This interview was originally recorded on August 27, 2021, as part of Leoni Consulting Group’s All Things Marketing and Education Podcast.
Elana:
Welcome, everyone, to this week’s episode of all things marketing and education. Today I am super‑excited to talk with my friend, Monica Burns. Besides being a wonderful human being Monica inspires educators around the nation.
[00:00:18] Monica is an EdTech consultant, a curriculum consultant, an author. She recently just launched another book, I believe it’s called “EdTech Essentials” with ASCD, and she’s a former New York City public school teacher. You can find Monica blogging up a storm, podcasting herself, Tiktok’ing, doing everything, clubhouse. Her website is classtechtips.com and her podcast Easy EdTech, helps educators think about technology with deeper learning in mind.
[00:00:56] So welcome, Monica, I am so excited to have you and talk to you and just learn from you because I believe during this really challenging time you have so much wisdom to tell educators, to tell our audience of EdTech marketers as well, so I am so excited. Welcome, and if there is anything else I missed I know that you have a big resume. Please add to it to give our audience some context on who you are.
Monica:
[00:01:22] Oh, well, thank you so much for having me. I can’t wait to chat with you today.
Elana:
[00:01:27] Awesome. So I love talking about just the why. I think a lot of our clients when they come to us as well, I get them to reorient back to their passion and I don’t think you have ever lost your passion but I never got to hear the story of your initial passion with education, so maybe let’s realign back to Monica as a public school teacher in New York City. How did you get into it and where did you discover this love for really devoting your entire life to helping students and now educators around the nation?
Monica:
[00:02:03] Well, I went to school to become an elementary school teacher, which is not everyone’s entry point into the education space, but my undergraduate degree is in elementary education and it was always my goal to be in the classroom.
[00:02:19] And I had an opportunity to come back to New York. I grew up outside of New York City but I had a position offered in New York City public schools right out of college. So I started teaching when I was 21 years old right north of Central Park.
[00:02:39] And so I was there for about seven years, a little shy of seven years, in a fifth grade classroom working with third graders, working with fourth graders, being part of a transition from a traditional public school to a magnet school with a focus on environmental stewardships.
[00:02:54] So sometimes people have heard me tell the story of the cart of iPads in one corner of my classroom and the big compost bin in the other corner of the classroom; just one of my favorite ways to illustrate the importance of having a balance between a lot of different types of experiences.
[00:03:12] And in 2012, so coming up on ten years this spring, which is a lot to consider at this point, I started speaking and writing and sharing all about education technology, which really came out of the work in my classroom being one of the early ones to go one‑to‑one with iPads in New York City and in different parts of the country.
[00:03:40] And it’s an area where really just brought me back to my roots of being interested and excited and passionate about teaching and learning, having that infusion of education technology when I was kind of at that seven year itch part of my career, was really an exciting space to be in and still one that I'm very excited and passionate about.
Elana:
[00:04:05] I'm curious. When you were a public school teacher was there a moment that – how did you get that push to say I want to create content? I’ve worked with so many educators, especially at Edutopia, and when I approach them and say you have something amazing to say, can you please write for us, can you please do this they say, “Aah, you know, I'm just doing what every other educator is doing.” So how did you get that push because it’s a real big thing for educators, and they have such wisdom to share? Like what was it? Was it a person or was it just like having to try this and no one is going to listen? Just keep going?
Monica:
[00:04:42] Yeah. I mean it’s so interesting and I love the way that you ask that question because I think that the mindset so many of us with a classroom background have is, you know, I'm kind of in my own world, I'm doing the best that I can. I might be in a school where the doors are open and I can ask for help and share ideas. I might not be. I happen to be in a really small, supportive school with a lot of conversations at lunchtime and all the times with my colleagues.
[00:05:10] But what really shifted things for me is that we went one‑to‑one with iPads in grade five and my fifth grade classroom as part of that pilot, just a couple of classes, and it was really early on, like trying to sync up iPads by myself with my old MacBook and iTunes, you know at the time, before we talk about these larger deployments and systems.
[00:05:33] And so the Apple education team, the sales team and I were in touch because we were one of these early places and, you know they were helping support a little bit, you know, and answering my questions of what to do and how to set things up.
[00:05:47] We didn’t have another IT person at my school. There was kind of if you want to do this you’ve got to figure it out, right? And so it must have been I guess like early winter in 2012 when they had asked me, the Apple education folks, to come to an event they were holding after school for some teachers just to talk about what I was doing in my classroom, which was not an ask that I had really gotten before on any subject area, you know, and so I went.
[00:06:15] It wasn’t that far from where I lived at the time, just a couple of blocks away from my apartment, like no big deal, I’ll go after school. I had my iPad with my little – you know a couple of apps that I loved ready to talk about, a little side deck ready. And I showed up and it wasn’t a couple of teachers; it was a couple of hundred teachers and I kind of got that look from them like if we told you what this really was you might not have come, you know?
[00:06:39] So I just kind of did what I was asked to do and jumped on what was now a stage, not like a room, after school and started talking about all the things that were happening in my classroom. And when I walked off that’s when all the questions came. You know, what’s your blog? Where can I find you on Twitter? Where can we follow?
[00:06:58] And I'm like this is not what I signed up for, this is not part of my plan as a teacher and it all just kind of – you know spiraled sounds almost like a bad word but it all just kind of went from there in terms of, you know getting the ball rolling where – you know in hindsight I did have experience with WordPress because I was helping run my school website, you know, and I did have experience with some different social media platforms from other things that I had been working on. So you know, when you look back it kind of makes sense but it also is because, you know, these were areas of interest that I might not have been able to identify or pull together until I was really pushed to do so.
[00:07:39] So fast forward from like March to like May is when I launched my website classtechtips.com of that same year. Started tweeting things out and not really being sure what that meant, you know, in terms of sharing stories and favorite tools and strategies, and that’s when folks like Edutopia reached out to say, “Hey, can you share your story?” and started doing that really early on.
[00:08:03] I became an Apple Distinguished Educator that next summer and so kind of built my network and started growing from there. My first ISTE was in 2013 and so coming up on whatever, year nine of that, this June and so it’s been a really exciting, almost decade of this work of content creation, content sharing. And of course, you know no better than anyone just how much all of that has shifted and changed and evolved in even the way that we talk about it in the past ten years or so.
Elana:
Yeah, and ISTE at that time was called NIC, right, was it?
Monica:
It was a little bit after; yeah, it was a little bit after the shift, yeah.
Elana:
[00:08:42] Yeah, I think I went to the first – the last NIC was my first experience of ISTE. So I just want to point out to everyone listening, that journey of Monica has some similarities of our last guest as well, so if you’re an educator and you’re just not sure what you’re doing is exciting, or you want to dive deep into something, you know, there are some similarities of really connecting out using social media
[00:09:07] Really connecting with brands too, getting those certifications. There are so many cool ambassador programs out there that you can take advantage of and open up your network. And honestly, as a creator I feel like that’s all the time now because I'm creating more, and I'm sure you do. I feel like I'm talking out to the ether and I'm like, “Does anyone hear me? Does anyone hear me?”
[00:09:29] I was recently listening to a Gary Vee podcast and he said, “You know what? For two years I went on YouTube. For two years, every single day I went on YouTube and no one listened. No one commented,” but it’s all about patience being a creator and then just – at the end of it it’s just about you too. It’s fulfilling your joy.
[00:09:50] Like I don’t think you did this to say I'm going to be this amazing consultant that does you know keynotes and all that, it’s just more of like, hey, let me dive deeper into this, let me really nerd out into this issue, and that’s an educator’s mindset, right? It’s just learning all the time.
Monica:
[00:10:06] Absolutely, and I think too you know when you’re passionate about something, you know it becomes evident to anyone who you’re talking to about, right? So they want to talk more to you about it, you build that network. And you’re absolutely right, those ambassador programs for me were transformative in terms of my professional career, not just for building relationships and lifelong friendships at this point – I spent a long time with a lot of people by my side there, but also just to see what was possible or what I wanted or what I didn’t know was a potential career path, you know?
[00:10:42] I’ll never forget sitting like in a room with a fellow ADE or Apple Distinguished Educator and saying, "Oh, I'm thinking about going for a Masters in Education Technology. I have my Masters in American History” and him just turning to me and saying, “You don’t need another – go for your Doctorate in this program” and like recommended a program that I ended up taking.
[00:11:04] And so it’s just having these professional conversations with people who are not in your everyday network, but being able to connect and understand what you do in a way that’s a little bit different than the people who you do spend all your time with, right, even professionally might not quite understand, especially if you’re in a classroom/teacher environment, supportive or not as supportive as you would like.
[00:11:25] There is just so much happening in these different spaces and, yeah, I feel the same way about the content creation, just not being sure who might hear something, right, or who might read something. That’s only part of it, you know? It also comes back to that network‑building and just sharing your passion and getting it out there.
Elana:
[00:11:45] Great, so let’s shift gears a little bit more. Let’s talk about the pandemic and you’ve been in the thick of it. You helped teachers transition to 100 percent remote when everyone had to do that. You were helping – I saw you every day, in every single social media feed sharing tips and tricks around hybrid and then the shuffle of in‑person and out, and the technology surrounding all this environment.
[00:12:14] Talk to me about, like how did EdTech evolve because you got to see it from the vantage point of helping educators professionally but also partnering with EdTech brands, right, so talk to me like how it evolved. And then the most important question I think everyone is thinking of is what is here to stay?
Monica:
[00:12:33] Yeah, and just like you shared, you know I wear two hats in my professional life, so half of it is educator‑facing, running professional development, creating content for educators, classroom teachers, digital learning coaches and folks who are supporting educators in that way.
[00:12:53] And the other half of my work is brand partnerships and working behind the scenes with different companies to help them make certain decisions and also get the word out about their work.
[00:13:02] And so everyone was affected in a big way, you know last year into our now, and last March I did my last conference in Seattle when Seattle was deserted and just emptying out and thought of as being an epicenter, until I came back to New York City where I live, or right outside of New York City, and that really was where, you know, we were ready to shut down just a few days later.
[00:13:25] And so by the end of March I was – for the first time in about five years it was longest I had been in one place, so once I kind of hit that two week mark it was the longest I had been not at the airport in five or six years, just to kind of speak to the travel component of that shift.
[00:13:42] And so you know my work with educators in that March, April, May, June timeframe for finishing out the year and planning forward, was really around prioritizing and deciding what was actually important and what really needed to happen in order to connect with students, whether that was embracing learning management systems, or looking for just a few core tools that were going to help check some boxes around formative assessment, connecting with family, so just really narrowing in on what are the big things here?
[00:14:15] Because at the same time there were a lot of emails going out from every company that you can imagine in our EdTech space with the best of intention, sharing their resources. Some of them being able to support, others of them saying actually we cannot handle this bandwidth, right, and didn’t think that things were going to be more than just a few weeks. And so it was a very noisy time for a lot of educators, alongside really supportive, wonderful EdTech companies trying to create as much value for the people that they love and work for, you know, all the time too.
[00:14:52] So I think the navigation of that was really interesting from both of the hats that I wear, to provide value without feeling potentially overwhelming, you know? So that’s a lot of what I do is, curation of resources and sharing and positioning them to say this is worthy of your consideration, or this might not be for you but tell a friend, right, and kind of getting the word out that way.
[00:15:15] And so that was just ramped up, right, with just the flow of all of these tools to say like this is the one that is going to be worth it, or this is a great opportunity for you to try this out right now, or you might fall in love with this and not be able to live without it and that’s great for the company and great for you, you know?
[00:15:33] So there was just a lot of those pieces where – you know I am discouraged on some days and more hopeful on other days that some of the lessons that we’ve learned, or I wish we learned you know coming into this school year and the new calendar year, are sticking. I think there are some places where they’ve done a great job of avoiding some of the nostalgia or just the runback to the way it was because that’s comfortable and safe you know?
[00:16:00] And then other places that are really taking this opportunity to say our vocabulary around student privacy and data is a lot better than it was two years ago, so we can make smarter decisions. Or I know what to ask when I get on the phone with a company if I'm a superintendent because I know my teachers need X, Y and Z and I want to ask those questions when I'm vetting a new product or platform.
[00:16:23] So I think there’s a lot of people who are better informed, have a stronger vocabulary, can ask more strategic questions to make sure something is the right fit for their classroom, school and district, but then I do think there are pockets where, you know they’ve just kind of run away from all of this to go back to what felt good beforehand. And it’s unfortunate that some of those pieces aren’t built into just kind of the normal routine.
Elana:
[00:16:49] Yeah, and of all of the technology you saw, in all the districts kind of doing so much, I mean a lot of it was reflexive of, “oh my God, I’ve got to do this,” but now with the pandemic entering a new school year there was a hint of opportunity to be more proactive. Were there things in technology that you were like – just excited you and you’ve never seen that movement towards them too, because you have that unique vantage point that I’d just be curious about? You’ve seen all the technology. You go to all the EdTech shows. Was there stuff – I mean it doesn’t have to be new but you finally saw it in action in schools?
Monica:
Yeah.
Elana:
Was there any of that going on?
Monica:
[00:17:32] So I think one of the things that – and I know it’s still coming up a lot in my conversations when I give a list of potential topics to a group that we’re working together, it tends to be the one that people are jumping to right now – which is around the curation of resources, so choosing really what’s going to be best for a unit of study or teaching ecosystems. This is going to be helpful for us, and there’s a level of colleague collaboration that goes into that too.
[00:17:58] So for as much as it’s been nice to see some streamlining within a school or district to say we can’t use all these tools, we have to choose our one LMS or we have to choose our one parent communication tool. We can’t have a family getting five different messages for each five of their kids or the five courses that their one high schooler is in, right?
[00:18:16] So you know that’s been nice, but I think it’s been great to see some of these more thoughtful curations. I think that’s why Wakelet has become really popular this year. People are talking about how they can use some of the tools they’re already comfortable with like Google Docs more thoughtfully to just organize information or to connect with colleagues.
[00:18:36] They were doing that because they had to in a lot of circumstances when they were making, say, a curriculum map or plugging into a calendar and what they want to work on. I know I was leading sessions with educators last year where we were trying to – pacing things out that way, but now that’s a skill that’s been built that is not transferring into our current environment.
[00:18:56] So you might still be around a meeting table and using some of those muscles that you were using at a distance for planning, right, for this in‑person piece; not to say that wasn’t happening in places before all of this, right? Using those collaborative spaces thoughtfully that I think it’s just more of an uptick or a wider adoption, at least in the places that I'm working with.
Elana:
[00:19:19] When we will be launching this episode it will be around mid‑December, so kind of let’s fast forward to that time, and let’s fast forward to what an educator may be feeling. So we have a couple of audiences listening in; we’ve got the EdTech marketers and some of them may be new to the space of education.
[00:19:41] I work with a lot of marketing managers and CMOs that are just mission‑driven but really don’t have a lot of experience, so it’s really helpful for people to hear of what’s that mindset of an educator in mid‑December and throw in a pandemic? Right now burnout is at an all‑time high and it never really stopped being at an all‑time high.
Elana:
Yeah.
Monica:
If you are EdTech company and you’re trying to gain the attention of an educator mid‑December how do you begin to do that?
Monica:
[00:20:13] Yeah, and you know as we’re recording this, you know just six – or even eight weeks or so out, right, those are the conversations that I have been having all week, right, with folks who are saying is there time for us to get on my editorial calendar, right, or do you think it’s worth us doing a giveaway now, right, or working with some of these different brands or a lot of those same conversations.
[00:20:34] And so what I share with them is, you know, typically this December time – and we’re taking out this year and we’re taking out last year, right – but in the other years that I’ve been doing this work the December time isn’t so much of a drop‑off as much as an opportunity, especially the second half, for someone who is really passionate to have more time to dive in more deeply.
[00:20:56] So you might have a more general population of educators who are rightfully taking that time and that moment to step back and put their priorities somewhere else, but if you have people that just wish they had more time in the day to dive into these things, or they do have a little bit more time you know at the end of December to really sit down and open up that email or try out that piece, and so there’s a quality versus quantity shift that can take place this time of year.
[00:21:24] I find that my traffic for my website does not go down during this holiday period. For me, my only time is like – I call it the kind of stay away time – it tends to be that 4th of July week where like everyone is on vacation, right, no matter what your role is in the space of education; like maybe not the best time.
Elana:
The whole world –
Monica:
Right, the whole world.
Elana:
– closed down that week.
Monica:
[00:21:49] Yeah, so like that’s my big stay away time. But you know, I think this is kind of a wild card time typically, right? Like it can be a little tough, a little noisy, a little heavy on emails and competitive with other peoples’ holiday promotions unrelated to education that might also fill up someone’s inbox. But that being said, it is a chance for people to dive in and dig into pieces.
[00:22:13] You know I’ve seen educators who run courses do big launches. You know at the end of December I typically – you know for family reasons and all the reasons like to move that into a January/July cycle for me. But I still see a lot of traffic, plenty of interest but right now it’s different, and just like you said the burnout piece, everyone who entered into this school year, it’s very, very different the start of this school year to even the start of last school year.
[00:22:44] So I am hopeful that there will be more of a new school year restart feel in January of this year, if we get through this winter and it doesn’t feel scary and it doesn’t feel as heavy as we might have anticipated this winter feeling from a health and safety and all those perspectives. I'm hopeful that some of that September energy that we didn’t have this past September will come into the first chunk of the calendar year with people seeing January as a new reset, as opposed to the way they see that August/September beginning of the school year.
Elana:
[00:23:21] Yeah, and as you were talking I was reflecting that I really feel like November and December is a great opportunity to dive deeper into current relationships. Make sure your current users, audiences, community, whatever you have, make sure that they feel supported. So it’s more of – if we’re talking about the marketing funnel we’re really operating at the bottom because you already have them as customers, but how can we make sure that they know that you care and that you’re there?
[00:23:53] So what I love doing kind of around Thanksgiving is that gratitude, really going out of your way to do authentic messages around how thankful you are, and then around the holidays like handwritten notes, those things, so just reestablishing relationships with folks.
[00:24:12] And then the new year is I feel like more of that top of the funnel where you can say people are more open to new things, with new year’s resolutions and intentions. And I think, like you said, some people want to dive deep too so give them stuff to dive deep, but I also think it’s a fun time to throw non‑education things at them like winter reads that can just inspire the soul. Those things are really helpful.
Monica:
[00:24:40] And I think that the lightness around that too is interesting to consider. I have a post that’s going up on my blog right around Thanksgiving, that’s a what’s‑on‑my desk post. So not a gift guide this year because I’ve done that a few different times, but more of like what’s working for me, what can I live with, what’s always got to be like on an arm’s reach for me, right, so I think some of those behind the scenes components that might fall more into, say retention for current schools that you’re working with, just leaning into that.
[00:25:12] I know that it’s been a time where people are pulled in different directions but they want to come back to those things that they love, so I think it’s a good opportunity to just reengage with folks who might love you, right, as a company, as a platform, as a tool, but not have had the brain space to spend that time.
Elana:
[00:25:31] Great. We’ve talked a little bit about this but being an educator, and now someone who partners with the EdTechs – you’ve got your feet in both areas – it’s a bit general but what do you think EdTech companies should do more of or less of?
[00:25:49] Are there things that they do when they approach educators, when we’re talking about teachers in the classroom, educators, education administrators and even parents, are there things that you’ve seen that you’re like please don’t do this again, EdTech brands? Or you know, there are some great best practices out there, please do more of that.
Monica:
[00:26:08] Yeah, so I think it comes – a lot of it for me comes down to authenticity in terms of messaging. So although you might hear a lot of people talking about social‑emotional learning, if you do not really support that in an authentic way like stay away from that buzzword, right, or don’t plug that into your messaging because other people are using it and talking about it. It doesn’t mean you can’t acknowledge a connection that you know is there, but some of those pieces I think are kind of those ick moments where you’re like, oh, don’t do it.
[00:26:40] Like if I see an email sometimes come through I'm like, oh, not – like I don’t love that or I know the best intentions are there with that sort of piece, but I don’t know that that’s the right way to go about it or it’s going to help someone in the long run in terms of really getting someone in who is going to be excited and really wanting to work with that particular group or platform.
[00:27:01] So for me those would be kind of a stay away piece; it’s really avoiding some of those things that are maybe not really aligned to your specific mission and bringing them in just kind of for the sake of it.
[00:27:15] You know one thing that I’ve seen that I really love, and I think it’s a big part of the storytelling – you mentioned storytelling earlier – is just having those quick visuals that help me understand what it is that you can accomplish as a platform or a service, what it is that you offer teachers.
[00:27:34] I'm always looking on someone’s website for that 30 second video that gives me the quick overview of what they actually do or what it is that they are able to do. So for me, that’s one of the kinds of must‑haves or things that I'm looking for that I think some EdTech companies do a really great job with.
Elana:
[00:27:56] Yeah, that’s a really great point. Educators I believe, out of any other audience, can sniff out un‑authenticity a mile away, and if you throw in a word like equity please back it up, you know?
Monica:
Right.
Elana:
[00:28:12] With social-emotional learning I think that sometimes EdTech brands tend to piggyback off of keywords and don’t really understand the ramifications or put it into action. We saw a lot of that with Common Core back in the day.
Monica:
Yes.
Elana:
Everything was Common Core, right, until there was a backlash and then we renamed it lots of things.
Monica:
[00:28:33] Yeah, and I try even with those words you know to say – you know when I'm having those conversations because – so when I'm partnering with companies a lot of times our conversation comes to “well, when they come for me where are they going, right?” Like I want a promotion that I'm helping with to be successful, you know, so what is your landing page going to look like when they get there, right? What are they going to do? What are you hoping to accomplish, right?
[00:28:57] And so when we’re having those conversations around messaging or what I'm going to share on their behalf, you know I try to really instill that. You know acknowledge that it’s wonderful, right, that you also think that social‑emotional learning or equity is important, or whatever it might be, but if you’re not really addressing this concern, right, it’s not a great way to enter the conversation with someone because it could – just like you said, backfire, leave a bad taste in someone’s mouth or give the impression that that thing doesn’t work because it didn’t actually address this other thing, when it can actually do a great job with its primary goal or mission.
Elana:
[00:29:36] Yeah, and it’s never just one hit, right, and so it’s all about commitment and consistency, and I know you know that about that beyond anyone else because I see you in every single channel consistently. And when we work with brands it’s not about this one piece of content you’re going to create; it’s about how do you show up and demonstrate it throughout the year?
[00:29:59] I talk a lot about that with educator appreciation, too. It’s not just this one day that you go out and teach educators, especially in the pandemic. You should be doing it every day and that never gets old. Yes, so it’s about that commitment, you know, we all talk about in education, lifelong learning, so like just own it. It’s like social media, everything, it’s a marriage. It is not leaving.
Monica:
[00:30:26] And consistency in all of these spaces I think is really crucial, and so even if it’s a company that just has the commitment to push out their newsletter once a month or twice a month and maybe isn’t ready to tackle social without some support of an expert, who can help them really be thoughtful about it, you know?
[00:30:45] Wherever that consistency can happen I think – you know, one of the things that I'm always excited to see from EdTech brands is that they’re showing up, and whatever that looks like for them, you know connects to their own – you know I smile every time I see a flip grid newsletter in my inbox because I'm like, “What are they up to?” you know? Or, “Ooh, look who is going to be on a flip grid live, right?” Like I am interested and excited and I expect it. Like if six weeks went by and I didn’t get that newsletter I’d be worried, right, or wondering if I unsubscribed. Like I’d almost think it was my fault, right, that I hit the wrong button when I clicked on something because I'm just conditioned to see value in what they’re sharing consistently.
Elana:
[00:31:28] Yeah, it’s so important, especially in EdTech I would say. When I first got into the industry I didn’t understand the hesitancy with educators to use new products, and I found that one of the driving factors, beyond just human nature and all this psychology of just motivation, some of it was that they can’t trust EdTechs because they get bought or they run out of cash flow and die, so if you don’t hear from them consistently you’re like, oh gosh, are they OK? Are they going to be around?
Monica:
Yeah.
Elana:
[00:31:58] Am I going to have to switch all my lesson plans or, you know, the way I deliver? I'm going to have to completely change because I relied on this tool, so that’s a big thing.
Monica:
[00:32:09] It’s huge; it’s so huge. And you know when I talk to educators, when I talk to folks at EdTech companies about all of those pieces, right, there are a lot of levels that make it hard for someone to commit or use something. It can be as simple as I don’t know what button to press when I get to your website, right?
[00:32:27] And I say simple because that should be a simple fix, right, for us too but it’s a big problem, right? Or there are too many barriers for me sign into something, or I can’t imagine getting my second graders a new set of logins for this tool, right? It could be something that is really just a core component of that, but also that you know I’ve been burned before or I created all these things in this tool and then they’re gone, or now there’s no easy way for me to replace this or substitute this workflow.
[00:32:59] And so you know when I even talk to educators running professional development, you know I am always giving a tool, right? I'm always spotlighting something so they can actually put that idea into action, but I really try and focus in on a strategy or say you could also do this with, right? Like this also works.
[00:33:18] So just earlier this week I ran a formative assessment session for a group of Connecticut librarians for one of their PD days and we were looking at formative assessment strategies and one of them was around this idea of voice comments, right, and how powerful it can be for a student to hear their teacher’s voice when they’re commenting on their work.
[00:33:38] And so, you know, one of the examples I gave was Moat, which I really love, but then I also said you know how we looked at Seesaw for that other strategy before, you can leave voice comments there too and you can probably do it in the space that you are already using, so look for a button that has a microphone on it next time you go leave a comment because it might be there, you know?
[00:33:56] And I think that’s part of just the capacity‑building too that makes it easier for educators to have a level of confidence to try something new because they can see the value. They see the connection to something else. And just like we were talking about the vocabulary‑building around technology because of the pandemic I think now people – you don’t know what you don’t know, and now if you know a couple more things about this like you can make those connections.
Elana:
[00:34:23] Yeah, and I love it. You’re starting to get into this world of practical Monica that I see too, so a lot of the times you’re in the strategy and you’re blogging at Edutopia and getting smart in all these places, or your book which is high level strategies, but you’re also known for like a lot of practical, like wow, this is not going to change the way I view teaching, but gosh, it changes my every day because this one tool helps me.
[00:34:50] I mean you’re on the frontlines of seeing more educators struggle in technology, are there types of technology that you’ve seen them – just their lightbulb go off and go, “Oh my God, thank you.” Do you see some trends around that, like the technology and tools?
Monica:
[00:35:06] So there are so many out there, right? I think one that for me I get a lot of aah‑ha moments, and it’s one that I come back to a lot when I push back to people, and these are people outside of education typically who say like, oh, you know, all the veteran teachers must hate all this technology or they must not like having to – I'm like these are the people who have the experience to be able to know how this is going to change their classroom, right, and I'm even speaking pre‑pandemic, right?
[00:35:34] And so one of my favorite ones to illustrate that is Google Arts and Culture. Simple, free tool. There is a virtual reality‑esque component where you can do these panoramic walks on trails in the Grand Canyon. You can walk through the Palace of Versailles. I always say that it’s no substitute for the real thing but there are plenty of places you can’t go, right, with students now or in the past you know, or into space or any of these other options.
[00:36:01] And I love that tool because it’s a really simple way to illustrate this could change the way that you talk about a novel because you’ve now walked through this space with your students and they get how big it is, or how small it is, or what it must feel like to get there.
[00:36:16] And if you’ve been teaching the same novel study for 20 years – nothing wrong with, you know, great pieces of American literature I guess, right – but if you’ve been revisiting the same book this is going to hit differently with the vocabulary, with the context and all the things that you might have always done and were kind of working for you, right, but now this is going to take it to the next level or reach those two kids who always couldn’t wrap their head around what that place was like, you know?
[00:36:41] And it’s not just that particular ELA example; you could pull it into all different sorts of content areas, which is another reason why I like Google Arts and Culture and mentioning that one so much. But it’s also a great way for me when I'm working with educators to illustrate like this is cool, right? We all said, “Ooh, look at this” but then we can pause and say, what kind of discussion questions could I put alongside this?
[00:37:07] This isn’t kids staring at their screen for 20 minutes, standing on the edge of a volcano, right, this is them looking at it, exploring and then turning and talking to the person next to them about their observations and what they see. You pushing the conversation, you revisiting something or maybe it’s even a tool someone has in their back pocket for a teachable moment when they realize nobody has any idea what they’re talking about, you know, and now they’re going to bring up this on an interactive whiteboard in the classroom and walk around for two minutes, and it totally transforms the conversation.
[00:37:40] So that’s one that I come back to a lot because it helps illustrate a lot of concepts. It’s very actionable, searchable, free, easy on all the platforms. So when I go to a space, especially if I'm not quite sure who is going to be in the virtual or physical room, you know, in terms of content area and grade level it’s really flexible, which is also something that I love when I'm looking for resources that cast a wide net.
Elana:
[00:38:07] Yeah, and I know that you are in the thick of so many EdTech tools, so for all of you listening I think you probably put at least two to three pieces of content out at least per week around EdTech tools. So if you have any challenge we’ll tell you how to get ahold of Monica, but she’s got a write‑up about it and with experience, so I know that that is a robust question to throw at you last minute.
[00:38:32] But as we kind of round out this podcast I know you have a new book coming out and I see it right behind you too, “EdTech Essentials” and maybe walk us through what’s in there and what would be helpful for an educator, especially right now?
Monica:
[00:38:49] Absolutely. So this is a book that I published with ASCD, so I wrote the book “Tasks Before Apps” with them in 2017, and so this came out just a few months ago now. It’s really about prioritizing, focusing in on what is truly essential. There is so much that you can do with technology, right, in this space, and so I look at ten what I call essential strategies that you can unpack and make your own depending on where you are and what you’re working on.
[00:39:22] You know we really framed the book to be inclusive of all different types of learning environments, so with hybrid strategies, distance strategies, in‑person strategies. We kind of went through the last round of finalizing things in the midst of this past year; you know when we were looking at learning environments in a lot of different ways.
[00:39:41] So there’s the kind of core best practices with that relevancy of all the things that we’re trying to tackle, including some of the unknowns that might pop up again, so you know it’s designed so that you could do a chapter a month, right? If you’re thinking about the school year to say we’re going to focus on curation this month, we’re going to focus on navigational strategies this month, we’re going to focus on this or this or this, right, as you move through, or you can kind of decide what is it that I need as a professional.
[00:40:11] So if you making your own professional goals you might do a book study but then kind of narrow in on just the one topic that resonates with where you’re at and what you’re working on.
Elana:
[00:40:21] Gosh, I love that, how you frame how you can use the book because sometimes it can be overwhelming with all the things, you know? And if you’re saying that this book is really the anti of all the things it’s trying to narrow down what matters most, what is essential. And maybe approaching technology with deeper learning in mind and then pairing it with the technology that you think would do it best with your specific classroom or needs and that’s huge. I mean we’ve been to every single ISTE conference where all of the sessions that are packed are 20 million Google apps for the –
Monica:
I know.
Elana:
[00:40:55] – in this flashy tech syndrome, right, but let’s get back to the heart of learning. I'm so glad that this book does that. I know a lot of your stuff does that but – and then being able to approach it and scaffold it the way like – maybe we just do a chapter a month. That’s awesome.
Monica:
[00:41:13] Thank you, and I think you know you need to have some tools in your toolbox, but you don’t need all the things, right? So there’s really that opportunity to narrow it down, to say what’s important, what’s going to help with these goals that we have and that’s really where my head is at when I am sharing things on the podcast, on the blog, in a workshop just to make sure people know where to go to get information, but then can choose what’s really best for them.
Elana342:
[00:41:39] Great. Well, rounding out the podcast now I would love to know – and I know my readers would love to know given you’re always producing, you’re producing from your heart in terms of what you’re passionate about –like what inspires you? What are you doing or reading or watching that lately just got you just fired up?
[00:41:59] There are some things that you know of that you’re like, gosh, you know this Netflix series or every day I run to do this. We hear all sorts of answers and it would be interesting from such a person that communicates her passion so frequently, like what keeps you inspired?
Monica:
[00:42:19] Great question. I mean there are a lot of things that I feel really lucky to have built into my routine the past year and a half that just weren’t there, and a lot of that is regular check‑ins. So I’ve got a few different groups of educators that are from different parts of my life, and different parts of my professional life that, you know every two weeks, every month, whatever it might be, we’ve been having these nice regular check‑ins that have really helped me keep moving.
[00:42:47] And I think a big part of anyone – you know I run a business, right – any time that you are kind of doing things with a team or without a team it’s nice to have other peoples’ outside perspectives, and that’s really something that helps me stay out of that rut or kind of pulls me out of that, you know?
[00:43:04] And I’ve also felt like this year I’ve had a little bit more space to notice any of those burnout pieces creep up and just try and identify that and say what don’t I love about this, what doesn’t light me up anymore and really move away from that, and just not feeling the pressure to have to be in all the spaces.
[00:43:23] So I get really excited using visual spaces to share. I’ve leaned a lot more into Instagram than maybe Twitter this past year or so. I try to be mindful of what is keeping me excited and what I'm kind of, meh, just not feeling anymore and reallocating my time to make sure that it’s reflective of that as well.
Elana:
[00:43:43] Great. Well, thank you so much, Monica, for sharing your time and your wisdom. I would love to hear from you. If people want to learn more about what you do, get your book, keep in touch with you, what are the best ways for them to reach out to you?
Monica:
[00:44:00] Yeah, so I am at @classtechtips on all platforms, so whether that’s Instagram or Twitter or Facebook or Pinterest, even TikTok there’s some videos up there too; no dancing just tech tips there. And then my website is classtechtips.com and my podcast is The Easy EdTech Podcast.
Elana:
[00:44:19] Great. Well, thank you again, Monica, and to all of our listeners thank you for joining us. You can access this episode’s show notes and they’ll be a ton of resources to everything Monica talked about at leoniconsultingroup.com\seven, so they’ll be tons of links. We’ll also summarize the main points and give you some fun visuals that you can share out to your networks as well, and we will see you next time, everyone.
[00:44:46] Thank you so much for joining, and if you enjoyed anything we’re doing here please leave a review, please write us. It helps us be seen by others and I hope you can experience the wisdom that we’re trying to get to educators and also marketers. So thank you, Monica; thank you all for listening.
[End of recorded material 00:45:06]
Access this episode's show notes, including links to the audio, a summary, and helpful resources.
monica
Elana Leoni, Host
Elana Leoni has dedicated the majority of her career to improving K-12 education. Prior to founding LCG, she spent eight years leading the marketing and community strategy for the George Lucas Educational Foundation where she grew Edutopia’s social media presence exponentially to reach over 20 million education change-makers every month.
Monica Burns, Guest
Moinca
About All Things Marketing and Education
What if marketing was judged solely by the level of value it brings to its audience? Welcome to All Things Marketing and Education, a podcast that lives at the intersection of marketing and you guessed it, education. Each week, Elana Leoni, CEO of Leoni Consulting Group, highlights innovative social media marketing, community-building, and content marketing strategies that can significantly increase brand awareness, engagement, and revenue.
Rate, Like, and Subscribe
Let us know what you thought about this episode by rating and reviewing our podcast. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let us know what you loved most about the episode! Also, if you haven’t done so already, subscribe to the podcast to be notified when we have more content to share with you.