Episode 28
#HourofCode special edition: coding and the power of telepresence
Joachim Cohen:
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. And today like every day, I am joined by Yvette Poshoglian, and Linda Lazenby, members of the Technology 4 Learning team.
Joachim Cohen:
Did you know that every year, around the start of December, millions of teachers and students across the globe, celebrate Computer Science Education Week?
Joachim Cohen:
Many schools mark the occasion by completing an hour of code, building interest, excitement, and opening the window of possibility.
Joachim Cohen:
This key future skill, is the basis for so many of the things we love, we use, and we couldn't do without, every day.
Joachim Cohen:
Self-driving cars, smart phones, apps, websites, and podcasts, just like this one, rely on amazing creative and talented people, who can turn our ideas into techno reality.
Joachim Cohen:
So, we here at the Virtual Staff Room, thought we need to celebrate too, and inspire you and your students to get thinking computationally.
Joachim Cohen:
So today, we speak with someone who makes this magic happen, each and every day. And also pack your bag full of coding and computer science resources, you can use tomorrow.
Joachim Cohen:
Have you heard of telepresence, think Big Bang Theory, Sheldon, iPad on a Segway, and you'll not be far off.
Joachim Cohen:
These amazing devices are zooming around classrooms, zoos, hospitals, conferences, and more, for providing the opportunity for a whole new form of virtual connection that we have never seen before.
Joachim Cohen:
But how do they work, how are they built, what are the opportunities they provide now and into the future?
Joachim Cohen:
As we celebrate Hour of Code, it is the perfect time to take a dive, and see how the power of code for good, and how it can impact positively on our world.
Joachim Cohen:
So to do that, today here in the Virtual Staff Room, we are joined by one of the founders and chief product officer, of one of the most innovative telepresence robotic companies in the world, OhmniLabs. Tingxi Tan, welcome to the Virtual Staffroom.
Tingxi Tan:
Hi everybody, hi Joe.
Linda Lazenby:
Thanks for joining us this morning. Tingxi, for many of our listeners, this might be the first time they've heard of telepresence. Can you give us more information about what telepresence is?
Tingxi Tan:
Yeah, of course. That's a good question. Telepresence, in short, is basically communication and presence at a distance.
Tingxi Tan:
So, we are all familiar with the first part. The first part is communication at a distance. What does it mean?
Tingxi Tan:
It's the video calls. Everybody knows FaceTime, Zoom. We are very familiar with all these tools, in the past two years.
Tingxi Tan:
What does the video call do? It allows you to easily see or hear another person that is far away, all in real time.
Tingxi Tan:
So now, you add presence to it, and you are not just seeing and hearing somebody, but you are actually feeling like you are in that space; you are with that person in that space. So this is what we call telepresence.
Tingxi Tan:
There are many ways to enable the telepresence experience. So it could be as simple as placing multiple cameras, or directional microphone in a room, to enhance a regular video call experience.
Tingxi Tan:
Or it could be something more elaborate, like projecting a live scene to your VR headset, to feel that you're right there, in that remote space location.
Tingxi Tan:
In our case at OhmniLabs, we are using robotics. So we are doing actuators, sensors, motions, interactions. We are using robotics to enable the telepresence experience.
Yvette Poshoglian:
The power of telepresence is just awesome, Tingxi. There are so many opportunities for it out there in the world. It's not just for students who can't attend school.
Yvette Poshoglian:
That's the capacity we're starting to see it in here in New South Wales. But can you tell us about what some of those other opportunities are for telepresence?
Tingxi Tan:
It has been very apparent, especially in the past two years, with the COVID pandemic and all that, that we feel increasing need to be somewhere else other than at home. Be it for school, be it for work, or for leisure.
Tingxi Tan:
Telepresence presents the opportunity for us to be anywhere at any time, virtually, of course. Imagine using telepresence, you can attend a conference on the other side of the world, without the hassle of traveling.
Tingxi Tan:
Or you can go to the office while being at home, tending to a sick child. So all this really cool use cases is enabled by telepresence.
Tingxi Tan:
Imagine playing with rocks on the moon, while sitting on your sofa. This is not science fiction at all.
Tingxi Tan:
We know that scientists are controlling the Mars rover from their home, during the COVID lock, that when they can't go to the office. So this is what telepresence enables, for you to be anywhere at any time.
Joachim Cohen:
It's so exciting, these opportunities that it presents. I think it just blows my mind. And every time I chat with someone, they've come up with another idea, or another use case.
Joachim Cohen:
But I suppose, in classrooms, in education, there are some really specific use cases. And with your experience, Tingxi, I'm wondering if you might be able to tell us about how telepresence is changing the face of education? And do you have any stories that can really warm all of our listeners' hearts?
Tingxi Tan:
Let's go back to what telepresence is. The heart of telepresence is to provide an immersive virtual experience into a physical space.
Tingxi Tan:
We know that learning is best done when we provide an immersive and engaging environment. And video calls just doesn't cut it anymore. Because we know, in the past two years, where we have kids having to learn from home.
Tingxi Tan:
When you put a kid in front of a camera, and you make them sit through a class, that is not only tedious for the teacher, but it's also negatively impacting the child's education.
Tingxi Tan:
This is not happening just from the K-12 level. It's happening at the tertiary level as well. We have all read reports about college students performing badly when in-person classes are taken away, or are canceled.
Tingxi Tan:
At OhmniLabs, we see telepresence as a way to transform education in 2021, and beyond. We believe that if hybrid learning, if blend learning is here to stay, then telepresence not only provides access to learning, but also enhance the learning experience, when in person learning is not possible.
Tingxi Tan:
The key here is the engagement. When we have telepresence providing the engagement that's needed for a student to thrive in the hybrid learning environment.
Tingxi Tan:
It's very interesting that you ask about the heartwarming story. If you go to our blog post, there's so many stories, how telepresence have helped kids around the world?
Tingxi Tan:
But one of it that really stuck with me was, with one of our earliest customer. So this is a story where we have a family with a seven year old child that has this spinal muscular atrophy, and he's unable to attend school in person.
Tingxi Tan:
When we first brought the Ohmni Robot into market, back in 2017, they were the first people that bought the robot from us. So it was very impressionable for me.
Tingxi Tan:
After a while, we noticed that they were using the robots quite frequently. So we decided to do a user interview. There's this one thing that they said during the interview, that really stuck with me all these years.
Tingxi Tan:
It was that, "Our product had allowed their child to interact with other kids at school, and feel normal."
Tingxi Tan:
While that statement is so powerful to me, and it just stuck with me all this years. This is the kind of thing that makes me get up every day to go to work.
Linda Lazenby:
Gosh! I love that. I can see why that would stick with you for so long. When we think about children and their ability to learn from home, is one thing.
Linda Lazenby:
But to connect with their peers and their teachers, without that telepresence included, is something different. It's fantastic, the work that's happening.
Linda Lazenby:
I know any listener that is interested, having a look at OhmniLabs and what the different robots are that you offer would be really interested.
Linda Lazenby:
Can you talk us a little bit about how you'd customise the robots for different uses, and what your engineering process looks like, based on the needs you might have?
Tingxi Tan:
Yes. Due to our unique manufacturing technique, we are able to customise, specifically, the color and the height of the robot. Those are done during manufacturing.
Tingxi Tan:
Aside from the color and the height of the robot, there are other attachments that we can hook onto the robot. So, for example, we have this hanger attachment.
Tingxi Tan:
So imagine a hanger that you can put onto the robot. This is very popular with kids, because now you can make the robot look like anyone.
Tingxi Tan:
You can make it look like a superhero. And then. Whoever calls into the robot, takes on that persona. So it's a very fun thing for kids, in school, or for sick kids in the hospital, and so on.
Tingxi Tan:
The engineering process for making a custom robot, in this case, is pretty straightforward. Because the color change is simple. Because we 3D print a lot of parts on the robot.
Tingxi Tan:
Those robots that needs to be customised, can be made to order. As long as we find the correct color filament that we can print it, we can make it into, almost, any color that you want.
Tingxi Tan:
The height is also not a problem, because the actual part that controls the height is just a brush aluminum tube that we can cut it easily.
Tingxi Tan:
So all this thing is actually by design. We went and designed this product in such a way that we can make this customisation easily.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Now, Tingxi, because this is an audio experience, I'm wondering if you could just tell people and describe to the listeners what the robots look like.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Because sometimes people, even when I'm talking to teachers about them, they just can't quite figure it out without seeing the object.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Obviously, everyone's going to race out to the website after this and take a look. But just give us an idea of the overall design, because it is so cleverly done, and it has the capacity to make such an impact for a student that may be using that robot.
Yvette Poshoglian:
It would be great if you could just paint us a little picture. And just hearing those customisable aspects of the robots, is fascinating too. Just paint a picture for us, if you could?
Tingxi Tan:
Absolutely. Imagine a 10 inch tablet attached to a pole, and the pole attached to a movable base with three wheels. That's the basic structure of the robot.
Tingxi Tan:
I know it sounds simple, but there's a lot of technology that goes behind enabling this. So, now you imagine a robot with a 10 inch tablet on wheels coming down the hallway, and whoever is controlling the robot, is actually on the screen of this robot.
Tingxi Tan:
So this robot basically becomes that person. It becomes an extension of that person, in that physical space.
Tingxi Tan:
So now, imagine you're on a video call, but you don't just see and hear whatever's on the other side, but you actually have to add a degree of freedom to move in that space, and to explore that space.
Tingxi Tan:
And this makes it the immersive experience, for you to have that actual degree of freedom to go around in that space, and choose to go to anywhere that you want to.
Tingxi Tan:
That one difference makes it a huge difference in experience. Because now, the person that is driving the robot has control. Imagine if you're calling into a video on somebody's phone, you rely on that person to bring you around, to show you what they want you to see, or what they want you to hear.
Tingxi Tan:
But because you are controlling the movement of the robot, the movement of the cameras, you can go anywhere you want. And that added freedom, adds to the immersive telepresence experience.
Joachim Cohen:
It is such empowering technology. And hearing the way you produce them, how they can be customised with color, and size, to meet user needs. It's a pretty astounding product, and something that's a little bit ants, to the way we mass produce so many things today.
Joachim Cohen:
But isn't just the physicality of the robot, is it Tingxi? It's all about the stuff that's under the skin of the robot. And from the driver's side, and the coding, and the circuitry, that goes into the telepresence robot, tell us all about it. What's under the hood?
Tingxi Tan:
You can imagine, building a robot is a huge undertaking. You're working on all levels of the technology stack.
Tingxi Tan:
So we are talking about everything from the motor drives, the battery charging circuits, to programming drivers, programming graphics.
Tingxi Tan:
To working in the operating system, to working and developing user applications. It is likely one of the most complex project that touches both hardware and software skills, that anybody could get into.
Tingxi Tan:
It's unlikely that, anyone that's working on robotics project, is doing it on a solo basis. This is even true in our early days, when we are developing prototypes.
Tingxi Tan:
We have different people with different skills, that's working on each component. And today, the company has scaled. It's the same way with development.
Tingxi Tan:
We have a team working on mechatronics, which is the mechanical system, the electrical circuitry of the robot. We have a team working on firmware, which is the drivers and the software interfaces between the hardware and the operating system.
Tingxi Tan:
Then we have an application layer, which works on the user experience, on both the robot and the web.
Tingxi Tan:
And finally, we have what we call an infrastructure team, that basically manages all the backend system that hosts and run the telepresence workload in the cloud. It is a big team, to be able to support a seemingly simple product like this.
Linda Lazenby:
It might seem like a very simple product to you, but it most certainly doesn't to us. And especially for teachers that might have the ability to use them in their classrooms too.
Linda Lazenby:
Many of us are using apps and interfaces like what Ohmni offers, every day. Can you tell us about how you and your team iterate prototype, and then design the user experience, and develop that interface to suit the needs of those using it?
Tingxi Tan:
That's a good question. It all boils down to what I do day-in and day-out with product design. It always starts with an assumption.
Tingxi Tan:
So we have a hypothesis about how certain features may enhance user experience. It always starts from there.
Tingxi Tan:
And where does this assumption comes from? It can originate from user interviews, from customer feedback, from analysing market trends, and so on.
Tingxi Tan:
But basically, we start with the assumption. And this starts, what we call the product discovery, or the feature discovery phase.
Tingxi Tan:
We have an idea, we develop a prototype, or what we call an MVP, minimum viable product. So I say product here, but it could be a feature in the product.
Tingxi Tan:
We develop this feature, and then, once we have the prototype, we'll put it in front of people that we think will use the feature.
Tingxi Tan:
So people like, the ones that give us the feedback, the ones that we interview, or the segment of users that we identify that may benefit from this new feature, and we just put it in front of them. And we measure their engagement.
Tingxi Tan:
After get that feedback from the testing, we'll go back into the development phase, the development process. This just happens over, and over again, as many times as needed, until we are fairly sure that our assumptions are right.
Tingxi Tan:
So either our assumptions are right, that a feature like this, or variation of a feature like this will enhance user experience, or, that assumption is wrong.
Tingxi Tan:
And then, usually, we'll just abandon the idea. The trick here is to make sure that this feedback loop between development, testing, feedback, this loop is as short as possible.
Yvette Poshoglian:
That is incredibly agile, and responsive, and very cool insight into how you're really understanding the needs of your users.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Just give us a sense, Tingxi, of how big your team is, and a little bit about the OhmniLabs team. It's sounding like a very interesting group of people working there.
Tingxi Tan:
Right now, we have about 50 people split between two offices. One in Silicon Valley, San Jose, which is where our headquarters is. And we have our satellite office in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City.
Tingxi Tan:
The team is being split up in a way that, our product development specifically, a lot of the mechatronics, R and D, is happening in our Silicon Valley office.
Tingxi Tan:
And we have another team of about 15 engineers on the Vietnam side, that's dealing a lot with user applications, and backend infrastructure, and so on.
Joachim Cohen:
It is complex, isn't it? Every company that begins these days, you begin with an idea, but then once you start to expand that idea out, there are so many different facets to business that need to be taken into account, into development.
Joachim Cohen:
It's so exciting, the technologies like Zoom. What am I talking about? Like OhmniLabs facilitate and make these connections so possible. I guess, that brings us to the next point, Tingxi.
Joachim Cohen:
And that's a little bit about your journey. We want to know a little bit about you. We've done some research. We've done it.
Joachim Cohen:
We've done some research; we have, and we've found out that you've worked in fields and industries that is disparate from jewelry, to retail, as well as a stint, as a weapons officer.
Joachim Cohen:
But you've always come back to that power of code, and the power of technology. Can you tell us, from your really varied and disparate experiences, how does code impact on every part of our daily life?
Tingxi Tan:
I'm not sure if all my previous event are all leveraging the power of code. I just like to try many different things, especially in my younger days.
Tingxi Tan:
But yes, absolutely, knowing how to code, or at a minimum, have some understanding about the process of what coding is, is extremely important.
Tingxi Tan:
I don't think anybody can imagine today, that there's any industry or any businesses that doesn't have to use code.
Tingxi Tan:
So imagine just having a website, that's code. So everything is based around it. If you think about it, as we progress into a society where robots are replacing the manual labour.
Tingxi Tan:
One is the next level of essential skills that people need in order to thrive. That's basically knowing how to program this robot. In some sense, learning how to code and understanding what coding is, is extremely important.
Tingxi Tan:
I would like to bring up, when people think about coding and all that, you need to be very inclined to STEM. You don't need to be a STEM oriented student to understand coding. It's a skill that can be learned by anyone.
Tingxi Tan:
Just like making a good presentation, this is a skill that can learn by anyone. So, I'll encourage everybody to explore this area and learn about what coding is.
Tingxi Tan:
Even if you are not doing the day-to-day actual programming, just being able to understand the process, what it is, it will help, greatly, in all aspects of your life.
Linda Lazenby:
It goes without saying, that what you do every day with technology, isn't something very low level.
Linda Lazenby:
So I'm interested, as to what inspires you to do something so impactful with your skills, and with technology?
Tingxi Tan:
I, like many young engineers today. I didn't actually start learning coding at five or six years old. My first coding class was in my first year at university. And I took an introduction to programming as part of my math degree.
Tingxi Tan:
The first thing that I learned was Java. And for some reason, I was pretty good at it. But it was the first time that I, actually, touched anything that has to do with programming or computer code.
Tingxi Tan:
But then, it just evolved from there. I liked it. Many years down the road now, I had and have much opportunity to work as a software engineer in a networking startup, in the Silicon Valley.
Tingxi Tan:
And that's where I continue to practice my technical chops. The most important thing is, during my tenure at this networking startup, I met one of my co-founders for OhmniLabs. And of course, the rest is history.
Tingxi Tan:
It's people like that; people around me, that really inspires me. Especially my co-founders, because they're all very altruistic people. And just being around them, makes me think more about what I can do with my skills.
Yvette Poshoglian:
What a time to be at OhmniLabs. We've got such an interesting world that we live in at the moment.
Yvette Poshoglian:
We can see the potential that it's having, the impact it has on students within our pilot schools.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Tingxi, what's next? What can you see happening in 2022 and beyond, for OhmniLabs and telepresence?
Tingxi Tan:
In terms of telepresence, of course, we see an explosion in the use of this technology. And we believe that it's going to be even widely adopted in 2022, and beyond.
Tingxi Tan:
At OhmniLabs, we'll continue to refine the telepresence experience. There's many cool things that we plan to do.
Tingxi Tan:
Things like, integrate autonomy features into the robot to help with navigations. We are exploring VR/AR integration with the robot, to provide a more immersive experience.
Tingxi Tan:
We are looking at actuators, robotic arms, with tactile feedback. So that you can feel the world, feel the space, not just see, look, and move.
Tingxi Tan:
All these cool things that's happening on the telepresence side. And of course, at OhmniLabs, we are continuing to develop new technology and products.
Tingxi Tan:
One of the exciting things that is happening this year is, we just introduced a new product called the OhmniClean UV Disinfection Robot.
Tingxi Tan:
So as the name suggests, this is basically a robot that autonomously roams any space, and kill bacteria and viruses, by blasting them with high power UV lights.
Tingxi Tan:
The interesting thing here is that, although this robot is not a telepresence robot, it uses many of the core modules that we develop over the years for Ohmni.
Tingxi Tan:
So this is all part of our development strategy. To continue developing all this modular components that can be reused and repurposed for different robotic platforms and application.
Tingxi Tan:
I encourage everyone, if you have the time, go to our website, check out our Ohmni clean product. Is really cool. It looks like a life saver. It's very nice.
Joachim Cohen:
That does sound fantastic. What a message to finish on for our students. Which is, telling them to think outside the square, think outside the box.
Joachim Cohen:
You are making telepresence robots, but that doesn't mean you can't think about how else it could absolutely empower the current situation.
Joachim Cohen:
Because companies need to evolve as times are changing so rapidly. I guess, that's the thing we'd like to ask you to, to finish today, Tingxi.
Joachim Cohen:
And that is about all of our student listeners who are out there. They're probably being inspired. The teachers are going to go and inspire them with the stories that you've told today.
Joachim Cohen:
How can they then encourage their students to get into this world of coding, this world of robotics?
Joachim Cohen:
What do you think that they could do now to begin to build their skills? What subjects are important, what skills are important?
Tingxi Tan:
I encourage students who are interested in robotics, to first focus on your fundamentals, the software side. It's easy to pick up a programming language.
Tingxi Tan:
There's a lot of resources out there, there's a lot of sample codes out there. But make sure that you know your basics, which is the data structures.
Tingxi Tan:
Make sure you know your algorithms. What are the basic algorithms for searching, sorting? All this are still important concept.
Tingxi Tan:
Because at some point, you're going to need to optimise your application. You're going to need to optimise what you know as code.
Tingxi Tan:
And without these fundamental skills, fundamental knowledge, then it's very difficult to take you to the next level. And of course, do not forget your math skills.
Tingxi Tan:
Math skills are important. Especially, linear algebra, probability, statistics. All these are really important math skills for applications into AI and robotics.
Joachim Cohen:
What a message. Absolutely. I think what you said before is well, Tingxi, rings a message to all of us.
Joachim Cohen:
And that is that, "Not every student needs to know how to code, but they need to know the power of code and what it can do."
Joachim Cohen:
Everything you've just said, then, really re-emphasises that, so they know what's possible, and what they could imagine, and what they could invent.
Joachim Cohen:
So now, we're going to get to you to imagine and you to invent. We're giving you a surprise question.
Joachim Cohen:
You're joining us in our T4L rocket ship, and we are taking you up into outer space. What piece of technology would you take with you on an intergalactic journey?
Tingxi Tan:
Good question.
Joachim Cohen:
Could you fit Ohmni in there? I don't know if Ohmni's going to fit in the spaceship. It could be on the ground, back with your family.
Tingxi Tan:
I would say, there's so much technology in the spaceship. We are going on an intergalactic tour. There's so much technology in that spaceship.
Tingxi Tan:
It can probably satisfy any technology need that we will require during our trip. But what we need, that is not available with technology, is feeding our souls.
Tingxi Tan:
We need a way to feed our souls. I will not bring a piece of technology, I will instead bring an instrument.
Tingxi Tan:
I will bring an instrument with myself, so that during our intergalactic trip, not only do I get technological needs satisfied, I have my personal need, my spiritual need satisfied by playing my music instrument.
Linda Lazenby:
What instrument?
Tingxi Tan:
It could be anything. Something small, I guess, a harmonica. Something that fits into your pocket, that doesn't trigger the sensors when you go through the intergalactic customs.
Joachim Cohen:
Tingxi, I think everyone of the team will agree, you have given this question the most thought of any of our guests over all of our 26 episodes. That was beautiful.
Joachim Cohen:
You've made me really rethink what that question actually means. You're so right. Only an engineer, I think, could actually go into such depth, into such thoughts.
Joachim Cohen:
So, thank you for making us think. Thank you for providing a window to all of our listeners out there, as to what goes into these exciting new robotics and technological innovations.
Joachim Cohen:
And also, inspiring them to know that, they can do it too, and make it possible. And giving them some tools to make it so. Tingxi Tan, thank you for joining us in the Virtual Staff Room.
Tingxi Tan:
Thank you everybody.
Joachim Cohen:
Yvette and Linda, what did you take away from Tingxi's story, and the story of OhmniLabs? What is the superpower of telepresence?
Linda Lazenby:
Look, I think, Joe and Yvette, that it's really exciting to see how we can have things like telepresence in the work of OhmniLabs come into our schools and support our students, where we might not be able to have a physical person there.
Linda Lazenby:
We've seen it happen a lot with school counseling services and the like. I think it's genuinely an exciting time to see how this type of technology advancement can support our students in schools.
Yvette Poshoglian:
It's interesting, Linda, because even since I've been with T4L, we've watched, I guess, the mandate and the brief for telepresence within our schools change and grow, even in that time.
Yvette Poshoglian:
I just think it's a lucky bonus to even be able to speak to people like Tingxi, about their work with the company.
Yvette Poshoglian:
It's quite an insight to get into understanding how the technology is changing so rapidly.
Yvette Poshoglian:
And therefore, that will change how we use them in schools, and what the benefits can be for the students. Joe, you are quite close to this. What do you think?
Joachim Cohen:
It's really technology for good. And I know, each and every day, I'm uncovering a great new story for how we can use telepresence inside education and beyond.
Joachim Cohen:
We've talked all about students who are unwell, we've talked about the idea of beaming in experts from around the globe. And they continue to explode.
Joachim Cohen:
Imagine where you could visit with a telepresence robot, and that, that tyranny of distance is suddenly declined.
Joachim Cohen:
We're in a world where resources are so very finite, and the potential and awesomeness of telepresence, I think, is really starting to come to the fore.
Joachim Cohen:
Because it's more than just a Zoom call. It's the ability to control where you are, where you want to go, who you want to see, who you want to talk to, and be there.
Joachim Cohen:
I just can't wait to see what turn telepresence takes next. So team, we've taken a little peek into what the power of code can do.
Joachim Cohen:
But now it's time to empower our listeners out there with resources, the kickstart Computer Science Week in their school. What do we have for their digital backpacks, Yvette?
Yvette Poshoglian:
Such a great question, very timely. Joe, we have two brand new magazines which we've just released into the world, in time for Hour of Code.
Yvette Poshoglian:
So, it's the first time we've done complimentary additions. So magazine T4L compliments T4L Kids, and both are focused on Hour of Code, and bringing it into your classroom.
Yvette Poshoglian:
It's all focused on getting your students doing the activities, that is getting coding, developing computational thinking skills, and pushing them towards, actually, getting their own certificate of completion and achievement, to be a part of the global movement.
Yvette Poshoglian:
So there are some really nice carrots and sticks in there, to get your students involved.
Yvette Poshoglian:
And not to mention, we've got a fabulous array of resources that have been created by our team, particularly for our students with the tools that they use.
Yvette Poshoglian:
I really encourage you to have a look at the latest issue of mag T4L. And T4L Kids is just a stellar addition with so many things which includes industry conversations with experts.
Yvette Poshoglian:
And they're really interesting people, Linda, that we've managed to pull in for this to inspire the students.
Linda Lazenby:
I really like the inclusion in this edition of having three people that are working in the field, talking about what they do in their role, and learning more about them and their skill sets.
Linda Lazenby:
I think that's a really great way to empower our students in understanding the different career paths they may go down, and the different skills they may want to develop. And I think, Joe, you've been looking a bit at the career paths as well.
Joachim Cohen:
Absolutely, absolutely. I love the way those magazines have tied together. Inspiration for where the future could take our students, and then providing them with the tools to actually turn it into a reality.
Joachim Cohen:
I was looking for a little bit more inspiration, and I came across the amazing Careers with STEM Magazine. And we'll make sure we pop a note to it in the show notes.
Joachim Cohen:
But it walks through all the different types of technology careers that are out there. And the amazing ways that code, that STEM, all those key skills, can actually lead to such a diverse array of careers and excitement.
Joachim Cohen:
So, I really encourage you to go and check those out, share them with your students, and then get doing, using all those resources in T4L Kids and T4L Magazine.
Joachim Cohen:
We've come to the end of another episode of the Virtual Staff Room. And to see us out, we have an awesome tip of techno wizardry wisdom. We are lucky enough today, to hear from someone who's going to give us some holiday tips, and a way to do a little bit of a digital detox.
Adam Polinger:
Hi, my name is Adam Polinger, and I have the privilege of being both a member of the digital support team, as part of the Rural Access Gap Program, and a part of the amazing stem.T4L team, as a STEM leader.
Adam Polinger:
It's been a huge year for screen time and online learning this year. And I think I can speak for everyone, when I say we could all use some digital downtime, at a break from the classroom, or office.
Adam Polinger:
Or for many of us, our newly established home classroom, or workspace. I've got two great tips to help ourselves and our colleagues, switch off during this holiday period.
Adam Polinger:
The first tip is to change some of our notification settings, when it comes to work emails and notifications, on our mobile devices.
Adam Polinger:
I'm not sure about you, but my notifications, especially on my mobile phone, are a great way to keep on top of work communications, and be efficient.
Adam Polinger:
However, those same tools will so often pull us back into work, when we are on a break. To turn off notifications on your mobile device for the holiday break, go to the settings, then the notifications section.
Adam Polinger:
Select the apps, like mail, Microsoft Teams, or any other services you use, and turn off the notifications.
Adam Polinger:
Within those notification settings, you can also turn off the badges. These little red circles with the number of emails or messages waiting for you, there's nothing worse than seeing that number climb higher and higher, each time you look at your phone throughout the holidays.
Adam Polinger:
The second tip, which helps look after our fellow teachers and colleagues, is the new Send Later feature for emails, within Outlook.
Adam Polinger:
For some people, they just can't unwind until they've sent that final email for the next year, often with content that is only needed in the new year.
Adam Polinger:
You can find the Send Later feature, by clicking the down arrow next to send. Then you can set a date and time for the message to be sent.
Adam Polinger:
This is a great tool, to ensure we are communicating in an effective, respectful, and to timely manner. So let's be purposeful with switching off and taking a break this holiday season.
Joachim Cohen:
I sure hope we've inspired and empowered every one of our listeners, to get out there and discover the power of code. And think about, how can be used to make the world just that little bit more awesome?
Joachim Cohen:
And listeners can you believe it, this is our last episode for 2021. We want to thankyou for everything you have done this year in schools across New South Wales, Australia and the world. The resilience you have shown, your supreme dedication and inguenuity and of course your willingness and awesomeness in embracing technology for learning.
Joachim Cohen:
The whole T4L and Virtual Staffroom team wish you the most amazing break, with loads of time to recharge those energisors and we can't wait to see you back here in the same virtual staffroom place in 2022.
Joachim Cohen:
This podcast has been produced by the masterful, Jacob Druce, with the assistance and supreme coordination of many more awesome members of the T4L team.
Joachim Cohen:
Before we go, please make sure you send us through your comments, your word of techno wizardry wisdom, and your thoughts, the new guests and segments.
Joachim Cohen:
And if you like the podcast, give us a rating, so more and more educators find us, and be inspired to get a little techy in the classroom.
Joachim Cohen:
Stay awesome, get coding, and don't be afraid to think outside the box, everyone. Thanks for joining us.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Just a little note, please be aware that all views expressed by the podcast presenters, that's us, are our personal opinions and not representative of the New South Wales Department of Education.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Discussions aren't endorsements of third-party products, services, or events. And please note that, as much as we sound like it, we are not experts in legalese, tech speak, or anything in between.
Yvette Poshoglian:
We're just passionate people, keen to boost technology for learning in the classroom, and to help build the skills in your students, and for you, to solve the problems of tomorrow.
Yvette Poshoglian:
Do your due diligence, read further. And if we've got something wrong, let us know. We too are always learning and always improving.