#400 – Outsmarted: The Changing Face of Learning in the Era of Smartphones and Technology, with Lisa Green

If you are listening to the podcast with your instructional team or would like to explore this topic more deeply, here are guiding questions to prompt your reflection:

• What behaviors have you observed regarding students’ cell phone use?
• What is your school policy regarding cell phone use?
• What challenges do cell phones present in schools?
• How might you mitigate some of these challenges?
• What opportunities do cell phones or other technology present in classrooms?
• What skills do students need to develop to be successful in a tech-rich world?
• How can you teach students these skills in your classroom?
• What action steps do you plan to take?

• Here to Learn (Lisa Green)
• Outsmarted: The Changing Face of Learning in the Era of Smartphones and Technology (written by Lisa Green)
• How Do Smartphones Affect Student Learning? A Conversation with Lisa Green (Teachers On Fire via YouTube)

#400 Outsmarted: The Changing Face of Learning in the Era of Smartphones and Technology, with Lisa Green

AVID Open Access
42 min

Keywords

Smartphones, technology, learning, student engagement, digital literacy, media literacy, social media, classroom management, collaboration, assessment, coaching, educational strategies, student skills, educational impact, educational tools.

Transcript

The following transcript was automatically generated from the podcast audio by generative artificial intelligence.  Because of the automated nature of the process, this transcript may include unintended transcription and mechanical errors.

Lisa Green 0:00 So I’m always trying to provide skill sets to show them how to manage that phone themselves. I just think when they step outside my classroom, I’m not going to be there, their parents aren’t going to be there. They need to learn to manage this piece on their own, so maybe some of the guidance that I give them with those little tasks will help.

Rena Clark 0:18 The topic for today’s podcast is Outsmarted: The Changing Face of Learning in the Era of Smartphones and Technology with Lisa Green. Unpacking Education is brought to you by AVID. If you’re looking for fresh ideas, meaningful connections, and impactful strategies, check out the AVID Summer Institute, a professional learning experience where good teachers become great teachers. Registration is open now. To learn more, visit avid.org. Welcome to Unpacking Education, the Podcast where we explore current issues and best practices in education. I’m Rena Clark.

Paul Beckermann 1:00 I’m Paul Beckerman.

Winston Benjamin 1:01 And I’m Winston Benjamin. We are educators, and

Paul Beckermann 1:06 we’re here to share insights and actionable strategies.

Transition Music with Rena’s Children 1:10 Education is our passport to the future.

Rena Clark 1:14 Our quote for today is from Lisa Green in her book Outsmarted: The Changing Face of Learning in the Era of Smartphones and Technology. She ends the first chapter writing, “Call it the introvert economy, or the attention economy. All signs point to the fact that smartphones, social media, and technology have us interacting with screens more and with one another less”. All right? Winston, Paul, what do we think? See?

Winston Benjamin 1:44 So I’m one of those people who are like, “Oh, I’m so old. I remember running around doing these things with my friends,” and I think that is what’s holding us back from being able to support students as they interact with a world that’s going to be wildly different from our childhood and any of our learning years.

So for this, it’s more, it’s not like they’re not interacting. Because I watched this documentary about a kid who was paraplegic, and he lived online, and he had an entire world where he was a person and dated and did everything that anyone else would do as an individual. But it was online, so it was like it was it took a person the opportunity to understand what the world they’re interacting with that is needed. And I think that’s where teachers are at now: how do we shift our understanding so that we can see what students are doing differently or the same as we did?

Paul Beckermann 2:39 Yeah, there’s there’s a lot of things that that have changed for sure. I mean, technology is not going to go away. That’s that’s one thing, I think we can guarantee. But it’s nice if we can find some sort of balance in that, right? I mean, if if our kids are on screens more outside of school, it’d be nice if we can get them collaborating off screen as much as possible in school.

In in some ways, it might be the only place where they get to learn how to work together and develop those human-to-human interpersonal skills, at least in a supervised place. Even while more tasks are requiring technology, I think we can still make those experiences filled with meaningful collaboration.

You know, even if a students are creating a film, they’re going to be using a film editor on the screen, but they can be collaborating off the screen. You know, they can be building sets. They can be generating their wardrobes and their costumes. They can be practicing. They’ll they’ll have to act out the scenes. If we can merge those things together, I think that’s really powerful, and build that collaboration into as many of these assignments and activities as we can. Tech isn’t going away, but we can still encourage that collaboration in that face-to-face.

Rena Clark 3:48 Yeah, it’s that continuous immersion of that hybrid model. It’s like, yes, with tech, but together technology. So we should be using it to be more into alone.

So I’m really excited we have with us today Lisa Green. She teaches in the Victoria, British Columbia, and as I said in the intro, is the author of Outsmarted: The Changing Face of Learning in the Era of Smartphones and Technology. So welcome, Lisa. Thank you so much for being here today.

Lisa Green 4:18 Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here. Yeah.

Rena Clark 4:21 So we always like to just ground our audience with who our guest is. So if you could tell us a little bit more about yourself and maybe your journey in education.

Lisa Green 4:31 Sure. Well, my journey in education probably started when I was voted most likely to be a teacher in my high school yearbook. And of course, I fought that and went into film and various different things, but it was always coaching. I think my teaching is rooted in a coaching background.

And I spent years coaching basketball, and it was coaching that kind of pulled me back into saying, “Yeah, you know what? I think perhaps all my my peers, my family, was right. I should go into teaching. I should be a teacher”. They’ve seen something in me that I just kind of decided I wanted to find out for myself. And so that’s really where it started.

I think I’m rooted in a coaching background, and when I came into teaching, I currently teach English and Spanish, and right now, mostly Spanish. And I I look at the classroom from a coach’s perspective, is always, you know, how, how do I like coach these kids to kind of be better? It’s not just about what I’m teaching them. So it’s always my lens.

So I think that’s really what is rooted in for me. And my master’s work led me to looking at organizational work, organization, and leadership. It’s kind of a long master’s in education combined. It’s kind of all of them. And I just fascinated with organizational psychology, and I think we need to look at the education system from that organizational psychology perspective a little bit more, especially these days. So that’s hopefully that answers your question.

Rena Clark 5:56 I’m excited to dig into your brain, and as a mother of about to be twelve year olds and a thirteen year old, I feel like I’m gonna learn a lot today. So we’re gonna dig in just, you know, based on your book and some of your work, what impact do you think cell phones and technology have on teens today, especially in the classroom?

Lisa Green 6:20 I think that the biggest change is how they learn. I think that’s the biggest change. I think it’s about how they acquire information, how they retain that information, and how they’re delivering that information. So I think the the largest change, when it comes from like a teaching perspective, to see on students, is it’s impacted their learning, and in a big way.

Winston Benjamin 6:42 So here’s here’s the thing, this question I’m going to ask, because as a dean of students in the middle school, it is one of the hardest things that we have to deal with, is trying to get the kids off their phones. Okay? So as you can hear the frustration in my voice, but again, you could back in the day, I was in my headphones listening to hip hop, so I was also distracted.

So my question to you is like, how might teachers manage the distractions of cell phone and technology in the classroom as ways of supporting student engagement?

Lisa Green 7:15 Okay, so this is a big question, because I wish, Winston, I could tell you the magic answer that would have all students putting their phones away. You know, in BC we came down with that, like no cell phones in the classroom rule right across the province. But of course, that falls on teachers, as it always does. And like anything, it’s at this point of the school year, I’m seeing it in my own classroom. I’m seeing it in, you know, other people’s classrooms. It’s just, we’re at that point now we’re exhausted because it’s fallen on us to always police this. And of course, teens have just kind of waited us out with it. So, you know, it’s at some point they just, they’re always using it.

So I think, and I tell my class this, it’s it shouldn’t be about me having to police you and having to manage your phone. It should be about me teaching you how to manage your phone.

And so I think if we come at it from the perspective that we’re teaching youth today to have a relationship with this device, how do they have this relationship with this device? Is it, you know, mastering them? Are they mastering it? And I don’t think we’re doing enough of it, and I think that I don’t know where they’re going to get that, if not school.

So I actually think we need to build it in to the curriculum. And it sounds bizarre to build something into a curriculum of like how to manage your phone, but when you think about how much our phones dominate our lives, where are they learning to do this? And I think parents have kind of thrown their hands up in the air a little bit with it too.

And honestly, if we’re all being honest, our phones, you know, we misuse our phones as adults, too. So I don’t know if this has been there, and we’ve really spent time saying, “How do we manage these devices? How do we self-control? How do we put it to the side and focus?”

So with my students, I really try to build in. I say to them, “Okay, right now, I’m going to give some examples.” Right now, we’re going to be working on a project, and I know that your phones are a distraction for that project. You’re going to want to look up information on the computer, you might be looking up on a screen. So we’ll talk about screens, not just phones. But how do we stay focused on the project?

And it sounds really simple, but it has worked. I’ve given my students a breakdown of a to-do list. So here is a project. For example, this week, they’re working on a project, and they’re diving into the food culture of a Spanish-speaking country. It’s a pretty large project. When they just kind of step back and look at it. And when I say that students have changed the way they learn, one of the things I think that has happened is, I’ve certainly seen it is they get overwhelmed very quickly with large, especially large projects.

They’re not sure where to begin with this, and I think that’s because they’re so inundated with so much information all the time. So I tell them, “Step back.” Let’s do a little to-do list today. You have 55 minutes, and I want you to break down what we’re going to get done in that 55 minutes. I want you to pick a topic. Number one, we’re going to check that off. I mean, it sounds again, so simple, but sometimes I’ve seen students sit there for 45 minutes and you walk up to them and like, “What have you done?” And they haven’t even chosen that topic.

So pick your topic. Okay, great. We’re gonna be able to check that off. Next, we’re gonna focus on, let’s choose a slide deck set, for example. Let’s focus on the theme of this. And maybe perhaps today, we start our research. And within our research, what are the things we want to look for? Maybe we start gathering images. We start gathering sources.

But we have 55 minutes to do these four or five things, and we have a checklist to get them done. The checklist has not only created a sense of urgency for the students, because they have this time learn frame for the classroom that they want to get this done, but it gives them the sense of accomplishment when they get a chance to see it checked off. And that is tapping into that, that center of the brain, that dopamine center of the brain, that the phones have already like heightened for it, for them.

So it’s, again, it’s kind of a teacher hack to say, “How can I hack into what your phones are doing, teach you a skill set that maybe you can take outside the classroom,” because I’m hoping that when I teach them how to break a project down like this, they’ll take that beyond my classroom and do that when they get to college, university, or their jobs, for that matter. So I’m showing them that your phones, if you do this, you could be distracted, but let’s come back.

What’s going to keep you focused? Maybe it’s a task list. Maybe it’s a timer going on that you’ve got 10 minutes to focus on this piece. So I’m always trying to provide skill sets to show them how to manage that phone themselves. And of course, I’m there policing it, and we always have to be. But I just think when they step outside my classroom, I’m not going to be there, their parents aren’t going to be there. They need to learn to manage this piece on their own, so maybe some of the guidance that I give them with those little tasks will help. Sorry, that was a long that was a long answer.

Winston Benjamin 11:48 That was a perfect answer. Because, like, I’m truly, like, even thinking about myself, it took me a long time to learn prioritization, how to put those things together. That was something that I had to go experience. So like, again, I we weren’t overwhelmed with information. So having students know that is a valuable, valuable answer. Thank you.

Paul Beckermann 12:08 And I love that you point out that the parents, I mean, us adults, we, not them, but us. We struggle with the same thing. And you know, we get frustrated with ourselves, probably sometimes. So despite all these potential concerns, technology, as I mentioned, kind of in the opening, it’s here to stay, and it does bring opportunities. So I’m curious, what do you see as the potential benefits of that technology in the classroom?

Lisa Green 12:38 Oh, I think technology has opened up accessibility for so many students. I mean, when you think about how, you know, the diversity in our students’ learning abilities and tech has kind of led the gateway now for for that intro way to like different students, different learning levels, and being able to showcase their learning in different ways.

I mean, technology is such a broad thing to say. So if we were to, like, focus on something specific, like maybe ChatGPT, which is, of course, but the hot piece right now, I’ll say that, you know, when I look at something like that, which I think is a little bit controversial, although I did, I listened to your most recent podcast with Dr. Catlin, and she was looking at, you know, how what that, how we use that tech. And I think she had a lot of interesting things to say.

Interesting things to say on that, but I think that, and I think she mentioned things like this, but if we look into how we can use, like, a ChatGPT as a gateway, or like, there’s, let’s say there’s four levels of which you can enter in, and it’s going to allow you to enter in at different levels.

I tell students, but kind of the story of the analogy I give, and I promise it’ll come back when I go back to my gateways. But I tell students, if you think about learning as like a mountain or like a journey, which I say a lot in my book, and you think about taking, you know, a tram up that mountain, that’s, that’s the ChatGPT tram. You’re just going to take that straight to the top. And sure, you’re going to get there a lot faster than everybody else, but the person who’s done the hike, who’s taken the journey along the way, when you think about all the things they’ve like, learned and earned to get to that different, to that top.

It’s very different when I get to the top, and I’ve done the work. I maybe stopped and I like, you know, I had to take some extra time at the, you know, understanding composition level, or whatever it happens to be, but I know that at the end, I might be tired, I’m going to be stronger. I’m stronger than the person who took the tram. And so I just tried to, like, explain it in a level of like, “Okay, you’re right. And it’s not really a cheat, it’s just I got there faster, but I’m kind of cheating my skill sets, if I take it this way”.

So if we look at that, this mountain is, you know, this ChatGPT journey. And we think we have students who, you know, the essay or a composition piece, a writing piece is overwhelming. And I’m going to use this as my example, because I think it’s the number one use that students use ChatGPT for right now is to get a piece of composition written. You know, there’s lots of other things besides, like a use guide or a study guide.

Today, I even told some students when they were asking me a concept in Spanish, and I said, you know, “You could ask ChatGPT, if I’m not around, how to show you that concept.” And you could even say to it, “Can you explain this to me at a grade five level?” “Can you break it down to a level where maybe I’d understand it?” And students that are like, “Oh, I haven’t really thought about that yet”. And just showing students, you know, you can, you can ask this technology to help tutor and teach you.

Or can I back to the composition piece with students. If a student is overwhelmed by a piece of composition like that, the thought of even starting a written piece is too much. They don’t want to write a sentence, you know, they might take that easy route and do it.

So maybe let them, you know, I might say to students at the emerging or beginning level, I’m gonna like, we’re gonna say that the emerging or beginning level, that’s the level where ChatGPT writes this for you, and you break it down, and you show me the pieces of a composition within that level. So I want you to analyze the ChatGPT piece. And that’s, that’s that’s an intro level. The student is still learning the pieces of what it takes to write a composition, from an intro introductory sentence to whatever happens to be that you’re looking at.

And maybe the next level, you know, are we have our in BC, it’s emerging, developing, proficient, extending, so maybe at that developing level, it’s asking ChatGPT to help you look at writing an outline or that thesis statement. So now you’re kind of scaffolding, and then maybe that proficient level, which should be that you’re writing this on your own.

You’ve written this essay, and maybe ChatGPT is looking at it for an edit piece, but you have scaffolded with the students how ChatGPT is going to help you build to this next level. The ultimate point is to get to the top of the mountain, which is not using anything, no ChatGPT. That’s your proficient level. Perhaps your extending level is going over that now, writing that next level essay with you know, the type of word choice you’re using, or the sources you’re looking for, or whatever it happens to be.

But I think when we look at technology, it’s allowing us to teach students in in ways that, honestly, for me as a teacher before I did struggle with like, how do I teach that student who’s at that emerging level essay structure to that student who’s at that extending level? And now I have kind of entry points to help those students with it. So I think that’s the example I’ll give. I know that’s, again, a long description.

Rena Clark 17:19 It’s I really appreciate and I love the visual. I love the mountain example. I will be stealing that from you with the tram. I can just imagine, but it really I know I work with high school students, and it’s constantly trying to explain that short-term versus that long-term gain, which you explained. I feel like really well with that analogy, so I will be using that, because it’s hard for them to really understand, especially when they haven’t been on the world that long, and they think they have your perspective changes as you get older. So that’s kind of in your especially with composition day to day.

And composition can be assessment. But how do we think technology might impact assessments? Or how might we leverage tech to design effective assessments? Or, you know, diverse assessments?

Lisa Green 18:12 Technology has changed my assessments. I in a lot of ways, it’s actually made my assessment more personalized. So I’ve my assessment got more personalized through COVID, and it’s changed. It stayed that way because of tech, and I’m going to explain what I mean by this. But I think with access to so much tech, and students using tech within their learning, sometimes it’s hard for them to demonstrate what exactly it is they have done that is there. They showcase what have I exactly learned? Right? Because they’re using tech so much.

So I start my courses each year now with a bookend assessment. I have these two assessments that I do, and I I choose certain skill sets that I want students to to build on over the course. And I know teachers know we know what skills we’re having students do over the course. So I might say I’m going to do, and I could say this for writing or for Spanish, but we’re going to do a written assessment. I’m going to give you an image to write to.

You’re going to have 10 minutes, and you’re just going to write what you know, and that might be a sentence, and that might be five sentences, it might be a paragraph, but I just want you to show me what you know currently, right now. And I hit them with this that second day of class. So they’re doing this right away. And we’ve done these things because we might have done them before to kind of just see again, a diagnostic of where students are at.

But I actually keep these. So I kept this at the front. I keep them, I look at them. Where are you sitting? And I’ve got that in writing. We do one in listening in Spanish. It’s easy. Just break those skill sets down like you would a language skill set. So reading, writing, listening, those skills. And then I keep them like I have them stacked right now to the side of my room, and I can go and I can grab them. At the end of the semester, we’re going to do them again, and they’re going to showcase their learning.

And so what I have seen from students, from this, is here is where I started. Here’s how much. They could write perhaps two or three sentences, my Spanish was okay, or my English level was okay. And at the end they’re writing, you know, a paragraph. And I’ve given them the same amount of time, maybe just a different image, but something I know that is similar, similar, but different. So it’s still showcasing that skill set. And why this matters in a world of tech.

In the language classroom, we’ve always dealt with tech more so because they could use translators. So if they have relied on that tech to do the work for them, I’m not going to see the growth. They’re not going to see the growth. So in the end, if they’re showcasing that growth, you should see like, they’re so proud of themselves. I’m proud of them too. They actually are learning. And so I’m personalizing that learning one when they can, like, actually see it. So it’s, it’s totally non-tech based.

They’re not allowed to have any tech when they do this. It’s like, you know, I also call it like an alone in the woods. It’s me and a pencil in my brain. I’m not anything else. If they know they’re doing this kind of assessment and they know they’re going to showcase their learning from where they started to where they ended there, they’re a lot more apt to actually do the things, because I show them from year to year.

“Well, maybe you relied on tech a little bit too much here,” right? You can see it adding to that. I also do class like conferences. I do student conferences at the start and at the end of the year, and I conference with my students, and we talk a little bit about individually, which takes a lot of time, but it’s it’s crucially important, because I learn a lot about the students, and I talk to them about those assessments, and I talk to them about it at the end.

So when we sit down together, we can look at them and they see it, and they’re like, “Yeah, I had no idea I learned this much”. Like, they’re so proud of themselves. And the students that don’t do that, I can easily say, “Dude, I think maybe you use tech a little bit too much when you were doing, yeah, maybe”. And they can, they’re honest with it, right? So I think tech has changed my assessment in the way that I’ve actually gone back to, like, kind of old school assessments, and made it almost more personalized.

Winston Benjamin 21:53 I love that. I love the because, like, the last two questions for me, like, has felt like a deep dive in what’s struggling my teachers and my students, right? First, it’s the frustration of, like the teacher being like, what is the ways they’re gonna get there out? The second is like, what, how do I actually engage with them on things that they are doing, and how do I recognize what their learning is?

So I really appreciate those answers, because it’s like really building on the question that I want to ask you, thinking about your first one, where you talked about the skill set that teach them how to engage with tech literacy, tech critical thinking. What skills do you do you think students need to be successful in today’s classroom, and how might we help them develop those skills continuing your process in like recognizing? It’s not a no, it’s a how.

Lisa Green 22:51 Well, it’s a good question, Winston. I think we have a huge responsibility in education now, because I think we’re not just responsible for teaching them how to engage with tech and use it responsibly. I think we’re also having to teach them how to interact and socialize. And I think, Paul, you had mentioned this, right? Like school has become a place where that socialization piece is crucial. It might be the only place students are doing it now, as you said, and I think that’s kind of the responsibility of school.

I think we ultimately, I think all educators need to look at what education is now. What is our responsibility? What is tech? How has tech changed the landscape when it comes to everything we do, and how are we now teaching the students to be in that world with tech? And what is it also taking away? And we know that tech is with their introverted, they’re on their phones. They’re doing far more things.

From my own perspective, I watch students with less eye contact. Like they get, you know, we certainly have the students who cannot do any presentations, right? The anxiety levels for that has have gone up, like, in a huge way, because they they just don’t know how to interact with one another. And I’ve also seen this, you know, when I go out and I’m just in life trying to buy something at a store, and I have a young person trying to, like, help me. And I think sometimes, like, can like, “I’m right here. Can you look up?” And it’s not. They’re so used to looking down.

Honestly, it’s that, it’s not that, even that they’re on their phone. They’re so used to looking down that eye contact makes a lot of people uncomfortable, more so now than ever. How do we get students, I mean, that side of life, I hope, will never go away, right? So how do we help students engage on that level?

And I think it’s our responsibility to do more group work now, to do more social interaction in school than we ever did before, because the tech and phones and computers are going to take care of some of the things. Like, you know that all of those things we need for them online stuff, but they’re not learning. And some students, you know, whether you have an only child or they just don’t even engage very much at home, we need them to learn how to talk. Talk to one another. We need to know how to have discourse with one another, how to argue and listen to one another. I mean, lord knows. We know our society needs us to listen to one another a lot more. And I don’t know where they’re getting that from. It’s certainly not coming from online.

So I think the responsibility of educators and the institution of education needs to look at what we need individuals in society to have, and up that game a little bit.

Paul Beckermann 25:27 All right, so let’s, let’s say we take on that responsibility. That’s our mission, right? We’re going to do this. What would that look like in an ideal classroom? Because we’re going to have tech, and we probably shouldn’t stick it on the shelf and never use it either. That’s, that’s the other end of the spectrum. What does that ideal balance look like? Maybe, maybe it’s a lesson or a unit that you’ve actually done, or just something you visualize that you’d like to see. What what’s the ideal tech-infused, balanced classroom look like?

Lisa Green 26:00 So one of the the things I have my students do now is build a portfolio, and their portfolio for learning is a website. So they’re using Google Sites, and they build a website, and that website highlights their learning. They can interact with one another’s sites because they have provided links, and they can go and they can look. They can show their parents they’re learning with that.

But with those projects, you know, they might have built their project and like a web page to kind of highlight whatever it is I’ve done a deep dive into, and then, of course, we do mini conferences. So we’ll have students go and talk and teach one another through the web page that they built. I mean, it’s, you know, that’s a simple kind of explanation for like from tech to like speaking.

But I I’ve gotten away from doing that front of the classroom talk, because it just won. I think the students zoned out and, you know, but the mini conferences and the going around to highlight and showcase what I’ve done online. One, shows their skill sets online. But two, now they’re having to speak to the small mini groups. So I think you can take, you can do a little bit of both.

And when it comes to other things I’ve done in class, you know, gamification, and it’s a big part of learning. And I think that it doesn’t just have to be gamification, online or screens. I think we can take the idea of playing games like classically, the way our generation used to with board games and card games, and bring that back. And I have, and I have tried to get students now, you know, I watched, I don’t know if you, you’re, you know, the game, I think it’s Anomia, where they just play a card down, and they have to show the answer. And I had this game, and I had students kind of just playing with one another.

And I thought, “How can I, how can I build this into my Spanish classroom to get them to be more attractive?” And then I had students starting. I built all these different card games, physical card games. From playing physical card games to, like doing memorization activities, takes it away from maybe doing the Kahoot, which is one form of learning. So we’re using Kahoots, so we’re using Quizzes, or we’re using whatever for online learning. And then now, off your screens, interact in groups, play together, no phones, old school games, we’ll call them.

And the students are eating up the old school games because they don’t do this as much anymore, right? So for them, this is, this is unique. So I think, I think there’s that balance between, yeah, a Kahoot, a Quizzes. These things can be great, you know, they interact. Students can be really focused. Then let’s take your learning to the page. Let’s take your learning to something more concrete. You know, you can, you can find that balance between tech and no tech.

Rena Clark 28:31 Yeah, it’s a lot to think about, and I think it applies no matter what content you’re teaching, really, no matter what what level. There’s some things, sometimes things are more age-appropriate than others. So we’re kind of at the end here. Is there anything that we haven’t asked you that you wish we had asked you?

Lisa Green 28:51 I think I’m just going to continue to comment a little bit on how we need to look at I don’t know what class it fits into. I mean, I think the biggest struggle right now is how we fit the understanding of social media, of algorithms, of our phones, how we fit this into into school, into a school curriculum right now.

I think I would like to see curriculums. You know, again, we look at it a little bit differently, from a different angle, and we say is social studies, the classic history, the classic the things, I think, yes, I think there’s a place for classic history, and I think we have to be teaching some of the things we’ve always been teaching.

But then I think there’s a place now to bring in the new, which is, you know, let’s look at society and what those algorithms are doing from that side of, you know, dividing us. Are they bringing us together? How are those algorithms controlling you? I’m not sure where or who is teaching about the algorithms. Other than we hear it, we hear it, and so I don’t know about you three, but do you know anyone who’s bringing that into a lesson, or where that’s coming from?

And I think it’s crucially important that we’re learning about these things. But where? Where and how? And so I think that’s what I want to end on, is I’m it’s kind of a petition to educators out there. It’s like, we know this is impacting society. It’s going to continue to impact society, unless we teach students what it is and what it’s doing to us and to them.

Paul Beckermann 30:19 I am all about what you just said there. In fact, I want to continue that conversation, but let’s continue it in the toolkit.

Transition Music with Rena’s Children 30:27 Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What’s in the toolkit? Check it out.

Paul Beckermann 30:37 All right, I’m just going to jump in first, because I love this topic. I think it’s so important, this whole media literacy, digital literacy, that whole piece. We have had folks from the News Literacy Project on the show a few times. They have fantastic materials. They’ve got like a slide show now that has little three-to-five-minute activities, and they’ve done a study that has shown students who have even a small little bit of instruction into media literacy and news literacy are like 50% more likely to engage in it in a positive way.

Every little bit. It doesn’t have to be a full-on lesson, just even like you know, if you’re a writing teacher, maybe you put up a scenario at the beginning of class, and it’s your bell ringer activity, and that student has a chance to write about one of those prompts. And think about it. Or maybe you’re a social studies teacher, and you’re looking at the branches of government, and maybe you throw up a social media post about a conspiracy theory or something and have students break that down. I think there’s ways to embed it in short, little bits into the lesson. There’s my toolkit. Rena, Winston, what do you guys got?

Rena Clark 31:58 Well, kind of on that same note, we talked about News Literacy Project, and then there’s, there’s always a free access for, really educators and parents for Common Sense Education, which have a lot of resources. And what I’ve loved as well, they’ve also taken a lot of their lessons, because, let’s be honest, we don’t all have 50-60 minutes. And they’ve, they’ve minimized them to be these 20-minute little lessons, which are a lot more digestible, that are really helpful.

I know with my my own kiddos, we’re on spring break, and I’m told them all that we have to do digital citizenship week because I have a pair of twins that want a phone really badly, and I refuse to give it to them till they engage in my course. So they are all agreeing. And then I also even, like, AI Edu has some of, you know, their stuff, and they have, I forget what they’re called, maybe y’all can remember. They’re like bell ringers, but they’re like, five minutes long, just like a quick engage in them quickly, but it can really fit, as you know, Lisa, point out, every single content, every area, classroom, we need to be infusing it, because, as I constantly say, it’s not a vaccine. It’s not a one time and you’re done. It constantly has to be and technology keeps you know advancing and changing as well. So we need to keep up with it.

Paul Beckermann 33:19 Winston, toolkit.

Winston Benjamin 33:21 Um, I’m really loving the idea of designing the assessment and the assignments to where students need to access smartphones in a way that’s productive, right? Like, I’m really digging that idea, right? Treat it like the old encyclopedia botanicals, right? At some point you needed to dig into something to find out a little bit information to help you build out what you’re thinking. I’m not the best at organizing my thoughts. If you give me a way to help me support organizing my thoughts, I could then let write a better paper. So just seeing those tools, I really think is a useful access.

Paul Beckermann 33:59 All right, Lisa, you get a chance to drop something in our toolkit, if you’d like. Can be a actual tool. Can be a strategy. It can be a mindset, whatever you’d like it to be.

Lisa Green 34:08 Okay, well, I’m gonna give you a couple strategies that I’m using in class. And one is a timer. I have started getting students who are what, if it’s just a worksheet, I’ll throw a timer up on the big screen, so I say you’ve got 10 minutes, or just however far you get. We’re marking this after 10 minutes, and again, that that timer going down triggers a sense of urgency for students when they see it, and it’s okay if they don’t finish that sheet. Next time, I think they’re going to work a little bit harder to get to the end. But I found that using a time like a visual timer in class as a visual aid to help students focus has really helped them to kind of just like, again, get their work done.

And the thing that I mentioned with the project, which I think you need to have, Amazon sells these note cards that just have, like a to-do list right on it, and they’re just sticky notes with a pre-made to-do list. And going around the classroom and just putting that on the sheet and saying, “Here you go.” “I’m going to stick this on your desk.” “I want you to write down three things that you’re going to get done, and we’re going to focus on that”. Those are toolkit items that I have in my class that I think right now, especially keeping students focused. You need.

Paul Beckermann 35:18 Awesome. And this perfect opportunity just to put it and plug in for AVID Open Access. On our website, we actually have three different sets of digital timers that we’ve created. They’re YouTube videos so they can be embedded like in a Google slideshow. They can be right on the screen as you go. And we’ve got everywhere from one minute to 60 minutes in three different styles. So if that’s something you’re looking for, avid open access.org.

Winston Benjamin 35:43 See, I’m always down for a plug, because that always leads an easy segment into what’s that one thing.

Transition Music 35:51 It’s time for that one thing. Time for that one thing.

Winston Benjamin 36:03 I asked Paul and Rena, like, “What’s your one thing?” “What’s what’s going on in your mind?”

Rena Clark 36:08 I guess I’ll start. I just loved the whole opening that teaching rooted in coaching, because as technology has shifted, so as our teaching. We’re no longer that sage on the stage. We’re not in front of the room. We are coaching students. We are saddling up next to them. We’re cheering them on. We’re providing them those opportunities in a safe space to try things on, or even, as you said, give them those little bits of digital citizenship, so that when they leave the classroom that safety, they will be able to apply it. And I love that with the checklist, with everything you’ve mentioned. So just that idea rooted in coaching. So how are we coaching our students so that they can, you know, be productive citizens outside of the classroom? Yeah.

Paul Beckermann 36:52 That’s a good one. I’m stuck on that analogy that you had about the lift going up the hill and having kids understand the impact that technology is actually having on their learning experience. Have you learned it and earned it? And kids can do that. They can process that. They’re they’re very aware, you know, and if we ask them to do it, they’ll do it. I am curious, though, was that hoist going up? Was that Whittier that you were thinking of?

Lisa Green 37:22 Whittier?

Paul Beckermann 37:23 Yeah, isn’t that in British Columbia?

Lisa Green 37:26 Whistler?

Paul Beckermann 37:28 Oh, Whistler. Why am I thinking, where’s Whittier?

Rena Clark 37:31 [Laughter] Both Winston and I are like, “What?”

Paul Beckermann 37:36 I’m getting my W’s mixed up.

Lisa Green 37:37 I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

Paul Beckermann 37:39 Whistler, yes. Whistler.

Rena Clark 37:40 I’m like, “Whistler is really close to us.” Like, I can drive to Whistler.

Paul Beckermann 37:44 That’s what I was thinking of. Whistler is, was that what you’re envisioning with your your trolley up the hill? Or,

Lisa Green 37:50 yeah, I think I’ve always pushed myself in like, a place that’s either here or in Switzerland, you know, one of those, like, very. You really just want to take that tram. Nobody wants to climb that mountain because it looks too intimidating.

Winston Benjamin 38:00 I know you. I hear you. So the one thing that I’m still thinking about, you said this earlier. I think you said it in passing, and what it stuck with me. And it asked the question, “Are they mastering the phones, or are the phones mastering them?” I really love that, like, idea of even just asking a student that’s like, “Who’s in control, you or the phone,” right? I love bringing that to the to them to ask in terms of, like, why and how they’re using your phone. So thank you for that.

So I’m going to turn it to you, Lisa, what’s the one thing that’s still like in your brain, or you wish you had said, or,

Lisa Green 38:41 I think, Winston, it’s right from the start with you. You mentioned this generation gap we have with students and how hard it is for, you know, teachers right now who did not grow up with these phones and these screens. How we socialize. I think it was like MSN Chat Messenger, right, was like the closest we can get to, and I remember how excited I was to have that Messenger chat, right?

But I think we still need to look at students and say, “Okay, this gap is bigger than it’s ever been before because technology has pushed it, and have those professional developments that say, ‘I recognize that it’s different and I’m not necessarily like our generation is not necessarily right; however, we do know the things that we feel were important from what we took away that we don’t see them doing, that we know we still need'”. So I think that’s having those kind of talks, but that generational gap piece I, you know, always has me thinking about. Oh, it’s, I don’t have to be right about this. I know it’s just different for you.

Paul Beckermann 39:48 I have to clear the air. Whittier is in Alaska. I had to use my technology. I had to take the trolley to Wikipedia. Remember, Whittier is a city of Alaska. I knew I’ve been there. Okay, Whistler, though,

Rena Clark 40:02 All right, come up for a visit. We’ll go on and we’ll go up to Whistler.

Paul Beckermann 40:07 It’s kind of on the way Whittier. You know, Whistler is on the way to Whittier. Just keep going.

Winston Benjamin 40:14 Oh, I’m having so much fun with this.

Paul Beckermann 40:19 Trying to reclaim my dignity. I’ll never forget again.

Winston Benjamin 40:25 Truly, the tram lesson.

Paul Beckermann 40:29 I’m “tram-atized”.

Lisa Green 40:32 Nice.

Rena Clark 40:35 Well, it has been a pleasure talking with you, Lisa, just thinking about I feel like so many of us are thinking about this topic. And so I anybody that’s listening, if you want to learn more or just get more ideas, check out Lisa Green’s book, Outsmarted: The Changing Face of Learning in the Era of Smartphones and Technology. And Lisa, where can they pick that up?

Lisa Green 40:59 It’s on all the like online platforms. So whatever your like online bookstore is, you’ll find it there.

Rena Clark 41:06 Well, thank you so much again for joining us today, and hopefully we’ll talk to you again soon.

Lisa Green 41:11 Paul, Rena, Winston, thank you so much.

Rena Clark 41:15 Thanks for listening to Unpacking Education.