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 ...

It’s Sunday, May 24th, 2009 and welcome to episode 87 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. Last week I talked a little bit about the power of real-time events for learning and how current events can add value in the classroom. I gave an overview of the website called spacevidcast and how they were using Twitter to add value to their followers. Since that time I have been following Astro_Mike on Twitter who is in real-life NASA Astronaut Mike Massimino, a mission specialist that was aboard the recent STS-125 Space Shuttle Atlantis that just completed a successful mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 Following Astro_Mike has given me a different perspective than I would have had otherwise regarding the latest Space Shuttle mission. Here is one of Astro_Mike’s tweets from the mission “From orbit: We see 16 sunrises and sunsets in 24 hrs, each one spectacular as the sun lights up the atmosphere in a spectrum of colors” http://...

It’s Saturday, May 16th, 2009 and welcome to episode 86 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. It is the week after final exams here at Eastern Illinois University but things have not slowed down a bit at the ITC. I was intending to get this podcast out earlier this week but we have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work to be done. End of the semester duties including final grading as well as preparations for the beginning of the new summer semester have kept us all very busy this week. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 Throw in some recent new technology purchases, end of year budget balancing, and the verification of inventories and we have more than enough work to keep us very busy over the entire summer. We have a lot of exciting things happening this summer at the ITC and I will share what we are doing as we rollout several new projects so stay tuned to TechTalk4Teachers for more. Semester schedules are now compressed and one semester flows to the next wi...

It’s Friday, May 8th, 2009 and welcome to episode 85 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. It is final exam week here at Eastern Illinois University and I am just now getting to this weeks podcast episode. This time of year is extremely hectic for teachers as we rush to get everything completed before time runs out on another semester. There have been a couple of blockbuster stories this week and I would like to highlight some very significant developments that have occurred this week related to technology and education. To listen click on the Play button > Download MP3 First, the Windows 7 Release Candidate became available for general public download on Tuesday of this week. I was able to get this download early in the morning on Tuesday before Microsoft’s servers slowed down because of the massive amount of downloads anticipated. I have installed the release candidate on four older Dell computers and my eee PC netbook with very few problems. Microsoft has said that the release c...