Podcasts create opportunities for sharing innovative ideas

Raising the voice of New Zealand teachers championing innovative learning is the aim of the new ‘Point of Learning’ podcast launched by N4L (Network for Learning).

The fourth episode, which aired last Friday, featured Abdul Chohan, an internationally recognised learning technology consultant, whom Apple named as one of the world’s most innovative educators.

Available on iTunes as well as in N4L’s digital learning hub Pond, the regular ‘Point of Learning’ podcasts are designed as a place for open discussion on the future of learning, classroom best practices, and the opportunities and challenges presented in today’s schools.

Hosted by former principal Pete Hall, who joined N4L earlier this year to lead educator engagement, the podcasts are a collection of conversations with local and international teachers, researchers and other leaders involved with shaping the future of our young people.

N4L CEO John Hanna says the company created the podcast following a significant amount of time spent in schools helping educators get the most from N4L’s Managed Network and online learning hub Pond.

“We’ve met with hundreds of amazing educators who are doing some incredible work inside and outside of their classrooms,” Mr Hanna says.

“We wanted to find a way to share these stories to a wider audience, so that others with an interest in education could hear and benefit from them too.”

Mr Hanna points to a recent teaching and learning survey that named New Zealand educators among the world’s best, and says podcasts are a great way to share their stories: “Great teaching is happening everywhere, and the ‘Point of Learning’ podcast series is about turning up the volume on a profession that has an impact on almost everyone, from those directly involved with teaching to parents of children in school.”

What’s in the podcasts?

Four ‘Point of Learning’ episodes have been published over the past few weeks, with the first podcast featuring a conversation with Auckland’s Newmarket Primary School veteran teacher Sonya Van Schaijik, who talks about the impact of her collaborative TeachMeetNZ project, where more than 80 teachers have recorded short videos to share their learnings and discoveries.

The second podcast features a chat with Emerging Leaders Aotearoa and Core Education Founder Mark Osborne, who also runs Edu-Ignite evenings and the annual two-day Ignition ‘unconference.’

In the third podcast, Mr Hall interviews US-based teacher Vicki Davis, author of ebooks “Reinventing Writing” and “Flattening Classrooms”.

UK-based Abdul Chohan, who features in the fourth instalment, received global recognition for dramatically raising student achievement levels at the Essa Academy, a school 30 minutes from Manchester situated in a low socioeconomic area. He credits the rise to a 95 per cent-plus pass rate to the digital learning strategy he developed for the school.

What’s coming up next?

Suggestions of leaders and topics for future podcasts can be sent to pointoflearning@n4l.co.nz .

For a direct link to Point of Learning podcasts, visit pond.co.nz or to subscribe on itunes.