Latest / Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast / 3D Printing, Drones & Makerspaces: Smart Integration with Eric Santos

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3D Printing, Drones & Makerspaces: Smart Integration with Eric Santos · Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Integrate This, your go -to edtech
• 0:03
  podcast where curiosity meets classroom innovation.
• 0:07
  Join your hosts, David Berner and Jeremy Mikla,
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  as we explore the rapidly evolving world of educational
• 0:12
  technology. From game -changing tools to insightful
• 0:15
  conversations with today's top edtech voices,
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  we're here to help educators stay informed, inspired,
• 0:21
  and ready to innovate. So tune in, level up,
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  and let's integrate this. Hey, welcome to the
• 0:28
  Integrate This EdTech podcast. We're very pleased
• 0:31
  to be joined today by Eric Santos. Eric is joining
• 0:37
  us. He is working out of Chicago, has a lot of
• 0:41
  different experiences and we're glad to have
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  him as a guest. And I got a chance to meet Eric
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  at the FETC conference in Orlando. Florida, attend
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  one of Eric's sessions on AI and took away a
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  lot of great ideas from that and I'm hoping not
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  just with AI but Eric's got a ton of experience
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  in a variety of areas and we'll talk about a
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  bunch of those things during the podcast today.
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  So Eric, welcome. Maybe you could kind of kick
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  it off for us with who you are and your origin
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  story and how you got to where you are today.
• 1:13
  Yeah, thank you guys for having me so origin
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  story. So actually I was an undergrad. I was
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  a business major I went to University of Illinois
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  and I spent a couple years in corporate as a
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  as a consultant and it just it just wasn't Doing
• 1:29
  for me what I wanted it to do for me In terms
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  of fulfilling, you know kind of fulfilling what
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  I wanted to do with my life Found that I was
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  volunteering a lot through my organization and
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  I was finding myself volunteering in schools
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  quite a bit And after a while, you know, after
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  doing that for so long and spending so much energy
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  volunteering teaching kids, I was like, you know,
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  maybe I should just do this. This should just
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  be what I do with my life. So I had that that
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  movie moment where I showed up at work one day,
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  you know. Busted a u -turn left the parking lot
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  went home emailed my boss that I quit and joined
• 2:00
  an alternative certification program for teachers
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  Which by the way, I didn't know existed yet.
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  Like I didn't have that plan in place before
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  quitting the corporate job I do not recommend
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  one star I got lucky I got very lucky that program
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  was there and available went through it for a
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  summer jumped into a classroom that That very
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  fall so it worked out and here I am This is not
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  my 20th year in education when I started I was
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  in Chicago Public Schools My classroom technology
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  was pretty much two very old computers in the
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  back that I was super excited to put like Carmen
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  San Diego on so that the kids could relive a
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  little portion of my childhood. If I could have
• 2:38
  found Oregon Trail, it would have been on. But
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  I think between tech as far as technology was
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  that and then it was my old school overhead transparency
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  machine, which I still held out to some of that
• 2:49
  paper because I just feel like that's going to
• 2:51
  only increase in value one day. You guys can
• 2:54
  invest in gold these are B pens that go with
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  it. What's that and those B's of B pens that
• 2:59
  go with that? I'm gonna hope they haven't dried
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  out 20 years later, but I got him if nothing
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  else in nostalgia, right? I can put them in a
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  museum But that was it. I think I remember There
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  was like I found out now after two years there
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  that I had an email address and nobody nobody
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  really used email And so there was like that
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  was that was where we were with technology at
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  that point. And I had I paid 50 bucks for some
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  program that let me do a grade book because all
• 3:23
  the teachers were just using my paper and pen
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  grade book. And so I like I was the tech savvy
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  guy because I paid for that 50 dollar grade book
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  program. And it was it was eye opening. So that's
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  kind of where I started origin story in terms
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  of technology. I was a science and STEM teacher.
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  Science math and then stem. I taught a couple
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  years in CPS moved to Arizona taught eight years
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  there got national board certified Completed
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  a master's in education came back to Illinois
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  and Was working as a stem teacher for a year?
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  Then transitioned into getting another master's
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  and a tech specialist endorsement so I can go
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  into tech became a tech coach for four years
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  And then now here I am in my fifth year in the
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  current role that I'm at. So I actually work
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  for a full time job is working for the Learning
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  Technology Center of Illinois. And we do ed tech
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  training and support and and consulting for educational
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  institutions throughout Illinois. Through the
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  work that I've been doing more recently, I've
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  also launched my own consulting organization
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  called Better Teaching. I've had that. I've actually
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  had the better teaching dot org domain for like
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  10 years, but it finally came about where it's
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  like, OK, this is the time that now we're going
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  to actually use this thing I've been paying for.
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  And so that's gone well. So through the LTC,
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  I do work with any educational institutions in
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  Illinois through my organization. I serve clients
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  who are not educational institutions in Illinois,
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  in Illinois or schools that are outside of Illinois.
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  So that's kind of the differentiation there.
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  But that's my origin story of going kind of the
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  fast track of how I went from a business major
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  to being in the classroom to being in technology.
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  I think I figured out midway through my career
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  that one, I was pretty decent with tech stuff.
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  And two, the real important thing to me was that
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  the tech was a great foot in the door to make
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  my teaching better and to make my students' experiences
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  better. And so once I figured that out, it kind
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  of became natural that I wanted to go from making
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  my student experiences better to broadening my
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  reach and trying to help as many students as
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  possible. And that meant serving teachers, serving
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  schools, and broadening my role so that I could
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  hopefully broaden that impact as well. That's
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  my origin story for me. I can also give you,
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  since we met at an AI training, I can tell you
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  my AI origin story, which is kind of interesting
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  as well. I obviously when chat GPT dropped, what
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  is that end of 2022? Is that your ish? Yeah,
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  something like that chat GPT drop. There was
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  also like, you know, image generators that were
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  really low quality at that point, but still mind
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  blowing. And so I was tinkering with that stuff,
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  but I didn't. I don't think I fully grasped where
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  we were and where this was about to go quite
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  yet. But I had I had a feeling like schools are
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  going to be interested in this. My introduction
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  to actually having it thrown in my face was I
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  teach college courses for educators. So I teach
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  teacher certification courses, the same ones
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  I would have taken when I was transitioning from
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  business to education. And I had a student who
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  was just turning in things, man, that I, you
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  know, turn it in was not catching any of the
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  plagiarism. And it just was clearly, very clearly
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  not written by somebody, you know, by this student.
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  And you can just tell as a teacher, you can just
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  tell when you're like, this is not natural. This
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  is not right. But I couldn't catch them because
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  I copy paste it into Google. You know, I'd run
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  it through turn it in or grammarly. Nothing's
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  like original work, original work. And so we
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  have these weekly meetings where all the professors
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  get on and talk about what's going on. And I'm
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  usually kind of quiet in the background. But
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  one week I was like, you know what, I actually
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  have a thing to ask you guys about and I explained
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  what was happening. I'm glad I did because six
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  other. professors were like, yeah, that's happened
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  to me too. It's happened to me too. Like, where
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  are they getting this from? And someone suggested,
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  well, maybe they're hiring a, you know, they're
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  hiring out of service to write their essays for
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  them. And someone else was like, I think this
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  might be AI. And my ears perked up. And so figured
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  out that that's what was most likely going on.
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  Of course, at that point, you know, schools were
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  not on top of this at all. Universities, as far
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  as AI policy, that wasn't even a term that was
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  in anybody's mind. It's really what do we do?
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  We don't have a policy for this. So that was
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  my very organic introduction to to A .I. It's
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  kind of funny because at that point then I became
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  like the Lorax. Like if you're familiar with
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  that Dr. Seuss book, like always advocating for
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  the trees. I was like, I speak for A .I. schools.
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  Pay attention. This thing is here. It's coming.
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  It's going to be an issue. But in 2022, 2023,
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  people were not at all worried. It was like covid
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  in like, you know, December 2019. It's just something
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  on the news we heard about someone else is dealing
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  with it. It'll go away, whatever. It didn't,
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  right? And so... It was kind of funny because
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  within my organization, the LTC, my team, you
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  know, we were trying to figure out how each of
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  us that works in the same role throughout the
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  state can kind of differentiate ourselves and
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  make a name for ourselves. Each of us was going
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  to pick a technology that we were the point person
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  on, right? Like this person was going to be the
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  3D printing person. This guy was going to be
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  like all the Google stuff. This person would
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  be all the like creativity tools. I was like,
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  you know what? I'll take AI. I'll be the AI guy.
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  Let me be the AI guy. And then anything AI, you
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  guys just funnel it through me, which on the
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  one hand was great because I got really deep
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  into knowing about AI and like becoming kind
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  of a leader in terms of what to expect in schools
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  policy, like how students are going to use it
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  or not use it, et cetera. But it's just funny
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  looking back three years later, because like
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  the idea that only one person on my organization
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  would be an AI person and that would be enough
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  is like. Insanely absurd now because all of us
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  are just totally slammed with requests for AI
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  training AI workshops AI keynotes you name it
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  So I tried I tried to make it my thing, but it's
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  clearly could cannot be controlled in such a
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  way Go ahead. Sorry. No, I'm sorry. No, I was
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  gonna say like for me It just opened up a world
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  of opportunity though. I started with an organization
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  called ed red reaching out to me And they asked
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  me to do a keynote for them and I was like, hey
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  Cool. I've never been called a keynote before,
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  so I like to add that to my LinkedIn. Sure. And
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  I did a well received. keynote for them at one
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  of their meetings and that just kind of sparked
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  you know there were administrators in the room
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  government people a couple other people in room
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  and you know word of mouth spreads and when you're
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  one of the first people kind of having these
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  conversations with schools you get that first
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  mover advantage and so word spread and then I
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  started presenting it other organizations IASA
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  IASB IASBO like if it has an acronym starting
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  with I for Illinois like I may have probably
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  interacted with that group or done something
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  for that group. Um, as well as, you know, regional
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  or national conferences like FTC, idea con et
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  cetera. So that's kind of how things took off
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  for me. Um, and that was a pretty long origin
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  story, but it was, like I said, it was pretty
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  organic in that I was on the receiving end of
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  AI, uh, academic dishonesty. And so now I help
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  schools manage that. Yeah. It's interesting that.
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  part of it hasn't gone away in 2026. That's still
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  the main concern that I hear when talking with
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  teachers about AI is the academic integrity piece.
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  And, you know, it hasn't something that's disappeared
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  at all. You know, but I'm kind of interested
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  by a lot of the things that you that you started
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  off with them at origin story piece. But You
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  know, when you when you look at the positions
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  that you have and a couple of different hats
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  that you wear, whether through the the LTC or
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  through your own organization, Better Teaching,
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  you know, one of the things that I think is still
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  important and in AI, you know, like you had said,
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  you can't just be the AI guy. AI has just kind
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  of become part of everything. And I know every
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  conversation that David and I have seemingly
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  seemingly had the last year or so. There's been
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  AI that has definitely been a component of those
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  conversations, which it naturally just I think
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  leads itself that way, right? But I think the
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  part that I'm kind of curious about here to get
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  your perspective on here is when we start talking
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  about Whether it's AI implementation or whether
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  it's, you know, 3D printing, we'll talk about
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  it a little bit later I think as well, or whether
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  it's some other tech integration piece, you know,
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  one of your focuses is on the smart intentional
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  use of technology, right? And I think we've all
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  kind of fell into that trap where we try to put
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  the tool out in front of the learning and it
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  really doesn't work well when you do that. So
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  I just kind of want to hear your take on that
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  a little bit and what you mean by that smart
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  intentional use. Yeah, I think you hit it right
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  on the head talking about putting the tool first.
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  I mean, the tools and the fun things they can
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  do can be engaging and they can definitely be
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  a lead in. But, you know, the cool factor can
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  wear off. Um, and with any tool, with anything
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  that you try just for engagement, there's always
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  going to be kids that still aren't into it. I
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  mean, I was part of that. That wave that maybe
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  started, I don't know, let's say 10 years ago
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  of like, everyone should learn how to code and
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  computer science was pushed heavily in schools
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  and kids are going to love this. And there were
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  just kids that just didn't love it. Even when
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  you made it game -based, even when you made it
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  like block based and simple, simplify, they're
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  just like, man, I don't really want to learn
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  this. And so if you, you go to the tool and you
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  go to the cool factor and don't incorporate the
• 12:43
  why early on and get that buy -in early on. Those
• 12:45
  are the kind of results you'll sometimes get.
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  For me, and this is why I named the organization
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  Better Teaching, it actually started as Better
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  Teaching with Tech. And the idea for me is just
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  using technology as a way to do things better,
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  faster, easier. But ultimately, it's all about
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  the learning. It's all about the experiences.
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  I think a lot of people... have in their personal
• 13:08
  lives the mentality that experiences are better
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  than things. You're gonna spend money, you'd
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  rather spend money on a great experience that
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  lasts you a lifetime, you know, go on a trip,
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  et cetera, than to just accumulate things, right?
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  And I think the same approach is necessary in
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  the classroom and experience, the classroom experience
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  is more important than knowing things and knowing
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  stuff. I mean, they shouldn't know stuff and
• 13:32
  know things along the way. But if there's no
• 13:34
  end in mind and there's no experience they're
• 13:36
  getting out of it, they won't remember it as
• 13:38
  well. And it just becomes knowledge for the sake
• 13:40
  of knowledge because the teacher said so. Right.
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  So give them opportunities and a reason to know
• 13:45
  stuff and to learn things. And then they will
• 13:48
  because emotion is a part of that as well. You
• 13:50
  know, the term SEL is thrown around a lot now.
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  But and I think sometimes we think of that as
• 13:56
  a separate thing from education. Like, oh, there's
• 13:58
  education, there's academics, and then there's
• 13:59
  SEL. But that emotional piece is so huge. I mean,
• 14:04
  having taught in the South Side of Chicago and
• 14:06
  teaching kids who are coming from homes where
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  things are, you know, there's trauma that they're
• 14:11
  dealing with, there's stress that they're dealing
• 14:13
  with. And, you know, the brain science is pretty
• 14:15
  clear when you're in a fight or flight state,
• 14:17
  you're not in a state to be learning. And so.
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  I think taking that down a notch and just saying
• 14:25
  in a classroom you have to create a situation
• 14:28
  where students are emotionally connected to what
• 14:29
  they're learning on a positive note is only going
• 14:32
  to make it more memorable for them and they're
• 14:36
  going to be able to retain more. So that's a
• 14:39
  lot of philosophical. What I'm actually talking
• 14:41
  about is I'm a huge fan of project -based learning.
• 14:44
  Anything where we're giving students authentic
• 14:46
  real -world problems to solve, anything where
• 14:48
  there's messy imperfect outcomes where there
• 14:53
  is no one right answer and there's multiple answers
• 14:56
  and multiple paths to success. I think using
• 15:01
  technology to help students be more creative
• 15:04
  in their solutions and share publicly. I think
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  that's the part of project -based learning that
• 15:10
  gets forgotten about. It's not just doing a project.
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  The end goal of a true project -based learning
• 15:15
  experience is they have to share it to a public
• 15:17
  audience. And that audience doesn't have to necessarily
• 15:20
  be the public, although it's so much easier now
• 15:22
  with tech, right? Like they can make a YouTube
• 15:23
  channel, they can create a podcast, they can
• 15:25
  broadcast. But even if they're just presenting
• 15:27
  to the class across the hall, so it's somebody
• 15:29
  outside the four walls of that classroom, it
• 15:31
  gives them purpose and it gives them a sense
• 15:33
  of pride in what they're creating. So I think
• 15:35
  for me, the why behind using tech and the intentional
• 15:39
  use is all about what are the experiences that
• 15:41
  we're trying to create for students so that.
• 15:45
  Those 180 days of school or whatever are very
• 15:47
  worthwhile 180 days and there's no wasted time
• 15:50
  does that mean every day is gonna be a mind -blowing
• 15:52
  like NASA project of course not like there has
• 15:56
  to be knowledge building there has to be you
• 15:59
  know Formative assessments there are there's
• 16:02
  other things that have to happen, but they can
• 16:03
  happen in the context of a bigger project I'll
• 16:06
  give you an example like years ago. I remember
• 16:09
  when I moved to Arizona. I had to teach I found
• 16:11
  out to Two projects that I had, I'm sorry, not
• 16:14
  projects, two topics I had to teach that were
• 16:16
  in the standards were soil and rocks and minerals.
• 16:19
  And let me tell you, those are two topics I'm
• 16:22
  super excited about now. But, you know, at age
• 16:26
  27, 28, having come from teaching, you know,
• 16:29
  math and science on totally different topics
• 16:32
  here, soil and rocks and minerals for 16 weeks,
• 16:35
  man. I was like, how do I call in sick all 16
• 16:38
  of these weeks? But. Again, project -based learning
• 16:41
  kind of saved the day there. So we took this
• 16:43
  garden, this soil unit that really dug into the
• 16:45
  pH of soil and the micro, the macronutrients,
• 16:48
  et cetera, et cetera, or micronutrients. And
• 16:50
  we turned it into an entire project where the
• 16:52
  students had to build a school garden. And so
• 16:55
  then it became the challenge of how do I take
• 16:57
  this end goal, this very worthwhile, real, authentic
• 17:01
  community -based end goal and backwards plan
• 17:04
  and use tech to make it something they can accomplish.
• 17:07
  They still had to learn about soil temperature
• 17:10
  and soil pH. And they still did experiments testing
• 17:13
  different soils and how well they retain water,
• 17:15
  how well they retain temperature, et cetera,
• 17:16
  et cetera. They still did all the learning along
• 17:18
  the way, but it was always connected to, we have
• 17:20
  to build this garden. We have to know what we're
• 17:22
  talking about in order to build it and not have
• 17:23
  it just like, you know, start and then fade away
• 17:27
  in two weeks. And so they, they, they were really
• 17:29
  engaged. They had to learn about then more community
• 17:32
  -based things like urban gardening and vertical
• 17:34
  gardening, you know, hydroponics, et cetera,
• 17:36
  et cetera. They're into it. And then we use technology
• 17:39
  to have them, you know, sketch out ideas and
• 17:43
  we incorporated math to have them figure out
• 17:46
  the exact dimensions that this garden had to
• 17:48
  be, figure out in school where it was going to
• 17:49
  be. You know, they use presentation tools and
• 17:53
  video creation tools to make their pitch. And
• 17:56
  they had to actually pitch it to the administration
• 17:57
  and the winning team. Like the principal was
• 18:00
  so on board winning team. Actually, like we got
• 18:02
  funding to go buy some gardening. equipment and
• 18:06
  a little green, you know, a little flexible greenhouse
• 18:08
  and built out that garden. So those students
• 18:10
  got to see something, see something actually
• 18:13
  created. And even if you weren't the team that
• 18:15
  won, like I'm pretty sure those students are
• 18:17
  going to remember that project. And hopefully
• 18:19
  they remember a little something about potassium
• 18:21
  and magnesium and some of those as well. Right.
• 18:24
  So that's my big thing is just finding, finding
• 18:26
  big challenges for students to solve and making
• 18:28
  it meaningful and giving them the why. Yeah,
• 18:32
  I think it's really interesting is when I listen
• 18:34
  to you talk about that from the perspective of
• 18:37
  better teaching. I hear you focus on things like
• 18:39
  relationships first. I hear you focus on things
• 18:42
  like creating experiences for student learning
• 18:44
  with with project based learning or you know
• 18:48
  things that are going to really bring. students
• 18:50
  to a real world problem to solve and to share
• 18:53
  with others right and then then after that you
• 18:56
  talk about technology and then what role technology
• 18:59
  can play in helping get to you know the best
• 19:02
  outcomes for those students as possible but i'm
• 19:04
  kind of wondering here do you ever get uh you
• 19:07
  know a district or an administrator that comes
• 19:09
  to you and says hey my my staff is going wild
• 19:12
  about tool x i want you to come and i want you
• 19:15
  to talk about tool x and share everything how
• 19:17
  do you then try to and if that does happen to
• 19:20
  you how do you try to gently lead that administrator
• 19:24
  into focusing on what really matters Yeah, I
• 19:29
  mean that's a tricky conversation and it definitely
• 19:32
  does happen, especially with the AI stuff now.
• 19:34
  Like there's some really cool tools out there
• 19:36
  that do good things. I think it always comes
• 19:40
  down to asking the same question I just talked
• 19:42
  about with that project and that is why? Why
• 19:46
  do we love this so much? What are they excited
• 19:48
  about? And digging into what it is, is it because
• 19:51
  it's a faster replacement to the things they
• 19:54
  were already doing? Or is it because it unlocks
• 19:56
  them able to do things they weren't doing before?
• 20:01
  And we have conversations about SAMR. SAMR still
• 20:03
  applies, right? Like there's... definitely tools
• 20:06
  that just replace, make a faster worksheet, right?
• 20:09
  Or, you know, grade something faster, but still
• 20:11
  not give meaningful feedback. And then there's
• 20:13
  tools that when used properly can go so much
• 20:16
  further. So I think digging into that why with
• 20:19
  the administrator and kind of finding out is
• 20:21
  important. But I think talking with the teachers
• 20:22
  about it as well. And in the moment, like, what
• 20:26
  are we excited about? What do we love about it?
• 20:29
  And if they're excited about a tool, chances
• 20:31
  are they're already using it. So me coming in
• 20:33
  as a trainer, there's not going to be so much
• 20:34
  of the where do I click? You know, tell me what
• 20:37
  how do I log in? How do I do this? Because if
• 20:39
  they're excited, that means they're already using
• 20:40
  it. Right. So for me, then I'm already coming
• 20:43
  in with the mindset of like, let's figure out
• 20:45
  how to do something really. really good with
• 20:48
  this. Let's apply this to your teaching. And
• 20:49
  so now I'll come in and I'll have like a multi
• 20:51
  -step project that students are doing or I'll
• 20:53
  find the show a way that they can app smash and
• 20:55
  use multiple apps together to get like an even
• 20:57
  better result of what they're creating. But I
• 21:00
  think then my presentation focuses more on what
• 21:04
  are the outcomes we're looking for. And that's
• 21:05
  something I might ask them upfront. Like what
• 21:07
  are the outcomes you want to have happen? If
• 21:10
  this tool were to change your world and to change
• 21:12
  your students world, what would that look like?
• 21:15
  literally what would happen in your mind. Um,
• 21:19
  and it's interesting cause they, you know, sometimes
• 21:20
  they can talk about that and sometimes it's like,
• 21:23
  huh, I really don't actually know. Or the answer
• 21:25
  that I gave you is like, it's pretty surface
• 21:27
  level, you know? Um, and so those conversations,
• 21:29
  I don't come in an adversarial way. Of course,
• 21:31
  it's just more of a self -reflection exploratory
• 21:34
  of like, let's, let's think critically about
• 21:35
  what we're trying to do. And sometimes that also
• 21:38
  means that tool wasn't the right one. And I hate
• 21:40
  that's an uncomfortable thing too. Sometimes
• 21:42
  when it's like, Oh man, you guys bought. you
• 21:45
  bought this expensive tool and like did you know
• 21:47
  Gemini does all that for free or like so that's
• 21:50
  a gentle one to have to tiptoe around a little
• 21:52
  bit but i'm not one to like not share knowledge
• 21:55
  you know because of something like that i'm just
• 21:57
  going to give you the information you make a
• 21:58
  decision based on what you've got um but i do
• 22:03
  like to have those conversations always going
• 22:05
  back to the why eric as you were talking one
• 22:07
  of the things that you were mentioning is getting
• 22:09
  everybody on the same page as tools as tools
• 22:13
  go and you have teachers like Jeremy said coming
• 22:15
  to you and asking about them one of the big things
• 22:17
  that we're seeing obviously is this mad rush
• 22:19
  of AI tools right like we we have everybody knows
• 22:23
  that we had people using AI before there was
• 22:26
  any policies or anything in place can you talk
• 22:29
  a little bit about what your take on policies
• 22:32
  are and guidances with as far as school districts
• 22:35
  go and how you typically approach that Maybe
• 22:38
  just take into account like the different people
• 22:40
  that are all involved or in I guess impacted
• 22:43
  by that So, you know students families teachers
• 22:47
  administrators to like how do you usually approach
• 22:50
  that or what's your take on all that? Yeah, that
• 22:53
  there's a lot there and in terms of stakeholders,
• 22:56
  you just mentioned obviously it's teachers staff
• 22:58
  I make sure that we mentioned the non teaching
• 23:00
  staff They often get overlooked when it comes
• 23:03
  to training, especially tech training, but they
• 23:05
  they need it as well Students, parents, board
• 23:08
  members, right? So you talk to policy. So in
• 23:11
  Illinois, at least when we say policy, policy
• 23:14
  is more like board policy. And so our school
• 23:17
  board association has put out a policy that school
• 23:20
  districts can adopt related to AI. But then districts
• 23:23
  still have to develop their own guidance. And
• 23:26
  so guidance is what guides the day to day use
• 23:28
  and the nitty gritty, right? I think all of those
• 23:32
  are. All of those stakeholders have to be involved
• 23:36
  in various ways. One of the things I start with
• 23:39
  with admins is something is better than nothing
• 23:42
  at this point. If in 2026 you still have not
• 23:47
  started any training, do not have AI guidance,
• 23:50
  do not have not had conversations, start those
• 23:53
  conversations. It's okay in this case. Sometimes
• 23:56
  we want to have everything like well thought
• 23:58
  out, every T crossed and every I dotted and ready
• 24:01
  to hand off to the staff. But in this case, one,
• 24:04
  that's all going to change a year from now when
• 24:06
  the tools shift and things change. And two, teachers
• 24:11
  want to know, parents want to know that you're
• 24:14
  thinking about this and that you're making progress
• 24:17
  and that you have some something started in terms
• 24:22
  of guidance. And I think all those groups should
• 24:24
  be involved. And so rather than wait until you
• 24:27
  have something perfectly polished, let's just
• 24:30
  start talking about it because kids are using
• 24:31
  it. We teachers are using it. We didn't ask for
• 24:34
  this technology just showed up. It's one of the
• 24:36
  most organic, like technology adoptions that's
• 24:40
  ever happened. Right. So to just not talk about
• 24:43
  it yet is doing everyone a disservice and they'd
• 24:45
  be sending the wrong message. So I start there
• 24:47
  with like, Hey, let's. Let's get that conversation
• 24:50
  going. Generally, the route we go is starting
• 24:55
  with training admin and just making sure they're
• 24:57
  up to date on what are the tools and what can
• 24:59
  they do? What direction is this all going? What
• 25:02
  is industry saying, right? Because we're making
• 25:05
  students college and career ready. What are the
• 25:07
  next levels up saying that we should be doing?
• 25:09
  And the short answer is leaning into it, leaning
• 25:11
  into the use of AI, because we've probably all
• 25:13
  heard it before. Like, it's not AI going to replace.
• 25:16
  people, it's people who know how to use AI, replacing
• 25:18
  people who don't know how to, right? So we start
• 25:21
  there with making sure admin has the mindset
• 25:23
  that they need, kind of helping them expose for
• 25:26
  themselves what their opinions and feelings are,
• 25:28
  because what you feel about this technology is
• 25:30
  going to direct how you guide others and how
• 25:33
  you talk about it to others. So we do a lot of
• 25:36
  work kind of getting those thoughts and discussions
• 25:38
  out there. From there, we try to come up with
• 25:41
  a popular analogy as the stoplight, but you can
• 25:44
  use a variety of different vigils or approaches.
• 25:47
  Essentially, it's your reds are things that you
• 25:49
  don't want AI use for, greens are things you
• 25:52
  always want AI use for, and yellows are like,
• 25:54
  yeah, maybe, but with this guidance. And from
• 25:56
  there, you start building out like, what does
• 25:58
  this look like for us? We spend time looking
• 26:01
  at the mission and vision statement for the district
• 26:04
  and their strategic plan. And the thing with
• 26:08
  that is a lot of times they, you know, sometimes
• 26:11
  they're very short and sweet and meaningful.
• 26:13
  And sometimes they're like the mission vision
• 26:15
  and strategic plan is like a two page document
• 26:18
  of an introduction with a lot with what sounds
• 26:20
  like a lot of buzzwords. I know what they mean.
• 26:23
  We know what they mean. But what does that look
• 26:24
  like in practice? So we start digging into that
• 26:26
  and seeing how does AI use play into that? Do
• 26:29
  you want AI? Do you have an AI philosophy that?
• 26:34
  aligns with what you say your district philosophy
• 26:37
  is. And I think that work is important in terms
• 26:42
  of just even without AI, are we practicing what
• 26:45
  we're preaching as a district? So if you say
• 26:46
  that you value creative, you know, lifelong learners
• 26:51
  who are out there, you know, changing the world
• 26:53
  and solving world issues, but does how we spend
• 26:57
  our PD time and our staff meeting time reflect
• 27:01
  that is what we're evaluating teachers on reflective
• 27:04
  of that. Let's look at the initiatives, the anywhere
• 27:07
  from 2 to 27 initiatives that we're taking on
• 27:09
  this year. Do those initiatives also send the
• 27:12
  message that this vision statement is what's
• 27:14
  important? Because sometimes there is a misalignment.
• 27:16
  You know, we talk about creativity, innovation
• 27:18
  and problem solving, but we spend spend every
• 27:20
  staff meeting talking about test scores, right?
• 27:23
  Or talking about things that don't really align
• 27:25
  with that. bigger vision that we're talking about.
• 27:27
  So I think starting there is important because
• 27:29
  then until you've got that aligned, it's hard
• 27:31
  to bring in AI as a component of that as well.
• 27:34
  A lot of districts do portrait of a graduate,
• 27:36
  what they want their students to look like and
• 27:38
  be able to do and skills by the time they're
• 27:40
  done. So we talk about how does AI play into
• 27:42
  that as well. I think once we've gotten some
• 27:46
  of that work done with the admins, we like to
• 27:48
  go in with staff and just a combination of training
• 27:51
  and kind of alleviating fears. giving them chances
• 27:56
  to see how the tools can make their life easier.
• 28:01
  And it's really two different routes. There's
• 28:03
  efficiency in what they do and then personalizing
• 28:05
  learning for students. And then giving them a
• 28:08
  voice and giving teachers a chance to talk about
• 28:10
  what they're concerned about. You know, everything
• 28:12
  from obviously plagiarism, academic dishonesty
• 28:14
  is one of the first things that comes up, but
• 28:16
  also things like, hey, resource usage. I'm concerned
• 28:19
  about the amount of water and energy this is
• 28:21
  using. I don't know that I feel comfortable using
• 28:23
  it. And just having that conversation, I think,
• 28:25
  is important. The more we can give teachers something
• 28:31
  to work with early, even though I say make them
• 28:33
  part of the process, communicate that this is
• 28:36
  going to be a moving target and things are going
• 28:37
  to change. I think having some easy wins for
• 28:40
  teachers, like here's our basic AI guidance.
• 28:44
  Here's a couple of statements you can put in
• 28:46
  your syllabus. now so that it's clear. Here's
• 28:50
  a letter you can send to parents about this,
• 28:52
  or here's a couple of choices of things depending
• 28:54
  on how you feel about this, the use of AI. You
• 28:56
  can choose this. I think those are all good processes
• 28:59
  rather than making each teacher, each team kind
• 29:01
  of figure it out on their own, giving them some
• 29:04
  of those upfront is helpful. So that's kind of
• 29:08
  the big high level of how we start approaching
• 29:10
  that. I also recommend, you know, talking with
• 29:12
  board members. I can tell you, you know, board
• 29:13
  members, they may be in education, they may not
• 29:17
  work in the education field. They may not work
• 29:19
  in tech fields. So they're going to have a very,
• 29:21
  very diverse set of opinions and experiences
• 29:25
  with AI. I can tell you, like just from talking
• 29:28
  to, to a variety of board members that, and just
• 29:34
  talking to people in general, a lot of times
• 29:36
  educators are not at the forefront of the new
• 29:40
  technological advances. Sometimes things take
• 29:42
  a while to make their way into schools and we're
• 29:44
  a little behind what's going on. AI just seems
• 29:46
  to be one where people in education are ahead
• 29:50
  of a lot of other fields, non -tech fields, I
• 29:53
  should say, in terms of their AI use and adoption
• 29:55
  and what they're thinking about just because
• 29:56
  it showed up and it immediately impacts us so
• 29:59
  much. And so when talking to board members, we
• 30:02
  have to remember they may not be always at the
• 30:05
  same technology Adoption point that we are they
• 30:09
  may be slightly ahead they may be slightly behind
• 30:11
  but those conversations have to happen So that
• 30:14
  they understand what's going on as guidance is
• 30:16
  being developed And I think one of the things
• 30:19
  that you mentioned that I that I really like
• 30:20
  is just the community outreach part We've like
• 30:24
  our organization and our different trainees on
• 30:26
  AI. We've started to have a lot of conversations
• 30:28
  about with schools that we work with about the
• 30:32
  possibility of getting in front of boards to
• 30:34
  just give them a baseline understanding of what
• 30:37
  AI is and how it impacts education and impacts
• 30:41
  their school district. And then another conversation
• 30:44
  that's come up too is getting in front of parents
• 30:46
  and at, you know, maybe it's like opportunities
• 30:49
  at a back to school night or something like that
• 30:52
  where you can try to fill parents in that don't
• 30:55
  really have. um an idea of what's going on and
• 30:58
  what's out there if um, let you know for you
• 31:01
  as you've talked with different folks and you've
• 31:04
  um Maybe led some of those What what has been
• 31:08
  the things that you think are really important
• 31:10
  pieces to mention? So let's say you had a group
• 31:13
  of parents in front of you right now for a school
• 31:15
  district What would you say? Um, they need to
• 31:18
  know Yeah, I think there's two routes to parent
• 31:23
  engagement. I think they're both important. One
• 31:25
  is communicating what the district's policy is,
• 31:28
  what the school's policy and teacher's policy
• 31:30
  is, and what they can expect and what are the
• 31:32
  do's and don'ts in terms of AI use. I think that's
• 31:35
  hugely important. On the other hand, I think
• 31:37
  general AI literacy and education is important
• 31:40
  for parents as well. Just from the basics of
• 31:45
  what is AI? How does it work? What are the tools
• 31:47
  we use here in the district or what are tools
• 31:49
  that your kids might be accessing that you may
• 31:51
  or may not know about? How is it integrated in
• 31:53
  things they use every day? Instagram, Snapchat,
• 31:56
  etc. So I think that background education parents
• 31:59
  find helpful. I've done a lot of sessions with
• 32:01
  parents where it's kind of more of a community
• 32:03
  event. And so and even like how can I help my
• 32:07
  student be more successful? How can I help them
• 32:09
  use AI as a tutor? What are the concerns I should
• 32:11
  have when doing that? How do I teach them about
• 32:14
  AI so that they don't end up developing an unhealthy
• 32:17
  relationship with one of the many chatbots that
• 32:19
  are out there, right? Like can be super helpful
• 32:22
  for SEL stuff, can be super helpful for emotional
• 32:24
  support in some cases, for sure, but also can...
• 32:29
  You know, you can cross the line into a dangerous
• 32:31
  territory and there's plenty of news stories
• 32:33
  out there about exactly that. Um, you know, not
• 32:36
  leaning on it as if it was a real therapist,
• 32:38
  et cetera. Those conversations, parents appreciate
• 32:41
  that because it's, it's something that's a little
• 32:43
  harder for them to wrap their mind around. So
• 32:46
  I think those are the two big routes that I like
• 32:47
  to go is educating them on the school policy
• 32:50
  and then educating them just in general on how
• 32:51
  they can use AI and how they can keep their kids
• 32:53
  safe using it as well. The other thing I'll add
• 32:55
  is AI literacy for students is super important.
• 32:58
  One concern that sometimes I think I hear is,
• 33:01
  you know, teachers don't want to create a problem
• 33:03
  that maybe doesn't exist, right? Like if I start
• 33:05
  talking to them and teaching them about AI and
• 33:07
  tools, they're going to start, now they're going
• 33:09
  to start using it, whereas they may have not
• 33:10
  before. Um, there's actually research and data
• 33:14
  that proves that that's not the case. In fact,
• 33:16
  um, turns out that the more AI literate students
• 33:20
  are the less chance that they misuse that tool
• 33:23
  for academic dishonesty. So not having the conversations,
• 33:26
  not talking about it with parents or with students
• 33:28
  increases the use that they just kind of go rogue
• 33:31
  and use it for whatever they'd like. Um, I think
• 33:34
  kids are naturally skeptical and cynical. So
• 33:36
  it's. It can be a good lead in to talk to them
• 33:38
  about like AI generated content that's online
• 33:41
  on social media. They love picking out when something's
• 33:43
  fake or not real. And so I think that's more
• 33:45
  important than ever. Media literacy is hugely
• 33:47
  important. It used to be that a picture was worth
• 33:50
  a thousand words, right? A video or a picture
• 33:52
  was your proof that something actually happened.
• 33:54
  And now with AI, that's not even true anymore.
• 33:57
  So getting those conversations going about how
• 33:59
  to interpret and evaluate what they're getting
• 34:02
  out there in the digital world is very important.
• 34:07
  Yeah, and it is definitely true that that's the
• 34:11
  case and ignoring it doesn't make the problem
• 34:14
  go away. You know, I think we've seen that in
• 34:17
  education with other different, more sensitive
• 34:20
  topics that if you just avoid them as a topic
• 34:23
  of conversation, it's probably not helping anyone
• 34:27
  in the long run, right? And you know I could
• 34:30
  I could list off a lot of different ones here,
• 34:32
  but I kind of want to pivot and switch directions
• 34:34
  here a little bit and get into talking about
• 34:37
  3D printing because that is definitely something
• 34:40
  that I'm seeing creep in into. You know different
• 34:45
  classroom spaces and you know definitely within
• 34:49
  the stem the stem realm. But I was at a school
• 34:54
  recently, maybe about a month ago, that was doing
• 34:57
  just a fantastic job of incorporating their STEM
• 35:01
  curriculum across different bands of classes
• 35:05
  within their building. And it was really great
• 35:09
  to see and it was great to see how they were
• 35:12
  incorporating 3D printing design as part of that.
• 35:16
  Um, you know, what can, why should a school look
• 35:19
  to embrace technology like 3d printing? Yeah.
• 35:24
  I mean, the thing is once you dig into it and
• 35:26
  actually get using 3d printer, you ask the question
• 35:28
  the other way. Like how can we not use this for
• 35:31
  every single thing? Um, I think the idea that
• 35:34
  you can, we, you know, I talked a lot about real
• 35:36
  world problems, the idea that you can just create
• 35:39
  a thing that didn't previously exist and make
• 35:41
  it look however you want. is the ultimate problem
• 35:44
  solver, right? Like if you took a walk through
• 35:46
  my house, spoiler alert, this background is not
• 35:49
  actually my house. That's not a 3D printed piano
• 35:51
  back there. But if you walk through my house,
• 35:54
  there's like all kinds of things hiding in plain
• 35:56
  sight that were little tiny solutions to problems.
• 35:58
  And I 3D printed a solution to it. So there's
• 36:01
  the obvious connections of STEM. So math measurement
• 36:04
  and angles and all that kind of stuff to be able
• 36:06
  to design something. And then the engineering
• 36:10
  piece, of course, going through the engineering
• 36:11
  design process of, I see a problem. I brainstorm
• 36:15
  solutions. I can do the sketching. And I think
• 36:21
  the intentional use of this is like, let's not
• 36:23
  have kids just start printing off stuff without
• 36:25
  a few steps in between, right? It's the process
• 36:27
  over the product. This is the ultimate example
• 36:29
  of process over product, because you're literally
• 36:31
  creating a product with that printer. But like,
• 36:34
  why does it exist? How does it have to exist?
• 36:36
  How do we optimize it before we make it exist?
• 36:38
  So we're not wasting material and time. So like
• 36:40
  having kids sketch, having them make them make
• 36:43
  out, you know, paper or cardboard prototypes
• 36:46
  first, having them discuss their designs with
• 36:49
  other and get feedback. That's that's the real
• 36:51
  where the money's made right there is like having
• 36:53
  them do that iteration of, you know, planning,
• 36:58
  building, testing, etc. And before they even
• 37:00
  actually make the thing right. Um, the key and
• 37:03
  why it's a big difference. And as somebody who's
• 37:05
  done engineering project with students for, you
• 37:07
  know, from the beginning of my career, the big
• 37:10
  key is you couldn't actually ever make the thing
• 37:13
  all the time. Like sometimes you can use, I like
• 37:16
  to do in the, uh, you know, using old scraps
• 37:19
  of whatever I could find to have students build
• 37:21
  prototypes for fun. But like the fact that you
• 37:24
  can actually build it to the exact specifications
• 37:26
  with a durable material and it could be in use.
• 37:29
  It's a totally different ball game, right? Um,
• 37:32
  I also love, and not to jump back to the AI thing,
• 37:34
  but like when AI, generative AI first came out,
• 37:37
  I was like, man, how long before I can just like
• 37:40
  type up a description of what I want. And then
• 37:44
  I could just print that thing without any design
• 37:46
  or CAD experience. And it didn't take long because
• 37:48
  we've got tools like Meshi and Print Pal and
• 37:51
  all those. Um, we're like, I can either upload
• 37:54
  a picture and it'll make a model for me or I
• 37:56
  can just. do a verbal description of what I want
• 37:59
  and keep iterating until it creates the model
• 38:02
  that I want printed out. So we've literally reached
• 38:04
  the point of society where I can conjure up real
• 38:07
  world objects with just my words. And that's
• 38:10
  pretty magical. Right. So, yes, there's the engagement
• 38:13
  excitement factor from kids. But even that, like
• 38:16
  I said earlier, wears off. But that process of
• 38:18
  building, creating solutions and getting them
• 38:20
  in the mindset of like everything they see now,
• 38:22
  it's like, oh, I bet I can make something that
• 38:24
  fixes that. Or like we don't have to buy that
• 38:26
  on Amazon. I can make that. Or we can we can
• 38:29
  add our school logo to that and sell that. Right.
• 38:31
  That entrepreneurship piece. I love that part
• 38:33
  of. of being problem solvers and entrepreneurs,
• 38:36
  you know, selling school swag and just creating
• 38:39
  things that didn't previously exist. That's one
• 38:41
  of one. Those are the kind of things that get
• 38:43
  me excited about printing. It seems like it's
• 38:46
  really bringing in that design thinking process
• 38:48
  and giving a practical outlet for it, right?
• 38:52
  So let's like what practical things should a
• 38:56
  district of school look at if they were interested
• 38:59
  in in, you know, expanding their their their
• 39:04
  output models to include 3D printers. You know,
• 39:06
  are there, I'm not saying recommend this particular
• 39:09
  branded type, but like, are there certain key
• 39:11
  things that would allow for successful student
• 39:14
  experiences because of what they choose? A hundred
• 39:18
  percent. And the number one thing I go and the
• 39:21
  number one thing I say to anybody, any school
• 39:23
  person at all who's excited about 3D printers
• 39:27
  is please call me before you hit the purchase
• 39:30
  button. Please call me. I don't want to name
• 39:33
  names for or against certain brands. I don't
• 39:35
  want you guys getting sued. I also don't want
• 39:37
  you guys giving out free advertising, right?
• 39:39
  But I will say there are certain brands that
• 39:41
  were first movers in the school environments.
• 39:45
  Well before most schools were thinking about
• 39:47
  3D printing, they got in and sold to education
• 39:50
  clients. And the thing is, if I'm an administrator
• 39:53
  and a decision maker and I don't know anything
• 39:55
  about this tech and I'm like, Hey, I would like
• 39:57
  us to get into that. What do I do? I call the
• 39:59
  administrator down the street at the other school.
• 40:00
  Hey, what did you guys buy? Okay, cool. Cause
• 40:03
  let me tell you, researching 3d printers is an
• 40:05
  overwhelming task from the beginning. If you're
• 40:09
  starting at the beginning. Hey, I can help with
• 40:11
  that, of course, but there's still decisions
• 40:13
  that need to be made. And so what tended to happen
• 40:16
  is, Hey, I heard so -and -so at this district
• 40:17
  bought these. We're going to buy them too. And
• 40:20
  the problem is years later, those not only were
• 40:23
  those printers not the best quality, they didn't
• 40:26
  keep up with the emerging technology and they're
• 40:30
  expensive to maintain. They need proprietary
• 40:32
  parts where you keep going back to that same.
• 40:36
  that same manufacturer to have to buy an expensive
• 40:38
  replacement part and they're not really they
• 40:40
  don't really understand education and how their
• 40:42
  machines are used and they're not tailored for
• 40:44
  an education for a teacher who's got 30 kids
• 40:46
  patiently waiting for you to hit print and then
• 40:48
  move on to the next thing right so be very careful
• 40:51
  about just buying what you heard the school down
• 40:53
  the street had or what you previously bought
• 40:56
  even three years ago because in the last five
• 40:59
  years the 3d printing industry has had a real
• 41:03
  Renaissance in terms of interest the quality
• 41:07
  of the technology, the speed and the ease of
• 41:10
  use of the software. And as a result, because
• 41:12
  of the competition, the costs have gone way down.
• 41:14
  So the amount of money that used to back in the
• 41:17
  day get you maybe three printers. Now you could
• 41:19
  probably get a whole fleet of a dozen or more
• 41:21
  that are good enough quality. That said, I mean,
• 41:25
  there's a couple of brands we we I tend to recommend.
• 41:30
  But the main things that I look at when recommending,
• 41:33
  even within a brand, which model to get, Is one
• 41:36
  always going back to the why what are you using
• 41:38
  them for if you just want them for the cool factor
• 41:41
  we got to dig in a little more before I recommend
• 41:43
  anything right. I start with also saying how
• 41:46
  many kids do you have how many do you want printing
• 41:48
  and how often because one printer even for an
• 41:52
  elementary classroom 20 kids you're gonna be
• 41:54
  struggling to keep up with all the morning the
• 41:56
  product you're gonna be. your full time job is
• 41:58
  now going to be running prints in addition to
• 42:01
  teaching. Right. So you need at least two or
• 42:02
  three, even for a single class, unless you start
• 42:05
  to get creative of like, hey, only the top three
• 42:07
  that we vote for are actually going to get printed
• 42:09
  or every group come up with a design and we'll
• 42:12
  just print each groups or you set the expectation.
• 42:15
  Hey, you're going to design and print and submit
• 42:17
  it to me now. It'll get printed before the semester
• 42:20
  is over. That's the best I could promise you.
• 42:22
  So you got to really think about volume. The
• 42:25
  things that I also look at are for this printer,
• 42:30
  what is the cost? Because sometimes we want to
• 42:34
  go get the most expensive, highest end one. And
• 42:37
  you may not need that. If you're just printing
• 42:38
  out fidgets and school swag and you're not printing
• 42:41
  with any exotic filaments because you're in elementary
• 42:43
  or middle school and you're just doing prototypes
• 42:45
  and fun stuff, you're going to be printing PLA
• 42:47
  mostly. And you don't need a higher end printer
• 42:49
  for that. You need a fast printer for that. And
• 42:51
  you don't need the highest quality either. You
• 42:52
  need a fast printer. If you are a high school
• 42:55
  STEM program on the other hand and you're doing
• 42:57
  some actual prototyping and you're using some
• 43:00
  real engineering filaments that are a little
• 43:02
  more advanced require enclosure require exhausting
• 43:06
  vent you know out of that machine then you're
• 43:09
  looking then yes you're probably looking at the
• 43:10
  more expensive ones possibly or just a different
• 43:13
  route to which printers I'd recommend so that
• 43:16
  why again becomes very important. Um, the other
• 43:19
  things I always look at is, are you getting the
• 43:21
  speed and quality that matches the industry standard
• 43:23
  right now? And it is not the same as it was two
• 43:25
  or three years ago. Um, is the software easy
• 43:28
  to use and easily accessible? And is this, how
• 43:32
  open source is this printer? Meaning there are
• 43:35
  some, again, I won't name names, but there are
• 43:37
  some that require you to use their software,
• 43:39
  require you to use their specific filament, require
• 43:42
  you to use only their parts and their expense.
• 43:45
  Like check the prices of the parts that tend
• 43:46
  to break often. because you don't want to be
• 43:49
  replacing a $250 extruder when this other company
• 43:52
  has very standard extruders you could find at
• 43:54
  Micro Center for, you know, for $10 that you
• 43:56
  could swap out when you need to. So those are
• 43:59
  the conversations that I have. Again, it starts
• 44:02
  with the why, then it starts with the volume
• 44:04
  of printing you plan to do and what you plan
• 44:05
  to print, and then we dig into some of those
• 44:07
  logistics from there. Yeah, can I throw a scenario
• 44:10
  at you? We have a number of schools that I can
• 44:16
  think of off the top of my head that have They
• 44:18
  have three printers sitting at their school,
• 44:22
  but they don't have anybody to teach that like
• 44:25
  there's no dedicated person to do that. So could
• 44:28
  you maybe just address like what would be a way
• 44:31
  like an easy way? I know that you have to. You
• 44:35
  have to know what you're doing with 3D printing,
• 44:37
  but is there a way where you can? A tip you could
• 44:41
  give a teacher that's teaching. like core content
• 44:44
  or something else at the school that could maybe
• 44:47
  venture into that space a little bit with like
• 44:49
  a quick project or something to just. Utilize
• 44:54
  that. Utilize the 3D printing for their students.
• 44:59
  How could it be integrated into other class like
• 45:02
  the classwork that maybe a teacher is already
• 45:03
  doing? That's a great question. I don't know
• 45:06
  if I'm going to answer it the way you're expecting,
• 45:07
  but I'm answer with what I would consult the
• 45:09
  district to do in general, and that is. have
• 45:12
  at least one person, if not multiple, whose job
• 45:15
  description, you know, whose job expectation
• 45:18
  is you're the 3D printer point person. And the
• 45:22
  reason I say that is some schools get into this
• 45:24
  technology and others because one really motivated,
• 45:27
  really dedicated gung ho go get them bleeding
• 45:31
  edge teacher is into this and is willing to spend
• 45:34
  hours and hours learning and manage it and do
• 45:37
  all the heavy lifting. Right. And that's awesome.
• 45:40
  But then that teacher leaves for another district,
• 45:43
  right, or that teacher has to go on paternity
• 45:45
  or maternity leave or whatever. And now the program
• 45:48
  stops. So like try in general, my advice is try
• 45:50
  not to build a program around a single person
• 45:53
  or like one single teacher, especially if you
• 45:55
  can get a tech coach, a tech director, even a,
• 45:58
  you know, your tech support team and they're
• 46:00
  they're the 3D printer people. It's going to
• 46:02
  make it a lot easier because teachers are tight
• 46:04
  on time. They already have a million things in
• 46:07
  their standards are trying to fit in. So trying
• 46:10
  to ask them to try a new technology, even those
• 46:12
  who are willing to give it a try, the amount
• 46:15
  of learning curve that can be involved with printing
• 46:18
  can be a deterring factor, right? And I say can
• 46:24
  be because it's very possible a teacher goes
• 46:26
  in, runs a ready -made project, hits print, they
• 46:28
  all print perfectly, and everything's fine, and
• 46:30
  they're like, this is easy, but. That same teacher
• 46:32
  might go in and have a totally different experience
• 46:34
  because there's so many little things you don't
• 46:35
  know till you start digging in and actually using
• 46:37
  the tech. So having point people that can make
• 46:39
  it easy for them that are going to have some
• 46:42
  ready made projects that know all the tips and
• 46:44
  tricks to make it a smooth transition from students
• 46:47
  using the software to teachers collecting the
• 46:49
  work to actually printing. It's just going to
• 46:52
  make it more likely that that happens. That said.
• 46:55
  I would say what that person can do is communicate
• 46:58
  with those teachers and get to know their curriculum
• 47:00
  and look for opportunities, and this takes some
• 47:03
  creativity, but look for opportunities where
• 47:05
  they can 3D print something or design something
• 47:08
  related to that topic. For math, you know, some
• 47:12
  cool stuff I've seen is like printing things
• 47:14
  of different shapes to demonstrate how things
• 47:16
  of the same volume could have very wildly different
• 47:19
  shapes and perimeters, et cetera. For social
• 47:22
  studies, it might be printing artifacts or not
• 47:25
  just taking something they found online i'm gonna
• 47:27
  print this artifact from this culture but like
• 47:29
  design something that shows that you understand
• 47:32
  symbolism in this culture and design an artifact
• 47:35
  that they might have actually used right that's
• 47:37
  that's pretty creative fun stuff. You know, if
• 47:41
  kids are already building something like that,
• 47:43
  my daughter actually did something like this.
• 47:44
  If they're building dioramas, like my daughter
• 47:46
  had to do a diorama of like something involving
• 47:48
  World War Two. And she printed a bunch of the
• 47:50
  little ships and planes and, and like design
• 47:53
  some of the things that we're going to go into
• 47:54
  diorama science teachers. You can, there's so
• 47:57
  many great things that you can do in terms of,
• 48:00
  um, in terms of like printing models for students
• 48:04
  to learn from physical models. Um, I love a good
• 48:07
  class project right so like what if kids each
• 48:10
  had one element of the periodic table and they
• 48:13
  had to do it now that you give them boundaries
• 48:14
  you give them like hey your your square has to
• 48:17
  be these dimensions but within that you design
• 48:19
  something that represents that. Element of the
• 48:22
  periodic table it shows information about the
• 48:25
  periodic table element and it shows what is actually
• 48:27
  made in the real world out of this element and
• 48:30
  now we have this like mosaic of different ideas
• 48:32
  where students have learned about their science
• 48:34
  topic but they've created a real thing to represent
• 48:36
  their learning so just about getting creative
• 48:38
  about how students are demonstrating their learning
• 48:41
  something I've done some work with that's been
• 48:43
  really interesting to me is using 3d printing
• 48:46
  for accessibility. So if you go to any site that
• 48:49
  hosts STL files, 3D print projects, and you search
• 48:53
  up accessibility, you'll find all these amazing
• 48:55
  tools people have made, ways for people with
• 48:58
  motor challenges to be able to open pop cans
• 49:00
  or turn doorknobs or turn keys. So like these
• 49:03
  little plastic attachments that make that that
• 49:05
  much easier, you know, writing supports for students
• 49:08
  who have a hard time gripping a typical pencil.
• 49:10
  I've worked with an organization that provides
• 49:13
  services to students with visual disabilities.
• 49:15
  So being able to 3D print Braille, a Braille
• 49:18
  calendar or Braille key tags for their keys at
• 49:21
  home, you know, visual, I'm sorry, tactile maps
• 49:25
  of their neighborhood with their house like identified
• 49:29
  on the map. Just such cool stuff that bridges
• 49:32
  that divide for students who might struggle in
• 49:35
  a typical school environment. So what other,
• 49:40
  you know, like thinking beyond even 3D printing,
• 49:43
  but still within the STEM or STEAM area, you
• 49:46
  know, what other things excite you about that,
• 49:49
  that realm? You know, is it like drones or maker
• 49:52
  spaces, you know, like what other things, you
• 49:55
  know, like can help, you know, energize that
• 49:58
  learning experience for students? Well, you mentioned
• 50:01
  drones, so you're bad in the thousand here. I'm
• 50:03
  a big drone nerd. So I love robotics and coding
• 50:07
  in general, something that I taught when I was
• 50:08
  in the classroom as well as a tech coach. Drones
• 50:12
  are like, I run a session called Drones for Creativity
• 50:15
  and Computer Science because I think they hit
• 50:17
  both. Again, there's that engagement piece of
• 50:21
  something flying, right? That's exciting as it
• 50:23
  is. But when you find out that there are drones
• 50:25
  that you can actually program pretty easily.
• 50:28
  You can code it's like taking a robotics program
• 50:32
  and adding a third dimension to it because now
• 50:34
  it can go vertically and it can go pretty much
• 50:36
  anywhere in space and it's very career oriented
• 50:40
  because there are so many. I guess for better
• 50:44
  word, non -drone related careers that can incorporate
• 50:47
  drones. I mean, everything from emergency services
• 50:49
  to agriculture, to architecture, inspection,
• 50:53
  like you name it, and you can probably find a
• 50:55
  way that drones could be helpful in that. So
• 50:57
  it's a good add -on skill for students to have,
• 50:59
  but it's also that engagement of like, why should
• 51:01
  I get interested in coding and computer science
• 51:03
  and logic and problem solving? So I get really
• 51:06
  excited about that. I also get more excited about
• 51:08
  the multimedia piece. Personally, as much as
• 51:12
  I love coding, I love the idea of being able
• 51:14
  to see a perspective that most people don't get
• 51:18
  to see, whether it's just your neighborhood or,
• 51:21
  you know, I live in Chicago area, so there's
• 51:22
  some great views of the city, great views of
• 51:25
  architecture. We have amazing sunsets on our
• 51:27
  skyline and our lakeshore. Right. So like, but
• 51:30
  taking that and saying, I'm going to get this
• 51:31
  creative video or this creative shot that nobody
• 51:35
  else has. Right. that even AI can't necessarily
• 51:39
  fake it because I have this perspective from
• 51:41
  this height, from this angle, and building it
• 51:43
  into a multimedia project. I just, I love that
• 51:46
  idea personally. And it's just another opportunity
• 51:48
  for students to learn about photography and filmmaking
• 51:51
  and digital editing and storytelling in a creative
• 51:55
  way. Are there other practical, logistical, maybe
• 51:59
  even legal things that a teacher would need to
• 52:01
  be worried about if they were considering adding
• 52:04
  drones into their curriculum? A thousand percent.
• 52:07
  Yeah, don't fly over an NFL game. Let's start
• 52:10
  there. Don't fly over an airport. No, there's
• 52:12
  a lot of there's a lot of rules that you have
• 52:14
  to know when you're outside, when you're inside
• 52:16
  in a covered like in a building. The FAA has
• 52:19
  no jurisdiction there. It doesn't mean it's the
• 52:21
  Wild West there. Obviously, there are safety
• 52:22
  concerns and, you know, in terms of flying and
• 52:24
  near over students. But when you're outside,
• 52:27
  there's a few basic rules to know. One, you have
• 52:29
  to understand airspace. You can't go over 400
• 52:32
  feet anywhere. If you're a certain distance from
• 52:35
  airports, stadiums during before -after games,
• 52:42
  if you're near a certain historic... Areas you
• 52:44
  can't fly there necessarily or you have to fly
• 52:47
  to lower elevation or you have to get clearance
• 52:49
  from the FAA to fly there. So it's just helpful
• 52:52
  to know some basic apps that you can use to like
• 52:54
  check the airspace check for temporary flight
• 52:56
  restrictions like some you know some someone
• 52:59
  important in town are there some operations going
• 53:01
  on in your area that usually the airspace is
• 53:03
  restricted but this week it is you should know
• 53:05
  that and check that you don't get a visit. uh,
• 53:07
  from a law enforcement, uh, agency. So those
• 53:10
  are important, but also safety things like not
• 53:11
  flying over people. Um, even in terms of a lot
• 53:14
  of times people get in trouble with drones. It's
• 53:16
  not even a drone related violation. It's a, like,
• 53:19
  it's a public no -no that you committed with
• 53:21
  a drone. Like you're flying, you're flying in
• 53:23
  legal space, but you're really close to your
• 53:25
  neighbor's property to where they could be concerned
• 53:27
  about privacy and like looking through the window.
• 53:29
  You know, that's not a drone rule, but it's like
• 53:32
  a societal. Etiquette type of thing that you
• 53:34
  could get in trouble for stuff like that right
• 53:37
  and they're not flying over crowds Over cars
• 53:40
  with that are moving with people inside of them.
• 53:42
  So those are some of the concerns Obviously,
• 53:45
  you know, some of the drones are so good. They
• 53:46
  essentially fly themselves So like maneuvering
• 53:48
  in space is just the thing you practice and learn
• 53:50
  but But they're they're fairly easy to use nowadays
• 53:54
  It's just a matter of the legal use of them So
• 53:58
  we're talking about drones and how they're going
• 54:01
  all over the place and you can fly them around
• 54:04
  different spaces. So for the next part here I'm
• 54:06
  just going to box you in a little bit. So I'm
• 54:08
  going to put you inside of a room. So you're
• 54:11
  inside of a makerspace or stem lab. What are
• 54:14
  the things that are going to make that space
• 54:17
  effective? Like what things would you include
• 54:20
  so that it's not just a room filled with stuff
• 54:22
  but it's like meaningful things that maybe they'll
• 54:26
  complement each other or at least provide a variety
• 54:29
  of things that kids can get into that teachers
• 54:32
  could use or someone in that space could use.
• 54:34
  What would you do with that room? OK, so I'm
• 54:37
  again going to answer in a way that's probably
• 54:39
  less exciting and not what you're looking for
• 54:41
  yet, but I will get to the fun stuff. But I do
• 54:43
  consulting on how to build maker spaces. I've
• 54:45
  built several as a teacher and as a coach. And
• 54:47
  where I always start again is with the why. And
• 54:50
  so before we even talk about all the cool things
• 54:52
  you want to do, I ask questions like what do
• 54:55
  you want students? doing in this room? What is
• 54:57
  the final project look like? What are the skills
• 54:59
  look like that they're working towards? And that's
• 55:02
  going to dictate what we buy. Also, who's in
• 55:04
  charge of this room and how do people access
• 55:06
  access it? Right. The whole if you build it,
• 55:09
  they will come that it doesn't work that way.
• 55:11
  Right. Like if you have a room that's only available
• 55:13
  during school hours and there's no after school
• 55:17
  or before school, then you have to figure out
• 55:19
  like. Who's who's in charge of that space during
• 55:22
  that time and like teaching teachers how to use
• 55:24
  it? How did teachers sign up so that two don't
• 55:26
  sign up for the same space at the same time?
• 55:29
  Who's responsible for checking inventory and
• 55:31
  ordering more and like managing the actual physical
• 55:34
  items and cleaning up the space and prepping
• 55:36
  it? Like is that all on teachers or do you have
• 55:38
  a point person who does that? Does that point
• 55:40
  person have the bandwidth in their schedule to
• 55:42
  take this on? Assuming every teacher decides
• 55:44
  they want to do something. Do you have a physical
• 55:48
  space that's not used by anything else so that
• 55:50
  it's available? You're gonna do before and after
• 55:52
  school. Who's managing it? Who's getting paid
• 55:54
  to do that? Because not everyone's gonna want
• 55:56
  to volunteer So like there's all these logistical
• 55:58
  things that a lot of times schools don't get
• 56:00
  into and I've made the same mistakes Which is
• 56:02
  why I have these conversations of like hey We'll
• 56:04
  just build us all some things stock it with toys
• 56:06
  and everybody will come use it. That's not necessarily
• 56:08
  the case, right? So I start there with like the
• 56:12
  who when how and figure out the logistics of
• 56:14
  how this is gonna work and do you as a school
• 56:17
  and district have the logistics in place and
• 56:20
  have the support for teachers going in here and
• 56:23
  using it. Do they believe that it's OK for them
• 56:24
  to step away from their curriculum and go in
• 56:27
  here and use this space to address their curriculum?
• 56:30
  Is that culture in place that can take time?
• 56:32
  It can take years to build that kind of culture
• 56:34
  where people are comfortable doing that. That
• 56:36
  said, assuming you've got all of that down, what
• 56:40
  are the things that I want in my space? Obviously,
• 56:43
  I want 3D printers. I love a good laser engraver.
• 56:47
  So, and I think, you know, Glowforge and similar
• 56:50
  ones like that. Not to shout out brands, but
• 56:52
  like that's one of the go -tos, right? Xtool
• 56:54
  is another great one. Anything that creates.
• 56:57
  I love Cricut machines. I love those because
• 57:01
  as much as I love my 3D printing, those are much
• 57:03
  faster technologies to create things right away.
• 57:06
  They're a little more expensive. But a 3D print
• 57:09
  like, you know, I'm pretty I'm actually like
• 57:11
  I got one eye on my printer camera right now
• 57:13
  because I'm printing an 11 hour print. That's
• 57:15
  essentially just a box. Whereas like carving
• 57:19
  that out of wood or engraving that out of something
• 57:21
  would have taken, you know, a matter of minutes,
• 57:23
  maybe rather than 11 hours. So I love those tools,
• 57:27
  your wood carving tools, your engraving tools,
• 57:29
  your your vinyl cutting tools. Those are the
• 57:32
  creation tools. It also, though, is grade specific.
• 57:35
  So like we're talking elementary. We need some
• 57:37
  tactile things. Legos. Love me a good box of
• 57:41
  Legos for creating things. You know, simple things
• 57:44
  that teach circuits like snap circuits and squishy
• 57:46
  circuits, stuff like that. There's a lot of great
• 57:49
  robotics tools out there. You've got your Ozobots.
• 57:52
  You've got probably some more than I can name
• 57:53
  Spheros. Those are popular. All of those are
• 57:56
  things I love. I don't, you know, drones. I don't
• 57:59
  necessarily need the drone in the maker space
• 58:01
  like that can be its own thing, but it could
• 58:03
  be a part of the maker space as well. If you're
• 58:06
  taking a multimedia approach, in which case multimedia,
• 58:09
  you might have a green screen. You might have
• 58:11
  a podcasting recording studio if you have such,
• 58:13
  you know, if you have space for such a thing.
• 58:16
  So I think all of those toys are fun, but it
• 58:19
  really it's hard to fully answer that until I
• 58:21
  know, you know, what are your goals? How is the
• 58:25
  space going to be used? How many kids? How much
• 58:27
  time are they going to have in there? And then
• 58:28
  let's make intelligent choices with our purchases
• 58:30
  from there, because you can always buy more.
• 58:33
  You can't return stuff a lot of times, right?
• 58:35
  You can always expand. It's a little harder to
• 58:36
  to contract things back down. So Eric, one of
• 58:40
  the things we end our conversations with is is
• 58:42
  what we call our lightning round here, right?
• 58:44
  It's a few questions that we just kind of sprinkle
• 58:46
  in. And you know, it's up to you if you want
• 58:49
  to give a one word response. If you want to make
• 58:51
  it one sentence, one paragraph, whatever you
• 58:53
  need to describe them, that that's totally cool.
• 58:56
  And we'll just kind of David and I will alternate
• 58:58
  between some of those. And we have got a little
• 59:00
  bit of a this or that kind of thing, too, that's
• 59:03
  built in. And so. I'm going to kick it off with
• 59:06
  the first one here. You know, what's a hobby
• 59:08
  that you have that surprises people? This is
• 59:12
  depends who you ask in my life, but if you only
• 59:14
  know me from this lens of all the nerdy things
• 59:17
  I'm into AI and 3D printing and drones. Chess
• 59:21
  is a hobby of mine that probably fits well with
• 59:23
  that, but you might be surprised to know that
• 59:25
  I'm a huge sports guy, particularly a basketball
• 59:28
  junkie. I coach high school freshman boys basketball.
• 59:31
  We just ended our season on Wednesday. And what's
• 59:34
  funny is, you know, I have a Twitter account
• 59:36
  that essentially is nothing but exists for my
• 59:39
  professional life, which is all the tech nerd
• 59:41
  stuff. But what I consume is nothing but basketball
• 59:45
  plays and basketball strategies nonstop, like
• 59:48
  a thousand things saved that I'm going to go
• 59:50
  back to one day and incorporate in my team. So
• 59:53
  was it a, you know, wins and losses, successful
• 59:56
  season, or was it, uh, the kids got better and
• 59:58
  improved and we, it made those basketball skills
• 1:00:01
  ready for the next level. I've been doing this
• 1:00:03
  10 years. I've definitely had both this year.
• 1:00:06
  Extremely successful. We won our Thanksgiving
• 1:00:08
  tournament. We won our Christmas tournament on
• 1:00:10
  a buzzer beater game, winner three for my center.
• 1:00:13
  And we went nearly undefeated. The only couple
• 1:00:16
  of games we lost were in overtime by a couple
• 1:00:17
  points. And we just sorry, guys, but we are a
• 1:00:20
  terrible free throw shooting team. I think we
• 1:00:21
  went three for 21 one game. So, yeah, a lot of
• 1:00:25
  cardio the next day in practice. Let me tell
• 1:00:27
  you. All right next one. What's one tool you
• 1:00:32
  love that you secretly wish had a different name?
• 1:00:36
  I'm so I'm gonna cheat and give you two first
• 1:00:37
  of all. It's not a Dongle why do they call the
• 1:00:41
  things dongles right like the Can we just go
• 1:00:45
  usbc on everything so we don't need to use the
• 1:00:49
  word dongle anymore I don't know what middle
• 1:00:51
  schooler came up with that just why? Why? I try
• 1:00:55
  to say adapter as much as possible, but you just
• 1:00:57
  can't eliminate that word from the vocab. The
• 1:00:59
  other one AI related Gemini has their image editing
• 1:01:02
  tool. Nano banana. God, it's fun to say one time,
• 1:01:07
  but you gotta stand in front of you. I'm a grown
• 1:01:09
  man standing in front of a room full of like
• 1:01:11
  educated adults and I gotta be like open nano
• 1:01:13
  banana then there. Yeah, I love you Google. I've
• 1:01:17
  done a lot of free marketing for you and I'm
• 1:01:19
  a Google trainer, Google coach, all those things,
• 1:01:21
  but yeah. No. We spent a bunch of time talking
• 1:01:26
  about STEM stuff. You know, what's the coolest
• 1:01:28
  student created thing that you've seen come out
• 1:01:31
  of a makerspace of STEM lab? That would be hard
• 1:01:35
  to pick one thing. I mean, I'm partial to that
• 1:01:38
  garden project I mentioned earlier. My students
• 1:01:40
  created that garden. You know, as a teacher near
• 1:01:43
  me, so Elmwood Park High School, I think the
• 1:01:47
  elementary school, they do this really cool food
• 1:01:49
  truck activity where the students have to design
• 1:01:52
  a food truck. They use Canva to make the menu
• 1:01:54
  and then they use Tinkercad to design the food
• 1:01:56
  trucks. So it's not like one thing, but like
• 1:01:58
  seeing these kids design all these different
• 1:02:00
  trucks and trying to hawk their different products,
• 1:02:03
  like everything from ice cream to tacos to whatever,
• 1:02:05
  you name it, man. If it's food centered, it's
• 1:02:07
  going to capture my heart. So that's the most
• 1:02:09
  recent cool thing that I've seen. Okay, so if
• 1:02:14
  your job had a mascot, what would it be and why?
• 1:02:18
  It would be an octopus. Because my job and my
• 1:02:23
  business, I've got my hands in so many pots,
• 1:02:26
  so I need eight arms, I need eight hands to actually
• 1:02:28
  get everything done and each one is doing a totally
• 1:02:31
  different thing. So today I'm teaching on AI
• 1:02:33
  policy, tomorrow I'm teaching 3D printing, then
• 1:02:35
  I'm teaching Canva, then I'm consulting about
• 1:02:39
  cyber security, you name it. They say that if
• 1:02:43
  there was another species that was going to evolve
• 1:02:45
  into like higher intelligence, it might've been
• 1:02:47
  octopi, octopus, octopi. Um, and so they're super
• 1:02:52
  smart and problem solvers. I saw this video of
• 1:02:54
  one that was like trapped in a jar and it figured
• 1:02:57
  out how to like unscrew the jar and like get
• 1:02:59
  itself out of it, which was amazing. And I even
• 1:03:02
  saw a video. I don't know if it's AI. OK, I'm
• 1:03:04
  going to fully admit that my media literacy maybe
• 1:03:07
  was weak here, but I saw a video of one that
• 1:03:08
  can kind of change colors and like blend into
• 1:03:10
  its environment. I don't know if that's real
• 1:03:12
  or not, but I'm going to run with it and say
• 1:03:14
  in my role, I have to be able to interact with
• 1:03:16
  everybody. I have to know how to blend in and
• 1:03:18
  talk with administrators on their level, talk
• 1:03:20
  with teachers, everything from pre K to all the
• 1:03:23
  way up to professors. You know, your office staff,
• 1:03:26
  parents like I'm having to interact with every
• 1:03:28
  stakeholder groups and know how to. kind of blend
• 1:03:31
  into that environment. So I'm going to go with
• 1:03:33
  octopus. All right, now we're going to trap you
• 1:03:36
  in a box here since you talked about the octopus
• 1:03:37
  in the jar here, right? And you only get a this
• 1:03:40
  or that answer, so it's one or the other. AI
• 1:03:44
  policy first or classroom experimentation first?
• 1:03:48
  Oh, are we talking for teachers? Let's go for
• 1:03:51
  teachers first and I'll follow up with students.
• 1:03:54
  Teachers experiment always. I mean, you should
• 1:03:56
  definitely go ask someone in charge if there's
• 1:03:59
  a policy. If there's not, I would not want a
• 1:04:02
  teacher to not experiment. In fact, no policy
• 1:04:05
  means, well, you probably should educate yourself
• 1:04:07
  on what's safe and what's recommended first,
• 1:04:10
  but then, yeah, you got to try things out because
• 1:04:12
  sometimes you can end up being the change that
• 1:04:15
  drives, you know, bigger change in your school.
• 1:04:17
  Same answer for students or different? Do what
• 1:04:20
  your teacher says, students. That's always the
• 1:04:24
  good fallback answer, right? Yeah, I don't need
• 1:04:26
  parents mad at me. while driving, podcasts or
• 1:04:29
  music? I'm a music guy, man. As much as I love
• 1:04:33
  this podcast and a couple others, I don't have
• 1:04:36
  the attention span. You ever been reading a book
• 1:04:38
  and you're three pages deep and you're like,
• 1:04:40
  did I even read any of the last? That's how I
• 1:04:43
  am when I listen to something auditory, right?
• 1:04:45
  So definitely a music guy. Stem as a separate
• 1:04:48
  class or integrated into each classroom? Don't
• 1:04:52
  make me choose. You're probably going to be surprised
• 1:04:54
  to hear this. I like it as a separate class if
• 1:04:56
  you had to choose. Because again teachers have
• 1:04:58
  so much on their plate. There's there's there's
• 1:05:00
  so much that goes into doing a good stem project
• 1:05:02
  I would love for people to give it a try but
• 1:05:04
  like if nothing else having a class where that's
• 1:05:07
  the dedicated time. That's the one I Think you
• 1:05:11
  answered this one, but you can just repeat it
• 1:05:13
  if you did Drones for cinematic video or coding
• 1:05:16
  flight plot fight flight paths. I can't talk
• 1:05:19
  today video all day man. Yeah. Yeah Are you a
• 1:05:23
  coffee guy or energy drink guy? I am a coffee
• 1:05:25
  guy. I bumped it up to two a day. I was never
• 1:05:28
  a two a day guy, but I don't I don't trust what's
• 1:05:30
  in energy drinks. You know, I don't I don't always
• 1:05:32
  know if I can't pronounce it. I'm not drinking
• 1:05:34
  it. So 3D printing, do you like rapid prototypes
• 1:05:38
  or the polished final project? I'm a perfectionist.
• 1:05:43
  I like the finished project and the number of
• 1:05:45
  times I will reprint things or like. try to finish
• 1:05:48
  them to make them perfect. The funny thing is
• 1:05:50
  people who aren't into 3D printing don't care
• 1:05:52
  nearly as much about the flaws. 3D printer people
• 1:05:54
  are like obsessed with, oh my God, look, that's
• 1:05:56
  a little out of place or look at that little
• 1:05:57
  edge is not perfect. And the person you give
• 1:06:00
  it to or sell it to is just like, oh, this is
• 1:06:02
  amazing. It's 3D printed and they don't see any
• 1:06:04
  of the flaws that you see. So yeah, finished
• 1:06:06
  products for me. Hands on teacher PD time or
• 1:06:10
  lecture for. Oh man. You already know the answer.
• 1:06:14
  Definitely hands on always. Yeah. Even if it's
• 1:06:16
  just hands on the keyboard, no one wants to hear
• 1:06:18
  me talk. No one wants to hear me talk. To attend
• 1:06:20
  a conference session, are you in the front row
• 1:06:23
  sitting taking notes or are you networking in
• 1:06:25
  the lobby? I'm in the back row taking notes so
• 1:06:28
  that I can jump out of there in 20 minutes and
• 1:06:31
  go to three sessions in an hour. So I'm, I'm,
• 1:06:34
  I'm. Cheating your question. I'm probably, it
• 1:06:37
  depends. If it's in Illinois, I just went to
• 1:06:38
  IdeaCon. I feel like I spent more time networking
• 1:06:40
  than anything. So maybe I'll learn that direction.
• 1:06:43
  Perfect. And future ready skills, creativity
• 1:06:45
  or problem solving? Problem solving. I think
• 1:06:48
  in order to solve problems, you often have to,
• 1:06:51
  you develop your creativity. And so I think you
• 1:06:54
  can kind of cheat and give both if we choose
• 1:06:55
  problem solving. All right. And then you're doing
• 1:06:59
  a keynote tomorrow, let's say. What's your walk
• 1:07:02
  up song? It depends. Am I going meaningful or
• 1:07:06
  just what I like, you know, any one of the WWE
• 1:07:10
  songs, you know, if I can get John Cena's music
• 1:07:12
  or something, it has nothing to do with it. Maybe.
• 1:07:16
  Let's see what else we got. If we want to go
• 1:07:19
  fully tech nerd, Daft Punk, Technologic, you
• 1:07:22
  know, all I do is win by DJ Khaled. Why not?
• 1:07:26
  Anything where DJ Khaled is yelling over the
• 1:07:28
  track. I think that's a good walk up song. If
• 1:07:31
  I really want to be dramatic about it, maybe
• 1:07:33
  Eminem lose yourself. right there's a good build
• 1:07:36
  up there i don't know i'm not in charge of those
• 1:07:39
  decisions luckily one of my favorite lose yourself
• 1:07:42
  uh versions now is the ai soul version so oh
• 1:07:46
  love it man there's no need spaghetti before
• 1:07:49
  the before the keynote yeah right uh well eric
• 1:07:54
  thanks for joining us and uh i just want to give
• 1:07:56
  you a quick second to uh highlight if you have
• 1:07:58
  anything coming up like um think that you want
• 1:08:01
  to get out there to people online stuff or any
• 1:08:07
  anything socials all that type of stuff yeah
• 1:08:10
  so I mean as far as socials I'm on I you know
• 1:08:13
  I'm not on a lot of socials but you can find
• 1:08:14
  me on LinkedIn better teaching is my organization
• 1:08:18
  You know, I do run a drone business, fly shy
• 1:08:20
  708. I run a 3D printing business called Oak
• 1:08:23
  Park Creation Lab. So all the things that I do
• 1:08:26
  training on all day, I also found, you know,
• 1:08:28
  tiny ways to turn into a business that I love
• 1:08:30
  and bringing joy to people in a variety of ways.
• 1:08:33
  So definitely check me out any of those places.
• 1:08:35
  My organization, the LTC. My who I work for,
• 1:08:39
  you know, my nine to five, they have a great
• 1:08:40
  conference lineup of conferences. So check out
• 1:08:44
  LTC, Illinois or to see what they offer. If you're
• 1:08:47
  a district that likes. Any of the things that
• 1:08:49
  I've talked about any of the technologies and
• 1:08:52
  just wants somebody to consult somebody come
• 1:08:54
  out and do training for your staff within Illinois.
• 1:08:56
  I do that through LTC outside of Illinois. I
• 1:08:58
  do that through better teaching. Even if you're
• 1:09:00
  not an education institution, libraries, community
• 1:09:03
  organizations, businesses, I do webinars, I do
• 1:09:06
  keynotes, reach out to me and I'm happy to help
• 1:09:08
  out. Awesome. We'll be sure to put your links
• 1:09:11
  and things in the descriptions of the show and
• 1:09:13
  in the podcast description. So. Yeah, thanks
• 1:09:17
  again for your time. It's a wealth of knowledge
• 1:09:18
  and we really appreciate you sharing it with
• 1:09:20
  us. Thank you all. Yeah, appreciate you all having
• 1:09:23
  me. Thank you. Thanks for listening to Integrate
• 1:09:26
  This. Want to take your learning further? Head
• 1:09:29
  over to our YouTube channel for quick tutorials,
• 1:09:32
  deep dives, and more ed tech tips you can use
• 1:09:34
  right away. Don't forget to subscribe and catch
• 1:09:38
  new podcast episodes every Thursday on Apple,
• 1:09:42
  Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Until
• 1:09:45
  next time, keep exploring, keep innovating and
• 1:09:49
  keep integrating this.