Latest / Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast / Conversations from ISTE Live with Dr. Jorge Valenzuela

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Conversations from ISTE Live with Dr. Jorge Valenzuela · Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast

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  Welcome to Integrate This, your go -to EdTech
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  podcast where curiosity meets classroom innovation.
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  Join your hosts, David Berner and Jeremy Mikla,
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  as we explore the rapidly evolving world of educational
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  technology. From game -changing tools to insightful
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  conversations with today's top EdTech voices,
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  we're here to help educators stay informed, inspired,
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  and ready to innovate. So tune in, level up,
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  and let's integrate this. Welcome to the integrate
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  this ed tech podcast. I'm David burner joined
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  by friend of the show. Dr. George balance wherever
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  George. Are you there? Good? How are you? They
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  just came by my session It was supposed to be
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  700 people not everyone came but we had a good
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  time Yeah, it was a good time and we could talk
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  about all the different things that you did there
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  But first I got to ask you something Your session
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  was ignite passion to purpose, right? Okay, so
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  I got to talk to you about one of your passions
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  real quick. Okay, what hasn't happened? that
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  just happened since 1973. The Knicks just won
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  a championship, the New York Knicks. Big shout
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  out to Jalen Brunson, the King of New York. Wherever
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  that man is going to go in New York for the rest
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  of his life, he's never paying for a meal. Big
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  shout out to the Knicks. Yeah, George is a huge
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  Knicks fan, so I had to mention that, and I had
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  to talk about how I'm a Timberwolves fan. Nobody's
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  perfect, though. Yeah, I was heartbroken. Nobody's
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  perfect. Cat needs to come back, I guess. So
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  George, can you tell us a little bit about what
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  it's been like here for you so far at ISTE, been
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  having fun? Yeah. ISTE is home for me. When I
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  began my career in tech and in speaking, you
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  can go back in the archives and look back at
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  2017. 2017, ISTE was in Chicago. I was there
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  for the first time. I have never seen 20 ,000
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  people in one space at the same time. And it
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  was amazing. I've come back every single year
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  afterwards. I've been a featured speaker. I've
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  been a regular speaker. And I can honestly say
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  I am home. My first book was published through
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  ISTEEN. Yeah. And we just saw someone actually
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  that you recognized that. Oh, right, right, right.
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  So big shout out to Emily. Emily is one of the
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  editors with ISTEEN ASCD. And she handheld me
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  on my first book proposal. which took about six
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  months because I didn't know how to structure
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  a book and through the entire writing process
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  which took maybe about a year and a half. Okay.
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  So big shout out to her. Yeah, so was that PBL
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  Plus or was that? Rev Up Robotics. Oh, okay.
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  Yep. It's old school, man. Yeah, and those ones
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  are on the website. Yeah, it's still there. Yeah.
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  So the session that you had, you talked a little
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  bit about the empathy map thing first. Can you
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  explain that a little bit more? I was listening
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  to that and I was... The concept of an empathy
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  map is not new. It actually comes from the business
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  world. Fortune 500 companies use empathy mapping
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  when they're developing or improving a product.
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  So let's say they have developed a sitcom and
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  they have a pilot show. So they have the pilot
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  and they bring in people. And after the pilot,
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  after they viewed it, they'll do a poker screw
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  and have some individual interviews with the
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  people. They look at these responses and they're
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  looking for themes in the data. And they develop
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  an empathy map to better understand the thoughts
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  and feelings of the consumer. So when they continue
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  in developing the show or the product, they're
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  developing through the lens of the consumer.
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  So for education, I created a version of the
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  empathy map, just looking at what business and
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  industry does. And for educators, just look at
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  the research. John Hattie once said, to see learning
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  through the eyes of students. So what does that
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  mean? We have to know them both as people and
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  learners. So my version of the empathy map has
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  six different fields. Three fields are for knowing
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  them as people. their interests, their goals,
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  and things that they're good at. And then three
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  fields are for knowing them as learners. Academic
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  needs, their career needs, if it's a CTE teacher,
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  but also essential life skills, which might be
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  emotional intelligence and things like that.
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  Okay, yeah, and the other thing that I really
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  picked up on in there, too, is the, and you say
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  you put it on your professor glasses, right?
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  But when you're looking at your session, I'm
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  watching you. you really emphasize like frameworks,
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  you can have frameworks or you can have like
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  the ideas. So you can talk, what's the importance
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  of a framework? Why do we start there? A framework
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  is a recipe. Let's say you're in your kitchen
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  and you're going to make a lasagna for a dinner
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  party, but you've never made lasagna before.
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  If you have all the ingredients and all the tools
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  in your kitchen, but you don't have the recipe,
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  you don't have the framework, are you going to
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  make lasagna? I mean, you could, but it might
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  not turn out. It won't be lasagna. Right. Trust
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  me. Yeah. One of the things that I learned in
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  the PhD program is when you are studying something,
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  you are studying it because you are passionate
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  about that thing or you're trying to solve a
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  problem. The second step after identifying what
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  the problem is, You have to look at the literature,
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  the previous research, to see what has been done
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  on this topic. What have other researchers discovered
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  or have created about this work? And you're going
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  to find there's a framework, there's a system
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  or a model that's already there, unless it's
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  something brand new. You take that and you look
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  at your population or what you're doing. and
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  you adapt and tweak it and make it your own and
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  you implement it. It gives you the theory for
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  what you're trying to do. And then when you do
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  it, you collect data to see if you affirm what's
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  been done or you learn something new. So think
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  of our job as teachers. Our job as teachers is
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  to teach kids how to learn using frameworks.
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  Boom's Textonomy, that's what it is. It's a teaching
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  framework. I'm sorry, it's a learning framework.
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  But there's other frameworks, there's computational
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  thinking, there's design thinking, there's a
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  scientific process. Teachers, if we are teaching
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  the process, then the learning and the knowledge
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  construction along the way is facilitated. And
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  so that's why I teach frameworks. So you think
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  a lot of the errors that we run into are a result
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  of not thinking about the framework at all? In
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  my opinion. There's no way of doing something,
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  and humans need to see something first. See,
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  humans, we started out artistic, meaning whatever
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  was in our mind and our heart, we did that. But
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  as we developed into researchers, We're now able
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  to make decisions based on research and what's
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  in our hearts and our mind and that's the blending
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  of those two things You could be the researcher,
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  but if you're just regurgitating information,
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  there's no art It's boring or if you just do
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  the art if you don't know the research you've
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  got blind spots and If you watch a lot of what's
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  happening People speak about things that they've
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  never researched that they don't fully understand
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  So in it right now like this this AI moment that
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  we've been in right you you brought in AI literacy
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  and one of the things I appreciated about when
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  you were talking was You you emphasize that like
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  when you so when you go do a PD, you know The
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  people that are there they're already experts
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  in things that they do, right? And I you said,
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  you know big bar on steel but site so I might
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  use that for my own my own PD, right? But like
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  that that's a really important thing because
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  it's like I think sometimes When I've done PD,
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  it seems some teachers are thinking that they're
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  already starting back at a deficit, but they're
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  actually like, no, you can actually point to
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  you're an expert in these things already and
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  then now apply AI to what you're doing. Can you
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  speak to that a little bit? Yeah, I don't think
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  teachers need to change what they teach. I think
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  when it comes to AI, I believe we should allow
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  kids to do part of the work. And if they have
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  the thinking frameworks and the repeatable instructional
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  sequences, which are frameworks, then what happens
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  is AI becomes a helper. If not, AI does the work
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  that they don't understand anyway. And I think
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  that's really harmful. I think it's harmful because
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  it doesn't reinforce that productive struggle
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  that everyone needs in order to learn something.
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  Okay, so I have another question for you sure
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  we're in that we're in the the magical land of
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  Disney here, right? Okay, magical world of Disney
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  If you what do you what would you hope for if
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  you could wave a wand? What would you hope for
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  that people to really take away from the session
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  that you did today? Well, I already got that.
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  Okay, I had So there's a part of myself. Well,
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  I'll back up from visiting schools And not just
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  me but other people in schools see that there's
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  a big breakdown in relationships. And we talked
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  about this on the podcast with Jeremy. Big shout
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  out to Jeremy. We had this discussion where I
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  brought up that my parents were boomers. And
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  the theme or the common theme I've seen in the
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  boomer generation and having conversations with
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  friends is that our parents didn't take an interest
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  in us and what we like. We were told to... Listen
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  and obey. And as a father now, and I'm not sure
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  if you're a father yet, David, but as a father,
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  you start to realize that if you don't take an
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  interest in what your kid's like, then what's
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  going to happen is you're not going to have a
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  relationship with them. Because as a young person,
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  you're interested in what's happening right now,
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  what your friends are doing. You're interested
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  in what's fun. And anyone that's trying to put
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  that down, they're not going to have time for.
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  So in looking at the literature, before we can
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  get there to take an interest in what they like,
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  we have to form some type of rapport, not even
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  relationship of rapport. And you do that by having
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  high expectations. You have to believe in them,
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  but also positive words and interactions. So
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  how did I get it? I have to give you the background.
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  Speaking positivity into others, it doesn't come
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  easy for everyone. I've discovered that, especially
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  for folks where it hasn't been modeled for them.
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  So what I do in the workshop is I have people
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  send a text to someone in their life who would
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  benefit from some kind words and encouragement,
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  and just to tell them that they did a good job
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  at a skill, an attitude, or something that they
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  did well. One of the teachers in the workshop
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  when everyone was doing the empathy map pulled
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  me aside and said I just touched my 17 year old
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  Some appreciation and he gives me one word answers
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  every time. Okay. Thanks He said today I got
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  a paragraph So if one kid Gets something out
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  of what we did with teachers. That's all you
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  need and then it doesn't matter that everyone
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  didn't show her Absolutely. So one of the things
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  too, I want to just ask you here as we kind of
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  wrap up our time is what type of things do you
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  have coming out that you want to highlight? You
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  know, obviously we're at ISTE now, but what do
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  you have coming up that folks can look forward
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  to? New book, anything, you know, like that?
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  My entire website has been redone. It's almost
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  done, but it focuses on my three lanes. Instructional,
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  innovation, that's for leaders in schools. Project
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  -based learning plus with AI literacy that's
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  for teachers also admin, but I have a series
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  that I've been developing for years and It's
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  called leading through conflict. I'm working
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  on that book now But there's a lot of articles
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  on medium around that topic that I'm working
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  on is for people Leading whether at home at school
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  in the boardroom any walk of life with emotional
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  And that's it. And lots of workshops and keynotes
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  and stuff. So it's been a blessing. Absolutely.
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  And we'll make sure we put everything in the
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  show notes so people can access that too as well.
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  George, just want to thank you for joining us.
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  Appreciate it. Nick's going to win next year.
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  Repeat? We'll see. All right. Thanks, everybody.
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  wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time,
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  keep exploring, keep innovating, and keep integrating
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  this.