Atomi Brainwaves Podcast Season 3: Here are our special guests

Atomi Brainwaves is a podcast on education for educators where we look at key issues in the world of pedagogy and speak with a variety of teaching experts and influencers from all over the world. Our first and second seasons of Atomi Brainwaves featured some incredible guests including well-known principals, educational psychologists and best-selling authors.

We are excited to announce that Atomi Brainwaves is back for Season 3 and we’ve got a killer line-up of guests who are ready to face the key issues in education today.

All 3 three seasons are available now on the Atomi Staffroom as well as all our favourite podcast apps:

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Here’s what you can look forward to this season:

Ross Morrison McGill

The UK's most followed educator on social media Ross Morrison McGill joins us to discuss the development of his blog the Teacher Toolkit from Twitter page to highly influential multi-content platform, as well as offer his expertise on the development and value of online resources in education.

About Ross

Ross is a qualified teacher who, across three decades, has worked in some of the most challenging secondary schools in London as a design technology teacher and as a deputy headteacher. Throughout his school leadership, he has been responsible for improving quality of teaching and learning and has an international profile as a leading contributor and organiser of professional development, research, and teacher wellbeing within a growing community of education professionals.

As the most followed educator on social media in the U.K., he offers unique social media insights and support for schools and organisations. He is regularly asked to reflect on educational developments in multiple publications about education policy and through his website, advocates teaching and supports thousands worldwide. He is a PGCE tutor and visiting tutor at the University of Buckingham and when not completing action doctoral research on and offline, he is either teaching teachers, reading, writing or tweeting!

David Didau

Author of the Learning Spy and author David Didau tackles the ever-relevant issue of the advantage gap that exists in education, how it can be addressed from a school and teacher based perspective, and the roles that technology and cognitive psychology play in the conversation.

About David

David Didau is a freelance writer, blogger, speaker, trainer and author. He started his award-winning blog, The Learning Spy, in 2011 to express the constraints and irritations of ordinary teachers, detail the successes and failures within his own classroom, and synthesize his years of teaching experience through the lens of educational research and cognitive psychology. Since then he has spoken at various national conferences, has directly influenced Ofsted and has worked with the United Kingdom's Department for Education to consider ways in which teachers' workload could be reduced.

Mary-Lou O’Brien

Digital learning leadership expert Mary-Lou O'Brien joins us to discuss her unique career in the business and education worlds, break down the challenges faced by eLearning leaders when dealing with students and teachers, and offer some predictions on what the future of digital learning might look like.

About Mary-Lou

Mary-Lou launched one of the first online retail businesses in Australia before making the leap to the education industry. After obtaining her Masters in eBusiness and Communication and a Diploma in Vocational Education and Training. Mary-Lou worked at Swinburne University as an eLearning Leader for the School of Business, a Course Convenor and lecturer of eMarketing, eCommerce, Change Management and eBusiness Systems. She moved to Melbourne Girls Grammar (MGGS) in 2009 to take up the role of Director of eLearning, later becoming their Chief Digital Officer. Mary-Lou transformed learning at MGGS by introducing online environments that extended the student’s capacity to learn independently and collaboratively.

Mary-Lou has also presented at conferences both nationally and internationally on digital transformation and architecture, online and blended learning, women in tech., social media, future of work, creativity, cybersafety and personal branding.

Dylan Wiliam

We are joined by eminent educational figure Dylan Wiliam to discuss his area of expertise: formative assessment - what exactly it is, why it is important, how teachers can implement it in their classrooms, and what the future of formative assessment might look like.

About Dylan

Dylan Wiliam, PhD, is one of the world’s foremost education authorities. Dylan is Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at the Institute of Education, University of London. After a first degree in mathematics and physics, he taught in urban schools for seven years, during which time he earned further degrees in mathematics and mathematics education. During his time as Dean and Head of the School of Education at King’s College London, Dylan devoted a lot of his time to research and teaching, and since then he has helped to successfully implement classroom formative assessment in thousands of schools all over the world, including the United States, Singapore, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Wiliam’s recent work focuses on the profound impact strategic formative assessment has on student learning and he has co-authored Inside the Black Box, which focuses on a major review of the research evidence on formative assessment.

Darren Cox

Principal of the rapidly growing St Phillips Christian College Darren Cox joins us to discuss the challenges involved in establishing culture and maintaining student and teacher wellbeing amidst the constant change at an emerging school, as well as predicting how the new normal might look for schools in terms of online learning.

About Darren

Darren Cox, Principal of St Philip’s Christian College, has grown a small campus at South Cessnock to more than 1100 students from K-12. He has helped change the trajectory of student’s academic futures and has helped to significantly improve student results. Darren is well respected by his colleagues and is an outstanding leader who has passion and a vision for the college. He has been recognised in the Top 5 for Principal of the Year with the AIS, presents as a keynote speaker at conferences and events, and has over 25 years experience in the educational sector encompassing independent and department schools in metropolitan and regional NSW.

Guy Claxton

Author of over 20 books and leading voice in education Guy Claxton breaks down his Learning Power Approach, from the research and theory underpinning, and the history of its development, to its practical applications and success stories in the classroom.

About Guy

Guy Claxton is a cognitive scientist and writer of over 30 books on psychology and education. He has a 'double first' in Natural Sciences from Cambridge and a DPhil in Experimental Psychology from Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Academy of Social Sciences, and the Royal Society of Arts. Guy’s research reflects his interest in learning, from learning in a conventional classroom or seminar to the sports field or meditation halls, he is interested on the potential for learning and how we can get better at it.

Barrie Bennett

Educational thought leader and expert Barrie Bennett joins us to discuss Instructional Intelligence - the theory and research behind it, and the systemic change his programmes have brought about everywhere from Ireland to Western Australia.

About Barrie

Barrie Bennett is a highly experienced teacher having taught at secondary, middle and elementary school levels in Canada, as well as his most recent stint at the Ontario Institute for Studies at the University of Toronto. He also worked with ‘at-risk teachers’ in Canada as a consultant for six years, focusing on instruction and classroom management so as to enable such teachers to revitalise their careers. Barrie’s main areas of interest relate to the theory of instructional intelligence, particularly the intersection of existing wisdom and knowledge related to curriculum, assessment, instruction, how students learn, the nature of change and the importance of systemic change. He has published a number of works relating to instructional intelligence and now his work is leading systemic chance projects across Ireland, Canada and Australia.

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