Latest / Live in the Lab Schools / Ep #10 - On Location at FETC: Balancing Play And Tech In School

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Ep #10 - On Location at FETC: Balancing Play And Tech In School · Live in the Lab Schools

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_06: And welcome to Live in the Lab Schools.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_06: This is Andy.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_06: I'm remote on location this week attending the Future of Education Technology Conference in Orlando, Florida.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_06: I'm with a team that came from Metcalf, including our principal Carmen Bergman, and a couple of guests that are going to chat about our experience at the conference.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_06: This is a phenomenal conversation you're going to hear, and I hope you are ready to fund some stuff.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_06: We are back and live.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_06: But first, we're going to give you a chance to meet the team around the table.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_06: Starting first with Mr.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_06: Zach Gilbert.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_06: Why, Zach?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_06: Who are you?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_06: And why who are you?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, who am I?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_05: So who am I?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_05: I am Zach Gilbert.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_05: I am a fifth, sixth grade soul studies teacher, and I teach beginning U.S.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_05: history and ancient civilizations.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_05: And this is my 30th year of teaching.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_05: And some of the another area of interest for me is playful learning.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_05: I think we learn best through play.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_06: Next up we have Britney Tarr.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_04: Hello, I am Brittany Tarr.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_04: I am the preschool through fourth grade STEM specialist at Thomas Metcalfe School.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_04: I am also a doctoral student in the School of Teaching and Learning.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_04: My research areas primarily include early childhood STEM, play-based learning, and nature-based learning.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_06: He did.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_06: That's right.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_06: You can follow her at Adventures with Restar.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_06: Up next, Ellie Zimma.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm Ellie.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: I teach preschool through fourth grade art at Metcalf.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, this is my fourth year at Metcalf Fifth Yo Teaching.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_06: Awesome.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_06: And finally, Camille Strode.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm Camille Strode.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: I am the fourth grade through eighth grade art teacher here at Metcalf.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's my tenth year at Metcalf with these lovely folks.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_06: Awesome.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_06: So we had the chance as a team to come down to, like I said, the Future of Education Technology Conference here in Orlando this week to approach what technology could be, to bring things back, to do a lot of deep learning.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_06: And so my first question to the team here at the table is why did you even want to come to this conference?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_06: What made it appealing?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_06: Why did you want to be here?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_06: And for those listening, it's going to be an open conversation.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_06: I'm not going to direct anybody from here out.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_05: It's for me, this is Zack.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_05: This is about people.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_05: It's about meeting people that I have known for years, reconnecting with them, uh, especially since COVID.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_05: I've not really done many conferences.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, this is my first conference, actually, since COVID.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, and then connecting with them and then also meeting new people because um it's where we get our information is from others, other professionals.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_05: Uh and uh I think that's very helpful for us in moving forward.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_04: So as part of my doctoral work and part of my um curriculum development, I have really been focusing on the importance of early childhood in figuring out the balance between the intense need to be very low tech and outdoors and and off of technology, with the very real need for kids to be educated on technology and how to use it.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_04: And so I have spent the last several months really intensely focusing on the low-tech aspect of it, like the research behind forest schools and getting kids outside and doing all of that kind of work.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_04: And it was nice to come here.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_04: I wanted to reconnect to that importance of the tech side and the reminder that I can do technology in pedagogically sound ways, that those two things want to be separate, that they can coexist in the same classroom.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and for me it was um, you know, I've been to many um art ed conferences and I'm presented at many art ed conferences.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this was a new opportunity um for me to learn and network through a different lens.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I use tech in my classroom, um, working on that balance of using tangible skills with uh, you know, hands-on art making, but then also including technology into that.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it was fun to have a different perspective uh to view this from.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: Mine was very similar to Camille's.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: I am bringing more and more devices into my classroom and trying to find that balance between hands-on art and digital art and teaching kids the importance of both and balancing both.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, this is my second time coming to FETC and my first time presenting at such a large conference.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, as I've been finding my way with my curriculum, um, finding the balance between STEM and STEAM, and how you can't just shove art at STEM and call it STEAM, how you have to really look at both both content areas and find ways that they support one another.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and to add on to what everyone else has said, um, I came this year, we did a lot of needs assessment work at Metcalf, and I worked uh well, there was a whole team of people, Camille included, that were on that team.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_06: Um, Carmen and I got together chatting about wanting to take it here because we had the chance to be here last year, and we jumped at the chance to submit a proposal.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_06: So we had the chance to present.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_06: And so it was really cool to get to come back as a presenter and get a second year lens of here's how to make the learning possible.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_06: So taking that learning and let's let's stretch it just a little bit here.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_06: What's something you are gonna take with you?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_06: You learned and you're like, yes, I am doing this when I get back.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_06: Zach, start us off.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_05: So um I've we went to a lot of Apple events, uh, I think all of us did.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_05: And uh I went to one Apple event with Jordan Harrison, who's our um our amazing technology uh coordinator, director, whatever we want to call.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_05: Um he does a lot of things and he's very he pushes a lot of buttons.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's a good way of putting it.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_05: So um so we talked about, I have a setup in my classroom.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_05: I have eight synchronized TVs.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_05: Um uh and you heard that right.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_06: The number is eight.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_05: I also run the escorts program, so it was it made it a little bit easier to get to TVs, but then Jordan's just like, hey, let's make sure we sync, can let's see if we can try to sync the TVs.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_05: And right now we have an iMac connected to um the I guess the HDMI, you know, box that can split it up to the different TBs.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_05: And it when I'm trying to connect to other devices, let's say an iPad, it doesn't sync up very well.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_05: And so from talking to a lot of the Apple experts, uh, we were able to figure out that why don't we just connect the Apple?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_05: It seems something like something very simple, but thinking this through and trying to work out the all the technical aspects of it, or just like it's could be very simple.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_05: We just connect an Apple TV to the HDMI box, and then um we should be able to take a MacBook or an iPad and be able to sync it to uh and stream it to all the TV.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_05: So something very simple like that, um, because that would allow me to use an Apple Pencil uh and kind of uh use maps and graphs and charts and be able to draw on top of it, and it just makes it a little bit easier for me.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_05: So it's you know, just being able to work through that alone uh has been very, very helpful.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: On the same kind of thread of looking at simple solutions, I had a lot of sessions talking about different accessibility features on devices that we already own and use in our classrooms and how they might just be hidden features in things that we would never know.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so I was able to learn a lot of different um features and functions that you just have to turn on and would be so helpful for me, would be so helpful for our students on technology that is already in our hands and in our students' hands.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we had a really great keynote speaker the first um, the first day of the conference, and I was really inspired.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the presenter brought some of her students in and used them uh as to help kind of bring her message um out to the teachers.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_06: Shout out to Alana Winnick, who was that keynote speaker.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so it got me thinking about how I do parent teacher conferences as a studio teacher.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't in a middle school studio teacher, I don't get a lot of traffic through my room during parent teacher conferences.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: I have an open um office hours that people are welcome to come in and are invited to come in and talk with me.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it just really doesn't get the students' achievements out there as much as I would like it to.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking at um kind of inspired by her uh presentation to mix it up and try to do a um students train their parents and open up opportunities for the students to come in and choose lessons that they've learned with me and um bring the parents in and have them do um some teaching to their parents so their parents can see the skills they've learned and how they are implementing them into um their processes.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_06: So, Brittany, what about our our littlest little engineers?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_04: For our for our little littles.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um for me, the thing that I got out of this conference is one that I I already kind of know, but is there is truly a tech tool for every single niche need.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_04: You just have to find it.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_04: For me, working with the littles as a play-based teacher who very much believes that it should be student-led, even with our littlest littles, it was a lot of swimming through a lot of tech tools to find the very few companies that understand how littles learn and their intense capability.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_04: I, there are a lot of tools with a lot of, you know, early childhood robotics and things like that that know that AI is coming and it's important.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_04: And so they're slapping AI on it and to each their own.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_04: But very few tools are really truly thinking about how to teach kids how AI works while also understanding their need to be active and um creators and also understanding that STEAM aspect of it and the importance of being, you know, um creationists and constructionists.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_04: So what was lovely to see was in a sea full of hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of vendors showing you tool after tool after tool after tool.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_04: There are still a small handful of companies that want kids off devices, off screens, but still critically thinking about technology and teaching kids how things work.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, one of those is Lego.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_04: They're coming up with a new kit.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_04: It is still um, for the most part, kids off devices as much as possible, teaching kids how things work and stuff like that.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_04: So it was to me, what I'm going back to is I can still teach how I teach, I can still um have kids physically making in the classroom, but I I have better understandings of how to teach how AI works and incorporate the importance of AI without being forced to just shove a screen in front of a kid.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_06: And I think to kind of pull some of those threads together, the the message I'm walking away with is that AI is here whether we are ready for it or actively engaging with it or not.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_06: And as everyone around the table has said, there's so many tools, so many things you could open, access, use, but it all comes down to are you effectively using the stuff for your kids in the way that makes learning real, authentic, and applicable?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_06: Um, it's great to open Magic School or Open BRISC or open Cira or any of these apps that are out there and go, hey kids, we're doing AI today and we're gonna use this.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_06: And but are you still the teacher that is responsible for the learning?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_06: Um, because again, we can throw all the tools, all the resources at kids and ourselves, but if we are not pedagogically and responsibly using it, we're not gonna go anywhere.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_06: We're just gonna be right where we were three, four years ago.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_06: So as we take that kind of next step, right?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_06: We all have a thing we want to do.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_06: What do you hope more long term?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_06: What's something bigger you're wanting to see as a result of our learning here this week?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think I can tie in to what you're saying, because what that's kind of where I'm thinking.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking right now the pendulum is swinging very much AI, right?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting after walking the vendors, there's a ton of programs or things being made, tools being put out there for tech that we can use.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um so right now we're just kind of getting inundated with a lot of different options, which is great.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're, you know, experimenting and trying lots of things.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I think what's gonna happen is that's not gonna go away, but we're gonna swing a little bit more back to the center where we're learning how to use these tools that are gonna be necessary to prepare our students for the future, um, but are gonna be more mindfully embedded into the curriculum.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so we're going to have like that balance that Brittany's talking about, where we're not just slapping them in front of screens, that um, we understand the importance of their ability to understand how these tools are made and how to use them effectively, but they also understand the equal importance of um the tangible things, the hands-on, um, the really being able to uh to walk that line.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think that we're gonna swing a little more towards the tech tools and we're gonna get some more options out there and we're gonna kind of be swimming through that for a bit.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think it's gonna come back through and we're gonna be able to isolate those and really narrow those down.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Something kind of along those lines, something that I would love to see is we have so many experts in our schools that are using so many different tools and um between different technology that uh if you were to have a conversation with someone, you might not know everything that they have.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I was sitting through multiple workshops this week and going, that's such a cool thing.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: We need to get those.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: And then one of our colleagues looking at me and going, Oh, we already have those.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I wouldn't have known that.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: And so I would love to see like a catalog or um a way of collecting the knowledge that we have and sharing that out to our own internal school so that um we can see what's happening or what it we have as a our our our district.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um I would also love everyone to re-look at what you have and what you know, because there's it's technology and it's moving so quickly and so fast.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: Things that we think were like meh a couple of years ago has circled back around again and getting overhauls.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um Yeah, because even just Ellie and I were in the same presentation, and um, a woman, Leslie Fisher, was like, hey, remember Padlet, you all loved it, and then it went downhill, right?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_04: And then we all hated it.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_04: Guess what?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_04: They've totally revamped and I think it's worth coming back to.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_03: So finding um what we uh use or once loved, circling back around, taking inventory of the knowledge that we have, and creating something useful for other teachers to go, oh, that's a tech tool that they find useful.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: How can I use that in my classroom?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: Or, oh, that knowledge someone already figured it out.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe they can mentor me as I try to implement that in my room.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_06: Brittany, you kind of jumped into what Ellie said.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_06: How does how does your feelings about what comes next hopefully generically connect?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_04: Mine isn't necessarily building uh wide.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_04: I do a lot of consulting and outreach as that pillar of our laboratory school mission.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_04: And this was actually my third year presenting in FVTC.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_04: And something that I'm really thinking about for the future, as I was sitting in my own presentations and listening to teacher feedback, sitting in other presentations and listening to the questions that are being answered, um asked, and really even just walking on the expo hall and having conversations with vendors and other teachers and networking in general.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_04: There is a really real need for teachers to get support on that balance.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_04: There's so much that's being inundated with like, there is now a tool for everything that didn't used to be.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_04: But and now it's like you could do this or this or this or this or this.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_04: And it's overwhelming.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, I just I sat back for a lot of the conference and was really notating what do other teachers need?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_04: I was looking, I started looking less for myself and more for like what do others need, and how can I take tips from like presenters that were doing a really good job of supporting those teachers and maybe some, maybe some vendors or professed uh profess presenters that weren't doing a great job of calming those fears.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_04: And just I really hope that I can get better at supporting teachers and understanding the importance of the balance.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_04: Especially in early childhood, you have teachers that do like all in or like they won't even look at it, it's all out.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_04: And helping them understand that you can do play and this, you can do like there's always an and like when you're talking Camila Summer, like this pendulum back and forth.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_04: I think teachers always forget it's never one or the other.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_04: The the perfect answer is usually in the middle where there's an and um so that's really what I'm hoping for the future is that I can get better at supporting other teachers in this need.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_06: So, Mr.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_06: Gilbert, what does this hope or bigger idea for you look like for what you bring to the table?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_05: So I kind of I don't know if I need to like circle back.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_05: So when we think of tools, I I I think of, you know, toolbox.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_05: I think of and I think you're talking about inundation of having so many tools, it'd be like going into a uh mechanics garage with the big, you know, rolling carts with all the tools that pull in and out.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_05: And I do feel like we have that overwhelming feeling, and how do we manage that?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_05: Because um, you can use different types of tools and still get good results, and so and each person's different.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, the tool that I use doesn't have to be the same as somebody else.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_05: My wife, who's a phenomenal first grade teacher, she could have a chalkboard and an overhead projector, and the kids in first grade, she will teach the kids how to read.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and she'll do a good job at it.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_05: So it's in and somebody else might use a lot of technology to get the same job done.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_05: So it's trying to figure that out.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_05: So one of the things that um that I think we're moving towards um is the possibility of having iPads uh for the students in our school.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_05: And I think there that could be in some way very helpful because um the I think it could help organize the tools that are available for the kids because you actually visually see that it's not 50 websites.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, there that could be a way to help organize not only for the students, but also for the teachers.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and that to me could be the way I'm looking in the future is you know, me using an iPad to connect to my TVs to present what's going on.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_05: But then if the kids have the iPad too, they can share out, and then there's endless ways of utilizing these, but I think having them organize um those applications uh into a certain area, um, and then you know, taking inventory of, hey, there are all these tools, but you know what, maybe I don't need all these tools.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_05: Um and so that's that's kind of the way I'm looking in the future of of where we are going.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_05: Uh it seems Apple's done a very good job in um competing against Chromebooks.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_05: And uh I think we've all talked about it and agreed that um iPads bring a lot of really nice tools um to demonstrate learning uh to the table.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_06: And we are back.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_06: So this chunk of this episode this week is us.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_06: We're back at school.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_06: It's been a couple weeks, and we're gonna center ourselves on this question of what is the takeaway, what comes next, either for our school as a whole, from our perspective in this learning, or education as a whole.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_06: Like what do we think is next as a result of this work?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_06: We're bringing in our principal Carmen Bergman for this part of the conversation, and we'll just spend just a couple minutes as a group kind of talking about what we think the conclusion or takeaway is of the learning we did now that we've been back for a couple weeks and had time to process some of the feelings and learning that occurred.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_06: So we're sitting in my new classroom, we're having this conversation, and no one wants to talk first.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_06: And so as I do often on the pod, I'm gonna vamp for just a minute and give people a little Camille, Camille Strode, everybody.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Happy to go.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: So uh when I'm thinking about now being back at school and kind of where our direction is next, I kind of want to think about that, you know, technology and um just the tech industry in general is moving so quickly.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that my hope is that as a school, we're able to set up strong processes um to how we select tools and then the processes for implementing these tools with like built-in training and support for teachers to encourage like sustainability and success of those tools.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, like really purposeful, meaningful processes to help us navigate the changing tech.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_06: And I'll piggyback on Camille really quick for my takeaway is that with that whole processes and the structure, I'm hoping to see us be able to get a piloting team in place every year that for the new things that do pop up, we have people that are just willing to give it a shot and provide data and provide things back for the team that's going through those processes and procedures.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_06: Just so that we don't get caught up in red tape, just trying to try something new.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_06: That we have people who they sign up for it and they're like, I will try whatever you throw at me.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_06: We get some data, we get some hard evidence of its effectiveness, use, et cetera.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_06: And then we can go through adoption implementation, but getting a team always willing to try it because a couple of us have a chance to go multiple years.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_06: There are a lot of differences in what we saw last year versus this year.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_06: Brittany's got to go multiple years.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_06: And so just having people willing to try the new thing and rooting.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_06: Just get being willing to try and having people who are willing to step in at any time.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: So I also think that there's a balance too.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, 100%, like we have to have people willing to try new things.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_04: I think we also have to be brave enough to realize that we shouldn't try everything.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_04: There are so many tools.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_04: Like you walk around that vendor hall at an event like this, and you just see tool after tool after tool after tool.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_04: And unfortunately, a lot of the tools that are coming out in the education field, we know, aren't made by educators and they aren't made with kids in mind.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_04: And so part of it is like we do have to be willing to try new things, like the atmosphere and like the technology is constantly changing, and we have to be willing to keep up so our kids don't fall behind.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_04: But we also have to be willing to say, like, no, like we don't have to try every new tool.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_04: We we know what we are doing, we are sound in what we are doing, and we are only looking for technology that is enhancing what we already do.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: I you Brittany just completely stole every word.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I had wanted to kind of build on what Camille said as well, that when I walk into that um vendor floor, I it it is amazing.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think that pretty much every problem in education can be solved with technology somehow, but there are just so many different options.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we have to be critical consumers in that and really think about what what if we were a different school, we might go to that floor and pick some very different products.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: We need to be thinking about who we are, what we want to be.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I do think that we can be using um technology to solve some of the problems that we're facing.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's overwhelming.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have to figure out how to be critical.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_05: I think uh uh Apple is someone who grew up with Windows computers.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_05: Um Apple has really impressed me.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_05: And um and we've talked about the possibility of iPads, uh, using those in the classroom, and it always makes me think about using the best tool for the job, and knowing that there's not one device that is gonna do everything that we want to do.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_05: But is there a device that allows us to do allows the students to to use, create, research, whatever it is, uh, and gives them the most flexibility.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_05: And it it definitely is the iPad, it blows the Chromebook out of the water.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_05: Uh whether it's in art, whether it's in just even in social science.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_05: We were talking today, Andy, about um, hey, I can't make it down to the historical book uh presentation.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, hey, can you take some pictures?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_05: And he's like, Oh, we could take it with Chromebook.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, we're both like, uh, Chromebook's horrible for taking pictures.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_05: But if they had an iPad, right.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: So much better.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_05: It'd be so much better.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, having those uh having the right device, I think that is the one thing that I really take from um from the conference is is I I think I'm kind of sold on that.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_05: And then, you know, how do we lose forward?
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_03: A little shift, I guess, in in the conversation.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: My takeaway was that with all of this technology um and everything being everything that used to be hand done, that that human input being turned digital, is finding pockets of ways of letting students um have that human aspect of like note-taking of their learning.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um we went to Camille and I went to a session on visual note-taking.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: And even if um their students are taking notes on iPads, have them draw the pictures of the notes or have them handwrite their notes on the iPad.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_03: Having those physical um interactions with the technology instead of just typing or just filling in the blank allows students to remember and retain that information so much better.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I totally agree with that.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think sometimes we um we get so excited about all of the things that technology can do, and it's getting to a point where technology can do pretty much everything.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: And just because there's technology that can do it doesn't mean it doesn't mean we need to have that having them do it.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, our kids, you know, still need to be the human aspect, like you said.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: So being intentional about finding the ways that we can use technology to do the things that we couldn't easily do before, I think would be my priority.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_04: I would say to me, also, like my big takeaway kind of a little bit ties into what Zach said too.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_04: I sit in two very different worlds where like I am the technology teacher for a lot of our littles, but I am also this like forest school teacher that believes in like kids off devices and everyone should just be out in the woods and like nature-based learning and like you're legit.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, man, villain, two-faced baby.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's about offs.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_04: So it's it's interesting going to conferences like this and just seeing like just how much exists out there, there is a tool for everything.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, to me, technology should always be about we're getting the kids on a device to do a skill we need and then getting them off it as quickly as possible.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_04: So, like to me, especially with our littles, like if it some of our littles have iPads and some of them have Chromebooks.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_04: And if it takes them 10 minutes to upload a video where all they're doing is taking a video explaining what they made, and they can do that on an iPad in 30 seconds, like, well, that to me is a deciding factor.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so it's always about finding the most effective technology tool to ideally get them off of it.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right, right.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, teach them the skills they need because they live in a digital world and there's so much the technology does that is a beautiful.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_04: But then also like, I think get them off.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_04: They don't need to lit spend their entire day in technology.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_04: So, what tools exist to help make things more efficient?
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: And make that purposeful, like make understand, oh, I am purposefully only spending this much time on this because my brain and my development needs to be doing other things as well.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like getting those habits instilled early so that way they're not just consumers as they as they grow.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_04: But then not seeing like technology as evil, right?
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_04: Like so many of our families, rightfully so, are like off the screen, off the screen, off the screen.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_04: And I'll talk to them and be like, hey, I hear you 100%.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_04: There are actually really cool things you can do on a screen that are creation-based.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_04: I too have a problem with consumption-based technology.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_04: So and the difference of consumption versus creation.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_05: And it was apparent that one of the uh one of the sayings that I heard early on uh was that, you know, uh, if you put an hour on screen, you need an hour in green.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_05: So you need to some of that time you spend on the screen, yeah, you need to do, you need to get outside.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_04: Sounds like a t-shirt.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_04: So how many how many minutes devices at school we're gonna take them out into the woods?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_06: You get Yep, I support that so we've got just the two or three minutes left, really quick.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_06: I wanna get everyone's take on this piece of it, which is not technology related whatsoever.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_06: We were really fortunate and we were we've been really well resourced in our professional development here at Metcalf that we sent a team of people to this conference.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_06: Um, if in just a sentence or two, could you talk about what having a team approach to this conference did for you?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and again, brief quick thought what the team approach was versus if you had just done this by yourself.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_06: So, like what did you what did being here with a team of people do for your experience versus if you had done this by yourself?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_06: Quick one-sentence thought.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_04: I've actually gone to FETC by myself and I've since been blessed to be able to go on as a team.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_04: And it's just really hard to consume that much information and not have anybody to immediately talk about how it's relevant to your own practice.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_04: It just it's you lose it, right?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_04: You don't have that immediate uh application.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna jump in because everybody keeps selling my words.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think that the the team approach has been incredibly beneficial because we have people who are coming at it from different angles and different views.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I just it's the conversations that we're having where everyone is coming at it from their lived experience, but also their present, um, their reality, right?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I take yours, yeah.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_05: It's kind of like the justice.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_05: The folk jumped in.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_05: We all have different, you know, we have different varying skills and we look at it differently.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_05: And and uh yeah, that's it's nice to hear.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, like I didn't know about the digital note taking.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like or the um sketch noting, so and the visual note taking.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, I've always been interested in so you know, being able to have other people go to sessions and then learn from them is is important.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well we're we're stronger together.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, when you're able to go with a team, you're able to have that immediate contact and that immediate dialogue.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you come back, you have more reinforcements to be able to disseminate that information to the larger population.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just all on one person.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: It does live with one person.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: It it lives with the collective, which is important.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_04: It can hold you in different ways as it also kind of holds you accountable to a team.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_04: Let's pull that like y'all went together, we gotta come back into this.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_03: I felt confident presenting.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: Because we had a group behind me.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it was the largest um room that I presented to.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_03: And um Yeah, but it was nice having a team by interesting growth to be able to do that.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_06: So I would just add on, I think there's the the human element of this is one of the cooler parts that there are as much as great as the conference was, we had great moments together that just reinforced how meaningful the learning was.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_06: So I think our whole team would want to give Judy at FETC a passive shout out.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_06: Um, Rasheed at the Coral Reef, if you know.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_06: Um so thank you.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_06: So to Camille Strode, to Carmen Bergman, Ellie Zimmer, Zach Gilbert, Brittany Tarr, thank you all for coming on the pod.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_06: Um, this has been Live in the Lab Schools.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_06: Live in the Lab Schools is a production of the ISO Laboratory Schools, recorded on campus of State University.