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May 5, 2023 44 mins

How do we keep up with the developments of AI and all the new tools coming our way? Mark and Bex dive into the latest trends and also some concerns we all need to be across as leaders in schools, they explore how our wearable tech can keep us saner, fitter and better in general and they also share a small but meaningful update for the Flip tool that will help facilitate better conversations with your students.

Show Notes:

1. Canva
2. Opus Clip 
3. Unesco ChatGPT User Guide for Higher Ed
4. AI detector tools - article AI and ChatGPT cheating allegations at Cambridge and Pukekohe High outrage parents of top students
5. AI Dilemma presentation  Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin
6. Kidnapping story in Phoenix US
7. Well Being tools - the role that smart watches can play in our overall health
8. Flip has comments and now threaded comments https://twitter.com/MicrosoftFlip/status/1653493634581385216


We post every week and would love to have you keep up with us. If you know someone who would get value from these episodes, hit the share button and let them know. Lastly, if you have questions or anything to share with us, email us at team@usingtechnologybetter.com. You can also contact Bex at bex@usingtechnologybetter.com to find out how you can get free PD in your schools (NZ) or follow us on Instagram at @usingtechnologybetter or on youtube.com/@utb

We’d love to hear from you! See you next week.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bex Rose (00:00):
This is what we really need to focus on, we need to

(00:02):
focus on the fact that is goingto enhance our efficiency, which
in turn gives us more time to dowhat we need to do in the
classroom or what we need to doin the senior leadership space.
The better mindset podcast

Mark Herring (00:17):
Welcome to The Better Mindset Podcast. I'm

Bex Rose (00:19):
Mark. And I'm Bex.

Mark Herring (00:22):
And on today's episode a little bit something
different. For episode 14. We'vegot some making waves segments,
and we're going to break it upinto lots of different topics.
Because we've had a little bitof a break, haven't we, Bex in
the last three weeks?

Bex Rose (00:34):
Yeah, we have been busy little beavers. Behind the
scenes we had we hosted ourfirst Future Now Summit, we did
talk about this in previousepisodes, and it all came
together. And gosh, it was justsuch an epic experience. I think
the highlight for me was gettingthe feedback from one of the
delegates said to us that it wasthe best conference they had

(00:54):
been to in the 20 years thatthey've been in education. And
we were just blown away, becauseit was our first attempt, we
kind of just pulled together allideas that we really felt were
missing an educationconferences. And it just felt
like it landed really well. Itwas really neat meeting people
across New Zealand, ineducation, who are just mover

(01:15):
and shakers, and there and herefor it. And we're really excited
about the whole event. That wasawesome, wasn't it?

Mark Herring (01:22):
Yeah, it was really good. It was it was a
whole fame around disruption,and then how you respond to
that. So I think that's prettytimely for what we're going to
be talking about today. Andmaking waves where we're going
to be discussing and unpackingwhat AI is, is doing at the
moment in education and insociety in general. So there's
going to be some good topics.
And we've got some, some littlethings to do with well being and
we're going to talk about Appleand watch. And then we're also
going to be talking about, youknow, the changes will flip as

(01:44):
well. So stay tuned for that.
And if you get all the waythrough to the end, and there
are any links from today'sepisode, we're going to have
lots of shownotes there for youto be able to go out. And so
let's get into it. Well picks onmaking waves today, what I
thought we might do is probablywhat we often do is just mix
things up and make things quitedifferent. So what we have done
is focused on one topic formaking waves. But what I thought

(02:07):
we might do today is go throughactually three different topics,
things that are front of mind,things that are trends, things
that are happening, some of themare quite deep, like we're going
to be talking about AI in asecond is one of the first ones,
it's going to be quitephilosophical and, and get into
some of the meaty issues thatschools are grappling with. But
then there's a couple of thingsthat are just nice little

(02:27):
updates and tall things. But tobase things to think about. So
the first one that I wanted totalk about for making wise was
AI. And I've just sort of termedit in terms of pros and cons.
Because I think in theleadership space, or whether
you're a teacher in a classroom,you know you're leading of
students, there are so manythings that are happening in the
AI space that are really good.
But there are some also someconcerns. And we'll talk about

(02:48):
those as well, from a societallevel, but then the concerns in
the education space. So a goodchance to start with that as the
first topic, what I thought wemight do to start off with is
have a quick chat about some ofthe ways that we're seeing AI
making an impact and educationfor teachers on the ground, in
the classrooms with students,what would be some of the things
that you're seeing maybe in yourpractice ways that it's been

(03:12):
benefiting the students that youhear about in the schools that
you're talking to

Bex Rose (03:17):
kill? So yeah, absolutely. This is front of
mind for a lot of educators andsenior leadership teams, because
they're wondering how this isgoing to impact the way
curriculum can be delivered. Butthis, this one takes the cake
for me. So last week, I wasactually in Sydney in a school,
facilitating some PD. And Imentioned using AI and the in

(03:42):
their classroom, and some ofthem sort of shied away and sort
of had their hands, you know,under his under the desk. But
this one educator who is one ofthose like shining star
teachers, you can see in aschool that just came off
holidays, and she had to takehome a class set 35 written
language assessments, they wereall on Google Docs. So all

(04:03):
online, but there were writtenlanguage assessments. And if you
remember back to that mark, thatwill just take you forever
secret because you want to dodue diligence to the kids, but
you've got to mark where they'reat. And it's quite easy to add a
little bit of opinion to it aswell. So there's that whole
opinion base to it. But thenalso there's there's the key
next steps that you need to comeup with and it's quite time
consuming. This teacher haddecided to give Chet GPT was the

(04:29):
way she did it. She She copiedand pasted the work that the
kids had done into the AI andalso stipulated things like read
the stock. Talk about how manycompound sentences it's got,
doesn't have alliteration, likereally specific key outcomes
that were related and then givefeedback with relation to the

(04:50):
Australian Curriculum andEnglish so she had had done some
really key prompts so that'sthat that's the key to this is
that you've got to be real

Mark Herring (04:58):
if the teacher don't you, you have to learn how
To teacher, so she stipulatedall

Bex Rose (05:01):
those things. and out pops a paragraph for each kid of
where they're at, in relation tothe curriculum. What are their
key next learning steps and shethought that she had given it
had given the best feedbackshe's given in her 20 year
career, and a fraction of thetime. And so she felt actually

(05:22):
really excited for the kids,because they've really pulled
out those key next learningsteps that you really want to
give that you give perhaps tothe first five or six that you
mark, because you go in withgreat intentions. And it becomes
that real mundane repetitivetask of reading and then giving
feedback. And she was justbuzzing because instead of it
taking her whole entireholidays, it had taken still

(05:43):
taken half a day, but had reallygiven and generated some
incredible feedback for her termto goal for the kids. So that is
that's really what's taken thecake for me in terms of
curriculum based AIenhancements.

Mark Herring (05:57):
Yeah, that's great. And that's real,
authentic, a genuine curriculumaligned criteria based, you
know, feedback that the teachersdone, it's like, I think a lot
of people are hearing stories.
And I'm using this for this sortof approach as well write me an
email to this person about thistopic. And then you adapt and
change it, I wrote a bio for aconference that I'm speaking at.
And so I needed to update that.

(06:20):
And it dragged all theinformation off the internet,
and constructed it, and I did acouple of prompts and got it to
change a few things. But, youknow, I actually did that in the
car on my phone, while I knowwasn't the way somebody else
was. But because I needed that,you know, the conference center
needed at early, you know, inthe moment, so that was about a
five or six minute job that Idid in the car on my phone.

(06:42):
Another another example, thatwould would be a presentation
abstract that I had to get inthe submission date was in on
Sunday. And so I had about anhour to get these done, you
know, in the afternoon, and whatprobably would have taken me two
or three hours took me about oneor two, we're actually about
half an hour, if I actuallywrote down, it took me about
half an hour to get that episodedone. But you had to put the

(07:02):
right prompts in and you have todo the right things. That's
right.

Bex Rose (07:04):
And this is what we really need to focus on, we need
to focus on the fact that isgoing to enhance our efficiency,
which in turn gives us more timeto do what we need to do in the
classroom, or what we need to doin the senior leadership space.
Another example I saw was overthe holidays, because the
holidays, the teachers are offFissler fostering around trying
to find you know what they'reteaching for Tim to and I kind

(07:27):
of keep my eye across a lot ofthe Facebook pages just so I can
help where I can or see, youknow, where I can help out in
terms of like my knowledge orexpertise. And there was a
teacher who was in charge of abunch of teacher aides at their
school, and they wanted toimplement a PNP program. Now PNP
program is a perceptual motorskills program. So it helps the
kids that maybe need a littlebit more help with hand eye

(07:50):
coordination, or just tactileskills, things like that. And
the PNP program itself is quiteexpensive. So they didn't have
the funds to be able to get thePNP program. So I thought I
wonder if Chet GPT could helpout with this. So I jumped on
really quickly. And I said, hey,hey, mate, check GPT because
he's my mate now. Can you pleaseput together? I always use my

(08:11):
mentors as well, when I'm usingit. I was talking about this to
the ladies. Yeah. And so I said,Can you put together 10 sessions
of 20 minutes that incorporateperceptual motor skills, fine
motor skills, that have a focuson hand eye coordination, or
manipulation of materials, andput it in and relate it to New

(08:36):
Zealand curriculum. Literally in30 seconds, it had split out
team sessions that were reallyeasy for a teacher aide to pick
up and utilize in the school,and even down to the prompts,
things that they needed the prepthat would be like there to make
playdough or things like that,that was all involved in it,
too. And I was just wow. And soI put that in the chat. And I

(08:58):
think that it probably had themost likes. After all the
comments that I've had peoplewere just like, what, like, How
cool was that? So So just again,that time efficiency, it took me
30 seconds, just putting theright prompts in and out it had
its back.

Mark Herring (09:13):
And it literally does the hard lifting for you.
But you need to know, you knowthe content, you need to know
the criteria, the structure, theprompts and how to use it. So
there's a little bit of alearning curve to help teachers
get across that that learningcurve and to use it effectively.
It's kind of but but the keyidea with the benefits of Chet
GPT in particular, and obviouslythere's Bart in the Google

(09:35):
ecosystem, and then you've gotcopilot that's, that's been
launched in the Microsoftenvironment. The key thing with
it is that it does the heavylifting for you, but you still
need to have the skill setbehind what you need. So it's
kind of like get your bell readybecause he's a metaphor. It's
like if I was going to plow afield so now I don't have to
sort of push my plow and do allthe hard work but I can just now

(09:56):
I've got a tractor but I stillneed to know the GPS
coordinates. I still need to bethere. Anything goes wrong, and
make sure that everything goesright. So, yeah, good. I was
waiting for that next time youcan. Those are some of the
benefits, and a lot of teachersare hearing about Chet GPT. But
just a side note, I'm stilltalking to leaders who have no

(10:16):
idea the potential of that tool,you know, so I was talking to
one this week, and I said, youknow, you know, like, I gave
those examples of writingemails, and they were like, wow,
I never even thought of using itfor that, you know, like, if you
are listening to this, and youare doing that, make sure that
you share that with people,because people don't, don't just
assume that people are listeningto podcast and reading things
online and going to conferencesand involved in workshops,

(10:37):
because a lot of your colleaguesand your school probably don't
understand or know that that'sthere. But but there are some
other positives as well. So notjust in the text generation
space. So in there in the, inthe visual, the audio visual,
the video making, there are acouple of tools that I know that
are being quite effective. Andpeople are using this one that I
know in Canva. So we'll put alink to all of these things that

(10:58):
we've referenced today in theshow notes, but Canva, their
docs two decks approach whereyou can upload a Google a Canva
document with bullet pointedlists, or even numbering of the
headings, and click with acouple of buttons that the help
sheet on the Canva support pagethat will link to show you how
to go through the steps with acouple of links, it'll create a

(11:19):
presentation for you. So for youto do that, or for your students
that you know, and to get anexample of what effective design
looks like. And then you go backin and edit that's a really good
little use of AI that isavailable to you. So if you've
got the premium version ofCanva, that's a great way to get
in and use one that I found outliterally about last night,
which I'm going to use. For thispodcast recording, I'm going to

(11:43):
what I'm going to do is exportthe video file of this podcast
segment, put it into an applocation called Opus stock Pro.
So it's called Opus clip, it'san online app that uses AI. And
what it will do is it will gothrough your video your YouTube
video, I think you need toYouTube, upload it to YouTube at
the moment. And then it willfind segments, cut it out in a

(12:05):
real aspect ratio, if you'regoing to put it on use YouTube
or you know shorts or Instagramand all those different video
tools. And then it will it willcaption it as well. So it'll
find the best but caption it andit doesn't within 30 seconds, so
you can upload that. So that'sthat's quite a useful
application for things thatpeople are spending a little bit

(12:26):
of time learning how to domanually, we're moving into that
world now where you can do that,medically and using the AI
engines to be able to do that.
One other little, I guess, prosand a resource that we'd quite
like to share with you is arecent article that the UNESCO
group have just released calledChat GPT, and artificial

(12:47):
intelligence and higher ed. Andthat's a PDF that will link for
you. And there are a lot ofreally cool snapshots of
examples of how church GPTworks, what AI is, but then some
examples of how you canimplement it in your school and
university. So if you want toget a link to that have a look
at it, there are people comingout or groups that are coming
out with policies and proceduresand advice on how to deal with

(13:09):
this ever increasing andchanging landscape of AI in
society, but not only insociety, but also in education.
Now, this is where we seek tosegue into what I've titled The
threats of AI. And there aresome concerns out there because
I don't know, if peoplelistening are aware, there are
people involved at the very sortof nitty gritty end or the deep

(13:33):
end of AI generation tools. Sopeople who are running companies
who are deep in the programming,who are starting to voice
concerns about where thetrajectory of AI is headed for
humanity, and it's almost got anexistential threat. sort of wrap
around to it so that there arethere are concerns coming out,

(13:55):
you know, at the school levelabout assessments, for example.
So one of the common things thatwe hear is that people will be
in an assessment process andthey'll be wondering, you know,
is this really generated by thestudent or is this a, an AI
generated response and there'san article there from in the New
Zealand Herald about someallegations that have been

(14:15):
leveled at a couple of students.
I don't know if you saw thatthis morning, Beck's but I heard
on the news, yes, yes. Yeah.
Cambridge and Kelly Hi. AndYellin here. There are a couple
of students who have had whetherI didn't read right down into
the depths of the article, butthey've had an assessment that's
been submitted, and it's beenflagged for AI detection. So
whether they ran it through anAI tool or not, I'm not too sure

(14:36):
now that they're protestingabout that because they're
saying that they did thatlegally, you know, and it was
their own work. But But I knowthat that there are issues with
some of those AI tools, thedetector ones because I've I've
had something that I've createdon chat GPT run it through one
of the tools and it said Youknow, this is 90% ai generated
and then I've just gone onwonder what would happen if I

(15:00):
just do the same text and do itagain? And it said, No, this is
completely fine. You know, sothat's the same text 30 seconds
apart. What the concern withthat is, you know, can you trust
that. But but then there's thissort of whole arms race approach
that's happening. So AI isgetting better at emulating what
a human voice would sound likein a written form. And then the

(15:22):
detector tools are trying tokeep up with that. So they're
learning and the detection toolsare learning, it's sort of like
an arms race battle that's goingon. So that that is a that is a
concern, something to bethinking about something to be
across. If you have a role inyour school, that you've been
tasked with keeping across thethe development of AI, and what
that looks like, just a quickGoogle search, jumping into

(15:46):
Twitter, searching for AI andeducation. There's a lot of
things that are coming up, youcan start your own lists and
groups and just keeping acrossthere. And we'll we will be
talking about this on thispodcast and in giving some
people in the coming weeks towho have got a lot more insight
and expertise than us on that,right.
But here's the existentialthreat. And we've got a couple

(16:07):
of links here to send you. But Iwanted to start this little
discussion on the potentialdownside to AI for humanity in
general, with Steve Wozniakquote, no, I heard heard him on
a recent interview, SteveWozniak, if you haven't heard of
him before, he was one of thecofounders of Apple, he was
involved with the apple one andthe apple two that launched

(16:28):
apple into the stratosphere,really in the computing space.
And he's, he's not so muchinvolved in developing tech
anymore. But he's much more acommentator on keeping across
some of the things that are outthere. So he's got this, this
quote that I found quiteinteresting, he talks about the
digital world in general. And hesaid that the people who
designed the digital worldshould be executed, which I
thought was pretty hot. But thenhe kind of clarified that and

(16:50):
said, or worse, maybe notexecuted, maybe they should just
be forced to live in it, youknow. So what he's doing is he's
making a little bit of a sidecomment on the fact that the
digital world has some pros andcons. But there are some real
challenges and some, some realdownsides to it. Because in his
his view, and I think a lot ofpeople feel like this. You know,

(17:11):
if you look at the benefits todigital life and the digital
world that we're in, would yousay that people are more happy?
Well, probably not. On thewhole, you know, would you say
that people have more time?
Well, actually, probably not. Onthe whole, you know, would you
say that life is getting simplerand easier? We'll probably not
on the whole. So there are somequestions that that people are
making about or asking about thegeneration of these AI tools in

(17:34):
society, society in general. Sowhat does that mean for the AI
space? In general? Where are wegoing with that? Well, what I
would do is, rather than metrying to sound like an expert,
all I want to do is point you toa couple of things. Number one,
if you saw the social dilemma,the Netflix documentary that was
put out by Tristan Harris andAza Raskin, they were involved

(17:58):
in a group that looked at theimpact of social media, on
societal trends and mentalhealth and well being. And so
that is a fantastic thing toshare with your students, if
you've got higher ed students,college students, and they want
to see the impact of socialmedia on that. But what they've
just recently released is apresentation that they've got on

(18:21):
their website, and we'll put itin the show notes for you so
that you can click on it. Andit's called AI dilemma, you can
YouTube it if you want. Theyhave been looking at the impact
of the AI generated tools andthe impact on society, in much
the same way that they've lookedat the impact of social media
apps on society. And that theirbig message, if you're going to

(18:42):
think about what the message isthat they're presenting, what
they're saying is that just likesocial media, there is lots of
positive messages and promise,you know, to be able to connect
people and to be able to bringpeople together in a global
sense, and to be able to shareinformation more easily, for
people to be able to, you know,make those connections across
geographical boundaries. Butthat just like social media, the

(19:04):
AI has some positives about it.
So we've talked about them, youknow, being able to have your
workload being able to be moreproductive, being able to
generate lots of differentthings that are really promising
in the creative space even. Butwhat they're saying is just like
social media, AI has somedownsides as well. And it's the
unintended consequences thatthey are concerned about. And a

(19:26):
lot of people in the space arereally concerned about as well.
And I'll give you one example ofthis, that you can go and
investigate. So there aresituations occurring around the
around the world now wherepeople are generating AI voices
based off a very short clip ofyour voice. So people will be
able to listen or capture a 32ndrendition of this podcast have

(19:48):
my voice for example. And thenthrough the AI engine that
they've got, they're able togenerate my voice to sound
exactly like mine with myinflections my tone, the way
that I talk the words that I useand then they can use that to
trick somebody on the other endof a phone call or a video to
actually sound like they'retalking to the real me. And so
there's a CNN article, it'sactually across lots of

(20:10):
different website platforms,where they're, you know, talking
about an example that hashappened just recently in
Phoenix in the US where a mumhas been fooled into thinking
that her daughter has beenkidnapped, and has been held
ransom. And it's as real asmaking that mum think that this
is really a person who'scaptured my daughter, and I need

(20:31):
to do something about it. Andwow, so

Bex Rose (20:35):
I can say, that is terrifying. I'm also sitting
here because, you know, I'm, I'mforever the optimist, right? So
I'm sitting here thinking, I'vegot so many meetings coming up.
And if I could have someone thathad my voice and could go on a
meeting for me, that would beamazing. Like, just just just
clone me right now and just useme as another person. That'd be

(20:55):
great. But that is that isterrifying. And, yeah, the thing
is, is how are we going tocombat this, and this is, you
know, all these negatives orwhatever that come out of these
articles. It's all very well andgood going through and pulling
out all the negatives. But atthe end of the day, it's still
going to be there. So what arewe going to do to combat this?
Or what are we going to do tosupport strategies around

(21:19):
enabling kids to do somethingbetter with the AI in this
school, rather than just copyingand pasting an essay? So I
think, yeah, I'm forever theperson that goes, Okay, yep,
that's those are negatives, butwhat are we going to do about
it? Like, what's the next steps?
So I'll be interested to readthrough those as well and try
and sort of ideate some waysthat we could support people out

(21:40):
there to combat those.

Mark Herring (21:43):
Yeah, I think the big idea with this whole
discussion is, number one, wejust want people to be aware
that it's not all roses, youknow, it's not all wells, and,
you know, incredible tools.
There are some concerns aboutthis. And I think from, you
know, from a development and aleader in the tech, space, tech
space area, that a lot of thosepeople are looking at this and
thinking that we do need to slowdown, you know, so there's been

(22:05):
a whole group of people who aresigning a petition to world
governments to say that we needto slow this down, and we need
to regulate this, you know, so.
So,

Bex Rose (22:14):
there's a guy from Google as well.

Mark Herring (22:16):
Yeah, yeah.
Everybody's saying, you know,Elon Musk, a lot of people are
saying that we need to actuallyslow down and, and take a good
look at this, because we don'tknow where it's going,
especially if you want to lookin into the combination of the
AI software that we've got withquantum computing. And I saw an
article or an interview withthat, on that, this morning,
where someone, you know, was oneof the experts was saying that
when you've got quantumcomputing, which is this is the

(22:37):
top level hardware or, you know,a computer program that can the
processor, then combined thehardware with the software, then
he said, you've got like, almostunlimited potential to be able
to roll through. So what doesthat look like? Where is it
going, as educators in schools,as you know, school leaders who
are in the digital space for usto be aware of that, and then

(23:01):
maybe pointing peopleparticularly to the AI dilemma,
I think that that presentationon YouTube will link for you
that that is a really wellbalanced approach. There's a
couple of interesting funnyparts in it to Beck's where they
say, right, you know, thatsounds very scary for everybody.
Let's all stand here and take abreath. And I'm not joking.
They're on stage. And they go tokind of ease their anxiety

(23:25):
because it's sort of like thattrigger warning in the middle of
my presentation. So I might dothat for some. Well, yeah,
that's

Unknown (23:31):
a great idea. Yeah.
Yeah, bring them back.

Mark Herring (23:35):
Yeah, they definitely talk about the
positives. But they're alsomaking people aware of some of
the concerns down the track, andeven some of the concerns right
now. So something to be aware ofsomething to think about, keep
across and definitely dive intosome of the links that we've
got, this is an ever evolvingstory. So it's just gonna keep
evolving and keep rolling out.
And I'm sure that by the timethis podcast is in a couple of
days, there'll be some newadditions to the narrative from

(23:57):
that point. So something to keepa track on. And we'll we'll keep
everybody posted with some ofthe updates and people that we
can get on the podcast. Sohere's the next time I was, but
actually, both of us were on acall recently with Apple. So
we're Apple professionallearning providers. We're one of
the group groups in Australasianow who are, you know,

(24:20):
partnering with apple on some ofthe training that we're doing
and running Apple LearningInstitutes and we're having a
talk about some of the trendsand some of the things that that
the good guys at Apple wouldlike us to be able to focus on.
And one of the phrases came upthat made me think about well
being because I know that that'sa big trend. But one of the
phrases that came up waswatching phone. Now last year we
were talking in the Appleeducator space about Mac and

(24:44):
iPad and how they work reallywell together. You know that the
phrase there is better togetherMac and iPad, how they have
different different ways ofworking. But I wanted to just
talk about well watch and phoneand what it looks like in the
wellbeing space because I knowthat you've got both of us got
iPhones, like a lot of teachers.
Or if you've got a smartphone,you know that it will go with a

(25:05):
smartwatch. And I know thatyou've got your watch on at the
moment. I've got a Garmin watchon at the moment, which I'll put
up on the screen, but I'm justin the process of selling that.
And then going back to Apple.

Bex Rose (25:18):
Coming back to the good side,

Mark Herring (25:21):
I have a long conversation about, you know,
the reasons why I decided topartly sometimes I just get
bored, because to be quitehonest,

Bex Rose (25:28):
I know yes, you like as you are.

Mark Herring (25:31):
But one of the things that I I really enjoy
about the watch the Apple Watchexperience is the fact that it's
a smartwatch first, you know,and I guess to wrap this whole
shift that I'm making, Garminhas some watches that are really
good for hiking and for runningand for health metrics, you
know, if you're in the trainingside of things, but they can
also do some smart functions,whereas Apple's kind of the

(25:53):
other way around. It's the smartfunction. So there's a lot of
the mapping tools, a lot of thenotifications a lot of the
interaction with your apps onyour phone that I miss not
having on my Garmin, so that'sokay. But what I wanted to talk
about some of the well beingadvantages of having a
smartwatch in general. So youdon't have to have an Apple
watch, you can have a Garmin youcan have you know, Samsung have

(26:14):
got a great ecosystem that youcan get a smartwatch? And can I
start by asking you what wouldbe some of the things that you
use in the wellbeing space thatyou activate through your phone?
How does your How does yourphone and your watch
particularly help you look afteryour well being as an as a
leader as an educator?

Bex Rose (26:33):
Well, I guess the the one that's first and foremost
that I that I use every daywithout fail would be the
fitness and the health and thehealth app. So I am a bit of a
gym bunny a bit of a runner abit of a fitness is that is my
well being if I if I exercise, Ifeel like my brain functions
better. I feel like I'm a bettermom, I'm better person a better

(26:54):
leader. So every morning, I dotrack, what exercise I do and
what comes out of it. And then Itrack, you know, as my heart
rate going up too high as itcoming back down fast enough.
Have that functionality of justchecking in on making sure that
I'm getting enough steps in aday, not sitting at my desk and

(27:16):
behind meetings every day, thatkind of thing. It tells me the
stand up, move around if I'msitting down too much. And
that's first and foremost,probably the biggest thing I
use, I also track a lot of myhealth things through there. So
female stuff, making sure thatI'm getting that done every that
it's coming and that I know thatit's that that it's regular. And

(27:38):
yeah, so that's well being Ialso use every now and then. And
generally, it's been quitestressful situations and pops up
on my watch saying you need tobreathe. Oh,

Mark Herring (27:51):
yes, that measuring your heart rate and
your breath. Yeah, just a timedthat time. No,

Bex Rose (27:57):
my it's not timed. I thought it was initially but
then I realized that comes atreally random times. And then
when I think about it, I'm in areally like kind of high
pressure or high stress typesituation,

Mark Herring (28:07):
I must be measuring your heart rate and
it's measured your heart rate,yeah, there's an algorithm.

Bex Rose (28:11):
So it's really cool though, because it does give you
that because you can, you canjust sit there and go, or
whatever. But actually, this thebreathe app scaffolds you
through, like a minute breathingsession or a three minutes
reading session. And so it givesyou a little tingles on your

(28:31):
wrists to know when to breathein and breathe out. And, and it
does, it works 100% Worth I knowyou're talking about it before
about the taking your breath.
But essentially what it's doingis taking you out of that fight
or flight mode taking you out ofthat, you know, and then into
back into using your cognitivebrain and to be able to respond
rather than react. So I have tobe honest, I ignore it

(28:51):
sometimes. But when I do use itmakes me really get back in the
rice space of mindset frame ofmind. Because I'm back in that
cognitive mindset.

Mark Herring (29:03):
Yeah, yeah, some of the ways that I, I use out
my, my Garmin at the moment, andI have used the Apple Watch and
I will be using the Apple Watchagain, differently for steps.
Like I'm a big one for trying togo out for walks. So I'll either
do a run every second day, youknow, and that gets to quite a
few steps, but just trying toget you know, at least seven and
a half 1000 If I'm running youknow not not running but you

(29:26):
know trying to get 10 or 12 anda half 1000 was talking to a
friend of mine who's reallylooking to get a little bit more
active, you know, was a reallytop level football player but
now he's in his 30s and he sortof you know, let his fitness go
a little bit so that was my mysuggestion to him just get a
really cheap little smartwatchthat's gonna you can get them
for like 60 bucks from thewarehouse or Kmart or whatever,

(29:47):
just something that's going totrack your steps. So it's just
something to kind of like gamifythe whole approach for you. You
know, if you're if you're atschool, why not instead of
sitting in the staff room,having a coffee, walk around the
school, have a chat, you know,steps up or something to prompt
you to get out and there's likea little dopamine reward because
you're like, Wow, awesome. Youknow, Mike kind of flashes and
does these little spiral thingswhen you hit 10,000, which is

(30:08):
silly, but But it's funny. Makesyou want to do. Yeah, yes, I
definitely will do the movething. So I turned on the move
function. So if I don't move, ifit doesn't notice me moving on a
GPS location much, then it'll,it'll prompt me and it tells me
to move. So that's just, if I'min a meeting, obviously, I
can't, but I'll just get up andgo away. But so even just as a

(30:31):
prompt to stand up in meetings,when I'm on a call like this,
you know, like, I'm doing thispodcast standing up at the
moment, because I've got a standup table, desk, but I can
actually sit down as well if Iwant. So it's a reminder to do
that. But you can also set updrink alerts too. So I have had
water apps that you can downloadthem that's not an apple
specific one. It's an externalone. But you can, it'll remind

(30:52):
you, you know, it's time to havea drink. So it obviously doesn't
know when you have because it'snot attached to my stomach. But
yeah, it's just a reminder to beable to go and get some water
and have that drink. So thoseare some of the things, one of
the things that I do like aboutthe body battery. And when I get
the Apple Watch, on the Garmin,there was one of the apps that I
like about the Garmin that Idon't think is on the Apple

(31:13):
Watch at the moment, but itmight be coming or I might look
for a third party is this thingcalled a body battery? Reading.
So what it does is it measuresyour sleep measures your heart
rate, what kind of exerciseyou've had, and probably another
couple of metrics as well, maybebody temperature. But what it's
doing is it's giving you areading, just like your phone
has a battery reading, it'sgiving you a body battery. So at

(31:35):
the moment mine saying I'm downto about 40%. And at the time of
recording, it is one o'clock inthe afternoon when I started
today, I was at 55%

Bex Rose (31:45):
Oh, wow. Yeah. So they weren't even recharge

Mark Herring (31:48):
now, whether I had a terrible sleep, which I had
the normal amount of time, but Ithink the sleep wasn't that
great. But also, what it does isit prompts you to start thinking
about your week and what you'redoing during the day. And it
makes you think about takingregular breaks and all those
types of things. What I'vereflected on is that this week,
so Monday and Tuesday of thisweek, I've had a lot of projects

(32:10):
that I've been doing in theteam. And I've had to do a lot
of galvanizing and a lot ofenabling and tenacity stuff. So
if you've heard us talk aboutthe working genius, my geniuses
aren't wondering invention, Ilove coming up with new ideas,
but asking me to actuallyimplement them and get them on
the table and happening thatdrains me. And so I'm looking at
that going, Ah, I know why I'vestarted the day so tired,

(32:33):
because I've been doing a lot ofthat hard work. And that's okay,
like, I just have to do that. Idon't have anybody to do that
admin work for me as much as Iwould like. So it's just
something to remind you andprompts you,

Bex Rose (32:44):
I think that sleep thing, we can definitely do that
on your iWatch we'll watch we'vejust recently sort of gone
through a six week well beinginternal sort of reflection, I
guess, with a few of us havekind of opted into it. And I'm
not sure if you're on a you'reon a Mac when you hear and
spread. Because you're pretty,you're pretty good. But it was

(33:04):
really it was it was actuallyquite interesting because one of
our one of our team members, sheended up buying a watch
throughout, because she realizedthat she was sleep was just
really irregular. And so shetracks his sleep on it and, and
things like that now and it'sreally an even to screen time.
That's another good one anothergood well being one, it made us

(33:25):
realize how much screen time youknow, we became accountable to
the screen time, that as wellbeing as well, you know, like
making sure that you're notsitting there. Without any
purpose scrolling, we've alreadyhad a podcast about that we can
link it into it about that wholeusing your phone without even
realizing it. I really stole hisword from it. And so yeah, so

(33:47):
keep it as such as theiraccountability. And it's
actually making you realize howmuch your sleep a year in deep
sleep or you fluffing around andjust sleep or you know, and it's
actually quite eye opening. Andone of my friends, he ended up
working out through his watchthe he had sleep apnea, so he
was like dying and asleep and hedidn't even realize. So he'd
been like this massive. Healways struggled with sleep and

(34:10):
didn't really do anything aboutit. And his wife always said
that he was a big snorer and allthis kind of stuff. And then
when he got his app, it realizedthat he was like literally dying
to sleep for the wake up again.
It was crazy. So that's now he'son some, some machinery keeps
getting woken up in the night.
But anyway, that the watch isincredible. I love

Mark Herring (34:30):
it. Yeah, so so just that I think the one other
thing that I just mentionedabout the watch, particularly in
the Apple space, a lot of peopledon't like this segue. So the
first making wave. A lot ofpeople don't realize what Apple
are doing in the AI space. Andthere are a lot of things
happening behind the scenes. NowI haven't had any behind the
scenes conversations with Apple.
This is just what I've read. Andbecause I've explored I've been

(34:50):
like, Well, Google and Microsoftare doing all this amazing
software stuff. What's Appledoing? One of the takes is that
they are working on themicrochips are the process At
the moment, you know that m onem two, and then there's going to
be the M three. That's whatthey're working on to be able to
drive AI engines offline. So youwon't need to have the internet
to be able to run that software,you'll be able to do it all on

(35:11):
this super powerful chip. Sothey're kind of working on the
hardware to be able to run theneuro engine, which is an
interesting take on things. Butwhat Apple are also indicating,
and that's sort of like apredicted trend down the track
that's coming is that they aregoing to plug AI, the software
of AI, that they're developingin with the health metrics on
your watch and your phone. Sothat the data that you're

(35:32):
getting at the moment is verymuch up for interpretation. So
they'll create graphs and statsfor you to be able to interpret
but what the AI will do isthey'll pull all that data, and
then you'll have like a healthcoach on your wrist, that will
be saying, you know, to docertain things, or you need to
up your exercise in there. SoI'm noticing a trend how you
know, like, Siri will actuallybe so cool it quite, you know,
like your sort of personalhealth coach. So that's, that's

(35:56):
something to look forward to. Sono matter what platform you're
on, watch, this can really help.
Now what I what I do want to dois finish up this part of making
waves by saying I know what someof you are thinking and some of
your friends and colleagues andmy wife feels like this about
smartwatches, she wants to getas far away from digital tools
as possible. And she feels likethe last thing she wants us to

(36:18):
have a phone on her wrist. Buthere's the tape that I have on
this, my take is that you canactually use your phone, or your
watch on your wrist as a barrierfrom your phone. So there are
things that you can do if youuse your watch in a smart way to
give you a connection with thethings on your phone that you
need. But it can actually helpcreate a filter at certain times

(36:43):
and in certain ways that youdon't need to be carrying your
phone and have it glued in frontof your face all the time. So
that's that's my strategy withwas partly one of my strategies
with with going to the Garmin isbecause I don't have that
connection with the apps asmuch. But now that I'm going
back to the apple, watch some ofthe things that I'm doing and
some of you may want to thinkabout this, I use the Do Not

(37:03):
Disturb function a lot. I wasjust talking to our director
Mike on the phone this morning.
And I rang him and he said, Whydid that not go through to my
phone, it seems to have gonethrough answering machine and I
said well, maybe you've got DoNot Disturb on and it won't get
through. And that's and I saidto him, that's what I do my
phone is pretty much on Do NotDisturb just about all the time,
it definitely is between thehours of nine o'clock at night
and seven in the morning. So Idon't get any calls or anything

(37:26):
except in the Apple ecosystem inthe settings you can go in and
you can choose your favorites onyour contact list as being
people that can bypass that donot disturb. So we can get a
call from our daughter whodoesn't live with us anymore
during the night. Because it cango go past that do not disturb.
So you can activate that on yourwatch as well. So you can

(37:46):
actually turn your watch so thatyou don't get notifications at
certain times. So you're notactually tethered to your phone
or you're tied to your phonewith all those notifications
coming through. That makessense, right?

Bex Rose (37:58):
Oh, absolutely. I think yeah, being really mindful
of what notifications are comingthrough, though, because there's
been so many meetings where I'vesaid, like I'm thinking about
where I used to work, and I'd behaving a meeting with someone
and then they'd just be likethis all the time. Because they
just get notifications. And Ifound it like, this is not you
know, is that more importantthan me, I'm in a meeting with
you, you know, that kind ofthing. So socially,

Mark Herring (38:19):
when I remember the first time I got an Apple
Watch, I was with a friend ofmine who was a principal. And he
and I was going like thatbecause I was getting text
messages and all that stuff. Andhe said, I do realize that
whenever you do that, it makesme feel like you're just trying
to get out of here and you'relooking at the time

Bex Rose (38:31):
that does, that's what I'm always really wary of is
that if I do look at it, theylike, oh, it's time for time for
you to leave type things.

Mark Herring (38:37):
So it's not, it's not the digital text fault. It's
how its user. It's the user.
That's that's, you know, not notusing it correctly. So it's user
error. But I think I think thereare things that you can do to be
able to stop that fromhappening. But the other thing
that I'm doing what I do in thismigration back to Apple, what
I'm going to try and do is getthe cellular version. Now there
is a small addition additionalfee that you have to pay. But

(39:00):
what I'm looking forward to andI know my wife's looking forward
to is for me to be able to leavemy my phone at home when we go
out for walks or on runs oranything. And I'll just be able
to get any emergency contactsare anything through my phone if
I need it, so I won't need totake my my watch my phone with
me everywhere. So that's anotherway that you can do that. But
um, but something, somethingelse that I think is quite good

(39:22):
for people to just realize isthat you can turn that do not
disturb on and off real fast. Sojust top right hand corner of
your watch, scroll down, do notdisturb and then you're good to
go. So something to think abouthow can how can my watch cat in
combination with my phone helpedme be more well rested? How can
I keep an eye on my energylevels? And how can I actually

(39:45):
use it as a filter between me onthe phone so they don't need to
be so connected all the time. Sojust something to think about
with that watch and phone have alook at it. We've got a link
here of all of the differentwellbeing apps that you have in
the Apple ecosystem as well. Youcan jump in there and Have a
look at that there's a lot ofmindfulness apps, there's the
comm app that I know is wins alot of awards, and a lot of

(40:05):
people talk about as well. Sowhat's the phone? Here's, here's
the last one something to finishon something a little bit light
hearted. Just, I know that a lotof the tools that we're using
with students in schools arealways adapting and always
changing and adding morefeatures. And one of the one of
our favorite tools to use inschools, particularly for
feedback and giving students achance to have a voice is what

(40:26):
would you say? What's the numberone tool of putting on the spot
Beck's he goes, I've got noidea. What it's the flip app
platform in the MicrosoftMicrosoft ecosystem. So whether
you're a Google school or aMicrosoft school flip is a great
way for you to be able to sharecontent with your students in a

(40:48):
video format, and then yourstudents to be able to share
that you knew that you just youknow

Bex Rose (40:53):
I did. I'm sorry, I just didn't know which way
you'll go with this is authenticpodcasting is that I don't read
through his notes, we actuallyhave a conversation.

Mark Herring (41:04):
So if you haven't used flip before, definitely
have a look at it. Reach out tous. If you'd like to find out
more. We've got expert trainers,some of our mie trainers and
fellows can help you with that.
But anybody in any ecosystem canuse it, which is one of the
great things. But I just wantedto mention to people that one of
the latest updates that flipperput out is the ability to make
comments on your videos that youupload. Now that is doesn't need

(41:26):
to be activated in the settings,obviously. But now you've also
got this really neat threadedcomment function. So if you make
a comment on one of the studentswork, or a student makes a
comment on another student'swork, you can hit the three dots
in the top right hand corner,and you can hit Reply to Thread
or reply to comment. And so nowyou get this nice little
discussion happening and goingoff in different ways. Now a lot

(41:47):
of people might be thinking,Well, why don't you just talk to
them about it? Why would I wantto write on a comment if I'm in
the same class? Well, for a lotof you in high school, you're
not in the same class all day,every day. And for a lot of
people who are you know, doingremote learning, but also to
capture those conversations in awritten form is a really good
way to be able to get thathomeschool partnership going if

(42:09):
it's parents commenting, youknow, the wider wider family and
farno and that type of thing aswell. So really jump, I would
just really encourage people tojump in, we'll put a link in
the, in the show notes to that.
There's a link there and a nicelittle video from flip that they
made that shows you how thatworks in on one of their Twitter

(42:30):
posts recently. Cool. Soundsgood. Nice, right? All right,
well, that's making waves forthis week. So three different
things there heaps of resourcesthat you can jump into, we'll
put those in the show notes foryou. If you want to go into that
you know any of those linksthere, share them with people
share this podcast with peopleif you know that you're working
with someone, if you're a middleleader, and you've got a leader
at your school, who you know isprobably not across the AI, grab

(42:53):
that AI dilemma. Link, grab thelink to this podcast, share it
with them, spread things aroundas much as possible with people
and raise that awareness. Well,that was a great conversation. I
ran lots of different topicstoday. So like we said, if
you're interested in any of thelinks from some of the things
that we talked about lots ofresources, lots of website

(43:13):
leaders to be able to go thereand share with lots of other
people go into our show notes,you'll be able to see everything
there and share them away. Ifyou haven't subscribed
definitely do that. We'd love tobe able to reach as many people
as possible. And that's one waythat you can get notifications
of when we publish and Bix, Ithink you were going to share
one little thing to think aboutbefore we go.

Bex Rose (43:33):
Yeah, I think this this AI stuff in particular I
know is on the hot topic for allof you out there. I was at a
board meeting last night and itcame up at the board meeting.
It's just It's on the tip ofeveryone's tongues. Now we've
got trainers who are absolutelyacross everything that's coming
out, they're getting updates,they're getting across it
straight away. If you feel likeyou needed a supporting hand

(43:55):
through this, even if it isaround working out how you're
going to deploy this kind ofstuff in your school, hit us up
bix@utb.bz And we can come andhave a chat about how we can
support you in this. You don'thave to do this on your own. And
we're seeing what's happeningacross schools in New Zealand,
Australia and across the world.
So don't reinvent the wheel.
We've got this common hex comeand ask us for some help.

Mark Herring (44:18):
Fantastic. Well, I think anybody who's got got that
website, their email addressbooks at UTB dot B said
differently, give you a call andthen we can have conversation
around that. Great to have youon the podcast. See on the next
one.
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