In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer welcomes Tara Chklovski, the founder and CEO of Technovation, a global nonprofit that has been at the intersection of AI and education since 2016. Tara shares her journey from growing up in India to pursuing a PhD in aerospace engineering and eventually launching a mobile entrepreneurship program just two years after the iPhone debuted.
The conversation dives into the Technovation accelerator model, a three-month program for girls and young women ages 8 to 24. Tara explains how the program empowers students to identify real-world problems in their communities and build tech-based startups to solve them. We discuss the importance of fostering a problem-solving mindset, the critical role of human mentorship in an AI-driven world, and why the “personalized learning” trend might be too narrow a lens for the future of education.
Key Insights:
💡 Early Intervention: Why we shouldn’t underestimate children’s ability to tackle complex community problems as early as age eight.
🤖 AI as a Teammate: How Technovation’s “AI in Action” curriculum uses artificial intelligence as a brainstorming partner and subject matter expert for student teams.
🌍 Global Innovation: Stories of impact from 120 countries, including an alumna whose AI startup was acquired at age 19 and a student in India tracking environmental health through bird songs.
🏗️ Resilient Skills: Shifting the focus from simple AI literacy to building durable skills like user research, business planning, and civic responsibility.
Timestamps:
- 00:00 – Introduction to Tara Chklovski and Technovation
- 01:00 – Tara’s origin story: From India to aerospace engineering
- 03:15 – The mission to unlock human potential through STEM
- 04:20 – Breaking down the Technovation accelerator model
- 07:15 – Why educators should be early adopters of new tech
- 10:45 – Addressing the gender gap in technical careers
- 15:30 – The “AI in Action” curriculum and free resources
- 21:30 – How AI elevates project-based learning in classrooms
- 24:30 – The three functions of modern schools
- 31:00 – Concerns regarding “personalized learning” bandwagons
- 35:45 – A call to action for the current Technovation season
Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts—you don’t want to miss conversations like this one. To learn more about the program or access the free curriculum, visit technovation.org.
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