In this week’s episode we talked about the potential of simulations for powerful learning, with a particular focus on simulations for educators. This is our first of two episodes on simulations. Dr. Chris Dede will be the lead host for a later episode on simulations for students. Joining us this week were Dr. Sara Dexter, Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, and Ken Spero, CEO of SchoolSims. More information on our guests is below, as are some resources on the topic. Happy viewing!
Sara Dexter is an associate professor of education and the program coordinator of Administration & Supervision at the University of Virginia. Dr. Dexter’s primary research interests lie in exploring the relationship between the development of educational leaders, the leadership of educational technology, and how adults learn and grow. She has been granted over $6M of funding to research case-based learning environments as “virtual practicum” experiences for both aspiring teachers and school administrators; team-based instructional leadership for science and math teachers’ integration of technology to create multiple representations of content; and K-12 school leadership practices to support teachers’ learning and integration. In her role as Associate Director of the University Council of Educational Administration (UCEA), she has overseen the “Virtual Practicum” initiative conducting program- and instructor-level needs assessments regarding how interactive pedagogical tools can provide rehearsal opportunities for developing leadership competencies.
Ken Spero is the Founder and CEO of SchoolSims (formerly, Ed Leadership Sims), and uses computer based simulation to build resilience, leadership skills, and decision-making capacity for K-12 Administrators and Educators. SchoolSims works directly with Schools, Districts, Graduate Schools of Education and Associations to help strengthen Leadership Pipelines and reduce Leadership Churn. Ken has been in the simulation field for 30 years focusing on how to capture and deploy Experience in an efficient and scalable manner to enable the adage that “Experience is the Best Teacher.” He is also an outside instructor in the Mid-career doctoral program in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Ken developed the Experience Design Process for simulation development that enables practitioners to articulate their own experiences in a manner which can be effectively shared with others.
Resources from our guests
- Scenario-based e-learning
- Increasing productivity and efficiency in online teaching
- Educational leadership simulations: Learning lessons from behind the curtain of educational leadership
- (Inter)Active learning tools and pedagogical strategies in educational leadership preparation
- ETIPS leadership cases: An innovative tool for developing administrative decision making