The Virtual Staffroom Podcast
Episode 4 – Reaching for the stars
Joachim:
Welcome to the Virtual Staffroom, a podcast made for teachers, by teachers and all with a dash of educational technology thrown in. My name is Joachim Cohen, your host and EdTech lover, a former secondary school teacher and I am lucky enough today to be joined by two other members of the Technology 4 Learning team, thanks for coming back, Yvette and Linda. Yvette is our resident English teacher, as well as our author in residence. Yvette, did I hear you ran an exciting e-literacy workshop last week?
Yvette:
Yes, indeed. It was Apple tools for literacy and numeracy. Got to give a shout out to the numeracy people.
Joachim:
I forgot. Absolutely. Linda is the head honcho of the stem.T4L program here in New South Wales, is a former school leader and teacher. Linda what's been happening in your world this week.
Linda:
Hey Joe, hey Yvette, just the usual, our team supporting schools across the state to empower all things in their classroom.
Joachim:
Unbelievable. So you're asking what's in store. Well, if you've listened before, you know we've tried to divide this podcast up like your school day. We start the day with assembly, where we recount some stories from the week that have made our hearts sing. We make our way to roll call, where we sort the wheat from the chaff and highlight some EdTech gems, catch up with a special guest over lunch. And I don't want to reveal all, but this episode we are going intergalactical. Then we answer your questions in playground duty and wrap it up with something from left field in carpark chat.
Joachim:
But before we get started, last episode, Linda brought up Desert Island Discs, but we here at the Virtual Staffroom are all about EdTech. So I think we need to add a new segment to our show, rocket ship robots, what piece of EdTech would you take with you to outer space, Yvette?
Yvette:
Okay. Just as a caveat from our prior episode, there was a lot of talk about the robot coffee maker. So I think that's a given, we need a barista robot machine of some kind on board. That's definitely on board. But in terms of practicality, I would be taking one of those special treadmills, it doesn't take up that much space, but they're weighted for us astronauts, weighted to keep us fit and to help build our muscle because you lose muscle or you lose body mass or something major, in space.
Joachim:
I'm getting reminiscence of our last podcast, where you started to make us think about, what was it, what were we doing?
Yvette:
Marginal gains, Joe.
Joachim:
Marginal gains
Yvette:
It's all about the biomechanics of space. Tell you what-
Linda:
I loved how you talked about us astronauts, because now you've taken on that as your new role as an astronaut. However-
Yvette:
Well that's where we're going.
Linda:
I am going to go with something really, really simple because I would please just like to take my phone and I would really like it to work, but not for the obvious things, but I was thinking about things even like music, I would need to download the entire Spotify catalog to please have music.
Yvette:
Well what, what layer of the stratosphere does 5G go to?
Linda:
Well, that's what you would need to work on. So that, or maybe a 3D printer for all the things I wish I had there, that I could then just print.
Yvette:
That's genius idea.
Linda:
Joe, what are you taking?
Joachim:
Oh my God, you just had the best idea ever. I want a 3D printer too, but I was thinking, and what I wanted to take with me was an e-magazine app. That was what I was thinking, but then I needed the internet as well.
Linda:
I'll lend it to you.
Joachim:
Thank you. Fantastic. We are a good team in our magical rocket ship robot, we have got everything that we need. Well done, everyone. So there is enough frivolity going on, team, we've got a question for our stargazing special guest, I can tell you, but let's get on, the clock is ticking. The halls are bursting, the principal is about to begin their address, we're running late to assembly. And like real assemblies, it's time to share stories from around the traps, global, local, intergalactical, that inspire with creative and awesome use of tech. Linda, we're going to start with you.
Linda:
So over the last couple of weeks, I've seen a lot of school murals coming out. There's even a bit of a hashtag started, murals of DOE. And I really love that idea of a bit of paint, a bit of amazing artwork, makes a real difference to the environment. Blacktown Girls High School has done a great one on their diverse cultures in their school. Old Guilford seem to have a tonne going in and my own personal favorite is, Narooma Public School, which has a new, beautiful mural installed. But when we look at the tech involved there, so Joseph Banks High School has put a new range of murals in and they have a bit of AR built into it, so they are interactive murals. And it kinda got me thinking, there's no stop point to where we could finish here, I think you could have learning embedded in these artworks in all sorts of ways. So I'm just really keen to see where that might go.
Joachim:
Linda, AR is augmented reality, is that right? And so when someone comes up with a phone, it's actually triggered by the image.
Linda:
Yes, yeah.
Joachim:
Wow. So there are so many possibilities there for the community, for learners and you can change it can't you, so that the lesson could change.
Linda:
And that's where my thinking, every time I thought about this whole piece of work with murals, is that there's so much that you could do, so much potential to include learning and that community piece and all sorts of things in there. So I'm keen to just see what other schools might do.
Yvette:
Linda, would that work say if you're producing or publishing a creative writing anthology and you've got students to maybe illustrate their character or main character from their story, could that be put into AR and then the students have a different experience of a character or understanding a character in its environment, would that work?
Linda:
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
Yvette:
Okay. Just thinking for next project.
Joachim:
Unbelievable. Yvette, what did you find out this week?
Yvette:
Ah, look, I've been watching and listening to a lot of TED Talks while also tending to my brand new veggie patch. And I found a very, very cool talk from TED Talks Daily about tomatoes, and it is called a tale of two tomatoes and it's about big data and understanding produce, but also the real life practical applications of science, to help us improve the environment, to be more sustainable. And this is just a great little story, I think it only goes for about 20 minutes, of a scientist who uses big data to actually travel along the life of a tomato that has been hothoused, frozen, reblasted, traveled across the country. It's an American episode, so traveling really big distances, versus your paddock to plate kind of experience, but also looking at other examples like wastewater and using robots to travel and track where wastewater and how long it goes and how far it flows and how we can maybe make improvements to our environment. So it's a really nice little story this one.
Linda:
Yeah. I think that's a great hook for learning as well, is to give students, that's what all great teachers do right? They use an authentic example of why they need this knowledge, so they can see the purpose of that in their future. Could it be shared with kids, this?
Yvette:
Definitely. I think it would really give you that real life scenario that's tangible for the students, that they can actually see why it's useful.
Joachim:
I was amazed because when I watched the video as well, and I saw that they were green when they were picked and then in the truck, they're actually making it go red, they're actually ripening it. Unbelievable of the application of technology in every sector, including agriculture.
Yvette:
But what was fascinating was how the taste was so different. Obviously it may look fabulous on the plate or in the supermarket, but what you're missing is the real nourishment and the nutrients. So yeah, it really made me think, and then I casually looked out to my veggie patch outside, which is about three meters away, thought, yeah, these guys are going to be tasty.
Joachim:
Absolutely.
Linda:
What have you found Joe?
Joachim:
What have I found? Well, I did a bit of global searching this time. I came across an article and it was all about what the Indiana school district over in the United States of America has been doing, to try and help their students stay connected during this time of home learning. And what they've actually done is repurpose those big yellow school buses that you see in all the American films and American sitcoms. And they've parked them at various different locations around the suburbs, so that if students who don't have access to the internet, these buses are like wifi hotspots. So the kids can socially distance, it might be parked near a park, they can go up with their computer and they can actually log onto the internet and connect with their learning, no matter where they are.
Joachim:
So there's a lot of disadvantage in lots of different communities and this is a way in which you can reverse that disadvantage and ensure equity with some out of the box thinking. So I think it's great, my passion for it is that people are thinking differently. What's something that's not being used and can we use it to do something cool and do something better?
Linda:
They're such iconic vehicles too. I think this is where we're at, I mean, particularly as England and America return partially to school, at school, the vast majority of them are still learning from home. So it's about that creativity and equity as well.
Joachim:
Well like those tomatoes, we're going to get way too ripe if we stay here any longer, I think it's about time for the bell to ring. So team, here we are at roll call. I always love this part of the day, catching up, checking in, the perfect chance to get across everything that's going on across the school. Now that is exactly what we're going to do, but our focus is professional learning and awesome resources. Yvette, what awesome resource have you discovered this week or amazing PL have you enrolled in?
Yvette:
Look, this is some fantastic stuff that came out a few months ago, to remember and commemorate and understand the eight days in Kamay, the Endeavour, first contact with Aboriginal people. It's an incredible resource called Endeavor, Eight Days in Kamay. Kamay being Botany Bay. And essentially it's a wonderful series of resources created by the department, which are partially done in VR, you can do virtual reality tours of the sites that are being unpacked. It's about understanding the two narratives of the story, from either the perspective of a British sailor in April 1770, embarking out on their journey and also from the perspective of the people of Kamay and their reaction to the fleet coming in. So if you really are unpacking these ideas in the classroom, this is a great place to start and unfortunately COVID happened and the announcements got a little bit lost, so I really want to just direct people back to this fantastic free group of resources.
Joachim:
I was taking a bit of a look over the weekend and it really shocked me almost, to start to read those two perspectives. I hadn't really delved into them much before, and I found those stories so rich and putting yourself in the shoes literally of both those different characters and how they saw the experiences at that time, was so powerful and what a really amazing way to cover this topic with students in the classroom. I was blown away by this resource, Yvette, a great find.
Yvette:
I think it's great for any age and I think we should be really proud that we've created this fantastic bunch of resources.
Joachim:
Oh, wow. So these are New South Wales, Department of Education resources. Unbelievable. Oh, fantastic. Now, I suppose mine is a little bit on the other end of that spectrum, I've gone and looked for a little bit of research, which has helped to inform my practice. And I found some work done by the Natural Literacy Trust, over in the UK and I actually heard about it on the radio, funnily enough, but I went and investigated it. They'd done some research into video game playing and literacy, and they'd interviewed around about 4,000 people, or there'd been a program that had interviewed 4,000 people between 11 to 16. And they came back with some really interesting statistics about the power of video games in building literacy skills, because we often find young people are really reticent to talk, reticent to write.
Yvette:
What are they developing if they're online playing games?
Joachim:
Yeah, it's a great question. So it's more or less what's associated with playing the game. So they're playing the game and then they might need to help someone with a tip on how they might problem solve a problem they're having or how they might get to the next level. Or they might be writing a review of that video game online, or they're just chatting to their friends about what they actually did inside that video game. That's actually the use of writing, which they don't do and the use of connection with other people, which a lot of times, especially, I think from my experience, a lot of boys struggle to write and talk about these types of things between each other. And this is actually providing that opportunity for them.
Joachim:
And it also has about storytelling. We know games are like a narrative, you've got to get from the start to the finish and all the best video games start with a narrative of some kind and we see Harry Potter, it's been turned into a video game, so many books and so many videos that have actually started in books. So I found this really, really awesome and it's a great power up for a lot of us in the classroom when we're thinking about things like Minecraft, we often get asked the question, "Well, isn't that just a game?."
Yvette:
Yeah, those Minecraft books are always at the top of the charts. There's a lot to say there about yes, understanding the narrative, but the hook that's really drawing those students in and the gamers and the conversation that is flowing from that. So maybe I need to check out, I think it's called, Diary of a Minecraft Zombie. I'll put those in the show notes.
Linda:
Yeah, that is the book. And can I tell you, Joe, you know this is a bit of a passion project of mine on the side as well, the UK does exceptional surveys, exceptional longitudinal studies. They've got one called five big questions, out for all kids under five, for their parents at the moment. So I'm really interested to see this research myself, but I think all of those pros can exist, but we have to be aware of the cons on the other side. We know that boys in particular get very engaged/obsessed with gaming very quickly and we know that we need to make sure in a school setting, that what they're doing is adding value to their learning and it's not a game experience only with no learning outcomes. Because when we look at things like mental health, we look at eye health, we look at neurological pathways, all of those things needs to be front of mind when we look at particularly boys in gaming for me.
Joachim:
Yeah. I can totally see your perspective there Linda, yeah, that's for sure.
Linda:
A resource that I found, on a lighter note, is LifeLauncher. It's done by the New South Wales government, but it's designed for young people to explore what careers they might like to go into. Even though I probably don't fall into the category of a young person, I did the quiz myself and it guides you through some personality and your work ethic and I suppose, what your interests are and then it guides you through some careers that you might explore. But the thing that I really like about this, it's not a one off quiz that you do and it gives you an answer and it's over, you create an account and you can have your own profile and you can keep going back and updating the skills you have or the skills you've explored. Really interesting and you might want to jump in and have a look at where you might end up. I can tell you, I didn't do it entirely accurate because I was trying to put it in what I think I want it to say at the end.
Yvette:
Yeah, preempting yourself. What ages is this for Linda?
Linda:
It says between year nine and 12, but it also talks about young people to do after they've left school as well.
Joachim:
I did it. Did you do it?
Linda:
What are you doing with your future, Joe?
Joachim:
Well, you see, I was being really, really honest and it came out that I should be a primary teacher.
Linda:
The best career in the world.
Yvette:
That's incredible.
Joachim:
So I have to go back and be a primary teacher. I can tell you it was very exciting to do that. I love this tool.
Yvette:
Yeah. That's a very cool tool.
Linda:
And it's been released just a little bit on the quiet, just seemed to pop out of nowhere.
Yvette:
Perfect. Also perfect for any year 12 student heading into that, might help.
Joachim:
People, I'm sorry. Our tomatoes are about to go rotten, but thankfully we've made it to lunch before they did. It is lunch time, but it's not all Dunkaroos and Vegemite sandwiches, here at the Virtual Staffroom. And now, Yvette and Linda, if we were on the international space station, can you tell me, what do you think we'd be dining out on.
Yvette:
Joe, it's not so much what we'd be dining on, it's what's happening out there in the galaxies. It's more a question of what do black holes eat for dinner. It's more a question of cannibals in space and I think we know just the right person to talk to about these things.
Joachim:
I think we do. I think it's time to bring on our special guest, astrophysicist, professor Lisa Harvey-Smith.
Yvette:
Wow. Where do we start? There are just so many things that you're involved in, but first of all, I'm going to start with your true love as an astrophysicist, were you always in love with stars in the universe?
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
Yeah, I think I was from quite a young age, I think. I grew up somewhere fairly dark, so the stars weren't really that difficult to see where I lived. So I think I was about 12 when I first looked up at the stars and fell in love. It was love at first sight, I think, it was just so beautiful and I was captured by not only the science, but the experience of just looking up. So it was great. I became a amateur astronomer at that age, joined my local astronomical society and just never looked back. It's a lifetime love affair for me.
Joachim:
Wow. That's the kind of passion that I think we hope every one of our students takes with them into their future career. And thinking about your career, you wear so many different hats, we've got your book here in this studio, I'm sure you do some amazing work as an astrophysicist as well. Can you tell us what does your typical day look like?
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
Well, my current role is Australian Governments, Women in STEM Ambassador. So I'm really trying to get more girls and women into great STEM jobs and to get the kind of exciting careers that I've been fortunate to have. So at the moment, doing a lot of work, writing a new book, promoting my old book, but really my day job, it's a lot of work with the government and with teachers and with young people, to try and get people really excited about STEM and understand that STEM is more than just boring experiments and people wearing lab coats and laboratories. And it's about the great outdoors and it's about farming, it's about mining, creating solar power, creating things that help animals, healthcare, so, so many things. And tomorrow I've got a meeting of the advisory group to the Australian Space Agency, which is a new, exciting project that's going on to try and get Australia helping NASA to put the first woman on the moon. So there's just so much that's going on.
Yvette:
Gosh, I don't think Lisa, there's many people that can say that's on their list for tomorrow. That sounds so exciting. Can I ask technology and astrophysics, are we talking telescopes and supercomputers?
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
Yeah, we're talking a lot of that stuff in, I guess, in professional astronomy. In my career, I've helped to design and create some of the big telescopes that we have in Australia and in the world. And that's really exciting to help to create those new technologies, with very clever engineers who are working on it too, and trying to create something that can see things that no human being has ever been able to see before. To see a star that's exploded in a distant galaxy two or three billion light years away and we're looking at things that happened, the signals have traveled so far through space that they happened billions of years ago before the dinosaurs roamed the earth. So that kind of stuff is really fun, creating those technologies and helping other astronomers, as well as myself, to study those amazing things.
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
And I think in terms of amateur astronomy, we're thinking about regular people who want to just get up and look at the stars. Telescopes are cool, binoculars are cool, but also apps are really good. So people can download apps of the night sky and they can hold their smartphone up to the sky and see where the planets and the stars are. At the moment you can see the moon and Jupiter and Saturn high up in the sky and it's really, really cool that you can see those things without telescope. And I think if more people had a star app on their phone, they'd be constantly getting those notifications and running out to see the space station, that kind of stuff. It's really good fun.
Linda:
Incredible. I think the other thing that's really going to pull people out to look at the sky is your new book, The Secret Life of Stars. I've started this book, Lisa and I just love how you've looked at the solar system, the star system, the galaxies, the bodies in the universe, as personalities in their own right. And I think that really comes across as somebody who is a casual science reader, I really understood what you were saying, particularly, you start off with the sun and how important those kinds of stars are. Who is this book for?
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
Well, I'm really glad you said that because I wanted to write ... I've written books before and a lot of people who go and look in the science section in the bookshop, are people already interested in science and they know they want a science book and they go and look for a book about the stars. That's really cool, but this book, I wanted it to be really exciting and understandable to people who didn't normally go down that science route and maybe hadn't studied science or had left it at school, left it behind and maybe wouldn't go down the science aisle in a bookshop. So I wanted it to be really capturing that excitement about the fact that our universe is full of wacky personalities, every star is different. We look at them in the night sky, they kinda look like points of light, they're not too distinguishable, but in the Secret Life of Stars, you really see their amazing personality shining through, from the cannibals, to the enigmas, to the exploding stars.
Linda:
I love the cannibals, the binary star systems that eat up into each other's orbits. I couldn't even imagine what that would look like, but you really ... I didn't even know that that happened in the universe. So yeah, I'm really recommending this for anybody who loves the stars or wants to know a little bit more.
Yvette:
It's on the list. Can I ask, there's a huge gap between the number of women and men choosing to pursue a STEM career and I know some of your work is very heavily involved in this. What do you think is at the core and what can we do to solve this gap?
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
Well, there's a lot to it, it's not a simple problem. It really stems from the fact that for hundreds of years, if not thousands of years, our culture has been a patriarchal one. So men generally went out to work and women stayed at home and didn't work. And we're only just, in the last sort of 100 years, getting over that and maybe really, only in the last 50 years, breaking that cycle. So we have changed as a society, but some things are catching up, the systems that we've created and the stereotypes that still linger about work and who does what type of work in society, are still lingering with us. So we just have to change society gradually and show people that there are not male jobs and female jobs. We have to break down that gender stereotype about who great scientists are and what they look like and where they come from.
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
And we have to tell different stories. We have to tell the stories of the great Aboriginal innovations, like Bruce Pascoe's fantastic book, Dark Emu did. And we have to tell the stories of great women scientists and scientists from different cultures and backgrounds and not just the Isaac Newton, Einstein, these kind of old white dudes. And that's what I try and do in my books and that's what I try and do in my public speaking, because it's so easy to just repeat the same old stories. And in fact, there are far more exciting stories if you just dig a little deeper, like the Australian space companies, like Fleet Technologies, which are creating amazing fleets of satellites, going up into space to create really fast internet connectivity that can help us to create smart farms that use less water and are safer and more efficient. And that company is run by a woman and who doesn't want to hear that kind of story? And these are stories that teachers can tell and these are stories we can tell our students and children as well. I think it's really important that we do that.
Yvette:
Lisa, on top of you being the rep that you are and being an ambassador for all things STEM and working with other women in STEM to tell their stories and making those connections for the students, what do you think is ahead in terms of the advice we can give for our teachers to really support that identification with strong women in STEM leaders and what do you think could happen in a school level? What needs to happen?
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
I think there's some great resources out there, firstly, and we have to think and teachers have to really think there is a problem, if their physics classes, if their chemistry classes, maths electives are full of young men and young women are not seeing themselves as a path into that. And I'm sure all teachers are very aware of that and trying really hard to change it, it's not an easy thing to change, but there are some great resources. There's the STEM women database, stemwomen.org.au, which is a free website, you just go on there and there are hundreds of women in STEM who have signed up to be role models. There are their stories online, they have contact details, so you can actually search for local women in STEM to visit your school. There are great websites like the girls in STEM toolkits, that's been created by the federal government and that is a really fantastic resource.
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
It's got again, posters and stories and videos and quizzes for young women to see the kind of really, really exciting and diverse things that you can do with STEM. My office, the office of the Women in STEM Ambassador, is running a federal government initiative for raising awareness about STEM careers as well. That'll be coming out in a month or two and this is to get young people to really understand that STEM is so much more than test tubes and going to university and getting a degree. You can go through the VET route, you can go into trades, you can go into nursing. We're trying to break down those cultural and gender stereotypes too. What teachers can do is there's so much, there's a lot of resources out there, but it really starts with that understanding that it's not good enough that young women don't see themselves as welcomed in STEM and that they don't see that they belong.
Joachim:
Yes. And I think you've driven that message home. We've got such a lot of unconscious bias that we may even put onto our students as teachers sometimes, when we're thinking about the careers they might like to go into, and I think you've highlighted how exciting a STEM career can be and all the problems that people could actually solve if they take them down the pathway of a STEM career and that probably connects into what our young people are extremely passionate about. And I was going to ask you professor Lisa, about some of your cool tips for resources, but I think you've given them to us already, which is amazing. But you're not going anywhere because we play a game on this podcast, it is, it's a bit exciting. You might've heard-
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
I'm very, very excited.
Joachim:
Okay. It's right up your alley, I can tell you because we might, if we were over in the UK, we might be playing Desert Island Discs, but no, here on the Virtual Staffroom, we play rocket ship robots. And what do you need to tell us is if you were going into outer space, what piece of technology would you take with you?
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
oh, no. Difficult.
Joachim:
Only one piece, you could only take one, what would it be?
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
You'd really hope it's not your phone.
Joachim:
Would it work, that's the question?
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
That's a tragic answer. It wouldn't work, would it because there's no towers. I think it would have to be a running machine.
Yvette:
Oh my gosh.
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
Running machine.
Yvette:
Thank you so much, Lisa. I can't tell you how much I love that response because I had a very similar thought, so that's awesome. But we had talked about internet and all the things we really would miss. So we put you on the spot there, sorry.
Joachim:
Oh, and you been an inspiration though. We really appreciate it. You've inspired lots of teachers to inspire lots of students out there. And we just want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule, don't we?
Linda:
Yes. Thank you so much.
Linda:
Thank you.
Yvette:
Awesome to chat.
Lisa Harvey-Smith:
It's a pleasure. Thanks a lot.
Joachim:
Bye.
Linda:
All the best.
Joachim:
Here we go. My sugar levels are low, so I have decided to get a strawberry iced donut in my hand, on my way out of the canteen to playground duty. Well guys, what kind of treat did you use to love back at the old school canteen?
Yvette:
I went to a very health nutty primary school, that was really into frozen orange quarters. That was the highlight of ... Isn't that sad?
Joachim:
Poor you.
Yvette:
Isn't that depressing?
Joachim:
Absolutely.
Yvette:
I wasn't buying chocolates and chips.
Linda:
And I was most certainly a child of the Sunny Boy era, the tetra pack, triangle ones. Yeah, that was me.
Joachim:
Fantastic. Well, there are no mamee noodles here, but we do get the chance to answer some of your questions. Now we did get some through on social media and there was a distinct KLA focus. So here we go. I am a history teacher and a geography teacher, how can I incorporate technology into my classroom? Linda, can you help out?
Linda:
I can. I would 100% say don't feel as though the weight's all on you. Don't start from the beginning and try and think of all these extraordinary ideas because your colleagues already have. So I would be saying, go to places like the statewide staffrooms, go into Yammer, see examples of great practice, where it adds value to the learning experience and not just as an add on, but find ways to move from doing old things in new ways, to new things in new ways and just start small, but come up with some original experiences that really are rich to support student learning.
Joachim:
Yeah. I really like that idea of tweaking what's already out there, it's fabulous. And I think I'm a little bit along those lines as well, except I wanted to focus in on virtual reality because I think you can really use that beautifully in the history and geography classroom, because it's all about places, it's all about environments and how can we immerse students in these places and spaces to help improve their understanding and spark their curiosity. So I would jump on and see if you can find a Google Expedition and work with that on an iPad or in VR, if you can, and then even encourage students to go and create their own, using something like Google Tour Creator, where you can actually use Google Street View images to create a virtual reality tour of some great geographic and historically relevant places. Yvette, what do you think?
Yvette:
Joe, that really ties into what I was talking about earlier with the Kamay Endeavour project, because there are virtual tours actually, as part of this experience, you can go and actually visit the Endeavour ship virtually, which is a tour that some people even on our team, put together and it's a wonderful way to experience craft at the Maritime museum. There's also, as I mentioned, there are those locations on site that you can go and visit virtually as well, which there's heaps of information and geographic tags on, that you can go and find out more info. So I'd be looking at those kinds of resources.
Linda:
And can I loop it out to say that once you find some great things that work in your classroom, go and share it with some of your colleagues as well, whether it's in your school or a nearby school or on one of those more broader platforms.
Joachim:
Absolutely. That's the best tip ever. And we want to hear your questions as well. So that was a great question, keep them coming, email them to us, t4linnovations@det.nsw.edu.au. You can find all the details on our webpage, of course. We want to hear your questions and help you out. We are almost out of time, but we can just squeeze in some time in the car park, time to chat, all the things we've been loving. And I'm so excited that I'm going to start us out today because I'm not traveling anywhere, but the people in Japan are, and they're getting on a virtual airline. Can you believe it?
Yvette:
Actually, yes, with Japan, I can. I bet they were doing this anyway, when the flights were still happening.
Joachim:
I think you're right. I did hear about a flight that took off and then landed at the same airport the other week as well. So pretty cool, that is my kind of holiday. I can tell, I'll be a bit like Kath and Kim and just explore the airport and then head out and back again. But this is really cool, it's set up, I think, in a shopping center and you can head into the shopping center and you're given the full first class experience. And I totally think that is very exciting. And the thing we need to think about, I just can't figure out how to actually replicate this in the educational technology area, but I am trying really hard.
Yvette:
I know you've got ideas. I'll tell you what I liked about it, was the Hello Kitty flight you could do. Hello Kitty themed aeronautical experience with, I don't know, goodness knows what they give you on arrival, some lovely stationery, no doubt, but it was super cute. Yeah, it was adorable.
Joachim:
And I promise listeners. That is the last avionic reference for at least two weeks.
Yvette:
Are you sure? I don't believe you.
Joachim:
So Linda, I'm going to hand over to you.
Linda:
I think there might be a few of you that are list makers, I love a list. And I used to use an app called Wunderlist that I really enjoyed, but it is no longer there. I couldn't keep the business going on my own clearly. There's a new list making app that a very dear friend of mine shared with me, it's called Todoist. And I'm trying to use that to keep all my current to do list going, not going too well, but if you've got a great list making app, Yvette or Joe, please share it with me because I'm looking for the perfect one.
Yvette:
Okay. I do not, but can you check things off this list? Is that the gratification?
Linda:
Yes, it makes this nice little ting.
Yvette:
Okay.
Linda:
The other thing it must have, which this does have, is you must be able to collaborate with someone else. So if you and I were working on something, I would like a list that we can keep together.
Yvette:
I see how you're operating right now. I do not have such an app and I don't know that I would ever want one on my phone Linda. That's just too much demand on me to think about having to tick off a list.
Linda:
Are you a list maker Joe?
Joachim:
I do have an actual old school, physical notebook. I love scribbling things out.
Yvette:
I do have that too.
Joachim:
Yeah. So I'm afraid I'm not a list maker. I did use Google Keep for a while there, but it doesn't have the lovely ting sound, that might get me in.
Linda:
Yeah, it will, give it a go.
Yvette:
Well, speaking of your neural pathways, Joe, I was really intrigued on a piece, which has made me reflect, we were talking earlier about music choices, Linda, going into space and having a Spotify list. And we're also talking about gaming and the relationship between gaming and the way boys in particular think, or are able to articulate what they're experiencing. But this is a cool piece in GQ Magazine, by a guy called Jack Moore. And it's about how he wants to go back to listening to music on a basic iPod, because he doesn't get any of the other notifications. He doesn't get any other ... what's the word I'm looking for? Diversions, distractions, the tings coming in and he's just harking back to basically how we used to listen to a whole album with songs all in a row and I think there's something in that.
Yvette:
I think the way we are utilizing our smartphones, are our neural pathways changing now in ways that we can never reverse? I mean, it goes back to things like even being able to read a book, for a long time there, I was just only able to read in small chunks, but it was an effort to get back into reading.
Linda:
It's part of that instant gratification model, where that's what we're so used to. If a song comes on, you don't like the first millisecond of it, it's over, next one.
Joachim:
Give me an old school CD player or the radio any day, I say, I love it. All right. So here we go. Now, don't you now, sit back at those desks, we've got to give you're homework. How did you go with doing something for you last week? Make sure you let us know about it, that is for sure. But this week, what are we going to do is take on Linda's theme about augmented reality, when she was talking about those murals and we want you to get exploring and find out about this technology. So all you need to do is open up your Google Chrome browser on your mobile device and do a search for something. Now I've been searching and I did a search for dragonflies. Ladies, have you done a search for AR in Google before? Have you got something?
Linda:
I have seen it. It's been a hit in my house as well.
Joachim:
Oh wow.
Yvette:
Tell me more.
Joachim:
What have you been searching?
Linda:
Sharks, there's been lots of sharks being searched.
Joachim:
Amazing. And then you'll find an AR button and you can actually visualize using your phone, the whole creature. Unbelievable. Listeners, we want to challenge you to do that, to immerse yourself in AR this week. Yvette and Linda, it has been a pleasure, I can tell you. This podcast has been produced by the masterful, Jacob Druce, with the assistance and supreme coordination of Heather Thompson, as well as many more awesome members of the T4L team. Before we go, please make sure you send us through your comments, your questions for playground duty and your thoughts for new guests and segments. And if you liked the podcast, give us a rating, so more and more educators can find us and be inspired to get a little techie in the classroom. Stay compassionate, everyone. Thanks for joining us.