My EdTech Life

Episode 314: Arturo Guajardo

• Fonz Mendoza • Season 1 • Episode 314

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Breaking Language Barriers in Education with Pocketalk with Arturo Guajardo 

🎧 Welcome to another exciting episode of My EdTech Life! This week, I'm joined by Arturo Guajardo from Pocketalk, where we explore how their groundbreaking translation device is helping break down language barriers in classrooms, school districts, and beyond! 🌍

Pocketalk is revolutionizing how educators, students, and parents communicate, especially in multicultural settings. Get ready to hear how this device empowers students, supports teachers, and strengthens connections within the community.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

  • How Pocketalk removes language barriers in classrooms 💬
  • The journey from bilingual education to cutting-edge EdTech 👨‍🏫
  • Real-life stories of how schools use Pocketalk to improve communication 🎒
  • The Ventana program for managing devices across districts 💡
  • Privacy features that ensure your information is safe 🔐

Timestamps:
00:00 – Welcome & Introduction: Meet Arturo Guajardo
02:00 – Arturo’s Journey: From bilingual teacher to EdTech innovator
05:00 – Pocketalk's Role in the Classroom: Real-time translation at your fingertips
11:00 – How Pocketalk Works: Hands-on demo of the device
22:00 – Success Stories: How schools are using Pocketalk to support multilingual learners
29:00 – Ventana: Managing devices across districts for efficiency and impact
36:00 – Privacy Features: Keeping data safe with COPPA, FERPA, and HIPAA compliance
40:00 – Arturo’s Final Thoughts: Key takeaways and advice for educators

Don't forget to:
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💬 Drop a comment below and let us know how you plan to use Pocketalk in your school or district!
🌐 Check out Pocketalk at pocketalk.com – this episode’s sponsor is revolutionizing communication for students, parents, and educators!

🙏 Huge thanks to our sponsors, Eduaide.AI and Yellowdig, for their continued support!

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Fonz:

Hello everybody and welcome to another great episode of my EdTech Life. Thank you so much for joining me on this wonderful day and wherever it is that you're joining us from around the world, as always. Thank you so much for your continued support. We appreciate all the likes, the shares, the follows. Thank you so much for just interacting with our content. Thank you so much for all the messages. We really appreciate it. I really appreciate it. As you know, we do this for you because we wanna bring you some great conversations, we wanna bring you some amazing guests and, of course, all of this goes back into the education space, where we can continue to learn and grow together, and I'm really excited about today's conversation. Today, I would love to welcome to the show Mr Arturo Guajardo, who is joining us from Pocket Talk. Arturo, how are you doing today?

Arturo Guajardo:

I'm doing great, Fonz. How are you? Well, I have to say I'm excited to be here. Before I even ask you that, you're doing.

Fonz:

That really just fills my bucket, too as well. So today is going to be a double portion, a double filling of buckets today, for work and getting to interview you and getting to know you a little bit more, and also for our audience members, I should say, to get to know you a little bit more and the work that you do. So, arturo, let's go ahead and dive in. So for our listeners today, those of you that are not familiar with your work just yet, but after today I know that you'll definitely have a lot of followers Tell us a little bit more about you, know your background in education and what your context is within the education space.

Arturo Guajardo:

Absolutely. Yeah, I think I kind of lost track a little bit. I want to say about my 32nd year in education altogether. So I go back a ways. I go back into the 90s, early 90s, when I became a bilingual teacher here in Austin, texas, did that for about 10 years I think. 10 years of mostly fifth grade, some fourth, some third, working with multilingual kids from mostly from South Austin and kids from all over Latin America and a few from other parts of the world. So it was a wonderful experience for about a decade there.

Arturo Guajardo:

Beyond that I went into the ed tech world. Soon after that I became an ed tech coach also in Austin ISD. So I did that for about another eight, nine years after that and then I jumped over into the ed tech vendor side, I guess on the partner side, where I did about, I think, 11 years at BrainPop. And then I went over to Osmo and now I'm here at Pocket Talk. We're here a couple of years now. So, yeah, so everything from the classroom in the 90s all the way over to the tech world, we're just trying to keep up with it all.

Fonz:

Yes, absolutely, and you know what. That's something that I do admire and you know we were talking a little bit, you know, briefly, before we got into the chat. You know talking about TCA and talking about conferences and you know it's always great for me at least, when I go and visit a vendor and I do hear you know the experience that they've had in education and many times, you know, sometimes the experience is a little bit less, sometimes it's a little bit more, but just hearing you know, like what you described you working through Austin ISD, going from the classroom to edtech coaching and then going into, you know, the world of edtech as a vendor, working through BrainPop and so on, it's just amazing to the experience that you have and seeing different perspectives, not only for yourself. But now you know the work that you're doing through Pocket Talk and then, now that we are here, you're getting to tell us a little bit more and using that experience to really just drive up and amplifying what Pocket Talk is doing. So I'm really excited to get to know that a little bit more.

Fonz:

But I did want to just touch a little bit on your brief. Well, briefly, on your background, I know that you know you yourself started as a non-native English speaker, you know, and now you're 32 years later well, 32 years in education now, you know, and with all of that experience you know, can you tell me a little bit about how that helped you transition kind of into ed tech world? Or maybe are you seeing a little bit more or ed tech companies putting a little bit more attention to that as far as the language barriers and, you know, trying to help students just really overcome those barriers?

Arturo Guajardo:

Yeah, no, absolutely. I went to, grew up in Houston, went to schools there in inner city Houston and started speaking English because I had two older sisters who they would bring home their English that they were learning in school. So I kind of picked up a little bit at home before I started school, kind of from then. But it was definitely broken English, you know. It was like what I was. They were, you know, a few years older than me, so it was a little kid English. I guess you could say that they were bringing home to me and sort of teaching me. And then school was.

Arturo Guajardo:

It could be challenging at times. There were definitely times when I definitely felt that I did have a little bit of obstacles to overcome when it came to language. In particular once I got up into the higher grades and was given tougher reading assignments, you know, when somebody handed me a William Shakespeare boy. That just blew my mind when I had to try to figure that out on top of just English in general. And that's a whole other kind of English. It's a whole other language as far as I was concerned. And so there are definitely times when I felt like there was support that was lacking along the way. But luckily I did have some really good teachers that did understand that and did help me, and help me not just linguistically but also just helping me figure out my identity as a, as a latino, as a student and and, uh, getting comfortable with with just all of that. Because it was definitely. There were definitely times when you know I needed a little push, I need a little help in in those kind of directions and, and so there were definitely uh, uh teachers that helped along the way and helped me get to get to where I am now.

Arturo Guajardo:

But then in the ed tech world, yeah, absolutely there's there. I would see it so much when I was teaching because I have students who came in. You know, I would have some students that spoke zero English and then I'd have some students that kind of were everywhere in between, you know, zero to ten, and so so you kind of had to figure out, okay, well, this student needs this, the students needs this, the students needs this and and kind of figure out what supports they needed and trying to provide that. And then back then, with EdTech coming around, I was definitely in the classroom during those opening EdTech environments that were coming out and we we're talking, I'm going back pre-internet, I'm going back to cd-roms. You know, I'm going back to to those, to those periods of time and and back then I have to say, you know, I would find those cool technologies, oh yeah, this is going to be great, this is going to work wonderful, wonderfully well.

Arturo Guajardo:

But then there was no, no language support, and and so that was that was like okay, well, that's going to work over in this other classroom, but not necessarily in mine, and so slowly I would see it get better and better. There was definitely times when you would see a big jump in the language support that was available with some technologies, but honestly it was slow. It definitely took a while to get there and I'm happy to see now that I think now we're sort of getting to that point where you do see a lot more language support and a lot of the technologies have come a long way and in particular, like with Pocket Talk, which we'll talk a little bit more about, I'm just excited that we finally have a tool that can fundamentally support a student when they just need to communicate and when parents and teachers need to communicate, and that, to me, is going to be incredibly valuable across the board in schools everywhere, not just in the US but around the world.

Fonz:

Excellent. Well, thank you so much for that answer and your background. I mean it's kind of a little bit similar. For me, the only thing is is growing up as an only child, I didn't have that support from older sisters or siblings, and so, you know, going to school and my first language obviously being Spanish, I didn't learn English until I was in about that I can remember, probably about second grade, middle second grade, my third grade. I was, you know, pretty decent and I was okay, but I mean, talk about those tough times being a language broker too as well. For my parents I always tell people the story I was like you know, I'm an eight year old kid reading like documents and translating and and well, boys, I think.

Fonz:

It says and and well, I think it says, and you know it was very interesting and, like I said, kind of growing up here in the Valley, you know that's one thing that we, we always saw, and of course now myself too, included, being now heavily immersed in this world of attack it really surprises me many times that we are barely where we're at right now as far as what language supports are, and of course it's getting a lot better.

Fonz:

But even in the years that I was in the classroom, like I was talking to you briefly, it was the technology just it wasn't there, it didn't have that language support. And then having to work with students that would often come in, and I had students not only coming in from Mexico and speaking Spanish, but then I had students in my district where they're coming in from Japan, they were coming in from Korea, they were coming in from Israel, and to be able to communicate with them was just very difficult at that time. But things are getting a little bit better. But this is a great segue now into understanding and for you to tell us a little bit better. But this is a great segue now into understanding and for you to tell us a little bit more about pocket talk and what pocket talk is and what it does for the classroom.

Arturo Guajardo:

Absolutely.

Arturo Guajardo:

Yeah. Pocket talk is amazing. It's a we're a translation solution that's being used all over, all over the country. Right now. We're in about I think at this point about 500 school districts coast to coast. I've been lucky enough to work with school districts in New York City. I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to California in a few weeks. Next week I'll be in Seattle. Lots of usage all over.

Arturo Guajardo:

What we're known for primarily is a device. It's a little device like this, it's a little handheld device that students can use, that teachers can use, that your front office can use, your principals, your cafeteria workers, your bus drivers Pretty much anybody can have this device and keep it in their pocket, wear it around their neck I have a little lanyard here that I often wear and what it allows you to do it allows you to communicate in more than 80 languages. So right now, I think we're at about 84. We're going to be at 90 here in a few weeks and then we're just going to be adding more and more languages as we go along.

Arturo Guajardo:

But, like I said, what's cool about this is that it can be used so that anybody from you as a second grader or newer, you know picking up that English all the way up to us as educators in the classroom and your families at home. So think about your familia Instead of having to pull you to be that translator out in the real world, out in the doctor's offices, at the DMVs, at all those places that we all have to go to at times. Now you have a device that you can actually have the parents take along with them and be able to make that communication so much easier in all of those places. So we're really excited to be able to provide that kind of solution for not just for schools, but for offices and public spaces, for government offices, like I said, like the DMVs, for doctor's offices, you name it Anywhere where communication breaks down. That's where Pocket Talk can come in.

Fonz:

And that is fantastic and just by looking at it, just the size of the device. Now this and I'm going to share a story because, like I mentioned, my last year in the classroom before I stepped into this role, that is when I had my student that came in from Israel and he came in mid-year. Just sometimes the students, I mean, they don't want to move but because of the parents' work and things of that sort, and it's very difficult and he was just having a difficult time. Obviously, the transition from being somewhere familiar to somewhere somewhat unfamiliar. But being able to work with him was something that I just kind of had to make it work.

Fonz:

You know, we, through the use of Chromebooks or and at that time I had a, an iPad and we were he was just typing in things just so I can sit him next to me and just whatever I can do to help him just really capture the learning or answer any questions. And but I tell you, you know, being able to use the Chromebook or that iPad, as great as those pieces of technology are one of the things that I will say. It was often bulky and it would just be a barrier in itself because of this, but the way that you just shared Pocket Talk and, just being a handheld device, that works very easily. So now can you describe just the way that this works? Is it a real-time translator?

Arturo Guajardo:

just the way that this works. Is it a real-time translator? It is, it is, and absolutely so. Imagine your student there being able to take this with them to the cafeteria, to the playground, obviously in the classroom as well, in the hallways, and in some cases we have some school districts that allow the students to take these home, use them for homework and even allow parents to use them in the community itself. So they're checking these out to parents like a library book and letting them, instead of pulling you from the school, to be the translator. Now I can just check out one of these and use this and just bring it back the next day if needed.

Arturo Guajardo:

But the way it works is really simple. It's basically you pick the two languages here on the screen. You can kind of see there's two languages. There's English and Spanish. If I click on any of either language, I'll see a list. Here's where those 80 plus languages are stored. I can just scroll up and down the list here, pick whichever one I want. So in your case, you'll be able to speak Hebrew. Now we would find Hebrew on the list and I'd be able to speak English into the device. It'll translate it into Hebrew and then your student would speak Hebrew back into the device and you would hear it in English.

Arturo Guajardo:

So I talk, you talk, I talk, you talk and I can show you how that works here in just a minute with this thing. So notice the arrow there is pointing up. So that means I'm going from English to Spanish. If I click on the arrow, it flips and now I can speak Spanish and it'll go into English. So all I have to do is press the button. There's one physical button down here that I'll need to press and you have to hold it down, kind of like a walkie-talkie. Press and hold the button, start talking. The device starts listening, starts translating for you automatically. So there's the translation. You can read it here. It's a little bit tough to see on the screen here, but there's a translation. You can read it here. It's a little bit tough to see on the screen here, but there's a translation in Spanish. If I didn't hear it the first time, I can click it for it again, because we know sometimes our students need to hear things a few times. So I can repeat this as much as I want. And then, if I'm the Spanish speaker, this little button at the bottom that I just pressed and that flips the arrow for us, but again, I can just flip it on the screen as well, but you can definitely read it and see it at the same time, or hear it at the same time, I should say. And then, beyond that, there's a little camera on the back. That camera takes pictures of text. So that document that you mentioned when you were translating, I can now snap a picture of it and I'll see the translation on the screen, and then I can also click on the paragraph and it'll read it out loud to me as well in my language. So a lot of possibilities here. And again, it's a device that's small enough where I can put it in my pocket, wear it around my neck, makes it easy to have those conversations that so often get missed.

Arturo Guajardo:

There's just so many conversations that you need to have, sometimes with a student, or a student needs to have with you, but because of that language barrier being there, you know, sometimes it doesn't happen, and then that has a cost. That could definitely. That has a cost. That might not happen immediately, but it might happen later on. One quick story I'll rambly here, but one quick story that I do want to share is the story of a student that we heard from a school. A student came from Ukraine and was at school. Nobody spoke Ukrainian either, speak in English, was going to have a fire drill, and so you can imagine nobody being able to explain to the student that this is just practice, you're safe, don't worry. This is what's going to happen and, of course, the alarm goes off and the student gets very upset. The language that the person that told me the story said the student, freaked out essentially. So just those kind of conversations that we pretty much take for granted you can now have in more than 80 languages.

Fonz:

No, and that is so valuable.

Fonz:

As you're going through this, arturo, like my teacher voice or my teacher self, like you know, like you mentioned, there's so many possibilities, many possibilities.

Fonz:

I mean not only with my student that came in you know that we needed that Hebrew translation but also the fact that you just shared how you can actually take a picture of that document, so for in class, you know, as you're passing out a document.

Fonz:

Now one of the things for me is, you know, I always want to eliminate any barriers for teachers also as well, or that additional. You know work sometimes, because it's like man, sometimes you may have, you know, three or four different students there that may speak those three or four different languages, and now it's you have to produce something in those three or four different languages. But the fact now that you can take that document and you can pass it out and the student can go ahead and set it to their language and take a picture of it, and now it's going to translate that for them, right now my mind is like this is amazing because, at least in my district, I can see how this can help our well number one, the classroom, teacher, room teacher, and then number two also help our ESL strategists be able to use this also with students to help them build up their skills and especially the listening skills. This is huge too, and you're working on the speaking skills too, so to me.

Fonz:

I'm already seeing, like all of these like TELPIS I'm seeing.

Fonz:

You know, just the language acquisition, that practice, being able to just feel more comfortable. You're learning, the student does not have that barrier anymore, the teacher doesn't have the barrier and, like you mentioned, not only teacher to student, but teacher to parent also as well. And many times, like in our district, we'll have district engagement with parents and many times we need that support to go from English to Spanish and if the parents can, you know, or our presenter can go ahead and use pocket talk to read out that statement, or or, you know, give that comment and then be able to play it in, whether it's in Korean or Japanese or Spanish.

Fonz:

That would be fantastic. So I want to ask you know does Pocket Talk? Can it connect to a headset, if needed?

Arturo Guajardo:

Yes, so the device comes with Bluetooth connectivity so you could connect it to earbuds. If you are doing a presentation, you know, for a large group, you can plug or connect a Bluetooth to a Bluetooth speaker and just blast it out to the entire audience, to the cafeteria, to the library, wherever the audience is. And but yeah, to me everything you described is exactly what we want to be able to provide for the teachers Because, again, teachers already have so much going on, so much on their plate as it is, and this is just a tool to take some of that off of their already overflowing plate.

Fonz:

Yes, absolutely, and I mean talk about the teacher impact. I mean right now just mentioning those examples and myself I could have definitely been picturing myself just simply, with this simple device, being able to communicate back and forth with my students or students, for that matter, or even parents too as well from different nationalities. That makes a huge impact because many times, you know, it's that communication piece that is very difficult and by removing that barrier, you're removing that frustration, you're removing that barrier to access as well.

Fonz:

You're removing that frustration, you're removing that barrier to access as well, and to be able to communicate with a parent fluently in their language by using Pocket Talk to translate, that's a game changer right there. And now that the parent is informed of anything that they should know, and, of course, with the student.

Fonz:

And right now my mind is already going like right now when you said you know presentations, I can hook it up to my Bluetooth speaker. This is phenomenal, because many times we have parents that come in and again it's not just one nationality but to be, able to help them and serve our learning community, our parent learning community. That is huge also because they're a big. You know they're an integral part of the child's education there in the classroom too as well, so to be able to use that. So, because I'm getting so excited here, I know I'm the one that's rambling, but I'll ask you, can you tell me?

Fonz:

you know, I know you don't have to mention the districts or district that you're working with, but I would love to hear, just you know, some, some feedback or just some of those like great stories that that are happening within some of the districts that you're currently working with.

Arturo Guajardo:

Absolutely so there's, there's a ton. So like I kind of always start up in the Northeast and my brain always has this image of kind of going across the country, but so I always started in New York City. So the New York City Department of Education, the biggest school district in the country, has really adopted Talk Talk. I think at this point we're probably closing into about 600 schools that use Talk Talk. They're in the thousands. There's one school in particular there that what they ended up doing was welcoming their families, their newcomer families, and this is out where you can find, you know, medical help. Here's where you can find if you need food. Here's where you can find the supply. You know places where you can pick up free food. Here's where you can find job placements, job placements. And in that bag, beyond that information, they include a pocket tuck so that the family can now take that with them when they're out looking for these resources that they need in order to make their lives a little bit better. So New York City by far is our biggest partner at this point.

Arturo Guajardo:

Orange County down in Florida and in the Orlando area they use this in their welcome center so when families arrive in their districts from other countries. They can go there and find people that can speak their language. So they have staff that speak Spanish and Haitian, Creole and a couple of other languages, but you know there are many more languages that they need help with. So that's where the pocket talk comes in. So they equip their staff there with pocket talk to welcome those families and to get them the resources they need help with. So that's where the pocket talk comes in. So they equip their staff there with pocket talk to welcome those families and to get them the resources they need. And then we go across to places like Moreland in the Bay Area in California. They're a district that actually checks these out like a library book. As I mentioned, they actually have these barcoded and they scan them and then the students can check them out as they need them.

Arturo Guajardo:

And you know, with students and with families, their language needs come and go. As students get a little bit further along with their English, they may not need a pocket talk anymore and that's okay. It's like a scaffold that can be removed, can be removed, and I can turn that in and and then make that available for another student that does need that scaffold right now. So so lots of different um ways to use this, everything from families to students to to the classroom uh, you name it, it's it. I'm always amazed. I love to hear these stories because I love to hear how people are. Our educators are using pocket talk and finding new ways to use it that I had not about at all. They're like, oh yeah, this is how we use it. I'm like, oh, that's amazing.

Fonz:

So, yes, no, and that is all wonderful, like you said, because I mean, not only is it just making an impact within the classroom, but also, you know, just in the real world, you know just for adults even, and that's something huge.

Fonz:

But one thing that I love that you mentioned and I want to highlight is, like you mentioned, when students need those additional supports, but eventually, once they kind of start growing themselves and understanding the language and being able to work, you know, through a conversation, and then slowly they're just by themselves kind of weaning themselves off of this, then, you know, you just simply submit it or turn it in, somebody else can go ahead and start using it, which is great because, as you know, arturo, like right now, school districts and everybody is, you know, they're always, their eye is always on budget, and what can we do and how can we maximize what we have and maximize that return on investment?

Fonz:

And I think that this would be something great that, as you can see, that the student needs the device, but as they kind of grow and they grow, they can grow out of the device and then let it, you know, be used by somebody else. So I want to ask you as far as that is concerned, can you tell us the way that the device actually functions, the inner workings? Is this something that is? You know, do we need Wi-Fi, do we need a subscription? So how can we like just to give some information for any of our influencers within the district or people with purchasing power that are like whoa, you know, we've got to look into this. Can you give us a little bit, a little rundown as far as how Pocket Talk works?

Arturo Guajardo:

Sure, no, absolutely, and everything you mentioned is dead on. We are one of those products that I think can save a district money in a few different ways. One of the ways is that each device does include five years of cellular data right out of the package. So there's no subscription. You don't have to pay anything After you buy the device. That's it. You don't have to pay anything After you buy the device, that's it. You don't have to pay another dime, but you get five years of cellular data included in that one time you purchase it. So what that means is that I can now take this device and take it off campus if I need to, and use it on a field trip. I can use it on the school bus, I can send it home with a student or if I'm doing a home visit, I can knock on that door and be ready to talk, because it's automatically looking for those cellular towers in your neighborhood and connecting that way. So at school, yeah, get it on your Wi-Fi. That tends to be the best way to connect within a school building, just because of dead zones that sometimes come up. So put it on your Wi-Fi at school, but off campus it'll just automatically flip over to the cell tower and work that way, so that'll say there's no subscription at all, nothing. You have to worry about paying after you buy it. Then, on the other hand, we do have a subscription service. We do have one subscription service that you can choose to pick up and that's called Ventana. And with Ventana, that's your mobile device management system. So that for big districts like I mentioned Moreland, where they bought a thousand of these, I believe they need a program to be able to sort of keep track of the devices, know how they're being used, where the devices are getting used most like, which campus is using them, which languages are being translated, are there languages that we didn't know were being used on a certain campus? Now we know because they're using them on the pocket top, and then if there's a campus that maybe doesn't need them as much, well, I can now take those resources and put them onto another campus that does meet the pocket top. So you have usage reports and your IT guys will love it because you can do all your Wi-Fi settings remotely. Now another campus that does meet the of the pocket time. So you have usage reports, you have, and your it guys will love it because you can do all your right, your wi-fi settings remotely now, so you can just make a wholesale changes to your, your network, uh, the network settings, I should say, on the devices, without ever having to touch them. You just do it all uh through through ventana. So so that's another uh cost saving, time saving uh tool that we offer.

Arturo Guajardo:

And then, beyond that, this is one thing that Pocket Talk has that most other translation devices don't have is that we've locked down the privacy on these devices, so you don't have to worry about, if you're, for example, using this in iep uh meeting, that that's supposed to be confidential. Uh, now you know that all the translation, uh any translation that happens basically lives on this device. I can delete it immediately. I can choose to not even had it stored anywhere. So so you don't have to worry about that information getting anywhere, getting into the wrong hands, and you can even. These devices have been certified to be COPPA compliant, they're FERPA compliant and they're also HIPAA compliant, so you can even have medical conversations. If your school nurse uses them, you can actually have those conversations that should be confidential, and this device takes care of that for you. So you don't have to worry about having to. You know, take care of those things separately. It's all done within the device.

Fonz:

This is amazing. I mean, one of the things that you hit on and I know we talk about it and for anybody that's listening and if you are just an influencer within your district as far as purchasing or anything but just the fact that the return on investment, you're buying the device five years, you know that you have, you know, cellular service, you can get it on the Wi-Fi, you can use it with parents, you can use it with students, teachers, teacher to student, teacher to parent, maybe even teacher to teacher, however it is, but you're going to have something on hand that is going to be able to help you have a conversation, or at least translate what you're saying, to break that barrier of communication between two different people, or or you know your learning community as far as parents are concerned, which is fantastic.

Fonz:

But then what really uh caught my attention was you were mentioning Ventana, which is fantastic because you know, as we know, and what I've learned is that data drives decisions and, like you said, if you're making an investment, sometimes you know we may think that this school needs this more or this school needs this more, but now, when we're getting that data that you mentioned, we're not only getting what languages are being used the most, which will give us some insight as far as what we may need to support, but then also which campuses may be using it more or have a higher need, and then you can reallocate that, which I think is fantastic, but not only that, the management side.

Fonz:

I mean, for any CTO out there that is looking for an easy way to manage these devices, you've got the solution for it, and I think that this really sets Pocket Talk apart from really, to be honest with you, I haven't seen anything like Pocket Talk out there. Out there, because a lot of the language supports you know they integrate them within the platforms or maybe the students are using specific programs, but it's only for that specific program, it's not for a conversation that you're having off of that program, which I think this is phenomenal that Pocket Talk would be able to help support the students in that aspect, and that's phenomenal.

Arturo Guajardo:

Yeah, no, no. And also think, think in terms of I'm not sure if your district where the phone policy is in your district, but I know as many districts are phones are, are, you know, are need to be put away. You know, and oftentimes teachers, students, we use phones to, to, to translate, and I get that. That makes sense. I always remind teachers, though, keep in mind that if you use your phone in a private conversation, well you know, your phone is now subject to getting pulled and getting reviewed if there's an information act that gets requested, a freedom of information act that gets requested, freedom of Information Act that gets requested.

Arturo Guajardo:

And the other thing I remind you on the student side for Pocket Talk is that Pocket Talk does one thing really, really well, and that's translate. Our translations are, I think, better than Google's, better than many other translation services that are out there, but that's really all they do. So you can feel fine handing this to a student. They can't play games, they can't get on the internet, they can't really do anything other than communicate, and that's really what we want them to do, right. We want them to be able to talk and give them a voice when they might not have one until you have some sort of technology like Pocket.

Fonz:

And I love what you said there too. I think that's huge too, that no distractions and you're to technology like Right now I'm in Telpist mode because we're doing.

Arturo Guajardo:

Telmastessi so.

Fonz:

I'm like man, not only are they talking it, but they're also listening and they're building up and of course, you know you as a bilingual to me has always been bilingual as a superpower. So not only are you still working on your Spanish, but you're listening to it in English and making those connections.

Arturo Guajardo:

And that is the translanguaging.

Arturo Guajardo:

That we want. You know you don't want to, you don't have. That you know you don't want to, you don't have to. You know your, your Spanish or your, whatever your home language is, is a superpower. And now, now you have a way to build on that and and this just device helps you along the way and like, like I mentioned earlier, when you're ready, you don't need any more of that. Sorry, move on without without it. But for those students who need it, hey, it's going to really be a game changer for them.

Fonz:

I love it. That's fantastic. Now, arturo, I do want to ask. As you know, we were talking, I did go to the website, which is pockettalkcom pockettalkcom if you guys want to check that out. Now it is with one T. All right, guys, please, because I know you may be listening to the podcast and you're putting in pocket and then talkcom and you're probably getting an error.

Fonz:

It's one T pocket. Yeah, now I do notice that, that that you offer not just the, the pocket talk S, but there's a pocket talk plus, which is a little bigger screen and everything. So I mean do school districts and I guess I guess, depending on the budget, you know, and so on, but I mean they, they both have the same functionality. It's just really just the screen size that makes the difference correct it is, it's the size of the device.

Arturo Guajardo:

So the Pocket Talk S imagine a credit card. It's about that size, just thicker obviously, but about the size, length and width-wise, of a credit card. So for people like me with old eyes, you know that screen is a little small, honestly. For students probably okay, but for I always recommend, if you are on the educator, if you're thinking of using this as a teacher, as an educator, the Pocket Talk Plus is probably the better device. It's just easier to read, speaker is a little bit bigger. Battery life is better. You know we can put a bigger battery in there, since it's a bigger device. So I always recommend, if you are thinking of using this in the classroom, I recommend thinking of the Pocket Talk Plus as being the device that's going to meet your needs. The Pocket Talk S is great just because it's tiny, but again, probably better for little hands and younger eyes.

Fonz:

Absolutely, that's fantastic. Well, I am just blown away, arturo. This has been fantastic. And again, you know, knowing now you know about Pocket Talk, and man, I just wish that this was at least around, or at least I knew about it when I was in the classroom. This could have been make things so much easier, but now, even currently though, you have given me some bright ideas, you know, and so I'm really excited to just even share this, not only for our audience members that are checking this out and listening to this podcast, but for anybody that's listening. You know, definitely check it out, because I mean, right now I'm thinking, you know, testing support, just day to day support, homework support, and how easy it is to transport, and so the possibilities are definitely fantastic for the students. And, just again, it's all about removing that barrier for teachers as well and just lightening their load with a device that students can use in the classroom, either take a picture of their worksheet or just to simply be able to communicate in class and not feel left out.

Arturo Guajardo:

You know that they can go ahead and get an answer, and they're part of the conversation and that is huge. That makes a big difference.

Arturo Guajardo:

I always remind people of a couple of things For the classroom. Think about all the teaching practices that we do. Just think about one like turn and talk when I need to talk to my classmate, and if my classmate and if that classmate doesn't speak my language, well, turnip talk just doesn't really work right. How am I going to talk to this student? So with a pocket talk you can do that, you can have the class discussion, you can have the small group and you're giving that student that voice, instead of them just kind of sitting there and listening and kind of shrugging their shoulders. Now you can find out what they know and how much they know, because a lot of times it's there. You just they just can't express it yet. So keep that in mind for the classroom and for the front office.

Arturo Guajardo:

I always remind everybody that first experience that a family has when they walk in the school door and they've walked into the school office, that's going to set the, that's going to kind of set the standard or the groundwork for the rest of that relationship. So if that, if that experience is a good one and you're able to communicate with that family, that first time they come in they're likely to come back. If it's a bad experience and they think well, nobody can communicate with me, why am I good? Why would I go back to school? You know it probably won't come back, so just keep that in mind. I always recommend you have one in that front office, just to make sure that that first experience is a good one.

Fonz:

Oh, that is some fantastic advice. That is fantastic advice, arturo, because you're absolutely right, that first impression is huge. And then again, just to be able to communicate with a parent immediately, and it's just that level of customer service, personalization. You feel welcome, you feel like, wow, you know, I was able to communicate. I mean it, just like you said, it makes a big difference for a parent to say, hey, you know, if they took the time to do this for me, then I know that my kid is going to be in good hands. So fantastic, arturo. Well, thank you so much, arturo, for just sharing a little bit about your story, too, in education. But just, you know, going back and forth and, like I said, you, got my creative juices flowing too as well.

Fonz:

And seeing the possibilities of how to be able to integrate this in just more than just a mere translator, but just to be able to use it effectively and intentionally for the student growth, and this is fantastic. So thank you so much for sharing that. But before we wrap up, remember we always love to end the show with the last three questions. So, arturo, I hope that you're ready.

Arturo Guajardo:

All right, all right, here we go, all right.

Fonz:

Question number one as we know, every superhero has a weakness or a pain point. So for superman, kryptonite was his weakness. So I want to ask you, arturo and I guess you can go in different varieties here or different routes I should say your answers if you'd like, but I just want to ask you in the current state of education, what would you say, is your current edu kryptonite?

Arturo Guajardo:

Wow, to me I think it still goes back to my edu kryptonite that I had 20 plus years ago when I was still in the classroom, and that tended to be just the focus on testing. That was going on then and I know it's still going on now. That was going on then and I know it's still going on now, and the idea that I had situations where we were doing amazing things with our students and none of them necessarily were obviously preparing for the test, but we were teaching them things, they were laying down the foundation for so much information and so much learning to take place. But if it didn't look like we were getting ready for the test, then we would get, yeah, get our our hands slapped and and I'm guessing that's still happening and and today, and and to me are. To me, that's the one that those little bit pokey don't remember, um, but uh, my guess is that, uh, that that would be my kryptonite at this point and it it probably still is for any couple.

Fonz:

No, that is a great answer, and I'll just say un poquito todavía, un poquito todavía, all right. Well, here's question number two. Question number two is if you can trade places with someone for a day, who would it be and why?

Arturo Guajardo:

So a couple of things. I really love to travel. If I could travel, I would do that 365. You know it's always good to come home, don't get me wrong, but I love seeing the world and meeting people and learning new cultures and new languages, so I'd probably be. I love Rick Steves.

Arturo Guajardo:

So I don't know if everybody you might not know who Rick Steves is, uh out there, but uh, he's on PBS and he's a travel uh, he has a travel shop, so he gets to go all over the world and and so teach people about, uh, these different parts of the world and and uh, it seems like that's just a great job and you get job, I get to travel and help people learn about these amazing places. Probably Rick Steves would probably be the one that I would want on a selfish level. Beyond that, I'm a big fan of Chef Jose Andres, who I love to cook as well. He puts his cooking powers to work in places that I've had trying to think of the word earthquakes or hurricanes, anywhere that there's been a natural disaster. He and his team go out there and basically feed people and to me that's an amazing again an amazing thing that I wish I could do and help with more.

Fonz:

That's fantastic, and you know what I'll tell you.

Fonz:

Pocket Talk can also be a great companion for those trips for sure, exactly Easy for your trips for translation wherever you are around the world, in a different country, or if you do get to ever help out in a zone where there's, you know, helping people in an area of natural disasters. It doesn't have to be here in the US, but hey, you've got a wonderful tool in your pocket that can help you communicate, so that's wonderful, all right. My last question, arturo, for you would be is if you could have a billboard with anything on it, what would it be and why?

Arturo Guajardo:

Okay, I think I learned this from I can't remember which show it was, but the idea is try not to judge, instead try to understand. And to me that's so huge right now, particularly in the state that we're in, where people are not using that advice and instead of trying to understand each other, we're just kind of being critical and judgmental. And to me, just understanding can go a long way and can change people and change the world.

Fonz:

There you go. That is a great billboard. I don't know, is it maybe Ted Lasso? Thank?

Arturo Guajardo:

you. I'm saying Ted Lasso, don't be judgmental.

Fonz:

And the only reason that that rang a bell, too, is also because several months back I had another guest, and that was his billboard too so that's great that's fantastic.

Fonz:

Don't be judgmental. All right, arturo. Well, arturo, thank you so much. It was an honor to have you here. Thank you so much for just sharing the work that you're doing with pocket talking, really bringing down barriers of communication and just making that connection, helping us make connections through Pocket Talk within our classrooms, within our parent learning community and even outside of that, just to be able to use something like this on a day-to-day to be able to help anybody. This is such a wonderful product and, again, I'm really excited for what you're doing and the work that you continue to do, and I hope that you would come back whenever there is another, either like major update or anything that you may be working on. You always have an open invite. Please come back and visit us again, because we definitely love to have you back, that's for sure.

Arturo Guajardo:

Awesome, fonz. Thank you very much. It's an honor to be on my EdTech Life. It's a lot of fun and, yeah, I'd love to come back. I think I'm sure we'll have something coming soon, so we'll talk to you then.

Fonz:

Definitely Well, I'm looking forward to that and for our audience members, please make sure that you visit our website at myedtechlife, where you can check out this amazing episode and the other 314 wonderful episodes where, I promise you, you will find a little something just for you that you can sprinkle on to what you are already doing great. If you haven't done so yet, guys, please jump over to our YouTube channel also as well. Give us a thumbs up, subscribe. We're about 32 people shy of 1,000 subscribers, and that is our goal for this year. So please make sure you hit us up and subscribe and, as always, my friends, don't forget until next time. Stay techie, thank you.