ABOUT THIS EPISODE
When did learning stop being fun? Rick and Tisha put that question to Scott Bricker — founder and CEO of AweFull Learning, and a 25-year veteran of classrooms, ed tech offices and school leadership — and the answer goes back to a logo sketched on a napkin in a Denver restaurant.
Scott's whole company came out of one realization: for a lot of students, learning has become awful — A-W-F-U-L — and the job is to make it AweFull instead. The three of them dig into why the 11-to-12 age range is where curiosity quietly gets switched off, why normalizing failure beats protecting a GPA, and why we put kids in classrooms with brilliant adults who have never studied the brain. Scott makes the case for balance in the screen-time fight, for trusting teachers as the experts, and for "trust but verify" as the only sane way to teach AI. Then Juice Box Confessionals turns up a second-grade buzzer-beater, a cardigan, a Honda Prelude, and a mom-and-pop video store.
Funny, honest, and genuinely useful for any leader tired of watching the pendulum swing.
00:00 Introduction to PlayEd 3 Podcast
01:04 The Joy of Learning Beyond School
04:15 Curiosity and Play in Learning
11:40 The Shift from Fun to Awful Learning
18:10 AweFull Learning: A New Perspective
24:39 Normalizing Failure in Education
26:33 Failing Forward: Embracing Productive Failure
28:05 The Importance of Process Over Grades
30:41 Building a Supportive Learning Community
31:27 Conversations That Matter in Leadership
34:46 Understanding Cognitive Development in Education
38:39 Finding Balance with Technology in Classrooms
42:46 Trusting Educators: The Role of Technology
46:43 Adapting Education to a Changing World
49:59 Preparing Students for Independence
52:47 The Role of AI in Education
54:43 Trust but Verify: Navigating AI's Influence
58:37 The Shift in Learning and Assessment
1:01:18 Nostalgia and Life Lessons from Childhood
1:06:31 First Jobs and Their Impact
1:07:44 Parenting Reflections and Realizations
About Scott Bricker
Scott Bricker is the founder and CEO of AweFull Learning, a national education consulting organization & Microsoft Global Training Partner dedicated to reimagining learning by reigniting awe, wonder, and curiosity in classrooms. With over 25 years of experience as a teacher, coach, tech director, and school leader, Scott brings a rare blend of classroom credibility, leadership insight, and future-focused thinking to his work with schools, districts, universities, and education teams across the country. His work focuses on the intersection of neuroscience, AI, assessment, and instructional design, helping schools modernize practices while remaining deeply human-centered. Scott is a Microsoft Elevate Educator Expert Fellow, former Microsoft Showcase School Leader, and co-hosted Live w/US Microsoft EDU for three seasons.
Follow Scott Bricker on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/AweFullLearning/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scott.bricker.73
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbrickeredu/
X: https://x.com/ScottBrickerEDU
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/scottbrickeredu.bsky.social
Other: https://www.awefulllearning.com
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