David Cole: All right. Hello and welcome everybody. Today we’re going to be talking to Keila. She works for Kubrio. She’s an amazing online educator who works with groups of students. And I will let her tell a little bit more about herself. Hello. 

Keila de Moreno: Hi everyone. Thanks for this space, David. I’m really happy to be part of the summit. And first of all, my name is Keila Moreno. I’m located in Panama. I speak two languages. I’m bilingual, Spanish and English. I can tell that both of them are my native language because I grew up speaking both of them. I have a degree in marketing and advertising, an associate degree as a preschool teacher with a specialty in the DAXes and Pedagogy. And I’ve been with Kubrio, which is the main platform I’ve been working for since the Pandemic for almost three years already. It’s going to be three years in July, to be more specific. And it has been a great experience because I’ve been able to meet people from different parts of the world, meaning my colleagues, students, parents. 

Keila de Moreno: So it has been a great experience and definitely in career. The position that I have right now is a learning coach. I also do run one club in one time zone, which is Europe for book club. And right now I’m kind of like supervising other coaches to make sure that everything is running the way it needs to be running. And technically that’s it. It sounds very easy, but it’s a little bit complex because it involves a lot of responsibilities, taking on the kids and making sure that they are actually feel integrated and part of the platform. Because it’s not like when you are in a real in person place where you can actually meet the person and interact, it’s other kind of interaction and get students to feel engaged and part of a community that is online is very challenging. 

Keila de Moreno: It’s not that easy, but you can succeed if you actually show real interest in the kids. It’s not like something that’s fake, you are actually worried about them, make sure that you’re following up on them and always be there for them. Not only like, okay, this is the time where you can reach me out. It’s not like that. They will always need something, sometimes out of the time when the meetings are. So definitely now, Kubrio is little. 

David Cole: Different than some of the other online teaching platforms that might exist. We’ve had people talking about all school Outschool and these are more like come and go as you please type things. Can you tell us more about how Kubrio still has that feel of flexibility but still has some structure for students? 

Keila de Moreno: Definitely what we do is that let’s say that what we offer as a structure and let’s say this is what helps in a certain way for the students to kind of have a structure in what they’re doing, even though it’s flexible, as you just mentioned, is that we have the learning coach role. Even though not all the students attend pods, probably some of them are more like self directed and they might not need a learning coach. But the main role of us as coaches is to make sure that the students do have a structure within what they are doing. Like teach them how to plan, teach them how to schedule the things that they are going to be doing throughout the month. 

Keila de Moreno: And it’s not that we impose what they’re going to be doing, they let us know and we help them through this process of planning. Like, hey, okay, we have this and that this month, what do you want to be doing from that? And we’re always there to encourage them to do things that are different. Like you can learn more than this, okay, you can also learn these skills and probably you may not need it right now, but you might need them in the future or it could be helpful in the future. And then the clubs is where it’s more like optional, where they can actually go ahead and choose the learning experiences that they feel they identified with or they feel that they’re related to their skills or passions. So that is where we have the balance. 

Keila de Moreno: Like what I can do is an option. And then the pod where we meet from Monday through Thursday on a time frame of 30 minutes, where they can interact with a group of peers that they get really close to them because they meet, like, as I said, four days in the week, every single month of the year. And it’s not that the group changes, they grow together and they get to know each other very well. 

David Cole: We definitely do. For those of you watching don’t know, I met Keila. She’s kind of been my son’s learning his main person at the company, at the school. 

David Cole: And there are so many different options available for the kids now. We have what, three different main options. There’s the… 

Keila de Moreno: The Nanos also, and the bootcamps. And also we have studios, for example. We have board and Buster coming back. But now it’s going to be student led. Let’s say that the students have the experience of putting this great magazine with Karina, one of the facilitators, for two years. And now they took it to the level that they are going to be doing it on their own. Now the students are able to go through the whole process of putting the magazine together. But that’s the whole point, because this is a self directed environment. And at some point, if the students master what needs to be done in the process of this magazine, I think it’s fair enough for them to take the role and run it on their own. 

Keila de Moreno: I’m really thrilled about seeing what they are going to be putting together for the next issue. 

David Cole: Yes, that’ll be interesting to see. 

Keila de Moreno: Exactly. 

David Cole: So you told everybody about three years ago, almost. When you started this, were you doing any online teaching for that? 

Keila de Moreno: Not really. The only online teaching I did was actually with the pandemic in the very beginning because I used to work as a preschool teacher for almost four years in a bilingual school here in Panama. I was the homeroom teacher. To be honest, parents were very happy with me, but most of the agreements got suspended. Mine was suspended for the whole year. Yeah, exactly. And they’ve had to run with a few number of teachers, not the regular number of teachers, but in the very beginning, I started with the process, but they decided to stay with less people and well, in the end, I decided just to stay with Kubrio. Because there is nothing like doing your work from home. I think it’s less stressful. You have time for your family, even for your students, to jump in and quick calls if they need to. 

Keila de Moreno: And I think you create a great connection with parents. And one thing I do want to point out is that this is like a team between coach, parent, student and the coach. And the parents are there to make sure the student fulfills their dreams, and they’re focusing on their skills or their talents to make sure they reach their goal. Because the thing is that kids can be involved in many things at the same time. I know video games are great, even though but I want to mention here that they’re also useful to learn. And if you see that your kids are passionate about games, you could probably encourage them through the game, this esports side. Like, okay, you love games, then why don’t you run game? 

Keila de Moreno: Try joining any esport team and see how you can run in this career as a professional or developing a game by coding it. So we have to see, always find the positive side of everything that they’re doing and that they’re learning from gaming. They can learn how to communicate, because it’s not like when were kids where the games you could not play online with anyone and you had to invite someone home in order to play with someone else. So it’s so different now. They learn strategies, how to communicate. So it’s a great window of opportunities for them to learn many things and put them into action. 

David Cole: It really is. And throughout this summit, gamification keeps coming up so many different ways to include games in your classes. We’ve got teachers doing board games. We’ve got teachers using online programs that use the game. We’ve got teachers making escape rooms. Now, I know you use some other things in your course in your classes as well. Not just Kubrio teaching coding and making games, but you use things to really get the engagement out of the students, whether it’s playing things like the bonk IO talking, but you also do other things to work with their reading and retention as well. What kind of things do you like? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, we do epic books. We use it as a tool for reading and they love it. Some of them like to read, some of them just like to listen and then answer the questions. And then something else that we do all the time is riddles. I think that’s a great brain exercise and they love it too. Like trying to figure out what happened in the scene. So that’s something that they really love, who did it, or who has the fake jewelry, or who is not rich. And they have to observe because it’s an exercise of observation, paying attention to what you’re seeing, paying attention to details. And then try to figure out if the answer you have is the right one. Even for me, sometimes it’s kind of difficult to answer them when I’m watching the riddles with them. 

Keila de Moreno: We’re not so sure about the answers. Sometimes it’s like discipline. Exactly. 

David Cole: With all these different ways to teach online and different types, you’ve got different grades or different age groups also in your groups, what are your teaching specialties? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, my specialty, to be honest, was teaching language in one of my pops. They wanted me to teach Spanish because since the language club disappeared, they were like why don’t you teach in Spanish here in the pod? I was like, okay, then we can do that. So my specialty is in teaching languages. And when I used to be a preschool teacher, that’s what I used to teach the students. Most of them were like zero English when they started pre K and by the end of the year they could understand commands slightly, communicate. I won’t say that’s perfect because one year is not enough to become familiar and only for 2 hours or 3 hours in a day. 

Keila de Moreno: But it did work and I was so proud of them at the end of the year with the results and seeing them being able to communicate and following the command. That was awesome. 

David Cole: That is pretty cool. So then what do you like best about being an online teacher? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, what I like about this, number one, I’m home, of course. And the experience of getting to meet people from all over the world and also being through the process of seeing how a company works. And when people is not physically there, it’s different. And I understood after the pandemic that you don’t have to be physically in a place only if the position requires it. But if it’s something that you can do from your home, from your computer, and you’re very disciplined and organized, I think it’s worth it. And as I said, I feel more comfortable. I arrange my schedule based on what my needs are and the students needs are. So it’s kind of a balance of what I need and what the student needs and what the company needs. 

Keila de Moreno: So it’s not like written on stone except for the hot meetings because that’s a fixed hour already. But for the rest is like, okay, what works for you? What works for me and also teamwork online is different, but it can be done. Being part of an online organization is fun. It’s fun and I think that you grow up and this helps a lot also because I was organized, but I think that after this I’ve become more organized and more aware of time. Second, making sure that I’m on time in the different meetings I have and things like that. So it definitely has helped me grow in other areas. 

David Cole: Yeah, I think keeping track of schedules is one of the things that online educators really start to learn about. Time management becomes a really important thing. Exactly what kind of advice would you give to somebody first, starting out as an online teacher? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, to make sure that what you’re doing is really what you like. Because the only thing that will keep you motivated in an environment like this and making sure that you join on time and do the things that you have to do is that you really like it. Because if you don’t, it’s going to be like, I think I’m going to skip today, or things like that. To be honest, I haven’t taken vacations in a long time already since I started here. Only like a few times and it has been like one week. But the thing is that since we work from Monday to Thursday, it’s kind of like we are already having vacations in some way, but a little bit more spaced out. But if you add up like three days off throughout the year, it’s a lot of days. 

Keila de Moreno: At some point it kind of compensates that and I think it’s really cool. The only advantages is like, for example, if your power is out or your Internet is really bad that day or things like that, it might affect. But usually when I have those type of scenarios, I run to a café that’s like about five or ten minutes close to my house and I take the cry and get there to make sure I can meet with the kids because I don’t like to leave them hanging. I’m not like those facilitators that are asking for jobs all the time. I usually don’t do that. 

David Cole: Yeah, it’s always good to have that backup location or something ready. 

Keila de Moreno: Exactly. 

David Cole: Even when you teach at your own home. 

Keila de Moreno: Exactly. I already have my perfect spot in case I need to leave immediately because I have no power or I have no internet or usually it depends. I also use my hot spot if it’s the internet, but if it’s delight, I just go out and go to a café and then I come back home after I’m done with the meeting. 

David Cole: So people might be a little bit curious about Kubrio because it is a little bit different and it’s a different type of school can kind of give people kind of a rundown a little bit like an overall idea of what Kubrio really is. 

Keila de Moreno: Well, Kubrio in general is a great platform if you want to be part of a community, because we are more than like an online platform to learn. We are also a community where parents have a space to interact, where students have their space to interact. We as coaches and learning experience facilitators, have a space to interact. And I think it has been a great experience to connect because I’ve already had the great opportunity, because that’s one of the advantages, to meet you guys in person. The same Sebastian I had a few months before that. Last year I met two other students I have in another pod. So I think it’s a great way to create community, to grow in this home school, world school or unschool environment. 

Keila de Moreno: And the thing is that lately, to be honest, education is not the same and it’s not aligned with all the things that the future is offering right now. And if we don’t accept that and have our kids grow in a different environment than what we did, which was a traditional, I’m not saying it was bad, but it’s not aligned with the future, does it? There are many things that are not useful. Should I be saying that. 

David Cole: I did my whole thesis on the education system myself. I know the ends, the ups, the downs, the bat. It’s based on an agrarian society, most school systems, and it’s not the way the world is. 

Keila de Moreno: Said. But for example, Kubrio is a great platform for that because the student has been learning about how to use AI, how it could be helpful to create projects. Even myself, I’ve been using it how to create art with AI. Now we have a new thing that’s called quest, where the students can go in and work on quests that are created by an artificial intelligence that we have in the platform. So I think if parents are looking for an alternative that’s different but still is optional, self directed, and it has a little bit of structure that can lead the students to be independent, because that’s the main thing of Kubrio. We are helping them being independent. Not to depend, not even on us as coaches, not you. 

Keila de Moreno: And as parents, we are there to guide them, to supervise, to help them go through the process, but not to do things for them. And they create amazing things in the end, they create coding projects. I’ve seen a lot of Blender projects that are amazing, even books. As one of my students who is a teenager now, he started when he was not a teenager, now he’s a teenager and he’s writing a book and he learned some skills from one of the boot camps and he’s been learning also from the nano courses. So it’s a great window of opportunities for the students to learn different things, not only during the live meetings, but also from the nano courses that we have online and also, as I said, build community. 

Keila de Moreno: Because more than learning, in the end I think it is interaction what we as human beings need. Because you can be in a classroom and the teacher can be speaking and speaking even during an online, could not, probably will never connect with the others. Then if there is no connections, there is nothing. 

David Cole: I can see that Kubrio is also really interesting because it’s not just like a standard school, like a brick and mortar schools curriculum. It’s not just like your English, math, science, arts. It’s got a lot more to it than just that. What are some of the topics that you guys speak to? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, we have some of the basics, Science club and Math club, but we have Drama club, Creative Writing, History of Everything, which is not like the traditional history. You can learn the history of a lamp, how the lamp was created. We have global citizens where you will learn from other cultures or like, okay, which is the most beautiful train station in the world. I learned as Southern for one of the facilitators once, so it’s really interesting. They have a Gamers club, Animation club, Blender club, and many more that I cannot remember right now. And every month they have three different boot camps that are like a special class that’s only going to be available once and probably in the month or throughout the season. Because right now we’re working with seasons. Right now the season we have is Money Makers. 

Keila de Moreno: So everything that the students are learning in the clubs, boot camps, and even sometimes during the sessions is going to be related to how to save money, how to invest money and things like that. And they’re really excited even at book club. I’m surprised that they’re talking more now that it’s related to money and how to make money. So that’s kind of cool. 

David Cole·23:03What are the age ranges of the students? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, the students who join career should between eight and let’s say 18 years old is the maximum. But technically I say we have more students between eight and 1415 most of the time. 

David Cole: Very cool. And then you keep mentioning nanos and I know that’s a term that I never heard of until I started doing. Let’s tell people a little bit about what these nanos are. 

Keila de Moreno: Well, nano courses are like on-demand classes that are pre recorded. And you go in, we have around 40 right now, and it’s like a self paced learning experience where the student will sit down and watch the videos and work on a project on their own. Usually as a learning coach, I will sit down with them like, okay, have you worked on any nano courses lately? Is there any of the ones listed that you’ll be interested in? And we’ll also check in if there are new ones. I know like a month ago one was posted like how to Become a Great Learner or something like that will give them tips on how to learn and how to be more practical with the things they’re trying to learn. 

David Cole: There’s another good one about making a YouTube channel so the kids can learn how to do that kind of thing. 

Keila de Moreno: Yeah, they have another one that’s like how to Become an Actor or actress. They also have one like Paste the World part One and two, that is how to learn to bake some specific desserts from different regions. In each nano, they have three different desserts. So it’s really amazing, to be honest. And they have even on fashion design. One introduction to fashion design geography. Fungi. So it’s very diverse and has different topics. 

David Cole: Kubrio is not just a Zoom school. You have a platform now that you can actually teach within. Sometimes you might use Zoom or some of the teachers might use Zoom. But can you kind of give people an idea what the platform is about? Or do you want you could share your screen if you wanted to show them what it is. 

Keila de Moreno: Sure. Let me open it up here, let me screen share. Okay, there you go. So this platform is really interesting. I know most of the online learning platforms, actually they need to use them because they haven’t developed anything that’s incorporated into the platform. But that’s one of the things that we have, that everything is incorporated here. So, let’s see, for example, this is my dashboard. This is like my teacher area where I will see all the different spaces I belong to. And for example, here I get notifications here. It’s reminding me that I have a meeting today with Multiverse Madness. That is my first class. And for example, I can come in here and check out the space of Multiverse Madness and it will tell me, okay, session starting in 22 minutes and 8 seconds. All that is great. 

Keila de Moreno: And then I have posts here on the different things that we’ve been doing throughout the week, the event. So the students know this is actually on a daily basis, but still it’s here so they can know which are the days that we’re meeting throughout the month of the season, because this is already planned until June. And then they can also check on the members if there are any resources that have been shared here. Like I have, for example, with them, like July missions, comics, August missions and things like that. Things that they’ve worked on before. And not only that, for example, I can see they will have access to the schedule itself, like the global schedule, like everything that’s happening in Cabrillo. 

Keila de Moreno: There’s going to be a lot of colors and things in here because there is a lot of things happening at the same time. While you and me are here, there might be something happening today right now. So for example, today is the 20th and if I want to see what’s going on here, I will see everything happening in all time zones asia, Europe and America. So for example, here we have the activities for today, April 20, and what is happening in all of the time zones. Let’s say that our last activity here is at 06:00 p.m.. So we’re active because this is, let’s say like a platform that’s twenty four seven. 

Keila de Moreno: And if you are in a different time zone and you need to move, like if you’re in Europe and you’re traveling to America, you can still do cubrill because we have activities happening in the time zone where you’re moving to. So it’s not like I’m moving and then what am I going to do with the classes or the pod meetings? You can be assigned to a temporary pod if your kids also wants to join the pod meetings, if they want to join the clubs. They are also in different time zones, so they have that possibility of doing those kind of things. Now also I have here this specific where we can find all the spaces. Now that were talking about nanocurses. Let me go ahead and bring one up. 

Keila de Moreno: And for example, here is one of the way it’s organized is in the order on number of students that are part of the space. So if you see this is the most popular one, how to be a YouTuber. 

David Cole·29:21All the kids want to be a YouTuber. 

Keila de Moreno: Then we have second fashion illustration and introduction to game design. This one is amazing because it teaches you everything from planning the game to coding it in the very first step and which platform you can use to do this. We have Sonic Story Structure for Creatives. This one is amazing. Two of my students did this one. How to start your own business. It’s one of the longest ones, but it’s very complete for those who are entrepreneurs or they have an entrepreneurship spirit. So we have a lot here that the kids can come in, explore, look around and imagine they could be doing only pods and these different nano courses if they want. Let’s say that their schedule is too complicated to sit down for live meetings all day long. 

Keila de Moreno: They could go ahead and just like, you know what, let’s do the pause and I’ll focus on nano courses. And then if they want to in the long run, they can also go ahead and say like, okay, I’m going to be doing the club. So we have options. They could do both things. They could do one and the other or the other. So as I said, it’s a great window of opportunities. 

David Cole: Yes. 

Keila de Moreno·30:46It’s not only one thing, they can do many things at the same time. 

David Cole: Very cool. Yeah, there’s so much involved with it. I love the new platform. Go ahead. This is all structured out, gives everybody a chance to be participants and see what’s available and what they can do. 

Keila de Moreno: Exactly. Yeah, I do love it too, because number one, I think it’s safer for the students within the platform. Sometimes we do zoom because some of them sometimes, since we are still developing the platform, sometimes their browser or their students are not aligned with what’s required. But I know we’re getting there, we’re in that process. So I think it’s safer than just sharing a link out and I don’t know who will share this link with other people. So I know that if I join in the platform, the students join in the platform. No one else that’s not part of that space can join the meeting. So that’s something additional. 

David Cole: Have you noticed any challenges teaching through online or through Kubrio or anything? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, I think one of the challenges we face is that since this is not like when you join a school and it has a start date and end date, some parents just use it like, okay, I’m going to do it like a one month thing, or a three month thing or a six month thing. There is not like a consistency where they continue doing it, but I encourage them to do it at least for a year, so they can see what’s going to be the difference from when the student joined until the next year for being in the platform. How independent they will become, also self motivated. How to do things on their own, choosing things on their own. Because this is something that will also guide them to decision making. 

Keila de Moreno: It’s not like, okay, I’m going to do it because my mom told me to do it probably at the very beginning, but then they will go into that, okay, I want to do this, I want to do that. So they will be making decisions after. 

David Cole: Yeah, it’s very student centered and the student has to make a lot of decisions. We try to keep the students keeping their own schedules and things like that. It takes some time, but the kids get the hang of it. 

Keila de Moreno: I’ve noticed they develop a lot of responsibility. Because having to join meetings every single day for clubs, boot camps or pods on your own and at some point, nobody’s supervising you, it’s because you already became number one. You’re motivated. And second, you have became independent at some point, at least with that responsibility that you have of joining your learning experiences and meeting your learning. 

David Cole: And do you have any advice for teachers that are trying to teach or something like this and having to do it from different time zones or anything like that? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, to be honest, to be open, because we’ve been going through different processes, changes, and for example, there might be time zones where we have more students than others. And for example, if a teacher would like to apply for a learning experience, they. Can do it. We’re always looking for teachers or facilitators who want to teach something that’s unique. We’re looking for skills. You’re not looking for someone to teach regular subjects. No. You’re looking for skills that can empower the kids and where they can teach them something that they can learn that’s going to be an added value to their lives. That’s what we’re looking for. 

David Cole: It’s not just, let’s teach history, let’s teach horrible history. Let’s keep all this focused. History. Different areas. 

Keila de Moreno: That’s different. Nobody talks about that in a regular school. 

David Cole: No, they don’t. How does somebody who says, I’ve got a great idea, how do they contact Kubrio to try to get approved for doing some nanos or something? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, they only have to visit our website. If I’m not wrong, we have, like, a career option. And it’s like, let me look it up because I applied very long ago. 

David Cole·35:36It probably changed a bit in the last three years. 

Keila de Moreno: Let me screen share. We have a section that’s called eduTrepreneur because we technically are like these are like our micro tools. We do have a platform and everything, but technically sequence and we’re connected. But every learning coach have a different style of doing things. Now, for entrepreneurs, we have empower our learners or become an ambassador. They will have to click here on empower learners around the world. And then they will see what we do, learn the philosophy, and then here become a learning coach. Learn and apply or create on demand courses. In case they want to create a nano course, they can submit it. We want concise, creative and engagement courses and how much the course needs to be. As I said, this one is on demand, so you only apply once and then you create one course and you get paid for it. 

Keila de Moreno: So this is where they can apply to become a coach or create on demand courses. 

David Cole: Do you know is Kubrio currently hiring? Are they in an expansive phase? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, I think we might be needing other teachers to talk. We’re open to receive any application. Make sure that you’re offering something different. That’s my only pitch here. Make sure that your sales pitch is great and what you’re offering. 

David Cole: All right, excellent. Can you share your screen again to show us your pod, your area, so people can see how this looks and how this can be part of the school? 

Keila de Moreno: Okay. This is for pods. Here is where the parents can find the different pods that we have. These are the ones in America and these ones are in Europe and in Asia. So we have three in America, two in Europe and one in Asia. And if you come here, they will be able to see what the monthly rate for. There is a short video where I explain everything about and then they will see what time we need. Also, how long is the time of the meeting? Also, my pods are actually explorer pods because they explore many things a little bit about me, my resume, what I have as my background, what I study it and where I worked before, and what are the things that we usually use in the pods also to learn. So it’s very complete, very cool. 

David Cole: That’s excellent. 

Keila de Moreno: And they can also book a demo and they will be meeting with Vlad who is one of the founders of Kubrio. 

David Cole: Nice. All right, so that’s very complete. Thank you for sharing that. All right, thank you for your time today. Keila. It was very nice. I’m sure there’s going to be some questions out there. People did have some questions. Is there a way they can get a hold of you on social media or something like that if they had some questions? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, I can provide my email. My email is keila@kubrio.com. They can reach me out there and I’ll be more than glad to get back to them in case they have specific questions. 

David Cole: Sounds awesome. Well, thank you again very much. I’m sure people are going to appreciate this and it’s eye opening for a lot of things. It’s totally different than a lot of the educators have seen from some of these institutions out there. So definitely appreciate your time today. Do you have any parting advice for everybody? 

Keila de Moreno: Well, no, I think we’re good for today. 

David Cole: Awesome. All right, well thank you for your time and everybody have a great day. 

Keila de Moreno: You do the same and thank you everybody for watching this video. 

David Cole: All right, bye.