#228 - How a £7.6m immersive technology dome is bringing university, schools and workplaces together
Release Date: 07/21/2021
#303 Call it Al Kingsley: the awkward questions in education
The Edtech Podcast
Ever feel like education keeps moving forward, yet too many learners are still being left behind? Curricula feel disconnected from real life, assessment systems label students too early, while technology and AI are advancing faster than schools can adapt. The result is a growing gap between what learners need and what the system delivers. In this episode, Philippa has a conversation with Al Kingsley to explore those tensions head-on, from what truly defines a good school to why curiosity, human skills, and equitable access to technology matter more than ever. Together, they unpack the...
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#302 The Secret Sauce: Why Children Still Need Humans in a Digital World
The Edtech Podcast
In this episode, Philippa Wraithmell and Rob Hughes, co-founder of Tandem, explore a revolutionary approach to screen time that challenges the narrative of “parenting guilt” and passive consumption. Rob explains how Tandem leverages generative AI not to replace parents, but to act as a “tech for two” bridge that sparks creativity, co-creation, and shared reading moments. The conversation also addresses complex emotional challenges such as hospital visits and family separation. As they delve into the ethics of AI guardrails and the crucial difference between a “digital pacifier” and...
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#301 A policy perspective on AI and equity: a fireside chat with Alina Sava
The Edtech Podcast
In this episode, our host Philippa Wraithmell is in conversation with Alina Sava, a Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank, discussing Alina’s journey in education and the transformative role of AI in the sector. She emphasizes the importance of equity in education, the necessity of lifelong learning, and the evolving curriculum that incorporates critical thinking. Alina highlights the need for governments to create frameworks for AI integration while ensuring that teachers remain central to the learning process. The discussion also touches on the potential digital divide in AI access...
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#300 What If CPD Actually Worked for Teachers, Not Against Them? - With Hachette Learning
The Edtech Podcast
Teachers today are genuinely time-poor. Between increasing administrative demands, constant assessment, and the rapid rise of AI, finding professional development that truly fits into a teacher’s reality can feel impossible. Too often, CPD remains one-size-fits-all detached from linguistically diverse classrooms and the real challenges educators face every day. When professional learning fails to connect with practice, the impact goes far beyond wasted hours. Essential skills such as oracy, effective EAL strategies, and healthy digital habits are overlooked, contributing to teacher burnout...
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#299 The AI Paradox: Why the World’s Poorest Classrooms Are Adopting What the West Fears
The Edtech Podcast
In many Western classrooms, the mobile phone is viewed as the "forbidden fruit", a primary source of distraction that must be banned, confiscated, or locked away in magnetic pouches. Teachers and parents alike are exhausted by the constant battle over "screen time," whilst struggling to engage students in an education system that hasn't evolved in decades. Lectures are often unengaging, leading students to drift away, yet we blame the device rather than the delivery. Is this prohibitive approach a catastrophic mistake? Stephen Hodges warns that Western nations risk being "digitally...
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#298 - SAUDI LEARN - Can AI Detect Your Emotions? Inside Saudi Arabia’s Most Ambitious Learning & Innovation Program
The Edtech Podcast
Can an AI detect your sadness? 🤔 This episode will change how you think about mental health and finance. We're at Saudi Learn speaking to the next generation of innovators! Hear from the brilliant minds behind: · Voice Recognition for Mental Health: A powerful app that charts your emotional patterns and spikes. They tell us why this is CRUCIAL 50% of people worldwide are walking around undiagnosed. · The AI Finance Advisor: We meet the team who spotted a "desperate need" for financial help, leading them to...
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#297 OpenAI: The Great Equaliser? AI and the Future of Fair Learning.
The Edtech Podcast
In this episode, Jayna Devani - International Education Lead at OpenAI, shares how ChatGPT has rapidly become one of the most widely used learning tools in the world and how OpenAI is partnering with educators, universities, and governments to support responsible, equitable AI adoption. She discusses real examples from institutions like Oxford University and national initiatives like Estonia, showing how AI can enhance learning through personalization, creativity, and teacher-led innovation. Exploring how students are using ChatGPT as a study partner, coach, and career companion, and how...
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#296 Author of Gifted? The Shift to Enrichment, Challenge and Equity
The Edtech Podcast
Imagine a child sitting in the corner of the classroom, written off as 'average' or even disruptive, yet harbouring a remarkable, untouched spark of curiosity within. Morgan Whitfield, educator and author of Gifted, invites us to delve into this poignant reality, where the label of 'gifted' often serves as an exclusionary wall that stifles potential, rather than a bridge to achievement . Through heart-stirring real-life stories, this episode challenges us to stop viewing education as an exclusive competition for a select few and start embracing every child with high, compassionate...
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#295 Nicole Ponsford - EdTech, Equity & 26,000 Voices
The Edtech Podcast
If you’ve ever felt that education is changing faster than the systems meant to support you, this podcast gives you a clearer and more human way to understand that shift. You’ll explore how inclusion, data literacy, AI and school culture can be viewed through a lens that actually reflects real lived experiences. In this episode you join Dr Nicole Ponsford, a former teacher turned researcher and founder of a platform built on more than twenty six thousand voices from schools around the world. Her work challenges long standing assumptions about data, belonging and leadership in ways that...
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#294 Universities Without Walls : Future Skills future Work
The Edtech Podcast
What if the universities of the future had no walls, no lecture halls, and no stressful exams? In this episode, Philippa Wraithmell speaks with James Newby(President & CEO, NMITE – New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering, UK) and Dr Thomas Funke (Founding President, Tomorrow University, Germany). They explore how higher education is evolving, moving away from rigid traditional systems towards models of learning that are more human, challenge-based, and aligned with the future of work. From hands-on learning and mission-driven education to the development of emotional...
info_outlineStill on Summer Break (!), but another in-person recording to celebrate f2f!
This time, I'm in conversation with Lindsey Hall Chief Executive Real Ideas Organisation at the VIP opening of the Devonport Markethall in Plymouth.
Lindsey is a NESTA Cultural Leadership fellow, an INSEAD graduate, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Trustee of Kernow Education Arts Partnership and Plymouth Culture, member of Plymouth Growth Board and one of the WISE100 social enterprise leaders. During the COVID pandemic, she has advised the Government on the role of social enterprises both socially and economically during a time of extreme isolation.
In this episode we chat about how listeners can get involved with the MarketHall 15metre immersive dome - both in terms of content creation, engaging students, and developing workplace practice. This is a really interesting collaboration project, surfacing University expertise, and connecting schools, workplaces, technologists and artists together.
Developed by Real Ideas Organisation, in partnership with Plymouth City Council and the Institute of Digital Art and Technology at University of Plymouth, the Market Hall is a £7.6m project which will create a new space for digital, especially those working in immersive and creative applications of technology.
Plus, stick around to the outro, to find out about our new self-paced course for launching a podcast - out at the end of Summer 2021.