Dec 14, 2021

In this episode, Dan and Lee talk to Aaron and Gabbi from Education changemakers and the fantastic Yasminka Nemet from Microsoft about the Imagine Cup Junior event for 2022.

Shownotes and Links: 👇

➡️Imagine Cup Junior | Microsoft Education

➡️Education Changemakers | Professional development for teachers

➡️Minecraft Hour of Code 2021 | Minecraft Education Edition

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TRANSCRIPT For this episode of The AI in Education Podcast
Series: 4
Episode: 14

This transcript was auto-generated. If you spot any important errors, do feel free to email the podcast hosts for corrections.

Good morning, Lee. Welcome to the AI podcast.
I'm well, Dan. I'm well. It's good to be back. It's uh Yeah, we're got to We're getting close to the end of the year, Dan. It might be time to wrap up this season and head into the new year soon. But before we do that, let's talk about what we're going to talk about today.
Yeah, exactly. I've just recovered from our programming episode. So, um For everybody listening in, suggest you listen to the one we did a couple of weeks ago around programming because we're coming up towards the hour of code which is the global initiative by code.org with lots of tech providers where we encourage kids uh and adults to to spend some time learning how to code and learning about the kind of constructs around that and just having a bit of a play. So that'll be a good episode to pick up on. But to to follow on from that, we got a special episode this weekly. Um and we got some friends, some we've spoken to already in series one. Before we start and maybe a nice intro today, you've got a new role as an ICJ ambassador.
I do. I do. Yes.
Yes. Let's unpack that. But by the way, just before we go on, just so all of our listeners know, the interview that happened in series 1 didn't really happen because I wasn't part of it. That was Ray, the old world. That's kind of forget. This is the new benchmark for the interviews with this this amazing team that we're going to talk to today. But yeah, so look, I I yeah, I'm very kind of honored and humbled. I've been asked to step into a role for this year uh as the ICJ ambassador which is for those that don't know the Imagine Cup Junior uh which is an amazing amazing program that I'm I'm just simply the a party to. There's some amazing people at Microsoft that have initiated this and set it all up and from some partners of ours who we'll talk about. So that's my role. I'm going to be the ambassador of it and we'll talk a bit more about that as we get into it. But rather than me spending some time telling you about it, let's get the the guests on and have them talk about. So let me introduce you to our three guest today and I'll do it in no particular order, but I will start with uh Gabby Jenkins from uh Education Changemakers. Gabby, why don't you say hi and introduce yourself?
Hey everyone, it's awesome to be here. Thanks, Lee. Um I'm Gabby from Education Changemakers and I'm really excited to talk about ICJ today.
Awesome. We're excited to have you here, Gabby. Thank you for that.
And uh next from also from Education Changemakers, we have Aaron Tate who was our previous guest before.
Hi team. Aaron Tate here, Education Changemakers. Um I think we'll delve into this a lot, but for me the two biggest levers in the world are education and also innovation and entrepreneurship and um as we're going to chat about Imagine Cup Junior hits on both of these um for students all around the world. So can't wait to share with all the listeners out there.
Awesome. Thanks Aaron. And last but by no means least Yasmin Nemit from Microsoft Education.
Hi everyone. Hope you're all well this morning. Thanks for having me. Um so I uh my role at Microsoft is future skills Ed and I spend most of my time thinking about how we're going to make sure that uh kids and uni students all get the sort of skills they need to be uh successful in life.
Fantastic. So we've talked a bit in when when you introd Lee about Imagine Cup and Imagine Cup Junior.
Can you give us a bit of a history on Imagine Cup from a because that's a Microsoft kind of thing, right? And then maybe we can pass across to the education change. team to kind of give us a bit of an insight into how they fit in.
For sure. Look, and you're absolutely right cuz let's let's you know, Imagine Cup Junior is what we're here to talk about today, but imagine Cup is is something that Microsoft's been doing now for I think since around about early 2000s. I'm going to say about 2003, I think it started out. And look, it's one of those those ideas that that the company had to how do we engage students in schools and children and and and younger people to get engaged in technology. And I think early on, I'm not a I was obviously I joined Microsoft 2005 so it predates me but a lot of it was around kind of looking at what Microsoft's building and that technology so kind of thinking back then you know Windows phones and office and other tools and thinking about how do we how do we engage students to kind of take that technology and take it to the next level build something better augment it create something new but it was all about kind of getting student developers to solve really big problems now um Imagine Cup Junior is just the next phase of that and I think in between it and I might get Aaron to talk a bit about this but in between what was Imagine Cup and then what became Imagine Cup Junior. There were some great initiatives that Aaron from Education Changemakers and Microsoft pulled together around our AI for good initiative. So Aaron, without putting you on the spot, I'm going to put you on the spot and maybe you can talk a bit about your kind of the that incubus of how did Imagine Cup Junior grow out of uh the AI for good schools challenge.
Yeah, thanks Lee. And sometimes you know in you know all the way down the bottom of the world in Australia, we think you know are people really listening to what we're doing and how innovative are we down here? So you're right about 3 years ago um AI for good was launched here in Australia and it was it was inspired by the imagine cup senior if you want to call it that and seeing these brilliant university students doing great things around the world but these Australian educators and Microsoft staff members said we think that high school kids can be thinking like this they're creators they're builders they know how it works and they want to actually you know build these new ideas so for good was a great success um in fact so successful that Microsoft global saw it, was really excited by it, and in some ways I I I feel that, you know, they looked at Australia and said, well, they've proven that high school students can do this. Um, it's a higher level of of AI thinking and designing, but um, what if, you know, students across the world could do this? So, it really took the model of Imagine Cup and, um, and is now throwing that gauntlet down to high school students across the world to say, you too can compete in this technology challenge. Um, and it's been just a great great success. We've seen, you know, last year was the first year it went global. Um, and there's students from all over the world. Um, you know, Gabby um can can speak to the hackathons that we ran in different time zones and you'd have students messaging in from Vietnam and Oman and Nigeria. Um, you know, sharing their brilliant ideas. It's just Australia still does very well. We still have many, many students that that compete globally. Um, but it's so cool that now they're competing on a global stage rather than just competing kids in, you know, Adelaide or or Brisbane.
It is, it's great that it started in Australia in the fantastic that, you know, it's kind of a an Australian idea, but yeah, you're right. That that global impact must be amazing. And then you mentioned Gabby, you know, the hackathons and stuff. So, Gabby, you know, kind of you must have seen some amazing stuff then while you were running this for the first time as a global event.
Oh, absolutely. Um, Lee, I think the opportunity to talk with students all around the world at um all sorts of hours of the night here in Australia was just so exciting. Um, the enthusiasm to be involved um was was really brilliant. Um it was amazing to see the curriculum that we had developed here in Australia um be transferred to students all around the world and some of the ideas that came out um I just have no doubt that we're in good hands for the future because some of those ideas were brilliant.
Yeah, I can imagine so and I'm looking forward to see what we see this year. Um and look Yasmin from your point of view and how how did you get involved in this in the program and and uh and the educ the work we're doing with education change makers.
Well, I was very lucky to walk walk into it and inherit this, you know, just brilliant brilliant program. So, as part of my role um in the future skills portfolio, um it, you know, it fits squarely in there because it's really about thinking about, you know, how how do we as Microsoft make sure that future generations are um not just equipped to use technology, but you know, are aware of all of the different lications of it. You know, it's a it's a moral and ethical responsibility that we have. Um and and to be honest, and Gabby and I um we talk weekly in the leadup to to this contest and we both come on the call and we say this is the best part of our job. You know, this is where the rubber hits the road and we're really thinking about how do we lay this groundwork and this foundation for people to think the right way about technology. Um and so for me, you know, I had the pleasure of joining a a hackathon with Gabby and the in the last contest and you know I was in tears for half the day because just that you know the power of the ideas coming through you know it's it's really not about the winning and losing it's about the process of getting kids to think about what are you know first of all you're surrounded by this technology you you need to understand uh what this does for your day-to-day life but then second when you see that's you know the the switch turn on about oh wow you know we can build some amazing things to help people um and the you know the flow of ideas around you know helping uh a lot actually a lot around well-being um and health which I absolutely love and then also you know obviously the well-being and health of the planet the kids move away from the technology very very quickly into you know how can we build something um to make everybody's lives better so lot lot more in that answer than than you asked me but I can't help it once it starts flowing uh
the passion comes out doesn't it that's It does.
So, thanks. Yes. Look, I mean that that passion is is pretty clear and for me when you talk about it, you know, I've only been involved in this now for a couple of years, but it is so much about the fact that they're just trying to solve these big problems and you know, if we the difference between say Imagine Cup, which has always been about really building things and because it's aimed at older students, they tend to create Chrome. We've seen products come out of it. We've seen businesses born out of it. I think with ICJ and Imagine Cup Junior, it's much more about getting them to just think beyond the boundaries and, you know, not necessarily build things but understand the context of the problem and bring in that responsible AI piece and the you know the the context of social impact. So I think I think it's really great that we go down that path. Um look we've mentioned education change makers a couple of times and probably worth introducing who you are and and how did you get involved in this because you know obviously from a Microsoft point of view um you know we bring the technology um Gabby or Aaron I'm not sure who's the best one but who wants to jump in and kind of tell us a bit about education change makers and what you do.
Yeah thanks Lee it's Um as I sort of mentioned earlier in the intro um we really see that the two greatest levers for change in the world um on on so many things you know on climate change on social justice on accessibility um is two things education so having an educated generation um and also innovation and entrepreneurship and the ability to step up and say here's a problem I want to solve that problem um so education changemakers kind of built on that foundation um we were started by by a group of teachers um and also myself I' I've worked in social entrepreneurship all across the world and we felt you know often in in education um the decisions get made by politicians or the decisions get made by professors um and we wanted to put the power in the hands of the educators and the students. So if a teacher had a great idea to change their school or a school principal had a great idea um we wanted to equip them with the skills to do that. So So really the focus of um Imagine Cup Junior that we've been able to bring to this collaboration is all right teachers um you're passionate about the skills of your young people. Um you're brilliant and you're working hard to come up with creative lessons. We're going to give you a whole bunch of resources and classes and workshops and hackathons and give you all the support to do your job really well. So that that real belief that change comes from the educators um when they're when they're supporting their students. that's really come across with Imagine Cup Junior. It's about young people stepping up with ideas, but not being supported by necessarily mentors from industry, but being supported by their teacher in their classroom or over the last year or so in their digital classroom. You know, some of these kids are just working from their kitchen benches and in their bedrooms. Um, and can we give them resources so they can actually learn about artificial intelligence and dream up something pretty amazing.
I think the difficult thing when you're looking at this in an abstract level is there's a lot of technologies in there. Kids when they're thinking about AI for good can be thinking about some people might think about facial recognition, some people might think about, you know, machine learning and and other aspects. Some people might think about games, some people might think about medicine or health or some people might look at education. So, you know, what projects really shone for you over the last couple of years? And maybe maybe we'll start with Lee because you you've done this and judged this for quite a while, right? What was your favorite project?
That's Look, I'm going to I'm going to cop out a little bit. A because I'm first and B because it is almost impossible to answer that question. Um and simply because a there's so many of them. So let's not forget the fact that as this competition has gained in popularity. I mean we saw huge numbers of students submissions and
I've been involved as a judge over the last couple of of these events and so great because I get to see a lot but also I think I only did statebased judging so I saw one particular sector of it. Yeah.
So my copout answer would be this. Um because it often
yes there's all this great technology and we live in this world of the technology. We kind of look at the world from the point of view of, you know, cognitive services, facial recognition, what if you could look at a picture or listen to some text or turn some words into something else and we tend to think of the technology. What continually surprises me and and Yas Minker made the point earlier about being in tears. I remember sitting distinctly this, I think this was last year, sitting in the room at the MTC and we had about 10 of the student groups come in and they were kind of talking about pitching their ideas and I would move around the tables and these were a bunch of students, you know, same age as my kids and they're not thinking about the cool tech and how to do something amazing for themselves. They were trying to solve problems in the world that sometimes didn't even impact them, but they just knew it was a problem somewhere in the world. You know, whether it was about, you know, bullying or whether it was about domestic violence or whether it was about children that couldn't participate in activities because of a a physical uh or mental disability or a ch, you know, difference. And they just saw these problems and didn't see the barriers. They just said, "How do we solve that?"
Wow.
And so for me, it was when I was and I'm sort of watching these students thinking about other people's problems. I think there was a particular case and and I should have remembered the details, but there was a young girl who either had a friend in the class or or it was a brother or sister of hers that had um that was just struggling with certain elements of of normal life that we all take for granted. That was just really difficult. And that was the problem that she wanted to solve. And I just for me it is it's kind of a bit inspiring and you kind of sit there going
why wasn't I like this when I was you 13 years old? I was too busy doing nothing. So yeah, my copout answer is just the social impact these these kids are trying to drive.
Yeah, Gabby,
got anything? Help me out.
Lee, I think um you've absolutely hit the nail on the head. Um one of the things that we um teach in the in the ICJ hackathons or that we talk about is scratching your own itch. And when students are thinking, oh, how am I going to think of a problem? I I don't know. We really get them to start thinking about um things that are happening in their own lives, in their community, in their school, and I think some of the best submissions that I've seen, it's really hard to go past those students who have really tried to solve problems for themselves or for their friends or their brother or sister. Um to name a couple, we we've had honestly it's really difficult. We've had some brilliant um submissions this year. We had a student from um Adelaide who made the global top 10 who had um a brother who had some difficulties in social situations and she created an amazing product for him. Um we had some students um in the first year of AI for good who created a brilliant set um of glasses to help diagnose a really rare eye disease for their brother.
Um we had it's it's really hard to go past um a story that's really well known in Australia in in the ICJ and AI for good community um of a student who had a visual impairment who created um an amazing um uh gaming set so she could play games with her friends cuz um you know it was something that all her friends did and a lot of us do. Um so I think that whole um notion of scratching your own itch and really um and knowing with this powerful technology that you can help those people people closest to you. Um in saying that though there are some other brilliant ideas that have come out where students are just really passionate. One of my personal favorite again was from um uh was from the AI for good days and a student a couple of students created an amazing app that would help um create clothes for people with uh disabilities. Um because they couldn't shop at ASOS or the iconic or um you know those kind of stores that young people want to shop at. Um so yeah, they're just a couple of my favorite, but I could go on forever.
That's so good. It's so heartwarming to hear this. It makes it comes makes it come alive, right? Yas, any from you?
Oh yeah. Look, just in in the 45minute ideation session following a hackathon, there were just the most amazing diversity of ideas that went from sort of very broad to actually one that was very specific that I I personally related to. But um you know just in that in that one session uh there was an idea for a trolley to solve for childhood obesity where the trolley would read all of the ingredients um of the items put in the trolley and you know provide nutritional guidance. Like that just blew my mind. Um and so applicable, right? Like that's not that's not something um you know that couldn't be used by everybody. You know, we could all do with a little help with that. Um uh the other one, you know, lots and lots of ideas around helping girls um with eating disorders. You know, huge social um you know, and and health challenge um of our time. And I was just, you know, blown away. One idea was to have like a buddy in the room, you know, with uh with a girl who that that could help her, you know, to make uh good decisions and, you know, really think through what was going in her life. life. Um, and the third the third one that springs to mind which was just so specific and I think this mom this uh kid must have had a mom with it but it was um a solution for gestational diabetes and I was like my god I've had that three times. I needed that you know. So it's just really incredible that you know that age group that thinking so deeply um about you know people and and how to help them out. So yeah look I I think there are um And and again I I draw on that one session you know in one school. Um imagine if we got more kids involved in this and just the sheer number of of ideas. And by the way I I will just finish up by saying uh there is you know there is a shortage of these skills. Um and we do have to get very very deliberate um in education around building out these skills. Um and you know to that the federal government just I think last Wednesday just named AI as one of the critical you know, technology skills at at one of nine uh that we really have to focus on and build out. And I just, you know, I see I see this as as such a huge opportunity to, you know, get it get it on the get it on the agenda, you know, to Aaron's point, get it into the schools, get teachers thinking about it, and really um you know, driving through that um that knowledge and and that commitment.
Yeah, I think I I just want to comment quickly before we move on, Dan, because this the federal government thing. Investment is is super important and it's good you bring that up. But as you were talking, it just reminded me the other point I should have made when I was made my comments earlier, which is it's also just not the fact that these people are itch scratching that itch as Gabby said, but it's the the kids the kids who get involved in these programs, the young people who think about this, they're not afraid of dealing with really big issues like issues that, you know, most adults don't really feel comfortable talking about or don't have conversations about. And they're sitting around a table with their peers talking about gestational diabetes. I mean, it's just think that that's the kind of problem domain they think about is great. And so if we look forward, you know, think about where we want this to go. That's exactly how we want people to think about. Don't don't, you know, don't be constrained by what social norms provide for you. Think about the things that you really want to get into. Anyway, sorry Dan, back to you.
Yeah. No, no, that's that's that's phenomenal. This is good segue to my point as well, I think, because you know, as an ex- educator, the problem part is the tricky bit, but also the other element and maybe this is pointing to you Aaron this question, but when I when I used to teach and I and say we do mobile phone development and if you had a blank classroom you got 30 kids there and you said right okay today team we're going to create a mobile phone application I I did that several times and sometimes that failed because and what I worked out over the time is that actually I had to spend a lot of time beforehand to have a really successful mobile phone app I had to spend a lot of time talking about what a mobile phone was what the sensors were in a mobile phone you know what accelerometers were and all all the technology. So I think we looked a lot of the problems there which are phenomenal but then for kids to come up with really good solutions then they do need a grounding in some of this tech an idea of well what is facial recognition? What what what are we talking about when we mean cognitive services? Aaron, how did you kind of start thinking about delivering a curriculum to and and how does that work to support you know to get those best ideas out to give them the educational content? What were your thought process around that.
Yeah, I mean definitely we we spend a lot of time focusing on choosing the right problem. It's the old line, you know, give me an hour to solve a problem. I'll spend 55 minutes trying to understand the problem and five minutes proposing my solution. Um and and so we we'll say, you know, what's an area in the world that you're passionate about? You know, get specific because students will say, you know, um bush fires and we're like, okay, that's that's very topical. It's very local to you. What is it about it? Um you know, go go into the experiences of people who suffered through that experience. Um you know uh and getting more specific and then saying actually this is the niche area we're looking at. So for example this very specific eye challenge that people with cerebal pulsey have or justational diabetes rather than um the larger concept of diabetes.
But then we say to um to the young people who go through the program what is human intelligence like what do you take for granted that you can do? You can stand up, you can move your hands, you can speak, you can taste, you can hear, you can talk. you can do all these various things. Now, at its most basic, artificial intelligence is the effort to have a machine do some of those things. So, if you were trying to solve something as a human, say a doctor in a busy um you know uh waiting room at a hospital, how would you solve it as a human doctor with intelligence? Oh, I would multitask or I would talk to someone or I' I'd look at them and see that they have a a rash on their face and perhaps they have this, you know, this um virus at the moment. So then we can say okay
if artificial intelligence is a machine trying to do that let's learn about the cognitive services the overall you know um buckets of of AI tools that we can look at but now let's go down and handpick four or five APIs that we can use. So a student is then saying well maybe a doctor in a busy um clinic in Western Sydney would need to know more than just English. So let's use the translator API. Okay fantastic. Now our artificial intelligence can access, you know, be providing support to many, many more people. Let's use voice to text and text to voice. Okay, that's great. That's a couple more APIs that we've got there. So, we're we're really saying, how would you solve it as a human? And then let's start to say, well, how can a machine start to do that? And they're just literally picking off
APIs that they like the look of. We now give them a score based on how many eyes they've been able to sort of smush into their idea.
Got you.
So, in the past, it used to be here's what we're dreaming up and now it's very much Well, actually, if we put some money and some time and a team into this, we could maybe build this thing.
That's fantastic.
One of the things that really strikes me um as valuable about this program is it demystifies the technology for the kids and it gives, you know, the kids who um are not necessarily thinking that they're going to be technologies technologists the the confidence to think maybe I could be, right? And especially amongst girls um who, you know, we know are lagging in getting into this field. So, so critically important. But the other thing I think is really important about unpacking it is, you know, um we need to use technology responsibly. And I know this is really close to Lee's, you know, heart, but like if we don't if we don't unpack this, if we don't look at the good and the bad side of it, um you know, we're we're really um you know, getting into some dangerous territory. We know there's a lot of bias in technology. We know that um you know, things things can go very badly in the wrong hands and the best analogy I have for this is cooking um right you know we all love food we all love cooking uh but you know we don't throw children into a kitchen without any explanation or any training you know we don't just put knives in their hands and you know um and off they go so to me just so important that we teach the foundations and the principles so that um you know from a very early age people understand the environment they're operating in um and you know are thinking about technology in the right ways and I'm not going to take shortcuts and you know uh make bad decisions but also you know if you're not exposed to these technology concepts early in life you may just miss out and you know the the reality is we're operating in a vast digital economy um every child needs the opportunity to understand technology to understand the basics um and you know take take a shot at participating. I really worry that a lot of kids will get left out.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. Just going going on from that is something that I'm personally really passionate about is I don't actually have a tech background. I don't have a background in AI. Um but where I come from in this challenge and and my passion is um that social justice side and we've spoken a lot about the problems but it's also about getting those students who come into the day at the hackathon or um who who are starting the lessons thinking, "Oh, what is this? I don't know anything about AI or um I'm not into tech or I don't like science class or whatever class they might be doing it in." And um what's really important is um for any product is that we have um people with vast um areas of interests and different ways of thinking and um different skills to build out um really valuable products. And that's what I love seeing. And it's always hard in hackathons trying to convince students to um mix up their groups and not just work with their best friends. But I think one of the things I love to see in the hackathons is when um students do take on that advice and they get someone who's really into the tech side and might be doing coding on on um their afternoons and we get someone who loves to draw and can really vision this product and we get someone who loves to communicate and can talk about the product that they're building. So I think for me um from that non- tech background it's really important um And I really try and drive it across when I am speaking to educators that I want the history class to take um to parti take. I I want the sports class to partake. It's not just for a STEM club in the afternoon. So um that's something I'm personally really passionate about. Um and and that I really want to drive up in the 2022 competition as well.
So good.
And just building on that, Gabby, um you know, over the last 10 years, I've I've been part of supporting, you know, more than a thousand entrepreneurs and and when we when they build businesses and when I built my own businesses. You know, you get excited, you got you buy the domain name, you try to figure out how to do Squarespace to build your rough website, you figure out your social media presence, you figure out how to register your business. Um, you know, you start to figure out inventory if you're shipping a real product. It's rare that you just say, "I'm just going to be a product person." You need to actually have a whole basket of skills if you want to be innovative and entrepreneurial and and make these things happen. So, I guess our dream is that in, you know, 5 10 years time or even earlier that a young entrepreneur is saying okay I'm not just going to build an AI I'm going to build a business or I'm going to build a solution and AI is part of my toolkit and I understand it just like I can go into Adobe and figure out how to do graphic design I'm also going to go into Azure and maybe integrate some APIs with the website that I'm building out this weekend
that's yeah it's a really good point Aaron and Gabby as well that that you know this is for everybody so um look I'm conscious I mean it's hopefully with we've set a really good scene for kind of why it's so important, what it is, and and what it has achieved in the last few years as it's evolved and grown uh through the work that you've all been doing. But let's kind of move into the future because we have a competition warming up, getting ready to start, and we need our audience to, you know, if you're a teacher, if you're a student, or if you know a teacher and you know students, we need you to get involved. We need you to participate, we need you to help you help get as many people across this. So, you know, building on what Aaron was just saying around the fact that it isn't just for those, you know, STEM class and the students that focus on this. Um Gabby, maybe do you want to just talk a bit about the timelines? Let's start with the timelines for what is happening for Imagine Cup Junior 2021 22. Um and then we'll talk a bit more about some of the structure inside of it. But let's start there.
Yeah, absolutely. Um the so the challenge the AI for book global challenge commences on January 12th. Um so uh teachers can register, they will be able to download their curriculum alliance lesson plans before that, but the challenge will commence on January 12. Um the global uh education team have a number of hackathons that are going on um throughout February and March. And then  teachers and educa uh students have um about three months to get involved with submissions closing on May 12th.
So between now and January 12th when it starts, if you're a teacher, you know, you can take this idea to to your students. You can find a group of students. You can build some groups within your school. If you're a student, you've got an idea, go tell your teacher about it. But we're in the buildup phase. Yeah, we're getting the ideas. thinking and
yeah, absolutely in the buildup phase. But what we do have ready for Australian and New Zealand educators is curriculum aligned lesson plans that they can um we know that that they're all doing their planning now for term one 2022. So um they
yeah they can absolutely um they'll be able to download those. There's six 45minute lesson plans that they'll be able to have a look over. Um parents as well parent we've had some amazing parents get involved. Um so parents, teachers, students are able to download those lessons and get it planning ready for 2022.
Where do they get those from? Just a just a question. Is that from the the Imagine Cup page or is that from Education Changemakers?
Uh so we have an Australian New Zealand website that we'll be able to link hopefully.
Brilliant. We put them in the show notes. Cool.
Yeah, absolutely. So we have a website that Australian and New Zealand educators can um access Australian and New Zealand curriculum online documents. There is also a uh global uh web page that we will have to direct educators to as well to register for the challenge. That registration uh isn't open yet as the um there's a few other Imagine Cup uh challenges on at the moment, but uh when it opens, I we'll remind everyone to register to make sure that they can submit when their students are ready.
Fab.
Awesome. And in terms of those submissions, I mean the lesson plans, I think you said there six CL six lessons that the educators can download and use. Uh and are they purely for the school to use or do we get involved and help them do deliver some of that content? How does that is it up to the or is it Yep.
Yeah, absolutely. There's a few ways that educators can get involved. So, the first is to run it in their lessons. So, as we said, six 45 minute lesson plans. Um there's some extra uh curricular activities there this year. Um getting more hands-on with AI as well. So, that can we know a lot of schools in Australia and New Zealand have longer lessons. So, they can use that there as well. Um education change makers is also running a number of hackathons around the country. country again. Um we've run um 40 or 50 60 hackathons now in the last few years with students and teachers from all over the country. So we'll be running those hackathons again. Um educators can get in contact with education change makers to sign up for one of those free hackathons. Um and the other way that teachers can get involved is to actually do their own DIY hacks. Um hacks are really fun um day. They really get um the students excited. And the way they can do that is simply by joining together their six lesson plans. So just joining it all together, making it one lesson and doing it in a day at their school.
Awesome. Thank you. And the last point for me and then I know there's some other people might make some comments in terms of the scope about where the ideas come from. Obviously, it's as broad as we want to try and make it, but it is centered around that AI for good workloads that we have here at Microsoft, which we'll put in the show notes. And that's healthcare, earth, you know, biodiversity and the and the planet. humanitarian action, uh, accessibility, and then cultural heritage. That's the the context. Is that correct, Gabby?
Yeah, absolutely.
Awesome. Sorry, Dan. Over to you.
And Yas got a point, I think.
Oh,
yeah. Now, I'm going to put our uh wonderful podcast hosts on the hook here and ask them to pledge uh to lead a couple of hackathons for the next challenge. I think uh that would just be amazing.
Do do I have any choice if I'm the ambassador? Of course I do. Dad, Dan, you're in it now as well.
I I love I love doing those things like you know it's like phenomenal all the things you've mentioned at the beginning you Aaron and Gabby and Yas and Lee from a like a judging point of view as well you know it the these things are really really important and it's about extending that reach like you said and you know it isn't about STEM and that's what drives you a little bit mad sometimes when people think sometimes when we talking about products like Minecraft and AI people go well we'll give that to our ST STEM class there's a good faculty in UTS which is called the interdisciplinary it's got really wrong name like the interdisciplinary faculty of something  where they bring all the  top lawyers and PE lecturers and students and bring everybody together to to solve some really good uh projects and I think that's why  this is uh really good. But what I'd like to ask you all because you've all been here before and for the listeners give the people who listening to our podcast a bit of an insider scoop here. What would you actually be looking for if you had a tip to to a school leader listening to this now and it's a teacher and actually students even more importantly, if you had a tip about what you'd want to say to those students to really do successfully in this competition, what would you one kind of tip be to those students? Lee, start with you.
Oh gosh, what would I say as a tip? Um, well, don't listen to all people like us anymore and and you know, you don't constrain your thinking. Look, I like I think that the only thing I would say is, and it's a bit of a again, I'm good at copying out this on this podcast, but you know just approach it with anything as possible mindset. Don't be constrained by what you think the technology can or can't do what you see as the you know kind of the limits of it because this isn't about defining within the limits. This is about the potential the possibility. It is the imagine cut by definition. Imagine what's possible. So yeah that's the only thing I would just you know don't look at the constraints look at the potential.
Aaron what would your tip be?
It's a tip I give to a lot of entrepreneurs which is um create something that's incredibly good for a small group of people rather than just okay for lots of people. So students might go I'm going to do climate change or bushfires or um or rubbish and we go that's great really broad maybe there's going to be 700 other people who go after that same problem. So get specific get focused the deeper you can go onto a problem the more innovative and powerful your solution will be.
Brilliant. Fantastic. Gabby
uh I think uh my tip would be at a hackathon is that you don't need to wait until your order to make change. Um I think that young people are leading on the way at leading the way on all sorts of uh areas in social um environmental um and I think that they don't need to wait until they're older to make change and that they can they they really have the knowledge and the passion and the influence to do that.
Wow. So good. You guys you've given it away here. Yas, what's your tip?
Uh too too easy for me. Just pick a problem that you're passionate about and uh find a couple of people who you can, you know, bounce  that problem around with. Um, and you know, just uh create some magic.
So good.
Awesome. Create magic. That's the perfect way to uh to think about it, Yas. I love that last word. So, look, I I think we need to wrap up, but it's been an um I've just as it always is, it's just inspiring to talk to you all, Aaron, Gabby, and Yas, about what you do and the purpose you put behind this kind of effort because, you know, you know, certainly for myself and Yas and Dan getting involved in this, it's not our day job. It's something we do because we have a passion for it. And I'm sure I know Aaron and Gabby, you have a deep passion for this area as well. Um, so take away from this, January 12th is when it gets started, but don't hold that date, dear. Let work now. Get your teams together. If you're an educator, think about what you can be doing in your school. If you're a student, think about what you want to solve, problems you want to solve and find your teams. If you're a parent or you know a parent, contact your school, ask them about it. Let them know. Get access to the resources. And all of that will be in the show notes and the links there on the with the uh Cup junior website and in through education changemakers. Um Aaron Gabby Yasmin, thank you so much for joining us and sharing all of that.
Yeah, amazing.
Dan, again, thank you for let's get for getting together on this podcast and telling an important story like this. Uh any last words, Dan or anyone else?
It's just it's just phenomenal what you all do, Aaron, Gabby, you know, in in the change makers and beyond this competition as well. Um you know, please keep up amazing work and uh put any show notes you want which you think educators and teachers and anybody listening to this uh might want to, you know, find interested in the future. Aaron, last word from you.
Yeah, just a thank you to Microsoft. Um, you know, for a long time in Australia, shown a deep commitment to supporting educators um and and understanding educators and understand the realities of a classroom. So, this is a a teacher driven movement across Australia. Um, and I love the fact that Microsoft are, you know, committed to providing those resources for teachers. getting alongside teachers and celebrating teachers um because uh they are the most important one of the most important professions we have in this country and as we've seen over the last 18 months when we have our children home um how incredibly valuable they really are. So yeah, just a thank you to Microsoft for keeping teachers first.
Thank you as well. Thanks everybody.