Doing More with Less
Posted by The Tightwad on February 15, 2010 under Show Notes | 
The Tightwad Tech is a podcast by and for those in the education field who face ever-growing demands and ever-shrinking budgets. We discuss the strategic implementation of free and open source software as well as the creative deployment of hardware.
Thanks to Oursvince for the Creative Commons license which allows us to use "Spanish Samba" as our bump music.
Posted by The Tightwad on July 23, 2010 under Show Notes | Read the First Comment
Synopsis:
In this episode Mark and Shawn discuss various tools and online resources for creating and editing digital artwork. Visit our Podcast page to give it a listen and be sure to come back here and leave some feedback in the comments.
Links:
The GIMP – A full-featured, cross-platform digital image editor
Aviary.com – A suite of online tools for the creating of digital artwork
Picasa – A free photo editing and organization tool
DrawIt Lite – A Mac-based vector drawing tool
Picnik – An online photo editing tool
TIPS:
Tech Tip of the Week – Password Control
Teacher Tip of the Week – Open Clip Art Gallery
Posted by The Tightwad on July 9, 2010 under Show Notes | 4 Comments to Read
Synopsis:
In this episode Mark and Shawn discuss what they've been up to in recent weeks, as well as what's coming in the future. They also mention a couple of great tips sent in by listeners and add a bit of their own opinion on the subject of Internet content filtering. Visit our Podcast page to give it a listen and be sure to come back here and leave some feedback in the comments.
Links:
Posted by The Tightwad on July 23, 2010 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment
Posted by The Tightwad on June 24, 2010 under Show Notes | Be the First to Comment
In this episode Mark and Shawn interview Dr. Doug Green regarding his recent blog post entitled, "Should We Get Rid of Technology Directors"? This post set off a firestorm of debate on numerous blogs and mail lists. We set the record straight in a thought provoking discussion with Dr. Green. Visit our Podcast page to give it a listen and be sure to come back here and leave some feedback in the comments.
You can read the original blog post made on the Dangerously Irrelevant website here: Should We Get Rid of Technology Directors?
Also visit, http://www.drdouggreen.com/ , for more information on Dr. Green. He also has a number of book summaries posted on his site.
Tech Tip of the Week: Active User Manager
Teacher Tip of the Week: SMPlayer
Posted by The Tightwad on June 17, 2010 under Show Notes | Be the First to Comment
In this episode Mark and Shawn give a thorough review of the iPad after Mark manages to get his hands on one in a very unlikely way. Visit our Podcast page to give it a listen and be sure to come back here and leave some feedback in the comments.
Posted by The Tightwad on June 9, 2010 under Show Notes | 2 Comments to Read
Synopsis:
In this episode Mark and Shawn are joined by Jeremy Fluhmann to discuss the readiness of Desktop Linux for the educational environment. Is it ready? Does it suck? Does it matter? Next they go through some tips and feedback provided by listeners. Visit our Podcast page to give it a listen and be sure to come back here and leave some feedback in the comments.
Links:
iTALC - Remote monitoring and support utility
OpenAudit – "quickly audit individual workstations and servers, and provides a ready to print report."
ScriptStart - "Power user profile management that enables profiles to be managed independent of Windows"
Posted by The Tightwad on May 26, 2010 under Show Notes | 10 Comments to Read
Synopsis:
In this episode Mark and Shawn are joined by Chuck Syperski and Jian Zhang to discuss FOG, a free and open source hard drive imaging and remote administration suite. Visit our Podcast page to give it a listen and be sure to come back here and leave some feedback in the comments.
Links:
InstallRite – An application packaging utility
TIPS:
Tech Tip of the Week – WinAudit
Teacher Tip of the Week – LiveMocha.com
Posted by The Tightwad on May 20, 2010 under Show Notes | Be the First to Comment
Synopsis:
In this .5 episode Mark and Shawn revisit in greater detail the Boxee media center software mentioned in a previous episode and discuss the process of ripping your personal DVDs, along with some pointers on building your own digital media center. Visit our Podcast page to give it a listen and be sure to come back here and leave some feedback in the comments.
Links:
Boxee – Digital media center software, with forthcoming hardware appliance
Acer AspireRevo – From Amazon.com
Acer AspireRevo – from BestBuy.com
Handbrake – Video transcoder
DVDFab – DVD Copying/Burning software
Generic PC Remote – From Amazon.com
Posted by The Tightwad on May 12, 2010 under Show Notes | Be the First to Comment
Synopsis:
In this episode Mark and Shawn are joined by Stuart Burt of Chapel Hill I.S.D. to discuss various free and open source audio editing and mixing tools. If you want to be a rock star on a ragamuffin budget, this is the episode for you. Visit our Podcast page to give it a listen and be sure to come back here and leave some feedback in the comments.
Links:
Audacity- Open Source audio editing tool
Jam Studio- "The Online Music Factory"
Myna- A Free Online Audio Editor
LAME Encoder- A library file needed to export projects from Audacity as MP3 files
TIPS:
Tech Tip of the Week – The Ultimate Boot CD
Teacher Tip of the Week – TeacherShare
