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[fusion_dropcap boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=”” text_color=””]D[/fusion_dropcap]r. Ai Addyson-Zhang is a self-described “Disruptive Educator.” After achieving her career goal of teaching at the college level, she became disillusioned with our education system, and came to the conclusion that her only choice was to get out … altogether, and start educating from a completely different angle, from a “Classroom Without Walls.”  

We interviewed Dr. Ai about her approach to online learning and preparing students for their future careers in innovative ways, such as through the use of social media.

Read or watch the third part of our interview with Dr. Ai, and feel free to comment below with any questions; I’ll pass them along to her. (Need to catch up? Watch or read part 1 of the interview.)

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You can watch the video interview above with or without subtitles, or read this transcript:

Ai Addyson-Zhang, Ph.D., Disruptive Educator
Ai Addyson-Zhang, Ph.D., Disruptive Educator

AI: And last but not least in terms of mindset, we work with the students. We teach them how to do journaling and how to do positive affirmations. You don’t say, “I want this” because from a neuroscience perspective when you say you want something, it means there is a separation between who you are versus the thing you want. So, we teach students how to speak positively and how to design their lives based on a vision of the future as opposed to their memory of the past.

And we work with students on that, designing their vision board. We use Canva. We design different pictures – their mission, in the future, a few years – to really project themselves. Where do you see yourself in a few years? So, we do journaling, positive affirmation, and vision boards. And those are some of the things that we work with the students to really work on their mindset.

CHUCK: That’s so interesting. It’s funny because I consider myself, as one of my colleagues says, I consider myself a forever student. I’m actually in a course creator’s boot camp right now, and the presenters were literally talking about that a couple of days ago during the mindset portion where if you say, “I want,” your subconscious hears that you lack. You don’t have it. And so, it continues, it perpetuates that lack. Same thing with, “I need,” but if you can reframe a lot of those thoughts, you really can move out of that space and expand into a wider —

AI: And we give each of our students a gratitude journal. And it’s really – the only way for you to shift that from being this desperation to actually feeling grateful for what you already have. I have different affirmations for my students that they can copy, they do journaling. It’s really powerful.

Students, after a few sessions, will tell me, “Wow, I shifted my mind.” They experience that shift and start to pay attention. Even the small things: “I’m so grateful for still being alive. I don’t have COVID. I’m still alive. I’m still healthy.” And then, that is the state where you are attracting more to your life, as opposed to, “Hey, why don’t I have this yet?” That communicates more separation. And I think those are very important things that students need to learn when they are at school, but they don’t.

CHUCK: Yeah, that really is interesting. One of the tricks that we’re learning in this boot camp is to cancel those limiting thoughts when they happen. “I can’t go on. I’m tired. I’m overwhelmed. I can’t understand this.” And constantly repeating those limiting kinds of beliefs. So, what they’re teaching us to do is to cancel them through “Catch, Cancel, Correct.” You can train your brain, even at my age, to catch yourself in the middle of those limited beliefs and those statements that you’re making internally. So, you catch, and then you cancel them. You literally just say, “Cancel,” and then correct and just reframe. And so, neuroscience is available to all of us.

AI: And neuroplasticity, right? You can learn, you can rewire the brain. It’s actually highly plastic, and students don’t even know that. And we all, as human beings – we all have lots of baggage that we have been carrying with us for many, many years. For example, for children before 8 years old, their analytic brain is not developed yet. So, everything their teachers are telling them, their parents are telling them – “You are so stupid. You are such a troublemaker. You are just so annoying.” All those things – “I don’t love you anymore. Go away.” All those things, our children take them in as fact. They don’t even question. They don’t have that analytical brain. So that is until 8 years old.

So, think about it – all the things our teachers are telling us, our parents are telling us – all of us, we have to learn how to rewire our brains and how to reprogram our self-conscious minds, which is so important. And even some of those “I am” statements – instead of saying, “I am stupid,” or, “I am a troublemaker” – don’t use “I am.” You are not. When you say things like, “I am,” it kind of perpetuates you in that state. So, you can say instead, “I am a human being in this moment. I choose to feel sad,” or, “I have a sad feeling.” So, you can separate who you are versus this negative emotion that you are experiencing right now. So, you are not that emotion. You are at a higher level. You are experiencing a moment of this and you can change and shift that.

CHUCK: That’s really interesting. Wow. Okay, so a couple more areas I’d like to explore. One quick question and that is – what are you doing with video with your kids? Are you using the Adobe platform for creating videos, or some other tool? Tell me about that.

AI: We use all sorts of things. I’m such an advocate of using creative technologies and social media as a teaching, learning, and parenting tool. My children have been using Adobe Spark, Adobe Spark Video. Right now, my nine-year-old – he’s learning more about Adobe Premiere Rush to edit some of his own videos. He loves gaming and every day, he has his own YouTube channel. He’s like, “Yes! I’ve scored this and that!” And so, he wants to learn when there is a “Make sure to subscribe to my channel,” he can add some special effects. So, he wants to learn that. Again, learning has to be personal. It has to be that personal interest. He wants to learn, and so he’s learning some of those simple tools to do more editing of his videos.

We also do lots of video reflections. I have just become Brain-centric Design certified, which is a group of neuroscientists who designed a specific way to present our information. So, I have just become certified by them. Through that training, I learned three really powerful reflection questions. One was, “What was surprising about what you have learned?” The second one was, “What is something that you already knew, and now you are looking at it differently?” The third one is, “What do you still need help with?”

So, with those three reflection questions, every day by the end of the learning day, I will do a reflection video with my own children, and I upload quite a few of those videos on LinkedIn. And other parents will say, “Wow, this is so good!” My eight-year-old is telling me, “I’m having a lot more a-ha moments.” I was like, “Wow, where did you even learn that?” He’s like, “You know, just a-ha moment. I’m learning about more, and learning is more fun. It’s more interesting.” So, we do use videos a lot to really practice their confidence, communication, and public speaking. My son is also doing his podcast. He is on LinkedIn. He has a small network. Most of his connections are my friends, so it’s really safe. So, he’s interviewing some of his LinkedIn connections, and he’s also interviewing some of my connections’ children to talk about gaming and whatever games they play. So, he’s also working on that and the podcast.

CHUCK: Wow. That’s so interesting. Very cool.

AI: Very fun, right?

CHUCK: Yeah.

AI: It’s very fun to learn all those things as opposed to, “Hey, we’re taking a Communications class,” which I used to teach.

CHUCK: Yeah. I took one in college, and I literally don’t remember anything from it.

AI: The same! Join the club!

CHUCK: Yeah. So, let’s spend a few minutes on another area, and then we can wrap this up. And that is, I think one of the things looking at this video and reading the blog post that will come out of this interview, Dr. Ai, are going to be interested in engagement tips. I’ve interviewed people who have used different techniques to engage kids now that we have the COVID virus, which has forced us to stay home.

But for teachers in particular – instructors, trainers, anyone who is a facilitator who is working with little kids, middle-sized kids, college kids. Let’s leave the older adults out and talk about that range of elementary, middle, high school, college. What kinds of techniques do you use to keep them glued to the screen, paying attention to you when you’re teaching?

AI: In terms of during the teaching session, teachers should definitely use the interactive features that are available through Zoom such as doing a poll or ask, “Hey, how do you feel about my talk? Give me a thumbs up!” Again, research has shown that when students are using emojis, there is a reason that emoji is called “emoji” – because you are invoking the student’s emotions. And learning is a very, very emotional journey. Most people think of learning as really dry, right? Facts and information. If you do that, you put your kids to sleep. It’s very boring.

And imagine our children sitting through two or three Zoom sessions in a row. That is just not practical for them to learn. So, use emojis, use breakout rooms. And I don’t even mind if my students bring their cereal, their drinks. And make it fun. Ask a student to change their Zoom background. So maybe today is someone’s birthday – “Hey, let’s all use a birthday background because today is Jason’s birthday.”

Again, going back to that 70/20/10 model – if you want to make online learning effective, you have to create that social community environment in order for students to be interested in showing up, to be interested in the subject matter. Again, research has shown students who feel more emotionally connected to the teacher are more interested in the subject. It’s not the other way around that they love the subject and therefore, they love the teacher. It is always, they love the teacher. They have that emotional bond with the teacher first before they show interest in the subject matter.

I think that is the missing piece in many teachers’ online classes. They feel like they still have to be this robot – dress up, do this, every second you have to focus. I think that is very impractical, and you want to show up as a human being. The very first few minutes of my class, I connect with my students.

Again, neuroscience has shown that when students join a class, their mind, their limbic brain is not ready to receive information. They’re thinking about their lunch or their dinner, their conversation. They’re paying attention – “Oh, this person turned on their Zoom camera! That person’s eating this.” They’re not ready to learn.

So, you need to physiologically spend a few minutes to connect with your students to create that safe learning space where everyone feels welcomed, feels connected to each other and to you. And so that’s how you get started, and even my own children have been taking some online classes where the teacher was like a robot: “5:00, class starts. A, B, C, D. 6:00, class is over.” One time, my son cried afterward, like, “This is so bad!” I was like, I hear you. The teacher was awful like a robot, right?

So, if your class is 45 minutes – I even give my students a brain break. Stretching, dress up, or bring me your favorite costume, whatever. Give them a break. Move their body a little bit because traditionally, in the face-to-face classroom environment, if a kid is not paying attention, it’s very hard for you to notice. But on Zoom, you see each other. Everything is so noticeable. It’s like talking on the phone – if you are silent for two seconds, it feels so awkward – “I have to say something,” right? So, on computers, it’s the same. It’s exhausting. So, give students more breaks, allow them to be who they are, maybe let them bring their drink. Don’t worry about being too distracting if you can make them mentally engaged. So, that’s during the Zoom session.

Outside class time, I love using social media to create a learning community. My personal favorite is Facebook – not that I really love Facebook, but I think Facebook Groups are really amazing. You have an app that the students can download to their phones. Even if they don’t have a Facebook account, they can create a fake image, a fake account for the sake of the classroom discussion. And you can celebrate birthdays, create different learning units, and show up. “Hey, tomorrow at 3:00 p.m., I’m doing a coffee chat. Bring your favorite coffee, let’s have a chat!”

Or, you can do stories. I always do stories within the group. So, students can see that I have a cat, I have two children, I have a husband, and I’m moving. They really get to know me as a human being. For some people we follow, we really get to know who they are as a human being. So, we are really interested – “What are you eating? What are you doing now?” Really, we want to know everything about this person because we build that emotional connection.

So, you want the same thing to happen with your own students. Show up as a human being. Teachers do eat apples, so that’s kind of the classic. Show up as human beings so students have that emotional connection. So that’s how we do it in class and outside the class to create that community where we are connecting as human beings and we care about each other on a more emotional level, so students are more interested in showing up and doing the classwork.

CHUCK: That is really interesting. We talk in social media marketing about moving prospects when we’re marketing with somebody through the “Know, Like, and Trust” process. The end result after “Trust” is that we anticipate they’re going to buy from us. They’re either going to sign up for a class or buy a product, or something like that. But what I just realized – I’ve had a couple of a-ha moments in this discussion with you, Dr. Ai. The fact is if you’re presenting yourself as y9ou are to me right now in an animated fashion, and I’m getting to know, like, and trust you, then if you were my teacher, I would buy – literally – buy into whatever the subject matter is, especially if you continued that very human sort of presentation.

The other a-ha moment I had a few minutes ago is I think that one of the failings – and this is not their fault because teachers have not been taught creativity and some of these other skills we’re talking about – but to avoid Zoom fatigue and giving students an opportunity or a reason to dissociate from the lesson, if they’re really try8ing to do what we thought we were going to do when COVID hit, which was to move the in-person experience online – well, if your in-person experience wasn’t that great to begin with, then moving it online doesn’t improve it. It’s worse, right? So, I think there’s a lot of education that has to be done on a lot of levels. Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.

AI: And to follow up on this, Chuck, I feel like school leaders need to invest in their educators. It is so, so important. You’re a lifelong learner. I’m a lifelong learner. We know how important it is to invest in ourselves to become better. School leaders need to understand how important it is to invest in their teachers to do training, to learn how to use Zoom, to learn how to teach classes online. It is very, very important.

CHUCK: That’s fantastic. Wow. Well, I appreciate your time today. I really do appreciate it. I feel like every time I talk to you, I learn something new, and today was no exception.

Tell us the best way to find out more about you, Dr. Ai.

AI: They can go to my website, which is www.classroomwithoutwalls.ai – my name. On my website, they can see all of my social media handles, my email, learn more about me, and join my live streaming show. I have two. One is on every Wednesday that focuses on business and social media marketing. I have another one, which is on every Friday. That one focuses on education. We discuss, debate, and disrupt education. So definitely check out and join me live.

CHUCK: That’s fantastic. I know a lot of people are going to be interested. Thank you very much, and I’ll look for you in cyberspace, Dr. Ai. Thank you so much.

AI: You are so welcome! Thank you so much for having me, Chuck.


Please feel free to comment below with any questions and I’ll pass along answers from Dr. Ai.


Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang is an educator and an entrepreneur. She received her MA and Ph.D. in Communication from Syracuse University and the University of Maryland. Ai is the founder of Classroom Without Walls, an alternative school to future-proof the next generation. Ai is also an Adobe Insider, Adobe Education Leader, and HubSpot Academy Instructor.

As a thought leader in online education, Dr. Ai specializes in incorporating social media and creative technologies into traditional curriculum to enhance student engagement and acquire 21st-century skills. Dr. Ai’s work has been featured in Forbes, Inside Higher Education, Pearson Education, Entrepreneur, “The Today Show”, and others.

Additionally, Dr. Ai hosts two weekly live streaming shows, where she interviews industry leaders in Business and Education, such as Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. Dr. Ai additionally serves as a SEMrush Webinar guest and host. Dr. Ai frequently speaks at academic and industry conferences including Inbound, VidCon, SEMrush Global Marketing Day, Social Media Day, Social Media Week Lima (the largest social media marketing conference in the midwest), and others.

Please visit classroomwithoutwalls.ai to learn more.

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