The Higher EdTech Podcast

Companies like Google, Microsoft, Canvas, and many more have positioned themselves as solutions to education problems, but they're making very few moves to protect what we know about the learning process? It wouldn't be hard for them to make things work in much more pedagogically sound ways, but they seem to be uninterested in doing much beyond the status quo.

In this episode, Tim and Brent discuss what Google (and all of the other corporations, too) can do to actually help teachers and students through the learning process.

Warning, some of these ideas could lead to slippery slopes, so it's worth thinking them through.

Show notes: www.TheHigherEdTechPodcast.com 

Millions of people, including teachers and students, were affected by the recent outage of AWS as it took almost all EdTech, including Canvas, out of commission. While we may not collectively learn not to put all of our eggs in one basket, we can individually prepare ourselves for when this (inevitably) happens again. Listen in for ideas on how to deal with tech outages.

Show Notes: www.TheHigherEdTechPodcast.com 

It's been a while since we've looked at Zoom updates, and there have been a LOT recently! If you've gotten into a rut with the ways you use Zoom, listen in to hear some of the new features that might be useful for you and your students or colleagues!

Show notes: www.TheHigherEdTechPodcast.com 

Agentic AI is coming hard-baked into browsers, and it's absolutely frictionless to have it complete homework. Brent & Tim discuss Google's (NOT paused) Homework Helper and Perplexity's Comet browser as examples of ways AI companies are proactively dismantling the learning process while claiming to support students. 

This is a bit of a dark one, but we've got to discuss these things.

Show notes: www.TheHigherEdTechPodcast.com 

There are a lot of initiatives happening in California and the California Community Colleges have cannonballed into the pool with summits, initiatives, and partnerships all over the place. Tim & Brent discuss the most recent announcements and what they might mean for faculty, staff, and admin up and down the state.

Show notes at www.TheHigherEdTechPodcast.com 

Tim and Brent zoom out a bit to look at some of the things you might consider when making a transition. Tim shares some of his approaches to moving into management and the areas he had to consider as he made the change, and the parallels to teaching new classes or working with new groups of students.

Show notes: www.TheHigherEdTechPodcast.com 

Group assignments and peer reviews great, but it's not always clear how to get things going on a digital platform. What are the options to make useful peer reviews in Canvas? We're looking into it in this episode of the HigherEdTech Podcast!

Show Notes: www.TheHigherEdTechPodcast.com 

What does it mean for OpenAI to embed their AI right into Canvas? We're discussing the implications and the questions that came up when this announcement dropped - right during most teachers' summer break. 

Show notes: www.TheHigherEdTechPodcast.com 

In the season 6 finale, Brent and Tim provide a rapid-fire tour of 12 tech tools available at IVC that faculty can explore during summer break. This practical episode highlights vetted resources that enhance course design, streamline feedback, improve accessibility, and create more engaging student experiences—all without additional cost. Though focused on IVC's available tools, the hosts encourage listeners at other institutions to check with their IT departments for similar options. With just enough details to spark interest, this episode offers a valuable starting point for instructors looking to refresh their teaching toolkit before fall semester begins.

Show notes: www.thehigheredtechpodcast.com