Episode 278: Anthony Beckett

Episode 278: Classroom Collaboration with Markify

[00:00:11] Fonz: Hello everybody. And welcome to another great episode of my edtech life. Thank you so much for joining us on this wonderful day and wherever it is that you may be joining us from around the world, thank you so much for making us part of your listening pleasure and definitely making us part of your day.

So. So thank you as always, as you know, we do what we do for you because we want to bring you some amazing conversations, amazing content, amazing tech, and more than anything, just amazing and wonderful people that you get to connect with and learn from on the day to day. So thank you so much for joining us.

And I want to give a big shout out. To our sponsors, EduAid. Thank you so much EduAid for what it is that you're doing for teachers as well. So if you haven't checked out EduAid. ai, please make sure you check them out because they definitely, they are definitely a wonderful platform to get to know as an educator and also a big shout out to GooseChase as well.

So thank you all to our wonderful sponsors who support our vision and our mission. Educators one show at a time. And I am so excited about today's show. I have been following Anthony for a while. You know, it's interestingly, uh, going through Twitter, found this, uh, amazing tweets, and then all of a sudden I'm like, huh, what is this about?

Particular app called Markify. And then I kind of just started following. I, and I think it was along the times of South by Southwest where he had posted and then he posted a little, um, a card that had a scan code and a bitly. And just out of curiosity, I just. Jumped on, snuck on, and checked it out, and I tell you, I am very, very pleased and very excited about what Markify can do for the classrooms.

So at this time, I would love to welcome tonight's guest, Mr. Anthony Beckett. Anthony, how are you doing today?

[00:02:08] Anthony: I'm doing fabulous. I've actually been presenting all day, getting warmed up for this, if you will. And so I'm really happy to be here. I've been following along with this podcast for a little while, like not watching it every day, you know, not to stretch it, but watching every episode here now and then, and keeping up with it.

Cause I just, you know, I'm. As a student, as you'll learn in a minute, I'm sure, and see my backstory a bit, but I don't know what I'm doing in teaching. And so I really look at resources like this to kind of catch up, keep on with that, the news and stuff in that area. And so, you know, big thank you to you for doing this podcast and of course, letting me on today.

[00:02:42] Fonz: Absolutely, Anthony, and I'm excited and I know that you've been very busy, but let's go ahead and dive in. So, Anthony, for all our audience members who are getting to connect with you today, or at this time, maybe some of them are already familiar with the wonderful work that you're doing, either way, if you can give us a little brief introduction and what your context is within the education space.

[00:03:05] Anthony: Well, of course, so I'm Anthony Beckett or more formally known as the Mark if I guy, as many people say, um, but I'm actually an 18 year old high school senior and I'm graduating in about a week. And so getting there almost there. Got some exams to go through, but, um, you know, it's a unique perspective of being a student and.

You know, my journey really in this community really started a little over two years ago when I was sitting in this algebra math class, teachers up at the front, writing notes on the board. I'm a student sitting down, copying these notes on my paper. Everyone else copying them down. And that was kind of one problem struck because in the middle of writing these notes, he erased the board before I had them all written down and I was thinking, I've got this computer in front of me.

Why can't I take what he's writing up there and stream that real time? To my Chromebook to see up close. So if I missed the notes, I can go back and then little did I know it. Then I'd start this over two year long journey, building this crazy ed tech product thinking, Oh, I can build something that complicated and it will be easy.

It was not. And that really set me on this journey. And since then I've built out the product, the app in a sense, gotten teachers on it, but also had to. Really figure out education. I don't have any know how in the space. I don't have a teaching degree. I'm just a student that has access to educators to get their feedback and ideas.

And so really immersing myself in the space. So I've, I've loved going around and learning from everybody, um, and, and really figuring out what would be a good tool to bring to the classroom to help make teachers better. Lives a little bit easier and make students lives easier as well, which is, of course, where it started.

And so that's a very big part. A little bit about myself. I've been coding a little over 6 years now. I originally started with video games, believe it or not, and I developed multiplayer. video game infrastructure. Then I kind of hopped over. I did a, what I like to say is 180 degree offset from education, which is I made a social media platform.

So very far away from schools, but this social media platform went on to get over 10, 000 users. And I had to develop my own real time infrastructure since it was kind of a chat application. Think of Twitter, but it's real time chat messages. And so even though my social media photo didn't go anywhere, I was able to take that technology and build it in the photo.

So at heart, I'm a designer and programmer, but I'm also very, very big in the education. And like I had said, kind of immersing myself in the community and really figuring it out and going to conferences, going to different PDs and meetings to figure out what it's like to be an educator and how to incorporate that into what I'm building.

[00:05:37] Fonz: I absolutely love it. I mean, so much there to unpack number 1, just the excitement of you having and seeing a problem and finding a solution in a very innovative way. That's number 1 right there where I was like, to me, I'm like, this is amazing. We're as a teacher and seeing a student say, Hey, you know what?

There is a. You know, a problem here that I wish to solve. And not only for myself, but I know how many other students would benefit from it and trying to find that solution. That is wonderful. That kind of entrepreneurial spirit also as well, the designing and more than anything too, like you mentioned is you are immersing yourself in something that.

You are very unfamiliar with. However, one of the things that I do love is like, we were just talking pre chat, how receptive our education community is, um, and how receptive they've been to you. So tell me a little bit about that. Like, what was your first impression? Cause I know that you put this out. I followed you.

I tried it out and I'm like, Hey, this is really cool. And I saw you post more and more and then a lot more people. That you're connecting with. And then of course, going to conferences. How has that been for you immersing yourself into the education space?

[00:06:51] Anthony: Wow. Well, how do I make this not a three hour long conversation here, but it has been quite the journey to tell you the least.

So when I started it, I didn't think much of it. I was like, I'm going to make this app in about four or five months. Every teacher on the planet is going to use it. And it's going to be the biggest product of all time. Obviously that didn't happen. Um, and that was what I quickly realized. And I realized this is going to be something.

Way bigger than I had first thought. I was like, this isn't just a fun little hobby project. If this is something a school's going to be able to use, they're going to have to approve it. So then set off the six month journey of figuring out what FERPA and COPA are and how to build that into the product.

And so, you know, the journey really starts, you know, not with that math class, with me coding it, but it really starts in the schools, in the school district, when I actually started putting it out there and trying to go from just a hobby project to something people are using, you know, outside of my bedroom, if you will.

And so that actually really began this year when I went to my first ever conference that was in Tennessee. And so, um, I go to this conference and I was only able to go one day because it was during the school day, it was during school. And so I had, I was able to get a field trip for one day and I had a connection, a connection at my school, um, that was a STEM coordinator.

He was connected with the person in charge of this conference. And so he was able to convince her that even though I was under 18, let me come in, you know, open the door, let me in. And believe it or not, they still made me buy a ticket, but I was able to get in. And for that one day, and it was probably hands down.

I at least can't think of a better experience in my life than that. That was really when I realized this is something I like. And obviously I'd been building it. It was just a prototype kind of at that point, but I went in and it was just going to be kind of walking around, talking to people, connecting nothing more than that, but little did I know fate had another idea for me.

And so I was in this conference. I bumped into the head of instructional technology at my school district, and that was where we finally connected, which is what kind of set the balls in motion, if you will, to allow Markify to get approved in my school district, which was the first step. My school district is actually the hardest, strictest one when it comes to approving new software.

They are very in the state. They are very strict on it. And so getting them to approve it was a whole other story for another day. And that was multiple months. But anyway, I was at this conference. So after meeting them, I was going to one last presentation at the end of the day, and it was going to be this talk on AI.

It was just a new thing kind of popping up, of course, at that time. And this was really early on in the year. And so it's just starting to enter in. But the presenter didn't show up. They had to leave early. And so all of the, like, 20 or so educators were on this room without a presenter. And the lady that was in charge was there and like, sorry, the presenter didn't show up.

I'm really, you just have to head home, I guess. But that was when I was standing next to that STEM coordinator at my school district. And he's like, what? Anthony can present, he can come up and show you Markify. She's like, all right, Anthony, you got 15 minutes. And I had already cleaned up my computer and everything, but I had to run all the way out, got my computer, brought it in.

And then little did I know, not it wasn't, it wasn't going to be 15 minutes. I went on for 45 minutes and nobody left. Everyone was intrigued. And at the end of it. Everybody had picked up my card and, you know, I got, that's where I started getting feedback outside of my own teachers and really growing and figuring out what is it that educators want.

And so I was really able to start doing this because of an amazing program in my district called the EIC Entrepreneurship Innovation Center. And I only did it my senior year cause I didn't know that that was a path I wanted to go down, but I had decided I'll try it my senior year, last year of high school, and they were able to get me.

Somehow able to go to South by Southwest to present it. So that's what happened next. So a couple months later, I go all the way down to Texas and I was able to present there. And that was really when I guess you could say I put the pin on the map. That's when you checked it out. That's when I started seeing what Twitter really was.

See if that's something I should say X and seeing if it's something that would be worthwhile. And I realized it. Hey, I don't have a marketing budget. I can't go buy billboards or run ads. I've got to figure out a way to get people's feedback just without spending a dime because I don't have a dime to spend on it.

And so I started reaching out to educators. I started connecting with as many people as I could. And through that process and through the connections at my district, I was able to go to ASU plus GSB summit along with the air show. And that was kind of the next thing I got led into. I presented there.

Presented at the air show, even though I didn't have any AI, that's, that's a little secret. They're like, where's the AI at? I'm like, we don't talk about that. Um, it's coming soon, but anyway, I was able to present. And then that is really what took Markify from something in my school district and then really got it out there to other teachers, like, you know, teachers in California using it, teachers in Kentucky using it, you know, all over the place, you know, prior it was just in my school district and a few around it.

And so. Really building on that. It has been growing. I've put out a couple of posts on Twitter that have done really well, and that's been really helpful for me because I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not a social media marketing manager. I just post stuff that I think resonates. And I think a big part of the journey to has been realizing it's not just about making a tool.

It's about understanding the educator. And in a lot of ways, I've been able to help educators by giving them feedback being a student. Thank you. Like, this is why I'm on my phone. This is why I'm not engaged. And by offering that there, here's my feedback on Markify to improve that and build that out. And so, you know, that's a very, very shortened, even though it doesn't seem like it version of what went on, but it's, it's been a very, very long process, but.

I've loved every step of it for the most part, and even more than the coding side.

[00:12:53] Fonz: No, and that's so great. And, you know, just, it's just amazing. Like, honestly, just hearing what it is that you've been able to do in these three major conferences, the growth also as well, and obviously putting Markify on the map too, as well.

But one thing that I love that you said that to me is something that's very, very important. And you kind of mentioned it here towards the end is just that connection of With the educator and, and I'm going to be honest with you, like my, my experience many years ago when I was still in the classroom, I go to these conferences and I just go and I just came back with as many tools as possible.

And I just want to give them to the student and say, we're going to try this. We're going to try this. We're going to try this. We're going to try this. And I was just trying to figure things out and just kind of just because I wanted to go ahead and do it. So one of the things that I love though, is it's almost like now you're leading with the it.

And what I love is that You came up with this concept of Markify because this is something that worked for you. And so oftentimes I always say, you know, now one lesson that I learned, uh, very, a little bit later in the classroom was I need to let my students lead with the tech because I can come and get really excited about a tool and just want to go ahead and put it in their hands and just shove it in their face and say, well, this is what we're going to use, but it may not be the best tool for them.

Tool for them, and maybe for that give and, and not that it's not gonna work out for them, but maybe just for that given point in time or that specific activity and so on. But as a teacher it's like, no, no, no. We need to use it. We need to use it. But one thing that I love is that when you do allow students to lead with the tech, and like here you're saying you're giving feedback to the teachers and letting them know.

Hey, cell phones. Hey, this is why I'm on my phone. Hey, this is why I use my Chromebook in this way or this device in this way. I think it's so valuable. And, and this is what I love that you bring to the education space or edu to, or edu X, I guess now, or Twitter, you know, because it's such a great back and forth because the learning doesn't stop you're learning how we think as educators and what we think.

It helps and works, uh, as far as pedagogy and technology and so on. But then just to have somebody at your age with your experience, giving that feedback to us on the student side is so helpful as well. So I think that really the, the relationships that you've been able to build, um, the here through X have been wonderful and I love seeing your posts.

I love the interaction and I love the way that you do get. That honest feedback. And I've seen a lot of those posts where I'm like, Ooh, I never really thought about those things or something that could be like, ouch, you know, but, but sometimes we need to hear those things as educators, because something, it could be something that we, you know, might not think of at that given time.

So I absolutely love it. And, uh, Again, you know, I, I just want to ask though about your South by Southwest experience before we get into a little bit more about Markify and you telling us a little bit more about its capabilities, but tell me a little bit of more about your Southwest or South by Southwest experience.

And the only reason I want to ask that is because during that time, and I believe I had reached out to you on Twitter, um, also as well and messaged you because there was a gentleman. Mr. Jeremy Qualls, I believe, uh, he reached out to me and let me know a little bit more about you and so on. And I was like, Oh, I'm really intrigued.

I really need to reach out. And because of him, you know, I kind of really, we, we stayed in contact and, but again, due to scheduling and things of that. So we finally made the pot, we made the show happen, but tell me a little bit about that South by Southwest experience. Cause I know for us here in Texas and in Austin, that's probably like one of our biggest events.

That we have. So coming in 18 years old, you know, showing your product. What was that like?

[00:16:50] Anthony: Wow. Well, I mean, I feel like I'm saying this a lot, but it was crazy to be honest. You know, I'm very new to this and every event that I've gone to so far has been so short notice. It's like I'm like a week or less in advance that it's happening and so I can't really prepare that much and I'm kind of stressing.

But in some ways, I think that that's good because it gives people more of, you know, a personal touch to it. If it feels like I've developed something over 2 months in preparation, it doesn't feel very personal. It feels. Corporate innocence. And so, um, but South by Southwest specifically, it was such a unique experience.

I remember it didn't start off that great because we had gotten from the airport. All right. And we're going, we normally obviously do like an uber or something, but uber was like, backed up. It wasn't working and my dad who had come along as well was like, let's do a taxi cab and they took us to the wrong hotel.

And so instead of the right Hilton, it was another Hilton that was on the other side of town and. You know, and so that was when we went back to Uber, Uber was a long line. We went to Lyft, Lyft was a long line. So I remember sitting at this hotel for probably well over an hour. And the thing is that there was an amazing connection opportunity going on right outside of South by Southwest during that time, we were going to go to the hotel and then go right over.

So it was a little bit of a rough start. And that had worried me a little bit. I came the next day and. You know, the event that I really launched Tenness Tennessee was what it was called. The, which was kind of based around my state of Tennessee. They were everybody, a whole bunch of investors, company, people on with just people at South by Southwest were attending that, um, and it was held at this bar and that was a unique experience because they were giving out free drinks.

I'm not 21. And so, but it was still, you know, the best part of it by far. Wasn't sessions or anything like that. It was going and talking to people. And I talked to when I got there was right around the time that South by Southwest Edu was ending. And so, and that's unfortunate. I wish I had gotten to attend that a bit more, but it's just the way things lined up.

But I was able to talk to people as they were leaving and they shared all their experiences and what they had learned. And I was like, wait a minute, that's a good idea to go implement in the Markify. You know, that's a good idea to take away and kind of build on into my own thing because they had realized like, what if I taught this way?

What if I use tools in this manner? I'm like, that's a good idea. And so I was able to get a lot of knowledge there, I was able to connect with a lot of people. And then I was eventually able to get up on a stage and present to, uh, Probably 70, 80 people in that room. And I mean, now I feel like I walked down the street and someone's like, Hey, you're that Markify guy that presented at South by Southwest.

And so like literally everybody calls me the Markify guy. That's not just a Twitter thing. Like everybody, they don't remember Anthony. They remember Markify. And so, but getting up and the reception, even from people that aren't education minded, like just a normal business, I don't know, an accountant, right.

Some other jobs, not in that space. You know, I feel like I'm on a good idea when I tell them it. They understand it and they're like, I want that when I was in school. I want my students to have that. And that's kind of what's helped me to the confirm. And, you know, another fun experience is I had set up a table of Mark if I not, you know, a fully fledged booth or anything, but I had a banner and some computers and let people play around with it.

And it's just, it's so interesting to see. People interacting with it and almost going back to their time in middle school, you know, and even though they're a 40 year old adult, that's probably had a few too many cocktails, but having them, you know, sit there and play around with it. And they're like, man, this is, you know, really well made.

I really want this in school. Here's what I would add and taking that feedback and building it into it. And so, you know, a lot of it was just talking to people presenting and getting feedback, but it was. Very much worth its time. And, you know, I'd thought going there, especially with all those mishaps that happened at the beginning, I was like, was this really a good idea?

Was this really worth it? Or would it be a better idea to be home, you know, adding more features and getting caught up to some of the other products out there, but it was very worth going to it and getting that feedback because I think I can pretty safely say if I hadn't gone, I would have spent the next two months going in a wrong direction just to realize I needed to have done it this way.

And so that's why I always listen to people because like I said earlier, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm talking about. I need other people's insights and ideas to then plot out my future road, my road path to go down. Um, and so, yeah, so that's kind of the general gist of it, if you will.

And I mean, there's just a whole lot of things that happened during that time. And it was very worth its time. Very, very good trip.

[00:21:43] Fonz: I love it. I love it. And, you know, just from the very beginning and you telling your stories and your adventure, you know, the one thing that I love, Anthony, that's really sticking out to me is just your openness with everybody and your willingness to listen.

And obviously to, you know, just hear everybody's thoughts and ideas and take, you know, some of those ideas and like I always say, sprinkling them on to what you are already doing great and then elevating your product and, and it's like almost like you're crowdsourcing and I mean. It's, it's wonderful because listening to this, even I feel like, like, Oh my gosh, like I'm part of this, you know, in that sense.

And I know that everybody like on Twitter and in the education space or X, you know, that has been, um, connecting with you and giving you feedback and things of that sort. I mean, for us, that's something that's wonderful too, you know, to say like, wow, you know, the feedback was great, you know, look at how they implemented this and wow, this is coming to fruition because it's all something that we see that is a value.

The other thing that I wanted to highlight is that it's very interesting that even like you mentioned, you know, grown adults, you know, well into their forties and, uh, you know, or a little bit older and being able to get their hands on your product and get to manipulate Marky, marking it up and seeing those things, and then making their connections to their past experience, whether it was even in university or, you know, um.

You, uh, pre or K 12 and seeing like, Oh my gosh, if I would have had something like this, maybe just, maybe things might've been a little bit different as far as the grading or as far as, you know, me being able to focus more on my studies and so on. So I find that that is something that's great because you're going to get that true feedback from, you know, the, the adults in the room.

And like you mentioned, you know, that experience is going to help you continue to grow. Cool.

[00:23:35] Anthony: Real, real quick. I just want to say on that before we go away is, you know, a big takeaway that I had, especially at South by Southwest. But even other things that I've attended is, you know, take construction, right?

If you're making a product to help with construction, you need to go talk to somebody in construction. But the thing that's been crazy for me and developing ed tech kind of technology is everybody went through school Everybody's gotten ideas to what could be improved or done or what works, what doesn't obviously teachers know that 1000 times better than anyone else.

But at the end of the day, even an adult that, you know, like you were saying, it's nothing to do well into their 40s even later in life. They have takeaways and can tell if this is something that they would have used or not, or liked or not. And so, you know, it's, and it's really taking that feedback. It's been funny because teachers that have pilot tested it this year, it's like they would suggest something and then the next week the button would pop up and they're like, Did you use my feedback?

I'm like, yeah, because I don't know what I'm doing. I'm taking what you tell me and I'm adding it. And they're like, wow. Okay. Yeah. I don't get that with any of the other products I use. And so,

[00:24:42] Fonz: yes. And I think that that's, that's so important. I think that you in what you're doing and in your endeavor, I think it's something that.

Honestly, so refreshing for a lot of us because many times, you know, in the ed tech space is so full of many products. And at the same time, you know, there, there's so many platforms and, you know, you try and give some feedback, but obviously, you know, sometimes it may go through, it may not go through, sometimes it may fall on deaf ears, so on and so forth.

But when. An educator says, Hey, you know, here's a, maybe a suggestion or here's this. And then they see it come to fruition. I think it's just really something that's refreshing and heartwarming because I think it's like, wow, this is great. This is what it's about. You know, somebody is listening to an educator and this is really what The students truly need.

It's not just like, Hey, this is what I want to see, but this is something that would benefit the students as well. And you're taking that and, you know, immediately, like you said, for one week to the next, that button is there, that function is there and so on. And that's great. So now Anthony, I want to dive in a little bit more into the platform.

So tell us a little bit more about Markify and its capabilities. What is it exactly that we should be using it for? Is it a multi use case as far as the app is concerned? You tell me what, Oh, first of all, let's do this. Let's start off what the vision was and now what the vision is kind of turning into.

So I would love to hear that.

[00:26:12] Anthony: Yeah. So, you know, if you think back to my story at the beginning, that's really where it started was this math class, you know, teachers writing, I'm copying down, I missed the notes. Why can't his notes be streamed from his smart board or tablet or whatever? To my Chromebook to see up close.

And then I always sat at the front of the class. You can probably tell just by my, my other interactions. I'm a teacher pet kind of guy. I'm a, I'm at the front engaged. But what about students at the back that can't even see the board that well? And so the original vision was really just to be an accessibility tool.

It was this tool that, you know, you can write on the board on your tablet, everyone in the class gets to see it, and you'd be surprised. Don't get me wrong. There's plenty of students that sit at the back of the room because they want to talk to their peers and not be part of the lesson. But so many teachers have told me, especially ones trying out Markify.

That they've seen students at the back of the class become more engaged because they couldn't see the board before. And if they can't see the notes, well then how do you expect them to be paying attention and engaged with the lesson? And so, you know, once again, really starting out as an accessibility idea that kind of make everyone in the class have those notes and especially take somebody, you know, I have a friend that's got an eyesight impairment and he's 99 percent blind, he has to be.

Within a couple of inches of the screen. And so something like Markify a teacher can use for those students without having to completely change their lesson and do everything custom just for him, they can use the same tool, do the same notes, and now it's equal opportunity for everybody. And so that was the original vision was accessibility, but it wasn't until my next school year or go into my junior year where I just had this phenomenal.

English teacher. Like I cannot say enough good words about him. And that's saying a lot being that he was one of those teachers that, you know, he made it clear he was on top of all the students in a sense. But the thing that was crazy is for 15, he had been teaching for 40 plus years and for 15 plus years, he had the top English scores in the whole school district.

And the thing that was even more crazy perhaps is even to this day, He uses no technology. He was a chalkboard all the way around the room. They tried to put a whiteboard in. He said he would leave. They tried to put a smart board in, said he would double leave. And so he's still in this day is all chalkboard.

And the one time he had used a piece of technology, he had wheeled in an old slide projector and flip through the slides to show it up at the front. And so that's what really started getting me thinking and going from a software engineer kind of mindset to more of a. Teacher problem solver, you know, focusing on education.

And, and it's really where I realized I need to learn a whole lot more about education if I'm going to make this into a thing. Um, and so what I realized in his class was really, he wasn't. A teacher, in a sense, what he actually did was he made all of the students, the teacher, and he became what I kind of like to call a facilitator.

And so he did that through a Socratic seminar method where all the students, you'd read a chapter or short story 1 night, you'd come in the next day. And then everyone would argue about what the theme is. You, the main character is, you know, all these different things. And he was just there. To guide that discussion of students went off track.

They go off in another. He called it down the rabbit hole. And so the student went off down the rabbit hole. He would be there to kind of correct it to keep it on the path. But at the end of the day, if you asked him, like, you know, Mr Baker, what do you think the theme is? He would just go back at you and spit a question at you.

He wouldn't answer anything. He never lectured. It was the students doing the teaching. And that's what really got me thinking, why does Markify, you know, why can't it not only be accessibility, but also a collaborative platform to increase engagement? Because guess what? All these students arguing in the seminar, They were too busy to be on their phone.

He didn't pick up their phone. He didn't take their phone up and say, you can't have it. They were so busy and arguing with each other and, you know, being interactive in that lesson that they didn't have time to be on the phone and they were having fun. And so that's kind of where I realized if Markify was a tool that the whole class could join on and the teacher could give editing access and say, Hey, You know, Dan, here's editing.

James, here's editing. Answer question four. Answer question five and let the students be the ones that are solving the problems. Answer it while the teachers, they're going up. You did step three wrong. Here's how you do that right. Not only do you have all these students that are You know, part of that lesson that are working collaboratively and like, you know, I like to say collaboration without chaos because Mark, if I lets the teacher kind of control their lesson and environment that prevents students from griefing the whole board, erasing everything and so, you know, a big part of it has really been bringing that collaboration around the room.

To increase engagement, or I like to say, and many other teachers like to say, you know, student based learning. It's student centered learning, you know, the students being the ones behind the learning. And I think the best example of this, there is another English teacher that was wanting to replicate something of the English teacher I described.

And what he did for discussions prior to Markify is he'd have all the students, they'd read, come in the next day, and then when they came in, he had already prepared on the front whiteboard, he would have written out, like, themes of this chapter, main characters of this chapter, et cetera, on this board, and then he would call on a student and be like, hey, Hey, What do you think the theme is?

And then they would say something. He would go write that under the section on the whiteboard, kind of fill it in, if you will. And then he would lead a discussion of the students. You know, do you agree that that's the theme or not? And leave that for five or so minutes. And then repeat this, you'd call on someone else, maybe he puts them under the main characters part, and then he leads the discussion.

And, but the thing is there are so much wasted time and the district was squeezing in more curriculum that he had to teach. And then when Mark if I came in, he just adopted that right into how he was doing things. Instead of writing those headings on a whiteboard, he wrote them in Markify. And then instead of him having to write it under, he would just let the students raise their hand and Markify, and then they would get editor and they would go plop a sticky note.

Right under each section and he'd be like, this is what I think the theme is. And so now he didn't have to write it. He could instantaneously start leading the discussion while students went and put what they thought the main characters were and things. And then he could go to the next sticky note. And so I guess, in summary, I really look at Markify as this platform that really helps teachers bring collaboration across the whole classroom, not.

Like a couple students working together, not a teacher at the front of the room lecturing where everyone copies down notes, but a place where the whole class can all be on the same document. You're not having chaos. You're not having things get deleted and moved around. You're controlling your environment.

Keeping a safe classroom environment and the students are having fun. I mean, that is the big thing. Students like putting puzzle pieces together to form the lesson. I mean, the amount of students I've talked to where they're like, I love Mark if I, you know, I thought my head was going to get dunked in a toilet when I started getting teachers on.

I thought students in my school were going to be like, Really mad at it and be like down in the toilet. You go. Cause I don't like doing this. I liked it when I could just be on my phone, but it's been the opposite. Students have truly been receptive and been like. You know, this is fun because I'm not getting a grade on it.

It's something where I can be part of the lesson, not be scared to be wrong. And I can, you know, put a sticky note. And if it's wrong, who cares? You know, it's not a big deal. And so, you know, there's there's just so many instances of that. And even a teacher that, you know, I was working on putting together some testimonials from the past year.

And the teacher is like, I had students come to me and thank me. For using this tool because they felt like their voice could be heard in the class to where before they were too shy to raise their hand. And so, you know, I could go on and on about how many use cases there are and how you could adapt it to a lesson.

But really, anything from accessibility to collaboration and anything in between is really what the point of Markify is and letting teachers have the freedom to build their lessons, not force them into anything, let them do what they want. Has been just the best part of it, you know, not being curriculum, but just being a helpful tool, being a tool in the toolbox, if you will.

So, yeah,

[00:34:35] Fonz: no. And I love a lot of the things that you said to number one, the engagement piece too. Um, I love the fact, like you mentioned, oftentimes when teachers may feel tethered, um, because either the way that the room is set up, they're tethered and they're up there, like just. Um, just feet away from either their whiteboard or they may have a smart board, but then the student way in the back, you know, completely unengaged.

And it could be also, like I said, you mentioned, they could have a vision problem, or maybe they're just not engaged because they're very far away. But the fact that you're able to share a document that everybody can mark up together, everybody's collaborating. And I love the way that you said too, it's almost like that a digital safe space where every student is going to cooperate and collaborate in it.

And if you get a wrong answer, no big deal. There's going to be like discussion about it. Uh, you're able to help each other out. You're able to answer each other's questions. And then it becomes that student engagement, that student centered learning, where I am all about a big proponent of discourse and discussion among students.

And oftentimes what happens when you do have that model that they call the sage on the stage, where it's really teacher centered. Uh, there isn't that much engagement and usually the students that are answering very quickly are the usuals where they're in the very front of the class, they're raising their hands first, but they don't allow maybe a little bit of processing time for other students.

And that's what I think, one thing that I love about Markify and everything that you described is that you're able to do that. So what I want to do now is I'm actually going to share my screen so people can go ahead and see a little bit about, uh, a little bit about, or learn. A little bit more about the platform and I'm going to bring it up here just so you can kind of walk us through and I'm logged in here on this beta version that I had access to.

But one thing that I love is you can absolutely get a blank page. You get a free board, you can upload your PDFs. So I'm just going to go ahead and open up a blank page. And what I love here is you've got, uh, oops. Sorry, here you might get a

[00:36:39] Anthony: free board. But I think that. Yeah.

[00:36:41] Fonz: I just wanted to show here where you get different size pages.

Uh, so, which is really cool and very thoughtful. And then of course you get the free board here, which is great. And you can, you've got all your text boxes here that you can pop in. You've got your drawing tools. You've got erasers, you've got shapes, uh, you've got your stickies and then you can insert some media.

Which I see that we will have some videos coming in soon, but I mean, for any teacher being able to use something like this, obviously, uh, I'm very messy with my mouse, but just the fact that you're able to use the sticky notes in here too, and multiple ways that students can highlight multiple ways that students can bring their learning and put it down.

I think it's something that's wonderful.

[00:37:26] Anthony: Here, if you don't mind me interjecting a little bit. So I think the big thing about Markify, I mean, it's a collaborative tool. You see all sorts of collaborative tools. And, you know, there's probably 100 new whiteboard tools that come out every day. But a big thing about Markify is once you make this lesson, you just share it With the whole class.

And so I don't know if you'd, you know, if you want to hit share real quick and create a pin, so obviously you have your link and email, but pin actually lets every student join in right away and I can just go here. I'm actually going to join your lesson. If you don't mind.

[00:37:56] Fonz: Go ahead. That'd be great. And so I like demo it

[00:37:59] Anthony: in.

So all the students like, you know, Markify is built for the whole class. It's built for every student on a Chromebook, tablet, phone, even whatever you can imagine to just go ahead and join in so that they can now see those notes up close. And so you can now, if you hit on options real quick too, I'll just point out a big huge aspect of Markify is you can actually see students are not able to modify other people's work.

So they can't just go and delete the teacher's work or another student's work. But if you did want them to, you could of course turn that on. Which would make it where they can now collaborate by like editing the same things. Um, but by default it's off so that students aren't just deleting things and messing with other people's work.

But I'm actually in now. And the big thing is I'm just the viewer. So if you close out of options and you go click on members. You'll see two members and I'm actually in it now. And so I'm just a viewer. But before you give me editor. What I can actually do is say I want to add something to your board. I can just raise my hand on my device and you'll see now it shows that I've raised my hand to that teacher and that it actually shows up in the order that the students raise their hand.

So you can kind of keep track. There's even teachers that don't give editor to the students. They just use Markify as a tool to kind of see when someone's raising their hand and keep that order consistent. But anyway, now you can give me editor and then I'm now I'm an editor and I can just come in like this.

And then I'm under your text box, and I can say, um, what is the lesson today? Mr. Teach? Why not? And fill that in and you can see it has my name there. Of course, you can obviously move it around. Um, and a big thing to about sticky notes that I'm working on. It's a little bit experimental as I can actually add what's called a reaction.

And so maybe I'm like teacher and I add this reaction on it. And this lets students give real time feedback. So you can imagine a sticky note where say, you're like, do you understand this concept? Or maybe you put a problem. On it. And you're like, Hey, solve this a b c d and then put a b c d reactions on it and you can kind of keep up with and get student feedback.

And I should also mention you don't have to give editor for people to react on sticky notes. And so I think you can imagine a p d f. Where, say, you have students put the main theme on the last page after reading a short story, and then after they read that page, they can go place a sticky note of what the theme is, and then have all your students go and thumbs up, thumbs down it if they agree or disagree that that's a good theme for it.

Um, and then, of course, like you were mentioning, we've got text box pinned, so I can come in on here. And just start drawing around and so really good for any kind of tablet. There's also a stylus mode, which makes it where on a tablet, you can actually put your palm on it and it doesn't write where your palm is.

And so that's been a very big part of it as well. Obviously, we're in a free board, which isn't the infinite whiteboard space, but I can also go and highlight. So if I was on like a text or something like that, you've got those tools, you've got highlight, you've got underline and strike through if you wanted to annotate that text.

And once again, all the students can do this. And then really the final thing I can do is, you know, maybe I'm going on here and wanting to maybe all the students are putting a picture of themselves for the first day of school. I'm doing some kind of activity and I can go and put that image on and everybody gets to see that.

And so once the students done collaborating, you don't want chaos in your classroom. All you have to do is go up to members and you can click on me and make me back to a viewer. And so you can kind of keep this safe classroom environment where you're not having 30 students all as editors, where their cursors are flying around, chaos is happening.

It's something where you can control it and make it work. Just some students are the editors. The rest are just viewers. And of course, you can download this as a PDF, put it in your favorite LMS. And share it with students so that they keep those notes when they go, when they leave the classroom and they can go do their homework and reference back to the notes.

That's been a very big part of it as well. And, and last thing, this of course supports, like I'd said, tablets, smart boards, really any kind of device.

[00:42:00] Fonz: Man, this is wonderful. This is such a wonderful, wonderful tool and it's really exciting. And like I said, uh, there's also the mode where you can upload a PDF too as well and do some annotations and then you can work on it as a group.

Maybe it's a group reading. Maybe you're doing a project and you just getting some feedback. And that's the one thing that I love that it makes it inner active. You know, it's, it's not just the teacher up in the front with either just something being posted on the whiteboard or, you know, using the overhead projector.

It's like, everybody gets their own screen. Everybody gets the opportunity to annotate, collaborate, put in some stickies and so on, and like you said, Teacher has amazing controls over this. And like I said, it's such a wonderful tool. The, the low barrier to entry is something that's wonderful. The, the ease of use, the user experience, like I mentioned, is something that's great and wonderful.

And, you know, I just thank you for, for what you're doing, Anthony, you're doing some amazing work. And this is definitely a platform that we, we're We'll definitely be seeing a lot more of within this coming school year. And as you continue to build, we're definitely along for the ride. And that's something that I can honestly say that this is wonderful to see that we are all just along for the ride and we're seeing what you're doing and building up and like I said, it's something that's very unique and it's very wonderful and it's something that's refreshing that you're bringing in here.

Into our space. And so thank you for what you're doing and, uh, just keep moving forward. And we're always here to help in any way, shape, or form as far as feedback. And, you know, pilots just reach out to any of us. They will be more than happy to help you out. I apologize now

[00:43:35] Anthony: for filling Twitter feeds, but

[00:43:39] Fonz: yeah, no, yeah, no, you can fill up Twitter feeds, no, in any way, shape, or form, and So I'm excited, but Anthony, thank you so much for joining us here this evening.

I really appreciate you. But before we go on to our last segment, where I get to ask you our last three closing questions, Anthony, can you please let, uh, our audience members know how they can go ahead and reach out to you? What socials are you on? I know that'll be on the show notes, but please share away.

[00:44:07] Anthony: Yeah. So by far the best way to keep up with Markify is going to be on the Twitter, of course. So that would be at Markify tool. And then if you want to follow with me and keep up with what I'm doing, I'm just Anthony Beckett on LinkedIn. You should be able to look me up. LinkedIn's where I put all my personal stuff, if you will.

Um, you know, you, you can kind of understand Markify. I'm the Markify guy on Twitter, but on LinkedIn, I keep it to myself, um, and what I'm up to. And then of course I greatly appreciate. Markify still super early. I have a million ideas and plans, but don't worry. I'm not aiming to make it some complicated program or anything.

Um, but I have plenty of ideas. So if you could just go to markifyapp. com, check it out, try it with your class. Even if it's just for the last day of school, you're doing, what was your favorite moment of this school year? Something super simple to just have students play around with it. I appreciate all of that feedback and all those insights.

And you can actually, if you click kind of where your profile picture is, you can directly send me feedback within Markify, so it's a very, very good way. You know, you don't have to write an email or anything. Just click on that. Send me some feedback. Tell me what works, what didn't, what you want to see, and I'll add it in as quick as I can by golly.

You, you know how I flow.

[00:45:21] Fonz: There you go. And that's for sure. Thank you, Anthony. I appreciate you. All right. Well, Anthony, we have come or as we're kind of winding down the show, we're coming down to the end, but everybody knows the show or everybody has seen the show. This is the last segment where I just kind of asked the last three questions just to kind of lighten the mood a little bit, not that the mood hasn't been light because I have definitely enjoyed having you here and hearing your story and your journey, which is something that is really inspirational.

And so thank you for that again. So. If you're ready, let's go ahead and finish off with these last three questions. So as we know, Anthony, every superhero has a pain point or every superhero has a weakness. So in Superman's case, we know that kryptonite was his greatest weakness. So I want to ask you in the current state of education, what would you say might be your current edu kryptonite?

[00:46:17] Anthony: Well, I think In a lot of ways, it's kind of obvious, but, you know, the big thing for me is I don't have the know how of an educator. All I have is being in a class, getting, you know, seeing how teachers do things, seeing what works as a student perspective and being able to really get that feedback and really see how are they doing things, how could I make something to help.

And so I think in the future, if I'm able to kind of, Pursue a path either through college or through research or just keeping up and talking with as many people in the space as I can. It's, it's really figuring out, you know, what is it like to be a teacher? What are the strategies that are used? What are the methods that are used?

What is the proven evidence behind it? So I'd say that's a pretty big weakness of mine just because I'm not a teacher. I don't know that information. And then I think another weakness and a sense is, You know, I'm just a very small team. It's literally me. And so, you know, really building this out, you know, trying to create something that works well.

I mean, that has been the biggest thing. The first ever version of Markify was actually called TeachCast and it was the clunkiest thing ever. And I'm like, why did no teachers use this? I'm like, they're like, Oh, we need it to be approved before we can use it. I'm like approved. What does that mean? And then that's when I figured out all these things have to happen.

And so it takes me a very long time to of course, develop this, build this out over a thousand hours, over 20, 000 lines of code. And so, um, you know, I think also in the future, if I could really build this out into at least a small team of a couple of friends or something to really keep the features coming to it, I think that would go a very long way.

But those are kind of my two biggest weaknesses right now.

[00:47:54] Fonz: Absolutely. Well, thank you for sharing that. But even though I, I, you do share those as weaknesses, a couple of things is like, I see that as a, as a strength though, that you are self aware of what it is that, you know, you're needing. But the fact that one thing that I've noticed is that you're not afraid to go out there and look for it and get those answers.

So I love it. So just keep doing what you're doing there. All right. Question number two, If you could have a billboard with anything on it, what would it be and why?

[00:48:23] Anthony: Well, okay. You're probably going to say this is a lame answer. All right. I think it's pretty obvious. I probably buy just a blue billboard and say markifyapp.

com across the billboard and say like helping educators, you know, I've, I'd find some way of marketing Markify, of course, because at the end of the day, that is still a Part of the job I'm trying to do is get as much feedback as I can. If you want it a little bit more of a legitimate answer, I am a huge believer if you couldn't already tell and student centered learning, it's students being the teacher.

And in some ways that's probably me. Like I said, I'm a teacher pet. I'm a guy who cares about teachers classrooms. I want to be, I'm not that kid on the phone. You know what I mean? I'm someone that really likes helping teachers and being there. And so. I would probably try to encourage more people to look in the teaching or look at helping teachers and then specifically bringing that, you know, non lecture focused kind of learning into the environment.

Really bringing something where it's not just somebody at the front of the room writing. It's a classroom that's heavily using technology, but using it right. Not using it just because, using it because a platform like Markify is there. That can or or a similar tool, of course, you know, it exists and it helps students.

It helps teachers. You know, I think a big thing for me has been over time, especially in school. We see all of these ed tech products come in. Most of them are just for review test assessments, homework. There's really not that much room, you know, very few teachers are really using it for the actual teaching.

And I think that that's something that we should be addressing and looking at as educators as. Entrepreneurs in some cases How can we build tools that aren't just helping a teacher or helping a student or helping to do a test, but actually being used day to day to do the teaching, not just a whiteboard with students and paper something, but also not just replacing paper, you know, I mean, something that actually helps improve accessibility, engagement, et cetera, on a day to day basis.

[00:50:28] Fonz: I love it. I love it. That's great. I can definitely see something like that billboard, like that first one, kind of like as you're driving, you've got that Markify and then that second one would say student centered learning.

[00:50:41] Anthony: And then, you know, and

[00:50:42] Fonz: then it just continues to maybe like a third one. But a big

[00:50:44] Anthony: glowing arrow, right?

There

[00:50:46] Fonz: you go. Yes. I love it. All right. And Anthony, the last question, and, uh, you know, so this is hopefully it's nothing work related, cause I know you said that this kind of started off as a hobby and then it went into that, but you know, maybe there's a different activity. So normally I love to ask is, do you have a favorite activity or hobby that you wish you might be able to turn into a full time profession?

[00:51:09] Anthony: Well, 90, 90 percent of my life is full time. Obviously, coding and Markify, it's something I enjoy. I still find it as a hobby, even if, you know, the goal is to kind of get some schools to maybe purchase a license, turn it into something that I can at least You know, live all right from, you know, I mean, that's the goal.

I still treat it like it's just a fun project I'm working on to help teachers, help students and all of the above really. Uh, but I have always loved now. I don't want to give some essentially BSE answer that, Oh, I want to be a teacher or something like that. You know, that's not who I am. I could never be like an English teacher or a math teacher in 1000 years.

It would drive me insane and not just because of the salary, but dealing with students and all of that. It is something that is not my calling. However, I have Always, always, always loved stem. I'm a huge, if you couldn't tell with the STEM coordinator guy that I was connected with in my school, I mean, I go to as many camps to help teach as I can.

I go to as many outreach opportunities that the school district does. I mean, we do all these STEM nights and I just love going and, and teaching, say a third grader all the way up to a seventh grader. About, you know, how to use a robot, you know, and how to program it and seeing these kids like I did this one activity a few weeks ago where we had this one robot.

It was just a simple block based coding platform that was being used for it. And it was a maze. And most of these instructors have had just, you know, one student for each maze. And you just code on your tablet, and then you try to make the robot solve it. But I was like, wait a minute, that is something that is so, like, you're not teaching any teamwork, you're not teaching any life skills, you're just teaching basic programming that maybe interests them.

But what I realized is, why not have a maze, One robot, one, one maze, one robot, one tablet and do almost a relay style. And so we had, I had five students circle around and they would have the tablet and they could only do one block and they'd have to pass it to the next person. And they'd have to pass it all the way around until they got the robot all the way through the maze.

And it's so doing that. And then at the end of that, like they got it through that maze. In like 10 minutes, most kids doing it alone took like 20, 30. So you would think that more people, more, you know, more confusion take longer. No, it was really quick. And when they got it all the way through, I mean, they were just so excited.

They were jumping up and down, clapping, cheering. Like it was the craziest thing. Um, but just seeing that and getting the experience that even though I didn't do the coding right, they did the coding, but just being there to help them along with it and see their reaction. It's so rewarding to me. So if there's a way I could pursue something like that to really help students with stem specifically teach stem, you know, that's a very big thing that I do also look at a lot of robotics competition, stuff like that.

I'm a very technical, technical stem guy. If you can already tell. Yeah.

[00:54:03] Fonz: There you go. That is awesome, Anthony. Well, thank you so much for the wonderful shares. Thank you so much for taking us along your journey and hearing your story. And then obviously, we're going to keep our eyes open for the wonderful work that you're continually, continually doing and what you're going to be doing with Markify and just making an impact in the education space.

So thank you so much for all of those efforts. And like I mentioned, and I said before, you know, we, we, We are always here to help. And in anything that we can do to help you along in your journey, we're always here. So thank you so much also for being a guest here, uh, tonight on the podcast. And like I said, it's been a wonderful chat.

And, um, again, you're part of my journey too, as well with this being episode, I believe it's 277 now we're. Close to 300 episodes. So thank you so much for being here and for all our audience members that are catching this on the replay or watching it live right now, please make sure you visit our website at my at tech dot life, my at tech dot life, where you can check out this amazing episode and the other 276.

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We're almost at a thousand subscribers. So that is our goal for this year. So we greatly appreciate it and make sure you follow us on all socials at my ed tech life. So thank you all from the bottom of my heart, as you know, like I tell you, we are. We do what we do for you so we can bring you some amazing conversations and amazing journeys like you heard today into our space so we can continue to grow and we can continue to have some amazing conversations, uh, within our space.

So thank you so much as always. And until next time, my friends don't forget, stay techie.