The Public Thinktank

In education on November 9, 2009 at 9:42 pm

For more information on our Red Brick Voices Contest for grades K – 12, see People and Ideas. Submit essays, poetry, and music about education. Deadline Nov. 15!

The Public Thinktank is a weekly radio show all about education.

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The Public Thinktank is a forum for conversation. What we’re talking about:

the diverse meanings of education for individual lives and in our American society
triumphs and challenges in all areas of education
how media educate us throughout our lives

publicthinktankradio.org

Email us at bcthinktank@gmail.com with all kinds of feedback, or to get involved with the show.

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The Public Thinktank is the brainchild of Leigh Anne Keichline. Way back in 1999, Leigh Anne hosted an interview show on Oberlin College’s WOBC, and she has long been an avid fan of radio. Frustrated by the lack of ongoing public conversations concerning education in both TV and radio, she had been itching for years to start a radio show all about education. She launched The Public Thinktank in the fall of 2008.

Since her high school days in the early ’90s, Leigh Anne has worked and volunteered with a wide range of populations, from preschool to adult education, in both public and private schools as well as in other educational settings, in Ohio, New York City, Baltimore, Boston, and Connecticut. She is working on a Masters in Political Science at Brooklyn College and is interested in questions of democratic citizenship and education.

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In education on November 2, 2009 at 4:16 pm

Listen live: 12 noon. Click here.

On the first part of today’s show, we’ll have a live interview with Jessamyn West. West is a librarian consultant in rural Vermont. Her blog, librarian.net, tackles questions about open source and Google, web 2.0, banned books, the law, accessibility, privacy, and more. We’ll talk with West about the evolving relevance of the librarian in an age of media explosion. This is Part 3 in our Bloggers and Education series.

On the second half of the show, we’ll listen to an interview with Maria Azkue. Azkue worked as a lawyer in juvenile crime in Argentina, and now is studying for a Masters in international relations at Brooklyn College. She shares with us her perspectives on education in Argentina, and gives us a window into her own educational story. This is part of our World Views Series.

Libraries in 2009: accessibility, open source, Google books, and more… and an Argentinian laywer’s perspectives on education… coming up.

Music for today’s show by Paul Brill and Evil Art Form.

The World Views and American Views Series

Our World Views series features interviews with individuals who have been educated primarily abroad. Most participants in the World Views Series have now moved to the U.S., where they are teaching, studying, working, or parenting. They share with us their reflections on the widely varying experiences and schools they have encountered. In our American Views Series, we dive into the experiences of individuals educated primarily in the United States.

Each unique educational biography is meant to provide a prism into the many meanings of education and how it shapes us as individuals. These conversations are not meant to be sources of authoritative information on educational systems or statistics.

We invite you to respond to the interviews you hear by writing to us at bcthinktank@gmail.com. If you or someone you know would be a good interviewee for either the American or World Views series, please contact us.

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In education on October 26, 2009 at 4:16 pm

Listen Tuesdays at 12:00 noon EST streaming live on the web at brooklyncollegeradio.org. Click here to connect.

For mp3s of all past shows, scroll down to “listen to past shows.”

For more information on our Red Brick Voices Contest for grades K – 12, click on People and Ideas. Submit essays, poetry, and music about education. Deadline Nov. 15!

Coming up this fall on publicthinktankradio.org:

An American Views interview. Global Kids documentary on school phase-out. Nov. 17

A NYC Teaching Fellow, teaching math. Education for the blind, in the U.S. and South Korea. Children’s author Anna Alter. Nov. 24

Making healthy media choices. Dec. 1.

Red Brick Voices Contest winners! Dec. 1 and 8.

Children’s Studies. Music Together. Dec. 8.