 Hello, everyone. Welcome. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us. This is a PD in your PJ specifically for Technology integration is so if you are out there listening and you support teachers in any way As they are integrating technology. We are really excited to have you here. I'm Angela I work with the seesaw team. I am out of my classroom where I taught kindergarten for 15 years And I'm super excited to have you here with us today if you are joining via the recording welcome as well We're glad that we have squeezed you in in that mode, too I also want to let you know that we are having this type of session for you every single month So I know sometimes it's easier to kind of get your calendar blacked out So please join us the second Wednesday of each month. Of course This is available all over the world. So it might be Thursday if you're joining us from, you know, the Southern Hemisphere or Special air friends in New Zealand and Australia, but this is kind of the US times mapped out here So make sure you reserve that spot Next month that will be May 8th is the second Wednesday of the month So super excited to have you here and we are really here to support your work Today, I'm really excited to introduce our host Wesley fryer He is a director of technology at the Cassidy School a pre-k through 12th grade independent school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma He also co-leads the digital citizenship team at Cassidy School with the school Psychologist and is facilitating a series of parent University sessions this month and I have to say I I Have been a long fan of Wes and also his wife Shelly and they do amazing work to support teachers all around the world really and do do Tremendous work. So I'm thrilled to have Wes here and actually my story of inviting him here as I was actually in the airport perusing at some of The amazing sharing that happens on Twitter and ran across Wes's blog posts about this very topic. So Reached out to him and said you have to come and talk to this. I know we have so many tech integrationists from around the world that Run into kind of the same situation each day as they're supporting teachers. So Wes welcome. I'm so glad to have you here Well, thank you so much. It is a privilege to join you today from Oklahoma City And this is something that you know I've run into on a weekly if not a daily basis and it actually started with some tweets On a Friday evening when I shared a few different things I don't know if you all if you're on Twitter have have done a tweet thread So it's when you write one and then you basically reply to that same one and sometimes people do like a slash one slash two Anyway, you you go beyond the 240 characters And boy the responses that I had were very positive and so ended up sharing it as a blog post And here we are, you know talking about this in a webinar But you can follow me on Twitter at W fryer and speed of creativity is my blog So this is a little graphic that I made to a little Star Wars shout-out here You know like the force is strong with this one the fear of technology is strong with this one and I have that's probably all this do in our schools a whole lot of hats that I wear and I really have been using this phrase technology fear therapist in all seriousness probably for Almost a year now because I am frequently confronted with someone saying something like this, you know I'm just not a technology person and This part they might not exactly articulate, but it's what they're saying and I just can't use these tools You know, I'm just not able I'm just not, you know native to this You know throwback to Mark Prinsky and his whole digital natives digital immigrants early 2000s You know that that's just something that's kind of stuck in a lot of people's brains And so I've I've really kind of puzzled with this like okay People are identifying themselves as I am not this it's not something about I'm choosing today or this is temporary But like this is this is kind of my identity and so one of my responses to this is that you know Defining ourselves today as technology illiterate Really is a problem Because We are living in a day where technology is increasingly like the air we breathe and the water we drink and just you know the environment in which we live and I am certainly aware as I think all of us are that screens are powerful and they can be addictive they can get in the way of our relationships and We see this with kids, but shoot we see it with adults all the time, right? Just you know look at any group who is out to dinner at a restaurant and just count the screens and how many you know How many people's eyes are on their screen and not on perhaps somebody who's sitting there at the table with them? But here's the point in our era of digital Communication if we refuse to Embrace tools and embrace our potential I guess as learners to be able to Learn how to do things in a different way and use different tools that could almost be Construed as an admission of illiteracy and even worse a desire to remain illiterate And so we talk about different digital divides that exist today, and I really think there is a Digital divide between those especially adults because you don't hear kids real. I don't hear students You know saying this as much I do some I was just listening. I think in our in one of our yearbook Classes the other day and one of the students was talking about how you know She's just done as a depth with the technology and it was funny. Actually. She was talking about how Well her her parent have been talking to her about Excel and Excel skills and she really needed to you know Hone up on those but you know why is all this happening? Well part of this is happening because of how quickly change is occurring, right? We've probably heard you know speakers or people on TED Talk say that you know It took a decade for the you know cassette or for the CD player to replace You know cassettes and even when cassettes came about, you know, it was a long time I mean radio was what like the 1940s we we had decades of time where we Transitioned between these different kinds of predominant media technologies and when you think about the iPod which was what like 2001 maybe 2002 The iPhone was in 2007 ushering in the era of the smartphone You know YouTube I will Gmail what just turned 15, right? YouTube I think that was around in 2006 maybe I'm not getting I didn't look that date up But here's the point we really need To have technology fear therapists and so in the session I want to share with you just a few ideas of what that might mean and Some tips that I am trying to Remember and and live into because of course this isn't my title right my official title is director of technology for our school But as someone who is very interested and invested in seeing that technology tools are not just used But they're used well and hopefully used transformative Lee These conversations are really important. So the first tip is to build relationships of trust One of the things that I've learned. This is my fourth year to be a school technology director It's just how important it is for me to walk around, right? I mean I could stay in my office most of the day Maybe but you know, we we're we're a campus of 18 different buildings We're in four different, you know divisions with our primary and kindergarten in one building We got four through for first to fourth and another in middle school in high school And so it just I've learned that it's so important to be present because people will say things to me because I'm the technology guy And they'll remember things but the relationships that we build and the ways in which You know, I'm able to as I'll talk later kind of identify some of their pain points. What are they working on? It's just vital, right? So we think about technology people maybe as oh, you're a technology person But I really think our most important role and this is true as educators Is to build relationships and to have relationships of trust? I already mentioned this idea of a pain point So the second tip would be Identifying what frequent technology use pain points are There are some things that we'll talk about passwords a little bit here in a minute that today are just part of the landscape They're part of what we all you know have to deal with because we're banking and we're you know, getting our health care and we're you know dealing with an environment where increasingly Companies are putting things online and make making things paperless, etc And so there are some things that are common to a lot of different folks And then there are some unique things that people are facing You know, we have a lot of Teachers now using Apple TV and using Airplay and they're able to wirelessly connect their laptop or their iPad or their phone You know to their to their screen So we have some designated teachers in each of our Divisions that are the the liaison sir the first line of help if you know something goes wrong and somebody needs some technical help Well, we've added, you know resolving Airplay Apple TV issues to kind of a short list Of having trouble printing, you know, my Wi-Fi is not connecting I need to reset my password, you know some things like that and so that list can grow But I think it's really important to identify what those pain points are and then maybe we can offer Either through the support team that we work with at our school Maybe it's through some traditional professional development or maybe it's just you know Mentioning something at a faculty-wide meeting and so some of these things I've had an opportunity to share When our faculty and staff, you know, all get together a couple times a year and Presentations I'll choose to talk about some of these things and this is one of those topics. So tip number three It regards passwords and I will not ask everyone to you know, have a little confessional here How many of us still use that, you know, one special password that we started to use maybe in the The mid 90s or the late 90s or whenever, you know, we started to really, you know Use email and use these different kinds of web accounts Well, the reality today is that, you know, there are more people than ever online That means there are more folks Unfortunately with malicious and criminal even intent about trying to take advantage of people whether that is Compromising somebody's bank account and identity theft Or it can even, you know, it could just be gaining access to the network that you have at school There's a whole lot of reasons why we are we are targets and we are Needing to be more protective than ever and one of the most important things we've got to do is use Complex which means a lot of characters and probably some special characters Not just, you know, alphanumeric but asterisks and exclamation points and things like that and then unique characters And man, this is a tough ask, right? I don't think any of us have the ability to remember Random, you know, 20, 30 character passwords and have a different password for every site I just think that's Cognitively as far as our brain there are going to be some special people like photographic memory people who could do that But most of us can't and so this is a really Important thing I think to to talk with people repeatedly It's not going to be something most people are just going to flip a switch and oh, yeah, I just I just did that I'm now using complex unique passwords on, you know, every single website, but The this is a website I have used and continue to use with our faculty and others to help show the importance of Having unique passwords. This is a website put together by a security researcher We would call this person a white hat versus a black hat And it's called have I been pwned it looks like pawn, but I think it's pronounced pwned and that means hacked And so this site if you just put in your email address and search will show how many large scale breaches or, you know Security hacks that have involved your email address and then what information was compromised now Not everyone is going to include your password But some of them do include social security numbers some of them do include passwords there's other kinds of demographic information and So, you know, if you're using that quote one special password that you've used for so long You know, there are programs today that will go through all the major banking You know, do you bank at Wells Fargo? Do you bank at Citibank? And it will try that Combination that email and that password and so anyway, it isn't I am a big I'm a big advocate of not trying to scare people and go over the top with fear, right? That's why it's a technology fear therapist We're not technology fear creators or technology fear amplifiers, but a technology fear therapist is going to help Others and we're gonna do this for ourselves to Understand risks, but not be so frozen by fear that we do things that are irrational or you know Not not productive and safe and so password securities are really a important place to start and this is what we recommend at our school It is free. We do not host this or pay for this are our own. This is called last pass Com and so I listen to Different kinds of podcasts. I'll do a shout out to the twit network security now podcast Leo Laporte and Steve Oh gosh, I'm gonna drop Steve's name Steve Gibson are the hosts of that and you know Folks that are a heck of a lot smarter than I am with all of this Have to have analyzed it and people are going to probably ask you if you mentioned password managers But isn't that dangerous, you know, I'm putting all my eggs in that basket Well, you know, what's really dangerous is to have your passwords to have the same password on multiple sites to have them just written down on a piece of paper that someone else can readily find or that can be lost or you know thrown away and Also Just trying to figure out yourself how to make up passwords So I love that last pass has an extension that you can install in your chrome or Firefox It has a little drop down and it'll generate a random password for you Depending upon the site and their rules like some websites will like say it can only be 20 characters or or whatever I'm basically now using 30 character random passwords on most of my accounts and the way the math works And I'm getting I'm like not a mathematician, but I've stated a holiday and express recently and you know I have friends that teach calculus The way the encryption works is every additional character you add to your password Can add not just you know hours But even days and as you get further along weeks to the processing time of how long it would take somebody to hack and Figure that password out and guess it so anyway, those are just some real specific tips on the password tip I don't have that many extra slides for each one of these tips But I think this is the number one pain point that I continue to to work with our teachers and others you know family members and friends and other people and You know sometimes especially with an Apple ID resetting it I I remind people hey if it was easy to reset this then it would be easy to hack So it's actually a good thing for instance with Apple that you know you have to jump through several hoops in order to get this password reset last thing I'll say about this is Some security people will tell you never write down your password. I Give this advice to our teachers when it comes to your password manager Whether it's last pass or one password or you know something else I think you should treat that master password Just like you treat your social security card or your birth certificate or your marriage license or you know these important documents Put it in a fire file put it again put it in the safety deposit box But you don't want to lose this and we tell them you know we can reset your you know school Gmail account But we're not managing your password manager and if you forget that password You know we are going to be able to reset it for you. So it's completely free for individuals They have a premium tier and then organizations can go ahead and have those as well Tip number four. I think being a technology fear therapist basically means being committed to this ongoing Conversation and an ongoing journey of learning with other people, right? We are Basically the sum of of ideas and inputs that come into our brains and our ears and You know live in our minds one of the reasons I think sleep is so important is he gives us a chance to to process things right because we take in a lot you know when we're awake and It takes time to change behavior and to even in some cases change the way that we view ourselves I have worked with a number of teachers over the years You know who were that teacher that said I'll never use this I'm just not a technology person and one of the most beautiful things that you know It didn't happen every day, but it happens is when those teachers see kids I would I would say set on fire with excitement for learning and many times that is using some kind of a technology tool And that really starts to change their mind to the point where you know suddenly they can become the advocate Those people when that happens, you know within your school or on your campus Wow, they are like your best technology evangelists And it is kind of like a like a spiritual or faith awakening It's no I didn't believe but now I did and we need to be careful because I don't think the advocacy here is to say Let's use technology, you know, it's to say let's use technology well And let's not be frozen with fear about it So I don't know if you have read the book about the growth mindset or you know have studied that we have that as a book study I think it was two years ago And the idea of a growth mindset from my understanding Is that you're just you're really open to change and possibility Instead of being rigid and just absolutely fixed in your ways and sure that man I'm never going to you know change this or I'm always going to have this in my lesson plan You have an open mind and you are looking for ways that you can be that you can grow that you can stretch Our school this year has participated in a wonderful program called folio f o l i o And what we have basically is a mentorship situation where I think it's on a three-year rotation So you you may self select or it might be the principal just kind of depends and rotates But you've got somebody who comes to your classroom and actually Visits but you set goals for yourself of things you would like to do and that person gives you feedback It's kind of like a mirror. And so I think that being a technology fear therapist Means embracing a growth mindset and it also means encouraging that and others as well I've already mentioned this but amplifying the transformative uses of technology I really love the butterfly metaphor right because you know, the butterfly starts off as the caterpillar and it's Transformed to something different I don't have you know references in in this slideshow but you know from apple classrooms of tomorrow research to The samer model s a m r you've got these different frameworks of technology use which generally start with An accommodation level or using the technology to do something we've done before replacement And then you can move up to a level where it is transformative and we are doing things Man, we couldn't do this before because we didn't have the tools and so as especially we amplify student projects Here's a couple examples that my wife shelly has shared recently the one on the right was on april second because of the skype In the classroom program through microsoft Jane goodall for her birthday, you know skype with students all over the country And so all of our third graders at our school. This was a selfie actually at the end. It was cool that They got to take with her They got to skype and they got to learn about the roots to shoots program and about you know, what it was like working You know with with gorillas in the jungles of africa and it was fantastic The one on the left was let's see march 25th Shelly's been teaching a number of coding classes after school And so they were doing paired programming And sharing their projects and anyway, it's just when you have kids that are excited Let's see. I think I have got another one. Yeah, I've actually this was a seesaw one, right? So there was a scratch junior project That some of our students created And so here's a you know shout out to seesaw being able to to have these kinds of projects go out to parents See how my audio does here if I Let me test my internet Full disclosure were well, I'm on I may not be able to pull that up actually Because the the internet connection I'm on so I think the slides will be shared with you And I should have put a shortened slide in there But anyway, this was a wonderful animation that the kids have created and so being able to amplify that being able to not just you know share that with parents, but sharing that with with teachers and I think I went too far there you go That is a great strategy because I think that's one of the things that gets adult attention the most and can help overcome fears of technology Is seeing how transformative and also just how how excited kids can be Let's see Number seven modeling and being a connected educator. So I've already shared a couple different twitter examples This next sunday I'm going to be and I guess monday if you're wednesday i'll be down in dallas at a conference called atlas Which is a an independent school technology leader conference And I was needing some input and help thinking about Basically, you know media literacy and tools that we can use to trap information and then effectively Filter information the name of the workshop is filtering the exo flood So this was a shout out from earlier this I guess from this weekend Because I had reached out to some different people on twitter and then they and others you know gave me a lot of ideas and man I Am aware of how you know facebook and surveillance and You know the gathering of information about us and and so many things that are going on Are very negative with social media, but I also Am an educator and have been an educator that have absolutely You know been transformed and I hope continue to be transformed in a very positive way by the input of other educators So as we share things with folks as we encourage them to To to use twitter to make connections to share their students work To learn I think that can be a part of technology for your therapy too So just a couple more and then I think we're going to have some time for questions if you all have some number eight is pairing conversations about the thoughtful and constructive use of technology With digital citizenship and this is something I've really really enjoyed being able to do The last three years with our school psychologist and as angela mentioned We're doing a series of workshops this month in fact the first one for the month is coming up on thursday And we just called these let's talk about so this week is let's talk about sexting and then in two weeks on the 23rd it's going to be let's talk about youtube But it's really important that Again, we don't overplay the fear aspect of this we do engage parents There is so much going on with technology in all of our lives That I really think opportunities to get together and to talk about some issues talk about how we're addressing them And we may not have the answers to all of these things But in some cases, you know, we either Have helped others or maybe we've navigated some situations ourselves, you know with our kids And it's important to have that kind of an opportunity So you can go to the website ditch sit dot us for digital citizenship That's a website that our school maintains with resources not only for parents but also for teachers and for students We have an opportunity to periodically have a chapel talk that talks about that We for instance have a new responsible use policy that we you know Developed and rolled out this year and shared that with with students And so those are some different resources and I think pairing the conversations around technology with digital citizenship is really important And it's not just for one constituent group but for teachers for parents grandparents Students everybody is involved. So two more number nine This is just kind of a fun one. I don't know if you're using different hashtags but you know any of us can invent hashtag at any time right and Carl Hooker is the director of technology down in austin, texas at eanes isd And so Carl and I have been you know Sharing ideas and and doing some sort of unofficial collaborating around digital citizenship for a number of years And when I had shared this idea of of technology fear therapy that really resonated with them And he did a whole He's done I think several presentations for his district and then for some others around this idea of technology fear therapy And so he had shared this you know article example a mother's master kid's ipad, you know Because they were they were gaming too much And so we're using this hashtag tech fear therapy now I don't think you're going to find you know a thousand tweets right now if you look for that hashtag But that's an example. This is a topic that's of interest to you I'm going to periodically, you know be sharing things about this carl will It's a neat way for us to use twitter to be able to connect to others that have a shared interest in a topic Like the one today. So last tip tip number 10 Is that the transformative power of students sharing their joy of learning using technology Can really help us win over hearts and minds and you know as somebody who has and you know continues to advocate for the the responsible and constructive use of technology in the classroom and just for learning in general I'm always on the lookout for what what helps change people's minds, you know, what really wins people over And um, you know, especially when it comes to coding. I've seen, you know, adults teachers parents do Just amazed at what kids can create and make and then how excited they get in in many cases That's, you know, doing things that involve math and problem solving computational thinking But that kind of experience really can get adult attention in a powerful way that might not be possible otherwise just, you know seeing a webinar reading a book going to a conference and so My challenge to you would be think about ways that you can amplify the work of your students Yes, on twitter to, you know, be able to connect with other educators, but also within your local community We've been using this hashtag cast the learns for a while And so you can see a variety of different things there and I see this as a journey, right? It's not going to be, you know, tomorrow all of our faculty and staff are using twitter I mean, everybody's not going to do the same thing We're diverse, you know, we're a diverse community and we all have different goals and different ways of learning, but We know and I know for a fact that twitter is so powerful And it's a great way for us to be able to be inspired But then also for us to celebrate The work of our students and the work of our teachers. And so I think that is a great final tip So my last thought is and this may be true for you as well. I really don't see myself as pro technology Um, you know, I am I'm advocating for the use of technology. I'm not anti technology But I'm really much more pro learning pro engagement pro relationship pro conversation And so as a technology fear therapist, I think, you know, we we have that kind of an opportunity because we're not Yeah, technology is an important part of the conversation But at the end of the day, you know, I'm not going to be Very excited just that somebody use technology what I'm going to be real excited about Um, is if if they use technology in a way that that really enhanced their learning increased the engagement That students have helped us build, you know better relationships Among you know students and teachers among our faculty and really fostered conversation That's really what we try to do in our digital citizenship efforts is get those conversations going So I think I have taken us down to the end of the hour. I hope my connection has been okay My audio has worked. Do we have any questions? Angela? Did anybody? Yeah, so no you've been sounding great west. It's awesome. Um, I'm just going to pop into the question box Right now and encourage everyone here. That's live to go ahead and type in questions We have some time to get answers from west here live and I just want to say So many great tips that you shared and I I want to point out and recognize even at the beginning how you really Kind of dialed it back and made sure people have the basics of people connecting to their technology Which I think is really really vital and I think sometimes we forget even A level of support can make sure they know know the very basics and feel empowered to Basically kind of even own that part of the process. So I think I think that was a great great thing to call out there um Andy has a question um Okay, this is a great one. So he's saying he's not sure how to exactly ask this But what might you say to an administrator? Who is frustrated with their tosa or tech integration coach? Because they still have teachers who fear technology and won't let Won't let them in to kind of interact and support Oh, so I'm actually Looking at a pivot this next year and I all of this hasn't been officially announced by our school But I've I've been I think I'm going to be able to live into more of the tech coaching role I've had that role And so some of the questions and things that I've been thinking about as I have the prospect of doing more of that is You know, what are the ways that we are? Measuring success in the tech coaching arena And then what are those kinds of strategies? So if we've got a faculty and we've got a lot of teachers who are very technology fearful What's our engagement strategy? You know my father-in-law He taught like band and orchestra for 30 years and in the last 12 years he did technology integration and teaching computers You know, he would meet individually with the teachers in his building He would they would they would he loved to ask them what their favorite You know lesson was what their favorite unit was and then he would find some technology that might enhance or extend What they were doing So I would say you know looking at your engagement strategy We have technology plans for infrastructure, right? Like when are we going to update our wireless? When are we going to you know increase our fiber backbone and all these you know kind of technical in the closet it sorts of things I think it's equally important to have a technology coaching and professional development strategic plan And so if that administrator is frustrated, you know, perhaps what you might do together is suggest Hey, let's if you don't already have it Let's let's write a strategic plan for you know professional learning and maybe specifically technology coaching Again, I see technology as the tool the purpose, you know is is learning is engagement You know, it's you know, not not just technology use But anyway, maybe there's some some strategy that can go around that and then really good conversations among the community of Of technology coaches and integrators. I didn't mention the hashtag tech coach, of course But there's there's some great hashtags out there on twitter to find other folks who are involved in doing technology coaching And there's a shout out if anybody has that kind of a document already written and you're able to share that That might be a great thing to to see what other schools are doing and what you know your way of trying to Especially engage the the resistant learner that or the resistant teacher that just may may feel like they're closed off You know, how how what's a hook? What's what's a way to to be able to get them to open up You know the possibility of their students doing something different with technology Yeah, that's a great tip and just to throw this out there too. We actually started a facebook group called seesaw tech integrationists if you're not a part of that yet We actually welcome all tech integrationists there and really created that as a space to Have these ongoing conversations as well and share resources like that So if you're not there yet, that's also a good space that's that's just getting started if you're interested in that We have so many good questions coming in here west. So I'll try to fly Through some of them as as best I can You know, just know that you've got about eight of them in the queue here Okay, so jony is wondering if you could tell a little bit more about your digital citizenship teams that you mentioned Sure So originally we had representatives from each of our four divisions And we were kind of meeting as a as a committee or a team our heads Who actually likes the term team a little better, but you know, we were meeting on like a monthly basis Well, we ended up migrating to at this point. Well, and we did like a strategic plan We did surveys of parents and teachers and students At this point what we're really trying to do is get conversations going We see ourselves if we can be a catalyst for conversation That might be during advisory time That might be like a homeroom time During a class meeting, you know, like in our in our lower school at our elementary classes You know, we are having these parent university events as a way to try to again, you know, get conversations going and Our school psychologists and I are are primarily leading that but then we're working with our Basically our principles we call them division directors, but it's it's working with the principles and and then also with With our other faculty and staff that are invested in that and Really trying to be responsive to the community So we we've had sexting come up as as an issue probably like all schools have but that's a response to some parents asking for resources you know asking for for strategies and Yeah, again, go to that digital that did sit website and I'd be happy to engage with anybody You know, Twitter would be great But if you want to engage with me afterwards with some additional information But we've got a lot of what we've been doing on that website awesome Patrick wants to know what did you find is the best way to create a cultural learning and not just tech for tech sake? well I think that the overall, you know emphasis of the school is you know I don't think we want to be as tech integrationist tech coaches tech directors, whatever You know kind of building our own castle, you know out in the side field, you know doing our own thing I think you know the strategic goals of the Of the organization. We did a whole study or I guess it was a project called Portrait of a graduate and it was really looking at you know when our kids graduate after 12th grade What kinds of skills what kinds of dispositions and qualities we want them to have So I think having that kind of a focus and tying things into the institutional organizational goals Is important so because it all always happens that somebody sees you as the tech person, right? You're fixing my printer. You're we're working on my email. And so I think that again that comes back to relationship and goals and Talking about you know, what are we trying to do here? What are what are the goals and those goals are going to be tied to learning objectives? They're going to be probably, you know, they can be tied to to engagement It's not we're not really just trying to say how many times did you use smart notebook? You know in the last trimester the last semester We're really looking at Well, here's a this is a better answer. What did students create? What did they make right? I love that question. What do you want to create today? And so as students are creating content using media They are, you know taping in and summarizing and making sense of information, but then they're producing their own I think that can be seen as the fruit of what we do in our technology arena And that can be an important part of building that culture of learning All right Virginia's kind of she's asking a question and kind of making a statement here a little bit too in terms of How do you use technology in a holistic way to engage teachers and kids to help conserve preserve and help? specific to Ecology is kind of what she's going into Regarding similar to what you had shared about the gene Good all Experience but but maybe she's asking, you know, what what are approaches? Are you taking to make sure? Or suggest people ensure that they're not just seeing technology as coding or technology as kind of fitting into just one specific box Well, let me let me answer that well part of that is our digital citizenship focus, you know Seeing opportunities to to have conversations about appropriate use Responsibility The ways in which, you know, we represent ourselves our families our school In and in those kind of things digital citizenship conversations are an important overlay But uh, actually we've been doing a seesaw pilot project with skills this year And that is we for several years now have had You know seesaw for schools and so all of our pre-k and k teachers have seesaw classes And all of our lower division teachers in grades one through four do And I think there's a journey there where Most of our teachers have been starting off with, you know pictures and maybe videos Really a window into the classroom, but taking it to the next level And so what we've been doing is thinking about skills and the ways that media can help document skills And then the ways that those can You know be part of those seesaw learning journal in the portfolio And so we asked a group of volunteers we asked teachers to apply in our elementary school for the project and we were able to Repurpose some iPads and give them, you know each four iPads and they could keep in their classroom And then we've had three different professional development Get togethers and a lot of that has to do with sharing, you know, what are you trying? What are you doing and then setting some goals? And so what we hope is that those teachers are going to continue to not only share among their group of Sort of the pioneers they're doing this But that group will widen and then they're going to continue to go back and share that with others So and and you tie in technology with your learning goals, right? So if you've got learning goals that tie into, you know service service learning or building empathy or, you know Building a culture of kindness and respect The kinds of projects that you do and the ways in which your students are creating Their technology, you know can can support those kinds of goals So you're doing you're you're looking at things more holistically and you're not just thinking about technology use But it's technology use in support of these goals that we want to have in our classrooms or school Perfect Next question coming in how do you react or defend the use of technology when you hear things like Too much screen time is bad for children So, I mean, I think we always have the option of of turning off the screen, right? In fact, we're um, we're on the Middle stages, I don't know what phase but anyway, we're looking at at a one to one, you know At our middle school perhaps in another year or so we are shared devices We've got carts of of chromebooks and iPads and I would never want a teacher to think just because we have technology It has to be used right pick the tool that is A good fit for the purpose and the goals that you're trying to achieve But I also like to do metaphors and analogies and like a comparison. So let's think about pencils, right? You have to check out pencils to know if you use them in your classroom Do you have to you know, I oh gosh, I wonder if we're going to have any paper today and hey Actually, I live in Oklahoma. So it's with school funding. It's crazy. You know, there are teachers buying Their own supplies but not going there politically. Um, generally we have access to some basic things, right? We're going to have a textbook. We're going to have paper. We're going to have a pencil I really see technology Needing to be in that toolkit. So I think part of our goal as not only educators, but parents as well Is to help students become Independent decision makers and to be able to make good choices and so being able to You know decide and of course I'll decide this sometimes as the teacher like, okay guys We're going to put our put our devices inside and and let's you know, we're going to sketch this by hand or we're going to You know to take hand notes or whatever I mean, let's keep our eyes open to research and things that are are talking about all of these issues because you know Social media and screens have been designed like slot machines to be addictive to give us random rewards and to get dopamine Pumping into our our brains and our bodies so that we just want more and more I would do a shout-out to Tristan Harris and a great video interview that he did with Noah Harari with Wired magazine about I think it was in December where they talk about all that He's got a whole institute for humane computing And so anyway Yeah, acknowledge that right there. We can always have more screen time But that's not throw the baby out with the bath water and the way I would say this is Screen abstinence is not a viable strategy Right if you're trying to get kids to completely abandon all screens in their life or even at school I think that you are you are handicapping them You are disabling them for the kind of learning they can do and the kind of learning They should do to prepare them to be full participants in the 21st century such great discussion happening here today west and We we buzzed through almost all of the questions and I want to respect everyone's Time today, so we're going to end here in just a moment But just to recap a couple things if you're joining us for the first time in this format Know that every second wednesday at the month of the same exact start time 11 a.m Pacific time we are hosting webinars specifically geared towards topics that relate to your work as a Technology integrationist so make sure you join us. Thanks for jumping back on that slide west The other thing I shared and I just put this in the chat here Is joining the facebook group that we just started for technology integrationist So if you actually head I slacks the link, but it's if you just go to facebook.com backslash groups Backslash csa tech integrationist you will find the group and you can request to join it's really just a space for you to continue the conversation and Share resources and tips and lots of the questions discussed here Today would make for great conversation in that space as well So we're here to support you and west. Thanks so much for coming and sharing so many thoughtful tips As we really try to support all of our teachers and again, I just love I love your title that you have also given yourself with that. I think many of us can relate to as well So thanks everyone. We appreciate your time today and hope to see you back here next month. Thanks west Thanks everybody