Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
In this most special of special episodes, Seth, Tami, and Allyson record LIVE at the ISTE conference in Denver, Colorado. As an official session at the conference, your podcast hosts - along with 40 other conference participants - were hosted by Kate Neff, the virtual Programs Coordinator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The episode unfolds in two parts, beginning with an insightful discussion on Kate’s innovative distance learning programs at the museum. The live recording at ISTE follows, capturing the enthusiasm of over 40 attendees who explored the museum's advanced distance learning facilities.
Kate delves into how the museum bridges the gap between scientific curiosity and educational accessibility through virtual programs. The attendees experienced firsthand the museum’s green screen studios and interacted with artifacts that enhance learning beyond the classroom walls.
This episode not only highlights the seamless integration of technology in education but also exemplifies how virtual platforms can extend learning horizons, connecting students nationwide with unique scientific resources. The vibrant interaction at the museum underscored the boundless possibilities of distance learning, making this session a significant milestone for the podcast and its mission to showcase innovative educational strategies.
Guest links:
Denver Museum of Nature and Science: https://www.dmns.org/
Host Links:
1. Browse amazing virtual learning opportunities at Tami Moehring and Allyson Mitchell's CILC.org
2. Seth Fleischauer's Banyan Global Learning helps schools leverage technology for teacher and student wellness including AI literacy PD for teachers and, for students, live virtual learning experiences in Character Education: banyangloballearning.com
Creators & Guests
Host
Allyson Mitchell
SF
Host
Seth Fleischauer
TM
Host
Tami Moehring
What is Why Distance Learning??
The Why Distance Learning? Podcast explores the transformative power of live virtual learning and its role in shaping the future of education. Hosted by three seasoned distance learning experts, this podcast delivers insights, promising practices, and inspiration for educators, content providers, and education leaders integrating live virtual experiences into teaching and learning. Each episode features interviews with content creators, industry professionals, field experts, and innovative educators who are driving engagement, equity, and innovation through distance learning. By challenging common perceptions and uncovering the realities of live virtual education, Why Distance Learning highlights its true impact and explores how it continues to evolve in an ever-changing educational landscape.
Hosted by Seth Fleischauer of Banyan Global Learning and Allyson Mitchell and Tami Moehring of the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration.
I'm biased and that I think I have a really awesome job, but it felt really good to share that with others, and definitely see it echoed back in that so well, you
do have an awesome job. And I thought it was
music. Hello everyone, and welcome to Why distance learning? The podcast for educators who are engaged with live virtual learning experiences, whether they be content providers who produce and facilitate or educators who want to complement their curriculum and learn more about the medium, we interview content providers, industry professionals, field experts and educators who love and use live virtual learning. And this episode is an extremely special episode, because the second half, at least, is going to be our live recording of the podcast that we did at ISTE this year in Denver. Our guest for this is Kate Neff. Kate, welcome to the podcast. Thank
you. I'm really excited to be here, and also just thrilled that everyone was willing to visit me at the museum.
Yes, we had about 40 people in the room with us recording what will be the second half of this episode. What we're doing here in the first half is a few days after the conference, we are meeting from our respective locations. Again, we are not in the same physical space with each other, but I do have to say, Tammy and Allison, after working with you guys for a year and a half in this and knowing you for even longer, it was such a pleasure to meet you in person. Yay.
It's so fun to meet you in person as well and spend time with Tammy in person too. So fun and seeing you, Kate, too great to see you in person as well. One of
the more exciting things that happened to us at the Colorado Rockies game was that we experienced the first ever pitch clock violation walk off wins to the Rockies. It was absolute history. Nobody understood what was happening, except for me, but I told everyone about it, and it was really, really fun. And and today, what we're doing in the first half of this podcast is we're giving you guys the context for the second half, because when we did our presentation at ISTE, it was two hours long, and this podcast is going to be about half an hour, maybe a little bit more. And so we took them through an experience, and we're going to talk a little bit about what that was and give you a taste of it. But first, Tammy, could you please introduce our guest?
Thank you, Kate for joining us today. So I'm going to go ahead and introduce Yeah, Kate Neff is the virtual Programs Coordinator for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, in a role she oversees the virtual programming in the museum's green screen studios, as well as CO produces the popular student broadcast scientists in action. She is a Colorado native with a background of public education, environmental science and art slash illustration. Her favorite thing to visit while at the museum are the dinosaurs, specifically the bears and birds of the North American wildlife halls. Thank you, Kate for joining us today. Of
course, this is really exciting to be here and talking with everyone again. So
yeah, Denver Museum of Nature and Science that, for some reason, is a name I could not get. I called it natural sciences. Then I called it Nature and Science. It's nature. It is Nature and Science.
Yes, of Nature and Science. One of these days, it's okay. When we hire new folks, they receive giant pages of acronyms because we also say dmns Sometimes, and that is just the beginning of where it gets confusing. So you are
good. Nothing like a good acronym.
Yeah, they're plentiful in education, I too, enjoyed the diorama rooms. Those were awesome. My favorite part of the museum is the special exhibit that you have right now on poisons. I thought that was really cool, because I'm super into the idea that, like, poisons are both poisons and medicines, and I feel like that speaks metaphorically to many things in life that are better in moderation, but, but yeah, really stunning museum got the teen T Rex there as well. That's a big deal. But I was hoping in this first part here, if you could just kind of take us through, like, what is dmns And what are the programs that you run via distance learning from there.
So I am the virtual Programs Coordinator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. And the Denver Museum of Nature and Science is obviously a natural science or natural history museum. We're based in Denver, Colorado. We're a nonprofit, and really our primary mission is just to be a catalyst. You know, we're, we're really focused on igniting our community's passion for nature and science and asking, like, how can we make science and science education accessible to our community and those beyond so we're really just an institution that is there for the public, you know, and we do quite a bit of research. Within our walls as well. But the part that I work within, which is education is a huge factor for us as well. So my role at the museum is kind of twofold. One is I oversee the virtual Science Academy that is our green screen broadcast studios, and those broadcast studios are really the way we connect to kiddos live in their classrooms. We've got our educator performers. They come in and they teach these classes regularly. They're amazing. These are professional educators who I just feel so lucky to work with. And then these classes are the ones that are Bookable by our teachers from wherever they have essentially a webcam. The other part of my role is kind of doing the production work for scientists in action. This is a long standing program that has been around since 2007 we really go into field environments or behind the scenes at the museum, and we visit with scientists doing research in real time, and allow kids to ask questions and engage with those scientists. Really it's about providing access for what does it look like to be a scientist? Because anyone can be a scientist, and that is a huge part of us, and what we do at the museum
so wonderful. Your studios are so amazing. It was so fun to be able to tour them. Oh my goodness. And I love the green screen paint that you have, and also the way that your your groups, your groups of educators are also able to just interact between both spaces. But I also am just so excited about all of the in person experiences those at the that were participating with us during the ISTE conference. I wonder if you could share what we did at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science with our group when we were all together.
Yeah, of course, just so there's some context for listeners, since obviously they weren't in person with us when we had our group together for ISTE, one of the things that we did is, first, we kind of set off with an introduction to the programming that we offer with dmns and the different things virtually speaking, that we do on site for kiddos and that distance learning sphere. The other thing we did is we then got to do a bit of a tour behind the scenes in two of my favorite places on site at the museum. One is that green screen broadcast studio that Allison was so excited about, and that is the virtual Science Academy. That is one of the spaces I largely function in within the museum. And participants actually got to engage with their green screens and see themselves on camera. There was a lot of putting the green glove over the hand and making things float around the screen, which was very exciting, essentially as charged. It was really cool getting to see all these adults, actually, you know, engage in the same way that that kids and young audiences do, because everyone's a kid at heart, and when you're in front of a green screen, it is the most fun. So that was one place we visited. It was pretty special. And then we went down to our Education Collection space, which is another behind the scenes area, not open regularly to the public. And we got to meet just Jeff Stevenson, who is our education collections manager, and he oversees the space that houses, I don't even know how many specimens specifically available for the use of educators. And these are pieces that have come from the International Space Station, or they have been dug from dig sites because they are dinosaur bones. There are human health collection specimens, there are pieces of archeological artifacts, all sorts of different things can be found in there, and all of these pieces are available for our educators to either take to classrooms or use in virtual programs or have on the floor for guests to engage with, but it's a really special place to get to see and a really nice, high overview of some of the things that we have housed at Denver Museum of Nature and Science. So that was pretty exciting as well, such
an exciting time.
And I thought, What was so cool about the fact that we had access to these spaces during this presentation where we're talking about distance learning, is that distance learning is all about access, right? And so, yes, we were special, because we got to go behind the scenes and open this door and see all of these amazing artifacts, like up close and personal in a spot that, like, isn't accessible to the public, right? But you can have access to this via distance learning, right? You don't, you don't have to be part of the like, ISTE group, who is, who is, you know, coming here and doing it through this special, special presentation. You can just go and book one of these programs for your classes, and you have access to all those same things. This, which is so so awesome and really spoke to the power of distance learning. Before we get to the second half of the episode, I'm wondering what was what did this? What did this mean to you? Kate, like having all these people in the museum with you sharing about what you do every day? What was it like having everyone in there learning about your craft.
It was awesome. You know, I was, I was, I think, a little nervous at the beginning of the day, just because sometimes it's hard to make yourself vulnerable. And, you know, really wonder, are people going to be excited about this, and the way that I'm excited about this, will they find this interesting? Will Will this tour go well? And then as soon as people were in the room and we started exploring some of the different spaces in the museum, it was it was awesome. All of my anxieties totally went out the window. It was extremely validating. You know, as someone who sees this space regularly and thinks it's pretty cool to see others enjoying it as well. And it was really exciting to get honestly, to re experience this, and get kind of a refresh perspective of the things that I see on a regular basis. It's really easy to take things for granted and just kind of get into a general workflow, and, you know, the everyday grind, and so to have folks standing in front of the green screen studio spaces, or just see this year volume of the collection spaces, and just be in complete awe, it was really exciting, and it felt so special that I got to share it with everyone, because obviously I'm I'm biased, and that I think I have a Really awesome job, but it felt really good to share that with others and definitely see it kind of echoed back in that so
well, you do have an awesome job. And I thought it was, I thought it was really wonderful the way that you were able to not only talk about the distance learning in the virtual experience, but really think help everyone think about museums or informal spaces of learning as a resource, because quite often that's not the first place your mind is going to go. You're going to think, oh, I might have this unit, or I might have this lesson. What can I find? Really quick, but being able to also remind that the institution that's there with that collection, or those experts and those ever giving opportunities to learn are so available for you and students, I thought was really nice as well for everyone to remember all the different ways that they can have access to the collection.
Thank you. I That's great to hear in part, because I mean that is largely what we're for. We're here for the people you know. And when I was an educator in a traditional classroom, I did exactly what I think you just mentioned Allison, which is like, Okay, we have a unit coming up. How am I going to pull this together? And there were just so many times where I'm sure we defaulted to what isn't even pedagogically, you know, the highest quality, because it was just what was easiest, and you're tired and you're overwhelmed by the sheer volume of needs and demands as an educator. So having an informal education organization like the museum has just been really so impactful, because we provide a lot of these opportunities and really authentic ways for kids and the public to engage with science that doesn't put more on the teachers then. And I feel really proud of the work that you know, my team does, because I remember all the times when I was a teacher and I would have just been over the moon to have access to stuff like this, and I just didn't even know it existed. So part of the mission, and my current role, is just making sure people know that it's here and that we're available and we're here to support and there's so many ways that we want to you know further the incredible work that they are already doing in their classrooms. So thank you for bringing that up. Yeah,
and now we have another 40 people who were in the room with us who know that exists, that it exists, and we have everyone who's ever going to listen to this podcast episode. And as part of this episode, we get to hear the perspective of some of the people that were in the room with us when they came back into the room, we asked them to reflect upon their experience. And we are about to play for you what that was like. We thank you for your excusing of the relatively lower audio quality of this next portion. We right now we're all sort of in our respective studios recording to different tracks. We had a technical snafu at the beginning of the recording that made it so that we were all passing around a mic and had our headphones as backups. I think it's all going to come together. You should, you should be able to understand it. But thank you for your for continuing to listen, because some really great stuff coming up here. So thank you, Kate. We are now going to go back in time. To the second half of our podcast episode today, which is was filmed live in Denver, Colorado, on what was it? June 23 Sunday. June 23 2024 and here we go. You.
Music. Hello everyone, and welcome to Why distance learning? The podcast for educators who are engaged with live virtual learning experiences, whether they be content providers who produce and facilitate or educators who want to complement their curriculum and learn more about the medium, we interview content providers, industry professionals, field experts and educators who love and use live virtual learning. And today we have an extremely special episode, because I am currently looking at about 40 people who are looking at me. They are from the ISTE conference here in Denver, Colorado. This is our first live recording, and we are at the Denver Museum of Natural Sciences, which is a wonderful museum that we all just got to tour here in Denver, and which features a distance learning professional, Kate Neff, Kate, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you. I'm really excited to be here and to have you on site visiting me at the museum.
It is a an extremely exciting opportunity for us to be presenting this podcast episode here at ISTE, and we are also going to be bringing in a lot of the voices that are here in the room with us today. I am wondering if anybody can summarize for us what we just experienced here in the museum. We've been here for about an hour and a half now. Can someone come up and tell us your name, where you're from, and what you we did this morning, and how it relates to distance learning. And we have Liz Houston, everyone? Liz Houston from Buffalo, hi, thanks.
I'm Liz Houston from from Buffalo, New York. And really we it was amazing. We got to walk around and see some of the behind the scenes portions of the museum. Hear from, from Jeff the museum, not curator, but collections manager, the collections manager. And we saw just how many different things, and just a portion of the different artifacts and specimens that that could be used in your classroom or to connect with kids that aren't even in the museum? So virtually, gosh, thinking about all the possibilities, it's amazing. We got to see the different studios that your different educators and and I guess museum directors and whoever might be doing these programs are coming to us live from and see exactly how the magic behind the camera works. It's just the possibilities are endless, and really anything you could think of that you could connect students with at the science museum. I mean, the opportunities are endless. I know I have lots of ideas, so can't wait to see and explore more of what we can do here.
Thanks so much. Liz, I do want to ask you, Kate, what was it like having all of these people here in the museum going into these spaces that usually is just you and a couple of other people, but today was 40 of us following you around into these places where you connect externally, but don't often have the opportunity to connect with people in real life. It
was pretty special. You know, I think I was a little intimidated going in today, into today just because I didn't really know what it would hold. I was like, will people think this is interesting? Will they have questions? Will they be excited about it in the same way that I'm excited to come to work every single day that I'm here and get to do it again and again? And it was just really validating. And, like I said, so special. I'm really proud of our virtual Science Academy and the collection spaces, and obviously the team that I work with y'all only got to meet one of the people that I see on a regular basis at the museum, and I just love what we do here. And it's, it's really neat to share it with you and see your enthusiasm. And it really, made me remember too, that you know, anyone's a student and anyone is a scientist in life, and anyone can have these joys and moments of curiosity and seeing all of you come into the space and respond in a way that you know even our little kids respond. It's just like, yes, learning is really impactful, and sharing it with you was just really fun for me. So thank you. I was really excited to love that again through you. So I'm just so glad you're visiting today.
Yay. So we also had a question. One of the things before we walked out was thinking about, what do you see on site that you might be. Able to bring back to your classroom. We have people here from Hawaii, from Georgia, from Florida, from Pennsylvania, all over, and people from Denver, of course, or Colorado. So we wonder, is there anything that you saw today that you wanted to bring back if you can't take the flight with your students or the bus, what would that be? And how would you want to bring that back to your classroom or to your teaching?
Come on up.
Hi. I'm Dr Venice O'Farrell, and I'm from Virginia. Forgot us, but it's okay. We're from Old Dominion University, and one of the things that we do is we work with teachers. So the focus for us was more thinking about what we would do if this was a teacher professional development, because that's what we spend a lot of our time doing. One of the things that we thought was really, really cool was there was a geo there from Brazil, and there's a geology classes, and as they're doing that in Virginia, you have different types of geology and the things that you're looking at, but getting to be able to bring something into the classroom that is from all over the world is really, really cool, because when they're studying it and they're thinking about it, that may even be a career they decide to pursue, but they would do it from a different perspective, and thinking about it in a global kind of manner, as opposed to what's just around them and what they can actually go on an actual in person trip to be able to see. So I thought that was really cool. Another thing that I thought was really cool was just looking at the collections and things that are not on exhibit in the museum, and having that moment to kind of talk about it as you're going through your curriculum and you're mapping it out, and you're thinking about all the different things that could come up scheduling a, you know, a virtual trip, even if it's like a, you know, one on one. Hey, can you come talk to my class, or come into my class virtually and talk about this and actually show some things from the collection, because we realized how vast it really was. Yay.
Thank you so much. And Virginia is an amazing state as well. So I'm sorry I didn't say that before.
I really like what you highlighted there, which was access, right? We talk a lot about distance learning being something that provides access to all sorts of learning experiences that you wouldn't otherwise have, and today, here at the museum, we actually got access to a space that people don't usually get access to, all in the name of distance learning and and that really speaks to the benefit of the of the the medium, right? Like you, even in a situation where you're at a museum, you probably couldn't bring 30 kids back into that space with all the arsenic I'm imagining. So, yeah, I just, I love that you, that you said that, and that it, you know, it highlighted that access piece.
Hi, I'm Colleen Marinoff from Dwight Englewood school in New Jersey. And one area where I have utilized distance learning, and where I could see using some of the stuff that we saw at the museum today is in co curricular activities. For example, I'm a robotics coach, and every year there's a theme, and students have to define a problem within that theme and talk to experts. And that can really vary. I know this coming year the theme is oceans. You have a really awesome orca exhibit here, for example, or the wildlife Hall, and there could be someone who's an expert on something the students are interested in. And I think if we are allowing students to have a lot of choice in what they are learning, each individual teacher might not be an expert in the different interest areas that the students have, and so having a way of connecting with experts in different areas that the teachers might not be familiar with, allows for a more of a breadth and depth of learning, and allows for more opportunities for student choice in what a unit might be or what the topic of a project might be.
I really, I love that that was that was great, and it's so true. You know, we can't always be an expert in everything, but a lot of being an educator is about facilitating those connections and helping serve is just that conduit so that students can find the person that could really spark that passion or further it along so and that is one thing I really love about working in a museum. I think that is a big part of what we do, knowing that everyone has different interests and curiosities in life, and how can we hopefully bring everyone into a space like this and they find something that resonates with them? So
it's also fun to think about your if you have a competition, being able to use distance learning to also help keep your kids connected, as well being able to use distance learning or a space like this to be able to help them
stay connected. Hi, I'm Kaylee Baldwin. I'm from New Jersey. I'm actually an instructional technology facilitator, so I work with a full district of teachers, and sort of in the lens of our original speaker was thinking about like, how this could work with other professionals, but something that was on our travels to the back of the museum, but actually was out on the museum floor, kind of tickled my mind. One of the other people here was like, Oh my gosh, you can build a nest and you have this exhibit that is all about different birds and wildlife and. And the materials to build the nest, or it looks like just a variety of pillows covered in different fabric that kind of indicate, like, oh, is this a twig, or is this a, you know, a tumbleweed, or different things like that. And it kind of started me thinking in the virtual environment, and when you're sort of asking students to take ownership of their learning and work with that autonomy. Piece you can use everyday items at home to sort of like, simulate that same kind of, you know, thought process of like building an s like, just grab different pillows and give them, like, a different creative title. You know, when you're looking at them, it could just be like pillows from your couch and a blanket, and you kind of like lay it out and adding that aspect of creativity and imagination in, you know, a way that maybe we couldn't be immersed in here at the museum all the time, but then you could still sort of have that, you know, thought process and go through that. So that's that was what resonated with me.
I would be remiss to not mention this, but we one of the classes that we teach through VSA is astrotauts to the moon. It's for our little littles. It's really cute for ECE. And we actually do have an activity that we'll send out to teachers when they book this class, so that they can work with their their preschoolers, or maybe their daycare kiddos, and they make brown paper bag like space helmets or space suits. And sometimes, if they do it in advance, they'll join on camera, and then we see them through zoom, and they're wearing these little brown paper spacesuits, and it is the cutest thing I've ever seen. But yeah, I think, you know, there's a lot of ways that that kids can be creative and still use hands on things, even in a virtual capacity, and really start seeing everyday objects as home is suddenly that space suit, which is pretty neat. So thank you for sharing that. Yeah, the Bird Exhibit with the pillows, pretty fun. It's always good to see it in action. Sometimes I see people like adults napping in it. So it's got different
I also like that you brought up everyday objects because it speaks to another part of this, which is that the everyday objects where you are in New Jersey might look a little bit different than the everyday objects for me in Portland, Oregon, and they definitely look different than they do in Taiwan or Brazil or Colombia, and when you are connecting over distance, you're popping that geographic bubble that everybody lives in, and regardless of where you live, there's something unique about that culture that holds people together, but it also makes it so that when people from other cultures come in, they bring a different look, they bring a different perspective. And that, like cultural, cultural resilience piece, I think, is something that is really, really critical, especially in today's world, well, maybe just today's America, where we have a hard time operating outside of our comfort circles. To be able to meet with people who don't look like you, who don't sound like you, who whose everyday objects are different than yours, is a real unique opportunity to this medium when you're talking about staying on your school campus. So I love that you mentioned that, because it's it really is an amazing part of this opportunity to to have that cultural lens, to look through it and use it as a way, not only to learn about culture, but also to learn about yourself by learning about culture.
So this is just me being a bit of the tech nerd over here, but you all got to see an amazing Distance Learning Studio. You got to be on green screen, and you got to play with all these amazing props that you set up. So I wonder if anybody took anything from the studio experience that you would bring back to your classroom. I saw lots of people playing with the chroma key. So just interested if there was any setup that you thought you could bring back to your school or classroom.
So hi, my name is Joe roaldy. I'm from Buffalo, New York as well. Liz and I work in kind of a unique role, because we work for BOCES, right? So between the two of us, we serve about 108 school districts, right? So when we saw that space, we talked about finding spaces at our BOCES that might be able to be utilized by the districts that we serve and become kind of a value add or a service for those districts, that we could provide them opportunities that they may not have within their districts, but be a resource for them.
Really, really, oh, sorry, yeah, that's really exciting, really wonderful. And Kate has a beautiful this is a beautiful studio space, but with all the different green screen that's available. Bowl, you can really set up a studio in wherever you may find it. We have some content providers that do it in a closet. So really, just wanted to kind of call out the studio space, because it really is a beautiful way that your educators are able to come in, be prepped. And also, hopefully some of you all saw something that you would be able to bring back to your spaces of learning.
You so on the wide distance learning podcast, we asked two questions to each of our guests. The first question has to do with what we call golden moments. There are these moments when you are a distance learning content provider, where this technology simply works exactly as you imagined it could, and does something incredible. So Kate Neff, I'm wondering what is a golden moment that you can share with us from your time here at the Denver Museum of Natural Sciences?
This is hard because there are so many golden moments, and I know because we receive letters from kids sometimes after a program, and they will say, like, this was my first time ever seeing the Grand Canyon. And of course, they saw it virtually. But that's really special that they see things like that, or they write letters and they're like, I am going to become an astronaut now, and how can I also go to the International Space Station. And I'm like, Well, I haven't been, but I think if you work through NASA, you maybe have a chance. But it is really cool just to see how excited they are. I know I gave this example earlier, but I'll go ahead and say it again. Now, one of my favorite things that I saw, kind of anecdotally, in the last several years of working this role is we had one student who joined a program in 2021 in which we broadcasted from one of our basement behind the scene collections for gems and minerals, and we were looking at little rocks and minerals and meteorites. And there was one kid in this broadcast from his classroom who had never been to the museum before, and I don't think he'd even been to Denver, and saw the scientists who we were talking to, and saw these rocks, and instantly was smitten, and said, I have to go to the museum. I have to touch these rocks. I have to see this firsthand. This is my future. I must do it. And really kudos to the family that this kid belongs to, because talk about supporting supporting your students interests. They reorganized their entire family vacation that summer. They they drove or flew or however they got to Denver, they came to the museum. I have no idea what they were going to do otherwise, but hopefully no one else was disappointed. But they came and they actually met the curator that we had been interviewing for this broadcast. And it was really sweet. There was this photo I want you to visualize of a maybe eight or nine year old child and a matching track suit looking very inquisitively at a collection cart of, I don't even know, like gold pieces that Dr James Hagedorn had pulled out for him and pushing the buttons in our freight elevator Bertha, which was just, I'm sure, one of those core memories that people talk about. So that was really special. And it just goes to show that there are kids watching, and they are paying attention, and this can really be a life changing moment for them. So it felt really good to be part of that.
I really love that idea of of people learning about something over the internet and then coming together in real life to experience it. I have my own story about that, which is that I met these two wonderful women on the internet and and then I decided to do a podcast with them, and we recorded about 35 episodes. And then one day, we came to Denver and we met ourselves. We met each other in person for the first time at a Colorado Rockies game that was also, yeah, this is about 20 hours ago, and I also have a teacher that I've been working with for the past three years. His name's Danny. He's sitting across the way there. He also came to that game, and I met him, IRL, for the first time. This is something that with the students that Danny and I work with in Taiwan, we make this part of our distance learning model to have the teachers sometimes go out there to visit the students in person. Danny got to do that three weeks ago when he went out to Taiwan for the first time and met a couple of other Banyan Global Learning people his first you know, he worked with us for three years, all on online. We were all just faces on a screen, but in the past three weeks, we've all become flesh and blood. And it's, it's really it when, when I talk to people about how to do this, one of the things that I say is that it starts with a mindset. You have to believe that you can make connections over the medium. If you don't believe that, then there's going to be all sorts of things that you're going to see that are obstacles to being able to make a real human connection. But if you believe that you are truly sharing space with the people that. Seeing online, there is no reason that you can't start a podcast with them, that you can't have a three year working relationship with them, and then when you see them in person, like of course, you're going to give them a hug because you've known them for years. We ask one other question, which is the title of the podcast, Kate and F why distance learning?
Because it's the best. No distance learning because I think you know, really, just as education and society and culture has even shifted dramatically in the last several years with the covid 19 pandemic, we found that this is a really meaningful way that we can still connect and we can still have community and share learning with kids, because learning didn't stop when, you know, much of the world did. Kids were at home, and they still had these vibrant minds with gears turning and questions, and they still wanted to grow up and become astronauts, or still wanted to go and and ask questions. And so we didn't just say, sorry. We have to put this, you know, on pause for a questionable amount of time. We adapted. And humans, as we continue to do, we really evolved. And we said, Okay, what's the next step, you know? And I felt really lucky, and that dmns, we've already had distance learning just because this was another way to reaching out, but with things like the pandemic, it really allowed us to kind of sharpen our tools and say, Okay, now how can we do it better? Cool, we are providing access, but let's provide more access. Let's be more inclusive. Let's bring more people in, because there are always kids who are still not not receiving the same amount of education or support that they deserve. So this is just one other way that hopefully we can connect with those kids. And I just feel lucky to function within this. I used to be a classroom teacher prior to covid, and there are a lot of things that I felt like I wanted just more of. How can I give more of this to my deserving kiddos? And what about all the other kids? I don't know. And so doing this for me has been a really good way of finding that more. And we're not there yet. You know, there's always questions of what's next, so distance learning is just one way of doing that, so
distance learning a good way of finding that more. I love it. Tammy Allison, do you guys have any last thoughts before we go,
other than to say thank you to all of you that attended our session today and joined us on the podcast, and thank you, Kate for orchestrating all the behind scenes. This is the best part of knowing all of these amazing places and individual people that represent them at cilc, as I said at the beginning, I have a friend in every state and in almost every country around the world, and my family vacations are planned based on these amazing people that you see.
Yes, just echoing gratitude to everyone here and to you, Kate, thank you so much for making everything possible taking us behind the scenes. Really wonderful to learn from you and to learn and work with all of you as well. Really excited to be connected. And thank you to the podcast host too. Yay, Tammy and Seth,
yes. Thank you so much everyone for being here. Thank you, especially to the people who came up and commented. We appreciate that. If you would like to support the podcast, please do follow us, listen, leave a rating or a review, tell a friend. You can check our show notes for any of the links that we mentioned here today, which I'm not sure if we did or not, because we're not on the internet like we usually are. So please check the show notes for links to the Denver Museum of Natural Sciences. Thank you. As always, oh, my God, I've said that wrong the entire time nature and sciences. There's an ampersand, right?
Check the show notes for the link to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Nature and Science. Thank you to our editor, Lucas Salazar, and if you want to know the answer to the question, why distance learning. Check out the people we highlight on this podcast. These are the people who are leveraging this amazing technology to truly transform the learning experience. Why distance learning? Because it's accessible and it's awesome. See you next time you