The new season of the UnschoolingFuture Podcast is devoted to children on the internet, their digital rights and access to information.
It's because I’m writing and illustrating a (comic) book about kids’ and teens’ freedom to self-direct their online learning, titled Free to Browse.
When we talk about self-directed learning, we always talk about it in terms of educational experiences, how life learning can be very educationally enriching and how it prepares kids for the future. Is that really what is most important about self-directed education? Why do we feel the need to try to sell young people’s formative experiences as “academic” or “educational”?
Ben Draper, a former MIT fellow and the founder/ executive director of the Macomber Center in Framingham, MA, a self-directed learning community for ages 5 to 18, believes that children who grow up with their basic needs being met will have the tools they need when they get older to figure out how to continue to create the kind of life they want to live. In this episode, Ben and I tried to come to the core of how self-directed learning unfolds today and the role digital technology plays in that delicate process.
16 Dec 2022
Free to Browse with Peter Gray
For this episode, I had the honor to sit down with my long time hero Peter Gray, research professor at Boston College, famous for his studies of children’s play and self-directed learning.
What are the actual reasons why children and teens are so stressed out? By controlling their online lives, are we taking the last vestige of freedom that children and teens had? What is the tipping point theory of social change and when can we expect a wider acceptance of children’s ability to self-direct their learning and possibly less discrimination of youngsters as a minority?
28 Oct 2022
Free to Browse with Bill Budington and Jason Kelley (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
For this episode, I sat down with Bill Budington and Jason Kelley from Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
What are the main concerns about the newly introduced Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)? What are the stumbling blocks on the way to tech literacy and proficiency? Why, in the 21st century liberal West, do we see so much talent and resources going into surveillance tech and what strategies will today’s young minds pick to survive this phase in the internet’s development? Is it just a phase? To quote my son Simon, "I still find it astonishing that it's a privacy law that kids should not have any privacy”.
5 May 2022
Why We Are Leaving Europe
Marta Obiols Llistar is releasing the second, updated edition of her beautiful book "18, An Unschooling Experience" and I’m honored to have been asked to write the closing chapter for this new edition. In this audio fragment, you will hear me read my chapter, "Why We Are Leaving Europe", in English.
If you want to listen to the whole conversation, please go to The UnschoolingFuture Podcast, Season 2 Episode 9
5 May 2022
Migration and Learning
Why is our family leaving Europe? How does moving impact learning and self-discovery? Are we still nomads at heart or are we in search of paradise, the ideal home? What is home anyway?
21 Apr 2022
The Role of Community
How can we shift the paradigm where conventional schools have monopolized socialization? How can we liberate families from factory-like schedules they are obliged to follow and give them more sense of control over their children’s learning process? How can we give the children their right back to choose what to learn and when? How can we create a world where anyone can be both a teacher and a student, education for everyone by everyone, just like philosopher Ivan Illich had envisioned in his book Deschooling Society? Can local community be as democratic and liberating as the online community? Does your corner bakery allow kids to come and learn how to bake bread?
10 Apr 2022
Sleep, Love and Unschooling
Does our society have a chronotype bias and how can the discriminated chronotype stand up for themselves? Is there a relationship between sleep and body weight? How can dreams help in problem solving and emotional regulation? What is the after puberty sleep phase shift? Why do some people have longer circadian rhythms? Do you co-sleep with your children? How can unschooling lifestyle help discover your biological clock and build a healthy relationship with sleep? What does an unschooling day look like?
5 Mar 2022
How to Talk to Kids about War?
What happens to the new generation as they witness the tragedy of war and what does citizenship or nationality mean to them? Is the Metaverse as a collaborative space an antidote to war? Is military conflict in the Digital Age an anachronism? Does conventional school system fuel that anachronistic world view by revering hierarchical, patriarchal structures and patriotism? How can self-directed learning/ unschooling and respect for the individual, as opposed to categorizing people into buckets, help raise a generation uninterested in territorial feuds and focused on the value of human life instead?
18 Feb 2022
Ed3: Self-Directed Education Empowered by Web3
How can new technology, such as web3, help make self-directed education more accessible, more affordable and easier to validate? Can Ed3 fulfill Ivan Illich’s vision of education for everyone by everyone?
13 Feb 2022
Downtime
The role of the Default Mode Network in our brain that only lights up when we’re not focused on a task and the regenerative power of daydreaming.
5 Feb 2022
Non-anxious Presence
Why is it important to become the non-anxious presence in our children’s lives and how do we do it?
28 Jan 2022
Play vs. Work
Is this juxtaposition even valid? What are the societal implications of the loss of play? Can the current technological renaissance, including web3, help bring play back to our lives?
21 Jan 2022
Will We Take Our Labels to the Metaverse?
Labels, of all shapes and sizes. What do labels do to us? Will labels transfer to the metaverse or can we be anything?
25 Oct 2020
The Hidden Library. Schools, screen time and mental health.
For this episode, my son Simon and I sat down to talk about screen time, YouTube algorithms and hanging out online.
17 Apr 2020
Doughnut Education
In @KateRaworth's #DoughnutEconomics, an economy is prosperous if all 12 social foundations (incluis #education) are met w/out overshooting any ecological ceilings. But can Industrial-Age-style schooling serve as a foundation for a new sustainable mindset?
24 Mar 2020
A Year of Wonders
Positive vibes for families around the world who have become homeschoolers because of the corona virus/ covid-19 crisis. Let your child have a year of wonders!
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Contact Unschooling Future Podcast
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Unschooling Future Podcast?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
