Edtech Insiders

Measuring Educator Confidence with Francie Alexander of HMH

September 26, 2022 Alex Sarlin Season 3 Episode 17
Edtech Insiders
Measuring Educator Confidence with Francie Alexander of HMH
Show Notes Transcript

Francie Alexander is Chief Research Officer at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) and an industry leader in the fields of Early Childhood Education, Literacy, and Intensive Intervention for striving reading and math students. Francie provides inspirational and informative leadership on topics from early and adolescent learning to brain development and its influence on childhood and teenage learning and is focused on Future Ready Readers and the future of learning. She works closely to listen to and learn from key school districts across the U.S. in order to lead HMH's efficacy efforts.

Francie serves on the board of Text Project and formerly Los Angeles Universal Pre-K (LAUP). She served for almost 10 years on the PBS Next Generation Media Advisory Board. She was previously chief academic officer for Scholastic.

Additionally, Francie has authored more than 50 books for children, including Curious George Readers.

Prior to her time at HMH, Francie held key positions in both state and federal education agencies, including serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education's research branch, where she led Department-sponsored standards efforts and campaigns in support of libraries and the arts. 

HMH is an education technology company and a leading provider of K–12 core, supplemental, intervention, and professional learning solutions.

Recommended Resources
Shaped, blog by HMH
Educator Confidence Report by HMH

Alexander Sarlin:

Welcome to Season Two of edtech insiders, where we talk to the most interesting thought leaders, founders, entrepreneurs, educators and investors driving the future of education technology. I'm your host Alex Sarlin, an edtech veteran with over 10 years of experience at top tech companies. Francie Alexander is the Chief Research Officer at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Hmh, an industry leader in the fields of early childhood education, literacy, and intensive intervention for striving, reading and math students. Francie provides inspirational, informative leadership's on topics from early and adolescent learning to brain development, and its influence on childhood and teenage learning, and she's focused on future ready readers and the future of learning. She also works closely to listen to and learn from key school districts across the US in order to lead Hmh his advocacy efforts. Francie serves on the board of text project and formerly Los Angeles universal pre K. She served for almost 10 years on the PBS next generation media advisory board and was previously the chief academic officer for Scholastic. She authored more than 50 books for children, including Curious George readers. And prior to her time at Hmh. Francie held key positions in both state and federal education agencies, including as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the US Department of Education Research Branch, where she led department sponsored standards efforts and campaigns in support of libraries and the arts. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Hmh is an education technology company and a leading provider of K 12 core supplemental intervention and professional learning solutions. As an additional treat in this conversation will also be joined by Darlene Freeman, who is my personal kindergarten and first grade teacher and a longtime family friend, as well as a children's media consultant for over 20 years, a veteran teacher and the founder of biting, writing an individualized, innovative after school creative writing program for kids in grades to end up. Francie Alexander, welcome to Ed Tech insiders.

Francie Alexander:

Thank you so much. And I'm pleased to be here and also to share the results of this survey that's just out.

Alexander Sarlin:

Yeah, we're gonna dive into the survey, I'm really excited that there's some really interesting findings in there related to the EdTech world. It's great to reconnect with you, we worked briefly together in my time at Scholastic, and you have such an illustrious career in education research in literacy and reading education. But before we get started, give us a little overview and timeline of your work at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and your experience in the education and ad tech field.

Francie Alexander:

Sure, and I'm the Chief Research Officer at Hmh. And I always say that all research has to be grounded in the classroom. And I've taught from kindergarten through college. And I think that's why Hmh is pleased to have me in this role, because the one thing that the research shows us that there's no dispute or debate, the teacher is the most important and impactful influencer in education. And so that's why we conduct this service. We want to give voice to the people who are doing this important work. And then while teaching, it led to a deep interest in learning and studying learning how it can have more influence on students. And because my first job was as a first grade teacher, I also have a real literacy concern. And I know when I started teaching, the consultant from the big urban districts that you have the most important job in your school, because everything is going to happen after they learn to read in first grade. So by the way, you better be sure that that happens. So I have been studying literacy throughout my career. And one of the things that I have been working on focused on at Hmh is on the science of reading, and how we can bring the science art together to ensure that indeed all children learn to read. And to are that and one of the things that's been the most fun. I always say if you were five years old, you would recognize my name, otherwise, probably not. But you read for the first time and the first book you read on your own could have been something that I wrote because I literally have millions of books in print, because the early readers get published in as you know, classroom sets with hundreds of companies. So it gets the numbers pretty quickly. And whenever I get a note from a parent or a child who said, I read your book, it really does something deep and meaningful.

Alexander Sarlin:

Yeah, so you've written over 50 children's books and these are yes, I have phonics and early readers that are published again and again and again in millions of copies.

Francie Alexander:

That's right. They never go out of style.

Alexander Sarlin:

Everybody has to learn to read every new generation.

Francie Alexander:

Why do I say that? One of the ones that has become a classic in some places is, let's go on to museum haunt. And because it takes the idea of going somewhere and learning, another one is called a, you can see the phonics in dots, dots, dots. And so it takes major pieces of artwork that have dots in them. So think Lichtenstein, think about the National Museum in Washington and the giraffe made out of bottle caps, circles. And my whole philosophy about those books is yes, they must be decodable. So kids can learn to read. But I want them to be more like a toots, that if you're on the piano, and etudes sounds good, even though you're just learning the notes, I want the books to be good, but also worthy instructionally. So I say I want them to learn to read and love to read while they're doing it. And my most recent books are curious, George, we take the adventures of Curious George and turn them into readers. So it's almost immediate success for these kids, when they start read. That's right to know, you can read something yourself, you get the idea of it, you get the love it. It's like riding a bike, maybe with a training limb that first, but you have the feels so then the training wheels can come off, and you can just go. And one thing I feel that's really important about what you just said is that when a kid thinks he's reading, he begins to read, you know what it's like, if you feel like you're actually I know my own classroom, kids have asked, I said to them to your reading, you know, if they read the word I or whatever it is, I said you're reading the kids say I am and then they become read. And what I think is one of the big stories in this and related to our survey is the role for technology and all of this now, because kids need so much practice. And I don't think there's an environment that's more patient than a technological one, you can do things over and over again. And so I think observations like that have led to some of the results we're seeing on our survey,

Alexander Sarlin:

I want to dive into the EdTech side of Hmh. It's so interesting. So you know, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Hmh, one of the largest education publishers, but it's really evolved. And it started in 1832. So we're almost a 200 year old company. But it's really evolved almost entirely into an education technology company. There's dozens of edtech products, the into reading into math into science into social studies, online growth measures, I'd love to hear you talk a little bit about how Hmh thinks about Ed Tech, and how your role is Research Officer helps evolve their thinking about the technology side of education.

Francie Alexander:

Well, I think we're really seeing for the first time, Future Ready schools, some future ready students. And we know that the world they are in and going into our increasingly, whatever we do is technologically enabled. So learning technologically, is just like reading. It's a basic skill for the future. It's how you learn. It's how you interact. So at Hmh, we talk about it, this digital first environment, as connecting all of the things you talked about Alex, the assessment, the instructional resources, professional development, connecting all of those things in service, and support of student learning. But we talk about the environment because the increasing nature of being in a high tech environment, we want to be sure in concert is a high touch. So when we put those two elements together, this high tech and we believe this is something that we bring special to this enterprise, that we're well aware of the importance of the teacher and the importance of educators the importance of connecting homes and schools. So in that high touch, then we look at the technology. How does this technology let teachers do what teachers do? Ben has the building the relationships, that giving you very specific feedback on how you're reading on motivating you putting the right book in your hands when it's your first book that you need, like Darlene was given all of these things. So how do we marry in this environment, high tech and high touch and how do we connect and bring coherence to the whole enterprise. So it's not a dab of this and a little of this. But it's things work together platforms where you can take off from, from the metaphorically and literally, metaphorically, like, platform time for you. But then, of course, literally what we know it means in an ad tech atmosphere. You know, I'm listening to what you say, the question I have, I also taught from kindergarten through college. But I spent most of my life with early childhood kids. It's a great concern of mine, I guess, throughout the grades, in terms of how to integrate a smoothly integrate technology into the classroom, so that it's not just an extra thing, how can it be most effectively used, I see how we can be very effective in terms of teacher training, and evaluation, and so on. You don't want the kids to be robots, I think this is what's happening now. Just go off a little bit. I just see classrooms right now in very scripted environments. And I'm wondering how technology can be integrated into the classroom in a way that really enhances education. And not just evaluation. I think that's so important. And that gets to the balance of high tech and high touch. And so when thinking about that balance between high tech and high touch, I think my experience has been from the no computer classroom, to the one computer classroom, to the cart, where laptops came in on a cart to the lab, like how exciting, it's time for you to go to the lab. Now, it's an intrical and integrated part of the environment. So just like when those first days of school, and you talk about those positive academic behaviors, how you transition, how you use your tools, connecting kids in this one on one environment, to their technology, being at whatever format is appropriate for their age and in their school environment. And just like we talked about kids being born into a world of technology, but you know what, that's an important job for educators, they're not born knowing how to use it. So that's where we come in, where we come in, in terms of if you're using supported reading, and just like, if they're using a paper text, and you look at the middle of the book, and you do the five finger tests, I missed five words, that might be a little bit hard for you. If you're reading a text online, and you're clicking on every word, to get it right to you, maybe this passage would be a better one for you. So learning how to learn with these tools is so powerful, and important. So they're introduced to their tools of learning, they know when it's time, and then they also know time when I need you to join the group. And I need you to, we're having a conversation. And here are some of the ways that we have a conversation. Here's how we have a conversation online and you participate. Here's how you put your hand up or use whatever the symbol is. But here's what we do in person, when it's your time. So and that's what school is about school is about learning how to learn, and interact with others. I know when I would talk to my own kids it was learn something today and be a friend to someone. And that's still what school is, start from there, learn something new, be a friend. And you'll do well whatever your environment, but we all know to be a future ready person, you need to know how to manage a technological environment. You need to know how to use a variety of technologies. And the one to one era we are finally and and it is accelerated by the major challenge we all face and still continue to face aspects or echoes in this country is something that we can make as a positive adjustment and moving forward.

Alexander Sarlin:

I love this idea of high tech meets high touch and that technology is integrated in so many ways. And you've mentioned the 2022 educator confidence report that just came out from Hmh where you've asked all these educators about you know what's going on in the classroom and how things are actually going and I wanted to unpack some of the results with you because they're really eye opening And the first question is, confidence in the education profession, according to this report is really at a at an all time low, as long as the report has been done in 2020. You it was at 49%. And now 2022, we're saying only 40% of educators really have confidence in the education profession. What do you make of that Francie? And how do you think this is affecting teacher retention, classroom morale, and everything else that has to happen in a school,

Francie Alexander:

we think of our educators confidence index, we rather call it a Jones of education, several factors go in. And it's interesting, you mentioned, as we look at high tech, and we look at high touch the high tech parts of the survey, the educators displayed a lot of confidence in the high touch areas, how they believe the profession is perceived by others, which influences what your own perception of the profession is. And so if you look at where that 49 was a high point, that was right after we literally had the whole dream moved to what was called a remote and distance learning, learning. And let me say later, I don't like those terms. But at the time, there was a sense that we've got this, we did something really amazing. In a mentor of ours, we have school again, and we are in touch with our students and their families again. And if you recall, late night comics who are watching their children at home learning, saying, Oh, I think teachers should make $7 million a day. Overnight, lot things were occurring and, and I shared our lane and myself and people who've taught more than a day, it's like, yes. And then if you look at them the next year, last year, if there was a dip, and I think there was the fits and starts just schooling. And though that we don't unpack the reasons we report, we live in the same world, everyone else does. And be seen our perception of the fits and starts and Bennett this all time low. We clearly and they every time they share for back to school is an organization that does a back to school survey, schools generally get high marks, and well, they haven't tanked by any means they're dipping down for really the first time. So all of these external factors, I believe, have gone into that one. And later in the survey 40% of the teachers when talking about and you mentioned the retention work 40% of the teachers, and it was the largest response to the other fields in this particular question said, we'd like you to trust our experience, it was the number one thing in terms of things that would make it all better, so to speak. So I think those are some of the hints at the retention issue. I'd like to comment a little bit about the remote lessons that went on during the pandemic. I mean, the teachers really were heroes in terms of the snap of a minute, they had to sit in front of a computer and address 30 kids in a creative way, some of whom knew nothing about how to do this remote stuff, I know I would have been dead in a situation like this. And I feel that it's really important to train teachers or possibly have a whole separate mock curriculum, and how to teach remotely because the same thing would happen again. And I think teachers are at a loss, particularly early childhood teachers. I think that ideally, all classrooms, it's my own feeling that all classrooms through high school should be modeled on an early childhood classroom with the different activity centers and so on, and blah, blah, blah, blah. But with that said, I think it would be interesting to develop some kind of technology, specifically for zoning in an early childhood education because I feel that that would have been the most difficult to do a kindergarten class, first grade class remotely. And all the wonderful hands on experiences that these kids would miss. How do we create something like that in technology? If it's all remote again, and it Hmh to get at the teacher training part of it that you mentioned pre service in service. Our professional services now can be delivered entirely online. So teachers are learning in the environment that they're teaching at least part of their day and in some cases still, some teachers are entirely remote. Some are in hybrid situation, but all have the presence of technology in their classroom. So our professional services are delivered. So we model in the delivery. And then another thing that at Hmh that we're really excited about, we have a 15,000 Teachers strong Facebook group. And they are supporting each other, answering their questions, coming up with examples and tools and usages. So if they're using our Inter reading program, they say when using this tool is particularly helpful. We need more practice go here. So they're unpacking things for each other. And one of international surveys show teachers in our country have less opportunity to collaborate than other teachers, I think one of the powerful things that's happened and is being revealed in our survey, is the teachers are feeling more connection, because they can do this online collaboration. So things that they have had time for in the school day, they're able to make time for. And indeed, I'm hoping policymakers will look at this, and indeed look at the day a bit differently and provide more time for online collaboration. And another advantage of online collaboration is those of us who have moved from working mostly in an office either hybrid or working from home, do fine, we can interact with our families more around our work. And so teachers are appreciating having professional services that can be delivered on their schedule and timing, because they already put in incredible amounts of time, on the school site and in front of their students.

Alexander Sarlin:

These are great points. And I think that the idea of community of practice and teachers supporting each other through this very intense time for the education, world remote delivery of professional development, which opens up everybody's time and is much more convenient, as well as all the research that has been done over the last decades about what does work in K 12. Online education, I think is being resurfaced now and sort of taken a lot more seriously, or people need it right now. Because of all the changes that have happened. There's a really interesting new report from North Carolina State this week about basically a summary of 20 years of K 12 online teaching techniques. And why are they doing that right now, because everybody needs to know how to do this online and what it actually looks like. And so I think your role as the Chief Research Officer is especially important, because there's so much research that teachers haven't had to access when they net weren't teaching remotely. And now they really are.

Francie Alexander:

That's right. And there are there isn't a legacy of good scientific research on this, what works. And so now we're looking at what works. And teachers are then bringing their own special sauce to it. As they learn more about what works in terms of what are the things in terms of repetition, and how and giving feedback and all of these things. One of the things, our Hmh teachers corner community, they talk about when they are working remotely. And that's what we're moving away from the term remote or distance, we're talking about it just in the digital environment. We're in the digital environment right now. Now, we're in her classroom, and you know, talking about where we are the different if you would, modes of behavior. And in those particular settings, and teachers are becoming able to teach in these multiple environments, strengthening their own teaching practice, as well as becoming more efficacious as teachers and seen better results with their students. So these are incredible new tools. There's research that tells us how to use them best. And I still think from my first day and one of my driving forces is let's take full advantage and harness the power of technology. So we can let teachers do what teachers are asked, in maths that in the moment, when I know somebody needs something academically, or socially, or physically, that nobody else in a two second moment, can respond to, but I can and if I don't have to spend all my out of class hours marking things in grade books, but I'm have reports ready for me. And when we used to do group work, and I'd be teaching my small group and then I provided group work and pencil and paper to the other students, then all that had to be collected and taken home. And then sometimes I would see somebody didn't do anything. There was Just kind of scribble or whatever. And I didn't know that till later. Now it's, it's 10 o'clock, I'm teaching a small group, face to face. And I know what everybody else is doing. I know what you're doing, because I have you on a program, I'm going to get a report of it after I'll be able to tell you tomorrow, that is so powerful in terms of, again, letting teachers do what teachers do best. And one of the things that Hmph we're really working hard on, is making all of the instructional resources that we have talked to each other unified platform, and be sure that we're being consistent with what I'm talking to you about in the core class, he has reinforced in the supplemental materials and provide it's not a little bit of this are a little bit of that. But I'm bringing curriculum coherence to the whole enterprise of education. I think you're a comment about changing the mindset is totally key, you just changed my mind set incredibly, you know, rather than thinking, well, this is technology, and now we're gonna do hands on stuff in the classroom. It's all together. This is a new mindset. And I think this is key to making technology effective in the classroom, and helpful to the teacher. You're right, there's a seamlessness about it, there might have been an introduction about the tools you're going to do at the math center, hands on, and you've seen a demonstration. And then you're going to know what you're supposed to do when you go to that learning center or that space. And you know, sometimes it's also safer, because it teaching mathematics to little ones, and to so that they understand concepts, gluing those beans to sticks, and then not being sure at the end of the day, when there should have been 10. And there were nine, those are the kinds of manipulatives that actually I'm finding more effective online, I can still get it conceptually. And then I am finding those things that are safe, and are the things that are best for hands on all the things we're sorting out, which makes it an incredibly great time to be a teacher, and why it concerns me back to analytics, your question about retention, it concerns me when I think of some of my all we're gonna think of my children's, the in the families, teachers, and I think ours collectively thinking of leaving this profession at a time when I believe we have more powerful tools than ever more powerful opportunities for our own learning, growth and development. But because of other environmental factors may be leaving, I want to be sure that we do all we can to support both the high tech and the high touch as a mechanism for supporting our teachers. And this survey is anonymous. Nobody knows that it comes from Hmh. We work with scientific partners on the data gathering MDR. With messaging partners market cast to keep if you would remove, remove, because we want to learn to at Hmh on how we can fulfill our mission of seeing that all kids do learn in an environment that we hope will be fair than anyone experienced in American education before that will be more efficacious in terms of student outcomes than any we've experienced. And then to me, that's a pretty powerful reason to be an education and technology. Because I think education and technology like high tech and high touch are a beautiful combination.

Alexander Sarlin:

I want to double click and build on that because it's so interesting how you're putting it that you know education and technology can be so integrated what one finding from the report that I think will be music to the ears of the listeners of this podcast is that 73% of teachers in the survey felt that technology is significantly more integrated into classrooms than was pre pandemic and 68% of teachers feel that edtech has become essential to the classroom. That is really exciting. And you know, a lot of us in the tech field feel like the pandemic, one of the big silver linings of it is that it really accelerated the belief and understanding that technology can enhance education. So I want to ask a question about that. That also sort of touches on what you just said, around the teacher burnout and teacher shortages, Francie, which is that we're in a moment where technology and education are closer together than ever before. We're also in a moment where teachers are potentially more likely to be leaving the profession than they have in a long time where the confidence is very low. And where you know, in the upcoming academic year, were widely expected to have teacher shortages at all levels, shortages of key roles in special education and literacy. How can we put these together? What could the community do to help the current and future generation of teachers really fall back in love with the teaching profession, given that technology has played such a big part of it, and it makes sure they don't burn out?

Francie Alexander:

Well, one thing I think, as an industry we can do is make it seamless, integrated, easy to use, we need to look at how our resources talk to each other, what conventions that we adopt and use, that can be a baseline status. But all of the times we think about is this easy to use. Because the bigger job is if the teachers teaching science or math or whatever, this is their tool to do it. And we want it to be seamless and integrated in everything that they do, but not become something that it takes too long to get into. So I think as an industry looking at that, then as an industry, whatever we are, we are also members of the broader society. And one of the things that the teachers told us and this ascended to the top of the list for the first time and a few times, what will it take to keep you in the profession, and they said, higher salaries and better benefits? That should surprise no one because we're all part of a larger society where what we read on a daily basis has things to do with inflation. And, and we know that teachers salaries have never really match the professional requirements of it. So that was a number one. So as a society we can look at, do we feel we're addressing that need as an asset as a community as part of the broader community? The second thing teachers asked us, or which is all this is one, the broader society isn't within our reach, specifically as an industry, but this is one that is the second one was their own mental health and others. So what do we do in terms of our communications to teachers, how we support teachers, how we work with them through our resources and our tools? So how does that become part of feeling like work colleagues, too, and again, with our teachers corner at Hmh, we are trying to build these communities based on interest grade levels, you are other places, so that you can get support from their colleagues in the field. And you can see your profession honored, so that most of the teachers in teachers corner, our teachers, I have that I do a book talk, but we're a small part. It's mostly teachers teaching teachers. And so those are the kinds of things again, honoring their expertise, and calling on their experience. And one of the things in research, I always write sections on, of course, the research in the review of the literature, and that's my job to bring that evidence to bear. But we bring the evidence from the research community, and we match it to what we call the expert opinion. Because if you're in every day, and we know and research, we have great humility about the fact that there are so many unanswered questions in research. So if a teacher brings to us this concept or idea and then of course, it can be studied further in a more academic, if you would setting, but that expert opinion. And sometimes, that's all you have to rely on is expert opinion, because we haven't answered the research question yet. The big questions left in research, though, and this brings back to the EdTech industry and what we can do, we know a lot about teaching in every subject area, we have a great evidence base, we aren't as expert on in either expert opinion or research on what works for home, under what conditions and what. So being more precise, and I believe the kinds of things we can look for in this technology and environment, the kind of reports that we can get it, what works for whom, and when, if we were in the medical profession, it'd be about dosage. And maybe everybody needs a little C, but it might be different based on your age and experience and other things your medical profession might tell you about it. So it's like in beginning reading, everybody needs foundational reading. But some kids are going to need more recasting and repetition and practice. And some kids are going to need more strategic and getting going on the strategic part of reading and I believe technology has a big role to play in answering those questions. Those are the questions that we're working on every day and getting more expert on at eight Shumate

Alexander Sarlin:

just building on some of what you're saying. You mentioned that, you know, 90% of the survey respondents said that, you know, improve salary and benefits would make the education profession more appealing to newcomers and increase retention. And that teacher well being, you know, 78% of respondents said that the mental health of their peers in education is their top concern. So you're honing in on two really big issues for teachers, as well as the overwhelm the number of different tools that how difficult some of the tools are to use. I'd love to sort of put this all together and start to think about the EdTech community can, as you said, make it seamless, easy to use, integrated, I'd love to hear your thoughts about the idea of one of the things that Ed Tech has been trying to do is offer tools that allow teachers to not only be able to improve their efficacy and teach more easily, but also actually earn more outside of the classroom. So you see teachers creating and selling resources on Teachers Pay Teachers or teaching online on websites like out school or tutoring online, the huge numbers of online tutoring right now even creating their own videos, or classes on YouTube or Tik Tok. I'm curious what your take is about that idea that, could we help transform the teaching profession so that not only is it effective, and fulfilling and healthy, to do what you do in the classroom, but also actually, maybe there is actually extra money to be made through other ed tech channels.

Francie Alexander:

Yes, and indeed, when I mentioned teachers, teaching teachers in our teachers corner there, some of those are paid assignments, and the work that they do. And so some of it are things that they do is like, you know, in any community, you belong to an online community, you share ideas, but when we have something formal to be accomplished, then we provide honoraria. So, yes, by tapping into teacher voice, and listening to teachers, and then again, in certain situations that are appropriate to do so offering some kind of honorary or compensation are things that we do and can occur. In terms of larger societal issue. I would like these activities to be things that teachers do, because then most teachers do, they love their job, they love sharing, they love not only teaching their students and sharing with their colleagues what they've learned and what they're doing and being recognized and reinforced for doing those things. And so I'd like it to be their choice, rather than in some cases, outside employment is a necessity. And ending, when it's a necessity, if we can provide jobs that are really related to the job they're already doing. I think that's really appropriate. So they don't have to do other things that many of us done, that don't always help with our professional growth. And one of the jobs that I held on I think you have Alex's tutoring, and Garrison environment where I think teachers are an invaluable resource. And we have these mechanisms like we use it Hmh just mentioned online professional development for teachers. So that work could be supported online, and get at the issue of keeping teachers doing something related to their job, providing resources for so doing, and the technological environment affords an opportunity to do that. But as I said, the larger issue was, I would hope that teachers would be pursuing these jobs, as an extension of their profession is things that they want to do to grow professionally to expand their professional experiences, rather than a necessity. So I'm hoping we can as a society talk about that. But you know, one other advantage to all of that is by adding a dynamic dimensioned to teaching like filmmaking, like conferencing, whatever it is, I think might also attract better teachers, more dynamic teachers by adding dynamic dimensions, we attract more dynamic teachers. You're right, because I think teachers can say, I'm a filmmaker, I miss on it. These are things we do. I'm a stand up comedian. When I called up, I can do this, I can do that the resume if you wrote out everything you've done as a teacher would be pretty incredible. And I'm a power user of technology. So all of those things I think can be can be really cool. Yeah. raishin would be very different also. And that would be much more exciting than it is now. Yeah, that's right.

Alexander Sarlin:

There was just a list put out of all of these tick tock teachers that are getting all of this attention. And it's one of these things that the technological equivalent of filmmaking Now in some cases is getting us social media following being on Tik Tok creating your own online videos and classes. And teachers are some of our actually at the forefront of this. They're really they understand students really well, they have expert opinions, they have lots of experience, they know what works and doesn't in a classroom, and they're, they're really out front and creating really amazing educational videos. So been fun to see,

Francie Alexander:

well, you're right in some of the content, their content creators, and participating with the industry as content creators. And one of the fun things we observed when teachers were fully enjoying what they were calling remoter distance, which is, you know, I prefer digital. But when they were doing that, the storytelling, teachers were reading a book that could be accessed later. And things that teachers have come up with in terms of making it high tech, high touch, we all know i Back to School has always been my favorite time of year, from the time I was a student until I was a teacher to right now, in supporting educators out there. And during this exciting time, there was something always called back to school night. And not every parent could come because of childcare job responsibilities. And I always I tried these ways of connecting, but it was never the same when teachers had to do like in a digital environment. Now they realized, all they do have to do is they can still do in person, but press record and do a video of themselves. And that that can be accessed by the parent community. So these are exciting things that are happening. And that's why they teach we talk about first, but when we talk about it. And what we learned from this study were, we call them three important C's. Though one was connection, people want to connect, they want to connect in the digital world, they want to use these powerful tools, but they also want to connect in that lead to community as part of a community. Or Alex, you pointed out the second biggest statistic was about I'm concerned about the wellness of my peers. So yes, I'm concerned about myself, and my family, but also my peers, I want them to be okay. Just like I want my students to be okay. And the students, families, that's an important part of it. And then this customization is in this world, we're still, each of us has our own identity, our own sense of self. So the customization and technologies, big helping tool for this, the customization helps me address you as a learner in a very particular and personal way. But it doesn't have to be isolated, either. Because I think some people worry about this environment being isolated. I think teachers are becoming their expert at what I call dissolving the screen. And so yes, I'm going to respond to your unique learning needs. But I'm going to do it in a way that builds a community of learners. And that makes this fun. One of our teachers in our teachers corner, when he was teaching entirely and in a virtual situation. He had a gorilla arm. And when nobody was paying attention, he said, sometimes you just need a gorilla arm and listening to the lesson. But they were looking at why is there a gorilla arm on my screen. And then he got them back. Those are the kinds of things that sometimes and again, that's the high tech, high touch, you've got your technology, but I can bring my own unique way of customizing it to my self as a teacher, and to all of the learners who I'm responsible for and are in my care.

Alexander Sarlin:

I wanted to ask one final question from my side about that. Third, see that customization, you just touched on a lot of the parts of it. But I think this is really important for our listeners, because when asked in this survey, what would transform teaching and learning in the future? Almost 80% of 79% of the respondents said that the key is customizing learning based on what students know and don't know and you know, those of us in this space, including all of us on this call, know that schools and edtech companies have been working on trying to do that type of customized learning for a long time they adaptive learning, personalized learning, differentiation, interest based learning, there's been a lot of different takes on this. So for instance, just I'd love to hear from your perch at the Chief Research Officer of Hmh, one of the biggest education tech companies in the world. Do you think we've cracked customization? What what do you think is missing? Still, how might we get to that vision of actually customized learning for each student?

Francie Alexander:

I think getting to the vision of customized learning means that the tools have to be first rate, and the algorithms that backup what we do in terms of adaptation. And the as a Chief Research Officer, that's the kind of thing we work on all of the time. And one of the important tools that we're working from and with as a growth measure, and that we hope it provides a multi dimensional look at the learner. And in terms of looking that most of us are not just a number, but maybe more than one. And then looking at those different numbers, if you would, and terms of getting a really rich learner profile. So we think at Hmh, we're making a contribution to that. And that's certainly something in terms of customization that, as you pointed out, the whole industry is working toward,

Alexander Sarlin:

yeah. And now we have artificial intelligence as a new tool that is starting to be used in some really interesting ways as well.

Francie Alexander:

Yes, that's one of the tools we're working on. And Darlene and I and darling, you'd be interested in this, we have something called a mirror, that is an early reading, can be used in early reading settings to find out what are the needs of those beginning readers so that they can pick up those books and start to read on their on their own, and then using artificial intelligence to learn more about them. And so it's an exciting time to be an educator, and to be an educator is to be a lifelong learner. And that's why I love being the Chief Research Officer at Hmh. Because I'm supposed to keep learning things. And you know, and research. Rule number one is always ask a good question. So our whole ACR was asking questions out there, so that we could be better informed through our educators Confidence Report. And we are sharing the report with the world, it could have been an internal project, so to speak. But we want to participate in this conversation, of battle, transforming education, and in so doing, being sure that the original premise of education is an optimistic one that everybody can learn. And that education unlocks opportunities based on our individual potential. We want to fulfill on that for every single student in this country. That's a great wrap.

Alexander Sarlin:

Exactly. Yeah, I think that's a great note to end on. France, Alexander, this has been a fascinating conversation about the educator confidence report just came out from Hmh. We will, of course, put the links to the Confidence Report and all coverage of it in the show notes for this episode. We do try to end every podcast with a couple of really quick questions. And I just want to throw them your way. I know we're a little over time. Quickly, what is the most exciting trend you see right now in the Ed Tech landscape that you think our listeners should keep an eye on?

Francie Alexander:

I think the most exciting trend is we are focused on the whole child, we are focused on the academic needs, the social needs, the physical needs, the whole child. And I have a great nephew starting kindergarten, one of the grades I taught this year. That's what I want to I want the world to look at him like I do. And so that's what I think we need to look at a child individually, and then use these powerful tools to support and encourage them and teach them. Yeah,

Alexander Sarlin:

and when those social, emotional and well being tools are integrated into the academic tools, which is starting to really happen now. You really can get to that whole child type of learning where a teacher and all the support systems in a school can have access to understanding all the needs that a child has. And what is one resource that you would recommend. This could be a book a newsletter, or blog, a report that you would recommend for somebody who wants to go deeper into anything we discussed today. And of course, we'll link to the educator competence report. But what else would you like people to look into?

Francie Alexander:

Well, I'd like to invite you to our shaped blog. We touch on all the topics that we've had a conversation about. I've authored several on reading. I last year did one on six things for a different return to school that got in our top 10 lists. I had to mention that and there's a variety of voices, a variety of content sources, so I would just invite you to that. We are working on some posts now for for back to school, so stay tuned.

Alexander Sarlin:

So an amazing time to be in education and edtech. And I want to thank our special co host today, Darlene Freeman, who is my first grade teacher and an education expert. And Francie. Amazing. Thank you so much for being here with us on edtech insiders.

Francie Alexander:

truly my pleasure.

Alexander Sarlin:

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