What's your dream project? In this episode of the UX of EdTech podcast, hosts Alicia Quan and Sarah Mondestin explore their dream EdTech projects and the values behind them. 

Join us as we talk about products that inspire us, people who motivate us, and boy band posters we grew up with. We talk about the intersection of traditional and non-traditional edtech products, children's books, kids building things, and the importance of accessibility when creating products. Also, what is our favorite edtech tool?

EdTech Product Inspo (Article)

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This is a must-listen for those who want to get into the mind of a teacher. 

Alicia Quan and Sarah Mondestin interview Missy Testerman, the 2024 National Teacher of the Year. Missy shares her journey from aspiring to be a teacher from a young age to becoming a specialist in teaching English as a second language in Rogersville, Tennessee. 

Reflecting on her career, Missy discusses the importance of face-to-face teaching, the integration of technology in education, and the challenges and rewards of being an educator. 

The conversation also explores the role of AI in classrooms, the importance of reducing non-instructional tasks for teachers, and the balance of motherhood and a teaching career. Missy emphasizes the value of interacting directly with students and shares her experiences with mentors, technology, and personal anecdotes about balancing work and family life.

Follow Missy on LinkedIn, Instagram, and her website. 

Chapters

00:15 - Missy's Early Inspiration

01:22 - Missy's Teaching Journey

06:49 - Early Tech in Education

12:32 - First Year Teaching Challenges

15:19 - Tech Tools in Modern Teaching

24:49 - Digital Natives and Tech Integration

25:42 - AI in Education

27:09 - Face-to-Face Teaching vs. Tech

30:15 - The Role of Language in Child Development

31:47 - EdTech Trends and Teacher Workload

35:44 - AI's Impact on Education

43:33 - Balancing Work and Motherhood

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Alicia Quan and Sarah Mondestin interview Alex Darrow, Principal Designer at Microsoft Education. 

Alex discusses his journey from a childhood love for gaming to leading the design of innovative reading tools at Microsoft. He shares his experiences working on reading products, including the development of the Reading Coach and Reading Progress tools that have become essential in classrooms, especially during the COVID pandemic. Alex highlights the importance of observing children's learning processes and emphasizes creating engaging, gamified educational experiences. 

The episode also features a special guest, Alex's daughter Zoe, who provides her perspective on her dad's work and shares valuable advice for designers creating educational tools for kids.

Chapters

01:13 - Early Gaming Influences

03:04 - Career Journey and Academic Background

05:07 - Transition to Microsoft and EdTech

10:02 - Voice User Interface Design

12:11 - Hackathons and Product Development

19:17 - Reading Progress and COVID-19

27:01 - Future of Reading Coach and Gamification

31:34 - AI Hype vs. Panic: Where Do You Stand?

32:21 - The Role of AI in Education

33:57 - Advice for EdTech Designers

34:14 - Personal Literacy Journeys

38:01 - The Impact of Reading Progress and Flipgrid

42:02 - Lightning Round: Quickfire Questions

49:03 - Special Guest: Zoe's Perspective

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This might be our most giggly conversation yet. Alicia Quan and Sarah Mondestin interview Annabel Blake (they/them), Principal AI Design Researcher at Canva.

The three discuss connections throughout Annabel’s career and life, touching on various topics like research, kids, play, AI, ethics, toys, authorship, and advice for designers and researchers working the spaces of education and AI. 

So much gold in this one!

About Annabel

Annabel works on conversational interfaces, generative experiences for education and on early R&D. Annabel’s work lives at the intersection of research, design, and play and includes studying how young people experiment with AI recreationally and how they use it for fun, comfort, and creativity. Annabel also writes “strange little books for children, like a book you wear on your head or a story about a robot goat… that comes with a chatbot goat (called Sardine!).”

Annabel’s Links

⁠Playful Futures⁠

⁠annabelblake.com⁠

⁠bookandbot.com⁠ 

⁠Center for Humane Technology⁠ 

Chapters

00:00 - Annabel's Squiggly Career Path

03:14 - Olympic Journey and Injury

04:42 - Reflections on Career Squiggles

06:07 - Intersection of Research, Design, and Play

08:38 - Kids and AI: Restoration and Exploration

12:46 - Children's Books and Technology

17:39 - Young People and AI: Surprising Uses

21:39 - Designing for AI vs. Traditional UX

28:17 - Co-Design and Early Access Testing

32:48 - Educators and AI Tools

36:22 - Innovative Teachers and Their Challenges

39:24 - The Importance of Playfulness in Education

46:11 - AI in Education: Balancing Innovation and Ethics

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👋The UX of EdTech Studio teams up to support companies with product design, UX research, and UX writing.

UX of EdTech is an engine for broader impact through its growing community, podcast, and newsletter dedicated to advancing design in education. Follow to find talent and opportunities.

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Alicia Quan and Sarah Mondestin hang out with Michelle Lee, Partner and Managing Director of IDEO’s Play Lab. This convo is so delightful and fun! So much inspiration to go around. Listeners will be enriched.

Michelle discusses her unconventional career journey from mechanical engineering to toy design, and eventually to leading kid-focused projects. She emphasizes the importance of play in learning and its application beyond childhood, highlighting her work with companies like VTech, IDEO, and Sesame Workshop. Michelle shares insights into designing engaging and meaningful digital experiences, such as Elmo Calls and the Space Explorer Bus project. She also explores the application of playful design in unexpected areas like smoking cessation and robo-investing. 

Michelle provides valuable advice for designers and researchers in the EdTech space, encouraging them to observe, learn, and engage with the target audience, particularly children. The conversation also touches on balancing digital and real-life learning experiences and includes personal stories of learning new skills and bonding through play.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction; from Aerospace to Toy Design

06:25 Balancing Digital and Real-Life Learning

14:21 Designing for Preschoolers

21:11 Incorporating Play in Unexpected Places

24:49 The Role of Play in Learning

27:26 Balancing Seriousness and Play

29:41 Advice for Designers and Researchers

34:36 Curiosity and Inspo

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👋The UX of EdTech Studio teams up to support companies with product design, UX research, and UX writing.

UX of EdTech is an engine for broader impact through its growing community, podcast, and newsletter dedicated to advancing design in education. Follow to find talent and opportunities.

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Alicia Quan and Sarah Mondestin interview two key figures in the development of Google's Learn LM. 

Julia Wilkowski is the Pedagogy and Learning Sciences Team Lead, ensuring Google products adhere to learning science principles and best practices and have a demonstrable effect on learning.

Hayes Raffle is a Principal Designer on Google's LearnX team, where he makes Google Search, YouTube and Gemini more helpful for learning.

Both guests share insights on their paths in learning design, the challenges of integrating rigorous learning science into fast-paced tech development, and the role of user research and testing in creating effective educational tools. 

They highlight recent advancements announced at the Google I/O conference, emphasizing the importance of multimodal learning and the potential of AI in personalizing education and making learning more interactive and engaging.

Chapters

04:42 - Formative Moments in Learning Design

09:14 - Designing for Diverse Audiences: Sixth Graders to Astronauts

12:53 - Impact of Tangible Media on Digital Learning

15:40 - Challenges in Measuring Learning Outcomes

20:01 - Integrating Learning Science into Product Development

26:05 - Recent Google I/O Developments and Announcements

29:26 - The Unique Approach of Learn LM

31:02 - Exciting Developments in Google Glass

32:10 - Real-Life Applications of AI in Education

37:23 - The Role of Designers in AI-Driven Learning

44:12 - Future Trends in Learning and UX

48:33 - Lightning Round and Closing Thoughts

LearnLM Prompt Guide

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Beyond client work, UX of EdTech is an engine for broader impact through its growing community, podcast, and newsletter dedicated to advancing design in education. Follow to find talent and opportunities.

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This is the story of a print-first EdTech product and it's packed with nuggets about UX Research with teachers.

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Ethan Pierce, founder of Adaptive Reader, shares his personal journey from struggling with literacy in his early school years to founding a company dedicated to enhancing reading accessibility for students of varying developmental and linguistic backgrounds. 

He discusses the iterative process behind Adaptive Reader, focusing on extensive user research that led to a print-first approach due to educator preference and practical in-classroom usage. 

Alicia Quan and Sarah Mondestin also explore Ethan’s thoughts on the role of technology in education, the importance of user research, and his vision for making literature accessible worldwide through adaptive texts.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and Personal Story

01:20 - Founding Adaptive Reader

02:01 - Journey into Startups

03:30 - Creativity and Career Paths

06:00 - Challenges in Literacy and Education

07:10 - Designing Adaptive Reader

11:56 - User Research and Insights

18:42 - Balancing Print and Digital in Education

29:27 - Future of Adaptive Reader

35:45 - Closing Thoughts and Contact Information

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👋 UX of EdTech is a design studio helping EdTech and education companies with their product design and UX research. We also facilitate a community of product designers, UX researchers, UX writers, learning designers, and educators.

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Designing for K12 EdTech? Take a moment to linger in the world of this teacher.

Alicia Quan and Sarah Mondestin listen to second-grade teacher Danielle Rivera, as she shares her perspective on growing through EdTech’s various iterations. She also gives her personal perspective on this question: What do veteran teachers want from AI?

Chapters

00:00 - The Joys and Challenges of Teaching

06:08 - Transitioning Back to Teaching

08:42 - Leveraging EdTech and AI

22:04 - Future Aspirations and Reflections

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UX of EdTech is a design studio and talent finder—tailored for EdTech.

Alicia Quan introduces our new podcast co-host, Sarah Mondestin! 

Ever wondered how to collaborate with UX of EdTech? This episode should point you in the right direction. 

The hosts discuss Sarah's diverse career journey from educator to UX content designer and her involvement in various UX of EdTech initiatives. The conversation covers the structure and goals of the UX of EdTech Community and Studio, highlighting their focus on networking, showcasing work, and supporting EdTech companies with specialized UX teams. Don’t miss the end where they highlight what is inspiring them lately. 

Chapters

01:26 - Sarah's career journey

06:50 - The Community

15:54 - The Studio

20:53 - This week’s curiosity and inspirations

Worth Noting

• Sarah Mondestin is a former educator and principal. She’s a UX Content Designer and Strategist who helps companies consider their overall UX content strategies. Sarah has served as the Editorial Lead and Content Design and Research Advisor to support UX practitioners in our industry. She’s now the Director of Design Operations and Partnerships for UX of EdTech. Follow Sarah on LinkedIn or visit her website for more ways you can collaborate. 

• Sarah’s previous podcast episode: EdTech UX Writing and Content Design: A Journey

• Sarah’s article series: UX Writing in EdTech

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The Community application is available on our website.

UX of EdTech is a design studio that cultivates learning, creativity, and play.

How can UX practitioners upskill in game design for a learning context? And why is this important in EdTech?

⁠Alicia Quan⁠ chats The Sims, cheat codes, and moving past the “Big 5” of gamification (points, badges, leader boards, levels, progress bars) towards something more with:

• ⁠Chris Bennett, Game designer, Stanford invited lecturer, and EdTech advisor

Worth Noting:⁠

• Chris’ Stanford Game Design Thinking Blog 
• Nine Dimensions of Deep Flow 
• Browning’s MDAO framework 
• Core Engagement Loop

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What is the current state of inclusive EdTech products and what are some resources to grow in this area?

Alicia Quan chats with:

• Louisa Rosenheck, Director Learning Design at Kahoot!
• Sean Oakes, Creative Director at Backpack Interactive

Worth Noting:

• The Kahoot! For All project, funded by the LEGO Foundation

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• The Latest at UX of EdTech
• UX Job Openings in EdTech