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Speaker 1: So let's take video games. Our students serve on these

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Speaker 1: video games. You know, for my generation it was like

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Speaker 1: stay off the games, are you kidding? Get them on

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Speaker 1: the games. And we have academic e sports. We're able

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Speaker 1: to take that passion, that energy of playing and pathway

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Speaker 1: it into our stem STEAM program. When you look at

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Speaker 1: video gaming, you're talking about coding, you're talking about broadcasting,

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Speaker 1: business opportunities, innovation, and we want to empower our students

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Speaker 1: not just to play, but play to learn, play to create.

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Speaker 1: So we're now looking at those areas like video gaming,

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Speaker 1: gamification and helping students to learn a different way around academics.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland. As you

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Speaker 1: may know, I've spent the last fifteen years covering technology

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Speaker 1: and learning how it works, demystifying everything from massive parallel

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Speaker 1: processing to advanced robotics and everything in between. Yet it's

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Speaker 1: the conversations with some of the most forward thinking leaders,

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Speaker 1: those at the intersection of technology and business that fascinated

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Speaker 1: me the most. Dr Robbie Melton is a pioneer when

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Speaker 1: it comes to applying technological solutions to enhance education. She's

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Speaker 1: been evaluating emerging technologies for more than two decades, meaning

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Speaker 1: she has seen incredible transformation in the tech space, from

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Speaker 1: the emergence of Web two point oh to the adoption

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Speaker 1: of the smartphone and beyond. And it became clear in

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Speaker 1: my conversation with her that whenever any development in tech

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Speaker 1: hits her radar, she's immediately evaluating it for its potential

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Speaker 1: role in education. Dr Robbie Melton is clearly a restless one.

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Speaker 1: She has endless amounts of energy and enthusiasm. She's also

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Speaker 1: the first E sports leader I've had on this show.

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Speaker 1: It's not often you get to sit down with an

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Speaker 1: educator and administrator who also has a certification in E sports.

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Speaker 1: I knew that our conversation was going to be lively

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Speaker 1: and cover a ton of material. There is a long

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Speaker 1: history of educators finding novel ways to leverage technology for

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Speaker 1: the purposes of teaching others, and Robbie didn't disappoint me.

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Speaker 1: But before we jumped into all of that, I wanted

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Speaker 1: to know how she got started with using tech and education.

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Speaker 1: I did not expect her answer to take me back

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Speaker 1: to my own childhood days in the arcade. I want

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Speaker 1: to welcome you to the show, Robbie Welcome to the

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Speaker 1: restless ones, and welcome to you too. This is exciting

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Speaker 1: for me for multiple reasons. I'm a huge lover of technology.

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Speaker 1: I'm also the son of two educators, including a college professor,

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Speaker 1: so this is a topic that is near and dear

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Speaker 1: to my heart. Oh, you're talking to the right person,

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Speaker 1: because I am what they used to say long time ago,

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Speaker 1: geeked out and ready to go because technology is amazing.

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Speaker 1: I agree, and I wanted to learn more about your journey.

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Speaker 1: What specifically drew you toward that particular field. In my journey,

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Speaker 1: I started out as a special education teacher and I

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Speaker 1: always tried to look for tools that will help students

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Speaker 1: to learn. So be Yon the internet way in the

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Speaker 1: yester years of the nineteen seventies, I kept searching for

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Speaker 1: tools and low and behole. There was a little game

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Speaker 1: called pac Man, and I said, I can use that

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Speaker 1: game to enhance teaching and learning. So are you all

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Speaker 1: know pac Man? It helped with eye hand coordination, It

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Speaker 1: helped with attention span, and it was fun. That started

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Speaker 1: my journey in technology, and I kept looking for those

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Speaker 1: tools that would help all of our students. That is

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Speaker 1: an incredible story and the amazing thing about the Internet

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Speaker 1: was giving so much access to information that otherwise you

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Speaker 1: would just never even know existed. What were some of

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Speaker 1: the things that when they happened you were thinking, this

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Speaker 1: is a sea change in the area of mobile education.

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Speaker 1: The fact that you could carry around that device that

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Speaker 1: would give you access to the entire world. I mean

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Speaker 1: you're carrying it in your pocket. That was a revolution

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Speaker 1: to me. The fact that you could just type in

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Speaker 1: a question your thoughts, what if, and you could now

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Speaker 1: get information back from all over the world. So with

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Speaker 1: that revolution of having access at any time, any place, anywhere,

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Speaker 1: that's a miracle for education. Moving forward, the next big

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Speaker 1: step is what I call connectivity. We know it as smart.

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Speaker 1: I mean, all of a sudden, I have smart shoes.

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Speaker 1: How about smart clothing, smart utensil. We now have artificial intelligence,

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Speaker 1: we have AI. We have the ability now to look

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Speaker 1: at whether it's teaching, learning, workforce and put it online

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Speaker 1: all over so we can grow and learn from each other.

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Speaker 1: You've touched on so much that we love to talk

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Speaker 1: about on the show, just in that statement, because so

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Speaker 1: many different technologies have to converge to make that example possible. Right,

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Speaker 1: we have the concept of mantorization with sensors and the

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Speaker 1: ability to pair those sensors with some form of transmitter

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Speaker 1: so that you have the connectivity. We have to have

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Speaker 1: the underlying infrastructure to enable that connectivity, and with the

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Speaker 1: advent of five G, we now have this amazing ability

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Speaker 1: to do that at a level that's faster with less latency,

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Speaker 1: which opens up incredible opportunities for the application of technologies

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Speaker 1: that in the past you would have to have massive

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Speaker 1: cables connecting the tech to whatever compute system, the edge

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Speaker 1: computing that's required in order to do that processing very

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Speaker 1: close to where you're doing the computing. All of these

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Speaker 1: elements had to come together, and I'm always fascinated by that.

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Speaker 1: And the thing that inspires me is not that technology,

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Speaker 1: but the possibilities that technology enables, particularly in the field

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Speaker 1: of education. How do you stay up to date with

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Speaker 1: what is going on in technology so that you are

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Speaker 1: educated yourself. Technology is about learning. Every day there's a

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Speaker 1: new innovation that can make a change with teaching and learning.

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Speaker 1: So Jonathan, I'm ready to hear, too, explore, and to

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Speaker 1: try new technology. Ten years ago, I saw some technology

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Speaker 1: where you can order a pizza a pizza without saying

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Speaker 1: anything without pointing, just using your eyes ten years ago. Well,

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Speaker 1: guess what, everyone Domino has that technology. So my job

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Speaker 1: is to go where no educator has gone before and

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Speaker 1: to look at the future and say, okay, how can

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Speaker 1: this help teaching and learning and workforce development? Every day.

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Speaker 1: I'm excited about the possibilities to come well to that end,

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Speaker 1: you know, saying that's your job in that you're valuing

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Speaker 1: technologies and you're looking at ways where they can be

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Speaker 1: leveraged into education. Can you talk a bit more specifically

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Speaker 1: about your role and how that manifests very good? So,

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Speaker 1: as you know, you have technology that's current, your traditional

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Speaker 1: technology the Internet. However, when I'm able to meet with

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Speaker 1: whether it's people, companies and see that there's something new

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Speaker 1: that will enhance teaching and learning, I'm able to do pilots.

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Speaker 1: I'm able to get a group of people from all

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Speaker 1: stakeholders to say, let's look at this new connected device

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Speaker 1: of and I'm gonna just give a teachable moment of

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Speaker 1: smart shoes. Smart shoes. What are we talking about? Well,

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Speaker 1: look at smart shoes where it is providing on time

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Speaker 1: data of how I'm walking when I'm walking, as well

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Speaker 1: as if you're in physical therapy, do I have to

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Speaker 1: make adjustments in those shoes. That means we have the

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Speaker 1: technology where I put on my shoes, and if I'm

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Speaker 1: in therapy, my therapist could be in Alaska and I'm

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Speaker 1: here in Nashville and she can make adjustments to say, hey, Robbie,

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Speaker 1: I noticed that you didn't walk today because my shoes

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Speaker 1: snitched on me. Can you imagine I used that as

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Speaker 1: a teacher but a moment to let people know how

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Speaker 1: technology can change so that they're not afraid of tele medicine.

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Speaker 1: Tell a heell and tell a learning On average, how

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Speaker 1: many of these sort of pilot programs are running throughout

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Speaker 1: a year. We have innovations coming in at all time.

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Speaker 1: We're able to look filter and say this might have potential,

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Speaker 1: and then have teams to then pilot, and then of

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Speaker 1: course we collaborate with universities organization across the globe. Amazing.

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Speaker 1: So another topic I definitely want to talk to you

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Speaker 1: about is mixed reality. I feel like technology is particularly

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Speaker 1: like five G connectivity, which enables the ability to have

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Speaker 1: an untethered experience with mixed reality so you're not trapped

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Speaker 1: to a PC. I feel like that opens up entirely

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Speaker 1: new opportunities, particularly in the world of immersive learning. Could

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Speaker 1: you talk to us a bit about the use of

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Speaker 1: mixed reality when it comes to education, That is the

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Speaker 1: civil billity in education. Immersive learning, for the first time

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Speaker 1: in the history of mankind, we can take education from

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Speaker 1: a passive level, moving not only to an active but

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Speaker 1: you are in the education. Instead of sitting and reading

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Speaker 1: a book, we can put you in the book, and

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Speaker 1: not only in the book. You can then manipulate, you

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Speaker 1: can create. You are there. And with immersive learning in

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Speaker 1: terms of learning retention, in terms of comprehension, in terms

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Speaker 1: of creativity. I mean, you're talking about a world where

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Speaker 1: you're studying history. You can go back, you can see,

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Speaker 1: you can hear, you can talk, And what we're seeing

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Speaker 1: right now is just the tip of the iceberg. Right now,

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Speaker 1: you're immersed in there. But what's coming you'll be able

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Speaker 1: to not only touch while you're in immersive technology. But

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Speaker 1: you're talking about the odors and all of that. Do

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Speaker 1: you know what that would do to education? If I

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Speaker 1: want to go to the Grand Canyon, guess what I

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Speaker 1: put on my goggles And by the way, you know,

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Speaker 1: they are going to change they're going to be as

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Speaker 1: simple as you're wearing glasses or contact lenses and you're

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Speaker 1: able to go into the Grand Canyon and you can

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Speaker 1: see all around you, you can touch, you can feel,

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Speaker 1: you can smell. This is an amazing revolution for education. SI.

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Speaker 1: I always go a little crazy when I start thinking

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Speaker 1: about those applications and think about how I would have

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Speaker 1: applied them back when I was in school, and I

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Speaker 1: think about things like being able to virtually visit locations

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Speaker 1: that are separated by distance in time and only that,

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Speaker 1: but with this ability to have an interconnected experience, so

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Speaker 1: it's not just one on one. I could be put

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Speaker 1: there with my fellow classmates, with the professor, and to

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Speaker 1: be able to have an interactive experience, you get away,

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Speaker 1: as you say, from that passive mode of education where

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Speaker 1: you're reading and you're going to lectures and you're trying

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Speaker 1: to associate these ideas with something more concrete. On top

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Speaker 1: of all that, it is potentially a way of giving

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Speaker 1: people who would otherwise have absolutely no ability to experience

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Speaker 1: these things that capability. Obviously, the digital divide is still

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Speaker 1: something we have to address, still an issue, but this

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Speaker 1: having the tools there is one step closer to being

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Speaker 1: able to address that disparity. Is the digital divide something

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Speaker 1: that you yourself focus on in your work. Of course,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about the world where Internet is still impossible.

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Speaker 1: Just think, if you're able to access the Internet and

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Speaker 1: someone cannot, you are now light years ahead of that

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Speaker 1: person when it comes to education and the workforce. And

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Speaker 1: you know, our digital workforce today requires you to have

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Speaker 1: these basic digital literacies. When I travel around, I immediately

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Speaker 1: address that through my networks and with the educational global

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Speaker 1: networks of saying, we now have to provide WiFi internet

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Speaker 1: and now we already have the tools and the content.

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Speaker 1: Conventional thinking says you have to pay more to get more.

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Speaker 1: I want the world. But T Mobile for Business uses

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Speaker 1: unconventional thinking to deliver premium benefits for better r o I.

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Speaker 1: From customized five G solutions to three sixties support, we

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Speaker 1: help you reach your business goals right now. I wanted

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Speaker 1: now innovating to improve business today and tomorrow. That's unconventional

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Speaker 1: thinking from T Mobile for Business. Capable device required covers

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Speaker 1: not available in some areas some US require certain clatter features.

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Speaker 1: CET mobile dot com Being able to level up everybody

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Speaker 1: is absolutely critical and we've seen it in person for

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Speaker 1: the last couple of years. The pandemic obviously shifted things

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Speaker 1: so dramatically where the need for remote access basic tools

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Speaker 1: for us to be able to continue education or to

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Speaker 1: continue our work, that became evident. And to see stories

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Speaker 1: about children having to go hang out in a parking

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Speaker 1: lot so that they could tap into the WiFi of

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Speaker 1: a nearby business just so that they could continue their education,

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Speaker 1: it really does illustrate how that connectivity is. That's like

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Speaker 1: the foundation that everything else is built upon. If you

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Speaker 1: don't have that piece, nothing else works. And not only that,

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Speaker 1: without that piece, you are now impacting your own career

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Speaker 1: and workforce. Again today you're talking about a digital workforce

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Speaker 1: all across the globe. And if you do not have

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Speaker 1: access to the network, and again I'm saying up to

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Speaker 1: date networks, that's where all of the connectivity comes in.

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Speaker 1: You can't have immersive learning without five G networks coming in.

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Speaker 1: But here's some good news. I'm a newsperson upon access.

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Speaker 1: We have open education globally where regardless of where you are,

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Speaker 1: you can access free information from pre K all the

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Speaker 1: way to lifelong learning and once let pieces in place,

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Speaker 1: so many other opportunities open up. I'm also curious, are

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Speaker 1: there any technologies that have emerged over your time and

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Speaker 1: working in this space that particularly surprised you or excited you,

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Speaker 1: Something that came along and just the lightbulb came on

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Speaker 1: over your head. Yes, okay, I love this. There's an

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Speaker 1: app called Sign for Me. Now, I'm a special educator

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Speaker 1: and I can sign, read, brail whatever with the app

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Speaker 1: Sign for Me. It allows you to speak and guess

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Speaker 1: what you see a person signing while you're speaking. Do

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Speaker 1: you know the impact of that? You mean to tell me,

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Speaker 1: I have my phone that I'm carrying all around and

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Speaker 1: I can now speak and you can see sign language.

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Speaker 1: You know, Jonathan, I cried. I cried because that opened

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Speaker 1: up a whole world for a group of people who

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Speaker 1: have been cut off. And so it's that type of technology,

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Speaker 1: that type of creativity innovation that you would never know

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Speaker 1: how it will change a life. You already invoked the

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Speaker 1: spirit of Star Trek earlier with educators where none have

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Speaker 1: gone before. And the signing app sounds an awful lot

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Speaker 1: like the promise of the Universal translator, which again is

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Speaker 1: something that we're starting to see emerge thanks to connectivity

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Speaker 1: to machine learning too, voice recognition and things that are

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Speaker 1: were just a few years ago incredibly incredibly hard, and

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Speaker 1: now we're starting to see apps that tap into that

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Speaker 1: amazing technology and capability and be able to do things

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Speaker 1: like provide real time translation between people who do not

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Speaker 1: share a common language. One thing that I definitely want

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Speaker 1: to talk to you about, Robbie, is that in this

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Speaker 1: process of evaluating technologies and determining how they might be

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Speaker 1: leveraged in the educational field, obviously a big part of

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Speaker 1: that is establishing relationships with tech companies, and I'm curious

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Speaker 1: about what your processes. So the process is this, we

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Speaker 1: look at our needs in terms of being prepared digitally.

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Speaker 1: We then outline a plan and we approach various companies

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Speaker 1: to see what support and that support can be in

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Speaker 1: terms of tools, devices, training and opportunities, whether it's internships,

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Speaker 1: a in a ship. So I'm gonna use a current

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Speaker 1: situation in which a collaborative of the historically black colleges

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Speaker 1: and universities known as hbc US went to Apple with

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Speaker 1: a proposal saying, as a collective, we need the tools

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Speaker 1: as well as the training to prepare us for the

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Speaker 1: digital workplace. On behalf of Apple, they were able to

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Speaker 1: support us with everyone can code and everyone can create,

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Speaker 1: because coding is now a skill that we all must have.

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Speaker 1: So with that support, we strategically laid out a five

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Speaker 1: year plan and each year we identify at least twenty

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Speaker 1: of our HBCUs that will go through intensive training. Today

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Speaker 1: we have forty four who have received the tools, the training,

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Speaker 1: and now designing mobile apps to help with college school

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Speaker 1: community challenges. Where they designed app when immersive learning first

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Speaker 1: started out, and remember they came out with the goggles

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Speaker 1: and where you can use your phone, Samsung was able

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Speaker 1: to give us the tools, train us and here's where

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Speaker 1: we have to invest and all educators listen up. We

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Speaker 1: then have to take our content and be ready to remix, reuse,

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Speaker 1: reinvent what we know and blended in and take advantage

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Speaker 1: of these new opportunities. So that's our process. We know

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Speaker 1: our problems, we go to the companies, We sit down

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Speaker 1: and say how can your product assist us and solving

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Speaker 1: We come up with a strategy, your plan, and then

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Speaker 1: we rock and roll. We're ready to research, pilot, give feedback,

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Speaker 1: help them to help us as we're both growing and

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Speaker 1: learning together. So it becomes the symbiotic relationship right where

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Speaker 1: you're getting the benefit where you're trying to apply it

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Speaker 1: to education. In return, it's almost like you're doing a

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Speaker 1: q A test for outlying applications of these technologies and

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Speaker 1: perhaps even provide information to these companies that they had

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Speaker 1: not thought about when they were developing the tools. We

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Speaker 1: have to have companies that's willing to say, you know what,

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Speaker 1: we didn't think of that, because remember we are the educators,

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Speaker 1: and again they can provide us with the knowledge and

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Speaker 1: let's go into the future. Okay, I'd like to shift

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Speaker 1: gears a little bit to a topic that I'm really

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Speaker 1: excited about, which is computer games and their potential role

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Speaker 1: in education. I saw that you're a certified E sports leader.

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Speaker 1: What is an E sports leader and how does that

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Speaker 1: apply to what you do? Someone who can look at

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Speaker 1: gaming and understand you can game to learn or learn

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Speaker 1: to gain. So let's take video games. You know, our

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Speaker 1: students are on these video games, and you know, for

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Speaker 1: my generation, it was like stay off the games, are

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Speaker 1: you kidding? Get them on the games? And we have

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Speaker 1: academic E sports. We're able to take that passion, that

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Speaker 1: energy of playing and pathway it into our steam program.

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Speaker 1: When you look at video gaming, you're talking about coding,

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Speaker 1: you're talking about broadcasting, business opportunities, innovation, and we want

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Speaker 1: to empower our students not just to play, but play

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Speaker 1: to learn, play to create. So we're now looking at

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Speaker 1: those areas like video gaming, gamification and helping students to

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Speaker 1: learn a different way around academics. I could go on

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Speaker 1: for hours about the ven diagram between education and gaming,

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Speaker 1: because I think there's way more overlapp than what a

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Speaker 1: lot of people imagine. The game I always think of,

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Speaker 1: and I think it's even used as a symbol for

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Speaker 1: any sports leader is Minecraft. And for those of you

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Speaker 1: who aren't aware, Minecraft is a phenomenal game. You might

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Speaker 1: think of it as playing with virtual building blocks, but

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Speaker 1: you can actually code devices within the game itself. You

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Speaker 1: can build physical circuits in that game. The people who

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Speaker 1: are masters with Minecraft, they blow my mind with their creations.

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Speaker 1: And speaking of blowing one's mind, what's the technology that's

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Speaker 1: available today that you wish you had had access to

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Speaker 1: back and you were in school. How about the iPad?

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Speaker 1: The iPad is really an educational tool long time ago

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Speaker 1: that was called a communication board. The iPad and the

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Speaker 1: apps are built on solid education concept, going all the

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Speaker 1: way back to Dewey monastory. Have you ever noticed children

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Speaker 1: using the iPad and they're touching their thinking, they're touching,

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Speaker 1: and when they get bored or tired, they move on

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Speaker 1: to a higher level. It's a tool that allows creativity

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Speaker 1: and most importantly, how to think problem solving. So I

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Speaker 1: wished I had that tool. Ah, I hear you, and

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Speaker 1: it's always phenomenal to me. Apple did such an amazing

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Speaker 1: job at designing their user interface in such a way

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Speaker 1: that was intuitive, where you can hand one of those

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Speaker 1: devices off to a child with no no instruction, and

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Speaker 1: within moments they'll be doing things you didn't even know

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Speaker 1: that device could do. Before I let Dr Melton go,

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Speaker 1: I had to ask her one more thing, what advice

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Speaker 1: do you have for any educators who are listening, particularly

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Speaker 1: those who are uncertain or they don't feel confident about

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Speaker 1: evaluating tech and incorporating it into education. All right, here

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Speaker 1: we go. There are enough of us out there in

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Speaker 1: internet space to send back messages to other educators. Here

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Speaker 1: are some tools that can enhance teaching and learning. Immersive

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Speaker 1: learning is something that every educator must try out. And

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Speaker 1: when you try it, then I want you to think,

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Speaker 1: what if? What if I can design my math lessons

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Speaker 1: within immersive technology where my students are able to manipulate

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Speaker 1: problem solved in a virtual or augmented environment. What if

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Speaker 1: is what I want to leave all educators with. You

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Speaker 1: have in your hands the tools to reach not only

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Speaker 1: our planet, but another planet. What if you could take

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Speaker 1: your students to a place where they can actually be

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Speaker 1: there and enter act with your content. It's a dream

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Speaker 1: for me. When that has become commonplace, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: be enrolling in a lot more classes so that I

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Speaker 1: can experience it. I love learning and I love journeying

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Speaker 1: to new destinations that otherwise I can never visit the

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Speaker 1: beauty of learning something new, and I make it my

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Speaker 1: model every day. Every day I learned something new, not

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Speaker 1: just from the Internet, but from life, from people and

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Speaker 1: even discussion. You have enhanced my life today in this

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Speaker 1: conversation of just sharing the opportunities and the possibilities of

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Speaker 1: what technology can do for education. That motivates me. Dr

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Speaker 1: Robbie Belton, thank you so much for joining our show.

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Speaker 1: This was a real pleasure and life is good. I

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Speaker 1: find Robbie's work to be truly inspiring. I've known lots

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Speaker 1: of teachers, some of them my own teachers, who took

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Speaker 1: initiative in finding ways to incorporate technology into lessons. I'm

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Speaker 1: a bit too old to have benefited from the emergence

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Speaker 1: of the World Wide Web, and technologies like mixed reality

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Speaker 1: were in their infancy back in my school days. But

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Speaker 1: to see what is possible today and all the various

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Speaker 1: ways that we can use tech to tap into student

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Speaker 1: imaginations and understanding, that is beyond exciting to me. That's

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Speaker 1: something I think is amazing about tech in general, and

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Speaker 1: five G tech in particular. See, when I was in school,

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Speaker 1: it sometimes felt like there was a hurdle I had

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Speaker 1: to get over to really understand a lesson, and often

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Speaker 1: I felt that the only way over that hurdle was

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Speaker 1: to read and reread the same chapter of a textbook,

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Speaker 1: and if I were lucky, something would click. But technology

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Speaker 1: today opens up the possibility of immersing students into a

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Speaker 1: subject in a way that is much more intuitive. It

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Speaker 1: creates the opportunity for students to make connections to the material,

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Speaker 1: which is always going to be more powerful than memorizing

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Speaker 1: a date or learning your multiplication tables. Beyond education, However,

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Speaker 1: we can see these technologies are transforming everything around us,

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Speaker 1: including how we do business, and I feel that if

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Speaker 1: more leader would ask the questions that Dr Robbie Melton asks,

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Speaker 1: you know, the what ifs, then we would see even

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Speaker 1: more rapid innovation. What if this app could give me

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Speaker 1: real time analytics on my business, or what if I

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Speaker 1: could monitor autonomous heavy equipment from across the world with

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Speaker 1: low latency. These are questions that are becoming more common,

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Speaker 1: and we're seeing more technologies enabled by the incredible connectivity

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Speaker 1: of five G bring us those answers. Thanks again to

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Speaker 1: Robbie Melton for joining the show, and be sure to

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Speaker 1: check back for more conversations with leaders who are using

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Speaker 1: tech to bring the possible into reality. I'll see you then.

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Speaker 1: T Mobile for Business knows companies want more than a

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Speaker 1: so we provide three sixty support customized to your business.

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Speaker 1: team and expertise from solutions engineers and industry advisors. Already

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