Episode 507: Computer Science Leadership: Tech in Everyday Life

Technology should help rather than hinder student learning. How can we encourage positive technology use? Join us in conversation with Saundra Watts of Cobb County to learn more!

TRANSCRIPT

Ashley Mengwasser: Good day, teachers and technology creatures. Welcome to another stimulating episode of Classroom Conversations, a Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Public Broadcasting Partnership Teacher Talk Series. I'm Ashley Mengwasser, your skin and bones host, at least until the AI version of me pops in here and tries to compete with my puns and wins, but not today, Siri. This episode is Module One within a larger program of five computer science episodes this season. Make sure you hear them all if you want your classroom to feature the very best that tech has to offer classroom instruction. Today's topic to get us started is Tech in Everyday Life. So, we'll be talking technology, tech-new-logy, that's what I call new tech, and some words of caution with tech use. I call that tech-no-logy. In the name of job security, I think that satisfies all the pun requirements. Okay? We're moving on. More of this concept of competing with tech, though. Just think about all of the films in the last decade or two decades that have featured a technology takeover of modern society. They prey on our fear of the unfamiliar, for sure. But isn't the solution to these seemingly outmatched robot versus human plot lines a modern society takeover of technology where we humans command, compete, and create alongside the best technological advancements? So yes, we can't deny this age of digital footprints, IP, ChatGPT. How then do we keep our students apace of ever-expanding, ever-deepening technology tools to catapult their learning? As usual, we just need the right tech-xpert. My guest calls her class the Competition Class, not because she's competing with tech, but because she's competing with tech. Get it? There's a difference. Saundra Watts, approaching 26 years as an educator, is thrusting her students into technology for their benefit and for their future. Ms. Watts is the Electric STEM and Computer Science Teacher at Barber Middle School and Cobb County School District. Welcome to the podcast, Saundra.

Saundra Watts: Hi. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Ashley Mengwasser: How are you?

Saundra Watts: I'm great, a little bit nervous, but I'm good right now.

Ashley Mengwasser: Can't even tell, Sandra. This is your first podcast you told me.

Saundra Watts: Very first podcast.

Ashley Mengwasser: But it dovetails with something that's going on in your classroom right now.

Saundra Watts: Yes. We're actually trying to teach the kids how to podcast. We've already done one with social studies, so we take the topic that they're learning and the kids create a podcast to try to get kids to learn the topic a little bit better.

Ashley Mengwasser: What better timing?

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Just perfect.

Saundra Watts: It's very perfect.

Ashley Mengwasser: What is your favorite thing about teaching computer science?

Saundra Watts: Just the creativity of the children. We think that the kids are a technology generation. They know how to turn things on and turn them off. But when you teach them how to create with it, they are brilliant., But we have to teach them and that's one of the things that I do in my class.

Ashley Mengwasser: You have to teach them how to create.

Saundra Watts: You have to teach them how to be creative.

Ashley Mengwasser: You told me this, there are the students who are naturally inborn creators.

Saundra Watts: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: And then, there are those who need to realize that they have to find the spark. Tell me more about that.

Saundra Watts: Well, kids are on TikTok, they're creating stuff for Instagram, so you've got those kind of kids. And then, you have the kids that just sit back and they don't know what they want to do yet. And so, in my classroom we dabble in everything. And they get to put their hands in videography, in audio production, graphic design. So I teach them almost everything till they can find their niche and their thing that they like to do.

Ashley Mengwasser: What is something you're known for telling your kids about technology?

Saundra Watts: I tell them that they need to use it, that it is their teacher. Anything that they have ever wanted to learn, they've learned through technology. So if we're in class and we're doing a project, "Don't rely on me. You have technology everywhere. Pull out your cell phone, go to YouTube." And so, they have learned very quickly, "Don't ask Ms. Watts because she's not going to tell you. She's going to use your resources." And technology is the greatest resource they have.

Ashley Mengwasser: It is a resource.

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Have you always been a tech-forward person in your whole life?

Saundra Watts: I believe I have. As I go back and I think about myself in elementary, I've always been into technology and cameras and videos and things like that, but I never knew that was a career for me. I always thought that, "Oh, most people are going into teaching, so I'm going to go into teaching." And I put my tech to the side and started teaching language arts and reading until one day the spark came for STEM and then STEM turned into computer science and technology just blew up. And that's just where I am right now.

Ashley Mengwasser: Why did you not think technology was for you at that time?

Saundra Watts: As they say, you can't be what you don't see. And I hadn't seen a lot of females in videography. I hadn't seen it in audio production, and I hadn't seen it in real life. So I didn't realize that that was an option for me. And that's why I keep telling my kids right now, I was like, "Dude, I'm putting it in your hands. You can literally do this. You can create your own recording studio, you can create your own business. Everything is at your fingertips because technology is for everybody. It doesn't matter the age."

Ashley Mengwasser: Professionally, you're clearly crushing it, Saundra. Are you like this at home, too? Are you this tech-obsessed?

Saundra Watts: I am very tech-obsessed. If you go into my house, it's everywhere. I have probably six laptops.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh my gosh.

Saundra Watts: I've got all kinds of STEM projects going on in my house. It's in my car, it's in my garage, it's everywhere.

Ashley Mengwasser: What are you teaching yourself at home right now?

Saundra Watts: Right now, I won a grant from Cobb Tank, and this grant that I won was for videography and audio production. So I have since bought three different cameras and a video switch. And so, I'm teaching myself how to teach the kids how to videotape in three different areas and be able to switch back and forth on their computer.

Ashley Mengwasser: A multi-feed production?

Saundra Watts: Yes, multi-feed production. See, I'm learning that part, too.

Ashley Mengwasser: Look, and they're in middle school.

Saundra Watts: They're in middle school.

Ashley Mengwasser: Blows my mind.

Saundra Watts: Yes. I say it's not too early. The kids can learn it earlier now than waiting until they're older. If we teach it to them now, these kids are going to be crazy good later on.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, that is so true because you love technology so much.

Saundra Watts: Love it.

Ashley Mengwasser: You might appreciate some of these technology facts if I can share them with you, Saundra.

Saundra Watts: Okay.

Ashley Mengwasser: These are curated by Bluescope Technologies, an IT support company. I've just got four fun facts here. The first, the search engine Mozilla Firefox.

Saundra Watts: Right.

Ashley Mengwasser: Remember that one?

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: The mascot is not actually a fox. I never knew that.

Saundra Watts: It is. Isn't it in the icon?

Ashley Mengwasser: It looks like a fox. Apparently, it is a red panda.

Saundra Watts: Would've never known that.

Ashley Mengwasser: And the Firefox is the nickname for the red panda. So this whole time I thought it was a fox.

Saundra Watts: Oh, me too. I think everybody did.

Ashley Mengwasser: Mozilla red panda doesn't flow quite as well as Firefox.

Saundra Watts: No.

Ashley Mengwasser: So I get that. Here's one that also surprised me. Nokia, the cell phone manufacturer, do you have any of their phones?

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. They used to sell toilet paper.

Saundra Watts: At the beginning?

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes.

Saundra Watts: Wow. Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: In the 1800s.

Saundra Watts: From toilet paper to cell phones.

Ashley Mengwasser: Maybe that explains why I've dropped so many of my Nokia phones in the toilet.

Saundra Watts: The toilet, yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: That happened.

Saundra Watts: They're trying to go back home.

Ashley Mengwasser: The fate befell them. It's true. I'm telling you.

Saundra Watts: Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: And this one is disturbing actually, that more people in the world have access to cell phones than toilets.

Saundra Watts: I believe that one.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah?

Saundra Watts: Because they're giving away cell phones like candy.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's true.

Saundra Watts: As soon as you go into your carrier, you can get this free phone, and you can get this free phone. So, I believe that one.

Ashley Mengwasser: To your point of it's right at our fingertips.

Saundra Watts: Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's the point.

Saundra Watts: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: And finally, more on cell phones, if you've ever paid close attention to the advertisements for iPhones, you may have noticed that the model featured, no matter what the model is, always shows the time as 9:41. Have you heard about this?

Saundra Watts: No.

Ashley Mengwasser: 9:41 A.M. That was the time of day when Steve Jobs first announced the iPhone back in 2007. Ever since, when there's an iPhone ad in 9:41, that's what they're signifying.

Saundra Watts: Now I'm going to have to go back to every ad and see 9:41. I did not know that.

Ashley Mengwasser: I didn't either, and I didn't even notice the pattern of 9:41s on all the smartphones I had looked at online. That's why I love my iPhone. I've loved it for 17 years.

Saundra Watts: Yeah. I'm more of an Android person.

Ashley Mengwasser: You are?

Saundra Watts: Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: Excellent.

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: We've got to represent all sides here. Is there a tech tip that you learned in your own life recently that really amazed you?

Saundra Watts: My tech tips now have been working with AI, because I am learning a lot about it because the kids are using it.

Ashley Mengwasser: Really?

Saundra Watts: Yeah. They're using it. They're using it in the wrong way.

Ashley Mengwasser: It is the wrong way.

Saundra Watts: It's the wrong way.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's the tech-no-logy.

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah.

Saundra Watts: So, I have been trying to learn as much about AI as possible. And one thing I learned was the machine learning. And one of the things to tell the kids, "Don't just believe what comes out of the AI because it depends on who programmed them."

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, yeah.

Saundra Watts: Yes. And so, you could have all kinds of biases depending on who actually fed the information into that AI.

Ashley Mengwasser: Don't accept that as fact.

Saundra Watts: You can't, you can't, because it just depends on who is programming.

Ashley Mengwasser: Who is behind the AI.

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Because there's always a human being behind it.

Saundra Watts: Correct. And the kids don't know that yet. So I did teach a couple years ago machine learning, where they had to figure out how to make something work with using a hand up or a hand down. And they realized that you had to really be diverse because it wouldn't work if you didn't put in everybody's hand color.

Ashley Mengwasser: Huh.

Saundra Watts: So that was years ago, but this year I have to bring it back because AI has now just... It's everywhere and the kids are using it.

Ashley Mengwasser: That was a great diversity and inclusion lesson, I think, from you.

Saundra Watts: Oh, yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: What are some big misconceptions you've noticed in your fellow educators about tech in the classroom?

Saundra Watts: I think the biggest one that I've noticed is that they don't think they have time for it. And in my opinion, we have nothing but time for it, because we're using it right now just to do some mundane things with the children. But I think it'd be more powerful if the teachers would just give them some time to just create and to make with that technology. And a lot of it is because they worry about not meeting all their standards, but you still can meet your standards.

Ashley Mengwasser: With the tech.

Saundra Watts: With the tech.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay. So time might be a misconception.

Saundra Watts: Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: What's another one about maybe difficulty level? Do you worry about that?

Saundra Watts: Yeah. A lot of the teachers that I've talked to, they believe that they have to be the experts of the tech. And if they're not the expert then they can't teach it. And that is totally wrong. I'm a computer science teacher. I don't know everything at all. I rely on my students. They know a lot of stuff. And so, I teach stuff even though I don't know what it is and we figure it out together.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes.

Saundra Watts: And I think that is something that most teachers aren't really comfortable doing. I'm comfortable doing it because you've got to fail. If you don't fail, you never learn. Me and the kids, we go in, we figure it out. If it works, if it doesn't, we figure out how to make it work, and that's something that other teachers just don't do.

Ashley Mengwasser: Amazing. Let's talk about that. This is a classroom conversation, so I want to move now into your classroom. You're a STEM Computer Science teacher. What are some common examples of technology that students interact with in your class daily, your tech in everyday life?

Saundra Watts: We do a lot of tech. As soon as they walk in the room, we're tech. And one of the reasons is because as you said before, I'm a competition class. So we are a project-based classroom, every project is based on a competition. And so, the kids are doing a hodgepodge of stuff depending on what we're doing. So they've created apps with MAD-learn. If you don't know MAD-learn, you need to learn MAD-learn. Alefiya Master is awesome. We've also made graphic designs. Canva, if teachers are not using Canva, it's horrible. Canva, it's free to us as teachers. Kids can make videos, they can make graphics, they can do animations.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, animations in Canva?

Saundra Watts: Oh, yes. And it's so easy. It's flawless.

Ashley Mengwasser: So that is your preference in terms of slides and that sort of thing?

Saundra Watts: Oh, yeah. I cannot take another PowerPoint for the rest of my life. Please.

Ashley Mengwasser: Use Canva.

Saundra Watts: Yes, use Canva. Use Canva.

Ashley Mengwasser: Says the teacher. Tell me more about MAD-learn. I'm not familiar with that one.

Saundra Watts: MAD-learn is, there's a couple of app competitions that I've been into, and I used to teach the kids how to code the app and it was very difficult for them. We used MIT App Inventor. And then, I met Alefiya Master. She did a presentation at one of STEMapaloozas, I believe. And her program she created on her own, her own business, is an app program where you can actually drag and drop versus coding.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh.

Saundra Watts: You are able to code with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but you don't have to. And so, it makes making apps totally easy for the children. They love it.

Ashley Mengwasser: So, it's another way to create apps, MAD-learn.

Saundra Watts: Right. Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Excellent. What emerging trends or advancements in tech are shaping the way students are interacting with these digital tools?

Saundra Watts: The trends that are happening now is the AI is just very big. It's big in the music industry, it's big. In... You can't even go to Canva without seeing AI.

Ashley Mengwasser: Really?

Saundra Watts: Canva has AI. MAD-learn just added an AI component. So AI is coming everywhere. That's like the biggest increase in technology. And some of it is really good. So when me and the kids are creating songs, I found a vocal splitter AI, where we can put in a song, split the audio from the music, and then the kids could actually turn up their sound, their vocal sound, add their own lyrics, totally free. And it was awesome. It saved us a lot of time and it helped the kids to be even more creative. Think about that. That was a lot.

Ashley Mengwasser: Build, design, make using AI.

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's becoming very prevalent. How did these technologies really enhance their learning experiences? What are you seeing changing within them?

Saundra Watts: They're not being basic anymore.

Ashley Mengwasser: No more basics, yes.

Saundra Watts: Usually the kids, yeah, they were basic. It was like sit and let me put this on a piece of paper. In my class, we don't have paper.

Ashley Mengwasser: What?

Saundra Watts: You have to create from the beginning. Everything is their creation. Some kids I have one year, two years, three years. And just seeing their creativity change, their use of technology, their independence with it has changed. They don't rely on me anymore because they know I'm not going to tell them anything. So they've learned to rely on the technology and they've done some really great things. We've won massive competitions with our technology department.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. Back to the competition victories.

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Tell me about some of those that you guys have won.

Saundra Watts: We just recently, through videography, we won the Georgia Poison Control. Three girls wrote a song about Georgia Poison Control and they won $500.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wow.

Saundra Watts: Which was awesome.

Ashley Mengwasser: They won, is that a scholarship?

Saundra Watts: No, that was $500 for them.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay.

Saundra Watts: Yes. And they got a free trip and hotel stay to Virginia I think it was. And so, that was awesome. We've done games for change competition. We win, place every year and their prizes are awesome. One student, Bouchi, I'll give you a shout-out.

Ashley Mengwasser: Bouchi?

Saundra Watts: Bouchi. He wrote a story about gaming and he got a $600 scholarship.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, so that was a scholarship?

Saundra Watts: That was a scholarship.

Ashley Mengwasser: So, they're giving awards and scholarships.

Saundra Watts: And money and trips to everything.

Ashley Mengwasser: To middle schoolers. That's amazing.

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: I can't imagine receiving a scholarship at that age.

Saundra Watts: Oh, they were shocked as well. They were like, "Is it my money?" I was like, "Yeah. Talk to your parent though, but it's your money. You won it for just putting in the effort and being a maker of technology. Don't just use it. Make something and you get your rewards."

Ashley Mengwasser: That is the crux of this. And that is the impetus that you're teaching your students all the tech things. Because one of the most empowering things to teach them is to make it themselves.

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: To not just be users, but to be the makers. Why is that so important to you?

Saundra Watts: We are in a world where the technology is just becoming outrageous. And if we don't get to the kids and teach them how to make things with that technology, they're going to not be up for those jobs that haven't even been created yet. People talk about it all the time. Through tech, there's going to be jobs that we don't even know exist yet.

Ashley Mengwasser: Don't exist.

Saundra Watts: But they're going to exist later on. And so, I keep just as much as I can learn, I'm teaching it to the kids so that they can stay abreast of it and say, "Oh, if I keep doing this for three years, maybe I can go get a job doing this in the tech field that's going to keep growing." And they will always be employed,

Ashley Mengwasser: Always employed.

Saundra Watts: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: What tools do you lean on, do you implement in your classroom, to help teach your students to become makers?

Saundra Watts: A lot of professional developments, and a lot of them I have to say, I find on Facebook.

Ashley Mengwasser: Really?

Saundra Watts: And Twitter and TikTok. So people will advertise things and I'll be like, "Oh, what is that?" And I'll go read on it, email the people. I love the businesses and the PDs that actually talk back to you. And so, I found quite a few of them that are, they teach me everything. And then, once I learn it, I go into the classroom and we teach it to the kids. And it's awesome.

Ashley Mengwasser: And they have this instilled ability to create and to make as a result of your classes. What are all the classes you teach? Do you teach every grade at your middle school?

Saundra Watts: I teach sixth, seventh, and eighth. And ideally, they're supposed to be with me for three years.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wow.

Saundra Watts: So that I can build on the tech skills.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes.

Saundra Watts: And you should see my three years. They are, I am so proud of them, the things that they do. Two of my three years, Eunice and John, shout out to them, they're actually, they got asked by their teachers to create an app on bullying. And they were like, "Okay, we're getting Eunice and John because we know they're going to do it." And they created the app on bullying.

Ashley Mengwasser: What does the app do?

Saundra Watts: We had instances where kids have been bullied. And so, for the app, the kids will be able to put the app on their phone, and if they feel like they're going to be bullied or that they're being bullied, they can actually report it in the app and it would go to one of the teachers.

Ashley Mengwasser: Anonymously.

Saundra Watts: Anonymously.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's powerful.

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: With all this cool software and the ensuing digital presence, what essential rules are you making sure that your students grasp when it comes to their own digital citizenship?

Saundra Watts: Number one, we do not play with copyright.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay.

Saundra Watts: Everything that we do, they have to cite. And as I delve into teaching them with the AI, you cannot just use AI. You must cite it. You need to say that, "This was enhanced using so-and-so," because we need to know that we cannot use other people's work and that's just not going to happen for our class. They do everything a hundred percent original. From their pictures to their drawings, they know they have to make them. We talk about responsibility, making sure that when you're online you're not talking to people. We talk about stranger danger. Most kids don't know that because they have a cell phone and they just do whatever. And I'm like, "No, when we're in this classroom, if I have not physically seen this person and you have not physically seen this person, we're not talking. That's stranger danger." So they know not to put information in. So we put their first name, things like that to try to safeguard. So I'm teaching them what they should be doing when they're on the internet not in my class.

Ashley Mengwasser: And the platforms you've mentioned today are all wonderful. Do you think they're accessible to a teacher of any subject matter?

Saundra Watts: Oh, definitely. Even though people don't see it, and one of my goals this summer is to show them how they can incorporate these into their classrooms. They can do anything. You can make a social studies app about different regions and what goes on in these different regions. You can make a math app. I've seen somebody do that, teaching two-step equations. I found electronic books that kids can create that include video and audio, so this can work on fluency with reading for the kids that are behind. So it can fit anywhere. And with AI, you can actually ask it and it will tell you.

Ashley Mengwasser: Look at that. And the whole point of technology is that it solves problems and it facilitates our needs.

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: And this is actually solving problems in their lives now in middle school.

Saundra Watts: Yep.

Ashley Mengwasser: How does teaching students to use daily technology help them in the future? And I know that's what is the long game and the end goal for you.

Saundra Watts: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Tell me about that.

Saundra Watts: The end goal is for them to be able to learn, and I know they may not all go into computer science, but through computer science, you're learning problem-solving. Can you fix a bug? If you can fix a bug in a program, if you're in a math class, you should be able to fix wherever your problem is. So, the problem-solving is something that can carry them on forever. Critical thinking, can you think things through? Can you break down the information and figure out what you do need and what you don't need to make things happen? That goes all the way through your adult life that you're going to have to do that. And just collaboration. In every job that I have talked to in every employment business, people have to work together. And as I tell the kids, "You're not going to pop up and learn how to work together with people when you're 20. You have to be trained." And so, I'm training them how to work with each other and how to get the outcome that is needed by making sure everybody does their part.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes.

Saundra Watts: So, all of those things are, I'm hoping that they will utilize that throughout high school, college, workforce life, because it's important.

Ashley Mengwasser: Equipping them with this tech in their everyday life is equipping them for a future.

Saundra Watts: Correct.

Ashley Mengwasser: That they can not only manage but excel at.

Saundra Watts: Correct.

Ashley Mengwasser: Thank you. Saundra.

Saundra Watts: You're welcome.

Ashley Mengwasser: You are the very best educator to guide our students into the future, largely due to your insistence about using technologies.

Saundra Watts: Yes. They have to. We are using technology from the time you walk in to the time you leave for three years hopefully, we are all working.

Ashley Mengwasser: Keep pushing it, because with that and with your competitions, you are really pushing them to excel. Congratulations.

Saundra Watts: Thank you very much.

Ashley Mengwasser: On all you've done. Teachers listening, there's this expression about tech that fully captures its highest purpose, I think. And it's this: "Tech is an instrument, not a tool." An instrument, not a tool. This statement does two things. It implies that we can make art with tech, and it gives some power to the human on the other side of the screen to become the artist. Now, take up more tech in your everyday life and watch your students make art. You're a great teacher. Next week, a brand new episode is sure to light your fire, so come on back and listen in. I'm Ashley, this is Classroom Conversations. Goodbye for now. Funding for Classroom Conversations is made possible through the School Climate Transformation Grant.