Moving at the Speed of Creativity Podcasts

Welcome to a special episode of "Moving at the Speed of Creativity," recorded from the Mt Moriah cemetery in Deadwood, South Dakota on June 26, 2021. Members of our family went on the "Boot Hill Tours Historical Tour of Deadwood," and I audio recorded the culminating portion at the graveside of both Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. These real people from the "wild west days" of the late 19th century were mythologized by dimestore novelists and journalists, who used the outlines of their characters to weave wild (and sometimes sordid) tales of conflict, romance, adventure, and violence. Our tour guide, Joe Williams, is a local educator and school administrator who has done extensive historical research about the area of Deadwood and specifically the lives of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane. In his narration, he dispels some of the myths surrounding these two characters and sheds light on their lives and deeds. Check out the podcast shownotes for related links to this tour and area.

Welcome to the first episode of Moving at the Speed of Creativity for 2021, now starting its 16th year as an educational podcast! This podcast episode features a conversation with Shelly and Wesley Fryer on January 3, 2021, reflecting on some of their lessons learned teaching elementary and middle school students during 2020, the first year of our COVID-19 global pandemic. Shelly is a 3rd grade classroom teacher at Casady School in Oklahoma City. During the fall semester of 2020, Wes has been teaching two sections of Introductory 5th Grade Spanish as well as his "normal" four sections of 5th and 6th Grade Media Literacy classes. At the start of our global pandemic lockdowns and time of "emergency remote learning" in March 2020, Wes was also serving as an instructional coach at our school, which is a role he's resuming in January 2021. Link to referenced resources from this recorded conversation, as well as links you can use to connect with Shelly and Wes, in the podcast shownotes. In 2021, Wes is rebooting his newsletter as "Media Literacy with Wes" on Substack (wfryer.substack.com). Please check it out and sign up! Also please reach out to us on Twitter (@wfryer and @sfryer) to let us know if you listen to the show and anything in particular you found interesting or resonated with you. Let us know if you have questions! You can also kick it old school and leave a comment below!

This podcast is a recording of a webinar panel discussion by Oklahoma educators Telannia Norfar, Delilah Rodriguez, Rhonda Schroeder and Wesley Fryer on Saturday, April 25, 2020. Our topic of conversation was "Remote Learning in Oklahoma," as we are now about a month into "learning at home" because of the neo-coronavirus / COVID-19 global pandemic. The questions we discussed included, What is your current role and situation with 'remote learning' in Oklahoma? What is your technology situation like in terms of student devices, teacher devices, and utilized platforms? What are discovering that should be changed about school as a result of this situation? What are some success stories about remote learning at your school / for you? How do you think we can help teachers and schools prepare for ongoing remote learning in the event we don't return face-to-face to school in August, or we do but have to go back to remote learning in the fall? Check out the shownotes for links to Twitter IDs for each of our panelists, as well as other referenced resources and links from the conversation.

Welcome to Episode 468 of the Moving at the Speed of Creativity podcast, a show by Dr. Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) focusing on digital creativity, media literacy, digital literacy, digital citizenship, instructional technology integration and engaged learning both inside and outside the classroom. This episode includes a reflection by Wes about some of the techniques he is using in fall 2019 teaching Digital and Media Literacy for 5th and 6th graders at Casady School in Oklahoma City, as well as the adult Sunday School class, "Curiosity and Questions: Jesus and Science" at First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. These techniques include using Google Sites to share lesson slides, videos, resources and links publicly (mdtech.casady.org and followjesus.wesfryer.com) each week. Refer to the podcast shownotes for referenced links. Feedback on this podcast episode is welcome!

Welcome to Episode 467 of the Moving at the Speed of Creativity podcast, a show by Dr. Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) focusing on digital creativity, media literacy, digital literacy, digital citizenship, instructional technology integration and engaged learning both inside and outside the classroom. This episode features interviews with both Shelly Fryer and Sarah Fryer, about Sarah's "gap year" in 2018-19 following high school graduation. Sarah graduated in 2018 from Classen School of Advanced Studies in Oklahoma City Public Schools, and majored in drama at ClassenSAS. Rather than head directly to college, Sarah took a gap year to work, take dance classes, get more involved in the music ministry of our church, and get a better idea of what she wants to study and do after high school. In the first part of this podcast, Wesley and Shelly reflect on the gap year experience for Sarah, how it came about, what happened, and what lessons were learned. In the second part, recorded earlier, Sarah reflects on her gap year. In both segments, Shelly and Sarah offer advice to other students as well as parents who might be considering a gap year, and encouragement to consider whether or not a gap year is the right choice and "the best fit" for you or your child. Check out the podcast shownotes to referenced resources, including some other blog posts relating to parenting, high school, and helping kids make decisions about college and life. Contact links for Shelly and Wesley Fryer are also included in the shownotes. Feedback on this podcast episode is welcome!

Welcome to Episode 466 of the Moving at the Speed of Creativity podcast, a show by Dr. Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) focusing on digital creativity, media literacy, digital literacy, digital citizenship, instructional technology integration and engaged learning both inside and outside the classroom. This episode features an interview with Michaela Freeland (@_mfreeland) and Shelly Fryer (@sfryer) about the two summer robotics camps they co-led using Thymio robots and outstanding curriculum provided by TechyKids. TechyKids (www.techykids.com) was founded by Sharon Marzouk (@sharonmarzouk) and focuses on inspiring students through a "blend of robotics, creativity, technology, and invention." In this 35 minute interview, Michaela and Shelly share their experiences and learning from leading two robotics camps with 32 and 28 student participants, respectively, and discuss many of the camp highlights as well as lessons learned by students, older student mentors, teachers and parents. Students engaged in daily reflections during these summer camps, and both recorded and shared with their parents their learning using the platform Seesaw (@Seesaw). Casady School in Oklahoma City hosted both of these camps, which were part of the summer "Casady by the Lake" enrichment program open to all students in and around Oklahoma City. Check out the podcast shownotes for links to TechyKids as well as other resources mentioned by Michaela and Shelly in this interview. If you are inspired to offer a robotics and invention camp in your local area after listening to this podcast, or have questions, please reach out to Michaela or Shelly and let them know!

Welcome to Episode 463 of the Moving at the Speed of Creativity podcast, a show by Dr. Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) focusing on digital creativity, media literacy, digital literacy, digital citizenship, instructional technology integration and engaged learning both inside and outside the classroom. This episode features an interview with Shelly Fryer (@sfryer) about the 2017 movie, "The Florida Project" (@floridaproject). The IMDB description of the movie is, "Set over one summer, the film follows precocious six-year-old Moonee as she courts mischief and adventure with her ragtag playmates and bonds with her rebellious but caring mother, all while living in the shadows of Walt Disney World." The Florida Project raises a host of important issues facing every community, including poverty, homelessness, social services, education and schools, non-profit and church outreach programs, and more. As a lifelong educator with extensive experiences working with families in poverty through church ministry, as well as educational and social services for homeless children and families in Oklahoma City, Shelly Fryer has unique and important perspectives on the issues and needs highlighted in "The Florida Project." Check out the podcast shownotes for links to referenced books, resources, organizations and websites mentioned in the show. Please reach out to Shelly or Wes with feedback and additional resources or ideas this movie or this podcast interview encourages you to share.

Welcome to Episode 462 of Moving at the Speed of Creativity podcasts, a now-wildly irregular podcast by Dr. Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) focusing on digital creativity, media literacy, digital literacy and instructional technology. This episode includes two segments. The first is an interview with Megan Thompson (@seeingnewshapes), our elementary art teacher at Casady School in Oklahoma City. This past spring, Megan had an opportunity to travel to the Chicago area and spend part of a day with Tricia Fuglestad (@fuglefun). Tricia is an amazing elementary art teacher and utilizes a wide variety of technologies in her classroom to encourage creativity and empower student expression. Shelly Fryer (@sfryer) and Wes interviewed Megan about her experiences, observations and takeaways from her time with Tricia in early June, 2018. The second segment of this podcast is a conversation between Shelly and Wes about their two recent Make Media Camp workshops (@MakeMediaCamp) with teachers in Kansas City and Oklahoma City. They highlight a variety of lessons learned and changes they've made to this one day media experience which introduces teachers to six different media projects and classroom activities: narrated images, photo collages, class radio shows / podcasts, paper-slide videos, Goose Chase mobile media scavenger hunts, and multimedia eBooks. Learn more about Make Media Camps on www.MakeMediaCamp.com, and access all workshop curricula from these workshops on the Archives link under Resources. Check out the shownotes for this podcast for links to additionally referenced resources.

Welcome to episode 461 of Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer, from March 18, 2018. This podcast features an introductory overview about instructional coaching and technology integration coaching specifically, drawing on the author's experiences in this role with teachers since the late 1990s. In addition to defining instructional coaching, keys to successful instructional coaching experiences for mentor teachers as well as coaches are highlighted, as well as "lessons learned." The second part of the podcast features an interview with middle school French teacher Blake Pardue, who has been connecting his students to "pen pal" classrooms of French speaking students in Europe and in Africa for several years. The past two years, Blake's students have used the iPad app "Explain Everything" to create media-rich introductions of themselves and practice their French skills with their pen pals. This interview was a reflection with Blake Pardue and Wes Fryer about this year's iteration of the Explain Everything project, which utilized the new "cloud based" and collaborative version. They discuss project procedures and lessons learned. Refer to the podcast shownotes for links to referenced apps and resources from the show.

This podcast features three different recordings from the 2018 Ohio Educational Technology Conference, which was held in Columbus, Ohio, February 12-14, 2018. The first is an interview with high school students who have learned how to create interactive games using Scratch software. They also have created DIY game controllers using the MakeyMakey and supplies like tin foil, cardboard, alligator clips, play dough, and bananas. The second interview is with high school senior Arthur Bodenschatz, who is part of the broadcast journalism team in North Canton City Schools, Ohio. Arthur and his classmates use an amazing “mobile storyteller” converted RV to conduct professional quality interviews at events like the Ohio educational technology conference. The third interview is Arthur's interview of me at OETC, in which he asked me about my reasons for becoming a teacher and technology director, the pace of technological change in our society, and a few other topics. Two of these three recordings are also available as videos on YouTube and Vimeo, which are linked in the podcast shownotes. In addition to these three recordings, a few reflections on some additional highlights of OETC 2018 are included. These focus on Eric Curts' (@ericcurts) 3 hour workshop "Write Right with Google Tools: Improving Writing in all Subjects," Todd Beard's (@teacherbeard) session on Minecraft for Education, and Apple Education's workshop on updates to iOS 11. Please refer to the podcast shownotes for links to referenced resources, as well as a raft of Wes' tweets from OETC 2018 sharing additional tips and links from sessions. (Since Storify is going offline and doesn't support the creation of new Twitter archives, this blog post will hopefully serve that function to archive these learning takeaways.

Podcast458: Reflections and Lessons Learned from STEAM Studio Fall 2017

This podcast is a reflection by Dr. Wesley Fryer on some of the educational technology related challenges as well as aspirations he currently has as a school director of technology, technology integration coach, and after-school "STEAM Studio" co-teacher. These challenges include cultivating a school learning culture supportive of creativity, innovation, whimsy, and cross-curricular connections. They also include helping students transition into and succeed within a comparatively open-ended and less structured after-school learning environment, where they are invited to create, play, and express themselves while developing both digital literacy as well as artistic skills. Last of all, the challenges and aspirations include more "geeky" topics like planning for school infrastructure fiber optic line upgrades, managing bandwidth on a network with increasing numbers of IP-based surveillance cameras, learning about traffic and packet analysis tools, and firewall access reporting. Refer to the podcast shownotes for links to many of the referenced resources from this podcast including Dr. Mitch Resnik's new book, "Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating Creativity through Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play" and the upcoming (October 2017) free online class "Learning Creative Learning" by the MIT Lifelong Kindergarten Group.

This podcast features an interview with Shelly Fryer, discussing the use of SeeSaw to create student portfolios, strategies for enriched assessment using iPads, and her recent experiences leading professional development workshops for Oklahoma A+ Schools. She also discusses her recent experiences at EdCampOKC, a regional "unconference" for area educators, her students' recent eBook projects which culminated their Black History research unit, and reflected on STEM/STEAM lessons her her classroom Maker Studio. Shelly has been an elementary teacher and early childhood educator since 1985, and has been teaching 3rd and 4th grade students for the past four years in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Links to other referenced resources are included in the podcast shownotes. If you listen to and enjoy this podcast, please let Shelly and Wes know by sending a Twitter reply to @sfryer and @wfryer. Also consider subscribing to the "EdTech Situation Room" podcast (www.edtechSR.com) and the "Fuel for Educational Change Agents" podcast (audio.speedofcreativity.org). Your feedback and suggestions are welcome!

Welcome to the November 20, 2016, podcast episode of "Moving at the Speed of Creativity" with Wesley Fryer. This episode includes two recent presentation recordings by Wes from the last two weeks. The first was the opening keynote at the November 12, 2016, Google Summit in Maize, Kansas, titled "Innovating with Google Tools." The second is an audio recording of Wes' TEDx presentation on Saturday, November 19, 2016, at Waller Middle School in Enid, Oklahoma. Wes was one of three adult presenters in this #TEDxYouth event, which is one of only 19 similar events in the United States in 2016. The title of Wes' presentation was, "Digital Citizenship in the Surveillance State." Check the podcast shownotes for links to the presentation slides from both of these sessions, as well as recent podcasts with and by Wes from the past week referenced in the introduction. If you listen to and enjoy this episode, please reach out to Wes with a comment or via a Twitter reply to @wfryer. Thanks for listening to "Moving at the Speed of Creativity!"

Welcome to the November 5, 2016, podcast episode of "Moving at the Speed of Creativity" with Wesley Fryer, which explores topics relating to artificial reality, free online learning channels and a STEAM Studio reflection. Wes discusses Steven Levy's recent article for Backchannel, "The Google Assistant Needs You," and our current "transition era" as artificial intelligence (AI) technologies mature and become normalized in our lives. He also discusses Elon Musk's recent announcement about camouflaged solar roof panels, and a recent video interview with Musk in which he discussed his reasons for starting the OpenAI (@openai) initiative. Musk's concerns about mature AI technologies are not limited to a RoboCop-style malicious AI future, but also include the danger of AI technologies being tightly controlled by a small number of entities. To guard against the dangers latent in that future scenario, Musk wants more groups, individuals and nations to have access to powerful AI algorithms and capabilities through the open source movement. In part two of the podcast, Wes discussed some of his favorite podcast channels and websites which provide fantastic opportunities for free, online learning. This begins with the K12 Online Conference (@k12online) which launched its 2016-17 mini-conference series on October 21st with a 3 part keynote and live panel discussion on YouTube Live with Julie Lindsay (@julielindsay). This first strand of the conference this year focuses on global collaboration. Strand two will focus on "Learning Spaces" and starts November 14th with a keynote by David Jakes (@djakes). Favorite tech podcasts mentioned by Wes in this episode include Clockwise by RelayFM (@clockwisepod), The Committed (@CommittedShow), and Note to Self (@notetoself). Wes also mentioned his weekly podcast and live webshow (on most Wednesday nights) The EdTech Situation Room (@edtechSR). The third part of this podcast features a recorded reflection by elementary art teacher Megan Thompson (@seeingnewshapes) and Wes discussing the "STEAM Studio" after-school enrichment class the co-taught this past semester together. They discuss things that went well, things they would change, and success stories from this STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) collaboration. If you listen to and enjoy this episode, please reach out to Wes with a comment or via a Twitter reply to @wfryer. Thanks for listening to "Moving at the Speed of Creativity!"

Coding is an important literacy skill we need to introduce to everyone in the 21st century! This podcast features reflections by Shelly Fryer (@sfryer) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) following a PBS Scratch Jr. Coding Camp for Kids in Edmond, Oklahoma, on September 17, 2016. It also includes some recorded audio from Shelly's lessons during the workshop for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. The coding camp was sponsored by The Div (@thedivorg), a local 501c3 nonprofit "dedicated helping the next generation thrive through access to technology education." According to its official website, "ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young children (ages 5-7) to create their own interactive stories and games. Children snap together graphical programming blocks to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. Children can modify characters in the paint editor, add their own voices and sounds, even insert photos of themselves -- then use the programming blocks to make their characters come to life.
ScratchJr was inspired by the popular Scratch programming language (http://scratch.mit.edu), used by millions of young people (ages 8 and up) around the world. In creating ScratchJr, we redesigned the interface and programming language to make them developmentally appropriate for younger children, carefully designing features to match young children's cognitive, personal, social, and emotional development. ScratchJr is available as a free app for both iPad and Android tablets. For more information about ScratchJr, see http://scratchjr.org." PBS Scratch Jr. was introduced in December 2015 and is an official version of the original app but includes familiar and favorite characters from PBS Kids. Check out our podcast shownotes for referenced links to all the videos and resources used in this Kids Coding Camp and mentioned in our podcast.

Welcome to a recorded podcast from the road with Wesley and Shelly Fryer, reflecting on the past week of iPad Media Camp workshops in Stilwell and Tulsa Oklahoma in July 2016. This is the fourth summer of iPad Media Camp workshops, which are multi-day, hands-on experiences for educators focused on using iPads to create and share media projects. For summer 2016, the curriculum for iPad Media Camps (wiki.ipadmediacamp.com) includes an "iPad Media Activity and Project Matrix" (www.ipadmediacamp.com/matrix). In this podcast reflection, Shelly and Wes discuss aspects of the workshops which went well and were different this year, including the use of the matrix to introduce teachers to whole-class, digital, interactive writing activities, "single-app" student projects using the SeeSaw Learning Journal, two-app projects, and more complex app smashing projects. During both iPad Media Camp workshops this week, Shelly taught other teachers how to create classroom radio shows (podcasts) using the free iOS app Opinion. Shelly facilitated a workshop participant podcast using the Opinion app after lunch in Tulsa on the first day of the workshop, and that 5 minute audio reflection is included in this podcast. Other portions of this episode were recorded using the free iOS app "Voice Record Pro." Shelly was able to "air drop" the M4A audio audio file from the Opinion app to Wes' iPhone, where he opened it in Voice Record Pro. All portions of the podcast were combined in the Voice Record Pro app and then saved as a video to the iOS Camera Roll. Wes uploaded the video to YouTube from the middle of rural Kansas (just south of Buffalo on US 75) thanks to available LTE cellular data coverage. The next day, Wes added some post-production audio bumpers to the podcast using Audacity on a Mac laptop, normalized the final FLAC format exported audio file using Auphonic.com, and published it to Amazon S3. Check the podcast shownotes for more links to iPad Media Camp curriculum and resources. If you listen to the podcast and find it useful, please reach out to Shelly (@sfryer) or Wes (@wfryer) on Twitter to let them know!

This podcast is a recorded Google Hangout On Air from December 31, 2015, of a panel discussion with Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach), Eric Langhorst (@elanghorst), Nikki D Robertson (@nikkidrobertson), and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer). The title of this roundtable discussion was "The 2015 EdTech Year in Review," and focused on some of the most important developments and news items regarding educational technology in 2015. Our topics included the Hour of Code, BreakoutEDU and Gameification, Student Privacy and the EFF Complaint about Google, Google Cardboard / Virtual Reality, "go-to" apps teachers can use to go deeper, and best new technology hardware from 2015. Check out our podcast shownotes for all referenced resources and links, including our Google Doc planning document which includes even more we didn't have time to talk about in the show. Happy New Year everyone!

11 topics in 67 minutes! In this podcast recording, Dr. Wesley Fryer shares some updates about his new position this year as a school technology director, previews "iPad Media Camp in a box" for summer 2016, shares his current favorite podcasts and audiobooks, discusses lessons learned about fiber optic cabling, and lessons learned from seven videoconferences (five of which were international) in fall 2015. In addition, Wes shares about current "Classroom Projection Options" and "AirPlay Mirroring Guidelines," discusses an upcoming VOIP phone transition at his school, and highlights lessons learned from firewall shopping and comparisons this semester. Finally, he discusses some of the issues which have come up recently as his 11 year old (Rachel) has become an aspiring YouTube Minecrafter, forthcoming updates to his mailing list, and answers a question about searchable Google Docs. Check out the podcast shownotes for an exhaustive list of referenced resources from this podcast.

This podcast is a recorded reflection on the 2015 Miami Device Conference by Shelly and Wesley Fryer. The second Miami Device Conference was held at Saint Stephen's Episcopal Day School in Coconut Grove, Florida on November 12-13, 2015. In this audio podcast, Shelly and Wes reflect on many of the keynotes and breakout sessions from the conference, as well as other takeaways from this epic learning event! Check out the podcast shownotes for links to referenced resources.

This podcast is a recording of Dr. Wesley Fryer's presentation "Sharing Student Work Online" on October 7, 2015, at the Oklahoma Technology Association (OTA) / Encyclo-Media Conference in Oklahoma City. The session description was: When students at school use media to “show what they know and can do,” they need safe, adult-moderated, online spaces to share their digital work with others and receive thoughtful feedback. Learn how to to use free websites like KidBlog and Blogger, along with apps like Easy Blogger Jr., to share student work online and moderate feedback. Discuss how to help students “compose quality comments” for others. Explore workflows to safely use a classroom YouTube channel to publish and share student work, also with moderated feedback. See examples of school and classroom permission forms for publishing student work. Get practical ideas for “normalizing” the regular, open publication of student work at your school for moderated feedback from peers, parents, and others around the world. Check the podcast shownotes for links to session slides (shared as a Google Presentation) as well as other referenced resources.