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. Zach Diamond 0:28 Hello, and welcome to episode number 172 of the Modern Classrooms Project podcast. My name is Zach Diamond, and I'm a middle school digital music teacher in Washington DC. And of course I'm a modern classrooms implementer and a mentor. And today for the podcast I am joined by Cat Spencer, the country manager for USA education at genially. Welcome to the podcast Cat. Thank you for joining me. Cat Spencer 0:53 Hey, Zach, lovely to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Zach Diamond 0:57 Yeah, thank you so much for joining me. I'm super excited to have you. So today we are going to be talking about genially. Before we get started with that cat, I want to let you introduce yourself. So tell our listeners who you are what you do at genially. And you also were telling me before we started recording that you were a teacher. So I'd love to hear your kind of your journey into working in edtech. Cat Spencer 1:17 Yeah, I was say hi, everyone that's listening. So yeah, as that has rightly said. So I'm Cat I'm here from Genially today. And so I'm the country manager for USA education here. I was an English teacher for seven years. So before I started moving into edtech and what I do here at Genially is I use that experience that I had in the classroom to help teachers in the us understand how Julie adds value to their lives. So in the lives of teachers and all of the facets that come with being a teacher. So whether that comes from organizing webinars to attending events, hearing you guys' feedback, it's a really very job. But yeah, it all starts in the classroom. Zach Diamond 2:02 Yeah, I love that. I think that teachers, we can be very skeptical of people telling us what tools we should use when they don't have classroom experience, you know, and seven years. Seven years is a long time. Like that's a legit teaching career right there. So that's very, very cool. Cat Spencer 2:20 It's completely understandable to be skeptical, right? Especially because as a teacher, I remember when I started teaching, I thought I knew what I was doing. I was like, Okay, I've done my teacher training, I was ready to be a teacher. And then when you're actually in the classroom, it all just goes a little bit differently to how you expect it to go. So I can we completely understand that skepticism. I don't think until you've been in the classroom, you really understand, you know, the needs of a teacher and students. So it's yeah, it's really it's been really valuable for me those years experience I had in the classroom. Zach Diamond 2:52 Yeah, I'm sure and I love it, that genially would take that into consideration. Yeah, you know, Cat Spencer 2:57 yeah, super safe for us. So all of our community team here, they've all been teachers. And we rely a lot on our ambassadors as well, and our community in general. So we have an amazing team of ambassadors in the US, who help us that shout out to my ambassadors if they're listening. And the great thing is, is that we have amazing ambassadors who are instructional coaches, teachers themselves. And what they do is they help us to understand that we're really extensions of our team, our community teams to help us understand, you know, what it's like to be a teacher and how Genially can help them and solve those pain points. Zach Diamond 3:31 That's great. I love that that's just so very responsive to that very consideration, right, like, teachers want to be helped and supported by people who know what the deal is. Yeah. I love that. Okay, so let's talk about Genially. Can you explain for our listeners who may not be familiar with Genially what it is? Cat Spencer 3:49 Yeah, sure I can. I'm sorry. Genially is a content creation platform for creating interactive teaching and learning materials. So Genially is a content creation platform that can be used for various different uses, but specifically for education. It's a focus on interactive teaching and learning materials. That's our buzzword here at genially. So the idea with Genially is that we're an all in one platform. So you can really create anything when it comes to Genially, whether it be presentations, infographics, quizzes, escape games, choice boards, playlists. The idea is that the limits are endless. It's a freemium platform free to start using, always will be free to start creating. And the reason that it's so popular we think, is because of our templates. So it's not just creating those resources from scratch. But rather you have hundreds and 1000s of templates to create those resources, where all you have to do is add that content. So all of the hard work has been done by the junior team in terms of making it engaging, making it inline with various different teaching methodologies, which we'll be talking about some time later, I'm sure. But the idea is that we're solving That pain point of making that we understand that making those resources can sometimes be timely. And we're trying to make it easier for you with the templates. Zach Diamond 5:08 I love that that that definitely feels like an extension of that consideration for what teachers actually need. Cat Spencer 5:14 Yeah. Right. Sometimes I feel like when I was a teacher I was with there was a lot of, there was a lot of PD thrown, thrown at us around. Okay, there. Here's some ideas of some ad tech tools you can be using. Okay, what about? Have you thought about these methodologies? And it was like, oh, yeah, I'd love to think about that. But timewise and time constraints. I don't have the time to do that with my day to day as being a teacher. So here at Jamie, that's really what what we started on with the templates. We wanted to make it easy for teachers to start using those teaching methodologies, and with the templates, and to make sure that it was something that you know, cost, type cost and time effective for them. Zach Diamond 5:54 Yeah, yeah. And I think it makes it also easier to approach especially for maybe a teacher who's not so tech savvy, right, but you kind of just input your information, but there's lots of templates and listeners, I'll link directly to the templates for education. On the Genially website, there's a lot, like there's a lot there, and you kind of just input your information into it for your content, and then you're off to the races. So that's fantastic. So in terms of modern classrooms, the modern classrooms model is based on these three main pillars of blended learning, self paced learning and mastery based learning. The idea being that students are utilizing these online resources, or they can be physical resources, too. But generally, they're online resources for instructional delivery. So they move through these resources at their own pace. And they receive constant support from their teachers, right. We're not like throwing them to the wolves and being like, have fun Cat Spencer 6:42 not meant you're not what we're looking for thrown our students to the wolves. Zach Diamond 6:46 No, certainly not. And then they had to demonstrate mastery before they move on. So my question for you is where do you see genially fitting into this model? And I guess I'll call my shot by saying that I can kind of see see it fitting into any of those three pillars, all of those three pillars, just more holistically into the model overall. But I am curious to hear from you. Specifically what you would highlight? Cat Spencer 7:09 Yeah, also. So I think the great thing, Zach is that Genially can be incredibly is incredibly versatile tool that integrates seamlessly into multiple teaching models. So that's the great thing about it is that the software and the EdTech tool itself is something which can be used for various different teaching models. But the just to pinpoint the ones for the ones you've just mentioned that the blended learning model is something that we see a lot of use cases a Genially, because generally allows teachers, as I've mentioned, to create those interactive and visually engaging content or teaching and learning materials. So whether that'd be presentations, infographics, quizzes, the various different things you can create, but they can be used both synchronously and asynchronously. Okay, so that's the wonderful thing is that it can be something that can be used both online or in person, that blended learning is really nicely supported. The great thing is as well with Genially, is we've recently last year we did, we created the collaborative version of Genially. So the collaborative version of Genially is really, really great for teachers that are wanting to start using Genially with their with their students. So teachers can create collaborative projects or assignments, where students can work both together or in person or in real time or asynchronously. So it's a great way for starting to use Jr with your students as well and improve those digital skills right there in the classroom. So we definitely think that one's a great one. In terms of the self paced learning, I've seen a lot of really fantastic resources being created with Genially, and personalized learning paths. So Genially enables teachers to create personalized learning paths or modules for students. So not we're just not we're not talking just from scratch. But there's loads and loads of templates around that as well. I've seen a lot of fantastic branching scenarios as well. Great, great stuff and a lot of templates around that. And the fantastic thing as well, Genially, we've got some product features that really nicely support self paced learning as well. We recently released a new product feature, which is our interactive questions. And this is a huge landmark for us here at Genially because teachers are able to design interactive quizzes, assessments simulations that allow students to assess their understanding as they progress through the content. So you've got that as you're creating the resources, you've got those stopper questions, where your students are reflecting on the content they've learned. And they're getting that feedback in real time, which is super, super useful has been a game changer here at Genially's interactive questions. So definitely if any listeners are interested in self paced learning in particular and a wanting to try Genially, I definitely recommend you take a look at that product or that product feature which is interactive questions. Super, super fun. Zach Diamond 9:51 Yeah, that one reminds me of sort of like your Edpuzzles, your your Nearpod Yeah, but I think that what genially added as I was going I made a couple of geniuses He's just messing around with the templates. But like, you mentioned, personalized learning. In addition to the self paced learning, there can be different learning paths that different students take, depending on how they respond to those prompts. And that's really cool. It's like personalized learning on a micro and a macro level, because we can, we can sort of tailor what lessons they do as the teacher just manually in the classroom. But but this is like, what they need within the lesson, I guess, on the micro scale, can be personalized within within Genially too, which I thought was was really, really interesting. And takes that interactive question. feature to like another level? Cat Spencer 10:37 Yeah. And also, so one of the fantastic so the interactive questions is an amazing feature, it's free, it's one of the free features that you can use. But when you start having a look as well, at some of the other layers of Genially, we've got the ability as well to track student behavior. So if you're a teacher that is wanting to look and see if your students are actually understanding the content, what a fantastic feature of Genially you're able to collect the student data on the question. So their answers if they got them right or wrong, how far through the content they got, if they got stuck on particular pages, and teachers can track the answers and student behavior, which will help them as well to really get into depth of okay, how much of this content is my students actually understanding, especially great for for online learning, that's a really, really great one. In terms of the last one to the mastery based learning, the great thing about Genially is that teachers can create sort of resources. So we've spoken a lot about the ways that teachers can create resources, but also students, the great thing is, is that we always like to, we always like to highlight that Genially can be given to students and can be used by students, and it's FERPA COPPA approved. So there's no problem there in terms of giving it to students. And the great thing is, I've seen a lot of a lot of Genially being used as a tool for students to track their progress and demonstrate mastery. So for example, they can create portfolios, and have module assessments use it for presentations. And with the collaborative version of Genially, it's super easy for teachers to go and assess that because it's all in the platform, then they can just go in and check and see what's going on with their students. So I really think that that's a fantastic one in terms of that mastery based learning technique. We see that a lot being used in terms of seeing if students have actually understood the concepts that I've been going through and making sure they become masters of that content before moving on. Zach Diamond 12:31 Something that occurred to me while you were saying that, have you ever seen teachers have students making genealogies as like projects? Or I guess what in my classroom, we might call a mastery check or maybe even like a summative? Have you ever seen that? Cat Spencer 12:45 Yeah, yeah, a lot of that actually. Because generally, when Genially is used in the classroom, we often find that students start saying, What's this? What's this interactive way? Like students are so tech savvy nowadays that you know, from elementary all the way up, you know, they're all tech savvy. So they start saying, Wow, what is this? What is this tool you're using to create this presentation, they're always looking for new ways to be able to impress their press, their teachers do their assessments. So we do end up seeing Genially being used organically by students, but also being given as you know, okay, create a, I'd like you to create a quiz with Genially. And if they've been, I don't know, like, can you please you can create gamified resources with Genially. So we often find escape games being created by students with Genially. It's amazing that students have the incredible things which have been created by you know, even the youngest of students. Zach Diamond 13:35 I know, students are so creative. It's just amazing. It's so amazing how creative students are when you give them something that they're into, and they run with it. It's just so amazing. You can make like a full on text adventure video game, in generally. And I could totally see some of my students diving into that and spending hours doing that. Cat Spencer 13:53 Yeah, I actually say my I have a, I have a six year old niece and I actually, she is incredible how tech savvy they are, even at six years old, like I can give her an iPad, and she'll be able to work her way around it and play on games and even use like genially use on like, wow, like what is happening since one of this generation, but it's the it's the world in which we live in where we have to keep in mind that our students are growing up in a digitalized world. So we're wanting to be able to provide them with those opportunities to engage with those tools, which is going to make them stand out, which is going to make them do things differently to the other tools that they might have been shown. Zach Diamond 14:33 Yeah. And we're going to talk more about the ease of use in a little bit. But just to say like the templates are what make that they sort of scaffold that for the students or for the teachers who are making this materials like the templates, make it so that you just put the words in the work is done on the back end already. In the template. You know, it's more than like a Google Slides template or something that just has some things on the screen like it's it's a it's an interactive thing that works and you just put your words into it. Yeah. Cat Spencer 15:01 And a lot of these methodologies because our templates have been created by educators, for educators, we always like to point that out. So our education team, as we've mentioned before, we've all got a background in education that was so so important for our founders was that we wanted to make sure our education team, the people on the forefront of this are actually educators because we understand the pain points you go through, we've been there. We know what happens in the classroom. So we understand what are the resources which are going to be useful, so a lot of the templates that are in genially have been designed to support these learning methodologies. So get in there and have a look at them because there's a load of really, really great ones that are which will make it easy for you to start using these methodologies. Zach Diamond 15:44 I love that. And I agree the templates, I was messing around with them. And I was like, Man, this is very cool. Cat Spencer 15:50 And they look really pretty. So doing death by PowerPoint. Zach Diamond 15:56 No, they do have some of those aspects of like the regular templates that we find that were like, Oh, this looks amazing. I can use this for my slides, right? Yeah, plus the interactivity like they're really fantastic templates. Okay, we're starting to kind of foreshadow my next question. So before we get fully into that, let's take our quick break, there's going to be an announcement and when we come back, I want to talk more about ease of use, which is kind of one of the marquee features I think of Jeanne Lee that I see on the website. So we'll be right back and then we'll talk more about genially. Toni Rose Deanon 16:38 Hey, listeners, this is Toni Rose Deanon and we have some learning experiences for you this upcoming week. Check out the show notes for registration links and more details. Want to create an interactive learning experience for your learners join our first of three learners series with Genially starting Tuesday January 16 at 6pm Eastern Time and looking for ways to take care of your being. We're partnering with Edwell to talk more about addressing well being an education on Thursday, January 18 at 6pm Eastern time. Again, check out the show notes for registration links and more details. Avery Balasbas 17:09 Calling all Los Angeles educators My name is Avery your West Coast partnerships manager here at MCP and do we have an exciting opportunity for you? Modern classrooms project is thrilled to announce the launch of our second fully funded regional scholarship here in California, the Los Angeles educators scholarship if you've been looking to transform your classroom into an equitable student centered space, enroll in our again fully funded virtual mentorship program plus a $500 stipend through MCPS Los Angeles educators scholarship, just go to modern classrooms.org forward slash Los Angeles to apply today. If you have any questions or want to connect, you can reach me Avery blas bus at Avery dot balasbas at modern classrooms.org. That's a V as in Victor e r y dot b is in boy a l a s b is boy a s at modern classrooms.org. We look forward to seeing your application. Zach Diamond 18:06 Alright folks, we are back with Cat to talk a bit more about genially. And there are two specific things I'd like to ask you about that are sort of like banner features or banner topics, ideas that I saw on the website. And the first is the ease of use. And as I said, before we went to the break, we were starting to get into this a little bit with the templates. But here at the monitor classrooms project, something that we hear a lot from teachers is that they are intimidated by the process of content creation, or more specifically, video creation. And I think this makes sense. You know, educators work really hard to hone the skills of being a teacher. But we come from all walks of life, you know, not all of the teachers in the world know how to produce content. And I wanted to ask you, since it's such a sort of it's such a highlighted feature of genially that it's very approachable and easy to use. How do you think genuinely might be valuable to a teacher who is in that position who's a little bit apprehensive about developing instructional videos or apprehensive at the prospect of creating online or asynchronous content? Cat Spencer 19:08 Well, first and foremost, I just want to validate those feelings of being a bit insecure or apprehensive about starting to use or create online or asynchronous content. It's it's scary and it's scary because it's something that as you rightly said that, you know, as we're as we're trained as teachers, we're trained on various different things. And you know, Tech is one of them. But it's, you know, often something which can be quite scary and especially when there's so many tools out there. It's sometimes hard to know where to start. So just to validate those feelings and say that it's completely normal. And it's something that I think we've had every single teacher say at some point and we've all been that. I think one of the best things with genially is that one of the key pieces of feedback I received from our community in general is that it is something that is so easy to start using. So I work a lot with instructional coaches, and they all say to me that they give, they're really happy to give genially to teachers that are really, really scared about using tech, you know, we're talking, just use PowerPoint. And that's it, just because it's so easy to start using them to start creating content. And I think that the bread and butter of that is our templates. So the templates serve as a starting point and reduce the intimidation factor, I think for teachers who might feel overwhelmed from a platform where you have to start from scratch. And because it's off, it's very, you know, when you start using it, there's a lot of features which are quite similar or, you know, really echo back to tech tools that you might be quite familiar using. It's really easy to start using, and it's pretty self explanatory. So I think that's where it starts from, is that Genially for us? I mean, that's one of our key USPS for Genially is that we think it's super easy to start creating content and start creating that content, which has that wow factor that students go, wow, Miss, how did you start? How do you create that? Like, what's that tool, so definitely think that's, that's a big one for us. And the great thing about Genially as well is that we're aware that that's an apprehension that a lot of teachers have had. So we've we've consciously created resources to help you in that process. So with genially we have a load of resources that you can use. So step by step tutorials and support. And all of it is online and available for free to all of our community. So we have great webinars, so you can check out our YouTube channel, you can check out our Twitter, you can check out our blog, there's loads and loads of reading that you can do around geniunely. to and to, you know, or watch watching. So if you prefer visual stuff, where you can get, you can get that information, but I really want to highlight are Genially Academy because our training team are incredible. And we have a training team, again of previous educators, so people who have been in the classroom for years, and what we have, it's a free online self paced learning platform. Um, so what you can do is you can go on and you have hundreds of modules, where you can enroll in the module whenever you want complete the course as and when you need to, it provides you with, whether it's a beginner and intermediate or an advanced, how long it's going to take you, it will give you a little little task at the end. And once you've finished, it gives you a certificate. So it's really great for PD as well. So we often find a lot of instructional coaches end up giving the Genially Academy to their teachers just to get some PD hours in there. So definitely have a look at our Genially Academy because we're there to help you through that that process. I think in general, and this is just coming from someone who's in ad tech. So this, this is for all ad tech tools, just a piece of advice for any, any teacher who's apprehensive about creating online content is just all I say is that start small. So you know take it slow, but give it a go. That's kind of my that's my phrase, I use way too much. I need to find another one. And you know, it, you're not going to be able to create coding and, and your these incredible escape games from scratch in a night. It just doesn't happen. So you know, start creating, start engaging in the community, start with those really simple resources. And then give it a go and start then start adding all of those features in afterwards. I think you know, just giving it a go and not daring to be different. And daring to give something and go in the classroom with your students. And not being afraid to learn alongside your students with that attack is really important as well. Zach Diamond 23:42 Yeah. Oh, that's a great point that you just sort of tossed in at the end there. Yeah, like they'll they'll give you feedback. Yeah. And they'll let you know how it's going. Cat Spencer 23:50 They'll show they'll tell you so don't like Zach Diamond 23:52 they will. They will. They'll tell you everything they don't like Cat Spencer 23:57 and they'll tell you if you've got things inaccurate or mess. It's not like that. Yeah, but there's one thing that we we love we love to hate about them. Right that their their honesty and their sincerity. It's like to me, I wish I wish other humans were like this in my life. But Zach Diamond 24:14 no, I mean, but that's all fantastic. I think that like the point you were making at the end about starting small. I think that genially does a really good job, you know, teachers often talking about like, low floor high ceiling. Yeah, like giving students an on ramp into the content right generally lowers the floor substantially by giving teachers those templates. Yeah, you know, you're really really only have we already talked about this, but you just have to go and type stuff. Like you type it in. The template is so much more than just visuals. When I when I imagined templates. When I hear about templates, I imagine something that's more or less visual, but there's interactivity to the template. And so you just go through the thing, and you kind of put your content and you load your content by typing it right but But the template is there to to create something that is more than just a presentation. Yeah. And I think that that's, that's really fantastic. And so that sense in that sense the floor is lowered. But man genially Academy sounds incredible. And that definitely raises the ceiling, too. I mean, I didn't know about that. I'll link to that in the show notes. How cool Cat Spencer 25:20 Yeah, I haven't take a look at the Genially Academy. We it's an incredible tool that we've got alongside the actual platform itself, along with all of our incredible, incredible ambassadors that help us to create webinars that help us to create tutorials that help us to create resources. And it's just all I mean, that's all I'd say is, as soon as you start engaging with the ad tech community, it's a great family. It's super, super, super great to start getting involved in. And you'll often find that you can really not only about it's not just about sharing resources and the sharing techniques, but in terms of how we engage online, you know, you ended up finding your people in your tribe. So if you're interested in getting involved in more about edtech definitely, you know, sign up for our community, and sign up and just read around our tech. It's just a great thing to be involved in. Zach Diamond 26:10 Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. So let's talk about the other sort of like marquee feature, did you call it a USP? Is that something selling point? Cat Spencer 26:20 Yeah, a unique selling point a US business. We also call them the genially superpowers, like we're dependent on USP or the Genially superpower. He didn't want to have them stop. Zach Diamond 26:34 Yeah. Like, I love. I was like, is it universal selling point, selling. I know, it's selling point. Like you, I needed a term for this, because it's like the things that are on the website that are big. Yeah. You know, like that have their own tabs on the website or have their own big sort of like banners on the website that call them out. And the other one that really stood out to me was gamification. This is this was a big one. It was all over the website. That is that a USP? Cat Spencer 27:01 That is definitely a US. Definitely a word which goes quite well very nicely with genially. So yes. Zach Diamond 27:08 Okay, yeah, see, I'm learning. Cat Spencer 27:10 We often put it in a heart as well. We do Genially loves gamification. As another one, we like to use a lot as well. Zach Diamond 27:17 Yeah, so I want to hear more about this. I think gamification is this huge topic. And it starts to sort of open the door to the rabbit hole. That is motivation. Yeah. Which is obviously very tricky. And it's a difficult topic. I am a person who loves games, I play video games a lot. I have a group of guys that I play board games with, like, I'm definitely a gamer. So I'm fully bought in here. I'm really interested in this as a motivational tool. I'm also kind of interested to hear you talk about the balance between motivating students with a gamified approach and the fact that we can't let our students lose the game, right? It's not like a video game where I can have the game over and be like, Okay, I think I'm done for the day. They have to learn the content, like we're teaching them. And so it's a balance that always sort of like sticks in my mind when I'm thinking about gamification, that might be beyond the scope of a discussion about genially itself. But I just love to hear you talk a little bit more about gamification, because it's a USP, because it's all over the website. Tell us a little bit more about gamification and genuinely and explain how genially can help teachers tap into that drive to progress that comes from playing a game. Cat Spencer 28:29 Yeah, well, I think gamification for us at Genially has become something which we've become really recognized for, because it's been something that teachers are really interested in know, it's a great motivation tool, but exactly like you just said that they're like, Okay, how do I find that balance between motivation? I know that it's a methodology. I know that it's something that works and it engages, but where do I how do I strike that balance between motivating and making and you know, make and making sure they're learning the content, but also making sure that they're getting what they're doing and getting those learning objectives fulfilled. So it's a difficult one, the great thing was genially and again, I'm harking back to those you can create games from scratch with Genially. And we actually find a lot of our, our community. Once they've gotten to grips with the template, they actually start to create their own games from scratch, which is incredible. But you don't have to create from scratch with Genially. The idea with the templates is that you've got hundreds, literally hundreds of gamified resources already created for you. So whether that be board games, whether it be whether that be escape games, whether that be breakouts, you've got hundreds and 1000s of templates, where that balance has already been created for you where you've got the balance of educational content, making sure those interactive questions are in there, making sure that there's those assessment points, but also narrative and Storytelling, which I think is a really big one, making sure that we're creating that motivation for the students. So I think with in terms of the question you had about, you know, making sure that we can help teachers drive the progress. There's a lot of elements in gamification, which are already included in our templates, which are to promote motivation. So I think it's really important. You need things like points, badges, leaderboards when it comes to gamification. So students have got that motivation as they're completing a game. So teachers can integrate gamified elements such as point systems, badges for achievements, leaderboards, with Genially content. So a lot of our templates already have those incentivizing things to get students to be playing and taking part and completing tasks, achieving milestones. And just giving that sense of accomplishment as as found in normal games, which is, which is super, super exciting. Something I've seen it actually out of our gamification, something I've seen becoming really popular with with genius is using Genially for esports, which is incredible. Zach Diamond 31:05 Say more, Cat Spencer 31:06 yeah, it's incredible. So we've got an incredible Ambassador called Becky keen. She's amazing. And she's a world leader on eSports. And using eSports, in education, which is amazing. And she uses Genially to create eSports tournaments at school, whether that be actually creating the tournament, communication with parents, and actually creating some gamified resources as well. And you can create with Genially, so that's just something that's organically come out of the gamification side of things. So we've got a fantastic webinar on that Becky did a couple of months ago, on using Genially to create an Esports program, which we can we can mention in the notes below, I can send that to you, which is, which is super awesome. So yeah, that's already included. I think it's also important when it comes to gamification, and motivation, and keeping your students in that is to make sure that there's some sort of feedback and immediate reward. So you're wanting to make sure that the students aren't having to wait to the end to find out what's happening. And they're actually having that feedback as they're going through the grain. So I think that's a great thing that's happened with that interactive questions. So as students are completing the escape game, they're having those questions as they're going through. And they're getting that immediate feedback as to whether they're going right or wrong. And especially with the escape games that actually having to get the answers right, before they're able to move on to the next room or the next clue. And so I think that's definitely a really great one, though, to keep in mind as well. And the final one would just be to make sure that you're telling a narrative, so your storytelling to your students. And that, again, is something that has already been done with their templates. So making sure that the games are relevant to your students or your know your students interests, likes, dislikes, we've got hundreds and 1000s of templates around various different themes. So we've got some fantastic escape games around mystery, so less a detective escape game, where they're having to find the clues. And as a teacher, or you're having to do is add those questions, so that they can move on to the next stage, just make it relevant to your objectives for the lesson. And you've got museum escape games, we've got escape games cater to all levels of education as well. So whether you're an adult, or whether you're, you know, going from preschool all the way to higher education, there are a game of their gamified resources for every level of students. And so the idea really is with Genially we are just taking the hard work out of creating those gamified resources. And that you don't have you don't have to create it from scratch. Zach Diamond 33:47 Yeah, that is amazing. And I, I we do keep coming back to those templates. And again, I just want to say like, there are animations in those templates, like it's, it's not just the visuals, it's a lot that you just load your stuff into. Cat, I'm gonna put you on the spot. Can you explain what an escape game is? Cat Spencer 34:05 I cannot explain what an escape game is. So with our escape game, so the idea with an escape game is your students are given some sort of mystery or some sort of task where they're having to go through different rooms or different tasks in order and solve solve mysteries, if you will, to escape out of the resource. Okay, so when genially a lot of the time that looks like okay, to give you an example, our museum escape game, the idea is that your students are having to go into different rooms of the of the escape game, answer questions. And only once they've answered the questions, can they move on to the next room? So the idea is that they're having to solve a solve some sorts of mystery or some sort of problem in order to finish the resource. And so that can be rooms or it can be that they're having to put a word together together to get a password. but it's a really great teaching methodology, I really do recommend because it's something again, that can be used both synchronously and asynchronously. So that's definitely something to keep in mind is that it's just a really great thing to have in your, in your treasure trove, if you will, as teacher. Zach Diamond 35:15 Yeah, I asked because, well, first of all, you mentioned a lot of them. And I thought that it would be useful to hear a little bit more about what they are. But no, I like the real reason that I asked was, because I think that it's an excellent format. For self paced learning, because it's not like a, there's, there's sort of no time constraint. And I like the idea of a student getting stuck, and not knowing what to do, and just asking their teacher for help. Like, I can absolutely almost feel like viscerally the motivation to find the clues and put the pieces together to get into the next room, or whatever the case may be, right. But like, if I'm stuck, and I'm a student, I can just raise my hand and my teacher can come and help me because at least in a modern classroom, they're going to be doing this or they will they could be doing this in the classroom with the teacher might also be doing it from home, or whatever the case may be, they could do it from wherever. But I like the idea of a sort of, like, non time based game like that, where I guess most edtech games aren't time based, exactly. Like it's not like maybe like a Kahoot or something is very time based. But I just like the idea of like, it's explore exploration, sort of at your own pace, and very self directed within the constraints of whatever that room is, I guess, quote, unquote. And the teacher can come over and help. I just think that's a very cool, sort of like mix of gamification and school, like what happens in actual classrooms? Cat Spencer 36:46 Yeah. And I think the great thing is why is that, as you mentioned, there's escape games are really what you're wanting, when you're creating, if you're putting time into creating a resource, you're wanting to make sure that that resource is as flexible in terms of how it is presented to your students as possible. So if you were to create an escape game, it can be done in class, it can be done in groups in class, you can do it as a whole class activity, you could put the students against each other and make it more exciting to see okay, let's put you into four groups, the people that I don't know the group that that finishes, the escape game first wins. And you can also put it in a in an online learning environment as well. And the students will be able to create and use it in exactly the same way. So the great thing about those escape games on the game of five resources with genially is it allows that flexibility in terms of how it's presented to your students. Zach Diamond 37:39 Yeah, it's very cool. And again, I encourage listeners to I have a lot of links in the show notes. And I encourage listeners to go and check out those links and specifically check out the escape games because the templates are very, very cool. Cat Spencer 37:51 Yeah, they are awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Love them. We think they are awesome. And it's something that it's just something that is super, super useful as a teacher to have in your to have in your in your back pocket. Zach Diamond 38:03 Absolutely. I wanted to ask you another question about the non educational applications of genially because I saw some of that on the website. I definitely felt like the website was speaking to me as a teacher first. But, you know, I'm not exactly sure how relevant this will be to our teacher, predominantly teacher audience of this podcast. But, you know, I could I could see you making presentations for, you know, administration presentations to other teachers, maybe PDS, things like that. That's, I guess, still educational, but I just meant outside of the classroom. What other applications have you seen of genially besides classroom teaching? Cat Spencer 38:40 Yeah. Well, that's a really, really great question. And the fantastic thing with genially is that obviously today we're focusing on the education side of things. And then in, in our role, and in our education team, we just focus purely on the education. But there is a very large team at Genially as well, which focus on our corporate sector. So which focus on mainly they work with learning and development teams, with HR teams with purse with professional development, and most most importantly, instructional designers. So I think that's kind of our big one when it comes to there's a lot of overlap in that. But a lot of teams use us in those ways. So the instructional designer profile is kind of a big one for us in terms of our corporate sector. So we're very lucky to work with some fantastic companies from all around the world. using us for things like branching scenarios for professional development. The great thing about genially, we mentioned it earlier is that with Genially Analytics, you can track the behavior. So we find a lot of our our corporate clients actually end up using us to create that their professional development courses, just because it's providing that professional development in a way that, you know, especially the escape games that I've received and the breakouts we see that being used a lot even in corporate sector, just because it's it's a way where you're you know, When you're doing professional development, the last thing you want is death by death by self paced learning, in other words, so you're still being presented with that professional development, but you're doing it an engaging way. So we have a huge corporate sector that we work with. And we're very, very lucky to have some fantastic clients, as we said. And the great thing is, as well as teachers, I understand that your your life doesn't just stop in the classroom. So it's not just teaching and learning materials you're wanting to create, but you have parents evenings, you have ways that you have to communicate with tutors, you might have newsletters that you have to send out. The great thing is with Genially is it's not because we have that multifaceted way of you know, it's just it's a content creation platform that has become popular in edtech, and has now become popular in instructional design, there's a lot of overlap into things that you can use genie to create. Okay, so we've got a fantastic we've got fantastic templates as well, for parents tutor evening invitations, or school calendars, or school newsletters. There's loads of ways that you can use Genially and make the most of the platform, we really are an all in one platform when we say that, you know, it's not just those teaching aligning materials, but there's loads of other uses outside of it as well. Zach Diamond 41:16 Awesome. Yeah. And I mean, actually, you did make that relevant to teachers. Yeah, you brought it back. I love that. That's fantastic. So thank you for sharing all of that. Very, very cool. Very cool. So what goals do you have for yourself? What do you hope to see in the future? And I know, this is a very broad question. I'm not asking you to, like reveal any secrets on the genially roadmap or anything like that. But what goals do you have? And what do you hope to see in the future? Cat Spencer 41:45 Well, it's like, I would like to be the first British President of the United States. How's that sound? I'm joking. I'm joking. No, I think for me, in terms of personal goals, I one of my proudest achievements, especially whilst I've been here at Genially is the strides that we've made towards accessibility. So I'm really passionate about diversity and inclusion, it's just something I've always been passionate about. And actually, we over the last year, so generally has now become a double a compliant platform. So you can create double a compliant resources with Genially, which is been a huge, huge milestone achievement for us. And that's really been spearheaded by us and our English, ma English community. So the US and the UK, because it's something that's so relevant. And it's something that's so important, something we're so passionate about in terms of making education accessible for all, that's something I've been really proud of. So in terms of my future goals, I think for me, that's a big one is from preschool to higher education, I just hope that I can continue to be working on projects where, where education is made more accessible, and reflective of students diverse needs, abilities and interests. I think that as a teacher, there'll be many teachers that, that that echoes with so Zach Diamond 43:05 Oh, yeah, yeah. Cat Spencer 43:06 So I think that's a that's a big one. And in and you know, Genially we're, we're really, really happy that that's something that's been that's again, that's been spearheaded by our community, that was something that our community mentioned to said to us, we need this play, we want to not just we need it, we want to make our resources accessible, please help us to make it easy. And then we listened. And that was something that was was a big milestone for us last year. So we're hoping and I'm hoping to continue doing projects along those lines. And I think for me, it's just I, it's just great being around educators, I think that's the majority. That's the reason the majority of us work in ad tech is because we we just love being around education and we love being around teachers. For me, it's so inspiring, spending my days talking to people who do great things and make such an impact to so many young people's lives. So I think for me, it's just a case of continuing to have those opportunities to work with you guys because we think you're awesome. So please do connect in any way that you want to with us because we'd love to hear from you. Zach Diamond 44:12 Well, that was some fantastic foreshadowing for my next question, which is how can our listeners connect with you Cat? I did see what you did there. Yes. Cat Spencer 44:26 So in terms of connecting so you can connect with me personally on X brackets, Twitter. So my, my x is Cat Spencer, my name and then 21 which is just the numbers. And then you can also connect with us via any of our social medias on genially. So it's generally official on all of the social media platforms. So please do connect and sign up for a free Genially account. Remember, Genially is free free for all always will be free to start creating with freemium. So then you've got premium options as you go up and start to increase your usage, but just give it a go. Like that's the that's my biggest takeaway, I'd say because it's so easy to use and start creating. Zach Diamond 45:07 Yes, 100% I did, I just went in and I started messing around. It was very cool. And I'm gonna be making some of these just to give my students to see what they do, like, just sort of just try them out. Very, very cool. Cat Spencer 45:19 That's got some great playlists and great music quiz one Zach so you should definitely okay. Yeah. Zach Diamond 45:26 Okay. I will do that. I love those music games. Kids love those. They love them. We do a name that tune Kahoot they love that they asked to do it all year. So I'm going to try that out with genially and see what I can do. Cat Spencer 45:40 There's a Genially jukebox template. You'll love that. Zach Diamond 45:43 Oh, cool. Okay. You know what? I'll find it and I'll link it in the show notes. That will be Cat Spencer 45:49 I'll send it honestly the Genially books template. That's a That's a mouthful, a tongue twister Geniallt jukebox. There's a great template where you can just add Spotify tracks, and it's a name that tune. Oh, yeah. Oh, perfect. Okay, that's that one. So yeah, take a look at all of those. And I've seen a lot. I've seen. Some of our ambassadors actually create, like playlists out of the playlists. So they've created like an actual teaching playlist to with that, so really, really cool. Zach Diamond 46:21 Cool. Cool. Drop it some resources here at the very end. I love it. I love it. Mike drop resources as we as Yeah. Yeah, I have a long list of show notes now. So listeners definitely go and check those out. No, no, it's great. It's perfect. I love it. And I'm going to check them out too. This is good that they're on my list to link now. So I have to go to them. That means that I will check them out as well. This has been fantastic. Like I I loved messing around on the genially website and just poking around in the templates a little bit, but you gave me ideas that had never occurred to me. Beyond that, so what a fantastic conversation. This has been amazing. Thank you so much for joining me. Cat Spencer 47:00 Thank you so much for having me. It's been super awesome. And thank you to everyone that's listening. Zach Diamond 47:05 Yeah, it has been super awesome. Thank you again, 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 dot modern classrooms that org slash 172. We'll have this episodes of recap and transcripts uploaded to the modern classrooms blog on Friday, so be sure to check their check back in the show notes for this episode if you'd like to access those. Also, we're asking our listeners to leave a review if this podcast has been helpful in supporting you to create a blended, self paced and mastery based learning environment. That definitely would help us out by helping other folks find the podcast. But otherwise, thank you all so much for listening. Thank you, Cat. Have a great week, and we'll be back next Sunday. Zach Diamond 47:55 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 modern class proj 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.