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Announcer: Welcome to Inside Michigan Education, a weekly show featuring interviews with community leaders, school administrators, school business officials, and individuals, who are passionate about the future of Michigan education. And now, here is your host for Inside Michigan Education, Rob Huisingh.
Rob Huisingh: Welcome to Inside Michigan Education. Today we are joined in the Foxbright Podcast Studio by Mike Arnold.
Mike is the Digital Literacy Coordinator for REMC 3 & 9 and is the Host of "Ed Tech Podcasts" which are available via the new iTunes U portal for MI Learning.
Rob Huisingh: Welcome Mike! It's great to have you on the show.
Mike Arnold: Thanks Rob, it's pleasure to be here!
Rob Huisingh: Mike, just take a few minutes and tell us about your background and how do you get involved in technology?
Mike Arnold: Well, that's always a long convoluted story, so let me tell you about my educational background and then I will get to the point where I come to where I am at right now. I actually have a bachelor's degree in biology of all things and I got that from Alma College in 1993, and then one of the teaching alternative education for three years at Mt. Pleasant public schools. That was a real eye-opener, because I finally had an experience with kids who had real challenging situations and we had some folks who were very excited about using technology and I started getting into web design and working with the students on variety of small-scale projects.
After I moved to a different position with Alma public schools, I had the opportunity to explore web design a little bit more and do some video work which was really exciting and very rewarding, because video was where my passion really is. And an opportunity came up with the Saginaw Intermediate School District with the REMC department and it was just a very natural fit to work with teachers. It was a step in a different direction that I wanted to go and a new kind of challenge.
So I sort of come to technology via a back route. It wasn't ever something that was right on my horizon, but it's always something I have had passion for doing, and I have a very understanding boss. John Tanner is my Director and he gives me a lot of freedom to explore lots of different things. I remember he came to me probably three years ago and said, you really have to check out podcasting, and I think this is going to be a future resource that we are going to use at the REMC, and it really has been, something that teachers embrace and school districts are getting on board. They are just very excited to learn new pieces of technology, and I am glad to bring it to them.
Rob Huisingh: Mike, tell us a little bit about what is a REMC and what are the services that you provide to schools?
Mike Arnold: REMC stands for Regional Educational Media Center. There are 22 different agencies around the State, they are all chopped up into different counties and ISDs. In Saginaw, I serve all the schools in Saginaw. We service three districts in Midland, Bullock Creek, Sanford-Meridian and Coleman school districts, and a huge chunk of the northern part of the State, everything from Mackinaw City down 75 over to West Branch and back across the State minus Iosco County which is part of Bay-Arenac. But REMC is responsible for bringing cost-saving services to their member schools.
We bring cheap prices on paper and pencils, and anything you can find in a school, we can get it at a significantly reduced price, because we are part of a consortium.
We also bring to them digital media. In the past most people when they hear what a REMC is, they say video, and that's what we used to deliver is hard assets like video tapes and DVDs, but now we are getting into streaming media over the Internet using REMC as a repository for local content. Lots of different services that we provide, but our two flagship services have always been video and something called co-operative purchasing which is where they get their pencils and papers and glue and paint, and things like that.
Rob Huisingh: Now, tell us a little bit about the EdTech podcasts, so what are they?
Mike Arnold: Well, I have always had the inclination to make podcasts useful to teachers. It's really important I think that you keep two things in mind when you are making a podcast, and one is the content, and two is the duration.
Teachers do not have a lot of time. One of the things I hear when I work with staff is that I just don't have time to either make this stuff or go find the stuff, so I need it delivered to me in a quick, easy fashion.
The whole behind the EdTech podcasts is to give teachers content that they can use immediately and also in a very short amount of time.
So my podcasts are usually under seven minutes, so I can give them exactly information about say a video technique or may be a website that I have discovered, a Web 2.0 application, a conference that may be coming up or interview with someone.
It's one of those avenues where we want to make sure that teachers have the latest information in a timely fashion, but also something that fits their needs too. So this EdTech repository that's in iTunes U is very exciting, because it includes obviously with all the work that I have been putting in for the last couple of years, but it includes several other folks around the State that are doing some real innovative things and challenging teachers to push themselves and their students.
Rob Huisingh: So how do you assist classroom teachers and students with technology and podcasting?
Mike Arnold: Well, I was originally hired as what's called the Technology Training Supervisor and my title has since morphed into all sorts of different categories since then.
Let's see, what do I do? I visit with staff, I visit with teachers and professional development days, and for example just two weeks ago, I was in the thumb area doing podcasting with a number of teachers and the class was full, elementary through high school teachers from USA high school. And they were very excited to learn about this technique, because it's not something they have ever had before.
So my capacity is, one, to be in the classroom and also be in those professional development opportunities, but also to be a creator of content that teachers can use and students can learn from, to give students the opportunity to show them the tools and the resources and the technology that goes into making a podcast.
I worked with Freeland schools an awful lot. I have a very good friend and colleague up there Karen Williamson, and she has been a real advocate for using technology with her students since, she and I have spent a lot of time together creating podcasts, that's the students are creating, help them write scripts, walk them through the process of editing, inevitably they are going to make goofs and things like that so they need to know how to clean them up if somebody bumps the table. So they are more cognizant about the technology and the process that goes into doing a podcast and they have a greater appreciation for radio and TV and other production mediums.
Rob Huisingh: They respond well to it?
Mike Arnold: They do, they are very excited about it. It's not something that's part of their conventional curriculum. Whenever I walk in they always know that some things up, that something is going to be new.
Rob Huisingh: Something's new.
Mike Arnold: Exactly. Mr. Williamson is a great leader in technology as well, and again John has given me the freedom to really explore that with more districts.
As we have slowly evolved with podcasting our schools, I have discovered, and maybe you have too that it takes schools about three or five years to catch up with new technology. So we are starting to get into that 3 or 5-year window because podcasting has been around for a good amount of years. We have some districts, for example, Hemlock school districts has their own course where they actually do podcasting as a production medium.
I have some folks up in Bullock Creek that are doing that as well, more on a low scale, getting kids used to the technology, speaking classes that kind of thing. But I think in Freeland they are doing some of the more cutting edge activities, and as the newly appointed the theater drama teacher for that district I hope to have my students producing some old time radio shows from the 40's, and we hope to use some of those scripts to help us get kids more eloquent to work on their voice and their speech acting as well
Rob Huisingh: Any pros and cons of having students create their own podcasts?
Mike Arnold: Initially, they are very lost. Because it's new to them, they want to just jump headlong in, it's like giving a kid the keys to the car. They just want to slam on the gas and go as fast they can, but they don't understand the process and the steps to go through it. So it's my job, and working with the classroom teachers talk about the three steps to any production.
There is preproduction, then there is the actual production itself and then post production. I always tell them that the two most important parts that you are going to spend time on are Pre and Post, because the production like what we are doing right now is going to go by very quickly. In Pre you are always thinking about what your interview questions are, you're practicing, what you are going to say if you are the host. You are making sure the questions make sense, you are getting those questions out to whoever you are going to interview for example, and then in post-production, you are doing all the clean-up and the editing, making the ums, taking those out and the table bumps and the door slams because inevitably in a classroom you are going to have those sort of things.
So it's a real learning process and while they are very antsy to just jump headlong into it. They understand that once they go through it the first time, it's pretty raw and it's pretty rough. So when they learn the production part and they practice their writing then it starts to take on a new, more creative life. I have seen that evolve with for example this Hemlock School District where they started off very raw but they have developed a procedure and a process and they have some good teacher advocates that say we have to take our time and we have to go through this one step at a time, let's not jump the gun and their productions have gotten better and better and better all the time.
Rob Huisingh: Mike, I am curious about what your thoughts are. How do you see this medium changing the way K-12 teach and learn?
Mike Arnold: I think for the longest time, we have always viewed we the adults and teachers as the creators of content. We know what's right for the kids to learn, and I have always been a big advocate of turning kids loose on content. I think they have a very unique perspective on the world and in politics for example or community events, and they are parts of their lives that are different from when we were teenagers, and I think we need to get them involved in producing that content for other teams.
One of the things I think was fantastic was when Channel One was around. They did a great job of involving kids in that production process, and I think that the more you involve kids in that, more you give them a voice, the more they take ownership of it and they become part of the process, and then they become better critics too. As a Digital Literacy Coordinator that's one of my new titles. Again, I wore so many hats, it changes weekly it seems like.
Part of my job is to train kids to be 21st Century thinkers and learners, and that involves dragging the teachers along, sometimes kicking and screaming. It's new, it's challenging, it's frustrating, it's not something they are comfortable doing. So when I come into a classroom it's a relief for the teacher because I am the one that knows the process, but I want to turn the kids loose on it as well and the teachers appreciate that, the kids appreciate it. They get a chance to run with their ideas, and if they fall on their face they fall on their face, they learn from it.
I think when you work with teachers you have to be very careful about stepping on their toes. So I always approach it from how is this going to help your curriculum, how is it going to help your kids. I can make you look good. Everybody likes to look good and superintendents appreciate that as well. They want to see their kids move forward. Sometimes they just need a little help from the outside and that's where I came in.
Rob Huisingh: Any new projects you are working on or that you expect to look at?
Mike Arnold: I have ten thousand projects I am working on, at any one time it seems like -- I have been very delinquent in creating my own podcasts, so I am getting back into that. There is just so much stuff out there. I don't know if you have a chance to explore a lot of the Web 2.0 applications, but that's where my passion is just brimming and boiling with all sorts of great ideas because --
Rob Huisingh: Twitter
Mike Arnold: -- twitters, exactly. I have discovered probably five or six new things everyday and my boss Mr. Tanner help find new things for me to do as well, so I am never short of jobs, and there are an awful lot of things out there that kids need to get exposure to, but more importantly, teachers and school districts need to understand that Web 2.0 things are not as terrifying as you think they are.
There are some things out there that of course are going to be questionable, but it's my job and part of the other REMC directors and departments too, to vet some of those things. So I am always looking for new resources that are out there and I like to walk through them again in a very short amount of time to say this is what this resource does, for example give a plug out to Animoto and that's a fantastic resource, I just love it. When I show it to kids, it's simple, it's easy to use, teachers love it and in 30 seconds kids have created a little Flash movie that meets some kind of curricular focus. And that was one of my first podcasts and since then I have done more training in just that alone.
So there is an awful lot of stuff out there. It takes time in anything that you are really passionate about, it takes time to weed out. Do I need to put my energy into this or into that and what am I excited about? But also listening to teachers too, what do they need. Do they need to know more about digital streaming, do they need to know more about the PowerPoint, Word and those sort of things and I'll do those kind of podcasts as well, but my real enthusiasm is for Web 2.0 because that's where we need to move kids to.
Rob Huisingh: How do people find your podcasts in a couple of different ways?
Mike Arnold: You can either go to the REMC web page, our REMC which is www.remc3-9.org and we have a link on the left-hand side that says Radio REMC or REMC Podcast, I put them both out there that way.
You can also go to iTunes and just do a simple search for iTunes U or REMC 3/9, we host them there as well. There is an awful lot of different pod-catching software out there, so if your listeners are familiar with RSS feeds, they'll know exactly how to fill that out. But if you go to iTunes, you can search for hundreds and hundreds of different kinds of podcasts not just mine, though I like people to listen to mine.
Rob Huisingh: I know the feeling.
Mike Arnold: Yeah, and there are so many neat things out there, there is an awful lot of garbage too, but there are some really cool things out there. iTunes is a great resource.
Rob Huisingh: Well, Mike, I want to thank you for taking the time to be on our show, it's been a pleasure and I hope you'll join us again.
Mike Arnold: Well, thanks Rob, I appreciate the opportunity!
Rob Huisingh: If you like to learn more about EdTech Podcast or you have a question you would like to ask Mike, you can e-mail him directly at arnoldm@sisd.cc.
Information on REMC 3&9 as you heard before is also available online at www.remc3-9.org. Do you have a story about something of interest that concerns Michigan Education, well, if you do, please send us your thoughts, we're glad to hear from you. You can find us online at www.insidemieducation.com.
Until next week this is Rob Huisingh with Inside Michigan Education.
Announcer: This has been the Inside Michigan Education Podcast. Comments are welcome through our website at www.insidemieducation.com or by email to feedback@insidemieducation.com. We hope you have enjoyed the show.