Honest Company

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

It’s Friday, June 12th, 2009 and welcome to episode 89 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. Today marks the end of an era in analog TV broadcasting. Today is the last day that NTSC analog television signals will be broadcasted in the United States. Please be sure to check on your less technically-adept friends and family this weekend to make sure that they can still receive the new digital TV signals that we are now solely reliant upon. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 For myself and some of my neighbors in this part of rural Illinois this transition already has impacted the choices of TV channels available. Back in February I helped my grandparents install a new national branded digital TV converter box that allowed them to watch a few local stations. After having this converter box for some time now my grandparents were not satisfied with it and stated that the old way was better. After quizzing them about what they were missing they stated that there were a few

It’s Monday, June 1st, 2009 and welcome to episode 88 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This week I would like to focus on a new project that the ITC is currently undertaking this summer involving netbooks. We have recently ordered two sets of netbooks to be placed in mobile carts that will be used to provide an on-demand computer lab type environment for our classrooms. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 This will provide an instant 1 to 1 computing solution for our students. The netbook carts will be placed in two different buildings to serve the needs of our faculty and students. We are very excited to add an additional building on campus that previously did not have this capability so that more of our students have an opportunity to utilize technology resources. Add in the fact that we saved over 70 percent that a full-sized laptop cart solution would have cost and our business managers are also smiling. When you can equip an entire classroom for 30 cents on