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

May 24, 2022 · 30 min
Teen Sleep, Brain Science and the Debate Over School Start Times
This week, we’re digging into this issue of teen sleep, and looking at the latest in the brain science and the policy debate over school start times. Our guest is Lisa Lewis, an education journalist turned advocate who is out with a new book, “The Sleep-Deprived Teen: Why Our Teenagers Are So Tired, and How Parents and Schools Can Help Them Thrive.”
May 18, 2022 · 15 min
Encore: Is It Still Teaching When The Professor Is Dead?
A repeat of an episode from 2021, which recently won an Azbee Award: An online course at Concordia University is being taught by a legend of Canadian art -- well, by video lectures he recorded years ago. But a student in the course said he was surprised to find that even though the professor died in 2019, he's still listed as the teacher on the syllabus. What can we learn from this unusual moment in online teaching?
May 10, 2022 · 27 min
New Approaches to Attracting and Retaining Teachers of Color
America is getting more and more diverse. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at the makeup of public-school teachers, who are overwhelmingly white. This week, we look at research into new approaches to attracting and retaining teachers of color.
May 3, 2022 · 43 min
Why It’s So Hard to Escape the Narrative of ‘Grit’ in Education. Bootstraps Ep. 7
It’s still popular to prize students who have “grit,” who overcome tough odds to succeed. A new book by Alissa Quart called “Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream,” looks at why this narrative is so hard to shake—and proposes more community-minded alternatives that could improve equity. We dive into the book in this bonus episode of our Bootstraps podcast series.
Apr 27, 2022 · 38 min
A New Approach to Gifted Education
A new effort is trying to bring a fresh approach to gifted education, and it doesn't take place in a school building. Instead, it works either as a project-based homeschool curriculum and support system, or as an unusual boarding school option that involves a kind of educational road trip. How does it fit into broader debates about the future of gifted programs?
Apr 19, 2022 · 37 min
Why One University Is Moving Toward a Subscription Model
One big theme in education innovation circles is that the professional world is changing faster than ever, and so schools and colleges have to change what and how they teach to meet those changing needs. For one college in St. Louis, that means experimenting with revamping its liberal-arts curriculum, and even changing its business model.
Apr 12, 2022 · 34 min
Educator Face-Off: Is a College Degree the Worst Investment You Can Make, or the Best?
At a recent education event, two devoted educators debated the question: Is a university degree the worst investment a young person can make? The discussion turned on a bigger question: What exactly is higher education for?
Apr 5, 2022 · 38 min
Students Have Different Thinking Speeds and Styles. Inclusive Teaching Means Realizing That
Many classroom environments favor a certain kind of thinker, usually the students who are quick to recall a fact when the instructor asks a question. But that’s not the only type of mind, and it’s not even always the best kind of mind for learning, says Barbara Oakley, a professor of engineering at Oakland University who works at translating the latest brain research into practical advice for teachers and learners.
Mar 29, 2022 · 33 min
An Unusual Way to Charge for College: Make It Voluntary
The cost of college keeps climbing, and these days colleges are considering all kinds of innovative alternatives to offer affordable options. But one liberal-arts college recently announced a radical new approach that does away with the idea of tuition altogether and instead counts on something else: gratitude.
Mar 24, 2022 · 1 hr 24 min
Bonus Episode: Guiding Young People Not to Colleges or Careers — But to Good Lives
The false choice between personal growth or a decent paycheck isn’t serving teenagers well. Young people want more than good livelihoods. They want good lives. On this podcast extra, we bring you the results of a year-long research projects into how to better design college-to-career pathways.
Mar 22, 2022 · 24 min
Zaila Avant-garde Made Spelling Bee History. What Will the 15-Year Old Do Next?
The 15-year old who won the Scripps National Spelling Bee last summer is no stranger to victory, having previously won three Guinness World Records for very non-academic feats. We sat down with Zaila Avant-garde to hear what's next -- and we challenged her to show off her spelling skills on the spot.
Mar 15, 2022 · 1 hr 4 min
Educators are Demoralized. What's the Way Forward?
Burned out, tired, demoralized, at a breaking point. Spend time with educators these days in K-12 or higher ed and phrases such as these will come up often. For those in classrooms and for school leaders, the challenge is how to meet the many needs of educators during this time—social, emotional, intellectual and ethical.
Mar 8, 2022 · 41 min
What Role Should AI Play in Education? A Venture Capitalist and an EdTech Critic Face Off
What happens when a venture capitalist who funds edtech companies faces off with an edtech critic about what role AI should play in education? We found out, in this discussion between professor Neil Selwyn and venture-fund founder Ryan Craig.
Mar 1, 2022 · 44 min
Power, Prestige and the World's Most Famous Scholarship. Bootstraps, Ep. 6
The Rhodes Scholarship was designed to forge a network of people who would go on to rule the world. So who gets this opportunity? And how is the oldest and best-known graduate scholarship dealing with the legacy of its founder, who used ruthless and racist practices to build the diamond empire that funded the effort?
Feb 22, 2022 · 38 min
Is Autocorrect Enhancing Our Brains or Eroding Our Humanity?
Philosopher and historian of technology Justin E. H. Smith has been diving into the past to see where our dreams about the internet have come from. And he has a warning for what he thinks is going wrong in how things have evolved in recent years — and what tech might be doing to us as learners and thinkers. Understanding that past, he argues, can help make a course correction.
Feb 16, 2022 · 32 min
Educators Have Pointed Advice For Tech Companies Building the Metaverse
Even though the metaverse is not really here yet, some educators are already trying to get ahead of the curve to help influence what kinds of education products and services emerge in this new, more-immersive internet.
Feb 8, 2022 · 40 min
Who Will Pay for ‘Inclusive Excellence’ at Universities?
There are universities aiming to do top-notch research and serve large numbers of students of color and low-income students. This goal—what some campus leaders call ‘inclusive excellence’—challenges common assumptions about prestige in education. And according to the authors of the book “Broke,” it’s hard to accomplish in a time of reduced state support for public colleges.
Feb 2, 2022 · 36 min
Clay Shirky Wants to Reframe the Conversation About How Colleges Are Changing
Clay Shirky has long been an influential voice on how technology is impacting society. These days the NYU professor has been weighing in on where higher ed is headed, with a newsletter called "The (Continual) Transformation of Higher Education."
Jan 25, 2022 · 33 min
Remote School Meltdowns? A Closer Look at Student Well-Being During the Pandemic
A group of researchers at Harvard have a unique window into student well-being during the pandemic, following a group of a couple thousand families with young children in Massachusetts. They're seeing more behavior issues in kids during remote learning, and they have advice for educators on how to manage shifts back and forth between online and in-person teaching.
Jan 18, 2022 · 24 min
How Will COVID-19 Impact School Reform Movements?
A polio outbreak in 1937 may have been the first time tech made emergency remote learning possible. There was no Internet, of course, so schools used the big medium of the day: radio. But did that leave any lasting impact on schooling? That's one question explored by education historian Larry Cuban in his new book, Confessions of a School Reformer.