HiTech Podcast

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...

We start off the Robin S. Jeffers Learning Taxonomy Series by investigating Bloom's Taxonomy. This foray starts with a few definitions and quickly devolves into our full list of pros and cons. Bloom's is the education standard, and yet there is so much to consider. We introduce a tool called Untools . The irony of Untools is that it provides a tools that help you think and design with handouts and...

Josh and Will wrap the series up solo as they review several LinkedIn Learning courses. Their insights pull from years of experience taking these courses and how they match up against some of the best learning theories. Then, they share a tool called Soundtrap which is designed for all things audio creation and modification. Create songs or podcasts in this full recording platform. The free versio...

Our Learning Designers React series continues with Susannah Simmons joining us to debrief several assignment prompts. This conversation feels like many Josh and Will have had before around the lunch table. We productively critique the structures we commonly see in online courses and hope to encourage folks on ways to improve their assignments with simple practices. Finally, Susannah leaves us with...

Our Learning Designers React series starts off with Will, Josh, and their friend Lynée reacting to this video : a Wendy's cold drinks training video. Listen in for our take on what's good, bad, and maybe somewhat ugly about this video. Definitely suggest giving a listen before the episode or even during it. Lynée leaves us with some of her recommendations in the project management world for an app...

Robin joins us again to talk learning taxonomies: Bloom's, Fink's, Webb's and more! If you're unfamiliar or just like nerding out as much as we do, listen in for the start to our Robin S. Jeffers Series on Learning Taxonomies . More to come soon. Then, Robin shares Dotstorming with us. Dotstorming is an app that crosses functionality of the modern digital whiteboarding space with tools like Padlet...

What is college good for? We open up the conversation on whether college and academia should be for learning or workforce development. The implications are vast, and our opinions are fit to match. Then, our app is a worldwide favorite platform: LinkedIn . We suggest that this might be the best portfolio app that's ever been made. For more on our conversation, check out the episode page here . For...

More house metaphors in this episode - what can we say? We like metaphors! Join us as we learn what about accessibility, why it's important, and the simple steps you can take to improve the accessibility in your courses. This issue is near and dear to both of our hearts: we hope this conversation brings it closer to yours. Our tool this week can help you do just that. Equatio is a digital math too...

Metaphors galore in this episode: we talk about designing content for your students in an affective and clear method. User Experience in a virtual learning environment is much like building a house or giving someone instructions to the grocery store. Tune in to hear how we break it down. Pick up our app this week, Microsoft Office Lens , to get scanning the physical world into your OneDrive. ...

Many elements of the physical classroom translate to the virtual learning environment: but does absence? Can a student be tardy to an online class? Do three missed forums equal an absence? Join us for this wrestling match where we determine what this classroom management method (absences) means in the virtual learning world. For more on our conversation, check out the episode page here . For...

Some strong opinions and hot takes in bound! Josh and Will sink their teeth into the conversation on plagiarism, cheating, and dishonesty. How should we approach this issue? What's the goal for our students? Then we open up a conversation on Turnitin like no other app before it. Will you agree? For more on our conversation, check out the episode page here . For all of our episodes and resources fo...

Continuing the conversation on the LMS. Josh and Will have worked in this field for quite some time, so it's no surprise that their pros and cons list needed a second episode. After our convo, we open up some madness with a deep dive into the Miroverse-- or rather, all things Miro . This tool has been a team favorite for quite some time, so we're thrilled to finally give it a full episode. For mor...

Will makes his best effort to put his tinfoil hat away, but Josh eggs him on. Is anything new? We talk about the impact of the LMS on higher education with all of the data it contains. How do we use this data for pedagogy and not for policing? Our app for the day is Mentimeter : an app for live-classroom engagement or for asynchronous online content. For more on our conversation, check out the epi...

Josh and Will (and their surprise cohost?!) start a conversation off on cognitive dissonance. This topic proves a little fuzzy for them to agree on, but they work through the ideas that might impact your classroom experiences. After, that they gather around for a conversation on... Around . Around is a new video conferencing tool that focuses on the mood and experience of a virtual call. Most impo...

This week we chat with Robin Jeffers, one of Josh's colleagues, about Instructional Design: what is it, why, who, what, and all of the fun info. Robin's newer to the field, so it's a refreshing perspective of someone who transitioned from K-12 instruction to the Higher Education Instructional Design world. Then, she leaves us with some info on the wonderful Gimkit (Gim pronounced like Gimli not gy...

We start a long conversation on a short topic: micro learning! It's a trendy topic and we all engage with it at some level in our lives these days. So, how can we do it better? What's the benefit to this over traditional methods? Tune in for our thoughts and the introduction of a tool to get this job done. EdApp is a learning management system for mobile and micro learning. For more on our convers...