Latest / The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District / Episode #47- Gavin Lees, Director of Technology Integration

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Episode #47- Gavin Lees, Director of Technology Integration · The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the Recess Podcast.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Alan Spacotti, the proud superintendent of the Auburn School District.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: The Recess is a tool I use to take you behind the scenes so that we can get out some amazing stories of our staff, of our students, some programs that are making a big difference in our district.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: We have students coming up really soon because we're almost to graduation season, believe it or not.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm looking forward to those.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: But we're uh still closing out the year with some staff interviews, and we're gonna have a good one today.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: So my guest today is Gavin Lees, and he is the director of technology integration, and we'll talk about what that means for the Auburn School District.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Gavin is a great leader in our district and helps to bridge our technology program with uh the application in the classroom, so supporting teachers so that it makes a difference for students.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh less, a little less on the technical side, although he knows plenty about that as well.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but really, how does our technology, our one-to-one investment that our community has supported make a difference in student learning?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, without further ado, let me introduce Gavin Lees.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the show.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks very much.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Long-time listener, first-time caller.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: All right, good.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: I've always wanted to do talk radio.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so we'll play along there.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um Gavin, we're gonna start with a question I ask every guest.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Who was your favorite teacher and why?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: I can't believe you're making me choose this.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm so start off with all apologies to Mrs.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Beck, my primary one teacher, who for about 12 years of my uh my school career was what I would have said was my favorite teacher.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh she was amazing, but my my my favorite teacher was my uh my high school English teacher, my final year in high school, who who taught me higher English, Mrs.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Laurie, who was amazing.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and she is she's the one who made me want to be a teacher.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and she's also the one who made me fall in love with English.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Up until my my fifth year, I had been dead set on becoming an architect, which my my parents were very excited about because it was a good middle class career.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then after um after going through Mrs.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Laurie's class and opening up the the world of literature and just kind of being completely ensorceled by poetry and and drama, I think you know, I want to be an English teacher, and I think they just my parents were just like, oh my gosh, what has she done to her son?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um he was full of such promise, but um, but no, she she was amazing, and like I said, like just made made me fall in love with language and things that I never thought I I would enjoy, like poetry.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you've said poetry to me before then, I would just be like, oh no, I don't I don't like it.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And um and she really just kind of like opened up this whole new world of like the you know the ambiguity of language and you know everything that you could do with words uh and communication, and it was just it was just really really mind expanding.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And she she retired a couple of years ago.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and I know that because during during COVID year, um every year I have a uh a resolution, um, and my resolution during during COVID year, which started in January before we even knew it was going to be COVID year, uh, was to write letters of gratitude to people one once a month.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so my first one was to write a letter of gratitude to to Mrs.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Laurie and just kind of like send her updates about where, you know, being, you know, letting her know that, you know, she made me fall in love with English and want to be a teacher and kind of where that had taken me in life, you know, that I'm not living in Scotland anymore, I'm living in Seattle and and all this.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you know, you probably don't remember me, you know.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was probably, you know, just another kid in your class, but this is this is kind of what what she did, what you did for me.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and she wrote me back, um, which was amazing, and she said, No, no, I remember you, and she sent me a photocopied stack of all my essays that I had written for her in my fifth uh in my fifth year.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so that must have been what, 1997, 1998, and this was 2020.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: She still had copies of my uh of my essays, and she said, I still use these as examples in my class um to show people what good writing looks like.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, oh my gosh, this is unbelievable.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: So uh well, that's quite a story, and uh it is it's powerful how teachers make a difference in students' lives.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, I've heard this story many times.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, of a student in one direction, the teacher recognizes something and they move in another direction that that really suits them.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then I love the the theme of gratitude and reaching out, and that's something you know anybody listening to this podcast has had teachers and and can do.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And uh fortunately with uh social media and and all that these days, it's a little bit easier to get a hold of folks you might have lost touch with.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I love that.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: I encourage you to do that.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I've I've enjoyed actually have kind of become a bit of a pen pal with my middle school principal, who's just been a wonderful cheerleader uh as I've moved into education, and he's he was a marvelous educator.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: So good for you, Gavin.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about your journey then.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: So after Miss Laurie's class, what was your journey to becoming the director of technology integration in the Auburn School District?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's it's a long one.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to university a year early and studied English, um, was still, you know, still determined it was going to be a teacher.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I did my four-year English degree, got my master's in English, and then did my teaching degree and started teaching English in schools in uh in West Lothian and in Scotland.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh loved it.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then one day my principal wheeled this thing into my classroom, which was a smart board, which no one had heard of back then, and said this would have been 2004.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, 2004.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he wheeled this into my classroom uh and said, You're good with technology.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: You think you can figure this thing out?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll give it a shot.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so so that that was me.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was what like second year teacher at that point, and just you know, had had the smart it's it was wasn't the ones that we've got in the schools now that was all integrated.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was like I had a projector, it was hooked up to desktop PC and everything.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of pretty, pretty MacGyvery.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I obviously I was really excited about technology, I was good with computers, and so I was like, oh, this is great, I you know I can do all these things with it, and so I became like the school tech person, and people would like come to my room to do professional development by using technology to teach and things, and which I didn't know any different.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that that was a weird thing to happen.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So so that kind of went on that I was just kind of the the tech guy and it was but still very happy teaching English.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then a couple of years later, uh someone from the our our di our council, which is like the equivalent of our district, came to me and said, Do you fancy doing a sabbatical for a year?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: What's that?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so they're like, Oh, you know, you would come and you would join our team and you would do you know teaching and technology stuff um around the the whole the whole district.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, that sounds fun.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it so I did that for for a year and it was really exciting.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So after that one year, um I moved to Seattle.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um so this was 2008, and was you know back to teaching English, and you know, thought that was just kind of like a a one-year thing, a nice little kind of like you know, detour from my teaching career.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but after about four or five years, I was maybe starting to get a little bit itchy and just feeling like I wanted to spread my wings a little bit.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh a role came up in Edmonds School District looking for uh an instructional technology coach, and so I applied for that and got that job, and and that was um and that was great.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I was in that role for about five years.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually moved into the the manager in in that department, and so taking on more of a leadership role, uh, went to school and got my principal credentials, and then um from there the the job of being an assistant director in in Auburn came up, and so I applied for that and thankfully was successful and have been in Auburn ever since.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've been here for what, seven years now, which so I like to tell people is the longest I've ever been able to hold down a job.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So um and yeah, so it's it's been great, and and Auburn has has been a great experience.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Been I you know loved everything that we've been able to achieve here.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: So, Gavin, before we get too deep into your role uh working on the instructional technology side of things, can you briefly share just a little bit about the Department of Technology?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what are some of the main functions?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, who are a few of the you know the key players and leaders in the department so that our audience knows where your work fits into the tech department?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: For for a small department of uh of 18 people, we have uh a number of different teams all work together to make technology work in the district.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm one of the only people who is uh a former teacher in uh in the department.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um obviously we have our assistant superintendent, Dr.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Luann Decker, who heads up the department.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um but everyone else is really from that more uh professional technical side of things.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we have our engineers, uh we have our technicians, and we have our data services team.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, data services people deal with Skyward and all of those uh student accounts and making sure those all kind of work together with our technology systems, our engineers make sure that the the network uh is is up and running as as often as it can be, uh, you know, making sure our email is is there, dealing with cybersecurity, which is becoming more of a uh a challenge in in recent years, and making sure that our staff and students are protected from uh outside threats.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then our technicians are probably the ones who are most visible to uh to our staff because they're the ones who are out there in our buildings and schools and helping to repair Chromebooks, fix problems that are uh surfacing in the buildings, and you know, helping uh the schools with it with their inventory and their purchasing.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um so all all of all of those teams really help to uh make the technology work, and then I'm there to make sure that people can use it.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I think that's really where uh where I kind of like and some some of the glue that kind of keeps those uh keeps those teams together.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you putting it into context.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll just put in a plug, our team is small but mighty.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh if you look at you know the explosion of devices we've had on the network, both our devices, personal devices on the guest network, uh, it's extraordinary.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, in difficult budget times for school districts around the state, we've we've uh actually kind of tightened our belt and lost some staff, but the team's doing great, and then you are um aided uh significantly by some amazing tech savvy teachers in the building, librarians, other staff uh who bring it all together for our students.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Can you explain what technology integration is?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Your your title as director of technology integration.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds loftier than actually is.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's really just like w when we have articles of technology like Chromebooks, like uh, you know, our uh interactive panels, uh, and we bring those into the classroom, how do we integrate them with core content and instruction in in the classrooms?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not about actually connecting wires between things, it's really about the people.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh how do we train people?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: How do we empower students to be able to use technology in a way that's gonna enhance their learning?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and what do you what do you do in that role?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Give maybe a few day-to-day examples of how you support teachers or help us uh design our program.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, no two days are the same.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a lot of what I do is work with uh our teacher leaders.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we have our ITSSs, our instructional technology support specialists in all of our buildings.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Have 32 of them now, and they are our teacher leaders.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I work with them, I answer emails from them, I provide support, um, we do regular meetings and training uh with this group to really make sure that they are uh on the cutting edge of what's going on with uh technology and instruction.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so that they can answer questions, they can provide training, they can uh offer one-on-one support in the schools to other teachers so that we're starting to grow our capacity for uh for how we use technology in in classrooms.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's where I get that's a lot of the people work that I do, which I really enjoy.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're an amazing group of educators, um, and really get enjoy getting to work with them.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the behind the scenes stuff falls to me as well.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of budget work that I get to do, things dealing with the filter, um, because our students like to misuse their Chromebooks from time to time, and so we have to make sure that our filter is uh is is all set up to try and minimize any disruption.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so looking at the the back end in administration with some of our technology systems as well is partly what I do, and really bringing that instructional lens to it, um, you know, as being a former teacher, being working a lot of the time with our classroom teachers, uh just making sure that the decisions we make are good for instruction as well as good for technology.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, one of the things I'm very thankful for in the Auburn School District in our community is the support we've had for technology levies.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Just, you know, a brief overview of school funding.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of the formulas that fund our schools today uh are quite old and precede a lot of the modern environment of schools.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: And one area that we see that is technology.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: So without a dedicated source of funding, we'd really be in the dark ages.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: In 2014, the community funded our first technology levy that helped us move to one-to-one devices, which we are grateful that we had in place um before that disruption in 2020.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Then we've renewed that that technology levy two times and sustained the things that we've been able to put in place and incrementally, I think, increased it.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: We've worked with a citizens ad hoc committee to determine the needs.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, you know, as I sat in on the last process, they were I I felt like, you know, very level-headed and aspirational, but also had their feet on the ground.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and, you know, unfortunately, there were things that we would have liked to do that they said, well, you know, it can't be a blank check.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we kind of dealt with that in the in the the good and bad of the budget process.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but it's really powered so many amazing things that we do as a district with technology.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: So my gratitude to the community, speaking of gratitude, and my question for my guest, Gavin, is what projects, programs, devices, and initiatives are funded with the technology levy?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Essentially anything that's got power and Wi-Fi is funded by the the technology levy, is probably the simplest way of people to understand that.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: But um, so all of our classroom technology, all of our Chromebooks, all of those interactive flat panels, um, the networking and the Wi-Fi that connects all the devices and gets us out onto the internet, all of that technology infrastructure is funded by the levy.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: We've also had some enhancements for security, so our security cameras that are uh in our schools are also funded by the levy.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see that's the kind of the visible part of it is all the stuff that it puts into our schools and and buildings.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think probably what people maybe don't see is some of the people uh and the training that the the technology uh technology levy also funds.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we have ten of our Department of Technology staff who are funded through that.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: So people who are able to kind of implement the technology, support it, um, our technicians that work in our buildings, uh, people who are behind the scenes making sure you know our security cameras are working, all those people are are funded by um by the levy.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: We also have seven hours of training funded for our certificated staff so that when we roll out new technology, so when staff get their new Chromebooks, uh we're able to pay them for training to learn how to use it, not just operate the device, but how it integrates into their classroom and other opportunities that may come up throughout the year as we continue to roll out new technology.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything you want to highlight that is new in the the 2025 tech levy that uh the voters just approved that you're excited about?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's not gonna be a lot of new things that people are gonna notice in their classrooms and and in their buildings.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of the stuff uh that's new is gonna be behind the scenes, but which doesn't mean it's it's not exciting.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: One of the big things is gonna be our safety and security improvements, so uh updated security cameras at our our buildings and our entranceways, uh just making sure that our learning environments are super secure and modernized.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: We also have some new staffing that's funded by that, uh, which is our assistive technology position.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: So working with our student special services department, they have uh a role which is for very, very specialized equipment for students with uh with differing needs.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they have different accessibility needs to access technology.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's someone there who's going to be an expert in uh assessing and providing that additional technology, which is which is great.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing I'm probably most excited about is our uh revamp of our digital citizenship curriculum.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Digital citizenship is kind of one of the, I don't know, pillars of of my work, I feel, in instructional technology, making sure that students and teachers are equipped to access the internet in a safe and responsible way.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also dealing with a lot of the challenges that that technology can throw into the educational process, understanding media literacy, understanding information literacy, and you know, so it's through social media, how do we deal with disinformation and misinformation that might be out there and understanding good sources and dealing with copyright and plagiarism, um, and a lot of the things that have become really heightened in recent years, especially with uh the advent of AI, when sometimes the the processes through which information is provided to us can be a little bit more opaque than it used to be.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: So making sure that our students are are really equipped to to face this kind of like new age of information technology um in a safe and responsible way.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: I want to build on that uh because obviously what is on people's minds today is AI.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that you and your colleagues have done a lot of work in the last year or two to help us uh responsibly leverage AI and you know protect students and protect data, but also to help empower students who will be living in a world that is very different than the one that I grew up in.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so you want to just talk about that process and how you face that challenge and what tools our teachers have to work through it?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: AI kind of dropped like a bomb in uh November of 2022 when when Chat GPT was was released.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um it wasn't the the first AI tool by by any any means, but it was the first of these large language models that was using natural language to be able to communicate with with computers and provide information.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, being very techy and nerdy, I was there in like maybe day one uh trying out this thing and asked it to write a five-paragraph essay, and there it was.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it that was um it was it was scary and exciting in equal measure because all of a sudden things that we had been training our students to be able to do uh was available at the the click of a button with almost no thought.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so the the big question was like, what does this mean for education?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think our our first response was to let's block it for now and let's do some learning and let's talk to some people and let's do some, you know, let's proceed with caution uh before we do anything that could, you know, damage our students' learning or damage teachers' instruction.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: So so that's that was that was our approach.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: We we we blocked it for a while, um, and then we formed uh an AI committee with students, with teachers.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we also reviewed the the findings that were put together by this group with our DTEC group, which includes some families and community members.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we really had uh a wide variety of people coming together to to talk about AI, to think about how we want to approach this in the Auburn School District and to develop guidelines.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so we had about three or four uh meetings with with that group to really process and think and and develop what what I think are still really good guidelines.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we were kind of one of the first ten districts maybe uh in the state of Washington to to put out guidelines.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we were pretty we were pretty on on the the cutting edge there with that work.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think that served us pretty well in how we've we've rolled out AI.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Since we're on the hot topics uh part of the program here, uh the other thing that I think has really been in the in the public conscience is Is um what it's like to grow up in this age of screen time, and that you know, that's I think an evolving subject.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: As an education community, uh, I think we we may have been a little bit late to this party, but we have gotten very clear about phones and the distraction they can cause, and uh obviously some of the mental health impacts of social media and so forth.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, like in Auburn School District in in the fall of 2025, we took a united stand uh to not have uh you know personal devices, phones specifically, in the classroom environment, and depending on your grade level, you could maybe use them at lunch or not, or passing time and so forth.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: That conversation, I would say nationally continues around all technology in school.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: As somebody who thinks about this probably more than just about anybody, uh, what are your thoughts?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: And is there, you know, good or bad, or a certain amount that you think is beneficial and then too much is not?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: Just how do you think about that and what would you want the audience to be thinking about?
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: What would you want parents to be thinking about?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because kids are on devices a whole lot outside of school as well.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, screen screen time is a is a really interesting one.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and certainly having been there at the the onset of one-to-one in in education, which kind of started rolling about 2012, 2013, that was that was one of the the concerns from from our families was well, how much are they going to be on a screen every day now?
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the big takeaways or maybe misunderstandings about screen time is that not all screen time is created equally.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: That there is creative screen time and there is passive screen time.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you are in a classroom and you're using your Chromebook to write an essay, to create a podcast, to make a video, to make a slideshow, and you're using that to process your thinking and access higher order thoughts, that is really positive use of screen time.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is something that is enhancing your cognitive capacity, um, and it's something that is is really beneficial to our students.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: And certainly as they enter the world of work, I mean you and I are on computers all the time, um, and I don't hear anyone really can being concerned about our screen time because it's how we it's how we do business in in the world now.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: But what is concerning is the is the passive screen time, you know, the the mindless scrolling of of YouTube shorts or you know social media on your phone, just those endless doom scrolls that students can get locked into that have less than beneficial effects on their developing brains.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I I would say that's number one is what people need to understand, and not all screen time is is the same.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And and also I think that when we're using digital tools in classrooms, we really need to be mindful of how we're using digital tools and the purpose of them.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: We have a framework that we've been using for years called SAMR, uh SAMR, which stands for substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition, that really speaks to how technology redesigns learning and how and how it can do things that we couldn't do before on on paper and pencil.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really always been our challenge to educators is to use the technology to really transform what they can do in their classroom.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: If they're not using technology for a purpose that couldn't be done on paper and pencil, why use it?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: If we're not going to use the technology to its full extent, is there a use for it?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so to be mindful of again just that that technology use and not having students been spending too much time on a computer in classroom if it's not accessing those really higher order thinking skills.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's the that that's another thing.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's something we we, me, as uh you know, a technology department, um, maybe need to do a better job of uh communicating to our community as well, is that when we use Chromebooks in schools, it's for really positive purposes and it's to do things that um that we couldn't do before.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it's for things that are very unique and things that are really gonna aid students in their learning, as opposed to just being on kind of drill and kill math programs or kind of just you know using them as fancy digital worksheets.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: We we don't really want that anymore.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: We we started with that because that's where we were when we first tried transitioned to Chromebooks, but now when technology is used in classrooms, we really want it to be uh something a little more elevated than what we did before.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: Any advice for parents as they navigate this digital world with their children?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: I I think about I have a superintendent student advisory, and we took this on a few years ago and had the kids like raise their hands if you know how many of you are on a uh a device one hour, every hand goes up, two, three, four, most of the hands are up.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: I I think one of the students said he he's on a device 13 hours a day and sometimes past midnight, and it just was you know eye-opening to me.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: So uh this is a challenge for parents.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I dealt with this myself as a parent, where to draw the line uh and how to think about what's best for your uh growing child.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think number one piece of advice to to families is use securely home.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Securely home is the the app that we provide to to all our families that allows them to see the student activity in the Chromebook and to set bedtime limits and to restrict the use of certain websites at home.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so if you don't want your student sitting on YouTube until two o'clock in the morning, you can block it on Securely Home.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you want them to turn that machine off at 11 o'clock and it doesn't start up again until 7 o'clock the next day, you can do that through Securely Home.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: And there are similar tools that are available for uh for cell phones as well.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think some families are interested in these tools and they just don't know that that they exist.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I think we just need to continue to communicate to our families that there is support for these and that they're not alone uh in facing these challenges.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: That was uh great advice for families.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna uh take this back into schools.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: And uh my next question is what are some opportunities our students have because of our robust technology programs?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean we I I was talking earlier about you know, you you and I do do all of our work on computers, and I think that no matter what industry our our students are gonna uh head into once they they leave school, they're they're gonna be using technology in in some form.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: So they're they're getting used to responsible use of technology, that's great.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I think when when I think about those opportunities, I also think about our our immigrant and our refugee families that we have in our school community.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they've come from places where they maybe haven't had opportunities to use computers before, they're not really a part of their life, and so um this is kind of their first exposure to some of these skills.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I think that they're getting a real a real great opportunity to learn how to use technology in a way that they can learn, that they can empower themselves, uh, learning how to do research, learning how to extend their learning beyond the school day.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that is that is really my hope for a one-to-one programme that when a student takes it home, it's not a device for watching YouTube.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's a device where they can extend their passions, they can indulge in, they can disappear down those ri Wikipedia rabbit holes and just get lost in learning about something that they're not gonna learn at school, but they can direct their their own learning.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: And especially when they get beyond school and into college and into their career, these are the kind of skills uh and to be able to kind of like learn how to ignite their passions, learn how to seek out that that new learning.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's what's really gonna stand them in good stead for the rest of their life.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Gavin.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Let me uh I'll double down and we'll see where you go with this.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I'm wondering if there is one tool or program you think has had a profound impact on teaching and learning, and if yes, what is that?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you a complete cop-out answer because the the number one tool that's a profound impact on learning is a teacher.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think well played.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, I I and that that's sometimes what what's missed in all this, and when we think about what tools and what technology that that we're funding for for classrooms.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, a Chromebook is just a really expensive paperweight if there isn't a really skilled educator at the front of the classroom directing the uh directing the learning and teaching students how to use it responsibly, using it to empower learning, using it to really bring technology and education into the the 21st century in our classrooms.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect answer.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it comes back to teaching, and there's reams and reams of research that uh affirms that point in every other part of learning.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: So why wouldn't that be true for uh instructional technology as well?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's uh move to wrap up and we're gonna just end with a a softball.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: But I know you obviously our our audience now knows that you have a tremendous passion for this work.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: What is your favorite part of your job?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think the most I think the the best part of my job is how much I get to learn.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean when we're like you're asking me about, you know, AI and the screen time uh debate that's that's happening.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: I got a lot I I get to, as part of my job, read like a 219-page report from the Brookings Institute about AI use and and its effectiveness and all these kind of meta-studies about screen time to try and kind of like unpack what's going on in in the world and how that affects um not just you know education but specifically students in Auburn.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think that that's that's really exciting to me.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm a massive nerd.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: I love I love reading, I love learning.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so to be able to get to do that every day and have that be part of my job, I I think is is really exciting.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh on behalf of our district, I'm thankful that you dig into those 219-page reports uh so that we're thinking deeply about these challenging issues of our time.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks for for all you do uh in your role as director of technology integration and really just as a thought leader and a partner for our teachers in using our community's investment in educational technology uh to the maximum effectiveness.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Gavin, I really appreciate what you do and and your team uh in technology.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna start to wrap up and we're gonna do it with the fun question we always end with.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: What was your favorite thing to do at recess?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was in primary school, that that's elementary school for for the Americans listening.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: When I was in primary school, our school was like just down the road from a corner shop.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you spent your lunch money right throughout the week, you would have just enough money left uh on Friday to get a pack of sweets from the corner shop.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was about maybe five minutes' walk, and we got a 15-minute break.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: So on Fridays, the the best thing to do at recess was to see if you could run out of the school playground, down to the corner shop, get your sweets and be back in time to eat them before the bell rang for for uh for class starting again.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that was, I don't know, it just I'm sure the teachers knew we were doing it.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think we were technically allowed to leave, but I think it was kind of one of those things they just kind of turned a blind eye to it.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: But it made us feel like kings of the world when we were able to come back to school with a pack of sweets.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what that says about us.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that was a unique answer and actually really uh wonderfully told.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh thank you, Gavin.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: My my guest has been Gavin Lees, our directory of technology integration, uh, really our leader for all things instructional technology, and he's part of that great team we have uh looking after all of our tech for the district.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, Gavin, thanks for being a guest on the Recess Podcast.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: This was fun.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was fun too.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I'd like to thank our editor and producer, Vicky Alonzo, uh, for making these podcasts sound great and getting them out to the community.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'd also like to encourage everybody listening to uh share if if you heard something interesting that you know somebody else would be interested in, maybe a parent, uh maybe another teacher, maybe just somebody with a sweet tooth, uh please recommend this podcast to them.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: We want to get the word out about the amazing work that our staff are doing to support our students.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and like I said, pretty soon we'll be talking to students uh in the graduating class of 2026.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be back with another great story in a couple weeks.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Until then, I'll see you on the recess podcast.