement
Professors are finding that they can’t just go back to teaching as they did before the pandemic and expect the same result. It takes more these days to hold student attention, and convince them to show up. Check out part two of our series reported from the back of large lecture classes to see how teaching is changing.
Jan 4, 2023 · 27 min
What Will ChatGPT Mean for Teaching?
A new AI chatbot can spit out long-form answers to just about any question, in a way that sounds eerily human. Students are already figuring out they can use it to write their essays, and educators are pondering how to adapt.
Dec 20, 2022 · 51 min
Is College Worth It? A Father and Son Disagree on Whether to Finish Their Degrees
Is a college degree necessary these days? One father and son exemplify a generational difference when it comes to that question. Both dropped out of college in their 20s. Now dad is back in an online program, trying to finish. The son recently stopped college and isn’t sure if he’ll ever return. Listen to their debate at the end of this reissued episode of our Second Acts series on returning adult college students.
Dec 13, 2022 · 34 min
An Inside Look at the ‘Student Disengagement Crisis’
EdSurge visited large lecture classes to get a sense of what college feels like now that COVID is more under control after years of pandemic disruptions. Students and professors say that years of remote instruction—often referred to as ‘Zoom University’—has left many students more likely to get distracted by their devices, or to place less value on class, thinking they can get whatever is happening in classrooms on their own.
Dec 7, 2022 · 58 min
A Teacher’s Podcast Got Him Fired. It Also Led to Greater Self-Reflection
These days many teachers are documenting their lives on podcasts, Instagram or other social media. It all adds up to a kind of virtual teacher’s lounge. But as EdSurge Voices of Change writing fellow Patrick Harris II found out, sharing raw details of your teaching life online can bring big challenges, as well as unusual opportunities.
Nov 30, 2022 · 46 min
How High Schools Should Change for an Era of AI and Robots
What if you could travel 20 years into the future and visit a model high school of that time? That’s the premise of a book called “Running with Robots,” whose authors paint a hopeful future, though they say it will take effort and vision to avoid pitfalls around problems like privacy and algorithmic bias.
Nov 22, 2022 · 39 min
When the SAT Feels Like a Lock, Not a Key (Encore Episode)
The SAT can feel very different to different students. While it can give any college applicant stress, some low-income and minority students see it as evidence that selective colleges don't want them. Can the rise of test-optional policies lead to a new, more equitable era of college admissions? This episode, part of our Bootstraps series on who gets what opportunities in education, first ran last December.
Nov 16, 2022 · 37 min
Why One of the Most Selective Scholarship Programs Could Shut Down
One of the most selective college scholarship programs in the U.S. could wind down in the next few years if it doesn’t raise a substantial sum to shore up its endowment. While many scholarships were founded and funded by billionaires or governments, this one was started by a first-generation college student living firmly in the middle class. Will she find a donor to help continue the work?
Nov 8, 2022 · 53 min
With an Unusual Model and ‘Forbidden Courses,’ a New University Is Taking Shape in Texas
You may remember the announcement one year ago today of a new private university in Texas that hoped to better promote civil discourse and viewpoint diversity—to avoid what its leaders see as a “liberal bias” on most campuses that they say leads to groupthink rather than free and open inquiry. It turns out, this fledgling university, the University of Austin, has been quietly working on raising money and finding land for the campus—and testing out its unusual model.
Nov 1, 2022 · 39 min
How a Student Podcast is Calling Out Inequities in Schools
What if you gathered a group of high school students in New York City, gave them fancy microphones and some training, and challenged them to make an investigative podcast about the issues they cared about the most? That’s the premise of a nonprofit called The Bell, started in 2017 by two former teachers with a journalism background and a belief that one way to improve education is to elevate the voices of students.
Oct 25, 2022 · 51 min
Should We Rethink Our Notion of Who is ‘Smart’?
People who happen to be good at school and college are often described as ‘smart,’ and our systems tend to reward them with cultural status and good jobs. But what if the key to expanding educational access comes down to rethinking our concept of smarts and who has them? We talk with Freddie deBoer, author of “The Cult of Smart: How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice.”
Oct 18, 2022 · 32 min
How Metaphors Shape Edtech
There are many metaphors of edtech out there, and sometimes we might not even realize the metaphor is there. After all, ‘online lecture’ is a metaphor. EdSurge talked with a professor who just put out a book on how metaphors shape our views of education technology.