345: Eden Project with Sam Kendall
Sam Kendall leads all of Eden’s work with schools, young people and their teachers and has done so since 2010. Eden’s Schools Team design and deliver programmes and projects for children and young people and offer training, consultancy and resources to schools towards Eden’s vision for children and young people who are motivated and equipped to create, and flourish in, a better future in which all living things thrive within planetary boundaries.
Sam has been a member of Eden’s Education Team since the project opened in 2001, establishing Eden as a must-go school visit destination for schools across the UK and maintaining a focus on high quality teaching and learning across Eden’s learning programmes – at Eden and online. Following a first degree in Natural Science at Jesus College, Cambridge, she qualified as a primary school teacher, with science specialism, in 1997 and worked in schools in Bristol, Cornwall, Karachi and South Africa prior to joining Eden in 2001. In 2021 she completed an MSc in Environment and Human Health.
Website
www.edenproject.com/learn/schools
Social Media Information
@edenschoolsteam
Resources Mentioned
Can We Be Happier – Richard Layard
Sharing Nature with Children – Joseph Cornell
Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)
Primary Education Summit – ‘Visions for the Future’ – 2023
Get access NOW at www.nape.org.uk/summit
344: The Literacy Lab and Leading Men Fellowship
The Literacy Lab Appoints Johnathon Hines as the First National Education Ambassador for its Leading Men Fellowship. Georgia’s first Black male Pre-K Teacher of the Year hopes to inspire other young Black men to pursue teaching as a career.
The Literacy Lab is a national non-profit organization that provides students – in communities experiencing racial and/or economic inequities – with evidence-based, culturally responsive literacy instruction as preparation for academic, professional, and personal success. The Literacy Lab partners with school districts to help close the literacy gap largely by embedding full-time, rigorously trained tutors in early childhood centers and elementary schools.
The Literacy Lab’s Leading Men Fellowship creates opportunities for young men of color and increases representation in the field of education. Leading Men Fellows are young men of color who have recently graduated from high school and participate in a year-long, residency-style experience in which they provide evidence-based literacy support to pre-kindergarten students while receiving robust coaching and professional development and gaining valuable experience.
In this episode I chat to Johnathan Hines and Ivan Douglas, National Director of the Leading Men Fellowship.
Website
Social Media Information
www.facebook.com/TheLiteracyLab
twitter.com/TheLiteracyLab
www.instagram.com/the_literacy_lab/
Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)
Primary Education Summit – ‘Visions for the Future’ – 2023
Get access NOW at www.nape.org.uk/summit
343: Punchdrunk Enrichment with Peter Higgin
Punchdrunk Enrichment is a charity creating transformational theatre for education, community and family audiences. Their immersive experiences for schools are designed to inspire and engage the imagination, inviting pupils and teachers on an adventure with a lasting impact. I’m joined by Peter Higgin – Artistic Director and joint CEO.
Peter has been involved with Punchdrunk for his entire professional career. In 2000 he graduated from Exeter University and went on to become a founding member of Punchdrunk. He was pivotal in establishing the company’s early work during their rise to critical acclaim and global success.
In 2008 he co-founded Punchdrunk Enrichment and led the development of Punchdrunk’s signature practice in community and educational settings. Since 2016, he has been joint CEO of Punchdrunk’s charitable arm, and in 2021, as the charity rebranded as Punchdrunk Enrichment, Peter became Artistic Director.
Peter’s early work for Punchdrunk Enrichment focused on primary educational settings. Working with a core team of Punchdrunk creatives, these projects established a formula for the company’s practice and importantly uncovered and demonstrated a need for this type of intervention.
Since these early beginnings Peter has led on all of the company’s artistic activity spanning family shows, participatory performances, ambitious R&D experiments in digital technology and international collaborations.
Peter has a powerful belief in the transformative power of engaging with the arts and creativity. He believes in the power of imagination as one of our greatest tools and has witnessed how access to immersive experiences can unlock our innate creativity.
Website
www.punchdrunkenrichment.org.uk/
www.punchdrunkenrichment.org.uk/schools/
Social Media Information
@PDEnrich
www.facebook.com/punchdrunkenrichment
www.instagram.com/punchdrunkenrichment/
Resources Mentioned
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342: SYMMETRY Neuro-Pathway Training with Dianne Kosto
SYMMETRY Neuro-PT, founded by a Mom on a Mission Dianne Kosto, makes neurofeedback accessible and easy. They are a growing company with team members located in various states across the globe, seeking to further their mission while developing a company culture of integrity, mission-driven focus, service for others, and excellence in all that they do.
Families are traumatized when a loved one is struggling. Not knowing what is wrong, or how to help, leaves you feeling hopeless with an ache in the pit of your stomach.
Anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness can be from brainwave dysregulation. Neurofeedback helps the brain learn to better regulate. When the brain is functioning better, hope and relationships are restored. Life is brighter.
At SYMMETRY Neuro-Pathway Training, they empower people by providing neurofeedback services & systems that help the brain better regulate, because everyone deserves the opportunity to thrive.
Website
Social Media Information
www.facebook.com/SymmetryNeuroPT/
twitter.com/symmetryneuropt
www.linkedin.com/company/symmetryneuropt/
www.youtube.com/channel/UC52hEehDheZTZ3NrzIWmHOQ
www.pinterest.com/symmetryneuropt/pins/
www.instagram.com/symmetryneuropt/
Resources Mentioned
Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)
Primary Education Summit – ‘Visions for the Future’ – 2023
Get access NOW at www.nape.org.uk/summit
341: Virtual Reality – Immersive Educational Campus with Remio
Jos van der Westhuizen is the CEO and co-founder at Remio.
Remio is a VR app that provides an immersive educational campus in which students can learn, collaborate, and play.
Their educational use case enables you to turn a space into a virtual learning institution. The Remio platform is built for knowledge transfer and higher education use cases. Try a weekly class in VR and you’ll understand the power of an immersive virtual classroom.
Below we have details of how Hoquiam School Uses Remio’s VR Platform to Drive Social Emotional Learning Among Students
Website
Social Media Information
www.linkedin.com/in/josvdw/
www.twitter.com/JosvdWest
Resources Mentioned
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)
Primary Education Summit – ‘Visions for the Future’ – 2023
Get access NOW at www.nape.org.uk/summit
How Hoquiam School Uses Remio’s VR Platform to Drive Social Emotional Learning Among Students
As teachers and students have adapted to a post pandemic educational environment, the increasing importance of social emotional learning has emerged. Hoquiam School District is using Remio’s VR platform to drive social emotional learning among its students and reshape social connections impacted during the pandemic, and the positive impact is undeniable as students are eager to play and learn with each other in VR.
Hoquiam School District manages 1600 students across high school, middle school and elementary school in Washington state. Over the past year, the district has undergone major curriculum outreach to students with VR learning programs by working with Remio’s VR platform and VEDX Solutions offering ‘class packs’ that also provide training and 30 Quest 2 headsets so that educators can operate whole classrooms in VR at once.
Remio provides an all-in-one solution for remote learning environments and team collaboration in the metaverse. The platform enables students and teachers to onboard into VR in a fun, safe space where they can create their avatar, play, socialize and gain confidence engaging with their peers in a VR environment before moving into the school’s curriculum.
Chris Nitti, Digital Age Coordinator for Hoquiam School District, started the program and immediately over 100 students applied to join a small test group of 20 who participated this past summer in a Remio-based VR event. Nitti says he specifically looked for diversity, bringing in students across special education, students who are homeless, students who are transgender, football players, band geeks, the whole spectrum. The group played virtual paintball together for about 20 minutes, showing great communication, teamwork, collaboration, and engagement. Nitti then asked the students to remove their headsets and look around at their bonded group. One of the students said, “I don’t even know any of you before we put these headsets on, but now I feel like we’re real friends and I just want to get back into the world with you.” Nitti says that these social experiences in the VR environment ‘levels the playing field’ and produces equitable and inclusive experiences for students, so that constructs like appearance, class or cliques don’t matter in helping bring students socially together. Jay Schnoor, Co-founder and CEO of VEDX Solutions, “VR removes unconscious bias and perceived notions of whether someone will be ‘good’ on your virtual team.”
To get comfortable with VR environments, teachers and students engage in Remio’s VR onboarding program – they start with customizing their avatars, practice in training games and then coalesce on a custom island environment. Nitti said: “I love Remio’s onboarding system. It’s intuitive and doesn’t require a lot of guidance from me, and everyone ends up in the same game together. Once they understand the island, which the students have named ‘Grizzly Paradise’, they’re ready to go deeper into learning in VR.”
Nitti says that social emotional learning is a global issue right now because the pandemic has been so isolating for students over the past two years, which is a significant portion of their lives at this age. Kids are retracting or lacking social emotional skills, and those particularly impacted by the social isolation are students considered ACEs (adverse childhood experiences). Gaming and VR engagement with a purpose gives these students brave spaces for them to explore and address their adverse experiences. Schnoor said: “Online and distance learners don’t have the physical spaces that physical campuses do, like track fields, basketball courts, dorm rooms and quad spaces. VR brings this element of a physical space for students to socialize and engage in virtual learning.”
Nitti also runs educational simulations in VR using VEDX Solutions Class Packs, such as the combat simulator where he added modifications to the armor from realistic Greek and Roman shields and spears to teach 6th graders about ancient weapons and fighting styles. Students were hugely engaged in the material and able to more effectively understand the concepts through reenactments and even tournaments in VR.
Nitti says, “My goal is to position VR and AR as the centerpiece of our curriculum, so that data and content are taught using VR primarily, rather than as a supplement. And next year, to have a full time teacher at the high school teaching VR development skills. The biggest thing I’m excited about are the high paying job opportunities for these students post graduation in VR modeling and simulations within high risk/ high cost industries like space exploration and launching satellites. Nitti believes that education and skill development in VR is also helping students prepare for in demand jobs and future careers. He continued, “My kids are extremely ambitious and not scared of anything. They love Remio, and they want to be able to work within VR environments as well.”
The district plans to roll out the program to more students in the coming school year. Nitti is also working on a social emotional learning curriculum that he plans to pilot in VR with Remio next year, which will help even more kids build social and emotional skills in a fun and supportive environment. He says, “I want every kid who graduates from Hoquiam high school to have had some experience with social emotional learning in VR.” Nitti is confident that VR will play an important role in education for years to come as it is the future of education.
Schnoor added: “We see a bright future for Remio across school campuses. Educational VR programs will become widespread over time – it changes learning and increases the speed of learning to explain difficult concepts by two-fold because it supports both visual and auditory learners. Further, it offers distance learning with the next wrung of social emotional learning.”