Welcome to the SMACtalk For Educators podcast! This is part of the Division of
Elementary and Secondary Education's SMACtalk initiative. A monthly podcast
featuring interviews with prominent educators working with education and
technology, SMACtalk for Educators has a different theme for every episode
centered around promoting online safety and security for educators.

The theme for this episode is Unplugging. Our guests today are Emily England and Heather Blocker, students at Marshall EAST, along with their facilitator Tommy “Coach” Welch. Together they created “Unplug To Recharge”, a short film about the benefits of unplugging from technology. The film is about the toll that electronic devices take on a student, and her struggles as she steps away from technology in order to recharge. The full video, which won first place in the 2021 Digital Learning Day Video Contest in the 9-12 category, can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/unplug2recharge

The students, Coach, and our host Cassandra Barnett, Program Advisor for School Libraries at the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, discuss the ideas and themes of the film, the filmmaking process behind it, the benefits of unplugging, how unplugging has gotten more difficult in the year of virtual learning. Coach also shares helpful tips that educators can use with their students to incorporate a lifestyle of unplugging into their virtual worlds.

Unplug To Recharge on Marshall EAST YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3kLppslifU

Episode 8 transscript:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3kLppslifU/edit?usp=sharing

SMACtalk:
https://dese.ade.arkansas.gov/Offices/research-and-technology/smactalk

Produced by Donnie Lee
Music: https://www.purple-planet.com
More information: https://dese.ade.arkansas.gov/Offices/communications/dese-podcasts