73: Two Ed Tech Gurus "Walk" Into a Zoom Room..., An Innovative Conversation with Leena Marie Saleh, Design Educator at Canva and THE Ed Tech Guru

0:01 Hello, my name is Holly Owens and welcome to Ed up edtech the podcast that keeps you. In the know about all the latest edtech happenings. We interview guests from around the globe to give you deeper insights into the Ed tech industry, the field of instructional design, and more, we're proudly a part of America's leading podcast Network the Ed up, experience. It's time to sit back and enjoy. Enjoy the latest episode of Ed up attack.

0:41 Here's what's coming up on this episode. I made a decision to leave the classroom. I was just ready for something new. My principal had actually told me that I was too Innovative but I had seen previously. Yeah, to Innovative. That is not a phrase. You want to say to teachers? Hmm, I love talking and tagging transitioning teachers and getting Into the space and instructional design. I just all the things I think the future of Ed Tech it just isn't going away. I get needs to be embraced.

1:21 It's a challenge to keep lesson plans, fresh and find new ways to engage students from kindergarten to undergrad. Changing up their learning experience can change. Everything. Goose chase is the original interactive experience platform to create Dynamic learning experiences, get creative, boost collaboration and bring learning to life, is your students earn points and have fun. Just for showing what they know is a goose chase.com to learn how schools across the globe or using, Goose chase. It's free to sign up and start building your first experience. Hello everyone, and welcome to another fantastic episode of Ed up. Ed Tech. My name is Holly Owens and I'm your host.

2:04 And today, I am very excited to have a fellow, Ed tech nerd on the show with me. I have Lena Marie Saleh and she's a design, educator. I canva and she's also known as the Ed Tech. Guru Lena, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited. I am to because we're going to get in the all kinds of conversations about edtech and nerd out on attack. I love it. My friend, Lou cops, and we love the nerd out instructional design, but you and I are going to nerd out on it Tech. I love it, I'm so excited. So before we jump into all the things that you're doing a canva and being this a tech Guru, why don't you tell the audience about yourself and how you journeyed into the Ed Tech space? Alright, sure.

2:52 So I taught in the classroom for about 10 years, my first like, real about into the glass room number walking into my student teaching, and the kids were like in rows and they were just doing worksheet after worksheet after worksheet. And I thought to myself, wow, this looks exactly how I learned when I was in the classroom. So I made this like note to myself like this is not what I'm going to do. He was a great educator and he did really great things but it just wasn't what I wanted to do. So right around like my second or third year teaching, Teaching, I actually started teaching at a stem school and just I started going to like anything that I could tech-wise to like, bring it into my classroom. And so that's kind of how my journey into Tech kind of began and then throughout the years, kind of peppered in some of that edtech presented at conferences and started sharing my love of edtech in the education space and then about almost five years ago.

3:43 Now, the can't believe it's been that long. I made a decision to leave the classroom. I was just ready for something new. My principal had actually told me that I was Innovative well, but I had seen previously. Yeah, I had a Makerspace and I had seen kids do all kinds of stuff like in the Fab Lab and so I had actually moved into like the traditional classroom when I moved. I originally, I'm from Denver, and so, when I moved from Denver to Austin, Texas, I started teaching in like, a traditional school. And, and that's where the teacher told me that I would have. My principal told me that I was like, okay, I'm done fighting this battle. Yes, this is a very uphill battle, I know it's like, okay, I'm I'm going to do this. So then I started looking into Ed Tech and I actually was a meet-up, organizer of a group called a tech, Austin at the time.

4:27 And we have like 2,500 like active participant. Kind of Mary, the partnership between Ed Tech in education. So I knew there was a space for teachers in the space and so then I started working at a company called code monkey and so I designed their professional development and did a lot of trainings and then about a year ago I found myself at canva so that's kind of a Journey Begins. Yeah I love that. We have a lot in common. And I've stalked your LinkedIn obviously, but we have a lot in common like I started as a teacher and the principal was like, going to be that Tech person. I'm like okay I'm falling in love with it from there but really that's a great journey. I can't believe your principal said that who's saying that I bet she bites herself now. Yeah, definitely definitely least, I hope so too Innovative. That is not a phrase.

5:15 You want to say to teachers, hmm, exactly. Do you have being in the space force long as You have been. Do you have a favorite education-related quote that you want to share with the audience? Sure. Yeah. So I actually chose the quote, by Malcolm X which is education is the passport to the Future for tomorrow. I like longs to those who prepare for it today. So I'm just a really big advocate of preparing students for Workforce Readiness which I think is what a tech actually does. It actually gives us the tools to think, critically and communicate and all of those types of things for a Old that doesn't exist right now. Yeah, we're twins.

5:55 They're absolutely at Tech is the foray into the future of things. And so being, is it that you believe those things? How would you personally? Define educational technology? This is one of my favorite questions of the episode. Such a good question. So to personally Define education technology. I think a lot of times teachers, get a tech, a bit wrong, it is a tool meant to enhance the learning that you're already doing. So instead of doing monotonous, grades monotonous pounds of paper and Grading that way can actually enhance the learning that you're already doing in the classroom and I think it takes away a lot of the work load and can be really leverage to really help. Enhance your classroom make students more engaged.

6:38 And that's what I think about education technology. I don't think about it as them going to play a video game or something like that. I think about it that it's enriching. All of the things that you're doing in the classroom. And that's just really how I Define a Teaching technology, I like that definition. And I remember being a classroom. This sort of clickers doesn't exist. Anymore was called CPS clickers. And when somebody at the board of ed trained me and showed me that with between Class periods, I can give my students a paper test but they would be answering on the clickers. And then I could transfer the grades in five minutes to the Gradebook. My life was forever changed, right? Like how cool is that? How much time does not save you? And I also think about it is when you start actually doing like I started Flipping my classroom like years ago and when I started doing that, I was like, oh my gosh, this is so much easier to plan for the next school year.

7:27 Don't have as much stress as much anxiety, because everything's already there for you and ready to go. And you just have to change and modify Based on data and Trends and those types of things. But yes, and it just Emanuel in this of it all just Fades to the background which I really love. But on the other side of that, like the students are having fun and you're having fun and to me, that equals learning. Exactly. Yeah. Alright. So we know you're Take a guru. You have all the experience you know all the things but I want to know your work, a canva. So tell us for those people who have been living under a rock. What is canva? What products or services does Campbell author and helping institutions, and organizations and education?

8:10 Yeah, so canva actually has a camera for Education product, which a lot of people tend to think I still see teachers say the same thing but camera for education is actually free. We for all Educators in the kids space, we have it for individually for teachers. And then also as a whole District product and offering. So everyone in the entire School site, talking to your custodial staff front office staff, your students, every single person in that building can actually have access to canva and it's all of the pro features which is so amazing. And if you don't know what canva is, we call it a visual communication tool. So it used to just be you think of it as going there to design, but we like to think of it as a tool that you can, you can utilize in your classroom all day.

8:51 Every day students can create, you can collaborate, you can communicate with one another and just enhancing those like Workforce 21st century Timeless skills. And then what I do at Campa and what my team does is we basically curate and create the resources for teachers. So for me specifically, I create the resources that are clc's are Campbell learning. Consultants, will go to the schools and deliver trainings on how to use canva in the classroom. So it could be how to capture the Student Learning Journey. It could be building collaboration in whiteboard so those different pieces and parts and that's what we do. So if anyone's ever interested just no camera for education is free, don't need to pay for it and you get all of the pro features which is so amazing.

9:31 It is so I love the camera. Does that really speaks a lot about the company and how much they value Educators? And, you know, the whole learning space. Absolutely. Yeah. And the founders are actually they come from like a family of Educators and they actually taught in the higher ed space. Them was a history professor. And then Mel, she actually taught at the college level. So it's, they're just really, really passionate about education. Yeah, educators are everywhere. You know, we're invading the space in a good way and heck instructional design, instructional technology, and I love it because we having so much to the table. Hmm.

10:11 So you work a canvas. Oh, there's so many different questions I want to ask you and get into. This could probably be much longer podcast. But what do you enjoy most? Most about creating these training or learning experiences for educators and what kind of feedback have you gone from those Educators about how they're using canva in the classroom, it's a challenge to keep lesson plans, fresh and find new ways to engage students from kindergarten to undergrad. Changing up their learning experience can change. Everything Goose, chases the original interactive experience platform to create Dynamic learning experiences, create your experience in just a few clicks. Build your own. Jenner choose from an ever-expanding library of experiences created by Educators.

10:55 Just like you, you can even reuse experiences for every class every year then it's Goose time students, participate, Solo or in teams as they complete missions in an easy to use app. While you track live results and engagement, get creative boost collaboration and bring learning to life as your students earn points and have fun. Just for showing what they know. Goose chase experiences are easy to run and the ultimate way to live Yup. Your lesson plan visit goose chase.com to learn how schools across the globe are using goose, chase. It's free to sign up and start building your first experience. Hmm, such a good question. Oh, I did that on the spot. I love it on the spot.

11:38 Questions are usually the best ones. So what I love about, what I do is that this past year alone, we actually launched this program when I came on and we service about 21,000 teachers already in this space and you say 21,000 yeah. People who have like attended a camp a training and so I just find that to be so impactful. I think about me being in the walls of the classroom. And just my students and just servicing, only my district. And now I'm servicing teachers all across the country. So I think that's the thing that I love the most. I've been a longtime user of canva for years and years before, canva had the education product. And I told all my friends about it, I've used it for my YouTube.

12:18 I've used it my husband and his like consultant business, he uses it and it's just something I've been like an advocate of for, for a long time. So it's funny that I ironically found myself here now, but it just so cool to be able to see that you're designing. Something and other people are using Dang it. You're seeing the implications throughout Twitter and Facebook Community groups, and people just getting so excited about it. The feedback is always camera has a lot. How do we dial it down? That is going to meet the teachers needs and how can they see it? But once they see it, they start using it start experiencing it. It's just so amazing. We just did a webinar the other day and there was 700 people in the webinar. Oh my God, which is probably one of the largest I've done, like for just education itself. People are actively staying on the whole time. It was two hours and people they are so excited. Yes, yes.

13:08 O engage in like interacting. Oh, I can't believe it does this and I can't believe it does this and oh this is so amazing. I can't wait to see if so much time. Oh, I don't have to use this tool anymore and so I just think that that's feedback that we love to hear and just knowing that and kind of knowing where teachers are, we're always listening. So I think you as an instructional designer and myself designing, this sort of content, we do a lot of listening, I call it all. Most like voyeuristic, you know, yeah, being on pages to like listen, what teachers are saying, because it's what they're not saying, or the questions that they're asking, not knowing that we're in these groups listening to them. That's just so so insightful. And I think those are the biggest like feedbacks. You can get from like a webinar or attending a workshop and sitting in the back and just listening to people. That's the best way to kind of get your authentic feedback. Yes.

13:55 I think they feel like when they're filling out a survey and because we already know you're you're such a good trainer and I'm sure teen is a, you know, great trainers like Going to give you all the the five stars but when you really listen in and you're like, seeing how they're they're actively using it and the features and the tools that you're saying that they're using with in canva and you get those specific examples as what I really love. Yeah. Me too. Yeah. And and I think it's great education. I think since the pandemic and I know this was happening before but the amount of teachers that are sharing what they're creating and sharing it just like sharing like a Campbell link and be like, hey, you can borrow this. You can Use this to for your classroom. I just find that to be so moving.

14:36 Yeah and I wish that had existed when I was in the classroom NATO it felt like they were just trying to build some stuff before the canvas of the world came out to make people share across like repositories and databases. You know like the LMS is would build you know, some things like canvas has the commons and then you can pull stuff in from that but there didn't really feel like there was a space for everyone to go like what you're saying about canva is its although you have this education. Space for K through 12 Educators it spans across sectors, really, hmm. And I love that about the tool, like I can be in my education mindset or I can be in my corporate mindset, or I can be in my entrepreneur mindset and I'm using canva for are all the things.

15:17 Exactly. And I think that also translates to the students. What I love about canva and other rules like that are that it empowers you to use it exactly what you're saying. Like students can see it. They can be like, oh I want to start like a lemonade stand so I'm going to make a flyer or I I want to show someone how they could build a website. I just think what you're saying for like, what teachers can use it for is also the same on the flip side for students and I think that's also really powerful piece. Yes. And it's not just like, oh, there's another Ed Tech Tool to try, you know, this really serves a purpose and it's going to be something that can span across what people are going to be using in the workforce. It's here, it's going to stay and it's going to continue to evolve to what's happening out there with all the different jobs.

15:57 Yep, exactly. Yeah. So is there anything you can share about? That you're doing within your department or within canva as a whole that's for the upcoming year. Don't violate any NVA agreements also on the Ed Tech Guru side? What it, what are some things you have going on that you can share. Okay. So for the canvas I'd we have a lot of really great things coming. A lot of things I can't really share with you right now, but we will be having canva create in March. And last year, we did our first ever like live event, where we announced like all the new features and tools and things. And I think, teachers, And just regular users are going to be so excited about some of the things that were coming. Some really cool stuff coming if you haven't already done. So we did release canva docks this year and we will be releasing magic, right?

16:46 Which I don't know if anyone knows that. But basically what I know it now is it is right? And it's basically like chat GPT, it's basically the same sort of functionality seem like open source software, whatever his I don't worry. Call that open a I open source AI ya situation. Yeah yeah okay so I'll try that again. Yeah. I'm going to so many different words we use as you know and it was some Buzz words like these make sense if we use these together. Yeah. So the open source AI is actually in there. So we will be soon releasing magic right to users was just trying to figure out the best way to do that and so teachers also feel safe in the space, but if you haven't already checked that out, I definitely recommend it as it is.

17:32 Table for a pro and all the other ones just kind of turned off her education right now but it's amazing. It's so cool. It is so cool. I love it so much. So Ed Tech Guru area. What are you doing? What are you working on one or some projects and things you have going on there. So we are going to myself. I'm going to continue. I've done some like teacher transition expert Series this year about how teachers can transition out of the space and talk with industry experts and actually Holly is going to be a guest star as well. So look out for that soon. And then So just talking a little bit, I'm going to turn more of the Ed Tech side on. I haven't done much with like diving into like the edtech part but a lot of like focusing on like how you can use canva and how you can do different pieces and parts of that this year. So I'm really excited about that. And what's kind of on the Forefront for that? It's going to be fun.

18:20 And there's going to be so many people there that we get to connect with. And I can't wait. I love talking edtech and transitioning, teachers, and getting into this space and instructional design. I just all the things Things. It's so much fun and it's the time people that I talk to they're like really intimidated by the space. I'm like oh no. Like you are welcome here and you're going to excel in this space 100%. Yeah. And I think just once you take like to say like a no thank you. Taste of like exploring the world of it attack the skills that you learn in one program they kind of change but they are transferable. So I has that's the important thing to remember. Absolutely.

19:01 All right so we're coming up. On the end of the episode here and I know you're going to have to come back because we need to talk more canva and Ed Tech stuff. Is there anything else that you'd like to share before we conclude and then I want to know from you being the Ed Tech Guru and this is a lot of pressure. What does the future of edtech? Look like anything that we missed you want to share and what does the future look like? As far as anything we missed. I don't really think so. I think we've covered quite a bit of different things. I guess I've mentioned this before but just always, always always try to take a no, thank you, taste of at Tech. I think if you don't like one tool, then try another and whenever you do find one, just hone in on that one and get really good at it.

19:46 Like, don't try to do 10 at Tech tools, all at once. I agree. I agree. This diagram overwhelming. Uh-huh. Yeah. And you just will be, you're just just you just won't do it. So I think it's important to just take one breathe and go through it. Yeah. And then for your question about, what does the future of Ed Tech look? Like I think we're going to start to see a I really start to play a really big pivotal role in edtech and whether that's on the front side or whether that's more. So in the back side we already have a lot of the AI integrated already on the back side of things. I think it's going to play a bigger role on the front side, but I think the future of Ed Tech Just isn't going away.

20:27 I get needs to be embraced. So, I think we've seen bits and pieces of people, kind of making a little bit of change. Has it the pandemic, but I'm hoping that the future AKA this next year. People really start to embrace it a bit more and bring it into their classrooms and not think of it as another thing, but think about it as the place for delivery. And the thing that's going to make your life easier and it's way easier to personalize students. Learning by using and leveraging these at Tech tools. Yes, I love what you said and I know where you're going that because there's so much resistance out there. Still even post pandemic, like people wanting to go back to like old ways of doing things that aren't necessarily effective.

21:11 Based on Research, I love the direction in which a lot more people because the pandemic happened are embracing a tech which it's about time is long overdue, right? Absolutely. % Melina, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to come on the show. And speaking to our audience, about all the wonderful things you're doing in canva being a tech, Guru sharing all that information, everything in the show notes about Lena is going to be there, including canva where to find your own LinkedIn. So make sure you go there and thanks for coming on. Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed you and can't wait to share this with your audience, me, too. You've just experienced an another amazing episode. So Dove Ed up edtech.

21:58 Be sure to visit our website at Ed up, edtech.com to get all the updates on the latest edtech happenes. See you next time.