Gordon And Mike's ICT Podcast
Perspectives on Technology and Education from Gordon F. Snyder, Jr. & Mike Qaissaunee
Mike and Gordon discuss the Barnes and Noble Nook and compare it to the Amazon Kindle.
Direct download: B_N_Nook.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:01pm EDT

Intro: Twitter has become a household word for many of us - just like Google , YouTube , MySpace and Facebook (among others) have in the past. Chris Brogan (in this video) even calls Twitter his "central nervous system". We first podcast on Twitter almost two years ago. In this podcast we take an updated look at Twitter.

Two years is a long time ago it seems. Probably one of the biggest things in my arsenal is my iPhone today. Two years ago the iPhone did not exist. What's changed in two years with Twitter?

What are some of your favorite apps?

What's up with all this Twitter following - how should we be handling?

I've been hearing the term "jump the shark" recently when some discuss Twitter. What does that mean?

I notice a lot of business people using Twitter, maybe it has jumped the shark. What are they doing? How are business people using it?

So, lots of people seem to be giving Twitter a try but how do we know who has actually drank the kool-aid and has become a daily Twitter user?

Before we talk about numbers, The Influential Marketing Blog has put together something called the 5 stages of Twitter Acceptance.


We talk a lot about impact when it comes to grants - can you explain what that means?

So, what's the interest in things like Twitter?

What are some Twitter measurement tools?

We've come across a couple of tools that attempt to measureTwitter - a web-based application called Twitter Grader and another called Twinfluence .

Twitter Grader is interesting but there is not a lot of detail. Can you discuss Twinfluence?

Didn't Twinfluence at one time try to measure efficiency?

So, Twinfluence attempts to measure more things. How does it compare to Twitter Grader?

What about spam?

So, what did this guy do?

How do metrics applications handle these spammers?

What can be done to prevent Twitter manipulation?

Are there any other Twitter based applications we should be looking at?

We should see applications like these improve?

So, has Twitter jumped the shark yet?
Direct download: Twitter_Update_FINAL.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:53am EDT

At the National Science Foundation sponsored Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) combined (The Mid Pacific Center for ICT and The National Center for ICT ) winter conference last month held at the City College of San Francisco, I had the opportunity to interview three key members of the Cisco Systems Packet Tracer Team - Dennis Frezzo, Isaac Majerowicz and Mark Chen.

Packet Tracer is a network simulator used by hundreds of thousands of Cisco Networking Academy students around the world. Recently, Packet Tracer version 5.1 was released - here's so info from an FAQ on the product found on the Packet Tracer website:

Packet Tracer (PT) 5.1 is a comprehensive, networking technology teaching and learning  program that offers a unique combination of realistic simulation and visualization experiences, assessment and activity authoring capabilities, and opportunities for multiuser collaboration  and competition. Innovative features of the PT 5.1 software will help students and teachers  collaborate, solve problems, and learn concepts in an engaging and dynamic social environment. Some of the benefits of Packet Tracer 5.1 are as follows:
  • Provides a realistic simulation and visualization learning environment that supplements classroom equipment
  • Enables multiuser, real-time collaboration and competition for dynamic learning  
  • Enables authoring and localization of structured learning activities such as labs,  demonstrations, quizzes, exams, and games
  • Empowers students to explore concepts, conduct experiments, and test their understanding
  • Allows students and teachers to design, build, configure, and troubleshoot networks using  virtual equipment  
  • Supports a variety of teaching and learning tasks such as lectures, group and individual  labs, homework, and competitions  
  • Supports integration with external applications through an API to enhance the functionality  of Packet Tracer in areas such as curriculum and assessment delivery, games, accessibility,  and interfacing with real equipment. 
In the interview, the team describes the Packet Tracer product. Part 1 and part 2 of the interview are shown below:

I'm really excited about version 5.1 - especially when you consider the user base. The ability to integrate Packet Tracer 5.1 with external applications will provide some innovative academic and training solutions. You can find out more about the Cisco Network Academy and Packet Tracer here.
Direct download: CiscoSystemsInterview.m4v
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:20pm EDT