Encore: Innovations In Urban And Digital Learning

By Kara Miller   |   Friday, December 30, 2011   0 comments.

The Urban Classroom

Listen:

At the Clap Innovation School in Boston, students are encouraged to cheer for the colleges where their teachers went. Here, a mural mixes math problems with the word "Harvard." (WGBH)

Almost half of students in large cities read below grade level, lagging far behind their suburban counterparts. Why does this problem exist, and how do we tackle it? How do you emphasize learning to students combating poverty and other hardships? 

We visit a school that’s turning itself around —  and ask a researcher what that sort of turnaround will take.

Guests:
 

• Alan Safran,  President, MATCH Tutors Inc, former executive director of MATCH Charter School

• John Diamond, associate profressor, Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Justin Vernon, principal, Roger Clap Innovation School

The Digital Classroom

A still from Muzzy Lane's Participatory Chinatown game, which turns students into virtual urban planners (via Muzzy Lane).

Once, they were a distraction from homework, something mom told kids to put away before their brain frittered away. But now, some designers and educators say video games can be cutting-edge educational tools. What happens when video games are homework?

We look at their role in the classroom, whether they might replace textbooks, and how kids could be affected.

Guests:

• David B. Martz, vice president, Sales & Marketing of Muzzy Lane Software in Newburyport, Mass.

• Eric Klopfer, associate professor, director of the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program and The Education Arcade

• Tim Loew, executive director, Massachusetts Digital Games Institute.

Encore: Rethinking Higher Education

By Kara Miller   |   Saturday, December 24, 2011   0 comments.

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Part two:

Part three:

Professor Walter Lewin's lecture, "The Birth and Death of Stars," is available to the public via MIT World. Online lectures are a relatively new way of granting individuals not affiliated with a university the chance to learn from them.

Last week, MIT announced it would begin offering graded, online courses  — for free. It's been heralded as a big step toward a new model of higher education, or, at least, an advanced option to offer alongside a conventional four-year degree.

As students grapple with the high costs of college, and universities work to cope with increasing demand, how can online learning play a bigger role in the landscape of higher education?

In this encore edition of Innovation Hub, we speak with Walter Lewin, the MIT professor who was on of the first there to break ground by making his lectures accessible via television and the Web, bringing his teaching to millions of people; the founder of an education hub that's entirely online; and the president of a Massachusetts college that has consistently pushed the envelope in finding new ways to teach — and fund — its students.

Guests:
 

• Walter Lewin, emeritus professor of physics, MIT Department of Physics (find many of Prof. Lewin's online lectures here)

• Peter Hopkins, co-founder, The Floating University

• Richard Miller, president, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

• Clayton Christensen, professor, Harvard Business School; co-author, "The Innovative University"

More:

• WGBH Forum Network: Clayton Christensen on disruptive innovation and the way we learn

From Crates To Business To Government: Taking On Global Poverty

By Kara Miller   |   Friday, December 16, 2011   0 comments.

Iraqi women make candles for Prosperity Candle, a Western-Mass.-based company that gives its producers a share in the company (Courtesy Prosperity Candle)

Many developmental economists believe that poverty can be conquered — but how? Some believe governance, security and the help of multilateral institutions are key; others look to ground-up, free-market initiatives.

We invite panelists who represent a spectrum of innovations to combat global poverty — one big initiative, or one tiny step, at a time.

Guests:

• Bish Sanyal, Ford International Professor, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning

• Michael Fairbanks, founder, Seven Fund; fellow, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard

• Jessica Thompson Somol, director, development and partnerships, Containers2Clinics

• Ted Barber, founder, Prosperity Candle

 

New Strategies To Tackle Poverty In Boston

By Kara Miller   |   Friday, December 16, 2011   0 comments.

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Local networks and communities, like the Mattapan Library, where two young men are seen job-searching last year, are considered an important tool in fighting poverty. (Jess Bidgood/WGBH)

In a tough economic climate, the gap between the haves and the have-nots has gotten wider. In Boston where the cost of living has risen 70% over the past two decades, poverty is on the rise too. In some areas of the city, 42 percent of children are impoverished.

We talk to innovators aiming to break that cycle, organizations that are taking homeless people off the streets and investing in families. Each organization has a different mission, but they share the tactic of helping the poor by empowering them.

Guests:

• Tiziana Dearing, CEO, Boston Rising

• Jesus Gerena, director, Family Independence Initative, Boston

• Lyndia Downie, president and executive director, Pine Street Inn

Click the players above to hear the conversation.

Morning Edition Extra: Finding Young, Specific Talent For Boston

By Kara Miller   |   Monday, December 12, 2011   0 comments.

Over the past few weeks at Innovation Hub, we have spoken with a number of young entrepreneurs, and the people who help their businesses grow, with space and money. And, no matter how you slice it, there's one fact we can't get away from: Young people today are flocking toward start-ups and entrepreneurship at newly high levels.

"It’s just incredible over the last two years," said Jason Evanish, who runs a networking site for entrepreneurs called Greenhorn Connect. "Since I started Greenhorn Connect, I’ve seen an explosion at all of our local universities, and also at other young people entering the ecosystem and showing strong interest in entrepreneurship."

Tim Rowe, the CEO of Cambridge Innovation Center, thinks it's part of a fundamental shift in this generation's outlook. "This generation of people is more focused on their personal values of creativity, self-realization, changing the world in important ways," Rowe said. "I think entrepreneurship is perhaps this generation's answer to what in the past might have been a desire to join the peace corps and change the world through not-for-profit work."

But that doesn't mean this influx of talent has all the right skills. Many of the innovators we have spoken to over the course of the show say they're desperate for more people with sharp computer science skills -- that there simply aren't enough right now.

"We’re at a technological point where software is allowing you to automate, make things more efficient across many different businesses and industries, where previously maybe even a human being was involved," Evanish said. "What that means is, you need a lot more software engineers than exist."

And when you do find that talent, there's one other issue: Keeping the energy of young entrepreneurs, and the skills needed to develop businesses, right here in Boston.

"The cruel irony is, we educate some of the brightest minds around the world, and they leave," says Michael Greeley, of Flybridge Capital Partners, a Boston venture-capital firm. "You see a lot of initiatives, Mass Challenge being a wonderful example of that, that is trying to engage the young entreprenuer, to say, New England, Boston is open for business, please come."

Click the player above to hear Kara's whole discussion with WGBH's Bob Seay, from Morning Edition.

The Power Of Purse: Funding A Start-Up In Boston

By Kara Miller   |   Saturday, December 10, 2011   0 comments.

 

People talk with each other at a 2009 TechStars "demo day," where new products developed by TechStars participants are shared. (Andrew-Hyde via Flickr)

To build a company, you need an idea. You need a good team. And, in most cases, you need some money.

We hear from the people with the purse. Some of the Boston area’s most knowledgeable venture capitalists, seed-funders and prize-givers join us to talk about what they’re investing in, how to spot great talent, and whether the economy is finally springing back to life in Boston.

Guests:

• Katie Rae, managing director, TechStars; founder, Project 11

• Michael Greeley, general partnery, Flybridge Capital

• Scott Bailey, cheif of staff, Mass Challenge

About Innovation Hub

Each week, Kara Miller talks to Boston's most innovative thinkers, examining new ideas and potential solutions to today’s many challenges. Topics range from education to health care to green energy. Join us on Saturdays at 7 a.m. and Sundays at 10 p.m.

Kara Miller
As a radio host, Kara Miller has interviewed thinkers from E.J. Dionne to Howard Gardner, Deepak Chopra to Lani Guinier. She is a panelist on WGBH-TV's "Beat the Press," as well as an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, The National Journal, The Boston Herald, Boston Magazine, and The International Herald Tribune.

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