Chris Nesi from https://chrisnesi.com/ is an educator and podcaster at House of EdTech and joined us for the latest as we discussed some of the ways “Shelter in Place” orders has and is changing the landscape of EdTech today.

I think you will enjoy the show.

Full show notes, transcriptions, audio and video at http://theAverageGuy.tv/hgg447

Join Jim Collison / @jcollison and Mike Wieger / @WiegerTech for show #447 of Home Gadget Geeks brought to you by the Average Guy Network.

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Jim Collison  [0:00] 
This is The Average Guy Network and you found Home Gadget Geeks show number 447 recorded on May 28 2020.

Jim Collison  [0:22] 
Here on Home Gadget Geeks, we cover all your favorite tech gadgets that find their way into your home news reviews, product updates and conversation all for the average tech guy. I’m your host, Jim Collison broadcasting live from a beautiful Bellevue Nebraska spring and it’s here for sure no humidity out there today Of course, we’ll post the show with World Class show notes out of theaverageguy.tv. Don’t forget you can also join us live on the mobile app. Maybe the best way to listen to this if you’re mobile, not many of us as mobile as we used to be. But if you have a need for that, go ahead and download it just have it on your phone so it’s ready HomeGadgetGeeks.com it’s free and if at some point you’re you’re out and you want me to you’re outside in the back yard enjoying the fine weather that’s that’s wherever your location is. HomeGadgetGeeks.com get it downloaded. Today, we thank our Patreon subscribers for helping support that as well.

Jim Collison  [1:10] 
Don’t forget, you can follow this show schedule now too. If you want to know everything that’s going on here, both this and Cyber Frontiers, head out to the theaverageguy.eventbrite.com. And you can subscribe if you follow over there, you’ll get an automatic notification whenever I post something new. I did that this week.

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Jim Collison  [2:12] 
Chris Nesi is with me tonight. Chris is an educator and podcaster at House of EdTech, as a podcast as a podcast. He’s been on the show twice. If you want to listen to his podcast head out to ChrisNesi.com. He was here for 351 to 272. Chris, it’s always great to see you. Welcome back to Home Gadget Geeks.

Chris Nesi  [2:31] 
Jim it’s always a pleasure to hang out with you and the average guy TV family in the Home Gadget Geekers. I mean that that sounds like fun. But But thanks for having me back. It’s always a pleasure.

Jim Collison  [2:41] 
No, it’s it’s good to have you. I think we hang out on Saturday mornings to over at ask the podcast coach

Chris Nesi  [2:46] 
makes my way into the chat room from time to time.

Jim Collison  [2:49] 
It’s a good Saturday morning. Like I really like that Saturday morning crew that’s over there. Very, very different than the live audience on Thursday night here. There’s a bunch of podcasters over there and [9:30] Central, [10:30] Eastern. If you’re listening to this and you want to you can’t get enough of this voice, you could come on Saturday mornings, but it’s a fun. It’s a fun crew a bunch of podcasters. Dave Jackson is great to hang out with. And so Chris, thanks for thanks for coming out on Saturday mornings to support it. I appreciate it.

Chris Nesi  [3:17] 
It’s always fun because you know, as a 39 year old man, it’s about as close as I’ll ever get to having Saturday morning cartoons again in my life.

Jim Collison  [3:23] 
I know. I know. Yeah. Well, and I just love Dave Jackson. He’s just one of my favorite guys to hang out with and I don’t know what it is. I think we’ve done I think we’re close to 300 shows in that show started as an accident like you know, we were just like, hey, maybe we should start doing something together. He is just so easy to podcast with.

Jim Collison  [3:41] 
Speaking of partners, Mike Wieger not here tonight. Some stuff came up at home and I’ve had a I’ve had a really good luck a good a good run with Mike. This sir. This current COVID situation has kept him from traveling, which has been great for me and so he’s been on every show off for the last two months, but Hannah came up with a conflict tonight. So we gave him the night off.

Jim Collison  [4:05] 
Chris, um, we had booked you to be on the show with with Brian and with Nathaniel and kind of talk about what we wanted to do is spend some time talking about how this how COVID has kind of really changed the education space. Nathaniel kind of came at it from a hardware perspective, right. He’s an infrastructure guy with a school and so he kind of talked about some of the things they had to do their infrastructure, Brian comes at it from a learning and a teaching. And he does a lot of teaching of teachers and he also does a lot of stuff in the assistive tech space. I wanted you to come at it and the power went out the day that that day we were supposed to have you on and maybe that was maybe that was serendipitous to get you here. So you get an opportunity to spend some more time talking about but as a podcaster. And as someone who’s very deep in that education community, you’re really on the ground when we Think about education. You’re, you’re a social studies teacher, you’re teaching you’re teaching, you’re also teaching at the college level, right? Is that? Is that what you do? You’re, you’re in the thick of it with students talk. Let’s go back a little bit for you guys. what transpired in March, early March for you guys just kind of how did it go down? And how did things change for you guys?

Chris Nesi  [5:22] 
Well, we’re where I’m at, in, in New Jersey, again, high school social studies teacher, by day and about the middle of March. We just started to see states around the country, you know, closing schools for, you know, two weeks at a time, three weeks at a time, this governor comes out and says, All right, you know, schools are closing definitely. And it was just a matter of time, what’s going to happen in New Jersey, what’s going to happen in the district that I work in, and on Friday, March 13, that’s the last day that I went to the high school that I work at, and we’ve been remote learning For the last as we have this conversation 11 weeks, huh? Yeah. Which is the end of the lakes more than summer vacation? Not had to go to school.

Jim Collison  [6:09] 
It’s like a whole summer. Right? Or Yeah, more. Yeah. And how much longer do you guys have when, when the school officially release

Chris Nesi  [6:18] 
in Jersey? Are we started the beginning of September? I am technically still in school until June 23. Wow, that’s another. Yeah, it is. It’s a long time.

Jim Collison  [6:32] 
Very long,

Chris Nesi  [6:33] 
no matter how you slice it. I mean, the hundred and 80 hundred 84 days that were contracted for, you know, the school districts around the country that started in August. There’s a lot of districts ending their school year around now. Yeah, so yeah, I just we all got to put in the same time.

Jim Collison  [6:47] 
We start super early here in Nebraska. So like the first or second week of August, and that puts us out. end of May usually so the kids are usually getting out. Right now. They’re done. For the most part. We did graduations and all And almost all that stuff is done. You have another couple, another another few weeks to go. We know the kind of the stories of going online and getting that done. How did that work? You know, you’re teaching classes and all of a sudden you got to change over to 100% a lot of the folks that listen to this show are parents, they became homeschooling parents, right? Give us how that worked for you. I mean, just just kind of summarize that have that worked out for you.

Chris Nesi  [7:25] 
For me, I’m in a unique position. I you know, technology in education is my passion. That’s what the whole my whole podcast house event tech is all about. So I am up to my eyeballs and how to help teachers use technology in their instruction. You know, being a podcaster really was instrumental in helping me you know, switch to live streaming, creating content, not having that face to face in the same space with my students, you know, whether it’s high school or a college and also switch to remote learning pretty quickly as well. So For me, it was easy. I mean, I’ve been working very hard, but it hasn’t really felt like work. I mean, when I do the live streams for my students, you know, I get on it look just like this. I’m using stream yard for the live streams. And it’s like a show with Mr. Nessie for class. Right, the kids can can chat on YouTube, you know, so I’m leveraging the same technology to engage my kids and have been doing that for three months.

Jim Collison  [8:26] 
Back in December, Dave Jackson and I did a show just by accident, we didn’t intend we didn’t think it was going to be applicable to what went on, but how every how folks that are working from home need to act more like podcasters. And actually, from what I’ve heard from educators, and what I’ve heard from you, teachers kind of needed to act like podcasters Do you feel like you had an advantage over maybe some of your peers in the sense that you had been podcasting for a while, so that was pretty easy?

Chris Nesi  [8:52] 
Absolutely, definitely. 100% just the fact that I can, you know, when we you started using Google meet for department meetings and for different meetings that we were still responsible for that went virtual, you know, I’m going to who gets on and I look like this in the Google meet, and people are at their laptops looking up their nose, you know? And here I am with the camera, the microphone and people are like, what are you What? Where are you?

Jim Collison  [9:17] 
Yeah, I just had a meeting today or yesterday and our one of our executives goes your cameras so clear. Like, well, that’s actually I forgot to turn the lights on Alexa, turn on the studio lights. That’s because I said normally it’s because I have lights on and I didn’t tonight I I always forget something. And, and so light lighting helps and I don’t have a camera dedicated to this, like those things help. We’ve had we have seen at the corporate level. I have seen some some folks make the make the make the jump, they’ve gotten a better they’re wearing their headset more or they get a better microphone or they’re, they get their laptop placed in a better spot or they’re right there. There. Sitting in a better place. But many still like we’re 12 weeks we’re starting, we wasted we start week 12 which is as long as a marine basic training. We start that Monday, and they’re still not like many of them still aren’t do it did, did you see what the folks that you work with teachers in, you know, in the broad scope of things, did more of them kind of get it after a while and you feel like everybody just kind of hobbled it, to get through the to get arts continuing to hobble it for you guys.

Chris Nesi  [10:33] 
The lemonade from these lemons or the you know, the silver lining to the cloud for this has really been a push for teachers who were not as forward thinking to use technology and leverage certain technologies in their teaching this, give them a swift kick in the pants to you know, I mean, I’ve got colleagues who are, you know, creating screencasts and they’re doing all sorts of video content that they never took the time to do or learn an IV Supported teachers in my school and all over the world with a podcast, you know, with people saying, you know, I am doing more than I’ve ever done, I’m working hard, I’m learning these new things. I’m trying these new tools to screencast and share content and, you know, engage my students that again, I’d never done before. So yeah, it’s it’s been good for education technology enthusiasts.

Jim Collison  [11:22] 
Do you think House of EdTech was a was a preparation tool for some Did you feel like you had people coming back to past episodes or two, maybe you became the go to guy for some of this? Did you feel like the podcast itself was was ready for this pandemic? In was helpful in that way or or not?

Chris Nesi  [11:45] 
definitely helpful. I had done some previous episodes about you know, how to design great presentations, how to create podcast content, how to livestream. So I had some content in the back catalogue that I could direct people to or people reached out and said, Oh, I found it or I started people seeing I started seeing people share some of those older episodes on social media. And then once this all started to go down, I was more intentional about creating content that I knew could instantly help teachers make that transition and give them things to think about and different tools that they could be using.

Jim Collison  [12:18] 
Yeah. Did you you also teach at the college level? Right, you teach college level courses? Yeah. That was that a different experience? Because your college students as opposed to high school? Because your high school your social studies as high school, right?

Chris Nesi  [12:31] 
Yeah, yeah. Um, you know what? It was easier, because at the college level, you know, as you as you all know, you know, you’ve got kids who will take completely online courses, and you know, they’ve got their learning management system. And the courses I was already teaching were considered hybrid. So we were only meeting once a week for 80 minutes. And then they had things to do through our learning management system, you know, in between our physical meetings. So, again, making the switch to online learning, they were much more adaptable. One class I teach is called virtual team dynamics. So it became a very relevant course and all the content to be completely remote. So, I, I couldn’t replicate that experience this semester, if I tried. Yeah. And in previous semesters, I thought about, you know, well, maybe we should do more virtual meetings, or, you know, live stream or, you know, use some video technology. And, you know, I’ll cancel the physical meeting, and we’ll try to do it virtually. But I just never pulled the trigger on that. Yeah, this semester. You know, eight out of the 14 weeks was remote at a distance. Come to Youtube Kids.

Jim Collison  [13:38] 
Yeah. Yeah. It’s interesting in the enterprise, not not too different. So today, we had our second monthly awards every every month, we do an award ceremony. And last last month, it was pretty good. Yeah, I mean, they did it. They didn’t Okay, job this month. Okay. I’ve always said you got to run these things like you’re on a podcast, and this month, our CEO who is ready That kind of did that. She kind of hosted it like, Hey, welcome everybody. I’m hosting this and we’re going to go here and then she directed traffic. They showed some videos in it like we we’ve had, we’ve had various regions last last month, our Europe office, did the video. And then this month our Asia office did the video and they show they showed everybody’s like, what do you do in their backyards, fire pits, you know, those kinds of things, right? fun things you’re doing with the families. So it was really cool. But this one was obvious. They had had it planned out to run like you would run kind of a television show or podcast like they had. They had a kind of everybody figured out who they were going to next and everybody knew for the most part to unmute themselves in the process right of doing this thing, and that way it kind of went down. It went really really well. I’m imagining for those teachers that are embracing the this new world of of having to do you know having to do a remote It’s getting better for them. Are you? Have you sensed? Are you feeling like some teachers are just like, I don’t this isn’t the space I want to be in long term.

Chris Nesi  [15:09] 
Yeah, I’ve had conversations with colleagues who are super frustrated. You know, they’re they’re trying the technology, which is good. But, you know, it doesn’t come naturally. You know, I’ve done emails I’ve done Google meets, I’ve done zoom skypes, and just regular phone calls with colleagues to try and help them troubleshoot. And I there are educators who, and this is my opinion, sadly, are looking forward to trying to go back to the way it was. Yeah, they can’t wait to go back to I don’t want to do the technology. I don’t want to and it’s, again, my opinion, those people need to go you know, because we’re, we can’t go back to what it was.

Jim Collison  [15:52] 
Yeah. Well, let’s Okay, so that’s the that’s the elephant in the room. Let me ask you that question. for college. Are you teaching summer courses Do you have a summer off?

Chris Nesi  [16:01] 
No, I do have a summer session course that started Tuesday.

Jim Collison  [16:05] 
And will that be just like it was before for the summer? Because that was kind of remote to begin with? Well, that’d be very similar

Chris Nesi  [16:12] 
that summer course. Yeah, I taught it last summer for the first time. And it was six weeks, once a week, you know, three hours and 40 minutes face to face. Oh, okay. Okay, this summer session, it’s completely virtual. Yeah. So it’s the same six weeks. I’m not live streaming for three hours and 40 minutes on Tuesday nights, right. But I did it for two and a half hours on Tuesday. So I’m still trying to push for synchronous learning and not be completely removed or do that asynchronous stuff I just don’t think it’s as effective so that’s where I’m at with that so

Jim Collison  [16:47] 
how did you set up the class they were they were joining you is live you talking to them? They are they use zoom? Are you doing doing stream yard?

Chris Nesi  [16:55] 
I’m using stream yard so I that’s why I do it as an unlisted. I sent it out. On this day one, I brought them in, you know, five at a time to participate on screen with me and engage them in the chat and, you know, brought them in and just got okay. I tried to recreate the in room experience as best I can.

Jim Collison  [17:14] 
Yeah, no, I like it. I like to rotate folks through like it if you get if you can’t, it’s

Chris Nesi  [17:19] 
like a live show. It’s like a college show.

Jim Collison  [17:20] 
No. Right. And you can you can ask them questions, actually, that might be actually a better way of learning than in the classroom. You know, because you are the times you are on camera, you got to really pay attention and be ready, right? You’re, you’re kind of a co host. For the

Chris Nesi  [17:36] 
for I for a lot of them. I it’s my first time working with them. I do have some returning students who want to take another class with me, you know, pour on them. What are they thinking? But for the newbies who came on? You know, I brought them out of the green room green room here on stream and you’re like, oh, oh, hello, professor. I’m alive. I’m like, Yeah, you’re you’re on the internet. Here we go. What what What do you have to say? caller?

Jim Collison  [18:01] 
Yeah, exactly. Well, it adds some accountability to it. Right? Okay, so you’re doing it differently this summer as well. What do you think? what’s what’s fall gonna look like? And I know you have to speculate because they probably haven’t made the New Jersey probably hasn’t made a decision, I’m assuming Yeah, that’s what’s but what do you think? What do you think falls gonna look like for you?

Chris Nesi  [18:21] 
I think fall is gonna look like the spring. Okay, I think that we are going to start the year remotely. I just I just don’t see. And again, this is this is going to be different in other places in the country. But at least where we are in this area. I don’t see how we can bring students back into a school. You know, there I was telling you in the pre show, you know, there’s a document being floated around by some new jersey student superintendents, that contains 91 questions that the state of New Jersey should be answering. And when I shared it, I was like, these are 91 questions. Every state and every school district should would be answering, right. You know, my high school alone, we have 2400 students. And we have three lunch periods. Each lunch period has seven 800 kids in it. You know, you can’t socially I mean, the classroom I’m in. Even when I have 25 kids in the class, you can’t be six feet apart. Classroom just isn’t designed that way. Now the cafeteria is not designed that way. So

Jim Collison  [19:26] 
Nathaniel,

Jim Collison  [19:27] 
Nathaniel kind of alluded to that when we had him on the last time it’s like the classroom setups are going to have to be different if we’re if we’re going to adhere to the way the guidelines the stated guidelines are out and that that does create Do you think Chris, it’s just more efficient, okay. Like we spent a bunch of time going virtual. And everybody we we had a trial run. Let’s just say the spring was trial. Like we got a pilot. It was a pilot episode, right, so to speak. Now we’ve got a summer to recover, and kind of like okay, This is going to stay. Do you think it’s smarter just to go to be 100% virtual in the fall and, and just keep going and do another semester that way up until winter, then to try and get some in person stuff that’s going to be kind of janky.

Chris Nesi  [20:17] 
I, I do think that yeah, I think it should be virtual. I think that professional development should be worked on now too. And teachers need to be willing to learn over whatever summer vacation looks like to prepare for this. In the fall, we were all just kind of thrown into it again, right, I could flip the switch and do it. A lot of people caught off guard, it’s been an uncomfortable transition. Teachers need to be taught and have time to develop lessons and we need to know sooner rather than two weeks before school that we’re not going to be started right. You know, if if we wait till September to find out we’re going to be virtual, that’s too late or you know, in some places where you know, you’re starting school in August, you need to know now what the plan is for the fall,

Jim Collison  [21:01] 
you kind of need that decision made. And just like look, we need time to prepare, right to get these things to get these things done. What do you think? So let’s, let’s talk about a little bit we kind of talked about lessons learned from a, you know, you kind of learned, like, Hey, we got to kind of treat this more like, like a, like a media or like a podcast to get some of these things done. We have to do some stuff different. Did you see anything? Did you learn anything new in this, like, you had the advantage because you’re a podcaster. But were there new things for you that surprised you in this that you picked up in the process?

Chris Nesi  [21:39] 
I don’t wanna sound like I’m bragging. But no, I mean, the only thing I really learned about is, you know, planning for this is you have to be even more intentional. I mean, in a regular classroom. Sure. I plan my lessons, I’ll design a unit I’ll think of projects and you have to be even more on top of your game in terms of planning and preparation. Do this remotely, you know, and I do experience this with what I do at college where I’ve got a syllabus laid out for the entire semester, the course is all planned out. And I know how that works. Whereas, you know, in high school, I, I don’t teach the same thing the same way every year. You know, that’ll make it stale for me. But that’s my own educational philosophy. So the work that I got to put in, year to year just becomes that much more intense. If I know I’m not going to see my brand new students in September. What does that look like? What is the first day of school look like if we were remote and virtual? How do you, you know, make the kids feel like they’re a part of the high school if I’m teaching freshmen or you know, returning students, how do you build that culture in that community? When you’re not together?

Jim Collison  [22:47] 
Yeah. Do you think, okay, we always talk about the teachers. Let’s talk about parents and students for a second. They also have had to learn a new way of doing things. Do you think They’re more ready then. So we go say you go hundred percent virtual in the fall? Are they more ready to handle this come fall and have learned some lessons? Do you get this feeling you interact with them? Maybe the high schoolers at first, but yeah,

Chris Nesi  [23:14] 
I think that there are a lot of high school students who checked out in March or whenever their school shut down, they were done. Okay. And there’s gonna be a lot of hard lessons, you’re gonna see your if there’s data out there, we’re going to see a spike in virtual summer school attendance, or you’re going to see spikes in repeated courses for next year, you know, at all, maybe even all grade levels. I think the fresh start of the school year will help kids better understand what the expectation is. I mean, the six classes I currently teach, I tried to tell them, you know, with my dad hat on with my teacher hat on, hey, if we’re not here, here, this half, here’s what your approach needs to be. You can’t think school’s over you’ve got to be engaged, I already know that I’m gonna be able to do things to try to engage you. Right? And at least for me, I’ve got students who I haven’t heard from since March 13. Mm hmm. And it’s may 28. Right?

Jim Collison  [24:13] 
Yeah. So, yeah, well, I’m yeah. And it’s, it’s disheartens me a little bit, you know, just kind of when you think like, they just disappeared on you.

Chris Nesi  [24:23] 
And that’s with you know, emailing them through their student emails, reaching out through the the student information to call their whatever phone numbers are on file, whether it’s me or, you know, secretaries or other building administrators. Still, there’s been at least for me, and where I’m at, there’s been a huge lack of engagement.

Jim Collison  [24:41] 
Yeah. So let me let me jam a few questions, not questions, but statements from the chat room in here. So AJ says big question, are the classrooms actually large enough to keep our students distance right size of rooms may only really allow eight to 10 students. We’ve been kind of used to jamming I don’t know about you guys. 25 to 35 in a classroom. in there to get him any if you’re going to keep some of the rules we have. And then a Brian says that’s what we’re planning a no more than 10 per room. And that Daniel makes a great point. He’s like, need more rooms. If you’re going to do that. You’re going to need more rooms if you’re gonna if you’re going to try and get me back on. Daniel says something interesting. When he was on about maybe even a rotating schedule where right have you Have you thought of is that been floated? For you guys?

Chris Nesi  [25:30] 
I’m sure there’s a lot of ideas being floated around. I mean, AJ, I know, AJ, he’s brought in a ringer.

Jim Collison  [25:36] 
Nice. Good. Well, thanks for coming out, you’re gonna get featured a lot.

Chris Nesi  [25:43] 
Um, but but we’ve had conversations there. You know, there are so many ways that you can do a schedule, you know, whether you bring in certain kids on some days or, you know, AMPM sessions, you know, at different grade levels or, you know, do we say that, you know, our kindergarten through fifth grade students have to go to school, but our high school students could be virtual in a school district that’s, you know, k 12. You know, they’re just there. So math teachers would love this. There are so many variables to these equations and what the solutions could be, you’re going to see, you know, if we got a million school districts, you’re going to see a million different ways of trying to accomplish this task.

Jim Collison  [26:21] 
Yeah, well, and on the parents side, you know, Daniel makes a point, like parents are worried, right? Can’t have parents open the economy and tutor their children. Like, I’ve seen this. I mean, as I’ve talked to folks that I work with that, you know, that have small kids, they’re just, they’re wore out, you know, they’re like, Ah, this you know, I was ready to work remotely, but then to do the put the homework, all those things on top of that, man, that gets super tough if we have to do it again. Well, you know, I don’t want to complain,

Chris Nesi  [26:51] 
but you know, I’m a high school teacher. I teach college and again, I’ve got my four year old and my eight year old so I am on a daily basis teaching pre k Second grade, ninth grade world history, and you know, college communications. Yeah, you know, so yeah. It’s I’m literally a teacher 24 seven, right?

Jim Collison  [27:12] 
Yeah. Well, you’re on. You’re literally on 24 seven. Right. That’s the hard part, I think is that we went from although we went, we replaced soccer practice, and all those other activities, dance and whatever, right. And we were doing many parents were doing all that stuff. They were driving their students around spending hours, I would hear stories of parents and drive throughs at 10 o’clock at night trying to get dinner for everybody, right? I feel okay, all those ended, but now you had to kind of educate and that that was a whole different kind of a whole different world for them. Chris, what do you think? Okay, so what what did what do you think? lessons we can pull forward on this and when we think about like, if you were to give you know, A few are what you saw work best or what worked best for you. If you were to give some advice and say, you know, okay, going into the fall, if we’re going to do this thing again, or maybe even if we’re not, because maybe I can amend the question and say, What do we keep out of this? Certainly, there’s been some great things we’ve discovered here. Even if we go back, what should we keep? I mean, what should stay in the kind of in the pipeline? What should we continue to use? We ask that question ourselves in the enterprise all the time, like, okay, we discovered some really cool things. We should keep some of these right. What have you guys, what have you discovered?

Chris Nesi  [28:33] 
From from an edtech standpoint, I think what could what could and should stick around would be, you know, creating content that our students can access anytime. So if we’re screencasting or using tools to create video content, to supplement our lessons or could provide lessons, I think the skills that teachers are developing are going to be great for students that are absent. You know, when we go through next school year, we’re going to get to a point in the school where teachers are going to get around to the content that they’ve got all of this digital material created for. So if they continue to create that type of content, you know, when kids are absent, do they really need to miss out on the learning? Agent I have talked about the idea and a lot of teachers, you know, we fear the loss and the disappearing of snow days. Now. Yeah, I think the one off snow day is still valuable, you know, and still got to kind of needed it’s still well, but if you’re still looking, but but if you know, you know, you got some big weather system coming through and, you know, you might be in for like, for me a nor’easter coming through and there could be, you know, you know, three, four days in a row. Well, now a school district should be able to flip that switch and say, Alright, we’re going to go to remote learning, and we’re, the days will count, we don’t have snow days, we don’t have to extend the school year. And we can leverage the technology to keep learning and teaching and do things virtually for a few days. So I think that that’s also good. That’s the techniques. The other side, which I think is more important than tech, as even a tech lover is the way we’ve been able to develop new connections with our students and foster these relationships. And I think a lot of teachers have been able to develop a lot more empathy for the experience of the parents of the students. And I think that also needs to stick around to be more understanding of where our kids are coming from, and how to truly support them in their learning.

Jim Collison  [30:34] 
Do you think it’s it? Would it be a real as a teacher? Would it be a realistic expectation to say, we need to move to an environment where it can be both in person or at home and the student makes that the student makes that decision and the words, Chris, can I say to you, you need to develop a lesson plan in a way that everybody can consume it. And if they if they need to be home for whatever somebody put into chatroom this always reminds me of that Joe had said, you know when thought the less bullying is going on, maybe less bullying in person, they may be still bullying each other via text. Like

Chris Nesi  [31:13] 
to speak of Joe’s point real quick, you know, I’ve seen articles and I know that there are a lot of students who they’re thriving in this because they don’t have to deal with the pressures and stresses of going to school, whether it’s bullying or other things that young people have to deal with in the school, you know, they can just focus on their schoolwork, and they’re excelling. So I’m sure that there is a percentage of students that would love to not have to go to school, but still get their education. Did you

Jim Collison  [31:42] 
guys implement some kind of safety net? So in other words, you said you didn’t see you haven’t seen students since March? Well, they fail or is there a safety net put in place to say well, your grades gonna everybody’s gonna get what they had, whatever, how did they implement grades,

Chris Nesi  [31:57] 
where I am at and again, that It’s been different district to district and people I talked to, from my district. Yeah, we continue to cover new material. We were permitted to meet with students virtually. And we’re encouraged to use either Google meet or zoom to conduct virtual video conference classes and continue to assign work and grade work and use the gradebook and kids continue to either have their grades go up or go down.

Jim Collison  [32:25] 
Okay, and so students could fail

Chris Nesi  [32:27] 
students will fail let’s try to be optimistic there.

Jim Collison  [32:33] 
So is it right so with with an accountability based system are where pass and fail is still pop? still possible? Could we live in a world where students for those you know you know, Tony, I think was saying, you know, hey, my son is fine with homeschooling. My daughter kind of likes the socialization Do you think that that kills two birds with one stone to say, hey, if you want to come in, schedule it so you know, we know how many people are going to be Like you need to schedule the time to be in so we don’t get too many people in at once. But if you can do this from home, do you think that’s a realistic expectation that a teacher could have a lesson plan that can work? That could work under both conditions?

Chris Nesi  [33:15] 
I think again, I think we’re at a point where, you know, if we look back on this time period, 20 or 30 years from now, we should be able to look back and say, This caused education to shift. Yeah, because right now, I mean, we’re still doing education, you know, in the factory model, like it’s the 1850s. Right. You know, to bring it to sports, and again, I go all over the place. Yeah, you know, we got the NHL, the NBA, considering shifting their seasons, out of the winter, and, you know, starting in December and running through the summer, and, you know, these are, these are things that have been talked about, but this situation is going to force them to maybe try something that they Maybe wouldn’t have otherwise been able to get in front of the fans to literally shift the whole dynamic of the sport. education’s at that same point to where you could have schools and districts, it could come all the way from the Secretary of Education. But there could and should be shifts in how we do school. Yeah, that’s Yeah, that’s the best way I could put it.

Jim Collison  [34:20] 
Well, and certainly technology is in place. It’s got holes, not everybody has all the technology they need. Not everybody has equal access to the technology. You know, there’s some we got to solve some of those problems, too. Right.

Chris Nesi  [34:30] 
There’s gaps and again, this experience has shined the light on where we are deficient in many places in this country with equitable access to devices, you know, high speed internet, internet and slow internet

Jim Collison  [34:43] 
internet at all right? Yeah. In some cases, in some rural communities, it doesn’t exist at all. A couple. Andrew said something that’s that I think is a sign of the times. He says my four year old is so used to zoom now that one, or that one, I’m watching a video podcast. He assumes everyone can see him so he weighs at it. And that really has I think it is interesting now that when I’m when I’m talking with coworkers and their kids want to see I’ve mentioned this before, the kids, they just want to see what’s going on. Like they’re missing something. They want to be a part of it. Apparently, that doesn’t always translate maybe to the schoolwork. Maybe they don’t want to always be a part of it. Right. But so maybe we should. I don’t know, does that mean we hold school? Like we hold corporate meetings? I don’t know. I don’t know how that works, but their kids want to be on. And I always just, I always just make them put the headphones, you know, I say, put the headphones on. So they, and I’ll ask Hey, what’s your name? You know, what grade are you in? And then I say So tell me a little bit about your math homework. And they’re gone. Oh, my God, I gotta go now. I think I need to go get a root canal. You know, and that always that always ends the kids interest in in the meetings, but there has been I mean, I think the kids in responding to this right they they’re learning now how this works where before they did And it may be creating a whole new expectation on their end of what this means. Kind of going forward. So I think that has an interesting effect. Do you? Do you think so? Do you agree? Do you it’s as far as kids seeing, or having the having more access to meetings like this and being more used to that?

Chris Nesi  [36:21] 
I think again, some students will thrive. Some students also would just love to come back to school and see their friends and, you know, their people to theirs. Again, adults, children, there are people who would like it to just go back to the way it was.

Jim Collison  [36:37] 
Yeah. Brian says, He says, I know, we were able to make sure that each of our students had school laptops to use along with my advice for data. But our biggest struggle, according to students, is great that you know, according to students, right, hopefully, this is a side of things. I work for a polling company. Hopefully you’re you’re you’re, you know, surveying the students. In some point to man we talked about that a little bit later, but says according to Students, their distractions at home. Many of our students have several young kids at home to watch. Yeah, older students could be distracted by the younger students as well and couldn’t concentrate on their studies. Right. a whole nother. Parents have found like, Oh, I don’t I didn’t I don’t have a quiet place to work. Students are finding, like, maybe my bedroom isn’t the most like, especially of a bunch of kids. Yeah. Do you think we need to think through Okay, so does the home get changed? Okay, say this. This drags on longer than I mean, we’re not going I doesn’t feel like we’re going to go back completely to the way things were anytime soon. Because the way we set up our homes have to change. Do you think I got a microphone. You’re someplace that is someplace quiet right now. You have a microphone, right? Does everybody need that?

Chris Nesi  [37:50] 
It’s not something we can control. I mean, we can only come up with suggestions. I mean, I know for for my students and the population I work with, you know No, I’ve got students who their parents still have to work. So during the day, they’ve got to care for their younger brothers and sisters. Or they might also be still a student and still have a job that they have to go to. To help the family. Yeah. Um, again, there’s so many variables. Yeah. You know, where even when we were in school, school wasn’t the number one priority for some students.

Jim Collison  [38:23] 
Right. Yeah, I guess that magnifies it, you know, those that number one priority? And Nathaniel says, yep, yep. I think I think what I say, well, but Chris, you know, okay, so I’m not talking about a wholesale shift in the way we set up our houses, in other words, like putting up walls and dividers. But do you think parents have to kind of think through like, Okay, if I’m doing this in the fall, I need some more dedicated areas, again, doesn’t necessarily require complete redesign to the house but maybe setting up some intentional quiet areas where students can work from home Even if it’s on a shift basis,

Chris Nesi  [39:02] 
I do think that and that could be some of what school is designed to help students and families in their in, you know, your school community to provide more structure. I mean, there’s no way to truly at home replicate the in schools school day, that I mean, my wife and I tried that. And after two days, we were like, what are we doing? Like, I don’t need to write the lunch menu on a dry erase board and put it in my dining room. Right. Right. It’s just a matter of, you know, parents and families need to be on board with our right if we’re doing school from home. We need to support our students as best we can. Yeah, and if you’re doing the best you can, that’s good enough. You know?

Jim Collison  [39:44] 
Yeah. Well, and to Brian’s point, AJ says same with teachers and school leaders who are doing the work at home right, too. You have teachers who have young children at home, who are now trying that boat he was in that boat

Chris Nesi  [39:58] 
you know, the the device Principal oversees my department. We’ve been on department meeting calls. And you know, she’s got her own two little kids running around and popping on camera. And, you know, this is a woman who, when we were in school, consummate professional. Yeah, we know you got kids, but now we can see them and see like, you’re trying to be the vice principal. And I have to see you be mom. So it’s, it’s a struggle for everybody to try and balance work and home at home.

Jim Collison  [40:26] 
So if we can solve some of the daycare problems, right, in other words, if we can get some of the younger children into daycare again, because that, that wiped out daycare for a lot of people, right, some states are bringing it back. So if we can get some basic services back, we get some daycare back so that we’re not dealing with young young children in the house during these times. Right. And we can get maybe some quieter areas or some designated or some dedicated that’s probably a better word, dedicated areas for students to know I’m at school. Now I’m doing schoolwork at school now. And we get parents with a little more time under their belt. As far as knowing what expectations and knowing they’re got to give a little more time to this and knowing there’s going to be some accountability on this thing. Do you think that makes what would that help that? Would that make things better to get some of those basic infrastructure things out of the way?

Chris Nesi  [41:23] 
It can’t hurt. I mean, the more you can support families and families feel that they’re supported, and have these outlets available, you know, childcare. Yeah, you know, for young kids. Yeah, it can’t hurt. I mean, again, as you’re saying that I’m thinking well, could schools be open longer could schools become more of community centers where you know, maybe you come in, in the evening and you know, the cafeteria like the school be open for, you know, from eight to eight to eight, you know, right. It’s like a retail store where right come in in their classrooms available. And again, we can see all The

Jim Collison  [42:01] 
Yeah, it’s gonna take some different thinking right? It’s gonna take some different

Chris Nesi  [42:06] 
jobs would be all overthinking.

Jim Collison  [42:09] 
Yeah. And I think are there do you feel like are there? Are there leaders in the education space? Are there some leaders like that who are standing up and saying radical things like, Hey, we have to think about this completely different or is it all damage control?

Chris Nesi  [42:26] 
It’s both. There are people out there who are saying, we have to think differently. And there are those out there who are saying, let’s just try and keep it together and let’s try and get through it without totally falling apart at the seams. I’m more interested in what the people who want to make change and shifts have to say though,

Jim Collison  [42:47] 
yeah, well, it’s a it’s a very distributed like if you want to if you want to think about what’s a decentralized I mean, yeah, we have a we kind of have a department of education here in the United States. But really, down to the district level. These things are very decentralized. And so district by district, right? Some states have testing standards. And there are some standards on that associated with it. But really districts get a huge say in what they do. And I think it’s a little bit like herding cats. Although I do know this when schools are seeing things being successful, they fall in line, sometimes they fall in line pretty quick to jump on the battle for sure.

Chris Nesi  [43:22] 
Yeah. But But, you know, to your point, you know, in New Jersey, we have, I think, upwards of 550 school districts. And that’s 550 ways of doing things. Yeah.

Jim Collison  [43:34] 
Yeah. Yeah. And they’re encouraged to be in some cases, they’re encouraged to be different. Right. And in that it’s a local, it’s kind of it goes back to the some local authority, right school boards and all those things that in, in some ways that distributed I think, in some cases that that distributed nature saves us in some ways if it consolidates down you know, we found out that if you consolidate all your food properly For the protein for the country into just a handful of factories, and those factories get sick, you’re screwed. Right? And so decentralization during these kinds of things kind of help. I mean, but I mean,

Chris Nesi  [44:11] 
it’s still frustrating with education. I mean, I’ve worked in districts where the next town over is doing something differently. And you’re like, Yeah, man, that sure makes the grass look a lot greener over there, because they’re doing it that way. And then you’re banging your head against the wall saying, why are we doing it this way? When you see it’s working over there that way or, I mean, Hell, even in other parts of the country, you know?

Jim Collison  [44:33] 
Well, when we talk about dollars and cents to like, when we think about Lean Manufacturing you when you find the process that works, you make it more and more efficient and drive out costs to the very bottom dollar, and then you just crank on that process. And I think in some cases, education works very, very similar. In other words, we find, how do we do this at the very lowest cost for the community, and then run it and we’ve probably been in that mode for 3040 years, right here in this country. At least right.

Chris Nesi  [45:01] 
Again, it goes to the worst phrase in education, which is that’s the way we’ve always done.

Jim Collison  [45:05] 
Yeah, yeah. Well, then so the the we may be upsetting the applecart I got that I got that analogy wrong when the other guys were on here. I said, I think so upset the applesauce, I think is what I said, that upsets the apple cart. And and we may this may get more expensive before it gets cheaper again, like we’re gonna have to retool, this is a this is a whole process. We’re like, you know, hey, we used to make cars now we need to make tanks. Okay, that’s going to take some retooling. And it’s going to take it would take a while to work out all those efficiencies, right.

Chris Nesi  [45:39] 
Well, it also brings up I’d seen something on social media recently that it was an image sold on Twitter, where the phrase was, you know, when times get tough, big businesses and banks get bailouts. Yeah. And we make cuts to education,

Jim Collison  [45:54] 
right? Yeah, no, right. It’s, it’s, it’s well, you want to do both. To be honest, you want to keep your banking system pretty healthy. But that being said, I guess the point I’m trying to make is and listen, I’m the last guy that would like this, because my kids are already out of school and I don’t want to pay any more property taxes than I absolutely have to at this point, I should be the one railing against it. But we may have to just come to grips like, man, we this if we don’t shore this up and figure out how to keep the kids engaged in this process. Doesn’t matter how many great teachers we have if the kids fear losing track of the kids.

Chris Nesi  [46:34] 
Yeah, I mean, screwing it up in the next five years. impacts us over the next 50 to 60

Jim Collison  [46:41] 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it’s it’s

Chris Nesi  [46:44] 
not nice to be teaching in 50 to 60 years.

Jim Collison  [46:47] 
Yeah. Yeah. Well, we’re all in this together my friend it’s not gonna be easy anywhere. is we do this but more expensive. So Brian says more expensive at a time or funding will likely get cut as many districts are fun. Bye. state tax dollars right state revenue and yeah, our our you know, even here in Nebraska we’ve we’ve been fairly open and they’re projecting gigantic tax shortcut shortfalls in this and so we’re gonna, we’ve got some hard, like, I hope we’re ready like I’ve been podcasting out this December this show is 10 years old. And I think of all the things that we’ve talked about over the last 10 years. I think 10 years from now, you and I could still be talking about this, like, I think it’s gonna have Yeah, I mean, it’s gonna have a pretty deep impact. Because it’s gonna it’s going to change. You know, it’s just going to change so many things going forward. Do you think Chris is you look at as you look towards the fall, how was I feeling about that? Like, just how does that make you feel as we as you start thinking about the fall.

Chris Nesi  [47:57] 
I’ll be honest, I’m trying to get through this school year.

Chris Nesi  [48:01] 
I mean, I’ve got the tools and you know, the mindset to start up virtually. I know that I’ll be working overtime through the summer to try and support people who are gonna probably have to do that as well. Yeah. So, you know, whether it’s making content for the podcast or, you know, videos just trying to support people and right, I mean, as much as it’d be cool if everybody was like me, they’re not.

Jim Collison  [48:24] 
Yeah. So

Chris Nesi  [48:26] 
whatever help I can lend on. That’s what I will, would say I’m looking forward to

Jim Collison  [48:30] 
Krista brings up a great question. So let me let me ask you this. How do you think then, the How will this affect what you were planning to do with with House of Ed Tech? Like, you know, if you think back to January and you thought maybe what the year was gonna look like? Does this change things for you? Are you being are you changing in the moment and when you say help people, what do you think’s the most effective thing to do right now through your podcast?

Chris Nesi  [48:59] 
Good Question Jim

Jim Collison  [49:01] 
Good. I got one tonight.

Chris Nesi  [49:04] 
Um, you know, part of me is really tired of talking about this. You know, you know, aj aj, AJ still here. But there’s another show we do, where this week when we do our live show. We’re titling it. Anything but education. Yeah. Because this is all we’ve been talking about. That’s a show where we used to do it every two weeks, and now we’ve been just coming on weekly and live streaming it weekly. And we’d need a break. Yeah, let’s just talk about anything besides education. So I’m, I’m kind of at a crossroads with my, with my shell. Sure. where, you know, I, from what I learned about podcasting, you know, I want it to be evergreen. I want it to be timeless. And you know, if I have a whole year of how to teach remotely and everything is covered this and distance learning that, you know, in three years, is it still relevant? Is it still relevant next year, right? So, you know, it’s, I take it, you know, every two weeks and you know, see how I feel?

Jim Collison  [50:05] 
Yeah, I run the risk here. I’ll be honest, we’ve actually moved on from it here at Home Gadget Geeks, like, you know, the last couple shows we did the show we’d had it intended to had you on. And I’d actually intended to kind of close it up. And we’ve, we’ve talked to rich Hey came on a week or two ago, and we talked about how he’s responding to it and some of those other kinds of things and it has affected but I kind of wanted to be done in that space of like, okay, like now, but I wanted to hear it from you. So sorry to start to open wounds on that. Listen, I appreciate you doing that. But I’m kind of with you in a lot of ways I am that doesn’t I don’t mean we want to ignore it. But I’m kind of into like, the future is still out there. And there’s still a lot of opportunities and a lot of great things we can do. And we’re going to need all those great ideas and all those things going forward. Right? We’re going to need all these all these great things in these in these new ways of doing going ahead and I think that’s the exciting. That’s some of the we’re still making gadgets, right? We’re still,

Chris Nesi  [51:05] 
technology still, you’re right, that that’s, that’s the key here. We are learning skills, we are learning how to do things. And going forward, it’s not going to matter what the platform is or what the tool is specifically or what the devices, we’re developing skills, we’re developing soft and hard skills as educators, as people, our students are, the families are. And these are things that could have a long lasting positive effect. You know, for students now, who have gone through this at the high school or college level, they’re going to be very equipped to work remotely and virtually in the corporate world. Yeah, you know, so,

Jim Collison  [51:46] 
yeah, yeah, no, I think it’s good. We’ve been saying I’ve been saying for a while, you know, I hadn’t learn the traditional way anymore. I if I need to learn something on YouTube, in this kind of, you know, this kind of situation has kind of proven out like well, maybe We need to we need to switch that, that idea of learning to some to more of the collected learning. And that’s not always great. But do you think? Well, let me ask you this. So Brian, our earlier in the show says he’s had about 25 requests for his ATR like, Hey, can you give me some information? have you had? Have you done much hardware? Let’s just talk gadgets for a second. Have you had any hardware consulting where folks like, hey, how do I get? How do I get? Yeah, do you recommend you have an SM seven B, do you recommend that or what do you what have you been writing? No, not not for the the average layman. screencasts but it’s been a lot of go get the Samsung q2, you will get the ATR 2100, you’ll get the 82,005 you know, these under hundred dollar microphones that can just take it to a better level.

Chris Nesi  [52:50] 
Again, taking that podcast experience, you know, if you’re creating a screencast you know, don’t throw the blanket over your head, but you know, you don’t have to you don’t have to turn your camera on. Ivan Command. Do you know the Logitech C 920. For people who want to make their video better? Some ring lights, just some different accessories that aren’t going to break the bank. But if you’re going to create content, maybe try to make it sound a little bit better than you know, your onboard microphone and, you know, your incandescent fluorescent light bulb.

Jim Collison  [53:19] 
Yeah, no, they get the light diffused, get some better equipment and right on cue any tips for the first time imagine teacher starting this fall? teaching it skill? So hopefully a tech savvy group but what other tips would you recommend besides have good sound have good lighting, have a good camera? Any other thoughts?

Chris Nesi  [53:38] 
Here’s my recommend. And this is for everybody. Any industry. We are right now, living in a time where we’re encouraged to be physically distant. That doesn’t mean we can’t still be socially connected. Yeah. So whatever virtual environment you’re in, whether it’s business or education, still make time to develop relationships and make connections with people. Because whether you’re shaking hands and giving high fives and fist bumps, or we’re doing what we’re doing now, we’re still interacting with human beings who, even though I can’t touch you, you know, you’re still a person that you still got stuff that I don’t know about going on in your life. So we need to be aware of the fact that you’re still dealing with people. And you have to set your expectations accordingly.

Jim Collison  [54:28] 
I spent a little time with Chris Curran last night on the podcasters lounge. I love the podcasters lounge. Yeah, so Chris was Chris is out there and I just joined we have I love to have I just love that guy. So we had a really deep philosophical conversation for like two hours about religion and spirituality and and that’s that doesn’t typically come up in the podcasters. In the circles, I talk podcasting and or even tech in we don’t, we never talked about those things. And I was just kind of thinking, Man, that was a two hour conversation. I would have loved to have had in person but we can’t. And he’s in Colorado Springs and I’m in Omaha, we couldn’t do it that easy. We went on and yeah, it was done in a public space, which I think is even better because I can get feedback from people during the conversation. I just love this right this this kind of this format. But yeah, no, I think you’re you’re spot on and that we’ve got to continue to even though we can’t necessarily be together, we can still be together quite a bit. Right? I mean, we can I still still hang out with Dave on Saturday mornings, I still have. I’ve got friends around the internet, right? It still gives us an opportunity to, to make those connections and stay connected, right?

Chris Nesi  [55:38] 
Yeah, I was actually this week I had a former college student reach out to me to get on a conference call with her boss who is a higher up executive at NBC Universal, Comcast, whenever they’re calling it these days. And, you know, this person was appreciative of, and was open to the idea of connecting Being connected and doing virtual happy hours with employees and creating safe spaces for people to feel connected and socialize. You know, we don’t have the water cooler moments anymore right now. Yeah, yeah, we need to foster some just social basic human interaction with other people. So,

Jim Collison  [56:21] 
yeah, and I’m struggling to pronounce this name but Cosmo. Do you think q Oh s mo q smell coat? Okay. Well, I’m trying. I’m not. But yeah, yeah, cosmos is probably the easiest for that. Um, you know, one of the things one of the recommendations and kind of something you said in this as a first time teacher as a first time anything, be willing to make mistakes, like, be willing to try some things we all did this like we have all grown from each other. You you’ve been a part of the same podcasting community that I’m a part of, and we’ve all grown together through ask the podcast. Coach in all the other podcasts about podcasting that are out there that we’ve done in our own work. But we’ve all made ton of tons of mistakes out there. And I think sometimes, and this is maybe what holds some teachers back too, from going virtual is they’re used to doing it one way. They just don’t want to make any mistakes.

Chris Nesi  [57:17] 
Again, here’s the thing for years, as long as I’ve been a teacher, we’re always hearing and talking about how we need to let our students know it’s okay to fail. It’s okay to make mistakes, you know, you know, fail is, you know, a first attempt in learning, right, you know, yeah, but teachers are definitely afraid to say things like, I don’t know the answer to that question. And, and they’re, they’re afraid to look dumb or not have the answer. Right. You know, so, we need to practice what we preach. We need to be just as comfortable being uncomfortable as we expect and want our students to be, you know, we provide a safety net for the students. Kids are pretty forgiving. Yeah. So it’s okay to say I don’t know. And, you know, we move on, you know, this It’s still gonna come up tomorrow, it’s gonna be fine. You know, another phrase I picked up along the way was you know, sometimes you have to crash burn and learn.

Chris Nesi  [58:09] 
That we learn and we grow, we move forward. Yeah,

Jim Collison  [58:11] 
crash, burn and learn. I like it. This fits right in and Justin said this. And, you know, we don’t recommend anything to anyone too much of a chance of coming back. Like, this is the space we live in when people go Hey, what do you what what should I get? You’ve had this probably happened to you, what kind of microphones should I get? And they get that microphone and then they get it doesn’t work. Or they’re not afraid to make recommendation here because

Chris Nesi  [58:34] 
I only recommend stuff that I use or have you so

Jim Collison  [58:39] 
well, in stuff that’s gonna happen. Like it happens all the time. I I’m in the you know, for my day job, I spend a lot of time recommending a lot of things to a lot of people for stuff. And sometimes it’s not doesn’t work out, and it’s hard. It is hard when you’re in that space to take that and I’m getting ready Better it just relaying. Oh, okay, sorry, that didn’t work out for you. Let’s try it again or let’s try something different. I think he can’t let that if you know the answer, he got some good answers. I think he can’t let that get get you down. I also don’t think you should be necessarily afraid in that space to the fear of that failure. Because, like people need to know. And I think most of the time it does work. You know, most of the time it’s successful, you’re going to get those, you’re going to get those this way. They don’t you know, they’re afraid. If they give the students the wrong answer, it’s going to come back and the students gonna make fun of them. Well, okay, so I had the wrong answer, like, sorry, people make mistakes. Let’s move on. Right? Yeah. You know, it. One of the things I used to work with, uh, I used to work with high schoolers till I found out I don’t really like to work with high schoolers. And, and that was actually that’s not true. I found out what i like it is when they’re really smart technology, high school students who are really motivated. Okay, that’s like shooting fish in a barrel, but it’s the Those are the kind of high schoolers I work with. But I was intimidated at times because I felt like oh, they’re gonna they’re gonna hold me accountable for this. Well, yeah, they are. But I always say you can’t intimidate apathy. So if I don’t care, like you can’t intimidate me. So I do think I wouldn’t Justin, I know where you’re going with that. But I do. I do think sometimes we gotta we gotta step out beyond that. And every situation is different. We got to step out beyond that. Chris, any other as we as we think of advice, just from I think it’s Cosmo. I think we got that clarification in the chat room. So thanks for putting that out there. Any other advice you’d give since I just spent a whole bunch of time qualifying that any, any advice you give for not just first time, but if we think about going into the fall, and if you could give a couple pieces of advice to educators going into the fall thinking and let’s just assume for a second, it’s going to be remote? What kind of advice would you give now that you know what you learned?

Chris Nesi  [1:00:55] 
Be authentic? You know, be be open, be trans parent with students be transparent with parents and your community members. Um, you know, and I can go to what I say on my podcast, you know, using technologies in difficult, just give it a try, you know, you can not be afraid to fail, you know, it’s okay to make mistakes. Again, if we’re going to ask our students to try and learn, you know, we see students make mistakes all the time. We have to also embrace that as part of our culture. And what we do, it’s going to make the experience that much better. And again, paramount to everything I’ve said, Remember, again, whatever you do, you’re working with other people. Treat people like people unless they’re an Android, but you never know because they want a minute.

Jim Collison  [1:01:46] 
Even then treat them like they’re a person don’t don’t,

Chris Nesi  [1:01:49] 
that’s what they want.

Jim Collison  [1:01:50] 
Don’t Don’t hurt the androids. Vint Cerf, one of the one of the founders of the internet. Good friend we I was talking to him about he’s he’s on the inside of Google and was talking about that. self driving cars. And let’s just say they’re kind of Android, you know that that would be the whole idea, right? They’d be autonomous. You get them and they drive you somewhere. And he said, the biggest problem isn’t the technology of driving the cars, places. It’s the way the humans treat the cars once they’re inside them. They try to destroy them. And it’s he gets it’s just the craziest thing about human nature. When we lose that lack of accountability. We get super destructive

Chris Nesi  [1:02:24] 
on some of these. We are messed up as a species. Let’s not

Jim Collison  [1:02:27] 
forget, it’s amazing where the dominant species on the planet, let’s just be really clear about that. Somebody’s like, oh, how did we get here? Like, how did this actually hadn’t actually happened? Chris, let’s make a quick shift in just a few minutes we have left with you. I want to think about if you think about the gadgets of the technology, you’ve been leaning on, any big changes for you have there been any gadgets are there been is there been a new technology or something that you’ve done more of, in technologies you kind of leaned into during over the last six months or so.

Chris Nesi  [1:02:59] 
I’m right in line with people who are doing more screencasts. And, you know, again, using something here, like stream yard with my students has gotten me more comfortable with live streaming. And, you know, I’ve always said I’ve got a face for radio. And, you know, just to be more comfortable. Yeah, you know, I’ve just gotten more comfortable and I’ve said for years, I would love to do more live streaming for the podcast or create video content. And this has put me in a position to really explore the tools and you know, make stuff that is visually appealing you know, paying for stream yard, I can do different things with graphics. So I’ve gotten back into some graphic design stuff that I enjoy doing. So I’ve gotten to sharpen that sword. So it’s Yeah, video content and you know, the planning and you know, just trying every which way to just get more anything out of students.

Jim Collison  [1:03:52] 
I have found which just which is kind of crazy is actually during this time I found I’m leaning more on my phone than I was before when I was at work. I don’t I don’t know why my screen time

Chris Nesi  [1:04:02] 
per week is the roof.

Jim Collison  [1:04:04] 
Yeah, why do you think that is? I mean, what what what are you watching? Or what are you doing more of on your phone? Maybe then you were doing before? Are you just connecting more with people on your phone? You wanna know the truth? Yeah. Tick Tock. Okay, I like it. No, no judgment. No, it’s huge and

Chris Nesi  [1:04:21] 
a lot of content. Yeah. But also, you know, a lot more Twitter, going to YouTube videos, you know, with my own two kids pulling up their content and watching content with them as I increase my screen time. I’m spending a lot more time here at this setup, you know, during the day and just connecting, so, just a lot of technology all around.

Jim Collison  [1:04:42] 
Yeah, well, I’ve um, I go out for a 45 or 50 minute walk with my daughter every day. It’s kind of since day one that has been the new thing we implemented just so we get out of the house type deal. So we go walk to the to the cemetery, she plays Pokemon Go in over the last I think it’s counted. I think Work Day 70 or something? We’re pretty close to that. I said that to her today I said, you know, we’ve done this every day for the last 70 days and she’s like, Are you kidding me? I’m like, Yeah, they start to stack up when you do them consistently right? But I’m I’m finding I’m getting better at working while I’m walking. So to not to kind of maximize that time. At first I was like, Okay, I need to get away from work in this I’m not going to work while I’m walking. But between you know, teams and email and websites and and you know, some of the things I can get to on my phone, I can’t do it all. I’m actually working more while I’m walking, which is okay with me. Some people be like, No, you need to separate that. Actually, no, I want to do I want this. I want to maximize this time. So that has been the increase on my phone is I’m actually figuring out I figured out more ways to get access to things. There’s things like VPN, I can’t get access to but,

Chris Nesi  [1:05:53] 
you know, for me, it’s yes, some screen time is up. But again, being an educator I’m actually able to find more time. And again, having two little kids. You know, I was outside today for an hour and a half playing wiffle ball on my front lawn with my kids. Yeah, and I don’t get that time, right, you know, when I’m at school from, you know, I leave the house normally, like, you know, six o’clock and right I don’t get home till you know for 430, right, you know, I can go to the bathroom whenever I want during the day, I don’t have to, you know, worry about leaving the room or the kids or, you know, not being attended to. So, there’s also those other, quote unquote perks to this, where I don’t I can assign stuff I can do my meetings, you know, we’re a little limited, at least where I’m at with how much they want us to try and do with our students. So I have a schedule, which creates more opportunity to do stuff with my family. So yeah, bike rides with the ball.

Jim Collison  [1:06:51] 
Yeah. And I do want to say we have we have a fair amount of health care workers and essential workers that listen to the show and So I said, Every time I’ve talked about these things, I always say, I understand not everybody got to be at home. You know, not everybody got that opportunity. Certainly, if you do if you are, this may not last forever, you should if you get to take advantage of this, I feel a little guilty sometimes to get to take advantage of this time with them, do it. You may not ever get this again. Like, you know, it’s been, it’s just been for me, it’s been really rewarding to spend this additional time with my daughter that I would have never gotten before. It just came at a good time. I have not wasted a second of that. No regrets or she was she would say no regrets. I don’t know where that came from. But How old is she? She’s 21. She’s still so okay, no, no, no regrets. And so, so, but not everybody got that chance. And so if you’re listening and you didn’t get that, I totally get that. I mean, I’ve said and I want to say thanks to those who continue to work and had to work and do all those things. What you do was important. So it’s always a little little asterisk on that on on some of those thoughts, havea from a from a well being perspective Chris as we think about his changed money habits for so well first of all, did your water bill go up? Have you looked at your What do you pay like on a monthly basis? Do you ever monitor your water bill because like you said, go to the bathroom and I think like, I’m an old guy, so I must go a lot more because my water bill and

Chris Nesi  [1:08:27] 
water bill has been fine. You know, I still shower, you know, once a day.

Jim Collison  [1:08:30] 
I know. But I don’t I don’t know what happened. The last you know, it’s actually gone up for us

Chris Nesi  [1:08:36] 
eating out or because I mean, I can go do pickup but you know, I don’t do delivery. So I’ll go out and pick up so maybe we’re trying to we’ll try to support the local restaurants a little bit more than normal. Yeah, you know, yeah. Yeah. It was once a week, maybe twice a week. Now.

Jim Collison  [1:08:52] 
We’re less we did last I took a little pay cut in the process. And so we’ve been trying to just economize through that to get the company through in So I’ve been trying to do less of that but we have been you know, we’ve been cooking more and I’ve actually we were taking more advantage of cooking tech kind of things like a meat thermometers and you know I’m just we’re grilling we’re grilling out more just from a trying to be more trying to be smarter about it cheaper cuts of meat and you know some of those things we had Mark Robertson on the show talking about you know, slow and slow and slow slow smoke cooking and you know he said the statement and he’s like you know Jim they didn’t come up with this because they were great cuts of meat. You know, your pork butt is not a great cut of meat right? You smoke it over slow sort of to break down, break it down. So now solving good Chris, thanks for for taking some time tonight to jump in here and kind of be a part of this. Any as you got, as you’re thinking about House of Ed Tech coming up, you have shows kind of plan for the next couple weeks that you could Could promo for the show.

Chris Nesi  [1:10:01] 
I’d like to say that I do, but I don’t. Okay, yeah,

Chris Nesi  [1:10:05] 
but there will be shows produced I have one that I’m working on for this week coming up to be released on Sunday and I’m still on my every on my fortnightly schedule. So we’ll see what comes you

Jim Collison  [1:10:18] 
have that scheduled just so you can say fortnightly?

Chris Nesi  [1:10:21] 
You know I use

Chris Nesi  [1:10:23] 
this might be one of the few times I’ve actually said that out loud. Normally I say every two weeks, but I try to be fancy for you. I

Jim Collison  [1:10:28] 
like it. I like I just I just know some guys like to say fortnightly. So if you want to catch Chris’s podcast House of Ed Tech, head over to Chris Nessie and he si.com and and you can you can pick up all the pastor’s you’re really good about advertising that thing on Twitter. Do you have that thing like in a Twitter jukebox, I see your ears.

Chris Nesi  [1:10:51] 
I have it from my my website is WordPress and I have a you know, retweet Old Post thing set up. So it just goes through and just puts out those posts now. Twitter spamming but you know, I think twice a day it shares two episodes that are older than 30 days.

Jim Collison  [1:11:06] 
And is that audio and video or just audio?

Chris Nesi  [1:11:08] 
Oh no, just just audio

Jim Collison  [1:11:10] 
just audio. Why not?

Chris Nesi  [1:11:12] 
Sometimes I livestream into my facebook group but yeah, I don’t I don’t publish the video.

Jim Collison  [1:11:16] 
Okay, why not?

Chris Nesi  [1:11:18] 
Ah, just another thing I’d have to do a lot of stuff that I do

Jim Collison  [1:11:24] 
that’s a good answer by the way that is a good editing audio is way easier than the time well, but if you don’t like we never I never edited a thing you know, I slice off the ends of this thing like a like a loaf of bread. And then I never make internal edits. Just what what you see is what you get dropping into od or get a transcript, you know, drop it into audacity, it levels it out. Still, still a couple hours worth of time, but I don’t

Chris Nesi  [1:11:50] 
I mean, you produce this show at a reasonable hour. There are some times I release a show on a Sunday, and I’ll record it at 10 o’clock at night on Saturday night. So Yeah, I wouldn’t be live streaming regularly enough to do that.

Jim Collison  [1:12:03] 
Well, you just picked up a new listener. So Andrew says, Thanks, I’ll subscribe. Thank you

Chris Nesi  [1:12:07] 
and anybody here who, who has a teacher in their life or an educator? You know, if you’re not a teacher, it might not be for you. But if there’s a teacher in your life, please share House of attack with them.

Jim Collison  [1:12:18] 
Yeah, no, it’s great, great podcast you do great work. Thanks for being out there. You’re in the you know, your however, whatever analogy we want to use for this year on the front lines or out, you know, whatever, whatever that is. Certainly, our education space is a battle. And it’s always been like dug like this COVID threw a curveball thrown at you guys that made things super interesting, but it’s not like before this, it wasn’t a challenge to be a teacher. Right.

Chris Nesi  [1:12:46] 
It’s just that you know what more people are experiencing the challenges of being teachers now. Yeah. Parents.

Jim Collison  [1:12:52] 
Well, and it’s just a you know, it’s just kind of like I said, it upset the applecart and we’ve got we’ve got some new things to kind of think about. It’s always been difficult, trust me. five kids, and I was very engaged in their education doesn’t mean I didn’t I never did a lick forum. I always supported the teachers more than it did my kids like whenever a student would go to a new, like parents like you, Jim, support the teachers. Listen, this is my mantra. So I would go in with the kids on there first, you know, we’d have the, whether they call it curriculum night or whatever, we we’d have this thing where we go in and, and I always tell the teachers with the student, they’re listening, I’d say, Listen, do you ever have any problems? I want you to call me I am always on your side. Always. And, and that worked out that worked out pretty well. The teachers liked us and in that usually, we had very few problems with that. But we were very engaged. We get to know the teachers. We we you know, we volunteered at the school we were part of it never hovered over my kids. I never favored them in in the process. I shouldn’t say never because it’s hard not to, but I didn’t I always but I appreciate what educators and Educators do and I think that’s the key is getting involved in what’s going on in the school and I think maybe a little less soccer and a little more education is not saying after school sports is bad. I’m not saying that but I think we just lost our focus a little bit. And, and maybe this will kind of recenter it as we as we kind of get back to can you stay around for a second as I close the show? Is that is that okay?

Jim Collison  [1:14:22] 
A couple reminders. One if you want to financially support the show, you can do that via Patreon, theaverageguy.TV/Patreon if you want to join us in our discord group. And that’s really where the most active group is today. Theaverageguy.tv/Discord. It’ll let you in. We’d love to have you we have a bunch of channels in there. Talk about a variety of things in their distributed computing Unraid Smart Home Hardware, home networking, gaming online deals, there’s even a beer and barbecue channel if you want to jump in on that. Again, that’s theaverageguy.TV/Discord. If you want to send me an email, Oh, don’t forget June 18. I should have done this at the beginning of the show, June 18. All feedback show and so what we’re looking for is questions and comments and we’re responses and funny stories and those kinds of things. If it doesn’t work, we won’t do it but June 18, all feedback send this to me Jim at the average guy.tv if you got just something, some feedback, it’s like I said feedback funny story, send it in to me would appreciate it. Well read those on the show do the whole show. June 18. With those as well.

Jim Collison  [1:15:18] 
Don’t forget the average guy TV platform both web and media hosting powered by Maple Grove Partners if you want to get secure reliable high speed hosting from people that you know you trust, that’s web and media hosting, plans start 10 bucks Christian is spot on what he’s doing. The average guy that TV is lightning fast. We want to thank Christian for sponsoring and for supporting Home Gadget Geeks for all 10 years that we’ve been live and on the air. Don’t forget you can download the app HomeGadgetGeeks.com And with that, we’ll remind everyone to join us back not next Thursday because I’m actually going to take Chris I’m taking a night off.

Chris Nesi  [1:15:55] 
Oh my goodness. I know.

Jim Collison  [1:15:59] 
I know. Yeah. We It’s our big Gala. It’s our big summit week. And there’s just a lot of things going on. So I’m gonna take, I’m gonna take it down week. So, two weeks we’re back. Mike is here. And I think so next week is the sixth and 12th and then the 18th. So I think Mike and I have a show. And then we have the 18th. And we have Dave McCabe back talking about how to get your lawn. So we’ve we’re transitioning on to new things. McCabe is back and we’re going to talk about summer one. It’s by that point, the heat will be here for most of us here in the United States. And we’re excited to have Dave back to talking about that as well. We are live every Thursday at 8pm Central nine Eastern, well, not every it’s just said I’m not going to be here next week. Let’s see most Thursdays 8pm Central nine Eastern out here at the data team live. Thanks. If you joined us live, stay around for a little bit of a post show. With that, we’ll say goodbye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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