Unlock the transformative potential of technology in the special education space with our guest, Joe Brazier from Microsoft, as we navigate the vital role of inclusive tools designed to empower students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This episode promises to reveal how educators can be equipped with devices such as iPads and smartphones to facilitate seamless transitions for students from classroom settings to active community participation. Joe provides a deep dive into the world of personalized learning and effective communication, enhanced by groundbreaking advancements like generative AI, which are defining the essential skills for our students' futures. You'll learn how Microsoft's approach to universal design in educational tools is not only reshaping how we think about learning differences but also how these innovations are scaling to benefit every student.
📍 Introduction:
- Welcome to the Fast 15 podcast.
- Part two of the conversation with Joe Brazier, leader of Microsoft's K-12 strategy.
📍 Guest Introduction:
- Joe Brazier's role in Microsoft's worldwide education team.
- Over a decade of experience in special education.
- Passion for equity and inclusion.
📍 Discussion Highlights:
- Transition to the Community:
- Using technology to prepare students with disabilities for work-based learning.
- Making tasks more accessible, discreet, and independent.
- Bridging the gap from school to community.
- Generative Artificial Intelligence:
- Tailoring education to individual student needs.
- Focusing on essential skills and leveraging generative AI.
- Balancing flexibility and structure for effective learning.
- Functional Academics Curriculum:
- Emphasizing the end goal of independence.
- Beyond typing and reading, understanding instructions and interacting with the world.
- Tracking progress and incorporating data seamlessly.
- Inclusive Tools Evolution:
- Universal Design for Learning vs. designing for specific needs.
- Microsoft's approach: empowering more through tools like immersive reader and Xbox Adaptive controller.
- Continuous evolution and adaptation in response to changing needs.
- Accessibility for All:
- Tools designed for specific needs but benefiting a broader audience.
- Addressing cog
Barbara Beck is the host of the FAST 15 Podcast. She is a highly dedicated Disability Advocate and Special Education Consultant specializing in IEP Transition Services. Barbara has an extensive background as a special education teacher spanning nearly 30 years. She has dedicated her career to empowering transition-age youth and fostering positive post-school outcomes.
Barbara's expertise lies in providing comprehensive support and guidance to students with disabilities, ensuring their successful transition from school to adult life. She possesses a deep understanding of secondary services and possesses the skills to develop tailored strategies that maximize individual potential.
For more information and resources on special education school-to-adulthood transition planning and independent living, visit www.mykeyplans.com. Join us on social media for updates, behind-the-scenes content, and discussions about special education, inclusion, and disability advocacy. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and use #IEPLaunchpadPodcast to join the conversation. Thank you for tuning in to the IEP Launchpad Podcast! 🎧🎙️#IDD #teaching #specialed #specialneeds #InclusionMatters #DisabilityAdvocacy #E
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey listeners, welcome to the Fast 15, and
today we are picking up part twoof a great conversation with
Joe Brazier.
Joe leads Microsoft's K-12strategy on the worldwide
education team.
He works closely with educationindustry colleagues and device
teams to help refine, developand deliver Microsoft's vision
(00:23):
for the ever-evolving landscapeof K-12 education.
Prior to taking this role, hespent over a decade working in
special education at all levelsof the K-12 system.
He spent that time providingtechnology access and skills for
students with social, cognitiveand physical obstacles to the
typical learning experience.
(00:43):
This passion for equity andinclusion continues in his work
building a more inclusiveeducation experience for all.
Join me in welcoming Joe Brazierto the Fast 15.
I was thinking about the thingsthat we were doing in the
classroom as far as with mystudents who have intellectual
and developmental disabilitiesand getting them ready to go out
(01:04):
into the community, actuallydoing some work-based learning
and that type of thing, andbeing able to program in their
task lists and being able tohave them, instead of relying so
much on a job coach or theprompting of an adult, what's
built into an iPad that they canbe navigating themselves.
How do we make that more andmore accessible for them?
(01:26):
So they're doing it on theirphone so that it is more
discreet.
How do you see that bridge fromschool to community?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
There is cheese.
This is like the most creativepart of the conversation because
it really is student-dependent.
That's one of the things that Ithink is important.
Is that flexibility?
What are the skills thatactually need to be built In
proliferation of generativeartificial intelligence?
Right now, people are reallyasking the questions of what are
(01:55):
the actual skills and thingsthat are needed and necessary.
When talking with teachersabout students and how we do
accommodate it, I was like theycan't do all this busy work.
What are the actual things thatthey need to accomplish to show
mastery, competency,proficiency in that and being
able to shrink that down.
Generative AI gives us theopportunity to say what is
(02:16):
important.
What does this student need todo?
What can the technology do?
What are the skills?
I don't think to mean softskills, but they are now
considered critical to thefuture of AI In terms of what it
is.
It's hard for me to say.
I think it's these thingsbecause it's always been very
student-specific that if I canhelp them understand various
(02:39):
ways to teach about the world,then it gives them the best
opportunity to interact withwhat changes may come.
I always would look at structurefor the sake of flexibility.
I had a student who used apicture schedule on their phone.
We talked about that, but ithad to work every environment.
If I could get him to take abreak here, then I need to be
able to get him to take a breakthere.
(03:00):
And when we were out in thecommunity and hear there and the
other, it wasn't just thetyping piece of functional
academics, it was the.
Can you get your thought across?
When we go out to the community, we'd say, pull out your phone,
text your parents where you are.
There's a lot of things thathave to happen within there and,
yes, they might need to be ableto use a capital or use a
period, but the idea was Mom, Iam here and that would be what
(03:21):
they would need to be able toexpress and you share the
thought.
What is the key piece of it andI think that's what I liked
about the functional academiccurriculum was that you could
see the end goal in time.
It wasn't about making change,but it was about being
independent and going andpurchasing things, purchasing
what you needed.
It wasn't about typing.
Like I said, it's not so muchabout reading but understanding
(03:42):
instructions, giving thatinformation in being able to
interact with the world, getthat information out.
So how do we do that?
Track it but also try it in abunch of different environments,
a bunch of different people.
But you've got to build astructure somehow for them to
work in.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Right, right, not only the inclusive tools, but
also the data tracking that goesalong with it.
Pairing those two together andI know there are some really
exciting things coming up evenin the next few months with
functional academics and theirdata tracking and being able to
do that more seamlesslythroughout the program and
(04:16):
putting those tools into thehands of teachers.
That really makes it morevisual and translates really
well to an IEP meeting when youneed to talk about.
This is where the student was,this is where they currently are
and this is where we're headingright, and having all of the
tools make sense for every stepof the way and through the
(04:39):
program and through thereporting of progress.
So tell me a little bit moreabout how it's continuing to
evolve to increase theaccessibility for inclusive
tools and ed tests.
Tell me about where it'sheading.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
There's two schools about where it's heading.
I mean goodness nobody knows.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
That should rephrase the question.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Alaska.
What years was an indication is?
We don't know, and it'sprobably heading farther than we
think it is.
But in terms of inclusion andin terms of, possibly, the
population that we're focused on, there's two schools of thought
that Microsoft, I think,employs, and I don't think that
they're in competition, but theysupplement what I know.
(05:23):
One is, I think, universaldesign for learning, which many
might be familiar with, and thenthere is and I don't remember
the name, but it's kind of thatflipped around.
So universal design is in orderto empower more and get more
people to have access tosomething.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And that's where you might see something like our
immersive reader and in theaccessibility tools, as if we
can get it in the hands of morepeople, then it can actually
help more be able to processinformation and express
themselves much easier.
The other one is to design forone and then scale from there.
And before I go into whatMicrosoft does, I remember a
(06:01):
story when I was in school wherethey talked about a hospital
had somebody who would refilltheir supply cabinet right who I
don't know what their diagnosiswas, but instead of the names
actually put pictures to make iteasier for them to do it.
So they designed how they didthat for that person, but when
they left and did a differentjob or different role, it was so
effective they kept it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, so it's that kind of thing, and so you think
about what we do with technology.
The Xbox Adaptive Controllerwas designed for one particular
type of need.
Adaptive Accessories designedfor one specific type of need,
but not just that specific needleverages it.
It's really helped to supportone, but then many others can
(06:43):
use it.
I have no vision issues, nocontacts, no, anything.
My favorite feature is that Ican make my cursor larger and
teal or a different color on mycomputer, and it's not that I
need it, but it is somethingthat was not designed for me.
I don't have any visualdiagnoses, but it's something
that I use all the time, andthat's the thing is that it's
(07:05):
designed for one and Microsoftdoes this nothing about us
without us.
So I've met some of theengineers and worked at
conferences with some thathelped design the experience for
, like using magnifier, thingslike that, and they use it
because they need to connectwith their, but I use it for
myself and some other things,right, and so it's designed for
something specific, but othersleverage it, and so you've got
(07:27):
that empower more and that alsothere is a very specific need.
It might not be everybody.
We're going to design andsupport that and then, once you
do, you actually find that morepeople use it and leverage it,
even something like a readingcoach accelerators or immersive
reader design for dyslexia,designed for emerging readers.
But we are also finding thathigher education institutions,
(07:49):
where the like law schools andlaw professors they're like I
have very technical languagethat I need my students to be
able to read.
I turn that that dial up sothat it really really tracks how
they're pronouncing words andthen they can really grow and
learn for that.
So it all depends on how we'redoing it.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
That's so powerful, the way you describe it, and I
was just thinking and totallyagree with you about you know,
if we're designing for somebodythat really has the need for it,
it does work for all, and Iexperienced the same thing.
I think we all experiencecognitive load, right, it's not
just people with intellectualdisabilities where they have a
(08:28):
threshold for overwhelm or thecognitive load is too much with
what the information is thatthey're taking.
All of us struggle with thatright, and so these tools are
helpful for all of us.
Everybody benefits by those.
And then you are talking ofinclusion in a different way,
(08:49):
you know, and then being a partof a community that, oh, it's
not just me that's using thetool.
So are three or four otherpeople around me in my same
class or in my community basedinstruction getting out there in
vocational programs?
whatever right and so that's.
That's awesome.
I love thinking of it that way.
Okay, so this is another thingI find you know there are
(09:14):
teachers that I work with whoare just starting out the whole
range right, and some people aretechies.
Some people aren't for.
For people who really aren't asfamiliar with accessibility
tools, where would, where wouldsomeone start?
You know what?
What do you?
What do you tell people thatjust are like, ah, I, I'm not
(09:35):
really a techie person.
That specifically the teacherthat struggles that way or just
isn't as familiar withtechnology as maybe somebody
just coming into the field?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Had a customer come into Microsoft and we were
talking about this whole visualtransformation has a long tail,
right.
You've got people on thecutting edge, which I think a
lot of people see, and then youalso have people who are, I
think, what you described, butjust like, not very techie.
This is the studio paths, allthese kinds of things, right,
but there's a huge range inbetween there, and one of the
(10:04):
thoughts that always comes tomind is skills over tools, like
what is the thing that you needas opposed to the thing you need
to do it?
Right, and there's that phraseif you're a hammer, the whole
world is nail, right, you don'tneed.
Just because I have any tooldoesn't mean that it solves
every single problem, right.
And and working with studentson an autism spectrum, people
(10:25):
would always say it's like, wow,this worked for this student
today, we'll see if it works forthem tomorrow.
And just because it worked forthis student doesn't mean it'll
work with that student and itmight switch around.
So you really kind of have totake it a day at a time, right?
So, as a tech coach in mydistrict, I would ask people I
was like, what is it that youwant to be able to do, and then
I'll tell you how technology canhelp you do it.
And that's what we're doing atMicrosoft.
(10:46):
It's not saying Microsoft toolswill allow you to do X, y and Z
when we say, here's the issue,here's the strategy, here's how
you accomplish it, and thenhere's how a tool can help you
do that.
Right, I need to paint a house.
I need paint brushes, edgers,things.
Right, but I might get adigital liner to help me do this
thing.
Right, I know what I need to doto accomplish it and then I
(11:07):
grab the tools for that job, andMicrosoft has a lot of tools to
be able to do that.
I also wanted to stress that,for those people who are looking
at new, it's like you kind ofneed to have an eye for tomorrow
.
Right, you kind of have toleverage what you have today,
but think about tomorrow, right,not what has always been done,
not what you've always happenedand I think the pandemic was the
(11:30):
worst and best thing to happento education because you can't
settle, you can't just say thisis how we've always done it.
You kind of have to keep an eyeforward, the things that are
happening or changing so quickthat we need education and
educators to have their hand onthe wheel, not wait, hope that
society understands what isneeded and does what's there for
it.
We need educators, specialeducation, slps, ots, special ed
(11:55):
directors.
We need them to be at theforefront, to have their hand on
the wheel to direct it for thestudents.
We need to make sure that theyare the ones saying here's the
students you need to think aboutfirst.
Here's the ways that it needsto be safe first.
If I had the ability to have mystudents sign into their device
with their face and not have tohave things written down and all
(12:15):
stuff, then they could havesecurely logged into their
environments and that is a hugeboost based on what we had at
the time, and then withgenerative AI, with all of these
things and all of these tools,it is important for education
not to wait and specialeducation, especially special ed
, to be second, not to be third,but to be at front To when we
(12:38):
have a motion or somethingcoming out that we understand,
that it is inclusive, that weunderstand how it's going to
help our students, and it's aculture shift more than a
technology push that we need tobe in the front and it's
something that I saw in myschool.
As small as my principals, they,hey, we're going to do this
(12:59):
assembly, this type.
Where would you want yourstudents to sit before we do the
rest of everything else?
It'll be like this kind ofassembly.
I only have like two studentsthat have come.
This kind of assembly, I'llhave more.
This is exactly where I wouldlike them to be, and then they
plan the rest after that.
We've got this great assembly,oh right.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Oh, by the way, let me ask you what will work for
your students.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
And then be like, oh, but we already set everything
up and we can't change it now.
Right, we need to have our handon the wheel and be in the
front of what's coming.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Okay, I have one last question for you.
What word of advice would yougive to yourself as a para
educator just starting out inthe classroom that first day,
when you were overwhelmed andyou didn't know what you were
walking into?
What would you tell Joe at thatpoint?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I would tell myself that and I found this to be true
that special education is aboutrelationship building.
They say that students willlearn from who they trust they
will learn from who they like.
That's true in every classroom.
It really is about relationshipbuilding.
I'm not there to fix or do youror to do anything, but it's
(14:14):
about relationship buildingStudents with parents, with
other stakeholders, with myspecial ed director.
That's how I was able to getsome cool things from my
classroom, but it really isabout getting to know the
students, helping my parents getto know the students, not just
do things and making connectionsto, with and for those students
(14:35):
.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
That's awesome.
That's awesome and you couldn'tsay it better.
I think the same way.
I think that it's all aboutrelationships.
I really appreciate your timewith us and with our listeners
and we're going to be linkingsome resources for people who
are interested to learn more inthe show notes and I just want
to thank you so much for being apart of our discussion and
(14:58):
being a part of our podcasttoday.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Absolutely Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Take care.
A heartfelt thank you to ourgenerous sponsors.
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Publishers of the functionalacademics program, Please take a
moment to learn more about theonly true, comprehensive
functional academics programthat enables students with
moderate to severe disabilitiesto improve their ability to live
(15:24):
independently and showmeaningful growth both
academically and personally,While creating accountability
with data driven, evidence basedresults.
Visit sdesworkscom to learnmore.
Hey listeners, welcome to the Fast 15, and
today we are picking up part twoof a great conversation with
Joe Brazier.
Joe leads Microsoft's K-12strategy on the worldwide
education team.
He works closely with educationindustry colleagues and device
teams to help refine, developand deliver Microsoft's vision
(00:23):
for the ever-evolving landscapeof K-12 education.
Prior to taking this role, hespent over a decade working in
special education at all levelsof the K-12 system.
He spent that time providingtechnology access and skills for
students with social, cognitiveand physical obstacles to the
typical learning experience.
(00:43):
This passion for equity andinclusion continues in his work
building a more inclusiveeducation experience for all.
Join me in welcoming Joe Brazierto the Fast 15.
I was thinking about the thingsthat we were doing in the
classroom as far as with mystudents who have intellectual
and developmental disabilitiesand getting them ready to go out
(01:04):
into the community, actuallydoing some work-based learning
and that type of thing, andbeing able to program in their
task lists and being able tohave them, instead of relying so
much on a job coach or theprompting of an adult, what's
built into an iPad that they canbe navigating themselves.
How do we make that more andmore accessible for them?
(01:26):
So they're doing it on theirphone so that it is more
discreet.
How do you see that bridge fromschool to community?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
There is cheese.
This is like the most creativepart of the conversation because
it really is student-dependent.
That's one of the things that Ithink is important.
Is that flexibility?
What are the skills thatactually need to be built In
proliferation of generativeartificial intelligence?
Right now, people are reallyasking the questions of what are
(01:55):
the actual skills and thingsthat are needed and necessary.
When talking with teachersabout students and how we do
accommodate it, I was like theycan't do all this busy work.
What are the actual things thatthey need to accomplish to show
mastery, competency,proficiency in that and being
able to shrink that down.
Generative AI gives us theopportunity to say what is
(02:16):
important.
What does this student need todo?
What can the technology do?
What are the skills?
I don't think to mean softskills, but they are now
considered critical to thefuture of AI In terms of what it
is.
It's hard for me to say.
I think it's these thingsbecause it's always been very
student-specific that if I canhelp them understand various
(02:39):
ways to teach about the world,then it gives them the best
opportunity to interact withwhat changes may come.
I always would look at structurefor the sake of flexibility.
I had a student who used apicture schedule on their phone.
We talked about that, but ithad to work every environment.
If I could get him to take abreak here, then I need to be
able to get him to take a breakthere.
(03:00):
And when we were out in thecommunity and hear there and the
other, it wasn't just thetyping piece of functional
academics, it was the.
Can you get your thought across?
When we go out to the community, we'd say, pull out your phone,
text your parents where you are.
There's a lot of things thathave to happen within there and,
yes, they might need to be ableto use a capital or use a
period, but the idea was Mom, Iam here and that would be what
(03:21):
they would need to be able toexpress and you share the
thought.
What is the key piece of it andI think that's what I liked
about the functional academiccurriculum was that you could
see the end goal in time.
It wasn't about making change,but it was about being
independent and going andpurchasing things, purchasing
what you needed.
It wasn't about typing.
Like I said, it's not so muchabout reading but understanding
(03:42):
instructions, giving thatinformation in being able to
interact with the world, getthat information out.
So how do we do that?
Track it but also try it in abunch of different environments,
a bunch of different people.
But you've got to build astructure somehow for them to
work in.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Right, right, not only the inclusive tools, but
also the data tracking that goesalong with it.
Pairing those two together andI know there are some really
exciting things coming up evenin the next few months with
functional academics and theirdata tracking and being able to
do that more seamlesslythroughout the program and
(04:16):
putting those tools into thehands of teachers.
That really makes it morevisual and translates really
well to an IEP meeting when youneed to talk about.
This is where the student was,this is where they currently are
and this is where we're headingright, and having all of the
tools make sense for every stepof the way and through the
(04:39):
program and through thereporting of progress.
So tell me a little bit moreabout how it's continuing to
evolve to increase theaccessibility for inclusive
tools and ed tests.
Tell me about where it'sheading.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
There's two schools about where it's heading.
I mean goodness nobody knows.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
That should rephrase the question.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Alaska.
What years was an indication is?
We don't know, and it'sprobably heading farther than we
think it is.
But in terms of inclusion andin terms of, possibly, the
population that we're focused on, there's two schools of thought
that Microsoft, I think,employs, and I don't think that
they're in competition, but theysupplement what I know.
(05:23):
One is, I think, universaldesign for learning, which many
might be familiar with, and thenthere is and I don't remember
the name, but it's kind of thatflipped around.
So universal design is in orderto empower more and get more
people to have access tosomething.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And that's where you might see something like our
immersive reader and in theaccessibility tools, as if we
can get it in the hands of morepeople, then it can actually
help more be able to processinformation and express
themselves much easier.
The other one is to design forone and then scale from there.
And before I go into whatMicrosoft does, I remember a
(06:01):
story when I was in school wherethey talked about a hospital
had somebody who would refilltheir supply cabinet right who I
don't know what their diagnosiswas, but instead of the names
actually put pictures to make iteasier for them to do it.
So they designed how they didthat for that person, but when
they left and did a differentjob or different role, it was so
effective they kept it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, so it's that kind of thing, and so you think
about what we do with technology.
The Xbox Adaptive Controllerwas designed for one particular
type of need.
Adaptive Accessories designedfor one specific type of need,
but not just that specific needleverages it.
It's really helped to supportone, but then many others can
(06:43):
use it.
I have no vision issues, nocontacts, no, anything.
My favorite feature is that Ican make my cursor larger and
teal or a different color on mycomputer, and it's not that I
need it, but it is somethingthat was not designed for me.
I don't have any visualdiagnoses, but it's something
that I use all the time, andthat's the thing is that it's
(07:05):
designed for one and Microsoftdoes this nothing about us
without us.
So I've met some of theengineers and worked at
conferences with some thathelped design the experience for
, like using magnifier, thingslike that, and they use it
because they need to connectwith their, but I use it for
myself and some other things,right, and so it's designed for
something specific, but othersleverage it, and so you've got
(07:27):
that empower more and that alsothere is a very specific need.
It might not be everybody.
We're going to design andsupport that and then, once you
do, you actually find that morepeople use it and leverage it,
even something like a readingcoach accelerators or immersive
reader design for dyslexia,designed for emerging readers.
But we are also finding thathigher education institutions,
(07:49):
where the like law schools andlaw professors they're like I
have very technical languagethat I need my students to be
able to read.
I turn that that dial up sothat it really really tracks how
they're pronouncing words andthen they can really grow and
learn for that.
So it all depends on how we'redoing it.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
That's so powerful, the way you describe it, and I
was just thinking and totallyagree with you about you know,
if we're designing for somebodythat really has the need for it,
it does work for all, and Iexperienced the same thing.
I think we all experiencecognitive load, right, it's not
just people with intellectualdisabilities where they have a
(08:28):
threshold for overwhelm or thecognitive load is too much with
what the information is thatthey're taking.
All of us struggle with thatright, and so these tools are
helpful for all of us.
Everybody benefits by those.
And then you are talking ofinclusion in a different way,
(08:49):
you know, and then being a partof a community that, oh, it's
not just me that's using thetool.
So are three or four otherpeople around me in my same
class or in my community basedinstruction getting out there in
vocational programs?
whatever right and so that's.
That's awesome.
I love thinking of it that way.
Okay, so this is another thingI find you know there are
(09:14):
teachers that I work with whoare just starting out the whole
range right, and some people aretechies.
Some people aren't for.
For people who really aren't asfamiliar with accessibility
tools, where would, where wouldsomeone start?
You know what?
What do you?
What do you tell people thatjust are like, ah, I, I'm not
(09:35):
really a techie person.
That specifically the teacherthat struggles that way or just
isn't as familiar withtechnology as maybe somebody
just coming into the field?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Had a customer come into Microsoft and we were
talking about this whole visualtransformation has a long tail,
right.
You've got people on thecutting edge, which I think a
lot of people see, and then youalso have people who are, I
think, what you described, butjust like, not very techie.
This is the studio paths, allthese kinds of things, right,
but there's a huge range inbetween there, and one of the
(10:04):
thoughts that always comes tomind is skills over tools, like
what is the thing that you needas opposed to the thing you need
to do it?
Right, and there's that phraseif you're a hammer, the whole
world is nail, right, you don'tneed.
Just because I have any tooldoesn't mean that it solves
every single problem, right.
And and working with studentson an autism spectrum, people
(10:25):
would always say it's like, wow,this worked for this student
today, we'll see if it works forthem tomorrow.
And just because it worked forthis student doesn't mean it'll
work with that student and itmight switch around.
So you really kind of have totake it a day at a time, right?
So, as a tech coach in mydistrict, I would ask people I
was like, what is it that youwant to be able to do, and then
I'll tell you how technology canhelp you do it.
And that's what we're doing atMicrosoft.
(10:46):
It's not saying Microsoft toolswill allow you to do X, y and Z
when we say, here's the issue,here's the strategy, here's how
you accomplish it, and thenhere's how a tool can help you
do that.
Right, I need to paint a house.
I need paint brushes, edgers,things.
Right, but I might get adigital liner to help me do this
thing.
Right, I know what I need to doto accomplish it and then I
(11:07):
grab the tools for that job, andMicrosoft has a lot of tools to
be able to do that.
I also wanted to stress that,for those people who are looking
at new, it's like you kind ofneed to have an eye for tomorrow
.
Right, you kind of have toleverage what you have today,
but think about tomorrow, right,not what has always been done,
not what you've always happenedand I think the pandemic was the
(11:30):
worst and best thing to happento education because you can't
settle, you can't just say thisis how we've always done it.
You kind of have to keep an eyeforward, the things that are
happening or changing so quickthat we need education and
educators to have their hand onthe wheel, not wait, hope that
society understands what isneeded and does what's there for
it.
We need educators, specialeducation, slps, ots, special ed
(11:55):
directors.
We need them to be at theforefront, to have their hand on
the wheel to direct it for thestudents.
We need to make sure that theyare the ones saying here's the
students you need to think aboutfirst.
Here's the ways that it needsto be safe first.
If I had the ability to have mystudents sign into their device
with their face and not have tohave things written down and all
(12:15):
stuff, then they could havesecurely logged into their
environments and that is a hugeboost based on what we had at
the time, and then withgenerative AI, with all of these
things and all of these tools,it is important for education
not to wait and specialeducation, especially special ed
, to be second, not to be third,but to be at front To when we
(12:38):
have a motion or somethingcoming out that we understand,
that it is inclusive, that weunderstand how it's going to
help our students, and it's aculture shift more than a
technology push that we need tobe in the front and it's
something that I saw in myschool.
As small as my principals, they,hey, we're going to do this
(12:59):
assembly, this type.
Where would you want yourstudents to sit before we do the
rest of everything else?
It'll be like this kind ofassembly.
I only have like two studentsthat have come.
This kind of assembly, I'llhave more.
This is exactly where I wouldlike them to be, and then they
plan the rest after that.
We've got this great assembly,oh right.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Oh, by the way, let me ask you what will work for
your students.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
And then be like, oh, but we already set everything
up and we can't change it now.
Right, we need to have our handon the wheel and be in the
front of what's coming.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Okay, I have one last question for you.
What word of advice would yougive to yourself as a para
educator just starting out inthe classroom that first day,
when you were overwhelmed andyou didn't know what you were
walking into?
What would you tell Joe at thatpoint?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I would tell myself that and I found this to be true
that special education is aboutrelationship building.
They say that students willlearn from who they trust they
will learn from who they like.
That's true in every classroom.
It really is about relationshipbuilding.
I'm not there to fix or do youror to do anything, but it's
(14:14):
about relationship buildingStudents with parents, with
other stakeholders, with myspecial ed director.
That's how I was able to getsome cool things from my
classroom, but it really isabout getting to know the
students, helping my parents getto know the students, not just
do things and making connectionsto, with and for those students
(14:35):
.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
That's awesome.
That's awesome and you couldn'tsay it better.
I think the same way.
I think that it's all aboutrelationships.
I really appreciate your timewith us and with our listeners
and we're going to be linkingsome resources for people who
are interested to learn more inthe show notes and I just want
to thank you so much for being apart of our discussion and
(14:58):
being a part of our podcasttoday.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Absolutely Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Take care.
A heartfelt thank you to ourgenerous sponsors.
Specially designed educationservices.
Publishers of the functionalacademics program, Please take a
moment to learn more about theonly true, comprehensive
functional academics programthat enables students with
moderate to severe disabilitiesto improve their ability to live
(15:24):
independently and showmeaningful growth both
academically and personally,While creating accountability
with data driven, evidence basedresults.
Visit sdesworkscom to learnmore.
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