In today's episode of the educational duct tape podcast. My guest is Amy Storer. A lead learning guide at friedtech and I certified Google and Microsoft educator and trainer together. We explore creative tools to replace Google jam board, including fig jam from Figma and Padlet sandbox, as well as the more robust Figma for EDU. We also dive into digital calming rooms, canvas magic media for generating custom visuals.
And Padlets new auto captioning feature for videos and audio that enhances accessibility for learners. If there's one sound that echoes through my house more than anything else, it's the word, mom. Our kids y'all from across the house with the most random questions. Where did you put my blue underwear? I'm kind of making that one up or have you seen my toothbrush? It's like, they think my wife's a human help desk.
I keep telling her she needs a digital system where the kids could submit requests and she could follow up when she's got time. While my wife's still waiting for that personal kid request system. Today's sponsor VIZOR. Has you covered when it comes to managing it issues in schools? Their help desk software, let students and staff submit issues through a self service portal emails, turn in and tickets, and you get all the details like serial numbers and warranties, right inside the ticket.
It even automates tasks like managing loaner devices from an educational duct tape listeners. There's a special deal at vizor.cloud/jake that's V I Z O r.cloud/jake. Along with that special. Pricing, you can get some awesome swag and a copy of my book, educational duct tape with VIZOR, managing it. Issues is easier than finding a missing tooth brush. Hey there duct tapers, whether you're a long time listener or tuning in for the very first time. Welcome to the show.
I'm Jake. I'm an educator from Ohio. And by joining us today, you're officially a duct taper. That means you're on board with the educational duct tape metaphor, where we use ed tech, like duct tape as a tool to solve problems, achieve goals and meet learning standards. Now, before we dive in, let's talk about the elephant in the room, or should I say the soccer field or the baseball field or the football field? It's been over a month since my last episode.
Between all the fall activities, the games, the practices, the play rehearsals, and putting hours into watching my beloved Cleveland guardians come so close. To going to the world series. I've been busy. So thanks for your patience. As I navigate the dad life and the day job and all of the things, and still try to show up here in the podcast feed. I'm excited to be back in front of the microphone today. And I hope to release episodes as frequently as possible in the future.
Speaking of updates, I've got something bittersweet to share. You might remember that interactive feature where I invited you. The Duct taper is to share your thoughts and insights for the podcast. Well, after a few episodes and a few attempts to make that work. I've decided to let that go. And honestly, I probably should have foreseen this educators are super busy and finding time for you to contribute to a podcast is no small feat.
So while we're saying goodbye to that segment, I want to thank everybody who participated in the few episodes where we tried that out. It was such a cool experiment. Matt said the silver lining is that I'll be able to focus on putting out more regular episodes like this one less waiting between releases and more of the content that you love. Or maybe at least tolerate. But don't worry, even though we won't have those episodes that are dedicated to your voices, I still do want to hear from you.
You can always connect with me on social media at Jake Miller, EDU, you could share with other duct tapers on social media using the hashtag EDU duct tape, or you can email me questions or send a quick message through SpeakPipe, which is linked in the show notes. I love hearing your thoughts and those connections are what make this community special. It's what makes Duct tapers, Duct tapers, right? It's connecting and talking about this stuff. All right.
Well that said let's get into today's episode. We've all heard the advice to just take baby steps and Hey, I get it. Small steps are good, but I think we're missing out on something when we use that phrase. Yes, baby steps are about moving slowly and carefully, but what do babies do when they walk? They fall a lot. And what did they do after they fall? They get back up unphased and keep toddling around. They're like little human boomerangs. They fall down, but then they're right back up.
Ready to go again? Eventually they're walking like prose. So next time you hear baby steps. Remember the second part falling down. Taking baby steps and implementing AI in your learning environment is a good strategy. But when you take those baby steps, don't just expect small progress from those baby steps expect to fall down too. And that's okay. When you do be ready to get back up and keep toddling because soon enough you'll be walking and leveraging AI confidently.
. The key is not just the size of the steps you take, but your ability to get back up after the falls you take as well. Speaking of babies stumbling while they learn to walk. Let's talk about another Rite of passage that kids go through as they grow up. It's one that our oldest kiddo in the Miller household is about to experience learning, to drive. Now, I don't know who originally said this, but there's a quote that goes something like learning to drive is more effortful than driving itself.
And boy, can I relate to that? The first time I tried driving my dad's pickup truck. I hit the brake and the gas pedal at the same time while trying to park in the driveway. And guess what? I plowed right into the exterior garage wall. That's right. Solid introduction. The driving right there. Needless to say, I was a bit hesitant to try again. And it took me months before I got back behind the wheel. But sooner or later, just like a toddler learning to walk.
I had to get back up and try again, because if I didn't, I was never going to learn. I had to take baby steps and that doesn't just mean starting with driving in and out of our long driveway, then moving up to driving around an abandoned parking lot, then driving on dead end roads. It also means when something went wrong, I had to get back up. Just like a baby does when they learn to walk. Now why is driving so hard at first? It's because learning to drive is effortful.
You're in that awkward stage of learning that one that requires the most effort. And a post I found on LinkedIn by Gail Somerton. And I hope I pronouncing her name. Right. Anyhow, I learned about the conscious competence model. The conscious competence model is a journey. When you start learning. You were in the conscious incompetence stage. This is where you're all too aware of what you don't know. It's frustrating. It's effortful.
And it's the part where most people want to throw in the towel because it takes a lot of effort. Remember how I said it took me months to start driving again. Yeah. I was living right there in the land of conscious and competence. I was convinced I never get it. Right. And I was embarrassed about my initial foray into driving. But then after enough practice, you hit conscious competence. You could drive, but it feels like there are a million things to keep track of.
You're thinking about your speed, the traffic light up ahead, the car on the next lane over and all of those traffic laws and norms you could drive, but it's definitely not automatic and it's still quite effortful. Eventually though, after more practice and some bumps along the way you reach unconscious competence. You're cruising along, not even thinking about it anymore. Driving becomes second nature so much so that sometimes you get home and realize you don't even remember part of their out.
Scary. Yeah, maybe, but it's also a sign that you've mastered the skill of driving. Your brain no longer needs to burn through fuel mental fuel to drive. You've automated it. And now it's not effortful it's effort less. Right. Learning how to drive is effortful. Driving pretty much effortless. Now, let's bring this back to something a bit more. 20, 24. AI and education. Learning to implement AI tools or teaching in the era of large language models is a lot like learning to drive.
At first it's overwhelming. And you're stuck in that conscious incompetence stage where everything feels confusing. And it seems like everyone around you understands AI better than you ever will. You feel incompetent with AI and you're conscious of it. You're on the conscious and competent stage the first time you try integrating an AI tool into your curriculum or class prep, you might feel like you've hit the garage wall.
Maybe you'll even want to give up for a few months, just like I did with that pickup truck. But if you take those baby steps and expect to fall, And you keep going. Eventually using AI tools will become second nature. It's just like driving. You'll go from thinking about every little input to effortlessly steering through the lesson plan, the grading or whatever task AI is helping you with. That's where the conscious competence model comes back.
You start with the frustration of conscious incompetence. But after enough practice, you'll find yourself in that zone of unconscious competence, where the tools just work for you. And you can focus on what really matters pedagogy and connecting with your learners rather than the AI tools. And you're now unconscious of those. You just competently use them. Don't believe me that this is possible. We'll think about Google drive or any other technology that gained traction a few decades ago.
Wow. Thinking about Google drive as old technology. Sure does make me feel ancient. But anyhow, back then many educators were completely overwhelmed. Hyper aware of their incompetence with Google drive. But over time they got more competent. And look at them now they're unconsciously competent with Google drive. Sharing a file is as easy and automatic as driving to Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte. You don't even have to think about it. But remember it all started with baby steps.
You had to go slow and you had to accidentally send a file link without changing the sharing settings first, and then somebody requested access and you're like, oops, sorry. I thought I shared it. And when that happened, you had to get back up. It worked with Google drive. And now it'll work with AI too. You have to trust that. And here's the good news. Google drive is helpful. Right. And so it was driving right. Things would be tough without Google drive and driving in our lives.
And soon you'll find that you'll appreciate AI just as much. That's because it's not here to replace you as an educator. It's here to amplify what you do best and make it easier for you. AI can handle those repetitive tasks, things like summarizing articles, differentiating resources, writing emails, or personalizing learning paths for students. So you have more time to focus on what's irreplaceable. The human connection between you and your learners.
Your ability to inspire mentor and guide students, can't be replicated by a machine. Think of AI as an assistant, not a replacement. It's a tool that helps you engage more deeply with students, not something that takes over the heart of what you do. And if you keep that in mind, the why between integrating AI, how it's going to help you, you'll be more willing to get up. When you fall. And here's the thing.
As you go through this learning process, as you experienced those falls, there's only one way you could truly fail. And that's by quitting. As Jen Sincero says in her book, you are a bad-ass that's the name of the book? Not what she said. I guess you said it too. As she said in the book, the only failure is quitting. Everything else is just gathering information.
So when you accidentally Ram your dad's pickup truck into the garage wall, When you feel like you're stuck in conscious incompetence and tempted to give up, remember that every stumble is part of the process. It's all just gathering information. Another step towards mastering AI or whatever else feels overwhelming right now. When I had that epically embarrassing driving experience, I gathered information, right. Gas pedal or brake pedal, never both Jake use one or the other.
You want to stop, use the brake. It wasn't a failure. It was gathering information. I will never do it again. Right. Taking baby steps means accepting the falls, but it also means getting back up. So take those baby steps, fall down, get back up and keep moving forward. Because sooner or later you'll be driving like a pro, whether it's on the road or in your AI powered classroom. Here's your challenge for today? Think about where you are in your learning process with AI implementation.
Are you just starting with AI, maybe feeling like you don't even know what you don't know. Or are you in that frustrating middle ground where nothing feels easy and progress seems slow. Wherever you are. I keep going, take those baby steps and remember. That the only failure is giving up. Because once you push through that hump, It won't just be baby steps anymore. You'll be running. And AI will be working for you. Effortlessly. Today's guest is Amy Storer.
Amy is a lead learning guide at friedtech. She is a Google and Microsoft certified educator and trainer, whom is known for her exceptional teaching skills, meaningful use of tech in education, and her love of connected classrooms. She inspires and pushes others to explore avenues outside traditional teaching methods, making learning engaging and sticky. You can find Amy online at TechAmyS, that's on X and on Instagram and on TikTok, or you can reach out to her at AmyS@fried.Tech.
You can learn more about her and the rest of the friedtech team on friedtechnology. com. All those links will be there for you in the show notes, but not just in the show notes here in the actual episode is the one and only Amy. Amy, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great. How are you?
I am doing great. So Amy and I saw each other. It's been a little over a year hanging out down in Mississippi. Good times down in Mississippi, right? Has it been a year or two years? Things are starting to blur together for me. It was a year ago.
I know. I want to say a year. Yeah, I have such a huge love of Mississippi educators, their food. we love getting to travel to Mississippi. Their educators are always so much fun to work with. And Mecca is the conference that we helped to put on and you were our keynote
twice down in
was fantastic.
it was a fun time down in Longs. Was it? Long Shore? No.
That's yeah, so that wasn't Mecca that must have been our that was like
No, Mississippi connects. It was Mississippi
connects Yes. Yep. it was a summer one Yep.
down at the South coast and then up in Jackson. Right. And I got to drive through Mississippi in between and tour the state. That's cool place. Remember that place? We went to dinner, saltine. Did you
Oh I was just in Mississippi this summer and I went there specifically to get their s'mores cake And they were sold out. I was so sad. But yeah, that's usually where I always go. That place and a couple of others. They just have great food. Yeah, it's fantastic.
want to go back. The other thing I, the thing I learned about Mississippi is the open container law. That was a little bit odd. That was a surprise to me. That was new. I was at, so we were that the first night we were down there, I had done the conference. I had done the keynote and then done a series of breakouts and then went back to my hotel and had a beer at the hotel. And I'm like, I'm right across from a beach. I should walk across to the beach.
And I'm like, I wonder, can I carry my drink across the street to the beach with me? Um, so I looked it up and I was like, Oh goodness. Yes. I can definitely do that. I can also take a drive with it, which I opted to not do
Wow, I did not know that.
apologies. If anybody out there is like driving their car. I'm just. to be right now and drinking a beer and they're
Let's not. Ha ha ha ha
be the one person doing that. There might not be anybody else for whom that is happening, but I agree. I love it there. I loved it, Mississippi. I want to go back and visit. I told my family, like you guys need to come there someday.
Yeah, that's a great area. Yep. Love it, too.
so Amy, first step before we get to some actual ed tech. So the first step actually is me to tell weird stories about hanging out in Mississippi and their open laws. The second step is to play a goofy game. And then the third step is some ed tech. So we're going to play a game of two truths and one lie. I'm sure you know how the rules to this work.
I don't have to explain them to you, but the one special thing for you to understand when on the educational duct tape podcast is that I will mess it up. So all of the rules are normal, except for the new rule where Jake screws up the game, because that happens every, every time. Okay. So are you ready with three statements for me?
I'm ready. Yes.
like, so Amy can see me on video right now. You guys can't, as I prompt her to read her things, I'm like stretching my arms
Getting ready.
up in my seat, like getting really ready for this. Okay, go ahead.
All right. My first concert was Metallica.
Okay.
My twin cousins, Scott and Spencer, were in the movie Necessary Roughness.
Okay.
I am an identical twin.
Okay. Hmm. First concert, Metallica. I could see you. Rocking out to some, some battery or some master of puppets or some enter Sam. And I believe that one. Okay. And then two cousins in the movie necessary roughness with Sinbad. I'd be jealous of them. They get to meet Sinbad, right. And Scott Bakula. I think look at my knowledge of the movie necessary roughness. And why am I not starting with Kathy Ireland? I had the biggest crush on Kathy Ireland. Um, Or twin sister.
I believe you do have a twin sister because I believe I've met her, but I'm not sure if you guys are twins or just sisters, cause your sister is also an ed tech rock star, right? Um, I'm guessing that your lie is. The movie necessary roughness.
You are incorrect.
no. Okay. So they were really in the movie necessary roughness.
They Were yep. If you remember the movie, no, they were the twins with the ice blonde hair. Omar and Igloff, I think were their names, or Igloff. Yeah, Swedish twins, maybe, but if you watch the movie, they're always kind of in the background, which you see them quite often in the movie, but they were actually in it and funny, story about that. They offered to bring me and my twin sister out to the set for our birthday
did
entire
did you get
we said, no, we're having a slumber party. Why would we, yep. Looking back, I'm like, Jason Bateman, Amy, what were you thinking?
Jason Bateman's in it too?
Yeah, yeah, Jason Bateman is like a young football player. I think he's the kicker, maybe. Yeah. It's such a cheesy movie, but I watch it every single year because it makes me think of the two of them.
that's so great. I need to rewatch the movie now to see them and to see Kathy Ireland. yeah, I'm going back to the 1990s Jake right now. Um, Okay. So you just told me that you have a twin sister. You said that in your answer there. Ha ha.
Oh, oops!
me. I know I'm actually playing the game, right? Amy, it's you who is a little bit lost there. Um, so your lie is your first, well, no, first, first, tell us about your sister cause she's awesome as well.
Yeah, my twin sister Dyann, she is a middle school counselor in the Willis, Texas area and she is a pioneer when it comes to counseling and ed tech. She's one of the first that you'll find out there that have used it to help, support her in the roles that she does as a counselor and with students. And she's just incredible. She's, she's a speaker as well. And she gets to do some work for friedtech also, but yeah, she's just fantastic.
That's cool. I want to say I met her at ISTE or at FETC once, but I could be, maybe I just met, maybe I just met you and I thought it was Dyann. I know.
maybe. I
I'll always remember in the very first season of the show, maybe it was the second season, uh, Sylvia Ductworth was on, you know, Sylvia Ductworth who speaks about sketchnoting and the book about sketchnoting. And she, her thing and two truths and one lie. One of the things was that her, she has two children or two pairs of children who are fraternal twins or something or another. I don't remember exactly what it was. And I got confused as to what twins meant. Sylvia had to teach me about it.
So now I know what I'm doing. She's like, Jake, do you not know what this means? And I'm like, I know I was just testing you, Sylvia, but then she taught me anyhow. Okay. So the lie is first concert was not Metallica. So what was your first concert?
sadly. So when people typically ask me, I will say it was Metallica, but if you're, if we're doing two truths and a lie, I will, I'll use it every time. My first official concert was Billy Ray Cyrus at the, I think it was the Houston rodeo. Achy breaky heart. Yeah. that was my very first one. My second. Official concert was Metallica and I've since seen them four times. so that's who I say is my first. But if we're being really, really truthful, it is Mr. Billy Ray Cyrus. And I,
of was
and I am not, yeah, I'm not, no hate to anybody who loves country music. It's not my jam. I'm a fan of, Hard Rock, so,
There is somebody right now in Mississippi driving in the car with an open beer next to them and a Billy
Billy Ray Cyrus
angle. It's a cassingle sitting next to that and they're so irritated. They're like, I'm done
Oh, right.
I'm turning off the podcast. sorry. Okay. I'm sorry. We're out of control. Um, was that at the height of his fame too?
You know, I would, I guess so, because that's when that song was out, Achy Breaky Heart, and the Houston Rodeo, they're pretty well known for bringing out some pretty, um, pretty good singers and stuff, and so I was there with, I guess, well, it's my mom with me maybe, Dyann for sure, for sure not my dad, that's not his jam either, um, yeah, uh, yeah, he was, you know, he was a big Sade fan, um,
Really? He was not a
I know. And he's, he is, uh, but he also loved like Fleetwood Mac. He had such great taste in music. He was a Burley. His name was Bear. worked, you know, he had an automotive shop that was next to our house. And you would never think when you would walk in as he's working on cars, he'd be listening to Sade, but that was, he loved her. And I, I still love her
Beautiful voice. Yeah. He loves those, those women with beautiful voices, I guess. Uh, uh, Fleetwood Mac too, Stevie Nicks. Um, so you want to know who my, my first concert was? My very
What?
Um, Wu Tang Clan
Nice.
Rage Against the Machine together.
Ugh. Together?
What a, what
Nice!
that was. Yes.
I think you and I may have the same taste in
Well, I was primarily there for Wu Tang Clan and they were fine. It was, it was neat. They were, yeah, there, there was a lot of, there was a lot of things happening on stage. Um, but then Rage came on and I was like, they were just a throw in bonus for me. And I didn't know them super well. And afterwards I was like, that was cool.
Yeah.
That was really, cause that was a, that was 90. 98, 97 or 98. So that was right at the height of rage against, against the machines. Kind of like right, right after a bulls on parade, kind of that kind of era. So that right at the height of their popularity, maybe not the height, maybe just maybe a couple of years after the very highest they were. Yeah. So it was good. Um, Okay, well, Amy, now you and I are going to be like Zack Della Rocha and Tom Morello or, Kirk Hammond?
No, what's the main guy's name? Uh,
Hamit
Hammett? And Lars? Alrick? You're Lars. Um,
I wanna be James Hetfield.
Hetfield. That's why, that's why I was confused. I was trying to think of what the lead singer's name is. Kirk is the guitar player. Okay. You're James Hetfield and I'm fine. I'll be Lars. Um, and we're going to actually, we're going to be a great duo, but not of rock music. We're going to make some ed tech, uh, amazingness. Are you in? Great. So I have a educational duct tape question for you.
And for anybody listening for the first time, just to hear us talk about Mississippi and Metallica, and Billy Ray Cyrus. Um, let me explain how this works for them. So an educational duct tape question is. When we start with what the teacher needs, right, what the teacher's goal is, or the teacher's need, or the teacher's problem, or the thing the teacher's trying to solve, and then we look at an educational technology tool for solving it, like duct tape.
So this one's a little bit different from usual because it's very timely. We're actually going to focus on a specific EdTech tool, which is an EdTech tool that you are about to take out of your repertoire because right around the time you're listening to this, that EdTech tool is going away. so my question for you, Amy, is what tool or strategy would you use to replace Google Jamboard? Now, before you answer. a couple of points I want to make for the listeners.
Number one, as of October 1st, depending on where you're listening to this, or when you're listening to this is about to happen or just happened as of October 1st, all jam boards are right only meaning you can access them, but you can't change them. and as of December 31st at the end of the year, they go away. so you have until 1231 to get rid of your Google jam boards. And the other thing I should point out is there are a number of possible answers here. Amy is going to provide one.
I'm going to provide one. so Amy, back to you, what tool or strategy would you use to replace Google Jamboard?
yeah, I was heartbroken when I heard that Jamboard was going away because it was a tool that I use. I didn't get to use it as a teacher in the classroom because I was an instructional coach. I think when that tool would come out maybe or maybe I just didn't know about it, but I used it all the time as a lead learning guide at friedtech, but my answer to that would be, FigJam, which is a part of the Figma family. it is one of my favorite online collaborative whiteboard tools that is out there.
I'm a huge fan of anything that saves teachers time, saves clicks, one stop shop. Everything is there that you need to engage the student. And so, FigJam is that tool, for me and I love using it and I learn something new about it every single week. it's just a great place for students and teachers and educators and anyone, human beings in general, to come together, to brainstorm, collaborate, share ideas, and it doesn't matter where you're located. Anybody can jump in. So I really love it.
Yeah, so I've got to be honest. I'm aware of figma. and I've gone to one presentation about Figjam , but I haven't used it myself aside from in that session. I've used Jamboard a lot, so I used it, as a, Professional development provider when it first came out and then I went back into the classroom and I use it in the classroom of students, and then I came back out of the classroom and I do a lot of professional development now and I use it a lot for professional development.
So I'm heartbroken to see it go away as well. So what I'm curious about is how did the features in Figjam compare to the features in Jamboard?
So FigJam is going to have everything that Jamboard had, and as my Coworker Courtney and workwife says, plus, plus, plus, plus. So it's everything that you could do with Jamboard, but so much more. And Jamboard was built on the idea of frames. Um, FigJam is a never ending collaborative whiteboard. Top to bottom, left to right, it never ends.
You can build what's called like sections and treat those as frames, but it is, like I said, a space for anyone to work together and there's so much you can do there. Like I said earlier, I'm a huge fan of anything that mimics a like a one stop shop or single tab learning, which means. All the learning can take place in one tab versus many. And as a teacher, educator, instructional coach, or leader, you can build all of these experiences in FigJam, and the students never have to leave it.
They can be right there in FigJam, all the learning takes place in FigJam. You can Pull things that you need like timers, add in YouTube videos, interactive Google Docs, Dice, Spinners, there's Connect Four, there's just so much you can add there.
I know we talked about my twin sister earlier, her and I collaborated together and we built a FigJam, um, Um, for a calming room, a digital or virtual calming So a place where students can go to find calm, whether that's videos, sketching, it's one of my favorite things that I built in there, alongside my sister. But, there's just so many ways that you can use it. And that's just one, one example for sure.
Yeah. So is that something that she shares publicly online? I'd love to put a link to it in the show notes if she does.
I can definitely share it with you. A link to even grab a copy of it or the template. she has built calming rooms in Google sites. She has built them in Wakelet, and this is just another tool that she's also utilized to show that you can, it can be built here as well. but I'll definitely share her information
for sure. And is the goal there that you could like a learner could go to that site, and find the things that they need to calm themselves down. Even if maybe the guidance counselor or the social worker or whoever mans that space, so to speak, isn't there, they have the stuff that they need right there.
Yeah. So definitely not a, not like a fix for everything, but it's where kiddos can go. Like she has different sections like, coloring pages, visual relaxation, cooking, and there's typically it's YouTube videos, but she's also got links to websites. this is Sand is one of, our favorites to go to, a website and then she has with Fig Jam because It's not just curating links to YouTube videos or sites. You can also add in interactive games for students to do with their peers or individually.
So it's a little like playground, a digital playground for them as well. It's not just for students too. She's also utilized it with teachers. I used to put up her, animal cams in my instructional coaching room. So when teachers walked in, they could see like, you know, otters swimming at the Monterey Bay Aquarium or, fish or whatever.
And, once again, not a fix for everything, but you could see some of the tension kind of release in their shoulders when they saw these different, things occurring. So it's just a great space to use, with students and teachers and even families.
Yeah. That's super cool. And so who's, who said it's jam board and more and more and more. Who's, who's, who's
Courtney. Watson.
Okay. And Courtney's
Watson,
Um, I need to have Courtney on the show as well. so I'm hearing that and what you're sharing right now, because you couldn't have done that or Dyann couldn't have done that in in Jamboard, right? I mean, there's no way
No.
can put links in there, I guess. I don't think you could even put like nice looking links. You just paste the actual text of a link in a Jamboard. So in a Jamboard, we could put text, sticky notes, pictures, shapes, and we have some pretty rudimentary pen that's, that's
Yeah, yeah, pretty much everything you can do in a jam. Yeah, that you can, and like I said, and then plus, plus, plus, and you don't have to start from scratch. If for people that are really used to Jamboard and the ease of it and how student friendly it was, when you first jump into FigJam, it may feel like so much, but you don't have to do all the things. I love that FigJam gives me all the things, but I can choose as an educator.
What things I want to use with students, but they have templates. So you don't have to necessarily start from scratch. You can find templates that are a lot of them created by educators for educators, for teachers to kind of dip their toes into the world of FigJam to get familiar with it and then start to create, on their own as well. So I love that there's a really great template library that they keep adding to, often.
That's cool. Okay. So, so yeah, so you mentioned timers, YouTube videos, Google docs, dice, spinners, connect four, you can't do any of that in jam board, you can do it in fig jam. So those are just some examples of some things you could do in there. do you, I don't know if you have it in front of you right now. Like what,
I do. Yeah.
what are some of the other things that, that we can add that we can't add in a jam board?
So one of my favorite, features are their widgets and plugins. They have a whole library of things you can add in like stickers. Of course, the templates like I talked about links, pictures, things like that, but they have widgets and plugins and the way that Courtney, once again, the way that she explains this is widgets are we. Those are things we are going to use together as a class and plugins would be like for the person just for you.
And so 1 of the widgets is a Polaroid camera that you can actually layer into the FigJam and it's an actual old school camera Polaroid. And when you click the red dot to take a picture, the photo will fly out just like it did. And the old school one, no having to shake necessary.
I'm doing the motion. That's
Cause it's one of those things that just engages students. and that experience. There's also a voice memo widget, which means the teacher could record their instructions and add it into a FigJam or students could use it to record their voice to share their learning. And like I said, we have yet to have to leave FigJam to go grab those two things. They're all built in to the platform itself, which makes it really nice.
Yeah. So it really is your one stop shop. I mean, so you're, you just shared audio, you shared video, you shared images. So you said with video, you could pull in from YouTube. Can you record video in there?
Um, I don't think so. coming soon.
coming soon. Well, Figma, Figma, add that to
ha ha ha.
and folks, if you're listening and you're like, Hey, I know there's a widget or a plugin for that. then tell us about it. Tell us about it. send in the, you know, the click the link in the show notes and send in a little voice memo and let us know. And so if you can embed links and things like that, you can go over to screencastify or loom or whatever
for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
video. And if Yeah. So, so really for the most part, truly one stop one stop shop because you could do so much and manage so many activities, a whole class period right in there. Um, Does each fig jam, so you said it's like an unlimited canvas and you could build frames into it. It doesn't have, it doesn't have like multiple pages, right? So if you wanted to use it repeatedly for multiple days in a row, you'd kind of, they'd just be different frames on the same canvas, right?
Yeah, there's pages now. You can add different pages into it. Yep.
Oh, and those are, those are completely separate, uh, canvas
Uh, they're in the same? file itself. Yeah, same file. Yep. Mm hmm.
Very cool. Okay. Yeah. See, I need to start playing with it more. Um, so tell me about, access, like who can access, is it free? Do students need accounts? That kind of stuff.
Absolutely free for teachers and students. And you just have to get in touch with, the FigJam crew, which they are fabulous. The entire team is wonderful. and they will help you With rostering those accounts, or getting you started with that, and I know a Google single sign on has been a thing with them for a while. Microsoft is brand new as of this summer, I believe.
teachers can also share a FigJam with students, like an open session that's open for 24 hours, which requires no login, so it just requires the kiddos to type in a name. so that's an option as well too, but yeah, absolutely free.
that 24 hour one, that's huge. That's really cool that, because for me as a professional development provider, that's one thing that I liked about Jamboard is that I can go, Just send out a link and I don't care if you're a Microsoft person or a Google person, or if you don't have an account with either of them, or if your school doesn't allow you to connect with people from other domains, it worked with Jamboard. And so it's good to know that FigJam has a, an option that's like that.
Okay. so the tool I'm going to share as my answer, which I think is losing currently because of some of that stuff you just shared, is Padlet Sandbox. So I'm a big Padlet fan. and they released recently, I think, I don't think it was a coincidence that the summer that Jamboard was announced to be going away that, Padlet announced Sandbox. I don't think that was a coincidence. but Padlet Sandbox is Very similar to FigJam.
The one main difference from FigJam is that Padlet Sandbox, is, frames, they don't call them frames. They call them, but it's like slides. It really is a lot like a slideshow. they call them cards. Right. So it's a, it's more of a slide deck with cards. Each card's that same rectangular shape that, you know, fits like a video size or on your computer screen.
so it doesn't have that unlimitedness, which I actually, I a little bit like, because I've been on some of these tools that are the infinite whiteboard canvas. And I do feel. People get lost on them. Sometimes you're like, you're down there in the corner and you feel like you need to come up this way, come up this way. We're up here posting. but I do think with fig jam, kids will get used to it for sure. They're kids,
Yeah. And they have real, a really cool like, menu of shortcut keys and like shift, like you can click on like one tiny little thing in the fig jam and do like shift two and you'll, it'll zoom in to that one particular spot, which is nice. 'cause I, yes. Got very lost in it.
Yeah. So,
initially.
yeah, so they, so FigJam has ways built in to make sure that doesn't become an issue. Padlet sandbox, it's not an issue because they're just frames, but you then lose the infiniteness of the canvas, but you could have as many cards as you want, I believe as many as you want, inside of your sandbox, similarly to FigJam, you could add just about anything you want into it and a Padlet sandbox, images, GIFs. links, you can link one slide, one card. They, it calls it to another cards.
They've got examples on their site of like, Jeopardy games or, who wants to be a millionaire games using a Padlet sandbox, you click on the answer and it either sends you to. the next question, or it sends you to a wrong answer screen. So just like the way you'd use Google slides, you know, or a lot like that,
could choose your adventure. Kind of cool. I
yeah, you could totally do choose your own adventure in there. it's got all the things Jamboard has, draw, sticky notes, text, a pen tool, a little like laser pointer tool that fades away after you do it, and shapes, which is pretty much all Jamboard has, but like. Fig jam. It's got a whole bunch of other things too. So I mentioned GIFs. I mentioned images. It's got everything that Padlet has in it regularly. like, you know, you click that button to add and you could record audio right there.
You could record video right there. You could take a picture. Take a camera or picture with your webcam right there. You could do a screencast right there, right inside of there. So truly that kind of one stop shop thing, you could pull in stuff from Google drive. You could do a poll, you could upload things, you could search for images. You could have it. Make an AI image for you. You can give it some text and have it record audio for you.
So it really can be a one stop shop for adding stuff into there. Similarly to how fig jam can have you, have you played with it at all yet,
haven't, we, we, yeah. We use, Padlet often, at friedtech for a lot of our pd. We just worked one, one yesterday, me and Courtney. but I have not played in their sandbox yet.
Yeah. And that's literally why they named it that, that, right. You heard yourself say that plate. I have not played in that sandbox yet. And That's why they named it that way. Cause you're building in there, but it's also a collaborative experience and it's meant to be. To hopefully be somewhat playful and fun inside of there. it really, it's the menu where you add stuff feels just like the menu in Padlet, right?
It's like the same button you click and you get all those options, which I think are all. Have all been super easy to use in Padlet, and they're super easy to use in a sandbox as well. so that's super cool. I think, the issue I alluded to already, is that FigJam is free for educators and students, and there's a limited free version of it appears for everybody. Padlet, that's not so much the case. if you have a basic. Free Padlet account.
You still have that limit, which for most people is three Padlets and a sandbox counts to that limit too. So you could, you can now have three Padlets or sandboxes total, you know, between the two of them. so you can access them for free. You just can't, you can't make unlimited ones for free. And then you can archive old ones and make new ones still counting with that limited three.
If you are on a paid version of Padlet, which I paid for using it for my PD, because I think it's just so useful, regular Padlet, it comes included in the paid account, no extra charge. So those people who have a teacher account or maybe a personal individual account or a school account to Padlet, you now have sandbox, no additional fee. Um, I, I used to, I used to get mad about tools adding.
Fees like, like when Padlet added fees, I don't know if they were called Padlet yet, or if they were called wallwisher, remember it was used to be called wall
Oh my gosh, yeah, what a blast to the past, Yeah.
They were wall wisher at first. I was reading something on their website that they started it as a plant, a place to wish like happy birthday to somebody. Like it was a wall for, it was a wall for wishes.
Yeah,
And I
that's
I think the creator created it to like wishes, like. I don't know, sister or something. I'm just making that up. happy birthday. And then it became called wall wisher and then it became called Padlet and somewhere in there, they started charging for it and that at the time I was among the people who were frustrated about it. but now my belief is. You know, sometimes you got to pay for things for them to be good things and to be secure things, and so that you're not the product.
And so there's not a whole bunch of, I don't know, a whole bunch of maybe nefarious things in there or cookies selling your data and things like that. and for advertising purposes. So I don't mind paying for things. I know for teachers, that could be tough, though. do you agree or do you feel that way about paying for things?
Yeah. I I also agree with you when it comes to the security aspect and all that you want to make sure whatever you're using is protecting you and your students. even if it's free, like, you want to make sure that it checks all those boxes and, and fig jam definitely does. They have Maya who works for the company is a great 1 to connect with when it comes to, you know, the FERPA COPPA, all those acronyms that I think I'm saying incorrectly. But, um, uh, she can, she can.
She can assure you that everything is, is good to
Yeah. The nice thing about FigJam is they are a tool from Figma who I've never actually used the actual Figma platform, but it's a more robust, design tool, graphic design tool, I believe. Okay.
we, like, I always call Figma, like, that's the, like, it's like the granddaddy of this whole, that's like the, you know, that's the big dog in this company. And they've been around for a while. Places like Spotify and Netflix utilize Figma, uh, design for like user interface and user experience, like for prototyping, things like that. and so not only can students use FigJam, which is the. online collaborative whiteboard.
They also have access to Figma for edu, which means students can start to play in this space for free. so like STEM classes, things like that, it really is a great tool to use with students who are getting into that, you know, prototyping and things like that. I wish that I knew enough about it to get in trouble and to dabble into it. one of these days I will, kind of explore a little bit further, but it seems pretty
Yeah, I, and I think that's that, like you wonder, like, or you should wonder why is this free? Right? And so there, you know, like they have a tool that's paying the bills, right? And that's the actual figma platform that Netflix ain't using it for free, right? Netflix
Yeah.
of money to use that. And so figma has the money to do good and to have fig jam up there for education. Also, you know, yeah. To be honest, when we think about like, if you're not paying, you might be in a way the product, because what's happening here is they want you to become comfortable and happy in their platform and want to then use Figma n maybe a future career or something and pay for it. And like, so that's, what's happening there. And so I think it's important, not that that's bad.
but for us to think about like, what's happening here, you know, like why is it, this is free. And. Jamboard is a perfect example of that because it was this small, tiny entity within the biggest company in the world, right? Google. and so it was so easy for them to just like, I mean, it was just such a tiny piece of their work. It was free because Google was able to pay the bills, but also it was, Dispensable because it was just a tiny, element of it. So we've got to think about those things.
so yeah, so I think fig jam is a great opportunity, a way to use it. I'm going to go check out, that digital calming room just to see an example of curating things, which I think I'm guessing a lot of people's gears are turning in their heads about, Oh, if she could curate a set of things for a calming room. What could I curate? Right? It could be the content for a lesson. It could be, study resources for a unit. It could be activities for when a kid is done with work early.
It could be a whole lot of things, right? So it could make for a really cool space, which again, you could not have done in Jamboard like that, which is not possible there. Similarly, Padlet sandbox could do those same things, but most likely with the price tag. So, that's going to present an issue for a lot of teachers. I will say two things that I love about Padlet sandbox. number one, they have breakout links.
So let's say I have a class of 20 kids and I want them to separate into five groups of four. I would make my Padlet sandbox have five, five identical slides, one for each group of four. And then each of those slides has an individual breakout link that if I right click on it and get the breakout link, I could send it to just those kids and that's the only slide they could see. But I see them all together.
Okay.
like, imagine a slide show, like we've all done this in Google slides where you're like group one, you're on slide one group two, you're on side two, except now in this breakout link form, they can't see the other group slides, but you see them all in one place. That's really
Yeah, I think it's pretty cool.
neat feature in there. and the other feature that I'm excited about in there, are that the slides individually have their own sharing settings, so I can go, you could write on this slide.
Mm hmm.
you can't write on this slide, right? So there's some really precise, editing options. So I'm excited to play more with both of them. I'm excited to use both of them out, see what people think of them. I'm excited to hear what the duct tapers think of the two of them, which one they prefer. I'm excited to hear the other ones they mentioned, cause we clearly haven't. Haven't shared all of them. Um, but yeah, yeah. I think that we are going to find that even though we're sad, the Jamboard is gone,
hmm.
going to have some really awesome things to use, in its,
And I know that the listeners won't hear this, like, this week, but there is a big update happening
to which one,
this week to FigJam.
Oh no, you can't. You can't say it, but I should link it in the show notes. Is that right?
I think Thursday they're gonna release it.
There we're recording on a Wednesday. And so you're saying tomorrow, I'm going to
Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. May. Yeah, I think. I think it's tomorrow.
I mean, we, if you know what this is, Amy, we could just pretend it's Friday right now. Nobody will know. I'm just teasing. You have to say it. Amy is clearly bound by a contract right now with a non, an ND, an NDA. And on disclosure agreement,
Yeah. With Fig Jam. Yeah.
that NDA is acting up. They're going to hear this and go like Bravo, Amy. Good job. before we wrap up anything you wanted to throw in about these two tools, anything we missed, anything that is like, Oh, I forgot to say anything like that.
No, I will just say that. As an educator, the cool thing is you get to choose what works best for you and your students. And some of you may love FigJam and some may love something else. And that's the beauty in what we do is that we have that autonomy to choose what we know is going to best support our learners. I know that if I was still in the classroom, if I was still instructional coaching, FigJam would be the tool. That I would use every week, every day, with students and teachers.
and like I said, for some, that may be something different and that is okay. that's the great thing about what we do as educators is we get to choose what works best for us and it looks different for everybody and that's okay.
Yeah, 100%. And that's what I like to remind folks of. And that's why we had these conversations. If there was one answer, there wouldn't need to be this podcast, right? Like, because we would all just, I would just say like, here's the answer. And then like the pocket, this is what you
Here's what you have to use.
don't even like, you don't even hear us talk about it. Cause you're using it. I don't need to convince you. but instead there's a bunch of different options. and they get to choose. That's a really powerful point that you would like. There's not nobody won this discussion between me and you, Amy, because either one could be the right answer. And there are tools we didn't say that could be the right answer so thanks for that point. and thanks for joining me today. That was a lot of
yeah, thank you. Yeah, I had fun too.
Wow. What an insightful conversation with Amy. I always appreciate her passion for innovative teaching and how she supports teachers as they learn about new technologies. I especially enjoyed comparing fig jam and Padlet sandbox. I had been worried about the vacuum left behind by Google jam board. And I thought there was going to be nothing that was that straightforward and easy and adaptable. And I don't know, just such a perfect collaboration tool out there.
But after this conversation with Amy, I'm feeling pretty good about both of these tools and I'm not sure if you can go wrong with either of them. I think they're both pretty great. so now I'm not so worried and I'm eager to try them out more with learners and with, and professional developments as well. So I hope you found as much value in this conversation as I did. Before we sign off, let's take a quick look at some ed tech news. That's caught my attention.
First canvas new and improved Canva magic media tool. Now lets you generate images, icons, stickers, and illustrations. Just by describing what you need. It's a quick and easy way to bring your ideas to life. I don't even want to tell you how long it took me to design the educational duct tape podcast, logo and artwork back when I started. But nowadays I could just ask Canva magic media to make a logo that combines a roll of duct tape, a wifi signal, and the colors, orange and blue.
And I bet it did make an even better logo than I did and do it in a fraction of the time. I'm not going to try. Because I'm afraid that I'll find out that I'm right. And I'm going to be so disappointed that I put literally 12 hours into the original logo or whatever. so I don't even want to find out. Moving on. Padlet now automatically captions videos and audio uploads, making your content and Padlet more accessible to all.
So whether you're in a noisy environment or supporting non-native English speakers or supporting hard of hearing learners, this feature ensures everyone can follow along. Now I should point out while automated captions are always super convenient because it's done automatically and quickly. They're rarely 100% accurate. And at this point, they haven't added the ability to edit those captions. At least not that I'm aware of.
Hopefully that comes later, but still, this is a great addition and improves accessibility and it makes the learning experience more equitable. If you're using Padlet with videos or audio. Well, just like how my wife eventually helps my kids find their blue underwear or their toothbrush. It's time to find the end of this episode. She's still waiting for that magical kid requests system.
But luckily today's sponsor visor makes managing it issues in schools, easy with features like a self-service portal and automated tasks. Students never need to yell. Tech person. For a special pricing and some awesome swag head over to visor.cloud/jake that's V I Z O r.cloud/jake. Trust me, visor makes managing Chromebooks look easier than my wife makes managing our kids' stuff.