{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Make It Mindful: An Education Podcast","title":"#89 Designing Global Cohorts with Travis Moyer","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1531,"description":"In this episode of Make It Mindful, Seth talks with Travis Moyer - Banyan Global Learning's Director of Programming - about Global Cohorts, the four-week virtual exchange program he piloted this spring with three classroom cohorts, and what happens when students design their own festivals for an international audience. Moyer has written previously about designing for flow and deep engagement in virtual classrooms, and that thinking shows up directly in how the program's activities are structured.\nTogether, Seth and Travis explore the origin of Global Cohorts in Banyan's 18-year partnership with Tsai Hsing School in Taipei, the recurring failure points of ad hoc classroom-to-classroom partnerships, and how running multiple cohorts in parallel solves for one partner dropping out mid-unit. They walk through the festivals unit step by step - how students share their own local festivals, study festivals from around the world, get matched with partner schools ahead of time, and eventually use AI to visualize a festival of their own design. The conversation lands on what happened when the exercise reached a cohort of Ukrainian students who'd been scattered by the war: without being prompted to, nearly every student built a festival about family and cultural preservation.\n\nKey topics:\nGlobal Cohorts program design and origin\nBanyan's 18-year partnership with Tsai Hsing School, Taipei\nSolving classroom-partnership dropout with parallel cohorts\nThe festivals unit: weekly structure and cadence\nUsing AI to visualize student-designed festivals\nUkrainian student cohort and displacement\nPlace-based identity themes across cohorts (Minneapolis, Calgary)\n\nLinks & Resources:\nBanyan Global Cohorts program: https://www.banyangloballearning.com/programs/global-cohorts\n\"The Flow State and Education: Deep Focus, Engagement, and Productivity\" — Banyan Global Learning blog, December 20, 2024\n\n\nGuest Bio: Travis Moyer\nTravis Moyer is Banyan Global Learning's Director of Programming, where...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/aX0c3Zcu_BWgnhhPpU7UI3YNLxRjFjQabj8M1H8irwE/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hZjhi/ZWY0ZTA5YTUxYjE1/YTlmY2NlYTQ3NDkz/ZDZlYS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}