#29B Special Episode: Why Distance Learning? with Tsai Hsing Students

Show Notes

As a companion to episode #29A - Teaching Culture Across Cultures with Wendy Lee - this episode features six seventh-grade students from Tsai Hsing School in Taipei, Taiwan. Each student responds to the question, "Why Distance Learning?"

The students are part of a daily distance learning program called Learning Live, a collaboration between Tsai Hsing School, where Wendy teaches and serves as the Director of Research and Development, and Banyan Global Learning, founded by this podcast's co-host, Seth Fleischauer.

This episode was recorded as part of a teaching unit on podcasting. Students were asked the question, "Why Distance Learning?"; their most thought-provoking answers are featured in this episode. Seth recorded his interviews with these students live during their Learning Live class periods, while their classmates observed the recording process and discussed the experience afterwards.

Common observations from the students included their enjoyment of the recording platform, Riverside.fm, and the realization that podcasting was more involved than they had imagined. Tune in to hear these insightful young voices share their unique perspectives on the value and importance of distance learning in today's interconnected world.

Guest links
1. Tsai Hsing School - http://english.thsh.tp.edu.tw/
2. World of 8 Billion - https://www.worldof8billion.org/


Host links:
Browse amazing virtual learning opportunities at Tami Moehring and Allyson Mitchell's CILC.org


Seth Fleischauer's  Banyan Global Learning helps schools leverage technology for teacher and student wellness including AI literacy PD for teachers and, for students, live virtual learning experiences in Character Education: banyangloballearning.com

Creators and Guests

Host

Allyson Mitchell

SF

Host

Seth Fleischauer

TM

Host

Tami Moehring

What is Why Distance Learning??

Why Distance Learning? is a podcast about the decisions, design choices, and assumptions that determine whether live virtual learning becomes shallow and transactional—or meaningful, relational, and effective at scale.

The show is designed for education leaders, instructional designers, and system-level practitioners responsible for adopting, scaling, and sustaining virtual, hybrid, and online learning models. Each episode examines the structural conditions under which distance learning actually works—and the predictable reasons it fails when it doesn’t.

Through conversations with researchers, experienced practitioners, and field-shaping leaders, Why Distance Learning? translates research, field evidence, and lived experience into decision-relevant insight. Episodes surface real tradeoffs, near-failures, and hard-won lessons, equipping listeners with clear framing and language they can use to explain, defend, or redesign distance learning models in real organizational contexts.

Hosted by Seth Fleischauer of Banyan Global Learning, and Allyson Mitchell and Tami Moehring of the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, the podcast challenges outdated narratives about distance learning and explores what becomes possible when live virtual education is designed intentionally, human-centered, and grounded in evidence.