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Conversations from ISTE Live with Stewart Brown · Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast

• 0:01
  Welcome to the Integrate This EdTech podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm Jeremy Mikla and I'm fortunate enough to
• 0:05
  hear... to be joined with me. Stuart Brown. Stuart
• 0:09
  is from Code for Kids. And we're just really
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  excited to hear more about what Code for Kids
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  has to offer. I think especially when it comes
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  to computer science and the integration of computer
• 0:24
  science into classrooms here. So Stuart, welcome.
• 0:27
  Thank you. Yeah, glad you could be here. Good
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  to be here. We were talking just a little bit
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  before we... We'll get into the Code for Kids
• 0:34
  stuff here, but I want to... touch on because
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  we're at the ISTE conference and you had mentioned
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  to us this is your first time as an attendee
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  to the ISTE conference so what are your experiences
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  been here the first day or so? Well it started
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  with a five -hour flight delay yesterday so not
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  the best start but it's been great. It's big.
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  It's massive. I was here in Orlando earlier this
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  year at the FETC conference. This one's definitely
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  bigger. But I think it's got a bit of everything,
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  right? You've got all the vendors under the sun.
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  You've got educators. You've got so many opportunities
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  to meet and network and connect with people that
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  are... in the same kind of lane of work and mission
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  you're trying to accomplish. So it's been really
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  good in that regard. Still early days, been lots
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  of meetings, lots of sessions, learning a lot,
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  sharing a lot. And, you know, that's always good.
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  It's always good because we work in our little
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  kind of pockets and silos and then it's nice
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  to come together with like -minded folks from
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  across the country. I mean, there's three million
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  educators in America and like Maybe we've got
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  10 to 15 thousand here. It seems like a lot.
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  It's huge, but it's still just a fraction. of
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  the total pool so it's nice to get together with
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  everyone and really share what we're learning
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  and kind of keep that learning going. But I think
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  it does bring together a very diverse diverse
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  group of educators from you know different not
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  just different parts of the United States but
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  obviously international and it also brings in
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  like David and I work in areas of Minnesota that
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  are very rural and you've got large Los Angeles
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  school district teachers that are here and I
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  mean so it like Like you said, you're able to
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  start building those relationships and those
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  networks with each other. And I'm sure that one
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  of the things that you're able to do here at
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  this time, too, is you start to see where...
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  code for kids is going to start fitting in. So
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  how do you see that fitting in with the integration
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  part of what you do and what you would like to
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  see in classrooms? Yeah, so I think the thing
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  with computer science and teaching kids about
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  technology, it's always been kind of, you know,
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  we had this digital literacy where we all kind
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  of said it was important. But it was always this
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  extra initiative. And teachers have so much of
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  that. There's always one extra thing that they
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  need to do. They're feeding bone tart already.
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  We've got literacy scores dropping. And so when
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  it comes to prioritization, they're like, surely
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  we should just be focusing on that and nothing
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  new. Our approach at Code for Kids is let's help
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  kids before they enter high school. have a deep
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  foundational understanding of how technology
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  works, how algorithms works, how social media
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  works, how AI works, what machine learning even
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  is. But do it in a way where it shouldn't be
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  like a class that kids rotate through once a
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  week. It should be interwoven and integrated
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  into the core curriculum. You can have a history
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  teacher in fifth grade, for example, start. teaching
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  kids about AI not by saying this is what AI is
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  but let's do a lesson about one of the world
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  wars and teaching about Alan Turing and the imitation
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  game and what the starting blocks were of kind
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  of the AI we see today and so like it's the same
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  with coding. We all have a social studies teacher
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  teach text -based coding for the first time and
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  teach it in a way where they are Building a website
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  about their hometown and the kids have to talk
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  about population size and all of these things
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  that you know The teacher would probably covered
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  in any case, but now we're teaching kind of future
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  -ready skills at the same time We're also making
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  learning and school and class feel a little bit
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  more relevant to real world The real world outside
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  of school and I think that's a big thing. We
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  got to do it we got to meet teachers where they
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  are and another thing is that the subject of
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  like AI and computer science, it's almost more
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  intimidating to teachers sometimes than it is
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  to students. Of like standing up in a class and
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  actually teaching kids about what this stuff
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  is. And so the way we've designed it is it's
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  not just cross -curricular, but it's designed
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  for teachers who have never taught this before.
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  Like your ELA teacher, your math teacher, your
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  social studies teacher, even your art teacher.
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  But like, teach the same thing just in a different
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  way. and the teacher is not supposed to be the
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  expert in the room. It's better if they actually
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  aren't. That they can learn alongside with their
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  kids. And that's what we hear the most, that's
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  like what brings us the most joy is when we hear
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  about that social studies teacher that comes
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  to us and says not just... how awesome it was
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  to see the kids walk away building, like designing
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  their own flags and coding different things.
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  But the teacher did that too, and she did it
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  with the kids and she was just the facilitator.
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  Right, and it makes that teacher much more approachable
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  to the kids if they can show their own vulnerability
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  at the same time. Absolutely, yeah. So I think
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  like... The vulnerability thing is big. We don't
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  need to be the experts in the room. Let's learn
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  alongside, because as adults, we're figuring
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  this stuff out too. But we don't need to necessarily
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  wait until, OK, first we need to be experts.
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  So invest heavily in PD for the teachers. Then
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  let's think about the students. By that time,
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  AI is going to, you know. It's already been like
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  four years since chat GPT rolled out. Look at
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  where we are now. Things are going really quickly.
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  And so like we got to start now. And that's our
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  approach is to kind of like to kill two birds
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  with the same stone is it's almost like a PD
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  lesson for the teachers while they're facilitating
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  their own lesson. And then, you know, yeah, to
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  your approachability perspective, it's absolutely
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  that the students are like, yes, like. This is
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  like my fellow learning peer teammate that I
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  can kind of learn about the stuff with. So if
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  a teacher were to go check out Code for Kids,
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  what are they going to find there? What are they
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  going to see that they could turn around and
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  know, oh, this could be something I could use
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  or I could approach it this way? Yeah. So we've
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  got a ton of free lessons, firstly. They can
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  sign up for an account. We've got everything
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  kind of packaged in a way where you find your
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  grade. you find what topics you want to teach
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  and there's lesson plans, teacher guides, standards
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  alignment, crosswalks, all of that stuff kind
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  of mapped out for them but the pacing and progressions
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  there and that's a big thing that when it comes
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  to the time the teachers sometimes it's a big
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  kind of bottleneck in them going to a kind of
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  free resource and trying to be like okay where
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  do I even start and sometimes they might start
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  in the wrong place and then they miss critical
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  kind of foundational steps in the learning progression
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  so they they can sign up for a free account we've
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  got all of that and then you know we love to
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  kind of get on course with them and like really
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  walk them through it and understand I think a
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  big thing is understanding the local context
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  because every school is different within one
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  district every district is different to another
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  district every state is different so I think
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  like a big part of it is like we've got our kind
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  of they can go in they can see like the the standard
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  curriculum and and structure but we can also
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  kind of we like to come in and tailor and customize
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  and customize yep yep I could totally see that
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  um so you said this is your first time here and
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  it sounds like you were through the expo area
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  what was the best swag that you found being given
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  away or that you picked up Honestly, I haven't
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  spent enough time there and I didn't get any
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  swag so I'm not going to make something up, but
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  I will say I found the humanoid robots playing
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  soccer. I can't remember what vendor it was,
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  but I found that. Deeply fascinating, a little
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  bit frightening too. I didn't really know the
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  point of it, but it was just crazy to see. I'm
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  surprised you called it soccer and not football.
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  Yeah, well, you know, I've kind of been acclimated
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  to the US. Sure. Well, Stuart, it's been great
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  having you on, and we really appreciate you taking
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  some time out of your schedule to appear on the
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  podcast with us. But before we let you go, can
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  you let people know where they can find stuff
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  or how they can get in contact with you or any
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  other thing that you'd like to promote while
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  we got you here? Yeah, all right. So c4k .io,
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  the letter C, the number four, the letter K,
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  that's our website. You can find everything from
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  free resources to where to sign up for an account,
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  everything from that. that, my email is Stuart,
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  S -T -E -W -A -R -T at C4K .io, so please get
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  in touch. And find me on LinkedIn, because I'm
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  posting about the stuff all the time. Fantastic.
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  Really appreciate you stopping by. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Take care. Have a good rest of the conference.
• 9:57
  Thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely.