Latest / King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights / AI in business that transforms schools and leadership with Robby Cobbs and Kyle Sumrow

Transcript

AI in business that transforms schools and leadership with Robby Cobbs and Kyle Sumrow · King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights

0:00
You know, for the least as that I'm meeting you guys for the
0:03
very first time. What problems are you actually
0:07
solving? Yeah, I'll jump in.
0:09
So my name is Robbie and I'm the CEO and founder of Tech My
0:13
School. And essentially what Tech my
0:15
School does is we go into schools, we do an audit this
0:20
diagnostics of sorts, comprehensive package,
0:23
comprehensive process. And ultimately what we're trying
0:25
to do is we're trying to find gaps in schools.
0:29
So then we can then fill them with solutions that are 21st
0:33
century in nature and at the heart of it are focusing on
0:37
student skills that are going to empower them for today and
0:40
tomorrow. We're still growing.
0:41
We're we, we still just are scratching the surface.
0:44
This is our fifth school year. So not new in education, but a
0:48
relatively new new company. We found too that schools kind
0:52
of regardless of their funding level or their, their stature,
0:56
many of them are, are still modelled after a very like 19th
1:00
and 20th century model of educating kids.
1:02
And one of the things that we're really trying to do is help help
1:05
schools to address a skill set that is not being addressed very
1:09
readily in kids right now. And specifically in the schools
1:12
that are really struggling, the ones that really buy into what
1:15
we're doing. And they have a real growth
1:17
mindset, right? They're really thinking about
1:19
how they can grow and improve. Those are the ones that actually
1:22
end up doing the most amazing things with their kids.
1:25
And what's really cool about technology is if you can just
1:28
get, if you can get access to technology to places that don't
1:32
have it. A lot of times their mindset,
1:34
they're they're kind of ready for fresh thinking.
1:37
To Nigeria. Yeah, Niger boys.
1:40
So I went from California, where I was born, to Hawaii.
1:44
I worked in the inner City Schools of Hawaii back to
1:47
California and then I went overseas.
1:49
They're like the. UK, yeah, I've heard of Costco.
1:52
Yeah, yeah. So when you live in Nigeria,
1:54
you're you're missing some things.
1:56
You know, they've got great Joloff rice, but you, you know,
1:58
you miss some of your American goods.
2:00
I was like, let's go back to Puerto Rico, learn some Spanish,
2:02
go fishing, you know, do the boating thing.
2:04
And then, yeah, I put my boys in the local schools.
2:09
And I was just absolutely shocked because these schools
2:15
were so much like Nigerian schools, like, you know, African
2:19
schools. And I'm not saying that in a in
2:21
a derogatory way, but it was just that like America is the
2:24
wealthiest country in the world. And every school that I had seen
2:29
to that point in America, whether it's Hawaii or San
2:31
Diego, Florida, NY, there's a certain level of standard.
2:35
Let's just say where the facilities are big, there's
2:38
grass soccer fields, there's a canteen for all the kids to eat,
2:42
there's libraries, there's teachers who are getting paid a
2:45
certain level of pay, they have cays and medical and health and
2:49
all that kind of stuff. There's programmes.
2:51
Before we dive back into today's conversation, I want to share
2:53
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4:10
Welcome to the King Dems Podcast, where we share the
4:13
stories of extraordinary people and dissect hot, relevant topics
4:17
that shape our world. From visionary leaders to
4:19
trailblazing creatives, we uncover the mindset, strategy,
4:23
and grit behind greatness. Whether it's business, culture,
4:26
or personal growth, we ask the real questions.
4:29
This isn't just conversation, it's transformation.
4:32
The Kingdom's podcast, your next breakthrough starts here.
4:36
Music licencing reimagined your life.
4:42
Ladies and gentlemen, you once again welcome to The Kingdom's
4:45
podcast. And today there would be two
4:49
very special guests in the building introducing first
4:54
fighting out of the blue corner, introducing a fighter fighting
5:00
out of Houston, TX pal Sombro, and now fighting out of the red
5:09
corner, a fighter fighting out of San Diego by way of Puerto
5:16
Rico Robbie Corps. That would win.
5:23
That's a bad You're welcome. You're welcome.
5:27
You walk over the port, right. And yeah, I'll do other.
5:30
Reach advantage in that fight, but.
5:34
You have the reach advantage. Wow.
5:36
So this is a room Beer Beach challenge.
5:38
Thinking, shopping, leadership and explore how technology,
5:42
mindset and intelligence systems shape the future of business and
5:46
society. Today's conversation sits at the
5:49
intersection of education, AI, relation, and systemic impact.
5:54
Our guests are Robbie Cobbs and Kyle Sumrow, builders working on
5:59
the frontline of educational transformation.
6:02
The work is not theory, it's is execution.
6:05
Real environments, real constraints, real outcomes.
6:09
They are helping schools move from PS to clarity, from the
6:14
active technology to strategic systems, from outdated thinking
6:18
to future ready leadership. This conversation is for
6:21
founders, executives, operators, investors, educators, and anyone
6:26
thinking seriously about how we build systems for skilled
6:30
intelligence rather than suppressive.
6:33
Robbie and Carl welcome once again to The Kingdom's podcast.
6:37
Thanks for having us. Yeah.
6:38
Thanks for having us in. You're welcome.
6:41
So I don't know who's going to go first, right?
6:44
You know, or the least as that I'm meeting you guys for the
6:47
very first time. What problems are you actually
6:51
solving? Yeah, I'll jump in.
6:53
So my name is Robbie and I'm the CEO and founder of Tech My
6:58
School. And essentially what Tech my
7:00
School does is we go into schools, we do an audit this
7:05
diagnostics of sorts, comprehensive package,
7:08
comprehensive process. And ultimately what we're trying
7:11
to do is we're trying to find gaps in schools.
7:14
So then we can then fill them with solutions that are 21st
7:19
century in nature. And at the heart of it are
7:22
focusing on student skills that are going to empower them for
7:26
today and tomorrow. So Tech, my School, is a company
7:30
that can serve, you know, the best schools in the world, but
7:34
then can also serve some of the most struggling schools.
7:37
And we started by working with those struggling schools.
7:42
We started here in Puerto Rico and kind of from there, have
7:45
branched off and have served schools literally all around the
7:48
world, from Kenya to Greece, across the US And then obviously
7:51
in Puerto Rico, we've served about 50 schools so far.
7:53
And yeah, we're still growing. We still just are scratching the
7:56
surface. This is our fifth school year,
7:59
so not new in education, but a relatively new new company.
8:03
We found too that schools kind of regardless of their funding
8:07
level or their, their stature, many of them are, are still
8:10
modelled after a very like 19th and 20th century model of
8:14
educating kids. And one of the things that we're
8:16
really trying to do is help help schools to address a skill set
8:20
that is not being addressed very readily in kids right now.
8:23
And specifically in the schools that are really struggling, the
8:26
ones that really buy into what we're doing.
8:29
And they have a real growth mindset, right?
8:30
They're really thinking about how they can grow and improve.
8:33
Those are the ones that actually end up doing the most amazing
8:37
things with their kids. And what's really cool about
8:40
technology is if you can just get, if you can give access to
8:44
technology to places that don't have it.
8:46
A lot of times their mindset, their, their kind of, they're
8:50
ready for fresh thinking. Kind of like when, when I was
8:53
living in Cameroon, they didn't install, they didn't bother
8:56
installing landlines. They just gave everybody cell
8:58
phones and put up cell towers. It was like, like they skipped a
9:01
step. And some of the schools we work
9:02
with are kind of like that. That's like almost like they can
9:04
skip a step if they've just decided, hey, we're interested
9:08
in this newest, most updated skill set for kids.
9:11
And they kind of let us in and, and let them help, let us help
9:15
them build programmes Works. It works really well for them.
9:17
Wow, interesting stuff. I don't know how to fit this for
9:22
I love it when I have guests that are very, very much aligned
9:26
with the philosophy of the forecast.
9:29
When you look at the name of the forecast, it is Kingdom's
9:31
podcast, Growth mindsets, leadership, AI and business
9:35
insights. And the walk of what you guys
9:39
have been talking about relates very much to growth mindset.
9:44
And if you've seen previous episodes of the podcast, I've
9:47
already said this, I have only two goals from the forecast to
9:51
educate and to motivate. And if I'm able to do that, you
9:55
know my goal is accomplished. The forecast is under the
9:59
education category one Spotify and Apple broadcast and the sub
10:05
category is self improvement. And you see what you guys are
10:08
talking about just it hits the nail on the head and a very big
10:13
philosophy that we have on this forecast is mindset, skill set
10:18
and tool set. And that is exactly what you
10:22
guys use in empowering this schools the educational C stand
10:28
right being sure that the people I crept with the right mindset.
10:32
I think a lot of times in the corporate world, people place
10:36
too much emphasis on the skill sets.
10:39
But we don't have to realise that without the right mindset,
10:42
you cannot even achieve anything.
10:45
Or when you have a close mindset and you are able to acquire the
10:51
right skill sets and you're enabled with the right tool
10:55
sets, there's no limit towards you can actually achieve.
10:59
So from me to you, it's a very big thank you.
11:03
You know, sharing your time, your expertise on the forecast
11:07
today. And of course, I like to say
11:09
this, anytime a person shares their time with you, they share
11:12
their life with you. Of course, the SI unit for
11:14
measuring life this time. So, you know, with that being
11:18
said, why does education system design matter to founders, to
11:24
executives, to investors that listen to the show?
11:28
You know, for me, I think it's a little more personal.
11:30
You know, education is the foundation of society.
11:34
So there's a direct correlation between test scores and GDP.
11:39
High test scores, high GDP, low test scores, low GDP, right.
11:42
And for me, I grew up, you know, this poor kid in San Diego.
11:45
I was the poorest kid in school. I didn't have electricity at
11:49
home growing up, as crazy as that sounds.
11:52
And it wasn't because we didn't have electricity in San Diego.
11:54
It was just because my dad didn't pay the bill and they
11:58
don't give free electricity so and my only like food was at
12:04
school. So elementary school was a place
12:07
for me. It was a sanctuary is where
12:08
adults cared about me. It's where it gave me a chance
12:11
to have an opportunity to to make something of myself.
12:14
I think if I was born in so many other different countries, I
12:19
wouldn't have been able to accomplish nearly what I've been
12:21
able to accomplish now. So, you know, I'm very grateful
12:24
for that. I've travelled to 65 countries.
12:26
I've kind of seen it and and yeah, so coming to Puerto Rico,
12:30
I was coming in from Nigeria, the last place before Puerto
12:34
Rico, working at the Americas. To Nigeria.
12:37
Yeah, Niger boys. So I went from California, where
12:41
I was born to Hawaii. I worked in the inner City
12:44
Schools of Hawaii, back to California and then I went
12:46
overseas. So I was in Kazakhstan, I was in
12:48
Qatar, I was in Saudi Arabia, came back to California.
12:51
I was in Silicon Valley, got my master's in IT, and then
12:54
eventually landed in Nigeria where I was a remote learning
12:57
specialist during COVID times. Before COVID hit, actually, I
13:00
was preparing the school in case Ebola hit again.
13:04
You know, because of when Ebola hit, there was remote learning
13:06
and so I was kind of preparing the staff for that.
13:09
And then Covad hit and we were just ready to go.
13:10
So we were that class that had done the fire drill before the
13:13
fire. So we were organised, we were
13:15
ready to go, but we still that process.
13:17
We burned ourselves out and we were like, as soon as the
13:19
contract was done, we're like, hey, let's go on an island and
13:22
just enjoy our life. Just go for one year to take a
13:25
sabbatical, my wife and I, and then, you know, I'll write a
13:28
book on Ed tech, and then I'll get back out there to this very
13:31
comfortable life as an international administrator
13:35
working in these diplomat schools.
13:36
We had to make a decision between where we wanted to live.
13:39
It was going to be either Kosamui, Thailand.
13:40
We love Thailand. We've been there four times.
13:42
Zanzibar. Zan.
13:45
Yeah, Thailand's great. Zanzibar, which I think is
13:48
probably the most beautiful of the three places we were
13:50
choosing. Zanzibar beaches are just 2nd to
13:53
none. Love Stone Town and then Puerto
13:56
Rico. And so we landed on Puerto Rico
13:58
because we wanted our boys to kind of learn Spanish.
14:01
I'd study it in school, but I wasn't great.
14:03
So I really wanted them to give them a chance to be immersed in
14:05
it. And then also there's something
14:07
here called Costco. So if you know what Costco is,
14:10
Costco is essentially like Tesco or whatever.
14:13
It's just like a big supermarket where like the.
14:16
UK, yeah, I've heard of Costco. Yeah, yeah.
14:19
So when you live in Nigeria, you're you're missing some
14:21
things. You know, they've got great job
14:23
off Rice, but you, you know, you miss some of your American
14:25
goods. I was like, let's go back to
14:27
Puerto Rico, learn some Spanish, go fishing, you know, do the
14:31
boating thing. And then, yeah, I put my boys in
14:35
the local schools. And I was just absolutely
14:39
shocked because these schools were so much like Nigerian
14:46
schools, like, you know, African schools.
14:48
And I'm not saying that in a, in a derogatory way, but it was
14:51
just that like America is the wealthiest country in the world.
14:54
And every school that I had seen to that point in America,
14:58
whether it's Hawaii or San Diego, Florida, NY, there's a
15:01
certain level of standard. Let's just say where the
15:04
facilities are big, there's grass, soccer fields, there's a
15:08
canteen for all the kids to eat, there's libraries, there's
15:12
teachers who are getting paid a certain level of pay.
15:15
They have KS and medical and health and all that kind of
15:17
stuff. There's programmes or sports.
15:19
There's just a certain, you know, equity that kids are
15:23
afforded as Americans that just doesn't exist in many other
15:26
countries. And so going from Nigeria, I was
15:29
working at a great school in Nigeria, the American School
15:31
Legos, but we did a lot of field work.
15:34
So we would work with just local Nigerian schools and we did a
15:38
lot of charity work. We donated computers, we hosted
15:40
a little conference for them. I mean, even in my own personal
15:43
life, I had my my own boys, we went to the orphanages and we
15:47
donated to the orphanages and work with them.
15:49
So I kind of had a somewhat of an understanding of both worlds.
15:53
And then to see Puerto Rico, where everyone is an American
15:56
citizen, it's an American territory.
15:57
They're not a state, they're a territory.
15:59
A lot of people don't know that, but it's America.
16:01
Like if you're born here, you're American.
16:03
You can move to New York or Los Angeles tomorrow.
16:05
Vice versa, you can move and live and work here.
16:08
So it's just like moving to any other state.
16:09
But the schools here are just insanely low.
16:13
And so there's kind of the eye test of just like, OK, these,
16:16
there's something's off here. There's no libraries, there's no
16:18
canteen, there's no fields. It's just a concrete box with
16:21
some fans and a chalkboard. Like I've seen this before, but
16:24
not in America. So there's just the eye test.
16:27
Then you look in the classrooms and you're like, this is, this
16:31
does not look like a 21st century classroom.
16:34
This is in the way they practise, in the way they're
16:35
talking. And so you look at the research,
16:38
there's a testing organisation called Pisa.
16:41
Pisa, they do kind of a standardised test across
16:44
countries, right? So across the world, and I think
16:47
maybe 100 and some odd countries participate.
16:51
Puerto Rico scores last in math, reading and science.
16:55
They are the outliers of the outliers.
16:57
So there's kind of like this big BLOB in the US fits somewhere in
17:01
the middle. You know, there's like 50-60
17:02
countries all right there. You know, there's a little
17:05
deviation between math, reading and science, you know, left or
17:07
right. But it's all in that, you know,
17:08
cluster. And then you have on the far
17:10
right, you have like, you know, these outliers like Korea and
17:13
Japan that are kind of like, you know, highest scores.
17:16
And then you start to go towards the left.
17:19
Yeah. You start, you know, seeing
17:21
countries that have lower scores and they're countries you'd
17:23
think of. Then you get to this like,
17:26
outlier that like way out, like Pluto, you know, like way the
17:29
heck out there. And that's Puerto Rico, and it's
17:32
crazy. It's just so crazy.
17:34
And so for me, you know, knowing that my, you know, current state
17:40
is at such gratitude and at such a debt to American public school
17:47
systems, seeing these American kids not have that opportunity.
17:51
Because honestly, if I'm in Nigeria, if I'm in India, if I'm
17:54
in Kazakhstan, I'm a guest and I do what I can to help.
17:58
But it's their country. They have their own laws, their
18:00
own ways, and I can add to it. But it's like I can't make these
18:04
big changes because it's, you know, it's their country.
18:06
And I mean, maybe I could, but, but still, it's like I know in
18:09
others, many countries culturally, it doesn't matter if
18:12
you know, you're this brilliant person, if you're not the right
18:15
tribe, you're not the right last name, you're not the right, you
18:18
know, religion, you're not the right gender, not the right
18:21
family or whatever. It doesn't really matter.
18:23
Your life is kind of predetermined in a lot of ways,
18:27
but the beautiful thing about America is it's not like that.
18:30
It doesn't matter where you start with who you are or what
18:33
you are. It matters about who you are.
18:35
So whether you're black, white, Asian, whatever, if you work
18:38
hard, if you have that growth mindset, you will achieve.
18:41
And that's why as frustrating of a country as America is, it
18:45
still stands at this as this kind of beacon of light in the
18:48
world is that anyone can come there and restart themselves,
18:52
reimagine themselves and make it if you work hard, you know, and
18:56
if you value education and if you value, you know, that grit.
19:00
And so seeing that, knowing that, that that's what makes me
19:03
proud to be from America is because before I left America, I
19:06
was always kind of like, I'm not going to say there's any self
19:09
hatred, but it was just kind of like, man, we're such a racist
19:11
country. We're such a bad country, blah,
19:12
blah, blah, blah, blah. Because that's what the media
19:14
just constantly pounds in your brain until you go to all these
19:17
other countries and you're like, man, we're actually like the
19:18
least racist country in the world.
19:20
It's a place where, I mean, my roommate was from Nairobi.
19:24
He's got the thickest accent you've ever heard in your life.
19:26
And he came to America barely. His dad was in government.
19:30
So he kind of snuck him in. His dad lost power, he lost his
19:33
visa. He stayed, he got his like kind
19:35
of fake green card in LA. He worked, worked at Costco.
19:39
That's actually where he met with Costco.
19:40
And then he went to school, ended up marrying this girl,
19:44
finished his degree at OU, got a patronum engineering degree.
19:48
I mean, the guy's making like whatever, 300,000 a year, He's
19:51
crushing it. His wife's a lawyer.
19:52
They live this beautiful life. And it's like, that's America,
19:55
you know what I mean? And so that's why it's that's
19:59
why it's such a special place. And also why it's so
20:02
unacceptable for an American territory state, in my mind to
20:06
not have a world class education.
20:09
And so that's kind of how tech my school was born.
20:10
It was like seeing my kids coming from Africa, seeing my
20:13
kids in this school and just knowing immediately as a, you
20:16
know, educator for 20 plus years, like I need to, to, to
20:19
help, you know, it's like this call to action, this call to
20:21
service. I know I can help.
20:23
I know technology's the avenue to help these, these educators,
20:26
these kids. And then the service began.
20:29
So that's kind of like the birth of tech, my school.
20:31
And Kyle has also been a big part of that journey with me.
20:34
And we work together in Saudi Arabia and Jeddah.
20:36
And I went to go work for him. So I came in as his assistant
20:39
tech director, the assistant CTO of the school.
20:42
And so I kind of learned a lot about the position and just how
20:46
schools operate under Kyle. And then he went on to do his
20:49
story. But we've always kind of
20:51
remained buddies. And as I was seeing this, I was
20:54
kind of talking with Kyle about what I'm seeing and the
20:57
processes of, you know what, what tech my school became.
21:01
So he's though he's not like the founder.
21:03
He's even before tech my school began like him and I have always
21:06
been thought partners and we've always kind of worked together
21:08
in that way. So I'll I'm.
21:10
A pre founder. Yes, I'm going to pass the ball
21:14
to Kyle and let him introduce himself and talk about like how
21:17
he kind of joined a tech, my school and where he was at.
21:21
Yeah. So I have a similar story, not
21:24
from the very beginning, but excuse me, similar story of
21:26
moving around the world and working at international
21:28
schools. So I was in Cameroon and then in
21:31
Saudi where Robbie and I met and then I was in Switzerland after
21:35
that and then Vietnam after that.
21:36
So I would say that so we, we did so much learning along along
21:42
the way, right. I mean, I could have easily done
21:45
that stint in, you know, four or five different schools here in
21:48
the States and I would have learned a lot about the job and,
21:51
and the role and whatnot. But being able to do that
21:53
internationally was kind of like a double education for me.
21:56
I got to kind of, you know, do the on the job training and
21:59
learn about what I was doing in my profession for the same time,
22:03
got to know people from all these different amazing
22:06
cultures. That was that was such a huge
22:07
thing. But Robbie and I started working
22:09
together in Saudi and we started working on essentially some of
22:14
the conversations we had were around like systematising the
22:17
skill set. So you were asking about the
22:19
structure of school and, and the importance of the structures.
22:22
And I think Robbie and I, one of the things we agreed on from the
22:26
beginning is that industry is looking for something a little
22:28
different than what we are currently providing.
22:30
I think this, this has become exacerbated over time, probably
22:34
because of technology more than anything.
22:36
But in, in industry, they're looking for universities to
22:39
train kids up in a certain way to get them ready for the
22:43
workforce, right? But then there's K12 education
22:45
where Robbie and I are, and they're, we're trying to get
22:47
kids ready for the college landscape, right?
22:51
And we're in a bit of a predicament in the sense that
22:55
colleges are not very vocal about communicating the needs of
23:00
kids in these newer ways. So what we've always done and,
23:05
and this is, you know, if your listeners aren't listening from
23:08
the States, maybe some of the terminology is different, but
23:10
the the thinking is the same. And universities everywhere,
23:13
which is that there are these preparation pieces that kids go
23:15
through in order to qualify for university in the United States.
23:18
It's two primary exams that they take the SAT and the ACT and you
23:23
can take take one or the other. Some kids, a lot of kids will
23:25
take both. But those scores along with your
23:28
grades from high school essentially are the determining
23:31
factors and whether you get into school or not.
23:33
That's gotten more, it's more human, humanistic, humanised now
23:38
in the sense that they're, they're really do pay attention
23:40
to like your essays. You have to write essays.
23:43
They'll give you a prompt. Some of sometimes the, the
23:45
prompts are kind of loony in some ways they sound crazy, but
23:49
they're really, they're really looking for something from you.
23:51
They want to know, want to know about your mindset.
23:53
You know, we were talking about growth mindset earlier.
23:54
But my whole point of saying all of this is that universities are
23:58
really the ones who should be telling educators like Robbie
24:01
and I what they need. What do you want your incoming
24:04
students to look like when they come in?
24:06
And what we get from them is not messaging about this type of
24:11
first we got 21st century, we're getting a little further into
24:13
the 21st century now, but we would say like next Gen skill
24:17
set, right? AI has been a really shined a
24:20
light on this because there's a whole new emerging skill set
24:23
that is kind of on the horizon for kids now that we are also
24:27
not addressing very, very adeptly.
24:30
But part of our thinking is like we kind of have to skip the
24:33
middleman and we kind of have to think about industry also,
24:36
because industry is very clear about what they want from the
24:40
kids coming out college and college is not very clear to us
24:44
about what they want coming into college, if this makes sense,
24:46
right? It's kind of like a three-step
24:47
process of a young person graduating into the workforce.
24:51
And I think that what, what we really tried to do is to pay
24:57
homage to what the skill set when they get out of college is
25:01
really what we're kind of aiming for more than, I mean, the
25:04
universities. Universities are still set up as
25:07
kind of incubators for thought and research.
25:09
And, and that's, that's really fantastic.
25:10
And I think that's where they really shine as in the research
25:12
side of things. But when it comes to like the
25:15
skills that are required for thinking like I'm talking about
25:18
AI and understanding how AI systems work and how if you put
25:23
bad data into an LLM, you get crap out the other side, right?
25:27
Like the kids have to. Understand garbage and garbage
25:30
out. Garbage and garbage out.
25:32
Yeah, they have to understand data quality.
25:34
They have to understand engineering like the yeah,
25:36
prompt engineering and the efficacy of the process, right?
25:39
Like in order to, in order to make this work, you have to
25:42
understand what the machine is actually doing.
25:44
And so that's, that's part of what we're it's not, I mean that
25:46
that's just one small part. So we're, we're also looking at
25:49
the, the ability to like, showcase their learning by, you
25:53
know, multi modally, being able to use traditional methods of
25:58
presenting evidences of their learning while at the same time
26:01
being able to harness some of the newer technologies, right,
26:04
like podcasts and videos. And like, what's the difference
26:08
between someone writing an essay and someone building a
26:12
documentary to get the same point across of their, of their
26:15
learning, displaying their understanding of a concept or
26:17
content or showing off skills. So what, what we're, what we're
26:20
really working with schools on is to help them to kind of
26:24
rethink the narrative of, of assessment, how we assess
26:27
learning. Because LLMS, they came on
26:30
really quickly and very, very quickly what we were doing at
26:33
schools was saying like kids, kids are teething.
26:35
Now they're having them write the, they're writing their
26:37
essays. Well, then maybe we should
26:39
rethink what we're asking kids to do to show us what they know.
26:43
So this is a big part of our thinking when we're working with
26:45
schools. Amazing, there's actually a
26:48
whole lot to unpack. What you said, 1 scene I very
26:52
much believe in is another force.
26:55
He's time to work that you need strong institutions and not just
27:00
strong individuals. You guys are strong individuals,
27:03
but this a limit to what strong individuals can actually do.
27:08
But when you have strong institutions and the
27:10
institutions, you know, play their role like the system would
27:15
be in a good place. So you have the schools, you
27:19
know you have the universities and of course you also have the
27:24
policy makers, right? The policy makers have a very,
27:28
very big role to play in ensuring that the administration
27:33
of these schools right, are in the right place.
27:38
From your experience, what have you seen first hand that you
27:41
know most policy makers and persons and leadership
27:45
misunderstand about the school system?
27:48
You know, it's, it's interesting because when you're talking
27:50
about, you know, a system, especially when you're in
27:54
America, it's always comes back to politics.
27:58
And so that's a very convoluted subject in itself.
28:01
In the states mainland there, you know, politics are, are very
28:07
much a part of that system in terms of how everything's built.
28:10
What are kids being taught there?
28:11
There's a kind of a localised set of, you know, Department of
28:15
Education as a federal reach or did have a federal reach.
28:18
And then there's the the states having their, their kind of more
28:22
local reach and there's corruption, there's certain
28:25
elements to it that, you know, inhibit the success or, or
28:29
failure of education in America. Puerto Rico has its own kind of
28:34
subset of political strife and, and control in the system.
28:39
And so it doesn't fall under the exact same purview as the
28:42
systems in the mainland US. So because of that, I'm not
28:48
going to say it's the Wild West out here, but it definitely has.
28:52
There's a reason why we score what we score.
28:55
And so it's just such a challenge to it's such a
28:58
challenge. And I mean, we have an MO U
29:01
department education, We want to work with them, but there's just
29:03
so many components to it, whether it's the people at the
29:05
top who are constantly revolving and then as soon as they leave,
29:08
they fire everyone and then bring in their people.
29:11
So I'm if coming from Africa, that was something that was kind
29:15
of a this tribalistic governing and every yeah.
29:24
And I mean, happens everywhere, you know, to a certain degree,
29:27
coaching and sports, you know, you get hired, you bring in your
29:30
buddies or whatever. But it's, it's more extreme, I
29:33
would say here. And then, you know, just
29:36
sometimes it's a lack of follow through with certain monies that
29:40
could be allotted to schools and other times it's, it's grift.
29:45
And other times, you know, people don't know where the
29:48
money went. So ultimately it's just such an
29:52
uphill battle. And, and it's just such a shame
29:54
that like, honestly, tech, my school should not exist.
29:58
The work I'm doing, though, we love it, it shouldn't exist.
30:02
Honestly, like they, they, the schooling system should be,
30:06
there's enough money to where the schooling system should be
30:08
so good that we don't need to be around maybe in a consultancy
30:12
way and in a minor smaller way, but not to the level of extent
30:16
that we're serving and the impact that we're making.
30:19
So, yeah, in short, you are a product of the system in which
30:23
you live. A lot of times it's, it's
30:25
difficult, but whenever you're in a place where the system is
30:28
less effective, more corrupt, more negative, whatever you want
30:31
to say, the bigger impact you can make because there's such a
30:34
wider gap between success and failure.
30:37
And we just happen to be in a location where we can make up a
30:41
pretty big impact. I would say what Robbie's
30:46
talking about really is very zoomed out at sort of a macro
30:50
structural level level. We're talking about countries or
30:54
governments, right? And he's totally right.
30:58
I mean, you don't have to do much more than follow money.
31:02
I mean the money money ultimately is what will decide.
31:06
I would say the way the money flows rather than the amount,
31:08
the way the money flows, I think is, is what's related to
31:11
efficacy. Because a big, a bigger problem
31:13
in, in Puerto Rico, it, it's not the total amount of money going
31:17
into the system. The total amount of money is not
31:19
the problem. The, the amount that's getting
31:20
to the classroom is really the problem in the United States.
31:23
The money gets to the classrooms.
31:25
I think the bigger problem is that the system is so large, it,
31:28
it operates in such a way that it's very difficult to like in a
31:32
state that doesn't give a lot of control to individual school
31:35
districts. Like in Texas, I think there are
31:38
what, 304 hundred school districts or even more than that
31:43
probably if, if the, if the state has too much control, it's
31:47
hard for the, the, the school districts themselves to have
31:51
very much nuance when they have maybe very different populations
31:54
to serve. So the problems in Puerto Rico
31:58
and the problems in mainland are different, but they they have
32:01
them what I would say zooming in to the sort of individual
32:05
district or school level. In the process of zooming in,
32:09
sorry to interrupt you. In the process of zooming in, I
32:11
want you to weave something into that process, right?
32:16
What? What are the signals that you
32:18
look out for? When do you evaluate in these
32:20
schools? So I'd love for you to read that
32:22
into the zoom in. Sure.
32:25
The individual school leadership, this comes back to
32:27
then. That's why I think we're going
32:28
to hit this over and over again. It comes back to mindset.
32:31
It comes back to whether or not a school leader fundamentally or
32:36
a district leader fundamentally believes that every single
32:39
person in the district, both teachers and students, can grow.
32:43
They have to have this mindset that we're not just trying to
32:48
manage the status quo. We're not.
32:50
Like in a car, you put it on cruise control on the highway
32:53
and the car kind of keeps you at the same speed.
32:55
There should not be a cruise control button in education
32:57
because education is not static. The things that we're trying to
33:02
teach kids in certain content areas stay more or less static
33:08
to some degree. Like you could say history and
33:10
math and those things are maybe they're more static.
33:13
But if you dig a little deeper, history, the ways in which we
33:16
view history, the research that we're doing and make connections
33:19
between modern and history from before, this is also like
33:22
technology, it's also changing all the time, right?
33:25
So like. The.
33:26
Fact that we create these huge systems that sort of promote the
33:30
continuation of the status quo is very, very difficult.
33:33
One, one of the things I actually love this analogy that
33:35
Robbie makes, he talks about LeBron James.
33:37
You could say this about like Leo Messi or any sport.
33:40
These athletes that are at the top of their game, they still
33:43
have coaches, they're still being coached.
33:46
They have this fundamental understanding in athletics.
33:49
We, we fundamentally believe that we can always improve.
33:53
Leo Messi, by all rights, probably doesn't need a coach.
33:57
If there's anyone that doesn't need a coach, it's that guy,
33:59
right? But he's still coached and he's
34:01
coachable. Like coach ability.
34:03
I think is, is a is a good way to a good frame to to look at
34:06
it. So you're, you're asking for
34:09
signals. What can you, can you expand on
34:11
that? Can you say more about what you
34:12
mean? What do you mean when, when
34:13
we're going into a school to try and figure out how we can help?
34:17
Is that what you're? Exactly, exactly.
34:21
You know, what are the signals, what are the factors that you
34:23
guys evaluate to make your assessment?
34:27
Probably you're muted. Yeah.
34:28
I think the what we do is we we try to look at it from a
34:31
systematic standpoint. So we can create a model that
34:34
can fit in any school. And so we focus and we're
34:38
looking through three different lenses.
34:39
So the first lens that we're looking at is building and
34:43
improving educational systems. So everything that you can touch
34:47
may create policy computers, you know, software, all those kinds
34:52
of things. So we're looking at where is
34:54
your school fit in terms of those?
34:57
How can we serve, how can we help, how can we help improve
34:59
that lens? The next lens we look at is
35:02
improving the educators capacity.
35:06
So we're looking at mindset, we're looking at how
35:08
professional learning happens in the building.
35:09
What is the philosophy of the leadership and the school?
35:12
What is the ethos and what is the practise that reflects that?
35:16
How does learning happen for the adults and how are they self
35:19
improving, reflecting, collecting data, those kinds of
35:21
things? So the second lens is really
35:23
focusing on the adults in the building because they're the
35:25
ones who are facilitating this to students.
35:28
And then finally, the third lens is we look at student
35:30
empowerment. So what are the things that
35:32
students are actually doing in their classroom, outside of the
35:35
classroom? What skills are we actually
35:37
teaching them and are they showcasing in order to kind of
35:40
signify this person who's going to go out into the world to this
35:45
AI and informational economy and be a contributor or producer or
35:48
creator? And so by looking first at the
35:50
systems, you know, things that you can buy, looking at the
35:53
adults, what do they feel confident and what are they
35:55
knowledgeable on? And what do they think about
35:57
teaching and learning? And then we look at the kids
35:59
because you immediately want to go straight to the kids.
36:02
Like what is the result of the system?
36:04
What does a product look like? We don't start there, that we
36:07
end there. The first thing you got to do is
36:09
look at the factory and say, OK, how can we modernise this
36:12
factory? And then you look at the
36:12
workers, How do the workers, how are they learning?
36:14
How are they doing their thing? And then you can say, OK, now
36:16
let's look at the product because it always starts like
36:19
Kyle was saying at the top. And you know, regardless of the
36:22
school that we work with, we worked with every range of of
36:25
school. The leadership is going to
36:27
determine the success of the process of tech my school going
36:32
in or just really any, any process of a school going in.
36:34
If if a leader cares, the teachers are going to care.
36:39
If a leader is learning, the teachers are going to be
36:41
learning. If the leader is, you know,
36:43
conscientious and observant and you know, is putting there is,
36:48
is having follow through, the teachers are going to fall in
36:52
line and vice versa. And so we've worked in schools
36:56
that literally could could have been in Lagos like easily, like
36:59
if you went to the campus, you saw what was going on.
37:01
You're like, I'm in Nigeria, but it was it's in America.
37:04
And then we've been to other. Schools in America.
37:09
You're like this, this is like one of the top schools ever.
37:12
It's got everything money can buy.
37:14
And sure, they may have a lot of the systems component, but they
37:18
those other facets aren't there, or at least they're not as much
37:22
as they could be. They're not hitting their
37:23
potential because the leadership is, you know, either arrogant,
37:28
lazy, or just has a fixed mindset.
37:31
So we try to partner with people who have that growth mindset.
37:34
And even if they don't, I mean, at the end of the day, we work
37:37
to serve children. I will literally work with the
37:39
most difficult school because even if I can make that school
37:42
10% better, I know the future of those kids are going to be 10%
37:45
brighter. And so we're going to, we're
37:46
going to do everything we can to, to serve that school for
37:49
that reason. And so my wife who works with
37:51
me, she gets frustrated all the time.
37:53
She gets frustrated with teachers, she gets frustrated
37:56
with directors. She gets frustrated with our
37:58
donors because we're a nonprofit.
37:59
And I tell her I'm like, listen, you can't focus on these other
38:04
external factors. We're here for one reason, and
38:06
that's to serve kids. You work for them, you know what
38:09
I mean? So like, keep doing good things
38:12
because that will improve their lives.
38:14
And that's what it's all about. So at least for me, that's why I
38:17
cut tunnel vision myself to, to, you know, block off the, the
38:20
negativity that comes with working with various groups of
38:24
people, economic etcetera. Yeah, because we, we, we
38:28
pipeline a lot of our funding from, you know, some of the
38:32
wealthiest people in the world. And so we, we really want them
38:35
to care about what we're doing. And sometimes they do and
38:38
sometimes they don't. And so that's frustrating.
38:41
And then we serve schools that may be bought in and may be
38:44
working hard to improve their school and their kids.
38:47
And sometimes they don't, right. So sometimes you can get this
38:50
negative force on both ends from the donor side and from the from
38:54
the school side. And it can be discouraging.
38:57
But what keeps keeps us going is just focusing on that singular
39:01
goal of improving lives of kids. And because the kids don't
39:04
choose, they're just born. They're just born and their
39:06
parents, they go to this school and then you're just there.
39:08
And so they're other outcome is determined by that school.
39:11
And we, we do everything we can to empower them.
39:14
A lot of these kids are victims of circumstances.
39:17
You did not choose the family that you're going to be born, so
39:20
you do not choose the location. So it's it's a great thing what
39:24
you're doing at least giving them a better chance about
39:28
succeeding in life because the background matters.
39:32
Even the Bible says Eve the foundation be destroyed.
39:34
What kind of writers do? But I'd like for you to touch on
39:37
what a high functioning learning system looks like in practise
39:41
to. Tackle that one.
39:42
To me it's one of the main evidences.
39:44
Is teachers learning alongside kids An institution, it's high
39:48
functioning is one that is an institution of learning, right?
39:52
Teaching happens, but learning, learning is the non negotiable.
39:56
Everyone is learning all the time.
39:58
And one of the reasons why that's important, I mean, it's
40:02
important for any adult who's in a you know, it's to be to be
40:06
learning, I think, and and growing.
40:09
But as adults learn and they show their passion for learning
40:13
and understanding new things and.
40:15
Being humble enough to learn from the kids, the kids respond
40:18
to that, that that is how you develop kids who are lifelong
40:22
learners, kids who love learning.
40:24
That's really our goal. Our goal is less to teach kids
40:27
what to think, but teach them how to think.
40:29
Schools oftentimes will say that, but but what does that
40:31
really mean? What does how to think mean?
40:33
How to think really incorporates a lot of different things across
40:37
like an age appropriate continuum.
40:38
But the one thing that's continuous across that whole
40:41
thing is a love of learning. So curiosity, there's an amazing
40:45
quote, there's an author, a guy named George Kuros is this great
40:48
quote. He says, if if kids are less
40:50
curious when they leave us, then when they came to us, then we
40:53
failed. And so I think a high
40:56
functioning system involves a place where failure is
41:00
acceptable. They say, we like to say fail
41:02
fast and fail forward. And we say this, a lot of
41:07
schools will say this. They'll say we really want to
41:09
facilitate a place where be a safe place to take risks and to
41:13
fail. Yet we, we punish failure.
41:16
I mean, we, we really want to see schools that are building
41:20
systems that allow kids to really push their own limits and
41:24
fall and get up and learn right from that, that whole iterative
41:27
process. So I don't know, Robbie, what
41:29
would you say in terms of high functioning?
41:31
What? What am I missing?
41:34
I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to the
41:35
academic component, you know, learning, failing forward
41:38
thinking, those kinds of things. I would just say that schools
41:41
are, you know, a community. And so part of a successful
41:45
school and a place that you want to go to is 1 in which the
41:49
community and really the people who are there are, are valued.
41:53
They're they're given a chance to express themselves freely
41:57
and, and just learn together. So I think what's different
42:01
between a school and maybe just opening a, you know, a business
42:04
is just the fact that schools are a community space.
42:08
You're dealing with people, you're dealing with their lives,
42:09
you're dealing with their problems, you're dealing with,
42:11
you know, all those kinds of things.
42:13
And so you want the school to have this, this we look at when
42:17
we break down our audit of a school, we, we kind of have two
42:21
different, I would say, frameworks that we build from.
42:25
So the first is 1. That's an internal framework
42:26
that kind of speaks more to what Kyle was talking about in terms
42:30
of, you know, structures in place and, you know, success,
42:33
failing, all that kind of stuff. We also look at how do the
42:35
educators at the school think of learning?
42:38
How do they think of themselves? How do they think like where,
42:41
where do they feel they fit and where do they, how do they value
42:46
themselves and how do they value learning?
42:48
And what is their purpose, right?
42:49
What is the point of being there?
42:52
And so we get that from Robert Dilt's levels of learning.
42:55
So he has these these kind of framework where it's just more
42:58
about, you know, kind of self identifying your purpose and
43:02
your point and who you are and being reflective on that.
43:04
So there is this technical side that we serve, but then there's
43:07
also this other component where we want schools to really define
43:11
themselves as learners, to define themselves as thinkers,
43:14
to define themselves as places where kids can come and have a
43:17
safe place to grow and, and to to nurture their passions.
43:22
And I think it comes down to leadership too.
43:24
I think, I think your leaders set the tone for what's allowed
43:28
to happen in a sense, right? The two another top.
43:32
So I'm, I'm actually almost done with a, I'm almost done with a
43:34
second programme, a master's degree in educational
43:36
leadership. And I think out of all of the
43:38
study that I've done, really what what I see as a theme is
43:41
that a leaders role is to support people who support
43:45
people. And So what I see a lot of times
43:48
in schools is that leaders really try and micromanage
43:51
processes which they should actually be in a support role
43:55
more than a barking orders type of a role.
43:58
I think there's a misunderstanding from leadership
44:00
about what their purpose is. And, and, and honestly, your
44:04
teachers, you can think of like, if you think of this in a
44:05
corporate sense, you know, your teachers are really like your
44:07
middle managers. They're in charge of another
44:10
group of people, which are your students.
44:11
And your job as a leader is to support those teachers, to
44:14
support learning in the classroom.
44:15
And there's a million ways you can do that.
44:17
But like that, that's one of the things that I look at too, when,
44:20
when we're going into a school, I'm looking for the sort of
44:22
hidden signals from leadership on you.
44:24
You what One thing that's important is when we go into a
44:27
room and we're doing, let's say like a big kind of a corporate
44:29
training with teachers and the leaders are there too.
44:32
Some places you can, I mean, it doesn't take much, but you, you
44:35
can see the subtleties in the way that people's body language
44:38
is or the, the, the ways in which they're deferential to
44:42
leadership. I mean, you can feel the, the,
44:47
the company, the school's orchard more than you can see it
44:50
on paper. You can feel it.
44:52
And, and I think that that's, that's part of what we have
44:55
learned to identify kind of internally.
44:57
So that when we're talking about how we can help them, because
45:01
our job ultimately when we go into a school is to help them to
45:04
self identify where they're at and what they want to do based
45:08
on our framework. And we don't go in and tell them
45:10
what they should and shouldn't be doing.
45:11
It's not like that. It's a non judgmental sort of
45:13
assessment that we do with them. And when we get to the end of
45:16
that, how we know how to best help them really has a lot to do
45:21
with the ways that they interact with their leadership.
45:23
And there are certain things that we would do that are more
45:25
aggressive in terms of the types of interventions that we would
45:28
recommend. Only if their leadership won't
45:30
support it, we're not going there.
45:31
We're going to have to take a different, more grassroots
45:34
approach. Really focus on us intervening
45:36
with teachers more than intervening with leadership who
45:39
can intervene with teachers. There are subtle differences in
45:41
communication and signals that we pick up from leaders and so
45:45
the most high functioning places I would say are the places where
45:48
the leaders are passionate supporters of their teachers.
45:53
Interest and stuff. It's it's quite interesting.
45:57
It shows like you guys eavesdropped a conversation I
46:00
had with you and Youthang, Young Youthang is the head of
46:06
community, the school of mentors, and he was on this
46:09
forecast. I think we had a discussion, I
46:12
think was it last night? Yeah, last night.
46:15
And he was telling me about his experience in China.
46:20
He was born in China but grew up in the United States.
46:24
So we always make this joke about, oh, you're like Apple
46:28
were made in China but designed in the US, right?
46:32
But but he's always keeping in that the quality is good.
46:36
He's always bringing in that disclaimer.
46:37
So shout out to your new Fang. You need to see this one.
46:40
He was teaching English in a Chinese school.
46:43
And when he started the programme, he was asking one of
46:47
the Chinese teachers that how can I teach these students
46:52
effectively? And guess what the teacher told
46:56
him, Teacher told him instead of you thinking of how you are
47:01
going to teach the students, why not think about what you can
47:04
learn from these students? It gives him a rethink.
47:08
You know, learning is a two way St Just at communication, you
47:12
can impact knowledge and you can also learn from the people that
47:17
you're teaching. It's interesting myself speaking
47:19
to you, right? It's quite interesting that we
47:22
have connecting dots. I've worked in the NGO space of
47:26
the charity space and I've also been a teacher myself.
47:30
I used to teach professional accounts and students.
47:33
I'm a target account of what you guys call ACPA in the US.
47:37
So I used to teach the students writing the professional exams.
47:41
And I realised something that the best students, that the best
47:46
teachers are the best students. The best teachers are the
47:51
teachers who adopt that lifelong learning approach, who adopts
47:58
curiosity, because when you have the humility to learn and to
48:03
keep learning, you're like a sponge.
48:05
You keep absorbing information and you can help to what I say,
48:13
communicate that information in the best way possible.
48:17
And it's interesting that you guys adopt that approach.
48:21
You know a lot and massive respect to you guys for that
48:25
approach because that is the way it should be.
48:27
It's interesting how some people feel like maybe because they are
48:31
older or more experienced, they feel like they cannot learn from
48:35
other people and it's taunts your growth as a person.
48:38
Learning is a two way St. You can learn from a toddler,
48:42
right? But how do you try to what I say
48:48
has that right orientation to leadership and of course to the
48:53
teachers, because it starts with leadership, right?
48:56
And of course the teachers determine the future of these
49:01
future champions that we have in our custody, basically.
49:05
So how did you work around the orientation?
49:09
Orientation of. Yes, you know, the orientation
49:13
for the teachers and of course, the orientation for leadership.
49:17
It's interesting that people have certain mindsets, right?
49:21
You either have a group mindset or a fixed mindset.
49:26
Whatever mindset you have is a function of your orientation.
49:30
If you are a person who believes in the principle, the philosophy
49:35
of being a lifelong student, you're likely to have a growth
49:39
mindset. But when you have a fixed
49:43
mindset, it's difficult. And for me, I feel like one of
49:46
the things that is difficult to teach people is mindset.
49:50
But. There's a psychological path to
49:53
it. If you keep passing on a message
49:57
to people in a particular environment, at some point, you
50:01
know they pick up on what you are passing on the message,
50:06
right? So we need that be orientation
50:09
of the community of leadership or the community of teachers and
50:14
that way it cascades to impact on the students.
50:18
Yeah. I mean, for us it's it's more of
50:20
on the practical level sometimes, like Kyle saying, you
50:23
can see that work chart through body language immediately.
50:27
And those at the top who have that fixed mindset or, or just a
50:31
complacent mindset 1 where they feel like their title determines
50:36
their outcomes. So they sit back and you know,
50:40
their patron, their Hefe, the boss and these other people
50:44
learn and I'm good. We we work with them for a time,
50:51
we try to do everything we can to improve the school, help the
50:54
kids, help the teachers. But ultimately success and
50:57
failure does ally a lot with the leadership.
50:59
And if the leadership is not in compliance to what our missions
51:02
doing or just having a growth mindset, there are times we have
51:06
to let schools go. And that's an unfortunate thing.
51:09
But not everyone respects free, not everyone of values things
51:14
that are given to them in charity.
51:16
So, and everyone wants free because they're like, oh, I want
51:19
something free, but are you going to value it?
51:21
Are you going to take care of it?
51:22
Are you going to follow through? And so our work is service
51:26
based. So we will go to a school, do
51:28
this audit, we'll create this detailed plan for their school
51:31
for a year and then we get to work.
51:33
So we'll follow through. We go and we do an all staff
51:35
for, you know, provisional training for the teachers and
51:39
then the next day we're on campus doing classroom
51:42
observations, doing instructional coaching.
51:44
And his Internet just died I. Think so.
51:47
I think that's what happened. So yeah, I'm sure he's going to.
51:50
I was on a roll. You were on a roll.
51:53
Yeah, was was he fuzzy when you were talking as well?
51:58
Yeah, a little bit. I think he's probably just got
52:00
a. Maybe he's a slower connection.
52:03
Essay. Yeah, it sounds like he's
52:05
usually in the UK, so it probably would have would be
52:08
better, better Internet if he was in the UK.
52:14
I liked it. He's added the questions to the
52:17
chat. I found that to be really
52:18
helpful actually. That's great, I even noticed
52:22
that. There we go.
52:24
It's cool that they keep the keep the feed going though, even
52:28
when the host drops. Yeah.
52:31
Like if it was a zoom meeting, I think it doesn't shut the
52:34
meeting off if the if the host dropped out.
52:37
Also I found out as I was waiting in the waiting room
52:39
today that there's a downloadable.
52:42
There's a Mac version of this. I don't have time to set it up
52:45
but. You can.
52:46
It's got extra features. There's like a Riverside app for
52:49
Mac. I'm going to try that, make it
52:52
so I can blur my Vietnam painting.
52:57
You're very familiar with that painting, aren't you?
52:59
Yeah, I like it. I didn't know it was from
53:01
Vietnam, actually. You brought that in.
53:03
You can't probably appreciate from the angle about how big
53:07
that picture is. I mean, the picture is probably
53:09
5 feet across. A guy delivered that.
53:12
This will be unsurprising to you.
53:14
A guy delivered that on a scooter.
53:16
He was like hanging off the back of the scooter with this giant
53:19
painting. This is delivered into us.
53:22
We, we, I think we paid him like a dollar $2.00 delivery fee,
53:26
something like that. He he show.
53:29
He shows up this giant painting. What did you that in Ho Chi
53:33
Minh? That was in Ho Chi Minh.
53:35
Yeah, we, there was a, it was about a mile from our apartment
53:39
kind of on in our little pocket of the town where we lived and
53:43
was this little art studio where this guy is.
53:46
All he does is all day long. He probably takes him a couple
53:48
of days to churn out one of these paintings, but he's just
53:51
prolific. He's hundreds and hundreds of
53:52
these original paintings. And we we went in there one day
53:56
and we're like, these are so cool.
53:57
We've got to get one of these to take home with us.
53:59
I think the painting costs like 100 bucks that like it wasn't a
54:02
lot, but then it probably costs us like 500 to ship at home.
54:07
Yeah. You know, what sucks is that
54:08
after travelling to all these different places, I've always
54:10
gathered artwork, Knick knacks, statues, just all these
54:14
different things. And I have them, They're they're
54:17
in storage. But we bought this house that
54:19
has this beach theme where every space was like tastefully
54:22
designed by that Facebook lady. And so I just feel like it's
54:27
somewhat wrong to mess with it. Yeah, it would just be out of
54:30
place if I put like an Egyptian, you know, whatever a pharaoh's
54:33
face where the beach painting is.
54:35
So they're just sitting in my box.
54:37
There's just, there's a tonne of just artefacts like have yet to
54:39
put up. So one, one thing I was thinking
54:42
about when Robbie was talking is that there's a there's a
54:45
research, he's he's famous among educators, guy named John
54:48
Hattie. And he did very, very long like
54:51
a 20 year study on 10s of thousands of students.
54:54
And he was looking at these different ways that we
54:57
intervene, like different facets of educational programmes and
55:00
how they to what degree do they move the needle forward in
55:04
academics, right. And in terms of student
55:07
achievement and student learning.
55:08
And the number one item on there actually wasn't wasn't a
55:12
physical intervention. It wasn't one of these things
55:14
that we talked about as educators, scaffolding learning
55:17
and differentiation. And it wasn't something that we
55:19
do. It was actually a mindset piece.
55:22
And it was called, he calls it a collective teacher efficacy.
55:25
And what it, what, what he was getting at is essentially that
55:28
if in an organisation, if the, the learners actually, and I, I
55:33
started thinking about this when, when you mentioned, I love
55:35
the way you frame that too, when, when you said that the
55:38
best teachers are the best learners, right?
55:40
Are the best students. So to that point, so his
55:44
findings were essentially that if everybody in the building has
55:46
this collective mindset of growth that they believe that
55:51
every person can learn in the building, that is actually the
55:54
number one defining factor in terms of pushing academics,
55:58
academic output further. And that I think is, is also
56:02
kind of goes back to the question you were asking about
56:05
structure, right? And what is a, what is a high
56:07
functioning structure look like? Well, collective efficacy and
56:11
this collective mindset of growth is actually now through
56:16
research is is is proven to be one of the most important parts
56:20
of a high achieving school research.
56:23
Research is very, very important, right?
56:25
And I think research actually utilises ethical thinking,
56:31
problem solving mindset, which is very important because for
56:34
me, I think about it, why are you going to school?
56:37
Why are you getting educated? If you're not going to turn out
56:41
to become a solution provider, then I think it's it's a waste
56:44
of everybody's time. But Speaking of providing
56:47
solutions, right, Technologies are the hearts of providing
56:52
solutions in this modern day world.
56:56
So many organisations actually buy technology but the skill
57:00
change outcomes. Why is this the case?
57:03
You know, for us, especially in classrooms of various ages
57:07
groups, because not just these more adult learners, we work
57:10
with five year olds, we work with four year olds.
57:12
And so when we say technology, we're technology centred, but
57:16
we're learning driven. And so sometimes the best
57:19
technology you can use is a pencil or a book or a crayon or
57:23
even just how you're using proximity in the classroom.
57:26
In terms of your stance, what we're trying to do is we're
57:28
trying to find the best tool to serve the best purpose for that
57:31
student, for that learner. And so we're really flexible in
57:34
that sense. But conversely, technology in
57:38
that, you know, I guess layman sense is it's compounding in
57:43
terms of its ability. And we've seen that over the
57:47
past five years, especially with these large LLMS that have come
57:50
out and and have really there's I'm not going to say dystopian,
57:54
but there's just a lot of outcomes in the near near future
57:58
that could happen. And I in my ex feed is just
58:01
filled with these people who are just like you're not going to
58:05
have to work in five years like work is going to be taken care
58:07
of. Tesla optimist.
58:09
All these AIS platforms are going to get so good and then
58:13
once AGI happens, it's like it's going to be so transformative
58:17
that you're going to really have to rethink your life and
58:19
everyone's going to rethink their life.
58:21
So there's a part of me that's like, let's stick to these tried
58:26
and true things and let's just find the best tool, whether it's
58:29
a tattoo BT model or if it's, you know, a ball versus do I
58:33
just need to just hold on for the next three to four years
58:36
here until I can buy this robot that just does everything for
58:38
me? And, you know, what are we
58:40
teaching kids for if they're going to be, you know,
58:43
everything's going to be taken care of for us.
58:44
So I don't think that's going to be the case.
58:46
Part of me thinks I hope not. But at the same time, it's a,
58:49
it's a very, very curious time to live in because there is this
58:53
future that can go so many different ways.
58:56
And honestly, I think even the leaders of in the industry don't
58:59
know how it's going to end, which is both sad and
59:03
frightening at the same time. Because I think there is, if you
59:07
get it wrong, it could be, you know, one of the dystopia models
59:10
that there's a percent chance of this happening is that there's
59:13
some sort of extinction event, as they call it, the paper clip
59:16
model, where it's like to, to maximise the shape of the paper
59:19
clip or the efficiency of the paper clip, they have to
59:22
eliminate this, which leads to eliminating this.
59:24
And then eventually the robots kill all humanity or something.
59:28
You man, we got to keep you off of Reddit.
59:31
Well, I'm just something that leading AI people in the world,
59:36
you talk about the Elon Musk, you talk about the Sam Altmans,
59:38
you talk about these people who are driving society.
59:41
And with. Technology right now they are in
59:43
the driver's seat they're they have the thoughts I'm not
59:46
listening to some Spooks on Reddit.
59:48
It's like these are mainstream figures who have a deep fear of
59:52
AI, of the future, of technology and and they've yeah, they feel
59:58
like we know this is dangerous. We're playing with a grenade
1:00:02
here. But whoever gets to the finish
1:00:04
line first is going to be the take all winter winner.
1:00:08
So if I don't stop pushing the ball forward, they're going to
1:00:11
keep pushing the ball forward and I'm left in the dust.
1:00:14
I don't think we should be doing this, but I can't allow these
1:00:16
other guys to to win and take over the world, let's say.
1:00:19
So I'm going to keep pushing the ball forward as fast as I
1:00:22
possibly can without. The guardrails in time to really
1:00:26
process what we're doing. And so it's like, in a sense, we
1:00:29
are monkeys playing with fire in the sense that we could build
1:00:31
something that ultimately has a dystopian outcome.
1:00:34
And anyway, it's kind of scary to think of, but I'm not saying
1:00:37
it's going to happen. But there is a realistic chance
1:00:39
that this possibly could. Hans is whether it's 5% or 50%,
1:00:43
no one really knows. But when you're talking about
1:00:45
thoughts, creativity, because I mean, what separates us from the
1:00:49
animal Kingdom is just our brains and our ability to have
1:00:51
these conversations into to think and to work collectively.
1:00:55
And if you're building something that can do that exponentially
1:00:58
better than we can, there's no telling what it could end up
1:01:01
doing. I think we're thinking, hoping
1:01:04
for the good. I'm thinking I get a robot.
1:01:07
I'm hoping for a robot that just does all my dishes and cleans
1:01:10
the laundry and I don't have to do any chores anymore.
1:01:13
What's my YouTube? So my my issue with.
1:01:16
Kyle, get this man off just. Backing up a little bit and.
1:01:20
Get him off Reddit. Yeah, I know.
1:01:23
I feel like people like this, people like this who think about
1:01:26
the dystopian outcome have seen too much sci-fi.
1:01:29
Over to you. Kyle OK, here's here's something
1:01:32
that foundationally we believe at Tech my school, we believe
1:01:35
that technology has the power to level the playing field between
1:01:39
the haves and the have nots, right?
1:01:40
Absolutely. We have a system set up,
1:01:42
unfortunately right now where capitalism has created this
1:01:48
environment where the the rich keep getting richer and the poor
1:01:51
keep getting poorer, right? We're we're expanding that gap.
1:01:53
Technology has the ability to bridge that gap.
1:01:55
Let's let's look at your dystopian model.
1:01:58
Let's call this the best case scenario where everybody gets
1:02:00
that robot in their house that does all the work and right,
1:02:03
does everybody get the robot or do just the rich people get the
1:02:07
robots? Because I have a sneaking
1:02:08
suspicion that the rich people get the robots and the poor
1:02:11
people continue to do their own dishes and clean their own
1:02:14
floors. I'm thinking that what what we
1:02:16
want to do and what we're trying to do, the model that we operate
1:02:19
on is essentially, and I don't know if you knew this because we
1:02:21
didn't really say this before, but the schools that we serve in
1:02:24
Puerto Rico, we serve them for free.
1:02:25
Almost all of them, some of them, the school that means do
1:02:28
pay for our services, right? Like we serve a couple of
1:02:30
schools that are wealthy private schools that that they can pay
1:02:32
us. And that's part of how we
1:02:34
generate revenue. But we we do this, the way that
1:02:37
we do this is fairly socialist. And the reason we do it is
1:02:41
because we believe in education so strongly.
1:02:44
And we believe also that technology in education, when
1:02:48
leveraged properly, can be an absolute game changer for Wow.
1:02:53
Keep going. Again, just keep going.
1:02:57
My, my point is just that we operate in a way that is is the
1:03:01
opposite of what I think is actually going to happen.
1:03:03
What keeps happening is that we keep coming up with this amazing
1:03:07
tech. Like you look at the large
1:03:08
language models as a simple, like there's a free version of
1:03:12
them, but the version that does all the things is unaffordable
1:03:16
for people who are in poverty, right?
1:03:17
So like even something as simple as a large language model, and I
1:03:21
get it, it's a business and they have to pay for it.
1:03:23
It's not cheap to be burning these tokens constantly.
1:03:26
I don't know if I see this idea that you don't have to work
1:03:29
anymore and like the machines are going to take care of you
1:03:31
and do all the things. They're not going to take care
1:03:33
of the poor. They're going to take care of
1:03:35
the people who can currently afford to be taken care of.
1:03:38
That's what I think. And I'd love to get.
1:03:40
I'd love to get an economist's view, you know, like someone who
1:03:43
is steeped in the tack but also understands the history of the
1:03:47
patterns of how technology has has helped.
1:03:50
I mean, like, think back to the cotton gin, right?
1:03:52
Eli Whitney comes up with the cotton gin.
1:03:55
Who did the cotton gin really help?
1:03:57
The cotton gin did not help the people who were out in the field
1:04:01
picking cotton except for that it took their job away, right?
1:04:05
I mean, like, it made the job easier, you say, Yeah, it helped
1:04:08
them, but then what are they doing now?
1:04:10
Now they don't have a job. And yes, like, this was a
1:04:13
horrible time in American history where those people were
1:04:16
probably enslaved people anyway. But the large part.
1:04:19
But my point is just that, like, whenever we come up with new
1:04:21
technology, we're like, it's so helpful.
1:04:23
But who is it so helpful for is my question.
1:04:27
Yeah. I think also, too, that there's
1:04:29
like, there's only one penthouse.
1:04:32
Not everyone can live in the penthouse.
1:04:34
And so they're still going to. They should.
1:04:36
Even if there's robots doing many things, there's still going
1:04:39
to be a differentiation between wealth and income.
1:04:42
And you know, yeah. Because we're not going to be
1:04:44
sharing that wealth. Whatever, whatever efficiencies
1:04:47
have created more wealth or it's not, it's not shared wealth.
1:04:51
If wealth belongs to whoever created the efficiency and
1:04:54
whoever owned the process that just now became more efficient,
1:04:57
they make more money. But I think it's actually going
1:04:59
to continue to exacerbate the problem because while the rich
1:05:02
get richer, they create those efficiencies.
1:05:03
It means they need less people. Yeah, No, I mean, I what's scary
1:05:09
about the AI component of it is just that if it does subtract
1:05:12
that just swaths of jobs, that's the fear, right?
1:05:19
It's like, what are people going to do?
1:05:21
I mean, we're going to invent new jobs, I'm sure things that.
1:05:24
I don't think we're going to invent them at the pace that
1:05:26
we're going to be. Reject.
1:05:27
Yeah, that. Crushing other jobs.
1:05:30
I mean, we're, there's going to be a lot of scuba instructors,
1:05:32
you know what I mean? There's going to be a lot of
1:05:35
scuba. So I think one, one of the
1:05:40
things we brought up while you were gone was the idea that like
1:05:43
if we create these efficiencies and you know what, you know,
1:05:47
like you don't have to work anymore, the world has become
1:05:49
easy for you, who is actually benefiting from that?
1:05:52
And, and I, I don't think that will be a benefit across the
1:05:55
board. I think it will be the same sort
1:05:57
of stratification that we currently see.
1:05:59
I don't think that changes. I think the people who were
1:06:03
already the haves will continue to just have more.
1:06:08
Exactly exactly because I see AI as an assistant AI as a tool for
1:06:14
transformation, for efficiency, but it's really amazing to to
1:06:20
get to the take of the extremists or an AI, right.
1:06:25
Why are we afraid of AI? Humans created AI right
1:06:29
artificial intelligence and if humans if the world is going to
1:06:33
get destroyed right it's as humans that are going to destroy
1:06:37
the world. We are still in charge of this
1:06:39
thing right AI robotics who initiates the prompt who the EC
1:06:45
works with electricity that's there's a lot of limitation to
1:06:50
what you can possibly do with AI in terms of thinking of you from
1:06:57
a destructive perspective. We can only wait to see what
1:07:01
what happens in the world, but people thinking about not having
1:07:05
to work I don't see that happening.
1:07:07
I stand to be corrected, but I. Think only a few people will
1:07:10
realise that. Yeah, maybe people are Robbie.
1:07:15
Especially another Reddit. I've learned that I can't be
1:07:18
that person. So I came to Puerto Rico to be
1:07:21
on sabbatical to go shooting and relaxing and, and you know,
1:07:25
because I was overworking when I was in the, in the, in the
1:07:28
schools. So very, very quickly, you know,
1:07:31
within a few weeks I had gone from new, new parent on vacation
1:07:35
to training all staff and, and helping them improve systems and
1:07:39
then going from one school to, you know, 50.
1:07:42
So I've learned that about myself is that even when given
1:07:46
some time off, I go very stir crazy quickly.
1:07:49
I suck at vacation too. You're not alone.
1:07:52
Yeah, and so I do. Worry about.
1:07:54
How that will affect mindset if that dystopian happens where
1:07:57
like everything is taken care of.
1:07:59
You can't create anything because robots do it better and
1:08:01
they do it more efficiently and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
1:08:05
You know what? What will we do with our time?
1:08:06
But I think it'll be more creative.
1:08:08
I'm more of an optimist personally.
1:08:10
So I'm I'm going with the utopia.
1:08:12
Everyone gets to hang out and we can all just be buddies.
1:08:15
You know what I mean? Do it.
1:08:17
Let's see how that goes, you know, But talking about the
1:08:19
schools, if you compare working with these schools, like scaling
1:08:23
up an organisation. So what would the leaders need
1:08:27
to think of differently? I think that are you talking
1:08:31
about schools specifically? Are you talking like industry?
1:08:34
The schools, the schools specifically, they are basically
1:08:39
an organisation. What do they need to change?
1:08:43
Yes. So what do you really need to
1:08:45
change in order to achieve that scale up?
1:08:48
So for businesses, if you want to scale up a business, you're
1:08:51
talking about efforts to improve the revenue, you want to cut
1:08:57
costs, right, in order to make the profit line, you know,
1:09:00
bigger. What is it with schools that you
1:09:03
need to put in place in order to ensure that the schools are
1:09:07
improving? Of course, you guys are in the
1:09:09
business of improving the schools basically.
1:09:11
Yeah, I think they need to. So in the classroom, one of the
1:09:14
things that teachers generally do is they use this idea called
1:09:17
backwards design, where you think about the, you think about
1:09:20
the goal and you work towards the goal, right?
1:09:22
You work backwards to plan how you get.
1:09:24
To the engineering. In yeah, but in learning, you'd
1:09:27
say here, here are the KUD. These are the things I want kids
1:09:30
to know, understand to be able to do.
1:09:32
And that's at the end, right? And so how do I, how do I make
1:09:35
that journey to get to that endpoint?
1:09:37
I think that schools need to zoom out and use the same
1:09:39
technique and try and figure out their why.
1:09:42
Why are we here and what are we trying to build?
1:09:44
Right. And one of the, the the ways
1:09:46
that they do that is that they have curriculum.
1:09:48
And so those first two things that the K and EU the the no,
1:09:53
that's content. What do kids need to know?
1:09:56
And then the EU is understanding that's concepts.
1:09:58
They generally know what kids should know and what they should
1:10:01
understand. The last part is what they
1:10:03
should be able to do. That's the skills, right?
1:10:05
The skills, I think, are the part where most schools have
1:10:08
failed to basically say, hey, when a student graduates from
1:10:12
high school, this is the skill set that they need.
1:10:14
They already know what they need to know, but they don't
1:10:17
necessarily know what skills they need.
1:10:19
And if they do, they need to update that skill set.
1:10:22
So I would say that that would be my first, my first reaction
1:10:27
to the school needs to say who do we want these graduates to
1:10:30
be? They call up, they call it a
1:10:32
graduate profile, right? You, you, you build, you build
1:10:35
the product. So this is backwards from what
1:10:37
Robbie said earlier. With a factory model, the idea
1:10:39
you you do actually need to know what the intended widget is that
1:10:43
comes off the end of the factory line before you can build the
1:10:46
factory essentially. Interesting.
1:10:48
So basically we are about to round up, but I want you to
1:10:54
attack this improvement from three perspectives.
1:10:58
That is the philosophy on British podcast is built
1:11:01
mindset, skill set, tool sets. So in order to achieve the
1:11:07
improvements in the schools that you work with, what is the right
1:11:11
mindset? What is the right skill set and
1:11:13
what are the right tool sets? So for us, it's again, we're
1:11:19
working with people, working with, with educators who are in
1:11:24
power, who have positional power and they're in control of the
1:11:28
futures of many, many people, both the teachers and the
1:11:32
students and sometimes even the parents.
1:11:35
And so really we're just looking for leadership to be open
1:11:40
minded, to learn to care about their kids, to work through
1:11:45
challenging things in a, in a, in a way that they're
1:11:50
comfortable with the uncomfortable.
1:11:52
Because we're going to bring in a lot of different ideas,
1:11:56
different tools, different structures.
1:11:58
And when you're in that position of leadership where you feel
1:12:02
like I've got it and things are good and stir this, we're not
1:12:07
optimal, but I'm safe. I'm safe in the bubble that I'm
1:12:10
in. Why change?
1:12:12
I just need to make the paychecks coming in.
1:12:14
The power's there. I get to do what I want.
1:12:17
Why, why mess this up? I, I could be bringing these
1:12:20
guys in and they bring a philosophy in or a tool or a
1:12:24
mindset or whatever. And that disrupts my little safe
1:12:27
bubble. So there is a, a sense of risk.
1:12:30
So these, these leaders need to be a bit, they need to be
1:12:34
willing to risk their personal comfort for the greater good of
1:12:38
children and their future. And sometimes parents want that,
1:12:43
that same methodology that they had when they were kids.
1:12:47
So like I was taught in a certain way in 1980 and 1990,
1:12:51
and my kids should be being taught in that exact same way.
1:12:54
And if it doesn't look like that, I'm going to complain.
1:12:56
I'm going to cause a ruckus. I'm going to make life
1:12:59
uncomfortable for leadership because I want it to be like it
1:13:02
was for me. And so we have to combat those
1:13:06
those mindsets with parents with leadership, like, hey, I know
1:13:09
that things have gone a certain way, but the world's different.
1:13:12
And so we need to prepare appropriately.
1:13:15
So that's kind of the, the first thing the, the skill set really
1:13:19
is one that's adaptive because there's just so many things that
1:13:24
are coming at us. We're being bombarded with, with
1:13:26
various very, you know, different software strategies,
1:13:30
ideas, all these different things are coming at us.
1:13:32
So I think adaptability is and almost survivability is is kind
1:13:36
of the name of the game, especially with the speed of
1:13:38
these tools and how they're built, I mean.
1:13:39
It's verbal skills. You can build yeah, soft skills
1:13:43
are so important, learner mindset, being adaptable because
1:13:46
there's just so many things being thrown at us.
1:13:47
And. And it's going to come to the
1:13:49
point it almost says now that the layman can develop software
1:13:52
where if even if you're not a programmer, you can work with
1:13:55
these language models to build really comprehensive, really
1:13:59
impactful, really powerful goals.
1:14:01
And so when the masses can create, you're going to just get
1:14:05
so many great things coming out of that and you have to be ready
1:14:09
for the for, for change. It just has to be part of your
1:14:12
DNA of like I am going to use the best possible tool or my
1:14:17
kids, whatever that may be. And today it might be this and
1:14:20
tomorrow it might be that. And we have to be ready for
1:14:22
that. So I think the soft skills,
1:14:23
malleability and having the adaptability to, to take on
1:14:27
these different things that are being pushed at us almost on a
1:14:30
daily, daily level our daily basis rather.
1:14:33
And then when it comes to tool, it's just, I mean, I, I hate to
1:14:37
say, but it's like, what's the best tool today?
1:14:39
What is the best tool that we can use today to help our kids
1:14:43
for tomorrow? And so today it might be, you
1:14:47
know, a spreadsheet tomorrow could be an amazing software
1:14:51
called relief roster that helps you, helps you coordinate and
1:14:55
manage your, your substitute teachers.
1:14:59
So I think those it's less about the tool, it's more just more
1:15:03
about mindset. Yeah.
1:15:05
And I think that that tool set like to your, to your point,
1:15:07
like there's a, there's a foundational piece.
1:15:10
I'm sitting here looking at my computer, right and thinking it
1:15:14
is still important that kids have access to whatever the
1:15:19
whatever the hardware sort of modality is of the of the
1:15:23
current day. Right now it's mobile devices
1:15:25
and laptops or tablets or, you know, whatever.
1:15:29
I think that beyond that, I don't know that it matters that
1:15:32
much what the tool that the tool set to me is the least important
1:15:36
of all of them. I think really the more
1:15:38
important part is kids learning how to learn, right?
1:15:42
So like for you and I, we, we were old when we've grown up
1:15:46
learning all these years and we both love learning.
1:15:49
And so I think the LLM, the best part about the LLM wasn't like,
1:15:53
let the machine do my work for me.
1:15:55
The biggest benefit to it is like, I have AI have a free like
1:15:58
university level, you know, learning possibility here.
1:16:02
This thing can help me learn new skills and that's how I've used
1:16:05
it. It's been like the best thing
1:16:08
ever for someone who loves learning because it's it's just
1:16:12
basically wired for you to. Ask for all the questions, yeah.
1:16:16
Asking all the questions, how do I build that piece of software?
1:16:20
And to me, every single kid should be building software, not
1:16:24
because I, I think software is particularly the answer, but
1:16:28
because it's easy to do it now and, and like it's, it's
1:16:31
possible. It's still complex, but it's a
1:16:33
process that's so worth it. Because if, if we're living our
1:16:36
lives based around these digital tools, I think kids should be
1:16:40
able to create their own, you know, their their own apps,
1:16:43
their own software to run on these tools.
1:16:46
Yeah, yeah. It's and not just for
1:16:48
entertainment. I mean, like for productivity.
1:16:50
You talk about relief roster. I mean, like I created that as a
1:16:53
productivity tool to solve a problem.
1:16:55
And that's what software should be.
1:16:57
It should be solving problems. You know, one of the things I
1:16:59
used to go into schools and say I had this pyramid and it was
1:17:02
like the pyramid has these. It was almost like back in the
1:17:06
the dark ages, it was like the masses were illiterate, but at
1:17:10
the very top you have the clergy that could read and write,
1:17:13
right? And there was almost this
1:17:15
mindset of like, they're too common to need to know how to do
1:17:19
this. They just need to work in the
1:17:20
fields and let us smart people, us intelligent people, we're
1:17:23
going to be the ones controlling them and telling them what they
1:17:25
need to know, basically. And then eventually we all
1:17:29
learned how to read and write. And it's a good thing we're all
1:17:31
not going to be, you know, New York bestseller authors, but we
1:17:36
should all be able to write for our own personal use.
1:17:38
I'm writing a letter to my mom, I'm writing a letter to a
1:17:40
friends or I'm writing a short story for my kid.
1:17:43
We should all be able to do that.
1:17:44
And I think it's the same thing now.
1:17:45
It's like there was this pyramid of creators and consumers.
1:17:48
The creators at the top being the Mark Zuckerberg who comes
1:17:51
from the sleep family where his dad paid for his special tutors
1:17:54
to teach him how to programme. And then he was just born at the
1:17:57
right time and was able to create Facebook.
1:17:59
And now he's this multi billionaire, whereas everyone
1:18:02
else is kind of like like I just consume the software they make
1:18:05
and that's good enough for me. Whereas now, like you're saying
1:18:08
it should be, everyone should be creating software, you know,
1:18:12
because we can make cool things can.
1:18:14
Make our mindset I. Can make a birthday present for
1:18:16
you about some stupid memory that we had back in you know
1:18:20
what I mean about XYZ where we used to cat attack if you
1:18:24
remember that software I made you know and so it's.
1:18:31
OK, I'm going to be able to catch up with you.
1:18:33
So from me to you guys, it's a very, very big thank you.
1:18:36
And of course, I'd like to see one person shares the time with
1:18:38
you this year, the likely to be because the SI unit commercial
1:18:42
and like this time, of course, love and our respect to you
1:18:46
guys. Of course.
1:18:46
I wish you guys the very best and hope that you guys make
1:18:50
massive, massive positive impact.
1:18:53
It's goodbye for me. Do you want to give a shout out
1:18:55
to anybody before you leave? Yeah, I was going to say for any
1:18:58
of your listeners who's interested in and who's an
1:19:01
educator or who has a kid in a school who can, you know, wants
1:19:05
improvements for their schools, go to techmyschool.org.
1:19:09
We'd love to serve. We serve schools around the
1:19:11
world. We have software schools.
1:19:14
Yep. We do it in the, we do it in the
1:19:15
in person or or virtually. We can help your school.
1:19:19
We'll go in and we do it for free.
1:19:22
Reach out to us. Great deals on software too for
1:19:25
schools. We we get huge discounts because
1:19:27
we're a nonprofit and we act as a philanthropic arm for a lot of
1:19:31
Ed tech software companies. So hit us up if you want to talk
1:19:35
about software discounts too. Yep.
1:19:38
Interesting, interesting. I think I have somebody for you
1:19:41
guys now. We'll talk about that behind the
1:19:43
cameras. Goodbye, guys.
1:19:46
Always go for something in your life, conceive, believe, strive
1:19:49
to grind and achieve. Thanks for having us.