Episode 171: Interview w/ Mike Rutherford

The Counter Narrative: Changing the Way We Talk (and think) About Education

In this episode, I chat with Mike Rutherford, the founder and CEO of gotLearning. He has been a teacher, instructional technology coach, school district EdTech director, founder of the K12 group at Blackboard, Vice President of Business Development at Just ASK Publications & Professional Development, all before returning to the classroom as a 6th grade humanities teacher at International School Bangkok in Thailand where he built version 1 of gotLearning in his classroom.

During our conversation, we talked about the need for streamlining feedback to our students. In an age where information is consistently streaming in, we, as educators, need to be able to replicate that in our classrooms. After all, if companies can build systems to improve individual experiences, why can’t we do similar work in the K12 space? Mike points out that such shifts in practice not only benefit the students but also improve educator experiences as well. He compared teaching to running 5 to 6 hour long meetings with 30 clients everyday. Even the best CEO would burnout under those circumstances.

Ready to hear how an entrepreneur is shifting the eduworld? Let’s go!

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