Why Distance Learning?

Too often, educational change is approached with a top-down, impersonal strategy—especially in virtual settings. Leaders are handed new tools, frameworks, and mandates but given little space for reflection, values alignment, or the flexibility needed to make change stick. The result? Burnout, survival mode, and disjointed systems that don’t serve students or educators.

In this episode, Dr. Tovah Sheldon—school design strategist at Michigan Virtual and leader of the Leadership Coaching for Innovation initiative—unpacks how true transformation begins with the adults in the system. With warmth, insight, and a deep coaching mindset, she guides us through what it really means to center leadership development around the human experience. From redefining change through “rugged flexibility” and allostasis, to bridging the gap between personal and organizational values, Dr. Sheldon makes the case for slower, deeper, more reflective innovation. She shares stories of golden moments, challenges us to pluralize transformation, and gives us a clear pathway toward leading with clarity, purpose, and empathy.

If you’re leading innovation—especially in virtual or hybrid environments—listen in for insight on:
  • Why “rigid” systems fail in dynamic environments, and how to lead with adaptive stability.
  • How to help leaders and teams surface their core values and use them to drive sustainable change.
  • The habits and actions that define innovators—and how they play out differently in virtual spaces.
  • Why going deep before wide is essential for lasting, scalable impact.
  • How “small-i” innovations build momentum toward big transformation.
Episode Links:
Additional People and Concepts to Link:
  1. Brad Stulberg
    Referenced for the concepts of allostasis and rugged flexibility.
    🔗 https://www.bradstulberg.com
  2. Phil Grumm and Henry Ford Learning Institute / Innovation Hub
    Credited as the origin of the Habits and Actions of Innovators framework.
    🔗 https://inhub.thehenryford.org/
  3. Dr. Jay Marks
    Mentioned for his insight: “Lots of little moments lead to momentum.”
    🔗 https://www.nuatc.org/about-us/mentors/jay-b-marks-ph-d/
  4. Ellen Langer
    Referenced for her ideas on mindfulness, scientific uncertainty, and contextual truth.
    🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Langer
  5. 3P Learning (Project-, Problem-, and Place-based Learning)
    Discussed in relation to innovation in virtual programs.
    🔗 Resource from Michigan.Gov
  6. Cynthia Coburn
    Cited for the depth before breadth concept in educational change.
    🔗 https://sesp.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/cynthia-coburn.html 
Host Links:
  1. Discover more virtual learning opportunities and resources at CILC.org with Tami Moehring and Allyson Mitchell.
  2. Seth Fleischauer’s Banyan Global Learning provides meaningful global learning experiences that prepare students across the globe for success in an interconnected world.

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.