Aug. 17, 2020

The Future of K-12 Education

The Future of K-12 Education

Futurist Trond Arne Undheim interviews Jeff Wetzler, co-founder at Transcend Education, a nonprofit leading the way in holistic school design.
They talk about learning science, the necessary leaps to make towards 21st century learning, as well as the imp...

Futurist Trond Arne Undheim interviews Jeff Wetzler, co-founder at Transcend Education, a nonprofit leading the way in holistic school design.

They talk about learning science, the necessary leaps to make towards 21st century learning, as well as the impact of COVID-19 and coping strategies such as learning pods. They discuss how to stay up to date on the top trends in K-12 education.

The takeaway is that K-12 education has never been more crucial. What happens over the next six months will determine whether public school transforms to become a key positive determinant of kids’ destinies or whether it will descend further into an already outdated paradigm which is neither capable of preparing kids for the future nor able to function as a place for socialization into a role in today’s society. The factors that come into play could be influenced by EdTech but need to be guided by the right learning principles, and have to happen in dialogue with local community needs.

After listening, check out Transcend Education as well as Jeff Wetzler's online profile:

The sponsor of this episode is Yegii, the insight network, which creates on-demand teams carrying out consulting projects across industries such as financial services, education, industrial operations, software, energy, healthcare and life science, resulting in slide decks and interactive presentations. See https://archives.yegii.com/

Additional context about the show, the topics, and our guests, including show notes (typically published six days after the show) and a full list of podcast players that syndicate the show can be found at https://trondundheim.com/podcast/.

For more about the host, including media coverage, books and more, see:

To advertise or become a guest on the show, contact the podcast host here. If you like the show, please tell all your friends, subscribe and consider rating it five stars. The show is hosted by Podbean and can be found at Futurized.co. Intro and outro music is Electricity by Ian Post from the album Magnetism. 

Jeff WetzlerProfile Photo

Jeff Wetzler

Co-founder, TranscendBuilds

eff Wetzler is co-founder of Transcend, a nonprofit dedicated to the creation and proliferation of breakthrough school models. From 2013 to 2015, Wetzler served as executive vice president of strategy, innovation and organizational development at Teach For America and as a senior design advisor on the Achievement First Greenfield School innovation project. Previously, he served as executive vice president of teacher preparation, support, and development and chief learning officer at TFA. Wetzler currently serves as a founding board member of the Uncommon Schools NYC board, and he is also a board member of New Classrooms Innovation Partners and of the National Academy of Advanced Teacher Education. He is a fellow in the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Wetzler earned a master’s degree and doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University and a bachelor’s from Brown University. While at Brown, Wetzler co-founded Providence Science Outreach, a nonprofit that equips university students to use hands-on projects to get kids in under-resourced schools excited about science.