Zach Diamond  0:03  
Welcome to the modern classrooms project podcast. Each week, we bring you discussions with educators on how they use blended, self paced and mastery based learning to better serve their students. We believe teachers learn best from each other. So this is our way of lifting up the voices of leaders and innovators in our community. This is the modern classrooms project podcast.

Toni Rose Deanon  0:25  
Hello, and welcome to episode 188 of the modern classrooms project podcast. My name is Toni Rose, Deanon, they them pronouns, a designated hype person here at MCP and I am joined by a leading edtech entrepreneur, I always have a hard time with that word entrepreneur, a fan of improving the way people learn and current CEO of Screencastify. Welcome Vishal.

Vishal Shah  0:50  
Well, thanks for having me. Toni Rose. It's great to meet you. And I'm excited to have a good conversation. Yeah, I mean, the word entrepreneur, it's, I guess it rolls off my tongue, but it does take a little bit of practice. So

Toni Rose Deanon  1:05  
Oh, yeah, definitely. Like, it's the pronunciation in this spelling, like in my head is like just doesn't make any sense. So it's definitely a word that I struggle with. Builder. Stuff. There you go. There you go. Love that. Well, it's really exciting to be in this space with you. And thank you so much for saying yes to the podcast. Before we get started. This is a favorite question that I asked all of our guests. But what is bringing you joy? Currently? 

Vishal Shah  1:29  
Yes. You know, I think it's, there's a variety of different things that probably bring me joy. Starting off with my son, I have a five year old son, Liam, who is, I mean, you know, kids are just the most innocent, and I mean, he's quite conniving as well, don't get me wrong, but it's, it's just amazing seeing them grow. And, you know, months, days, or like years in our timeframe, and months, or like, decades, and the amount that changes and goes, you know, it's just a really amazing time when I'm with him, and spending time and him learning so definitely, that I love to be outside. And now it's going to be spring and summer. I'm in Chicago, so definitely love to enjoy the outdoors. I like to play golf, I like to do stuff, you know, water related. And, yeah, and I think I'm excited about the work that we're doing as Screencastify. So I think that three of those really are, are great things. And then, you know, it's one of those things like, health is so important, right? And it's like, you don't realize that it's a problem until it becomes a problem. So I always try to do as much as I can to stay healthy, try to keep up with my, my son. And yeah, it's a, you know, that's a fun thing to do, too.

Toni Rose Deanon  3:02  
Yeah, I was gonna say even with a five year old, right, like, especially with a five year old, you're going to need that movement, and the health to be able to keep up with the energy. So thank you for sharing that. I also really love summers in Chicago, I feel like it is so beautiful there. And they have a really great running trail. I was in Chicago and went ran running, and I absolutely loved it. And I was like that could potentially get me to move to Chicago, just the running trail, which is wild. So thank you, thank you for sharing all of that. So okay, let's go ahead and get started. Tell us you know, tell the listeners me a little bit more about who you are and how you started your education journey.

Vishal Shah  3:42  
Yeah, no, um, you know, I am. I'm an entrepreneur, which means I have always been into startups and building companies. It goes well, back, I was, you know, right out of college, I was really excited about technology in general. And I joined Intel Corporation, which, you know, as I think most of us have heard that they're a huge company, a semiconductor company, and they had 80 90,000 employees, and, you know, they're a great company that facilitates a lot in the world. But being at a company that big was just, you know, it's kind of tough for me, as it's hard for me to be creative, hard for me to want to solve problems that I saw fit and it just wasn't a place where I was getting energy from and excitement from and, you know, slowly shifted to really relatively quickly that the great thing that it did was bring me out to Silicon Valley. And so, you know, I got a job at a at an investment bank where we're working with a lot entrepreneurs and They're working on some really cool stuff like, you know, new battery technology, different types of software gaming capabilities. And I was like, you know, I was kind of hooked. And even growing up my dad family, like was very entrepreneurial in general. And so something that I've always wanted to do, but so, you know, I was in a finance investment banking role, and I was studying for what's called the CFA exam. I don't know if you've heard of this, but it is called, it's a chartered financial analyst. It's like a three years self study, test, and it's, they basically ship over five encyclopedias to you every time and like, good luck. And then you take it once a year, if you fail it, then you have to wait a year. So I think in general, it takes people five years to complete it. And I don't know why I signed up for that. It was kind of like, what else do you do after you know, it's an alternative in a way to MBA, I love the content, I love investing I like, but it was just like, you know, taking studying and taking a test, it wasn't the most exciting thing. And I was like, There's got to be a better way like this is just sending encyclopedias to someone, like it's just not engaging. It's not interesting. It's great, we can read but, you know, just going through it, I may have a different learning style or different learning habits. And and this was at the beginning right before the iPad launch. So I'm probably dating myself, but 2010 ish, and started a study app called The Ultimate CFA. And this application was just a basic like flashcard. And, you know, an app that allowed anyone who's taking the CFA to study but it's a game of finds it a little bit. But it's still pretty basic, there just wasn't anything on that type of form factor. And, you know, long story short, my, you know, a couple of my business partner, friends from Michigan, like we all went to college together. It was like that time of our lives where we're like, okay, okay, we're ready to take a leap into this entrepreneurial journey, where 20s, mid 20s, and I had no idea what was going on. But we're like, Okay, that sounds like a good idea. And build out a company that eventually turned into a learn Corp, which we took those concepts worked with some of the top publishers but pivoted into a sales training and coaching platform that we thought the end, it was all really along those same themes, like, hey, people learn best by doing it has to be engaging. And we leaned in on salespeople that were selling software, where things are changing all the time, and they're spread out. And, you know, how do you make sure everyone's on point, right and understands the latest. So during that company, we partnered with Screencastify. So and loved it so much. And Screencastify was doing its own thing, but we needed this video creation and recording and, you know, screen sharing, screen recording piece. And we didn't want to build it. So that's where we got connected. Manu, who's the founder of Screencastify. And because we used it, you know, Ethan, one of my co founders actually used it for communicating and in our own right, and, you know, we're just, we're opportunistic, and we ended up partnering with Screencastify, brought it into our platform, and then we acquired a significant portion of it and have been doing so along the way. And so it was operating independently learned core was going on its own mission focused on sales. And lo and behold, Screencastify was just such an easy to use product, people loved it, they talk about it, they tweet about it, the word of mouth goes and you know, honestly, a lot of it was locked. But there were viral components that are components that you know, just made things easier. And those fundamentals still exist today, which is wild. And, and so, you know, we sold learn core. I've been helping and supporting the startup community in Chicago and kind of beyond I love this phase of taking an idea to reality. Talking with customers, talking with people who have problems and saying, Hey, how can we solve it. And then last year, about a year and a half ago, I stepped in as CEO have always been involved with Screencastify, but took a more active role. It's great getting my hands dirty, and, and have taken a huge initiative and just talking to more schools and teachers and educators, and it's a wild world out there. So that's been my journey so far today, in you know, in the entrepreneurial tech space, but it's been, it's been awesome. learn so much about so many amazing people too.

Toni Rose Deanon  10:41  
And that is that is so fascinating. That whole journey is fascinating. And I want to point out the fact that you were a learner, a student, right? And you saw that it wasn't working. And so you were like, I gotta I gotta make this even more accessible, even more engaging something, but like, this is not the experience that I want for myself, and nor do I want it for anyone else, honestly. So. And I think our founders kind of had that same mindset to have like, Hey, this is not working for me as an educator. So what can I do to make it work for me and my students, because ultimately, it's the students who are being impacted, right. And so I really love this, this notion of like, you know, what, I was a learner, I was a student, and it didn't, it didn't vibe with me it I didn't like it. So we had to create something that was just again, just a lot more engaging. And like you said, being an opportunist, right, I love that word. And I feel like that's a word that I need to embrace a little bit more as an individual. But because, again, it's just like seeing the opportunities that could potentially happen. Right. And I, I appreciate you also saying, like, you know, what, I started in this space, but it wasn't giving me the the energy, I wasn't getting the energy that I wanted from it. And I, I think that that itself was such great self awareness, right? Like, of, you know, what, like, this is cool. This is, this is cool, not for me. And I think that's a really important conversations that we sometimes need to have with ourselves, especially like moving forward and being more intentional with the spaces that we consume. And then when you start talking about Screencastify, I have to agree with you is very user friendly. It was definitely something that I utilized, I think it was like the first screen recording tool that I was exposed to as an educator, and I like loved it, I was able to figure it out right away. And then there was like an instance where I just told my students, Hey, there's this new tool, I want y'all to figure it out. And they figured it out within like minutes. And we didn't waste time trying to figure out what button to click on or whatever. And so I agree so much about it being user friendly. And then also allowing for different ways to access learning, right, I really love that part as well, because like you said, everybody learns differently. And so we got to provide spaces for folks to learn the best way that they can. And the fact that like, everything is not everything. There's a lot that's done asynchronously. And there are ways to make those asynchronous tasks be more engaging. It doesn't just have to be here. Encyclopedias are here, things to read, have fun and joy. But there's definitely ways to connect with other learners. So thank you. And I mean, I guess our listeners kind of gathered this, by now I am a huge fan of Screencastify. I love love, love, love, love everything and anything about Screencastify. And your team is amazing as well, y'all have been so fun and so great to work with. And so that just makes it even better for me. And so, as an educator, I used it plenty of times for students to show their mastery. I think like prior to recording this, you and I were talking about how, as an English teacher, I had presentations. But again, being mindful of all types of learners in the classroom, there are some students who are not going to have that loud, present, right, and being able to present in real time. And so I was like, You know what, let's use Screencastify you have three minutes to present the topic that you research or the thing that you did. And so it was just like, so great, because again, like there's no time wasted, because no kids are like interrupting each other. They, you know, they're not saying I can't hear anything, I don't know what they said, or they're going too fast. Or oh my gosh, I'm bored. And so now I have to go act up because I'm bored. And so the three minutes Screencastify recordings that my students created, just again, like had so much engagement like students were literally just going into groups and watching each other's presentations and students confidence really increased which I I'm all for it right and so, for listeners who may not know much about Screencastify based on like just what I said and based off of what you said, what more could you say about Screencastify that we have not already said before?

Vishal Shah  14:54  
No, I mean, I think you I mean you brought up so many cool points. And so I'm excited to like touch on in general. But, you know, first of all, though, when we just started talking, I learned that use Screencastify, and you're a big fan. So it's amazing. Just hearing that and seeing the breadth of people that have used Screencastify over the years and continue to use, like, it's just, it's awesome. And, you know, believe it or not, it's a pretty broadly used product. So people use it in different ways, right. And so just backing up for the audience. Screencastify is one of the easiest ways to use video bass, specifically for communication and learning. And so, for communication, we do have one of the easiest use ways to record, create, edit, and share videos. And on the educational side, we can turn, you know, lesson plans into much more richer, engaging assessment with videos the way that people actually want to learn. And we can really scale a teacher as they're actually doing that. And so those are the two key components is, you know, using video for communication and using video for learning. And it's been, you know, one of the most popular applications on the Google Chrome Store, we've partnered with Google and have had, you know, over 12 to 13 million people go through Screencastify. And I think a lot of people think of us as just a video, you know, recorder, which is a component of what we do have. But we've really leaned in hard across the videos, we, we've made it. So if you record a video in Screencastify, you can talk to anyone in the world, in any language. Without knowing that language. We've brought in a variety and I know it's, you know, a hot topic, especially in education. We've made it a must have for so many people that now they can kind of deliver the same quality of communication and learning to the entire community and the world. And, yeah, we've also brought in premium content. So sometimes you don't want to create a video, right? But you still want to have a video lesson and whatnot. And so how do I use some of the best content that's out there? Customize it for my audience really quickly, and get that out there? And, you know, Toni Rose, you seem like you're born for show business, but some people are like, Alright, I need to take some liquid courage and then get on the camera. So it's different for everyone. And yeah, we've really leaned on on these two categories. We have people that use Screencastify, for gaming, to record how they do in gaming, and really teaching other people that way. You know, principals that talk to the entire parent, you know, community and communicating different important messages, all the way to what you actually hit on is student generated content, right? How homework in 2024 should be different than in 1990. And it really has been one of the fewest things that have evolved. And we've seen over the last two years, a huge pickup in teachers having prompts set up for students to work on, like a couple of things about video is in this world where people are on their phones, and you know, just like very closed off, it actually drives a sense of soft skills, social communication, when you're on camera, you have to get you know, prepared or you have to be able to speak properly. When you're texting or when you're typing and submitting things that way, especially with AI now, you have no idea who's actually doing it how many times you know, and it's just not as authentic. And so we really drive a very engaging, authentic approach and have been. We have a capability called submit that really helps drive that specifically for students. 

Toni Rose Deanon  19:49  
Yeah, that was really exciting to see submit because again, I was like, Oh, this is a way to check for understanding. It's a way for us to pause to reflect and process what was being He said in the video, right? Because as much as we want to believe, and, and expect our students to watch the videos all through, like, you know, in one sitting, that's not going to happen. That's the reality of it. And so, okay, you point out a great amount of things, Vishal and I want to kind of I have some follow up questions for you. When you say when you were talking about language, right, and being able to communicate with folks who may have a different language than you, does that mean that y'all have like a translation feature at Screencastify? where folks can just like, here's a video, and then you can have it in a in a another language? Like, tell us more about that. Because I know that was not a tool that I used a lot, which I feel like I should have, but that was also back in like, 2018 2017 When I was using it in the classroom.

Vishal Shah  20:44  
Yeah, no, that's a great question. So you know, just backing up the last three or four months, we've actually added more capabilities and more value to our audience than in the previous three years, it's really at that type of dramatic scale. So a lot of what I'm sharing may be relatively new. And so I'm excited to talk about it. But yeah, we've brought in a few different things, some of them that were beta testing, and some that are officially live, and you can use just as you, you know, would normally we brought in ways that similar with subtitles, and translations that you can automatically have it not only in English, or the language that you're speaking in. But any individual viewer can trigger a translation of those in approximately 90 different languages. So that is live today. It also incorporates non English communication. So I can speak in, you know, Hindi, for example, and it gets translated to English or Spanish or what. So it becomes extremely powerful. We've had CEOs that are like, hey, I need to use this to talk to my team, that's all all over the world, to principals that need that have a diverse set of languages that are spoken at home and households, right, and for the parents and the whole community to get on board. So that's there. We're also in the process of testing auto dubbing. So basically, you know, not only that text, but the audio starts to get spoken and translated and differently. And so it's becomes quite powerful, right, being able to, you know, speak to anyone in the world, it becomes a reality. In general,

Toni Rose Deanon  22:51  
the audio dubbing that you mentioned it, I'm chuckling because it reminds me of like the Netflix movies that I watched that are not in English, but they're dubbed in English. And you can see like the translation, it's like, not the greatest and the acting is kind of off. But it's great. I love the option because it is successful for me, I can kind of understand what you know, the movies I'm watching are all about. So oh my gosh, how cool that would be so dope to have. And even if I'm like practicing my native language to Filipino, I can do the same, right? It'd be like, okay, like, I can translate in and listen to it and like read it. So yeah, that that is really, really, really awesome. And I'm so excited about that. I also really liked the fact that y'all are expanding to having videos for for teachers, right? You know, you said the comments of sometimes you just don't want to create a video. And I love this reminder too, because I think sometimes as educators, we're really like, we expect a lot from ourselves, right? And sometimes you get really bummed out about like, oh, I can't create videos right now. It's like no, but we have like a bank of videos that you can use in your classroom. And, and I just kind of chuckled again, when you said like, sometimes you don't want to create videos, and I'm like, yo, if life is lifing it's not sometimes like for this week for this month, I may not create the videos myself because I can't get my life together. And so it's really nice to have this bank, this collection of videos that have been vetted, that are really like engaging and even so like rigorous for students right to just kind of go through. And so another thing too that stood out to me that you said that I also am chuckling about is the you said homework should be different in 2024. Right? And I think in my head the first thing that popped up was like homework should not be existing. 2024 Honestly, like, because for me again, like, you know, life is hard for so many people and like especially for our teachers and our students to write like, our students have lives outside of the classes out of like the seven eight classes that they're taking at a time And then, and then our teachers also have so much more to like, assess and look over and reflect. So I'm like homework, I'm anti homework and this is not MCP indoors. By the way, this is just just saying my stuff.

Vishal Shah  25:14  
I mean, bring in a big theme, which is fatigue across the board. Yes, right. Yes, there is like a high level of fatigue, from every dimension from a parent, to a teacher, to a student, to the administrator to the grandparents, who knows, like,

Toni Rose Deanon  25:35  
yeah, community, that community is tired. And I think it's, for my opinion, I think it's time to kind of shift and find that joy, right? Like, it's not just work, work work all the time. And we can work and also have some joy in our lives. And so yeah, thank you for naming homework, it should be different, it should definitely be something that is more engaging, and not just, Oh, we got to have homework because I said, we have to have homework, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's got to be more meaningful. It's got to be purposeful with homework. And one thing that I really liked about modern classroom is that we didn't have any homework, you know, it was just like everything, all of the lessons that we have, it's it's self paced. So like, if you didn't finish what you're supposed to finish in the suggested deadline, that's your homework, like, then you just created this homework for yourself. But ultimately, like, it's just the things that we're learning in class already. There's no need for me to create other things. But I also do want to say too, with like homework, sometimes I got really creative with it, where I invited our caregivers or families or communities into the learning process, right of like, hey, record yourself going over the lesson with your with your caregiver, with your family with your sibling, you know, and and I want to hear how you're talking about what we learned. And that I feel like, oh, that's, that's actually really dope, right? And so it gets our students to be engaged in the work as well outside of the classroom. Okay, cool. Cool. Cool. This is great. So educators have embraced Screencastify for remote learning, especially during COVID. Right? Like, I feel like Screencastify I was using it before COVID. So I was like, I already know it. And then it kind of just like blew up, because again, remote learning, virtual learning all of that. Right. So what initiatives are Screencastify taking to further support educators and foster a strong educational user community outside of just virtual learning?

Vishal Shah  27:25  
Yeah, so teachers and educators are our primary audience, you know, I mean, we've used it Screencastify is used for everyone kind of in all different types of use cases. But we have doubled down on this group of individuals. There's in the US, there's about just under 4 million teachers, and also wanted to give a big shout out to teachers. It's teacher appreciation week, this week, actually. Oh,

Toni Rose Deanon  27:58  
my gosh, you're so right. Yes, teachers,

Vishal Shah  28:00  
big shout out. I mean, it's like, a lot of the work that they do is, first, it's a lot it's managing, you know, the kids that are in school, to the administrative to the parents to, you know, having their own lives and their own goals. And, and so, we've really leaned in hard to understand the challenges that teachers are going through. And I think what we want to do is solve problems that they are currently facing, and make it easier for them to go through it while delivering a better way for students to achieve their their outcomes, right. There's been an influx of so many different things. The last three years for teachers has been a roller coaster, with COVID Getting out of COVID The next thing, there's been like a couple, you know, head fakes with it, like it's just been a very much a roller coaster ride. And a lot of school districts in America right now are challenged with declining enrollments. And student enrollments are, you know, there are some places that are going up, but there's some that are also going down, like things that you just not be able to predict or expect. And so there's a lot of change with budget challenges with just the different aptitude of students. So you may be teaching third and fourth grade, let's say fourth grade, but you'll have a student with the ability that's ranges from kindergarten all the way to seventh grade. And one teacher needs to be able to basically teach eight different grades in one grade and you know, be able to manage it and so kind of goes down to a couple of them. Different things, I think. One is the way that we're building our product is really meant to solve problems and make life not just easier, but more effective. It's like, you know, the reason why homework is has been ineffective in the past is, a lot of times people are doing work, aimless work. But if we're able to zoom in on, hey, this person has this challenge, and they learn this way better, and it's more fun, then we need to lean in on that. And, you know, I think there's always a good, you know, having a little bit of discipline and where it like, is important, but we're just, it's not to do work just to do work, it's doing it the smart way, that way, for teachers in particular, you know, we look at creative ways that we can work with them. We, we know, Screencastify can't solve all of their problems. And so one thing that we've opened up is just building more partnerships with like minded organizations, where, hey, we may not have the answer, or we may not come sorry, we may not solve the problem directly, but we will connect you with the people or the company, or the nonprofit, whatever it may be. That does, and that's where, you know, MCP, you know, deserves a lot of recognition for really stepping in. And we have a lot of schools and districts that love MCP that love. And so we figure out a way to make things work. And if there's a school district that's going through challenges, we work with them, you know, we because I think we can really be a huge asset, and we really become more flexible during those times. And then the part that I'm excited about kind of, as we think about the future is we want to empower the educators. And what I mean by that is to think beyond and beyond the four walls of the classroom, let's say, for example, that there's a student in Chicago that is, you know, maybe has a Japanese heritage or like, is more familiar with that language, but the best teacher to address that type of student lives in Iowa, right? How do we, why is it that that teacher is limited to the four walls of the classroom and can't necessarily scale beyond and so I think there's really an opportunity at Screencastify to, to be able to scale, the best educators and whatever they do, and in their specific niche, and it can really create a better learning outcome, but also a better life, you know, kind of, for, for individuals, it's just thinking of it in the modern way, and leaning in on that community. And we're starting with districts, we want to create these shared videos, lessons that teachers can really share with each other. So hey, in the same district, the best fourth grade teacher that's teaching fractions can share with the colleagues and you know, we can lean in on that and work as a team more than just as an individual.

Toni Rose Deanon  33:28  
I think you pointed out like three C's for me is really communication, collaboration and connection, right. And those are, I mean, more than ever, now, I feel like those three things are just so so so important as we move forward with the work that we're doing. Right. And so being able to have clear communication, transparent communication, as well. I mean, you were talking about how principals were able to have, you know, we're able to communicate with caregivers and their educators who speak multiple languages. And, and also like, kind of thinking about to, like, you know, when you're writing an email, it's a lot more accessible when it's a video because then you don't have to decipher the tone, you don't have to decipher the meaning. And so videos kind of just, like, alleviate all of that extra stress that you think about and then when you're thinking about collaboration to you know, you gave us a shout out and of course, like, I'm gonna give it back to you as well, like, we love Screencastify because you all allow for Blended Learning and self pacing to happen as well, especially with the instructional videos that our teachers create. And something that I'm learning with my work is that collaboration over competition, like it really is like how do we continue elevating each other because you're doing the work, I'm doing the work, let's let's let's do this together so that we can continue to amplify and elevate and support and empower educators, right? Because that's ultimately what we want to do. And, and like you said, to like, we have technologies. We have our internet now. So why don't we create spaces for folks who really connect you know, like, if I am in Georgia, and there's a teacher that I can work with in Iowa, like you said, or even Washington state why not like these are great ways to have thought partners to connect to really have those accountability partners even right of just like, hey, you're doing this, I'd love to learn from you, I'd love to learn alongside you. Let's go on this journey together. And I think you all do a really good job of that of the communication collaboration connection piece. So, so thank you for sharing all of that. Because I think that that's ultimately we have the same goal, right? We really want to support and empower educators to create a more inclusive, more student centered learning environment. And so who Thank you, thank you. And I also, you know, yes to Teacher Appreciation Week, and all the memes are coming up now on my social media about like, what not to do for teachers, and I just been laughing, laughing, laughing. And also just like a reminder to that, like, Teacher Appreciation should be every single day. And I just like for this week, right? But there are some great freebies. So definitely Google that y'all.

Vishal Shah  35:59  
Yeah, or my teacher, for sure.

Toni Rose Deanon  36:03  
Yeah, yeah. Okay. So then, as screencasting becomes more prevalent, you know, we're trying to communicate, collaborate and connect with, with folks, right? How, let's talk about data security and user user privacy, because those are the top concerns right now, with everything that's happening, right. AI is booming, and like, there's, you know, I often get like texts or emails about like, oh, no, your data has been compromised, or your information has been compromised. So how does Screencastify address these concerns and ensure user trust?

Vishal Shah  36:33  
Yeah, no, I mean, number one, we take, you know, this super seriously, like, it's such an important piece, especially in education, where you're dealing with minors, too. So it's, it's different, based on different age ranges. And the way I think about this is a couple of ways. Just like we have a product roadmap, right, or we have a business plan. We also have a security plan. And it's something that we don't want to maintain what we have, but we want to improve what we have. So having one of those, like, how do we get better? How do we get more secure? How do we stay nimble As the world continues to change is a key pillar of ours. As we go on, we work with a variety of third parties that are proficient in this that certify for, you know, a variety of different compliance requirements like FERPA and COPPA. And we actually, as we build our product out, we get it validated from these third parties saying, hey, yeah, this is appropriate, or, Hey, I would recommend this adjustment. One thing that you realize is that there's a lot of like, gray area here, because, you know, half the stuff in AI or whatever, it's just not something that happened six months ago, and every agency lags behind the real world. So we stay proactive, that way we get certified, I think that's one thing that we're really proud about is, you know, being compliant in all of these different categories, and also increasing it we're beefing up our sock to compliance this year, which we're going to be excited to announce and, you know, does this directly allow you to do something different? No, but you can, you can, you know, sleep well at night, knowing that you're working with a trusted company, and that we're doing everything that we can to stay ahead of this. And so that's kind of our approach is I'd really be more proactive about this, rather than reactive with this and get all the checks and balances there.

Toni Rose Deanon  39:01  
Yeah, and I'm all about the whole being proactive and reactive. So I really liked that you have multiple eyes on things, right of like, Hey, check this out, Hey, check this out to make sure that all of our bases are covered, because I know that, you know, security and privacy issues as dead. There are lots of concerns about that. So I'm really glad to hear that.

Zach Diamond  39:24  
Hey, listeners, it's Zach. I'm just dropping in to let you know that applications have opened up for this summer's virtual mentorship program. We're working to match 6000 educators with experienced educator mentors, who can help build skills around using technology effectively, teaching students how to be more self directed, and increasing motivation and effort in the classroom. If you've always wanted a mentor when implementing our model, now is the time to apply. Check out the show notes for registration links and more details. And now let's get back into it with Toni Rose and Vishal

Toni Rose Deanon  40:02  
Okay, so Vishal, we have, let's say, we have like, time for one more question. Honestly, we could go on all day, I feel like, let's talk about collaborative learning, right? We talked about how companies can collaborate with one another. But in this case, we'll talk about the client collaborative learning with students, right, it's a valuable skill for students, but how can Screencastify be used to facilitate student collaboration?

Vishal Shah  40:28  
So I'm glad we you bring this up, because it's, it's one of the things that I think is happening more and more. First, you know, just backing up people like to work with other people generally, generally speaking, maybe depends on the people, but you know, you get energy you feed off of each other. Imagine, if you're just like, you know, you don't interact with anyone, whether it's virtually or physically, it's, it's hard to get the creative spirit. So generally, it is the best way for people to learn. And the way that they're leaning in on Screencastify as a couple is a handful of different ways. And I'm happy to share a few that really stand out. We've seen teachers tee up student presentations, where students are actually presenting with other other classmates, and they're working together on our project. And whether it's using Screencastify, to present it on slides, or, you know, just doing something that is more hands on. They're working together to get something recorded. And the feedback that we get from that from teachers and student is just so positive. And students like to do that more think about back in the day, when you had a class project, right. And you had to bring something in with someone with one of your classmates or your friends, it was great. It was one of the like, most like the most fun things. So now we can do that at at scale, which is pretty cool. With our translates with, with our translations, and some of those capabilities, English language learning has really become prominent. And so in order to teach someone, you know, in English or an we can cater now to any language that you're primarily accustomed to your first native language, to use that as a stop gap and bridging into that. So we've seen that as a very strong use case. A lot of teachers are using Screencastify, even at the younger age for read alongs. So where as they're reading, and these are young kids, because it is something that's used significantly in K through five to is they're doing a read along, and then the teacher will play it back and help comment on certain, you know, areas of improvement are things to focus on. So that's a big piece that's gone. The other item is we've seen teachers tee up weekly reflections or project based reflection. And the purpose of that not only does it bring in more qualitative items, like you know, that touch on social and emotional learning items. But you can ask, we've seen teachers really ask their you know, what has been the most challenging thing this week, and about these topics, and you'll actually, teachers will uncover different things which may be something in their community or a personal item and be able to connect with them on a whole different level. Or it could be like, hey, you know, I was working on this problem. And I didn't understand this or it's like too much, you know, complexity or work or you just get a different level. And when a student communicates this, they start to become heard. And, you know, one of the things that you bring up is like, Hey, this is a lot for a teacher to comb through and go through and and so what we're doing is we're transcribing like as as a later beta and kind of roadmap item is we're transcribing a lot of this where the form factor of reading like it just speeds things up. We'll be able to offer suggestions that the teachers can lean in on but give real critical information to the forefront. But these are some ideas of collaboration beyond what you know the teachers are doing in terms of sharing their their work as well.

Toni Rose Deanon  44:54  
Yeah, I really love that weekly reflection idea. I feel like that would have been so much More exciting for me as an educator to sift through weekly reflections rather than write like, rather than it being written. So I would really love to see like, body language and and donation and, and the passion if there is passion behind the reflection, you know. So yeah, I love, love, love, love those ideas. Okay, I do have one question because I know our educators, I mean, as an educator, this is always a question that I have in my head, when I try something new is like, what is the cost of this? Right? Like, how is there a free version? What do I have to do to get connected? Or to even get my district involved, what is what does that look like? 

Vishal Shah  45:41  
Yeah, so for every individual teacher, there is a, it's a freemium version of our of our products. So it starts off free, and then there's certain limits that are hit that then trigger a paid subscription, it's both monthly or annual commitments. And what we suggest is, you know, people can, you know, pay for a generally, it's better when the school supports and pays for it. And so, it's a workflow that we, we could probably improve in terms of communicating that. But it is something that is important as for, you know, cuz teachers, they have limited resources, it's like, you know, is this another thing that I have to sign up for, and so, but that's something that we definitely encourage, and help drive and help, you know, get the word out directly there, we do have, you know, the monthly subscriptions start at, I think, $10 per month. And so, and then some of these items, these capabilities, we face additional costs as well. So, but we try to be as you know, focused on the teacher as possible. And we're probably going to be bringing more things in to make that where you can experience like that part even more, but we work a lot with schools and districts and making sure that it fits within their, you know, their scope, their budgets. And so that is something that we take quite directly, but most of the individuals that use Screencastify, they've started off individually, and now their schools or districts are kind of taking it over.

Toni Rose Deanon  47:43  
Yeah, I mean, I definitely remember being in the classroom, and I paid for the subscription just because like I wholeheartedly just like love the tool itself. It just made it made my teaching and learning experience so much more engaging, and just so much more joy, I feel like with me, and we would meet in the students as well. So, okay, so Vishal, how can our listeners connect with you?

Vishal Shah  48:06  
Yeah, so um, you know, um, I think the best way to connect with me is either on LinkedIn, I, I post, time, and again, on Twitter, which is x now a little bit. But I think LinkedIn is a great way to reach out to me reach out to the company@screencastify.com, there's a million ways to get in touch with us there. And, yeah, I mean, I'm all ears, I'm making a huge effort to talk to more people in education learn a lot more. And we want to be a resource to this community as much as we can. And so I love ideas. There's nothing that's off off limits there. So please reach out.

Toni Rose Deanon  48:55  
I really appreciate you saying that you take the time that you prioritize being in community to have those conversations because you know, when we don't know what folks need, we're just going to be creating some stuff that they continue to not need. So, okay, well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for being in this space with me and sharing your experience and expertise. listeners. Remember, you can always email us at podcast at modern classrooms.org And you can find the show notes for this episode. At podcast at modern classroom set org slash 188. We'll have this episode's transcript uploaded by Friday so be sure to check back to access those. Also we are asking our listeners to leave a review of this podcast has been helpful in supporting you to create a human centered learning environment through a blended self paced mastery based model. It does help other folks find it. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week. Also happy mother's day because this is getting published on Mother's Day. And so you know, celebrate, reflect process, take care of you if you need to. And we will be back next Sunday. Again. Thank you so much. Vishal for being here.

Vishal Shah  50:01  
Thank you, Toni Rose

Zach Diamond  50:07  
thank you so much for listening. You can find links to topics and tools we discussed in our show notes for this episode. And remember, you can learn more about our work at WWW dot modern classrooms.org. And you can learn the essentials of our model through our free course at Learn dot modern classrooms.org. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at modernclassproj. That's P R O J. We are so appreciative of all you do for students in schools. Have a great week, and we'll be back next Sunday with another episode of the modern classrooms project podcast.