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It’s Friday November 13th, 2009 and welcome to episode 102 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This week we have a special guest, Dr. James Harden, talks about the recent Diversity Conference held here at Eastern Illinois University. Right Click Here to Download MP3 (19 minutes 35 seconds) In the world of ed tech this week Amazon released the Kindle for the PC Beta ebook software. I have downloaded and installed Kindle for PC on a laptop computer. The whole process took less than two minutes and once I logged in to my Amazon account I was able to see all the books I had purchased in the Archive section of the software and was able to download them locally to the laptop. The Kindle for the PC interface is very simple and clean. This is beta software so there will be additional changes in the future but it is currently very functional and gives me another option of reading previously purchased content. I really do believe this event is a tipping point for ebook readers because now an...

It’s Friday, October 30th, 2009 and welcome to episode 101 of TechTalk4Teachers! In this episode: Podcasting with 3rd Graders, an interview with Mrs. Judy Barford, Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle Level Education Department at Eastern Illinois University Right Click Here to Download MP3 Show notes for Episode 101: In this episode: Podcasting with 3rd Graders, an interview with Mrs. Judy Barford, Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle Level Education Department at Eastern Illinois University Project WOW http://www.eiu.edu/~wow/ Technology Pick of the Week My Technology Pick of the Week this week is the Audacity software for recording and editing podcasts and other audio files. Below are some links to get you started quickly with podcasting using the FREE Audacity software. Audacity Software Download Site (Source Forge) http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ LAME MP3 Encoder - (required to save files to the MP3 format) http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&it...

It’s Friday, October 30th, 2009 and welcome to episode 101 of TechTalk4Teachers! In this episode: Podcasting with 3rd Graders, an interview with Mrs. Judy Barford, Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle Level Education Department at Eastern Illinois University Right Click Here to Download MP3 Show notes for Episode 100: Leo LaPorte’s Comment – Podcasting is Dead http://onlinedesignbureau.com/blog/116-social-media-marketing/498-leo-laporte-declares-podcasting-dead You can fast forward in the video embedded at this website to the 16 minute and 30 second mark to go directly to the “Podcasting is Dead” comments Leo made at the Online Media Association conference on October 4, 2009. No More Podcast in The New Media Expo – 2007 Podcasting is Dead Comment http://mwgblog.com/archives/2007/10/01/no-more-podcast-in-the-new-media-expo/ Also in this episode are the comments from three grad students regarding a recent podcasting assignment where the students gave their thoughts about listening t...

Right Click Here to Download MP3 It’s Friday, September 25th, 2009 and welcome to episode 99 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. We have finally made it to 99 episodes and with only one more show go to reach triple digits. Reaching 100 shows was one my goals when I first started this podcast and if feels good to be so close. Back in the day when podcasting was THE “hot topic” for educators it was rare for a podcast series to last 20 episodes, many shows started and then quickly “podfaded” as time went on. Podcasting has succumbed to the cycle of technological innovation from being the next big thing to just another tool in the quiver of learning technologies available for teachers and students. It remains however an important tool that has much potential for teachers and students as an instructional tool and to also share their stories with the world. Reaching 99 episodes of course could not have happened without your support and I would like to thank each and everyone of you wh...

Right Click Here to Download MP3 It’s Sunday, September 20th, 2009 and welcome to episode 98 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This past week was our annual technology fair here at EIU and the Instructional Technology Center had a booth at this years event to share some of the many innovations that we have been working on in the College of Education and Professional Studies. There was a lot of interest in our netbook project and also in what we call our eeeasaurus classroom presentation system. The netbook project is going very well in our college and we shared what we have been doing with these very affordable alternatives to traditional laptops. Netbooks are miniature laptops that typically cost between three and four-hundred dollars that offer a viable solution for use by our students in the classroom when lessons require technology integration. Last year we needed to replace one of our mobile laptop carts and after much research and testing we elected to replace them with a ...

It’s Friday, September 11th, 2009 and welcome to episode 97 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. On the last episode of TechTalk4Teachers I discussed how we are increasingly seeing stories in the news related to the warning signs regarding Web 2.0 services. Over the past couple of weeks there have been a couple more high-profile cases that give some credence to the dangers of relying solely upon Web 2.0 services in the cloud. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 Cloud computing is the general term used where companies host their services on servers connected to the Internet and customers use the Internet to gain access to them. Many Web 2.0 services are free and therefore appeal to educators. As long as the servers are in good working condition and as long as customers have a good connection to the Internet everything works fine. The problems typically come when you do not have access to the Internet and therefore cannot use any Web 2.0 service. Another common proble...

It’s Friday, August 28th, 2009 and welcome to episode 96 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. It is now officially the first week of fall semester classes and we have met all the deadlines for having the technology infrastructure in place for a successful start to the school year. This summer has been particularly busy with a large number of new faculty and staff computers as well as the new netbook project we are implementing this fall. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 It is always interesting getting ready for the first day of school as there is literally a tidal wave of faculty, staff, and students that show up all at once ready to hit the ground running. We survived the first week of school and can breathe a sigh of relief as all the hard work over the summer has paid off with a smooth launch to the school year. We are still in orientation mode as there have been many meetings this week and I will be meeting with several departments to give updates and provid...

It’s Monday, August 17th, 2009 and welcome to episode 95 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. We are fast approaching the first day of fall semester classes and there still remains much to do in schools all across America. Technology support staff are making that final push toward the first day of school. Many schools have already started, at EIU our official first day back to school is now one week away, we begin on August 24th. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 Summertime is a time when technological equipment gets updated with the installation of new purchases and is also a time for installing program patches and upgrading programs to the latest versions. In addition, there are often many moves that occur as faculty and staff change offices and computer labs are deconstructed for waxing of floors and then reconstructed again. All of this takes time and effort and before we know it it is again time for the first day of school. The ITC has been very busy this sum...

It’s Friday, July 31st, 2009 and welcome to episode 94 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. It is the last day of July and you know what that means. Tomorrow marks the beginning of August and that means that the first day of school cannot be far away. For those of us in the northern hemisphere and particularly the United States many of us will be heading back to school for that first day of the fall term in August. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 Please remember that many staff, particularly technology staff, never left. Summer-time is a time for upgrading machines and systems during the so-called slow time of summer. This cycle has gradually been compressed over the years so that there really is no slow time for support personnel anymore. It is also becoming more common for teachers to work throughout the summer as there are many summer school programs across the US. Upgrading T-1, DS-3, and other network connections is becoming a necessity for schools across t...

It’s Monday, July 20th, 2009 and welcome to episode 93 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. Today is the 40th Anniversary of man landing and walking on the Moon. I have provided some links in the show notes related to this anniversary and its importance to the United States and the world. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 I grew up in the 1960’s and 1970’s and remember the Space race well. It had a profound impact on me. One of the iconic images I have is the TV shot of the Saturn V rocket clearing the tower. I remember seeing the big red U S A letters streaming vertically upward reaching for the stars as the rocket lifted-off. I also remember watching live TV coverage of that first step that Neil Armstrong took for all of mankind 40 years ago today. NASA at 50 http://discoveryeducation.com/NasaAt50/ The Space race is also probably one of the reasons I ended up in the teaching profession and definitely why I pursued a science degree. It was as though America prope...

It’s Friday, July 10th, 2009 and welcome to episode 92 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. I am back from the National Educational Computing Conference held last week and I am trying to find my “techlegs” and get caught up with work that was left undone while attending this conference. I heard estimates of over 18,000 people attending NECC this year, by the size of the crowds in Washington DC this was probably not far off. Despite the workload piling up back home, this conference was certainly worth the trip. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 Record attendance at NECC 2009 http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=23923 For those of us that are relied upon as frontline technology support taking time away from work is difficult to schedule and we tend to pay for this time away with a full in-box and stacks of to-do’s that were neglected when we were away. Despite this cost getting away to conferences such as NECC is very valu...

It’s Friday, June 26th, 2009 and welcome to episode 91 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This weeks episode is a short one as I am in the process of heading out to the National Educational Computing Conference in Washington, DC better known as NECC that will be taking place next week. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 NECC is one of those conferences that I try to make it to at least every other year as it is focused on educational technology at the K-12 level. Since EIU is a teacher preparation institution this conference allows me the chance to connect with others from all around the world in person and share our experiences with one another. The conference has a huge vendor area as well as a large number of sessions provided by practicing K-12 teachers. If you would like to experience some of the conference with me and other attendees you can follow me on my Twitter account, twitter.com/tomgrissom , you can also search for the #NECC09 hash tag as many people ...

It’s Friday, June 19th, 2009 and welcome to episode 90 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This week the world has witnessed the ongoing struggles of Iranian citizens as they work through the aftermath of their recent election. What is interesting is that Twitter has become a new News source and its users have actually mocked traditional media and chided the old media for not covering what was happening in Iran immediately after the Iranian election this past week. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 I first became aware of this by noticing a tag in Twitter named #CNNfail last Saturday night as it was becoming a trending topic in Twitter. Many people on Twitter that night wanted to see live coverage of the aftermath of the Iranian election and expressed their displeasure with CNN for not broadcasting live coverage by using the #CNNfail tag. CNN instead was broadcasting re-runs, and in the opinion of many on Twitter, were not covering an international event of intere...