HiTech Podcast

Episode 105 begins a five episode series where we're taking on AI! This episode will set a lot of the tone and lay out the definitions needed to make it through this wacky, ever-evolving world we're in. What's an LLM? What is ChatGPT? Why do we hear all of these new terms and ideas? Tune in for AI 101. Then, Josh brings us Notion AI , his favorite tech assistant. For more on our conver...

Back with another interview! Josh and Will chat with Mark Begert of FabuLingua . This platform aims to revolutionize language learning in the elementary learning space, and hopefully beyond. Utilizing leading language acquisition theories, and real-life experience, Mark and Leslie Begert co-founded the FabuLingua after seeing the technique behind it revolutionize language learning for their childr...

Josh and Will love tech. We use it in almost everything we do. Tune in for some quick tips and general tomfoolery about your every day tools that could be better. Like, copying and pasting: did you know there's an even better way to do it? Tune in! Then, Josh offers up Atomic Jolt's tool Atomic Search for Canvas . It's pretty much installing Google directly into your Canvas instance. F...

Turn the temps up: time to roast! On the grill this time is Articulate, the premier provider of eLearning software. They have tools like Rise 360 and Storyline 360. After our roast, we offer up kanopy on a silver platter. This platform provides free movies to higher education institutions and libraries. It's a great tool to provide real cinema to your learners without any fees or legal concern...

Well, the title's the question: is higher education dying? We're post-pandemic, we're remote friendly, we're Zoom-crazed, and we're YouTube saturated. Do we need the traditional format? Do we need student loans? Bring the questions and the fire. Then, we talk about a new favorite of ours, Research Rabbit . This platform helps you perform deep and effective research into a topic...

Season 4 starts with a bang! In our first episode , we talked about Canva and how it works for education . To celebrate the podcast's milestone, we've returned to Canva and brought along a couple of new friends: Christie Thompson and Renee Dawson . We interview both of them to learn a little bit more about how Canva is being used in the classroom. We hope you enjoy the insights! For more o...

Here's what's coming in Season 4! AI and #ChatGPT, #Roastery episodes, new guests, new, new, new! Josh and Will have a special announcement for the future and growth of the pod. Blog posts and new connections with the Education Podcast Network. So much to see, hear, read, listen, do, experience, subscribe!

Will and Josh detail the Community of Inquiry and its impact on online and traditional education. The relationship between Cognitive, Teaching, and Social Presences helps us identify where we can build inquisitive community in our classrooms. Then we review Visme - the digital media studio. Create stunning media and access tons of excellent stock footage with their platform. For more on our conver...

What happens when you correlate arguments, logic, debate, reasoning, and the internet? An app to help train us in the process of reasoned debate: Arguflow . We talk to Nick at Arguflow to find out why we need an app like this (and we at HiTech certainly believe we do), and how we can use the Arguflow experience to improve our logic and reasoning. In a world that fights over the color of a dress, w...

This interviews find us with GK from Brain Racers , the fastest and funnest (yeah, I said it) learning tool for your classrooms. Pairing excellent music, challenging gameplay, and automated content production (thanks ChatGPT and similar language models), Brain Racers puts learners in a side-by-side race to see who can answer questions about the world around us. GK's motivation comes from a dee...

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...