Episode 251: Making the Move With Ed Tech

Episode 251_ Making the Move With EdTech

[00:00:00] Fonz: Hello, everybody. And welcome to another great episode of my ed tech life. Thank you so much for joining us wherever it is that you're joining us around the world. Thank you so much for making us part of your day on this wonderful, well, it was a really cold and gloomy Monday. Here in South Texas, but hopefully anywhere that you are joining us from.

You had a wonderful day. I know that winter is here, but regardless, I hope that y'all had an awesome day today, a great start to your week. And many of you that are returning to work after a couple of days break, I know it may feel a little bit. Tiring and we need to recharge the battery, but thank you so much for recharging with us because today we have an amazing show.

So thank you as always for all of your support for all the likes, shares, follows, thank you so much for following us on social media and thank you to all of our new YouTube subscribers. Thank you so much for helping us get to our goal of 1000 subscribers. So please make sure you jump over to YouTube and give us.

Thumbs up and hit the subscribe button. You definitely won't regret it. So I am excited about today's show today. As always, we bring you some amazing conversations and amazing guests. And as you can see, many of you may already recognize some of these amazing, wonderful faces that we have here today. And for our new audience members that are joining us or may not be familiar with our amazing authors today, today you are in for a treat because today we are going to be talking about making the move with.

Ed tech. So I would love to welcome to our show, Mr. Troy Hicks, Dr. Jennifer Parker and Kate Grunow. Thank you all so much for joining us on this wonderful evening. We'll start off with Troy. Troy, how are you doing this

[00:02:14] Troy: evening? Doing well. Thanks. Definitely enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. Glad to be

[00:02:19] Fonz: here.

Excellent. Thank you so much, Dr. Jessica, uh, Jennifer Parker, excuse me, Dr. Jennifer Parker. How are you doing this evening?

[00:02:27] Jenn: Well, I, I am, uh, enjoying the, the beautiful Florida cold here, but, uh, Dr. Hicks and, uh, Kate are enjoying the, have we got snow in Michigan yet?

[00:02:38] Kate: I was just going to say it's fine and fancy and very cold here.

So.

[00:02:44] Fonz: Oh, well, I love it. I mean, here, it's like I said, it was a gloomy 59 degrees, uh, just overcast, no drizzle, but it's all right. I mean, we'll take that 59 any day. And I, I guarantee you here in South Texas, like we pulled out everything because we're not used to this cold, you know, 59 for us, we're already like in snow boots and everything, you know.

But again, thank you so much for joining us from everywhere, you know, that you are from. And again, I'm excited about today's topic and I'm excited about, you know, getting the show set up. Like I mentioned to you, I had been, excuse me, a while in the making. Um, you know, we have been very busy with the podcast, but I'm glad that you guys are here today and I'm excited to talk about this book.

So before we get started, I would love to start, or I always love to start with our audience members, getting to know. Who you are and making that connection with you all. So I would love for you all to give a little brief introduction and what your context is in the education space. So I will go ahead and start with Kate.

Kate, can you give us a little brief introduction and what your context in the education space is?

[00:03:52] Kate: Yeah. So I'm a former middle school teacher. I taught middle school ELA and technology for 10 years in Utica community schools, which is a, I think the second largest district in the state of Michigan. And then about right before the pandemic, I transitioned to a consultant role.

So I'm currently an instructional technology consultant for Macomb Intermediate School District, where I provide leadership for about 130, 000 students and 10, 000 teachers. So 21 school districts. We have our work cut out for us. That's where I met Jen. Uh, I wasn't always going to be a teacher in the beginning.

I was actually an instructional, I'm sorry, it was an interior design in the very beginning. And then my mom randomly ran into one of my teachers at the grocery store who suggested I might become a teacher. And it was kind of all history after that. So not always a teacher, but it was definitely the right choice for

[00:04:40] Fonz: me.

Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing that. And that is quite an accomplishment and quite a transition. That's wonderful. And I'm excited to, you know, see your work also here. As like you said, that's the way that you all met through the education space. So we'll go with Dr. Jennifer Parker. Dr. Parker, how can you give us a little brief introduction, excuse me, and what your context is in the education space?

[00:05:05] Jenn: Well, first of all, just Jen. Just Jen. So, um, I have been in education for over 30 years. Um, I was in K 12. I spent the last 15 in, uh, the same organization that Kate's in, in Metro Detroit, but I've been anywhere from a library media specialist to a K 12, um, high school business education, Nobel networking teacher, interim administrator, tech coordinator, you name it.

If there was a pile, it landed on my desk and I hid that. So I've done a lot of things in, in education, but now I am, uh, at the University of Florida in their faculty, uh, Center for Teaching Excellence. And, uh, in fact, the three of us met through, through kind of at K 12. Higher ed connection. And I know Troy will talk a little bit about that, but my work at Central Michigan as an adjunct kind of put me in the mix of higher ed and kind of gave me that bug in my next chapter of my life now that I've left K

[00:06:06] Fonz: 12.

Oh, excellent. Thank you so much for sharing that. And now we'll go on to Troy. Troy, can you give us a little brief introduction and your, what your context is in the education space?

[00:06:18] Troy: I can. So I always like to tell the story that my mom would tell about when I was young, she remembered walking into the playroom one day where I had all the stuffed animals lined up in a row with my chalkboard and my magnetic letters.

And so from about the age of three or four, um, she knew I was going to be a teacher. That's what happened. So, uh, I began my career as a middle school language arts teacher. Uh, was working on my master's degree at the time, had a great mentor who said, you're pretty good at this professional development stuff.

Do you want to become a, a teacher educator? I went back for my graduate degree at Michigan state, and then I earned my first job at CMU and that's where I've been ever since, and so I get to meet and work with fabulous people like Jen and Kate as students and as colleagues. And I currently serve as the chairperson of the department of teacher and special education.

Where our educational technology programs are located. So our masters of arts and learning design and technology, as well as our doctorate in educational technology.

[00:07:18] Fonz: Excellent. Wow. You know, this is wonderful. And I love the fact that y'all are coming from different perspectives, different areas in education, but still, you know, ultimately joining forces to come up with this wonderful book.

What we're going to be talking about today. So before we dive in a little bit, I know we gave our introduction, but I'm definitely interested. I know, uh, Jen said that, uh, maybe Troy, you'd be letting us know a little bit about how you all three came together and joined your awesome sauce superpowers, and then of course, collaborated on this book together.

So can you give us a little, uh, story on that, Troy?

[00:07:56] Troy: Yeah, I think the long story short is that, um, Jen, who is a. Three time CMU alum, am I correct? Fire Up Chips, um, and has a history at CMU. We had met a number of years ago through other Michigan Department of Education, educational technology initiatives, and when we were really ramping up our cohorts of master's degree students during the pandemic, we needed adjunct faculty, and she was one of the very first people that I contacted at this point.

About that same time, I think, Jen, you were trying to recruit Kate into the master's program and, uh, as she was making that shift and then the instructional technology coaching and mentoring role. And so one thing led to another, and I can't even remember exactly what course Kate. You might have been in one of my courses at one time and then Jen and I co taught a couple courses and uh, then Kate, uh, also has enrolled in our doctorate in ed tech.

So there's just a number of connections there. Lots of cross, uh, conversations that we had starting in, you know, 2019, 2020, even a little bit pre pandemic, definitely during the pandemic. And that's where we started brainstorming some of the ideas behind the book. So I think I've caught the gist. It might be a Bronco.

[00:09:14] Fonz: Another

[00:09:17] Jenn: thing that we shared though, is, uh, the, the ISTE certification, we all went through and, and did the ISTE certification. And so I think that was a big frame of reference for, for some of the underpinnings of the book and the materials and the classes and the conversations that we've had, because we all kind of have been through that.

And so that does no flavor

[00:09:40] Fonz: our work. I think I love that. I love that. And Kate, so again, just a little bit, just to kind of round this out. So, Kate, the power of connections and like you mentioned, the ISTE certifications, and of course, even knowing each other before that. So how powerful is, you know, having a great PLN or I call it PLF too.

Also personal learning family or professional learning network, you know, and especially, you know, getting to meet Jen and Troy and then again, working in this book. So tell us a little bit about that experience.

[00:10:09] Kate: Yeah, so I always say life got good when Jen adopted me first. So she walked into my classroom in like 2012.

She was like, you're a rock star, come work for us. And it just kind of spiraled from there. So she was a great mentor. She connected me with Central. Troy kind of mentioned this. My bachelor's is from Western Michigan. And if you're not from Michigan, you probably would not know that Michigan and central are like the biggest rivals.

So she was very committed to getting me to go to central and out Western for my master's. I would that connect me with Troy and then the kind of the development of the book, and I certainly wouldn't be pursuing my doctor right now if it weren't for the two of them. So, uh, the power of the network is real.

Uh, it's definitely transformed my teaching practice. And I, of course, carry that forward for the teachers that I work with in the County that I

[00:10:51] Fonz: serve. Excellent. Love it. Well, that's great. And I'm glad, you know, like I said, this is a great opening just for our audience members. I want to thank Sherry Fleischer also who's joining us, who I know is also an ISTE certified educator.

So thank you so much Sherry for supporting our And obviously being part of this conversation, but this is a great way to round this out, the introductions, just so our audience members can make those connections and obviously see, like Kate mentioned, the power of connections. And then of course, hearing your stories all together intertwined in an awesome way.

And of course, diving in into what we're going to be discussing today, which is your book here, making the move. With ed tech. So as we talk a little bit about the book and, and what you all had in mind for the book, I want to just kind of get us a little bit or get started a little bit as far as, you know, technology and how technology has changed and now has really come into the forefront of the classroom and, you know, being blended with, you know, the practice that we have, the pedagogy, but of course, you know, that the tech tools are just.

Moving at a rapid speed and just, you know, talking about AI since last year and so on. So I just want to kind of, we'll start with Jen, you know, the, the premise of the book, you know, getting started with this whole, the book and the idea behind it. What was it that really sparked the, the, the start of this book?

You know, was it just the transition in education as far as the tech is concerned? Tell me a little bit more about that.

[00:12:29] Jenn: Well, I think, uh, through a lot of our work. Together the three of us in not only the Central Michigan work but our, our teaching work in general. We, we are big fans of the Triple E framework and the Liz Cole, you know, the engage enhanced extent.

And I think during the pandemic we saw a lot of teachers struggling and that struggle was real and trying to, you know, at that time Kate and I were dealing with 10,000 teachers in our. In our metro Detroit area, trying to support them and their work, and they were all over the place from, you know, tech basics to, you know, just.

on the struggle bus. And so we really needed to up our game and we had lots of sidebar conversations about how we could do that. Um, I think the, the book was born out of the fact that we wanted teachers not to be stressed about the fact that we, they were good teachers. They were just It's thrown into a new way of doing things.

And we wanted them to feel confident and, supported and know that they were doing courageous things and that the strategies that they had always gone to were still great and they just needed to scale them up or make them look a little different. And that's a big premise of the book with the making the move is really to have confidence in your teaching.

Have confidence that there's a million tools out there and they, who knows what your district's going to sign you up for, but you're going to have a buffet of tools. You're going to need to figure out what it is you're trying to do first with your teaching and then be purposeful about it and choose the tools so that they support that good teaching.

So it's really more about the teaching. Troy, did you want to add anything? How did I do Troy?

[00:14:20] Troy: Overall, I think it's great.

[00:14:23] Fonz: Excellent. Troy, yeah, go ahead and add into, go ahead and add to that, Troy, if you like, you know, as far as, you know, also just the book, the idea behind it and your part in it and maybe a little bit of those conversations that or practice that you saw that you said, hey, we really need to, you know, help our teachers.

In, you know, in this specific area and so on. Like, I love what Jen mentioned as far as not, not having them feel overwhelmed with the plethora of tools that are out there. So Troy, what's your, what's your take on that?

[00:14:56] Troy: Yeah, I would add to that to say that of course there are dozens and dozens of tools and also many of the frameworks.

And again, we, we are a fan of these frameworks and see. Folks like Liz Gold as mentors and, uh, fellow travelers in this ed tech life, but also that teachers can become overwhelmed. Like, Oh, I have to reach this level or I have to attain this kind of goal. And so what we tried to do was build on the power.

thinking routines and protocols and the types of activities and strategies that teachers know. In fact, one little anecdote we like to tell about the book proposal is that one of the reviewers said, I already know all these strategies. And we're like, yeah, you might know all these strategies, but you're probably not using them with technology.

And, uh, that really kind of reframed the way that we took the tone and the approach of the book. Not in this kind of condescending way, like, Oh, well, we can do it better. But yeah, you're right. You probably do know what a six word story is, or I see, I think I wonder, but let's show you some other ways that you can use technology to enhance and extend that, uh, type of a strategy that you're already comfortable with.

And I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more

[00:16:06] Fonz: about those strategies later on. Yes, absolutely. And Kate, I would love to know, just adding to what Jennifer said, uh, and then of course, with what Troy just finished saying, and as I was going through this book and, you know, bookmarking certain little areas, I was like, wait a minute, this looks familiar.

And you're absolutely right, Troy. Like you hit on something. I was like, I I've seen this before. Like I've seen, you know, but. I love the way that you wrote it out in such a way where it's like, it's a different view. It's a different perspective. It's a different way of seeing what is already being done and where even with the tech that's involved, it doesn't feel like the tech is the superstar within this.

It's really the activity, the practice. So Kate, you know, tell me a little bit about that in your experience. You know, I know that. Of course, flipping the switch when everybody went on lockdown and having great teachers go into a different learning modality or teaching modality was very difficult. So how did you kind of help them keep things simple?

And then of course, how did those strategies roll over into the book as well?

[00:17:16] Kate: Yeah, so kind of like Troy already mentioned, we would expect that most teachers would know the moves that are in the book. That's what makes it approachable or inviting to teachers that are just getting started or perhaps scaling up.

And we know that, you know, since the pandemic, teachers are asked to be really nimble to move between different modalities at the flip of a switch. Uh, we were talking earlier about even just this idea of having like snow days. Those really aren't going to be a thing anymore. You can ask students to go online for learning that day and to quickly take what you know and what you have planned in your lesson plans and adapt them for these new modalities.

Uh, so I think one of the things that we do really well in the book is we take what teachers know and what they love, and we just show them how you could have two or three really strong moves. Are two or three really strong strategies? You don't have to have all 10 just pick your top three And you know show what they can look like in these different environments and how you can really extend them in new and creative ways Same thing goes for tools.

We don't expect you to have 10 or 15 tools You can do a lot with two or three really strong tools And if you have these protocols in place with your students This idea of like loss of instructional time or your students maybe getting behind in the pacing or the curriculum It's kind of no longer an issue because your students are going to get the idea of how you do business in class, and it's really going to have a great impact on teaching and

[00:18:28] Fonz: learning.

I love, I love everything that you said. And all three of you combined, because like I said, just the familiarity of what is here and seeing it in a different way already makes me feel. And then what you just hit on Kate, which is you just need three plays. Really? You don't need to memorize the whole playbook.

And that reminds me of our former math content specialist who did wonders for our district. And he said, I only have three plays and he's a former coach. So he's like, I only have three plays. It's either right, left, or up the gut. He goes, I never pass because passing will lead to interceptions. So he just kept it simple.

And oftentimes, you know, I think that's. the struggle with a lot of educators and especially like myself, too, as well, who I love everything at Tech. But now what I'm doing is I'm being more cautious about what I do share and also learning, okay, what are our objectives and making sure that I'm in line with what our district goals are and so on.

But I think that. What happens now is that with so many tools, there is a duplication of efforts many times where some tools do the same things, but they may have one additional bell and whistle. And sometimes that will draw a teacher's attention off of what they are already doing and what they may be using and doing great with, you know, within their class and.

Can oftentimes feel a little overwhelming or maybe even for the students. So I want to talk with, uh, Jen first here, what are your thoughts on that? As far as kind of just trying to keep it simple, you know, I know, like I said, one of the things that I loved about this is just the easy read and the familiarity.

The comfort level. So what are your thoughts on what we're seeing now in the ed tech space? Well,

[00:20:23] Jenn: one of the foundation pieces that we lay out at the beginning of the, of the book is what we call the categories for purposeful instruction. And we lay out these, we've got nine categories now, but as ed tech evolves, you never know, there may be more, but we, we tried to categorize, you know, With, with your moves, with your strategies, what's your purpose?

How are you going to purposefully use that technology rather than, you know, you see the cool tools coming through the social media feed. Oh, I got to try that. But no, you need to stay focused on, on that purposeful use. And so we lay out nine, um, Categories. Facilitation is one example. Collaboration is another category.

So if I'm using, if I want to up my game, scale it up, make the move with facilitation tools, uh, facilitation tools might be something like, uh, using a spinner wheel or, you know, you can draw, you know, using the draw the annotation tool in a Zoom room. What are those? In fact, I'd love to see the chat. I'd love you guys to, you know, what's your favorite EdTech technology that you use to, um, For your facilitation as you're online or in front of your students, what are the cool tech tools that you use to up your game and facilitating?

Uh, another category is collaboration. You know, there are a million tech tools out there that students come into the, to the universe and they collaborate, but what is your purpose for that? What is the strategy you're going to align it to? What was your purpose? And so. We really are kind of a fans of that framework.

Now that we've laid it out, it's kind of become a mantra for how we, we think of things, you know, what is my purpose for using the technology and more than just it's cool and it'll entertain the kids. What's my purpose

[00:22:16] Fonz: for it. I love that. I love that. That's wonderful. And that's always. The battle. And I think like, oftentimes what I see is just, there's so many tools that are out there.

And like I said, it's, it's almost something that's addicting where it's like, you see something else come out and you want to be the first to try it out because you're more, sometimes I feel we worry more about putting it out on socials first. Like, Oh, I'm doing this and I'm doing that as opposed to really diving in and, um, you know.

Doing the work with it and seeing if it really is something that is going to help you, uh, you know, meet your objectives, meet your goals, what it is that you're going to be doing in class, something that's not going to burden the students that is going to cause a different log in or, you know, and of course, for teachers as well, just cause more frustration.

So one of the things that I share with my teachers and I kind of started it, um. I, on a podcast, I shared this with Katie Ritter and I just say, you know, you got to kiss your tech, you know, it's just keep it simple and streamlined, you know, kiss your tech, keep it simple and streamlined. And again, there's nothing wrong with trying something new, but I've always told, told teachers, you know, we need a treat.

The technology as an instrument, you know, you don't learn how to play guitar right away. It's going to hurt a little while you're learning the tool, but it's going to get you to play that wonderful melody where you're going to get to your objective at the end, but it's going to take a little bit of practice and soon enough, your students understand it.

But sometimes what happens, it's like, ah, I've got calluses. I don't like this. I'm just going to jump over to the next tool. That's going to be easier to use, but then now you've got. 10 tools that you're jumping to and from, you know, just to get to one, uh, objective and that can sometimes be very burdensome.

So Troy, I want to ask you, I mean, what, what is your take on this? Or maybe just extend a little bit on or expand a little bit more on Jennifer's answer.

[00:24:09] Troy: Yeah, just picking right up on what you said, one of the, my kind of taglines I'll use in workshops and things sometimes with teachers are that you need to have your everyday tools, your every week tools, and then your once in a while tools, and you really work on those everyday tools early and often.

So students are just really comfortable with them and they can be flexible. So, like, I think Kate was saying earlier, Google Docs and Google Slides are probably the two most flexible tools to do all kinds of things, and kids just need to know them inside and out. And then you have your common tools, like your learning management systems and other things like that.

And then every once in a while, when you do want them to do a bigger project, yeah, we're going to invest some time. We're going to learn how to use the video editor in Canva or Adobe Express. We're going to learn how to Uh, use the map making function on Padlet or something like that. We're really going to dig in and learn the ins and outs of this one tool.

And we may only use it once, but it's really purposeful because it's part of this particular project. So yeah, it was every day, every week and once in a while tools. I think that's, uh, how I typically frame that to, uh, my colleagues.

[00:25:15] Fonz: Nice. Sure. I really

[00:25:17] Jenn: like that. Kate likes to give us the warning of, okay, folks, we don't want to return to death by worksheet.

Right, Kate? Isn't that your, your mantra? After all the struggles, the struggle is real. Please don't return to death by worksheet.

[00:25:33] Kate: Yeah, we just, I mean, we see teachers wanting to shift and go back to the way things used to be. and it's tempting, but I think, sometimes we want tools to instantly be intuitive and to be very simple.

but we also sometimes forget that onboarding is super important and that you have to go slow to go fast. we should choose tools that are intuitive and that are simple for our students to pick up quickly. but we shouldn't make this assumption that all of our students instantly or natively know how to use technology.

we have to teach them how to use them, whether it's our everyday once in a while, or, those tools that Troy was talking about, they do all require some instruction on the teacher to become a part of our classroom practices. And if we're really going to move, towards these steps that we took during the pandemic, I think it's really important that we remember that all of that requires some type of onboarding for our students.

[00:26:20] Fonz: Absolutely. Absolutely. And so I just want to add a little bit here just that we've got Tim Cavey who's on in the chat also as well, and he just mentioned he goes give me Google Suite and Canva and he is good to go. Also Sophie who's joining us says yes teach the tool. And that's very important and Kate I think that's one of the biggest things that I have seen as an obstacle being an instructional tech in my district now mind you.

There's one of me for 14 schools altogether. Now that doesn't sound like a lot. And it's 9, 500 kids. I know it's a, it's a small district, but you know, one for 14 schools. Uh, and I mean, and I know you mentioned you were working with 10, 000 plus teachers, you know, so I want to ask you. Now that you've seen, you know, like you mentioned, and this is something that's very important to me because I've seen a little bit of this too, where teachers are kind of reverting back to the things the, the, the, the way things used to be.

So I wanna ask you, what is it in your practice, and as you're out there helping and training teachers and building up skills and working with leaders, what are some of the, how do you, uh. I guess overcome or help them overcome these barriers and kind of reverting back to the way things were.

[00:27:34] Kate: I think one of the big challenges when the pandemic first happened was teachers digitizing their materials.

So they had these worksheets and handouts and these moves that were for a face to face classroom, but they were suddenly trying to use them in a digital environment and it wasn't a one to one translation. So in our professional learning, we try and help teachers bridge the gap between that face to face in that virtual environment.

So thinking about how they can recreate their worksheets in a digital format that's still going to be accessible for all learners, or even just leveraging some of the available platforms in their district. We are big advocates of discovery education experience in our county. It's a wonderful tool. It replaces about five other miscellaneous tools.

So helping teachers make connections to the content area standards and how there's these different tools inside of there that function like maybe a play posit or an ed puzzle. You've even got a slideshow maker in there. So showing teachers how they can kind of get rid of some of those redundancies and the tools that they use and how they can bridge the gap between the things that they used to do in this new digital environment without consuming all of their prep time can be a really valuable way to kind of get them to move away from this idea of wanting to go back to the way things used to be.

[00:28:40] Fonz: I love that. And, you know, one of the things that our district did, uh, because of pandemic was we kind of standardized on pretty much for, you know, platforms, which were and we still have them to this day, you know, because they're like the lowest barrier to entry. Everybody already had that experience with that.

It's now time to go in deeper. But you're 1 of the things that you did mention is I know that when we came back, we did see like, Hey, now we're going back. It was like. Yeah. Copy machines galore. We're running like crazy. Now things are getting a little bit better now where everything is in a digital platform and it's really now trying to practice, you know, doing this, like you said, you know, giving them that opportunity to say, here are the tools that are the easiest to use.

Like for us in our district, we use Kami Edpuzzle and we use our, um, Of course, Google Workspace, and we use a Screencastify. So those are the four that we have, you know, but again, like you mentioned, like for, for as far as Google Workspace, very versatile, you can easily adapt a lot of the things there.

Kami, we just love it because teachers love it because although I know. I tell them, I was like, don't just take that worksheet and just digitize it. I mean, let's go deeper with the tools that they have there for that feedback. And of course, the video tools, the voice tools and all of that. Let's take that up to another notch.

And really, you know. Just redefine the lesson and go deeper than we could before. So that's really kind of my struggle is helping them see beyond just the digital worksheet. And I know it takes some steps to do those things. And those are some barriers to overcome, but I do love and agree with what you said, just simplifying it and then just, you know, that way you don't have too much to get distracted with.

So that's great. So we. Yes, go ahead.

[00:30:31] Kate: I just, I think you just throw us the softball. So, you know, to level it up from, you know, moving beyond just digitizing is where the book came into play because the moves really take it a step further beyond digitizing. They're helping you think about how you can deepen the move and deepen the use of technology in the classroom.

[00:30:46] Fonz: So. Yes. No, no, no. I absolutely love that. All right. So, uh, Jen, I'm going to come back to you. So I want to ask you, you know, you can go ahead and give us some of the best things here in this book. I know we talked a little bit about, you know, the familiarity with it and in going through the book, like I said, it's like, wow, like these lessons, I know them, they're so familiar.

And now you're taking them to that next level. So I want to ask you, you know, when you had this book in mind and the way that, um, you know, you had laid this out, what has been the reaction, you know, from readers or teachers, or as you go out and provide professional development and practicing these moves, um, you know, what are you seeing that has been positive?

What are you seeing that there might be as far as still some possible obstacles to overcome? Let us know a little bit about your experience with that.

[00:31:42] Jenn: Well, I think the. the premise for us and the whole make them move piece was because we were envisioning this transformation zone and we can throw the word pandemic around all we want, but it's been, it's pre pandemic, post pandemic.

It doesn't matter. It's that it's taking that person and moving them from, tech basics to tech best practices to tech, tech integration to tech embedded. that's a journey. For folks. And that's what we call the transformation zone. So that's a given. That was one of the premises that we felt really strongly needed to be talked about in the book.

Doesn't matter. Just start wherever you are. Another, another thing that we talked about is, um, Because we were so firmly entrenched in the ISTE certification and such strong believers in those ISTE standards, we did really feel like, um, we need to focus on, or we need to try and shift our focus and shift our paradigm away from teacher driven.

You know, Charlie Brown's teacher and the wah, wah, wah, let's get to student empowered where they're creating and they're innovating and they're using and they're exploring, I don't have to know all the tech tools, but I can give them a buffet of what the district offers and let them experiment a little bit.

So we all, you know, that was another big essential element of the book is that trans. Transformation zone and the move from teacher driven to student empowered. Um, I think another one is, um, we talked about common denominators. And, you know, every time we got together to write, and it was a weekly thing, we would write once a week.

And... We talked about the common things being talked about in EdTech, you know, digital citizenship, um, access and accessibility and universal design for learning. Those were just givens. Um, if you're talking EdTech, you, you needed to know what is blended, what is hybrid, what is remote, what is HyFlex? What are those givens in EdTech?

We should, what do we need to know about it? Um, And the fact that we've got teachers and students that have a wide variety of skills and you got to work with them wherever they are. So there were a lot of common denominators, as well as a lot of tech frameworks like Triple E and Picrat and, you know, SAMR and.

TPAC, oh my. So all those givens, those common denominators that were out there were, when we're talking ed tech people that that's on the, that's on their mind. Okay. Where, where's that going to fall in your book? And then, um, lastly really was our, our focus on the fact that. Teachers are experts. They have some amazing strategies.

They are courageous. They have just gone through an amazing opportunity to grow their professional practice and instruction ways that they possibly never imagined that they could. And we wanted to talk about here's 10 of our favorite strategies. And here are these tech categories for being purposeful in your use of technology.

Now, how are you going to put them together and make that exit ticket? All right. Scale up or make that six word story scale up, grow your practice, start where you, you feel comfortable. Okay. With my exit ticket, I'm going to start with note cards at the end of the, at the end of the hour, they're going to give me their, my, I've got them.

And I'm going to scale it up a little bit. Oh, maybe I'll put the answers in a spreadsheet. Or, oh, hey, maybe I will use a kahoot. Or, oh, hey, I'll do a mentee. Or, oh, hey, I'll do a poll within Zoom. So these small steps, kind of like the Neil Armstrong analogy, but you know, the small steps that we take as courageous teachers are what, where we need to go, because Now we've got AI in the conversation.

So it's technology's never going to go away. It's, it is here. And, uh, we hope that we gave kind of a, a little bit of a guide book for every teacher. This is not an ed tech book. It is a guide for every

[00:35:50] Fonz: teacher. I, I feel. No, I, I agree with that answer. No, no, no. And it was great because it kind of leads up to something that you did mention, which is kind of helping and better the practice.

And I think oftentimes in bettering that practice is really making the classroom more student centered. Um, I did have that experience and I absolutely loved it in the classroom where everything was student centered. Uh, but now, you know. I've seen things on this site now and being able to have access to a lot more schools and teachers, you still see, you know, the majority of the teachers still being, or the majority of the classrooms still being teacher led, although there is some tech that is involved.

It's not really, it doesn't seem like it's really there to heighten the level or heighten, you know, the learning experience, but rather just kind of like, Hey, here's the platform so you can continue to practice. So I know that that's been my struggle. So, um, Troy, I want to ask you, you know, how about yourself?

What are some of the, you know, tips that you may share, you know, here, either here from the book or maybe something else that has come up in your discussions as you've been meeting and, and, you know, doing shows and probably discussing other projects. What are the, some of the, you know, simple, low barrier to entry shifts or steps that teachers can purposefully take to transforming in or their classroom into a little bit more?

Of a student centered

[00:37:19] Troy: classroom. Thanks Hans. I think this comes back to some of the things that are happening in the chat, like around the tools as well. And. At one level, you know, a mentor of mine once said, you know, kids have to have some content in their head, right? We, we do have to do some skill and drill and some just rote memorization and things like that.

But then we get to that level of they're producing, creating, critiquing, all of those types of things. And that's where I see like someone, teachers on fire had mentioned like the use of Canva and Adobe Express and things like that, where they're getting to, to synthesize and put their own ideas into.

Practice and creative ways. So again, to me, this goes back to the purpose of the book and why each one of the content chapters is centered on like a core teaching strategy or routine or protocol. I was first introduced to protocols through some work through the national writing project and it really just changed the way I thought about everything.

And so, uh, one of the chapters I took the lead on in the book was, I see, I think, I wonder. Again, we got that feedback from the reviewer. I already know what this strategy is really good. You've heard it You use it, but now try using it with seesaw try using it with google drawings Try using it with an annotation tool like perusal or hypothesis or now comment Or cammy as you mentioned a moment ago try using it with you know video clips But try using it with still images try using it with infographics as well as with Chunks of text.

So it's just being flexible, taking that idea, using the tools that you have available to you and then putting students in that mode where they are commenting. They are providing feedback. They are the ones that are engaged in dialogue and have to generate something, not just answer a multiple choice question on a digital ditto.

And again, I know that. Kids have to have some content in their head in order to be creative. And yet, at the same time, I don't know that we give them enough opportunities for creativity with these technologies. It, it is sometimes just a very perfunctory set of things that we're asking them to do. And so I hope that the book is reminding teachers that these strategies and protocols are adaptable and flexible regardless of the tools that you might use.

[00:39:34] Fonz: Absolutely. Kate, how about yourself? I want to ask you and just kind of maybe switch it up a little bit, but as like Jen has mentioned, and I know Troy has mentioned and in really reading this book, you're absolutely right. This isn't really an ed tech book. You know, this is more of that guide, you know, for myself, you know, if I'm in the classroom, I would definitely follow this to improve my practice.

And of course you do offer tools that are available, you know, To, you know, get to that objective that I want to get to as far as the learning experience or engineering a wonderful learning experience for my students and just taking that one step at a time. So in you, for you, I want to ask you, what advice would you share with teachers as far as how to stay informed about the technology and maybe how to not.

Just kind of jump on just something right away where you see it. What would be some of your advice? Because I don't, I never like to see my teachers feel burdened and overwhelmed and, you know, with a lot of the tools that are out there. So what can you share for our audience members that are listening?

Um, you know, some advice.

[00:40:42] Kate: Yeah, I think it's really important to just be aware of the tools that are freely available to your district because if your students have access to those tools, it's obviously going to be an easy place to start and then thinking about tools that have multiple purposes. So, I know Canva got some attention in the chat.

Canva is a wonderful tool because it does so many different things. You can do video, you can do images, you can do slide shows. So being aware of tools that serve multiple purposes, and then I'll just spotlight one of the resources that Jen and I have been a part of for the last 15 years is the 21 things for project.

Uh, they have a student project and an educator project, and we make connections to those throughout the book, but what's really wonderful about both of those sites that they have a team of educators from across our state that have gone through and vetted the resources. So they've been sure that they have appropriate privacy policies that they maybe have.

Um, you know, conscientious of how they're going to help support the learning objectives, and those tools are reviewed regularly. So if you're looking for a great place to start, I just recommend checking out the appendix, and the site is updated regularly. So that's a really great place to start if you're kind of feeling overwhelmed.

But of course, I think it's really key to just know the available resources in your district as a starting point, because that means that you're in line with your district's vision for technology use. Thanks.

[00:41:59] Fonz: Perfect. Great. I love it. Well, it has been great speaking with you today. Thank you so much for all your wonderful shares.

And again, I definitely recommend the, the link to get the book will definitely be in the show notes and we're probably might get some, a little extra information for our guests that, but all of that will be in the show notes, but this is the book right here, making the move with ed tech. And again, Guys, this is not what you may be expecting it to be just because you hear it, you know, making the move with EdTech, but this really helps you walk through a lot of the practices, honestly, that you may be familiar with, you're going to find in this book, but they're going to be kicked up a notch and it really does help you see things differently.

It really helps you feel comfortable. With taking that next step forward. And I love the way like Jen put it, you know, taking those small steps can really help you go a long way in the future and just feeling comfortable. So I absolutely recommend this book. Please make sure you pick it up. And again, all the information.

We'll be on the show notes as well as all our guests information. So if you want to reach out to them and connect with them on socials, please make sure that you do, because I'm sure that you will see some wonderful posts, you know, wherever it is that they may be located where you can take, you know, those knowledge nuggets from and sprinkle them on.

To what you are already doing great. So Troy, Kate, Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate you all, but before we go, I always love to end the show with the following three questions. So hopefully you guys are ready and we'll go ahead and we're going to work our way, the way that I see you all here.

So I'm going to start with Troy first. So Troy, I want to ask you in the current state of education. What would you consider to be your current edu

[00:44:02] Troy: kryptonite? I'm going to say people's intense desire for AI plagiarism detectors. Number one, they just don't work according to the data. I'm not a computer scientist or a statistician, but from what I've been reading and understand. There are a lot of false positives, especially for our multilingual students and our students who have disabilities, especially those on the autism spectrum.

And so we need to be really, really mindful when and if we are going to try to use AI detection. That's my kryptonite. It's driving me crazy right now.

[00:44:37] Fonz: All right. Great answer, Troy. Thank you so much. Kate, on to you. What would you say is your current edu kryptonite?

[00:44:45] Kate: So building on Troy's wording here of teacher's intense desire to go back to the way things used to be.

[00:44:52] Fonz: Excellent. Absolutely. I agree with you 100%. Driving me crazy. We've

[00:44:56] Kate: come so far. Why can't we keep going?

[00:44:58] Fonz: Absolutely. Uh, Jennifer, how about you?

[00:45:03] Jenn: Mine would be the, the fear of AI. Um, I am really a, a strong believer in the fact that it's. AI is a powerful thing, just like the internet was. And we shouldn't be blocking or filtering or stopping.

We should be empowering and teaching ethical and responsible use. Um, so that fear of AI is just really just

[00:45:26] Fonz: a buzz killer. Yeah, no, I agree with you. And that's one thing that I've been talking to my teachers too. Just kind of, like I say, like, you know, let's, uh, kiss our tech. I was like, Hey, kiss your AI, just keep it simple and streamlined, you know?

And of course, just make sure again, the comfort level and always just. Thinking ahead. What is my ultimate goal here? What do I want my students to learn and, you know, just take it from there, but just, you know, avoid that fear, but yeah, great, great, great answer. All right. Now we'll go ahead and start off with you, Jennifer.

We'll start off with the second question. If you could have a billboard with anything on it, what would it be and why?

[00:46:08] Jenn: I, I'm not exactly sure what it would say, but I think it would say something like,

[00:46:14] Fonz: um,

[00:46:15] Jenn: teachers, people are not going into the teaching profession and teachers are leaving the profession.

What can you do? To reimagine teaching, to make it a respected, supported, and, um, position that can be, um, appreciated and, and fruitful for those of us that live it and love it, rather than leave it.

[00:46:41] Fonz: I love it. Leave it, love it, rather than leave it, like re imagine teaching. I love it. I love that. I can see that re imagine teaching like very big and then of course something like that along the lines of what you just said there towards the end and I'm just really picturing that, so that's a really great answer.

Alright, Kate, how about you? What would your billboard say?

[00:47:04] Kate: You have to go slow to go fast.

[00:47:08] Fonz: I like that. Simple to the point, but it works in so many ways and it's very powerful. Definitely agree with you on that. All right, Troy, how about yourself? Tell us about your billboard.

[00:47:20] Troy: It would have to be something like Mentors Matter.

Think about this group and how we've mentored one another and been mentored by one another and then the mentoring that we do and then the mentoring that we receive in our larger professional learning communities and so. That's what matters for young teachers, especially like be a mentor to a young teacher, not because you've been assigned to do it out of your, you know, from a district contract, but because we need young teachers and we need them to be around for a long time.

And you're going to learn as much as, um, they learn from you in the mentoring process. Absolutely,

[00:47:58] Fonz: great answer. Alright, and the final question. Now, of course, like I mentioned to you, I know that you all are authors, and I know that you might be working on, you know, some additional works, and so on. So, this question might already be, you know, you might already have an answer for this, but I'll start with Kate.

Kate. If you had to author a book starting tomorrow, what would your book be about? Uh, how

[00:48:23] Kate: we can better prepare new teachers to teach with technology in the classroom. And that's because, uh, my dissertation is coming and I need to get that written.

[00:48:31] Fonz: There you go. Perfect. Excellent. All right. Troy, we'll go on to you now.

If you had to author a book starting tomorrow, what would your book be about?

[00:48:42] Troy: Well, just to say not, not that anyone else on this call may have something to do with Kate's dissertation. Just, just want to put that out there for her.

[00:48:51] Jenn: Being her chair that you are.

[00:48:53] Troy: Could be, could be. Um, so I hope she takes time for personal writing too.

Actually, I was fortunate enough to be part of an entirely different experience this summer with the National Endowment for the Humanities Institute. And we were studying nature writing and climate change. Topias, which are kind of two very drastically different things. Uh, but I think that could be interesting to put my, myself in a whole different space of thinking about nature writing or climate change friction.

Excellent.

[00:49:23] Fonz: All right. And Jennifer, now to you, if you had to author a book starting tomorrow, what would your book be about?

[00:49:32] Jenn: I actually have two in the works. Uh, one is. Uh, with another Solution Tree author, and it is, um, centered on instructional coaching and the evolution of the instructional coaching role as, you know, we've moved past this pandemic shift.

And, um, I also have one that is on AI, but the AI impact with teaching and learning. All

[00:49:58] Fonz: right. Two big, two, one, two and a half. Two. There you go. Two in the hopper and all so relevant. Well, Troy, Kate, Jen, thank you so much for today. Thank you so much for your shares this evening. Thank you so much, obviously, for this great book.

Like I said, for any educator out there, I definitely recommend this. Please make sure that you Check out the link in the show notes as well, because this is a wonderful guide. If you are a teacher who is still a little bit fearful of tech or may feel a little bit, you know, just overwhelmed with tech, this book right here will definitely put you at peace and ease, and it will definitely help you get you on your way to be able to improvise, adapt, and overcome.

You know, those fears, it will help you improvise, you know, with the tech in your class and creating learning experiences and definitely overcome that fear of tech and just, uh, take you to that next level again, like Jen said, those small steps will definitely go a long way. So please make sure that you check out the show notes so you can get the info on the book.

Thank you all to Sophie. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, Tim Kavey. Thank you for joining. Thank you, Jason, for joining also as well. I appreciate y'all. Marcello, thank you so much also for joining us in the chat and for all our audience members that are going to catch this on the replay, thank you as always for making my EdTech life what it is today.

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