A Look at the Future of Learning Tools with Kumar Garg

Kumar Garg is the Managing Director of Schmidt Futures, a venture facility for public benefit that recently cosponsored the Futures Forum on Learning Tools Competition with Citadel. Kumar joins our host, Mike Palmer, to talk about the winners of the tools competition who were recently announced and to provide his insights and perspectives on learning engineering as well as trends in educational technology and computational thinking. Kumar begins by sharing his origin story which includes an eight-year run in the Obama administration heading up its efforts to grow and develop STEM education in the US. From there we explore the idea of learning engineering which combines insights in computer science, computational thinking, and big data with emerging insights in learning science to create scalable breakthrough innovations in education. Kumar walks through the structure and design of the competition and reflects on the benefits of connecting entrepreneurial innovation with academic research and scientific methods to unlock learning innovation at scale. From there, we discuss Rising on Air and UPchieve as case studies of the types of programs that emerged from the competition before concluding with Kumar's thoughts on the importance of R&D and infrastructure funding to drive the next generation of the learning ecosystem. It's an insightful and far-reaching conversation about the future of Ed Tech that you won't want to miss. If you're enjoying what you're hearing, subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you listen to your podcasts and check us out at TrendinginEducation.com