America’s heartland is being reborn. From North Dakota and Michigan to Alabama and Texas, entrepreneurship, economic growth, and innovation are taking off.

In this episode of TechEnabled, John is joined by Angie Cooper, Chief Program Officer of Heartland Forward, a “think and do tank” aiming to reframe the narrative about Middle America and improve economic performance in the center of the US. She joins the podcast to discuss the renaissance occurring in the heartland and how Heartland Forward is supporting the next generation of innovation and entrepreneurship. She also shares recent research on regional economic competitiveness which will help shape community strategies as they prepare to compete for new federal funds. John and Angie also discuss the Connecting the Heartland initiative which is supporting community and state leaders to boost internet availability, internet speeds, and adoption rates.

The COVID-19 pandemic monumentally disrupted the American education system. The pandemic can be a catalyst for something better or it reinforce the status quo. 

On this episode of TechEnabled, John is joined by Michael Horn, the co-founder and distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation and author of From Reopen to Reinvent: (Re)Creating School for Every Child. Michael argues that we have an opportunity to rethink the notion that a one-size-fits-all school system is the right answer for developing students and supporting parents. He joins the podcast to discuss how we can leverage the pandemic’s disruptions to foster a better education system. Michael shares some perspectives on change management in moving from responding to threats to seizing opportunities and how the theory of Jobs to Be Done can be used to help build the learning experiences that parents and students demand.  

With students returning to the classroom, the toll the pandemic has taken on our education system has only become more apparent. Students have fallen behind academically and teachers are overstretched. But the pandemic has also upended many long standing assumptions about education and created room to experiment with new approaches. A recent Echelon Insights poll for the National Parents Union found 53 percent of parents believe we should not be returning to normal, but use the moment to rethink how we educate students.  

On this episode of "Tech Enabled," John Bailey is joined by Salman Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, and Amy McGrath, COO at Arizona State University (ASU) Prep. They recently announced a partnership to launch the Khan World School at ASU Prep, an online, global high school for students who have demonstrated strong academic potential but want to take their education to the next level. Focusing on mastery, community, and collaboration, the Khan World School is at the forefront of rethinking the traditional education model. On this episode, we discuss how first principles thinking was applied to reinvent school and how they addressed some of the challenges experienced with previous versions of remote learning.