HiTech Podcast

Josh and Will played a game called Hot Takes, and it spawned a podcast episode. The question came up about social media and its impact on interpersonal communication skills. We take this entire episode to play the idea out and see just what we think. After a bit of waxing poetic, we chat about Slack and how it can serve the purpose of teaching with social media without it being so social. For more...

We wrap up the ungrading series with a new beginning. Where do you start with ungrading? Listen in for a few easy ways to start small while aiming big! We leave you with a great tool for creating learning assets and feedback loops for your students: Explain Everything . For more on our conversation, check out the episode page here . Head over to our website at hitechpod.us for all of our episode p...

Dr. Timothy Shea joins us for episode 4 in the ungrading series to discuss HOW we even assess ungrading. Isn't the point not to assess? Wrong. Assessment and feedback are key to learning, but numerical/alphabetical grades are not. Listen in for how Dr. Shea has been doing this for decades! He also leaves us with an oldie but a goodie: Twitter for Education. He still uses Twitter for his profes...

The series continues with an informational how-to: setting up ungrading in an LMS! Now, this is not a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough for every LMS. This  is more of a general guideline for what it takes to do ungrading in an LMS. There are a lot of settings that can get in the way, so tune in to get a sense for what you need to watch for when doing ungrading in your course. We also leave...

Long-standing friend of the podcast, Dr. Justin Harbin, returns to help us establish the rationale for ungrading. What's its purpose? Is it "good?" Should we be doing it or is it a fad? Answer all of these questions and more when you tune into episode 92. And then, Justin leaves us with an excellent tool called Research Rabbit . This tool can help automate the discovery of new materials, making li...

Starting a new series on Ungrading! Hear our two cents on the subject and join us for the series where we'll have some folks speaking to how they've used it in their classrooms. AND, we are excited to discuss Frame.io : a collaborative video critique software. Upload your video, send your link out, and start annotating the video! It's pretty dang awesome. For more on our conversation, check out th...

We're joined by Dr. Charles Illingworth (Will's big brother) to talk about how in the heck they managed to continue teaching acupuncture during the pandemic. Join us for a few laughs, some awesome stories (stay tuned for Moonlighting as a Photobooth Operator), and insights into a fascinating field of study. Dr. Illingworth leaves us with A Manual of Acupuncture as an example of apps that meet the...

We are joined by Justin Phillips , Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at Pennsylvania College of Art and Design . Justin and Will met over a bagel, and the rest was history! Listen to Justin's story about pivoting into the pandemic and learning tremendous lessons about how to reach students across barriers: whether they're technological or learning interferences. He leaves us with the wonderful to...

Part 2 on motivation! What does it take to design motivational elements into your curriculum or an activity? We think there are a few key pieces to consider and reflect on some examples of how to get this done. Then, we jump into Sutori and how it can work for building timelines and visual presentations. For more on our conversation, check out the episode page here . For all of our episodes and re...

Part one of a two part conversation on motivation. This episode focuses on underlying motivation theories as well as the relationship between motivation and emotions. We hope you find it motivating. After that, we investigate Asana and its power as a project management tool. There are tons of applications for education: how do you use it? For more on our conversation, check out the episode page he...

That's right, folks! We're tackling the hot topic of OpenAI's ChatGPT . What is a chat bot? Are these things new? Why does everyone care so much? We answer these questions and more as we reminisce about SmarterChild , address the issue of plagiarism, and hope for a better world. And then, we dig into Diigo , the educationally-centered bookmarking and organization tool. This app will bring your cla...

Casey returns for a fun conversation about the next stage in her journey: teaching! We've followed her from her master's degree in non-profit leadership to her becoming a secondary education theater and speech teacher for a private school. Find out what she wishes she knew before she got into all of this. For more on our conversation, check out the episode page here . For all of our episodes and r...

Season 3 kicks off with a philosophical chat on technology. Why do we use it? How should we use it? Is it good for learning? Lots of fun. Then, we end the episode out with a chat on Code.org . This platform is built to help people learn how to code. It has instructional resources and a system for learners to get going by themselves. For more on our conversation, check out the episode page here . F...

Welcome to the new view of the HiTech Podcast! We're on the audio- and video-waves. Tune in to season three for more #hitechhijinx!

Join us as we close out season two! In this episode, we tackle the age-old (well, most recently old aged) issue of phones in the classroom. Should we keep them? What's their purpose? How do we do it if if we do it? Were cell phones easier than today's smart phones? After the conversation, Josh offers up Snipd as a podcasting tool du jour. It will clip and save anything from your favorite podcasts...

This week we put big publishers on the burner. Things get a little heated as we let'm have it. Yes, they have their redeeming elements, but big publishers have pushed Will and Josh's buttons one too many times. After the roast, we talk about Topia , an interactive video communication platform. For more on our conversation, check out the episode page here . For all of our episodes and resources for...

We are excited to share our interview with Stevie Frank for this week's investigation into HiTech. Stevie is a new friend from Twitter who offers up some insights on how she got into her role and how she imagines teaching will develop because of EdTech! She also suggests that our listeners check out Microsoft OneNote .  OneNote is a powerful tool for Microsoft institutions and it can truly re...

Will and Josh take on tutoring! What's its purpose in education and how do we cultivate it online learning. We think this will be the start of a series. After that, we offer up Readwise : the app for amalgamating all of your knowledge! For more on our conversation, check out the episode page here . For all of our episodes and resources for each app we discuss, head over to our website at hitechpod...

Welcome to The Roastery: a place where we load up a topic and roast it! That's right, the usual niceties are put to the side, and we open up some real opinions on everyday education topics. For the first episode, we tackle a tool that Josh and Will use every day: learning management systems. After our roast, we offer up Screencast-o-matic as a tool for educators to consider. Screenshots and clips...

Let's make it! No, this is not an episode of Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman's " Making It " (though I do recommend watching that). However, we take on the conversation around Maker Spaces and the practice of "making" for education. We hope that these ideas might inspire you and your classroom to find things to make. Also, check out Steam Head : a community and resource for making! There are so many...

Josh and Will beg the question, "does every lesson need an assessment?" If you're nodding along, excellent, join us. If you're like, "wait, what?", then we hope you'll tune in to hear how this debate plays out. This week, we bring you two apps from our Honorable Mentions category: Free Online OCR and ImageAltBot . These apps focus on accessibility, so check them out, and see how they can help you...

We conclude the Robin S. Jeffers Learning Taxonomy Series by doing a panel conversation with Robin. S Jeffers herself and Dr. Justin Harbin ! This longer conversation delves deep into the taxonomy and its application in the classroom. Join us for a few laughs, a lot of info, and no crap to be had! Lastly, Robin leaves us with fan.school , a learning tool designed to get students into current event...

Four for more! We get into our last solo conversation in the Robin S. Jeffers Learning Taxonomy Series. Kirkpatrick's Taxonomy is simple and straightforward but that doesn't mean that Josh and Will can't extend the conversation. What are your reactions to it? Then we break the fourth wall to talk about our favorite podcasting tool: Zencastr . This product nails the virtual podcasting experien...

Episode three in the Robin S. Jeffers Learning Taxonomy Series brings us Webb's Depths of Knowledge. The DOK taxonomy provides us some useful insights to complement Bloom's. We might be in too deep (ha!), but we're enjoying pulling these apart. After that, we open up Zotero as another research / resource management tool. Zotero compares to Mendeley pretty well, but offers up its unique featur...

Episode two in the Robin S. Jeffers Learning Taxonomy Series (it's just a joke folks: this is not a memorial plaque) takes us to Robert Gagné's 9 Events of Instruction and his general learning taxonomy. Settle in for a fun conversation on how learning relates to science and how learning science relates to humans. After that, we introduce the tool Remind which will help you and your students commun...