This week on EdReach Show:  We can’t contain our excitement for the big Apple education announcement tomorrow, and in the wake of that, we speculate how an eTextbook could transform teaching and school districts. Also, there’s more Matt Damon news- because when Matt Damon speaks, we listen (There’s also the fact that he and his mom don’t like Teach for America.) A Great reading app shared by Scott, and of course, Blackout Wednesday.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show guest:  Scott Weidig 

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This week on EdReach Show:  We continue our new format as we introduce News Bits, thanks to our new Reddit account. It’s looking very likely like Apple will be talking about eTextbooks on January 19th- we explore what that means for us. Also, Greg shares his Texas-skewed ideas over the over-abundance of police arrests of students in that state. Our guest, William Chamberlain makes his EdReach debut and talks about #comments4kids, and great hashtag project for student bloggers.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors:  Greg Garner, and  William Chamberlain 

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This week on EdReach Show:  We start our focus on Ed Media as we broach the article on the NY Times concerning Idaho’s plan to de-fund teacher salaries to purchase laptops. Second, rumors have it that Apple is pushing more into the publishing realm, and may have something to announce about eTextbooks. Also- Jay gives his mini-review in our EdGadget segment about Sifteo Cubes, and of course, the One Thing I Share This Week. 

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors:   Scott Weidig, Greg Garner, Jay Blackman, and James O’Hagan. 

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This week on EdReach Show:  We turn off the agenda as we run up to the holiday/winter/Christmas/non-religious break. In our discussion of Youtube for Schools- Scott, Greg, and I share stories of kids trying to subvert our networks, and the wonderful games they play to get around blocked sites.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors:   Scott Weidig, Greg Garner

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This week on EdReach Show:  Is #Pencilchat the hashtag that gives education its due? Does it evolve or devolve?  Here we question whether this is the hashtag that gets those outside Twitter users interested (or even more confused). Also- If the Edublog Awards fall in a forest, will anyone hear?

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors:   Scott Weidig, Greg Garner
 

The complete show notes are now on the EdReach Wiki.

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This week on EdReach Show: EdReach Show reaches a milestone 40 episodes, and becomes the longest running show on EdReach! This show brings us some great news from Wired.com  about Creative Commons images, as well as the newest Pew data about teens and social network bullying. Oh- and too many tools and resources to number. A great show overall!

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors:   Scott Weidig, Greg Garner

The complete show notes are now on the EdReach Wiki.

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This week on EdReach Show: Riffing off of an Apple Insider article via a Google Plus share from Esther Wojcicki about how schools are soon going to have more iPads than desktops, we react the the age-old debate of whether the iPad is a consumption device or if it can be a production device. Also, a million Google product changes and how they effect educators.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors:   Scott Weidig,

The complete show notes are now on the EdReach Wiki.

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This week on EdReach: Finally some student loan relief for college graduates- or are we just kicking the can down the road? Also- let’s talk about 1 to 1 computing just one more time.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors:   Scott Weidig, Greg Garner, Katie Regan, James O’Hagan, and Todd Hinkie 

The complete show notes are now on the EdReach Wiki.

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This week on EdReach: The struggles with updating iPads, and the promises of a Google+ and Google Apps integration lead us to re-think the future of media and broadcasting.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors:   Scott Weidig

The complete show notes are now on the EdReach Wiki.

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This week on EdReach: We begin to uncover the true educational potential with Siri in IOS5, as well as reflect on Steve Jobs death, now that we are much more removed from the date of his passing. Also, we debate how he will and should be remembered. Finally, Vlingo, Splashtop.com/whiteboard, and some fantastic picture book apps as well in our One Thing to Share this Week.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors: James O’Hagan, Scott Weidig, and Greg Garner

The complete show notes are now on the EdReach Wiki.

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Thank you Steve for Thinking Different.

Tonight’s show was focused on remembering a true visionary: Steve Jobs. This special edition of the MacReach Show looks to honor a creative genius who changed the world as we know it. A very special thanks to Kelly Dumont,  Scott Meech, Kim Zimmer, Dan Rezac, Andy Losik, Mark Hammons, Greg Garner, and Scott Weidig for joining in to share how Steve impacted their lives.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them. Disagree with them. Glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” – Apple Ad Campaign

Show Host: Meg Wilson (@iPodsibiities)

Co-Hosts: Kelly Dumont (@KDumont), Scott Meech (@SMeech), Dan Rezac (@DRezac), Kim Zimmer (@MacTeacher), Mark Hammons (@MHammons), Greg Garner (@classroom_tech), Andy Losik (@MrLosik), and Scott Weidig (@VanishingPoint)

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View the complete show notes here on the EdReach MacReach Wiki to see all the links discussed in the show.

This week on EdReach: The benefits of having social media helpers in the classroom, why education in Finland is so much better than America, the Kindle Fire helps us saying goodbye to the old library, and should teachers go back to the new-and-improved Delicious.com?

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors: James O’Hagan and Greg Garner

The complete show notes are now on the EdReach Wiki.

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This week on EdReach: Picking apart Remind101.com, a purportedly new “Twitter” for teachers, making the case for ditching paper textbooks, and that pesky NY Times article creeps back again into another show.  This show really tried to answer the question: what happens when the fibre optic cable is fried at your school and you’re just about to record a podcast? Listen, and find out!

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors: Judi Epcke, Greg Garner, and Scott Weidig

The complete show notes are now on the EdReach Wiki.

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This week on EdReach: Gmail and Apps goes offline, the Kno Textbooks App goes postal with college students, and the ERIAL project goes blue on Google Search. Make sure to check out our One Thing to Share this Week – some great tools and apps in there!

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors: James O’Hagan, Jay Blackman

Special Guest: Greg Garner

The complete show notes are now on the EdReach Wiki.

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Well, how can we ignore the Steve Jobs news? We discuss the importance of Steve Jobs to education, as well as talk about Codecademy.com, and again- some wonderful Matt Damon/Arne Duncan news! Don’t forget our One Thing to Share this Week – some great tools and apps in there. Our guests this week include Jen Wagner, Judy Epcke, and Scott Weidig.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors: Judi Epcke, Scott Weidig

Special Guest: Jen Wagner from Projectsbyjen.com

The complete show notes are now on the EdReach Wiki.

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If you’d like to leave some feedback you can call us on our very own EdReach Comment line: That’s: (443) 93REACH.

Textbooks come to the Web in a big way (Kindle), NCLB explained for dummies, and  Arne Duncan says that states can have waivers for NCLB this year- with a catch. Make sure to listen to our One Thing to Share this Week – some great tools and apps in there (and one about nanobots). Our guests this week include Razor’s Ed host James O’Hagan and regular contributor Judi Epcke.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors: Judi Epcke, James O’Hagan

The complete show notes are now on the EdReach Wiki.

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If you’d like to leave some feedback you can call us on our very own EdReach Comment line: That’s: (443) 93REACH.

Blooms Taxonomy for Apps, Matt Damon, and the Social Network Police all make for interesting fodder for the EdReach Contributors this week. Make sure to listen to our One Thing to Share this Week – some great tools and apps in there. Our guests this week include Razor’s Ed host James O’Hagan and EdReach regular Scott Weidig.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors: Judi Epcke, Jay D. Blackman

Special Guests: Jim O’Hagan, Scott Weidig

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Welcome back the the EdReach Show! We’ve been off for a couple weeks, so we’re coming back stronger. We’ve actually been spending time researching some video streaming options, so hopefully we’ll have more to share on that soon. This week we catch up on the Atlanta cheating scandal, some Google Plus shares, and a controversy over one parent’s choice to shame their son into getting better grades.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show guests: Judi Epcke, and Jay D. Blackman

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ISTE has come and it has gone, but it was a grand time for all. Today’s show, besides, of course, talking about the possible education implications about Google Plus, we give our ISTE reflections, and pore through three segments of Chris Lehmann’s wonderful keynote. We were all taken aback at the powerful positive reaction following Chris’ speech, which, quite frankly doesn’t get much better. For ISTE, under such a microscope, educators have in the past tended to be quite critical, but we didn’t hear much on the negative side of this presentation. Great job, Chris! And here’s to a great education conference.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show guests: Judi Epcke, and Jay D. Blackman

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Exciting! Scott, Judi, and Jay all join me to talk about getting into the ISTE van, and heading to Philly this week for the ISTE Conference. The big story at ISTE definitely seems like it will be iPads and tablets. We discuss the controversy over the ISTE Keynote, which has always been a point of contention for some of the attendees of the conference. We talk about many of the awesome, innovative educators to keep an eye out for, such as (but definitely not limited to):

Kevin Honeycutt
Scott McLeod
Kathy Schrock
Joyce Valenza
Angela Meiers
Sylvia Martinez
Gary Stager
Steve Dembo
David Jakes

We’re very excited to be engaging with many of you- we hope we can learn something from you. See you there!

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show guests: Scott Meech, Judi Epcke, and Jay D. Blackman

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What is the Flipped Classroom? What is Khan Academy? Should we use these teaching tools and methods in our classrooms? EdReach is all about reaching out to innovative educators and highlighting the cutting-edge techniques that are being used in our schools throughout America and the world. This week I had the pleasure of speaking to John Burk, out of Atlanta, GA. John blogs at Quantam Progress, and has a lot of insight into the online curriculum known as Khan, and offers a primer for new teachers that are just discovering the subject of the Flipped Classroom. If you’ve ever been interested in hearing what the Flipped Classroom is all about and if it will work for your classroom, Mr. Burk has got a lot of ideas.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Special guest: John Burk

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This week’s show brings us more signs that Wikipedia is getting stronger and more relevant to today’s educators and higher educators. Also, we touch briefly on Apple’s iCloud, and the implications it has on schools using Apple products, as well as how it compares to Google Docs. Then we get introduced into an alternative to Khan Academy called Project Euler. What is Project Euler? We try and decipher that, along with a very tough math problem. Finally, we get into our Keynote of the week, and are introduced to educator Shawn Cornally who gives a fresh approach to motivation in the classroom.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors: Judi Epcke and Jay Blackman

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This week we summarize and add our two cents to the Bring Your Own Device conversation started by Judi Epcke and Scott Meech, and highlight some of the interesting comments that came up during those posts. To add on to that, we bring in our new segment, Keynote Review, and discuss how Chris Lehmann’s thoughts from last year’s TEDxNY keynote on a student centered learning environment comment on the BYOD discussion. We ask some really thoughtful questions like: is forcing a 1 to 1 environment on students- student centered or teacher centered? Finally, of course, there’s some great On the Radar tools to check out! Thanks for a great discussion!

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors: Judi Epcke and Jay Blackman

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This week brings us the debate over whether the “freemium” model of pricing Web 2.o tools and platforms is fair and reasonable. Also, with the recent tornadoes, we share a few teaching strategies and ideas for using that as a teachable moment. Additionally, we respond to Jennifer- from Glogster EDU’s reaction to our EdRoundtable post: Have you read the morning Glog? from last week. She offers some insights to Glogster’s strategy as a new media platform, and we discuss Glogster’s role in education as a growing company. Finally some great On the Radar (Jay’s app prototype tool really takes the cake).

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors: Judi Epcke and Jay Blackman

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This week’s theme has us a little concerned over the EETT funding- possibly being cut from some new legislation being introduced in the House of Representatives. Jay Blackman offers some great insight into how his district has benefitted greatly from EETT, and what it would mean for many schools without those funds. We also delve into Scott Weidig’s research into doctors using iPads, and have some very interesting On the Radar tools as well.

Show Host: Daniel Rezac

Show contributors: Judi Epcke and Jay Blackman

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That’s one giant leap for the cloud.  Today the Chromebook was released, and though I was all ready to call it the second coming, my thoughtful contributors were ready to talk me down off of that pedestal, once we started to piece together the entire puzzle.

What are some of our favorite tools that have died, or joined the dead pool?

To start things off with our EdReach News Nuggets:

We discuss the glorious news of Delicious being saved, and that the world’s last typewriter factory was shut down. As always we’re interested in how these stories affect education.

News Watch:

The big news story this week is entitled This Tech Bubble is Different, from BusinessWeek.com. We’re curious as to how this new tech bubble is going to affect education- or if education may get completely ignored. We have a great discussion about the struggles educators may be facing in this economy, and if educational innovation may be suffering because of it.

Blog Watch:

We continue the Tech Boom talk with an older post from Sylvia Martinez with her prediction (now two years old) about how education would be affected by the poor economy. She really nailed it two years ago.  Also, we discover an interesting post on why rote memorization is still good for you. You can guess how we react to that.

Twitter Talk:

This week I found an interesting possible education tool called Bo.lt. Once it comes out of beta, we’ll get chance to implement it in the classroom. Looks like it has a lot of possibilities.

On the Radar:

This weeks On the Radar brings a bunch of new things:

How do we approach teachers with Free and Open Source Software  (FOSS) from a professional development standpoint?

News Watch:

This show is inspired by the news that OpenOffice was no longer being supported by Oracle. Lots of schools dumped Microsoft Word for this free version, so how would that impact education? Phil shares his insights and talks about the free alternatives.

Blog Watch

There’s been a lot of talk about using netbooks in schools and we zero in on Jim Klein’s blog, which is a great resource for FOSS ideas.

Twitter Talk

News Watch:

We take our first headline from Mashable: RIP Flip, and discuss the effect that the loss of the Flip will have on educators. Jay says to move on. Judi says there are iPod Touches.  Dan eulogizes the Flip.

Blog Watch:

EdWeek’s Liana Heltin ponders the loss educators feel, but helps us decide on five Flip alternatives for the classroom, thanks to Mediabistro.com. We build on this.

Twitter Talk:

Tons of eulogizing of Flip over at search.twitter.com (keywords: educator, flip) , you’d think this was an Irish Wake.

Finally, some great new resources and Ed Gadgets in On the Radar:

News Watch:

This week we look into the problem of student texting, and its impact on their livelihood, sleep, and productivity. We draw inspiration from this Boston.com article: Connected, Exhausted

Blog Watch:

In blog watch we try something different this week- Jay, Judi, Meg, and I all list our favorite blogs that deal with mobiles in the classroom.

News Watch:

Earlier in the week, I interviewed Dr. Roxana Marachi of San Jose State University, to try to get a picture of the mindset of a student going through this type of stress, and I share her thoughts here.

Also, we explore Chicago’s new Quest School,  and we look into Skype for the Classroom.

Blog Watch:

This week we dive into the NYTimes OpEd piece: Let the Kids Rule the School, a great piece by Susan Engel.

Twitter Talk:

Some good Twitter educators to follow this week:

Make sure to follow Dr. Marachi – it’s always a good idea to follow knowledgeable people in their respective fields. @roxcana

Also, Mr. Meech recommends the always dependable Darren Draper: @ddraper

That does it for this show! Thanks again!

What is NextVista.org?

This week’s On The Radar Tools:

*Lots of talk about Google, Docs, and Education: Should we not trust Google?

*Huffington Posts’ Education section suddenly gets harder to find.

* We talk about Dan Pink’s recent post about giving teachers bonuses as an incentive to improve student achievement.

* Interesting trend with higher ed link-baiting Websites handing out Top 100 Educator Blog badges. Thanks to DY/Dan for pointing our the hypocrisy of this issue.

* Twitter Talk highlights the Michigan educators that are on Twitter, and the #MACUL hashtag because of the Michigan Association of Computer Using Learners. Make sure to check out John Sowash @jrsowash, Liz Kolb @lkolb, Cheryl Lykowski @CLykowski, and Ira Socol @irasocol.

*What’s On the Radar today:

• www.greplin.com : A unique search tool that searches your own stuff from Facebook, Twitter, and other services.

Why is there such vitriol surrounding the Interactive White Board?

We take a look at the alternative to buying the iPad 2. In this case, we take on Jim Klein’s and Ben Grey’s ideas from Twitter about rooting the Barnes and Noble Nook device for classroom consumption. Interesting!

Also- the Gates Foundation is putting listening devices in teachers ears, and the Khan Academy is at the TED Conference.

In Blog Watch, Jen Wagner’s post about PLNs draws some remarks from us and Jon Becker.

In Twitter Talk, the debate about iPads vs. Netbooks again comes up, thanks to Dean Shareski’s thoughtful post.

Finally, Judi and the gang give us their On the Radar suggestions and advice in regards to Sweetsearch and Easybib Notebook.

We have some great reflections about the Illinois Computing Educators’ Conference, and Rushton Hurley’s nice contribution to that.

It was also very hard to resist talking about the iPad 2 today, as the lust for the next generation of the device definitely had Mr. Meech, our new Apple Distinguished Educator, very excited.

Mr. Gary Stager has delighted us with another Interactive White Board controversy.

In Twitter talk, we follow the fascinating hashtags like #witeachers and #wiunions and see the divisiveness that’s happening in Wisconsin.

Finally, check out Myfav.es for a great new angle on creating a Start Page for your school.

(BTW- lots of background kitchen noise in this episode: water pouring, food cutting- it’s the most interactive episode yet!)

Here is this week’s show notes: http://www.diigo.com/user/drezac/edreach11

Wow! What a great show, made so much better by the presence of Jen Wagner. With Judi Epcke out this week, Jen graced us with some great insights on Twitter #hashtags, and shared a great new blog, Miss Night Mutter.

We start off by disagreeing over whether this high school in Illinois was really the first high school to actually get an iPhone App. Kahn Academy finds yet another avenue to deliver its videos to students, and high school student Allie Kauffman, finds a unique way to get the attention of Wake Forest University.

In Twitter talk, we focus on all of the awesome tweets coming from the #peteandc , #metc_CSD, and #tcea2011 conferences that are happening all this week.

On the Radar tools this week:

The Evernote/ Idea Paint tool.

Delicious alternative http://www.linkable.com/

Jen also share this great TED talk from Melinda Gates.

Thanks again group for a wonderful show!

Correction: Kahn Academy received only $2 million as part of a $10 million initiative by Google, for the record.

Should districts do more to educate teachers on social networking privacy and policy issues?

See what the panel has to say!

Blog Watch:

We focus on Kristina Dell’s thoughtful and brilliant post in the Daily Beast on the negative effects from the trend to hold your student back from entering kindergarten. If everyone does it- where’s the advantage?

Finally we end on Twitter talk and hand out some of our favorite educators to follow, such as @karlfisch, @riptidef, @larryferlazzo, and @kernkelley . Of course, we explain all of our reasons for doing so.

Last, but not least our the On the Radar tools, like Curatr and the Google Art Project! Check them out, and enjoy the show!

It’s all about ideas.

What we gain from hearing about the EduCon conference, is Jon’s enthusiasm for the ideas that were shared there. While many folks go to conferences looking for tools, tools, tools, Jon emphasizes that EduCon is all about ideas. That’s a radically different focus from many, more mainstream education conferences.

Does EduCon have a PR problem?

One of the topics we cover with Jon is the fact that EduCon is not really talked about much in the MSM outlets. Jon offers his insights as to why that may be, plus names drops some of the best educators to follow on Twitter. We explore Liz B. Davis’ post about the let down educators feel about why things aren’t changing fast enough. This discussion also helps us frame whether EduCon can be used as a catalyst for change, as asked by Jon Becker. I think the answer is surprising, but truthful. Enjoy the thoughts, and thanks for all the great #educon reflections that were shared on Twitter.

This week’s show has us wondering what our real Sputnik moment is. We go over President Obama’s State of the Union speech, dive into the bits and pieces of Race to the Top, and decide whether test taking helps learning.

Also, the vitriol that was seen on Twitter during the SOTU has us questioning Twitter’s use as a constructive place to host controversial conversations.

Finally, eat up some nice new tools from the Chrome Web Store!