High Ed Hangout: Recent Episodes
High Ed Hangout
You thought you’d never hear another episode of HEH… WRONG! The “lost episode” was found after a hard drive cleanup, so here you go. It’s a rapid-fire question episode. It was originally recorded in January, 2021 so some of the topics are a bit dated.
Rapid fire question a la Brenae Brown podcast
- What’s the last show that you binged and loved?
- Dan: Queen’s Gambit
- Daniel: Expanse
- Ken: Bridgerton
- Scott: Ted Lasso
- Dave: The Great British Baking Show
- Also watch Derry Girls
- What’s your favorite meal?
- Dan: Pizza or Chinese food
- Hawaiian pizza
- Daniel: Fresh pasta and marinara sauce (from scratch), poached pear with caramel cream sauce.
- Ken: Salmon steak
- Scott: Good italian pizza, Craft Steak in Vegas, reubens
- Dave: Rigatoni pasta
- Dan: Pizza or Chinese food
- What is something that people often get wrong about you?
- Ken: Not friendly or in a bad mood
- Daniel: intensity in voice as upset or angry
- Dan: That I’m actually listening to people
- Scott: Age – people think I’m younger than I am
- Dave: Come off as stuck up, care what people think about him
- Give us a film you really love?
- Scott: Magnolia, Rainman, Donnie Darko, Inception
- Daniel: Childhood- The Explorers, Teen- Clockwork Orange, Adult- Donnie Darko
- Ken: The Mission
- Dan: The Joker
- Dave: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Matrix, Inception
- Give us a concert you’ll never forget?
- Dave: Nirvana
- Scott: Weird Al Yankovic
- Ken: John Denver (1987)
- Daniel: The Cure
- Dan: Bonnaroo
- What is the one thing you’re deeply grateful for right now?
- Scott: Employed and no covid
- Daniel: friends and family safe
- Ken: Get to work from home – healthy children and parents
- Dave: Employed
It’s a special holiday episode of High Ed Hangout (we have holiday beverages!). We jump right in with our favorite note-taking apps and then transition to our yearly tech (and non-tech) Christmas lists. What note-taking apps do you use? iCoud Notes or Google Keep (quick notes or lists) Google Docs Textmate OneNote (handwriting recognition) Bear... Read more »
It’s been a while since we’ve met, so we spend some time talking pandemic and lock-down, and what the work environment will look like when this is all over. Then we move into tech and talk a bit about the new Apple M1 chips. Haircuts blah blah How has social isolation been for everyone? Social... Read more »
We still live in Covid-land so we talk about haircuts, Covid trackers that our schools are using or building, and what it will look like to come back to campus. We also sprinkle in a bit of Apple to try and add a positive spin. We all have haircuts except Dan (who is still very... Read more »
We’re still figuring out this quarantine thing. Many of us need a haircut! We go over reopening plans and talk through what other schools have announced before going into how we list areas of study and majors on our websites. The state of Arkansas is officially OPEN! WOOT! Lotsa weekend party barges! Anti-Mask League NPR... Read more »
Our various states are starting to open up and our schools are starting to discuss opening in the fall as well. What does that look like? Is it too soon? How do we make that happen? Arkansas is opening the state again! Yay? Iowa will be opening soon. The difference between virtual vs in person... Read more »
The global pandemic has just begun, and we’re all adjusting in different ways. We talk about how we’re handling things personally, and how our universities are handling things (via policy and technology). Waiting on Spillers… Talking about MacOS updates (that’s why Spillers is late) Arkansas has a curfew Michigan is in 100% lockdown (nothing by... Read more »
It’s the first HEH of 2020! Grand Valley State is moving to PHP, so we chat with Daniel about the best way to make that move. We also chat about hidden nav menus and UX decisions for a university homepage. GVSU wanted to switch to PHP (away from CF) and chatted with UALR about how... Read more »
Happy holidays loyal HEH listeners. We have a holiday-themed episode for you. We ring in the holidays (all of them!) with festive beverages and the tech items on our own Christmas lists. HEHH to all! Holiday-themed drinks celebrating all the “holidays” Hanukkah Three Kings Day Winter Solstice St. Lucia Day St. Nicholas Day Christmas Kwanzaa... Read more »
It’s been 6 months since you’ve heard from us… we’re back! In this episode, we’ll catch you up on what’s happened the past 6 months and take a look at the new WT.social. Daniel had to move away when a tree blew into his house Scott went to AMA Higher Education Symposium Founders Beer lawsuit/issues... Read more »
We take a trip down memory lane to some old PBS shows and transition to GVSU’s choice to put ColdFusion out to pasture. We look at the positives and negatives to alternatives for them. Ken remembers the PBS Zoom intro song (1999 version) Zoom intro (1976) Daniel remembers PBS 3-2-1 Contact GVSU is changing away... Read more »
Daniel has a work emergency and joins us late. We take a look at our top podcast downloads and dig into details about Daniel’s plans for showing/hiding audience content on the UALR website. Admissions scandal The history of Founders Beer Company Our top downloads outside the US South Korea Google Home translation Mercator Map Projections... Read more »
We get into our experiences with working remotely and how we like it, GVSU’s new president, our beards, and the Ooopsie Poopsie podcast is finally coming soon! Remote working? Good? Bad? Who does it? GVSU got a new president Common App Chat (GVSU looking at it, Iowa moved to it this year) Oopsie Poopsie Podcast…... Read more »
The conversation starts with different (interesting… disgusting) ways to ingest alcohol. We chat a bit about new MacBooks before transitioning to conference that (Dave is speaking at a few. Daniel talks about his experience at WordCamp National, and we get into the recent WordPress controversy Different ways to ingest alcohol How old are your MacBooks?... Read more »
It’s been a while since we gathered to record, so we reminisce for a bit before talking about poop (in relation to Andre’s upcoming podcast “Oopsie Poopsie”). We hit on recent travels, and then before concluding quickly mention websites. Andrea’s podcast (Oopsie Poopsie) is coming soon… and so we talk about poop for a good... Read more »
Two of us have moved into a new house and one of us has returned from a vacation in Greece. We catch up a bit and chat about a WordPress conference and home networking equipment. It’s our 50th episode (gold is the gift to give us). Only one couple has ever made it to their... Read more »
Beer + Yogurt = yuck, a report from WPCampus (project Gutenberg), and a discussion on WWDC updates. Does yogurt plus beer work? Is there a git for audio editing? Daniel and Ken going to WPCampus (schedule) Excited about hearing about Project Gutenberg (the new WP editor) Try Gutenberg WWDC You can now facetime with 32... Read more »
We spend a lot of time going down the wormhole of old Tweets this episode, which leads us to all of our old internet posts (and some embarrassment). Dave teaches us about birding (cuz he’s and old man). Dave’s Twitter cover photo is famous. Ken’s Twitter handle (now publicly accessible) We dig up our first... Read more »
We share some of our favorite web tools again before tornado sirens go off in Iowa HighedWeb vs. Wp Campus Conference (Ken and maybe Daniel going) Google IO Extended local conferences Don’t say dub-dub-dub for “WWW” The semester is almost over. When does your school start? What’s your favorite new tool when it comes to... Read more »
What’s the structure of our university systems? What are our favorite university websites? Academic logos vs athletic logos. Dave’s dog joins in on the conversation. How are your state universities structured? Iowa is in a Regent system (but 3 different independent universities) GVSU is totally independent, but funded by the state of MI UALR is... Read more »
Dan has had a bit to drink tonight so we get to hear a few funny stories from him. Dave tells us about his trip to Austin for SXSW Edu. Ken has a New Mac Smell candle Dave went to SXSW Edu A lot about equality and movements First gen students or millennial and teachers... Read more »
Tonight we talk about how far back we support certain browsers, whether iOS will someday merge with MacOS, and list our favorite note-taking and weather apps. Audio Drive in Zencastr Dave will be at SXSW Edu next week (Dan will be in Jamaica) What’s new in Chrome? How far back do you support old browsers... Read more »
Dan is drinking the best wine ever, Dave is moving, Daniel is going to Greece. Everything is going great… until GDPR hits. What is it? What are we doing about it? We end on a lighter note and talk about the shows we are watching. The best wine ever (from S. Africa) Diemersfontein Dave is... Read more »
We talk about beers, dumplings, things-a-changin’ and bring back the Urban Dictionary Word of the Day. Beer (like usual) Dumplings (not like usual) How often do things change? The web changes quickly and regularly? What else changes? What keeps you coming back? University vs. corporate and the ability to explore Comes down to company culture... Read more »
The HEH dudes talk about what they got for the holidays, any new conference attendances and then dig in on a new site search tool for GVSU, who needs to move away from the Google Appliance. Google Home tricks and games Akinator What did we get for Christmas? Dan got a Nest Thermostat and a... Read more »
Dan got a new phone (cheap!), Dave got rid of Facebook, Daniel updated WordPress, Scott likes Reply All Podcast, Ken is scared of browser fingerprinting… and MORE! Dave deleted his FB account. There’s a place where FB shows you what it knows about you. Your Information > Your Categories Daniel just barely missed out on... Read more »
This week’s chat is about security. Dave went to a conference and wants to disconnect and move to the woods. We mess with Ken’s new Google Home. Dan is just sort of with us this week due to some technical issues. Ken got a Google Home… so we played with that a bit. Dave went... Read more »
Should Daniel get an iPhone X? We all weigh in on his tech purchase. We also chat about the Digital Summit Conference, how the new GVSU Admissions app is going and password vaults – is the cloud safe for your passwords? Thoughts on the iPhone X VERY expensive for what? Daniel is going to get... Read more »
Where does almond milk come from? We have a (maybe too in-depth) conversation to try to figure it out. We also chat about a bunch of other randomness including google tracking, home assistants (Google Home and Echo), and Dan’s upcoming Magic the Gathering event. A discussion on Almond (and various other) milks Dave got a... Read more »
We took an episode to talk about our tools a little while back. This time we take some time to talk about our favorite apps for our mobile devices (outside of the normal preinstalled ones). What are your favorite iOS or Android apps? What are you favorite smartphone apps? Kindle For (pleasure) reading Kindle Book... Read more »
Ken tells us all about his trip to WordCamp Minneapolis. We dig into cloud hosting (mainly for CMS), and get a bit into using Docker. Ken has Apple AirPods (and likes them) Wordcamp Minneapolis (~200 people) Keynote was about technology industry and mental health The community behind WP is very involved Rest API PODS (for... Read more »
It’s a random conversation this time, folks. We chat Zime (it’s back!), Dan getting stopped by the TSA, some future conferences, new podcasts we enjoy and Dave’s classes starting this fall. ZIMA IS BACK, BABY! The US asking for passwords to your phone at the border. TSA always asks to touch Dan’s belly. Dan accidently... Read more »
Russian hacking (they’re after Daniel), Admissions Apps, Google Search Appliance, Analytics, Icon Libraries, and more… brought to you today by the letter H (as in HEH, as in High Ed Hangout). Enjoy! Daniel gets hacked (likely Russians) and keeps dropping out of the podcast. He changed all his passwords. They will be listed in the... Read more »
Scott had a son, and is adjusting to life as a new parent (and the time he took off work). The GVSU guys jump back into accessibility training with a new consultant…. and then somehow the conversation transitions to quilts. Scott had a son, and talks about paternity leave and FMLA and paternity/maternity leave at... Read more »
Daniel kicks things off by trying to enjoy some fried chicken, but is foiled by his cats. From there we chat about our design process and making sure it fits the larger university brand. Then we try to figure out the definition of a landing page. Design process paper sketch Photoshop Omnigraffle for wireframing How... Read more »
It starts with the weather, moves on to politics, and then to religion (or at least a TV show slightly about religion) before the conversation moves on to discussions about college applications and how to improve their usability. It’s storming in Iowa and Daniel lives in tornado alley. (small talk about the weather) Presidential Politics... Read more »
The conversation tonight includes things learned via penetration testing at GVSU, what we know about retention policies at our schools (Internet Archive?) and content update policies. We also learn that GVSU Library has puppets you can check out… like a lot of puppets! Penetration testing at GVSU Very fixable things were found (one thing was... Read more »
Daniel is in Iowa City visiting Ken and Scott, so they are podcasting from the same location at the University of Iowa Libraries. Dan and Dave join remotely to discuss personal sites and hosting on campus and focus groups and how the kids use the internets these days. Ken, Daniel and Scott are in the... Read more »
The lost episode. Scott lost his internet connection, so the episode got called off. No internet = no podcast. 🙁
How do we handle user tracking and privacy policies for our university? What do we do for retargeting and advertising? What do we all use personally to keep our internet usage private? He got a new one https://www.crabbygear.com/ Privacy policies on our sites User tracking is somewhat new in higher edu, but commercial sites have... Read more »
Dan and Dave bring an enlightening report back from the CSUN Accessibility Conference in lovely San Diego, CA. Dan and Dave just got back from CSUN Accessibility Conference “Everyone will have a disability at some point in their life” Accessibility is just a branch of usability The UN has a ratification to make all their... Read more »
People keep uploading HUGE images, so we chat about the best ways to handle automatically optimizing them via the various CMS tools. We also dip into usability and card sorting exercises. Ken has an issue with people uploading non-optimized LARGE images. What’s the best way to deal with that? Img tag can use “srcset” which... Read more »
Tonight the topics center around outside vendors and products for various tasks at our universities. We cover digital marketing, scholarship searches, chat and events calendars. We also touch on strategic planning. What outside vendors do you use? GVSU: Siteimprove GVSU: google and FB ads consultant provide a report for digital advertising UALR: digital marketing buyer... Read more »
Tonight the High Ed Hangout gents talk about security and what they’re doing to make their sites more secure. They also chat about rolling out new features and updating their CMS. Possible SQL injection attack on GVSU reported by a student Security offices in all of our separate universities who look for this. UALR has... Read more »
The gents chat about current books they are reading and then talk about what (non-computer) hardware they use for home, media, health and more. What books are we currently reading? What hardware do you use? Amazon Echo Smartthings Home Control Ken built an echo with a Raspberry Pi Nest Thermostat Automatic bluetooth connector for car... Read more »
This episode is the podcast podcast (how meta!). The gang shares their favorite podcasts that span the gamut on topics. Tune in, and you might just find something new to listen to. Our Favorite Podcasts Serial Season was waaaaay better than season 2 Reply All Random topics about the internet Startup Podcast The startup of... Read more »
A site gets destroyed (temporarily), and how we all test our sites and prepare for the worst. We also talk about our favorite childhood games. Ken destroys his Iowa Library site Testing with the new google tester Used a plugin for compression (w3 total cache plugin) Got all 100’s (because an error 500 page loads... Read more »
The gang talks about the what new strategies and goals they have for their schools/sites. It covers speed, new applications, and updates to the CMS. They also look into web boot camps for new hires. What’s 2017 going to be in your area? Strategies? Goals? GVSU Upgrade to the CMS to reflect the new design... Read more »
For some reason throw-up is a common thread to kick this one off. Dan’s cat throws up, and Dave and Dan take a trip which involves a (rather humorous) throw-up story as well involving an airplane barf bag. We also chat about web infrastructure in other parts of the world, and how much we hate... Read more »
Ken goes to an island and gets married. GVSU looks at taking over web representation of grad programs, We talk about staff training opportunities and communities that our individual universities provide. Leroyyyy Jenkins! GVSU, after looking at analytics has taken over grad programs centrally because there is very little (or poor) data available. Does the... Read more »
We delve a bit deeper into Daniel’s trip to the HighEdWeb conference in Memphis. He shares the take-aways, and we chat about how all of us can implement some of the things talked about (centralized web support across campus – pay vs. no-pay). Daniel sums up HighEdWeb in Memphis http://wso2.com/ WordPress API being developed (very... Read more »
This episode is all about conferences. How do we get funding? How often do we get to go? How do we select a conference? We also reminisce (again) about how great SXSW used to be. Daniel at HighEdWeb in Memphis Fienen’s Totally Topical, Terrific Tutorial to Tag Manager Double-ken What makes a good conference? SXSW... Read more »
How do we social? What channels do we all use personally and what do our universities use? How do we keep up on the current social trends and use social in a way that is befitting to an institution of higher education? Social Snapchat Is your school on it? How do they use it? My... Read more »
HTML emails are hard to make! We chat about the process we use to build and send email as well as how we track our users and advertise our schools. We also look into using students and classes for help. React.js vs AngluarJS Using student/classroom work GVSU technical writing class UALR prototyping Working on mentoring... Read more »
We list the tools we use on a regular basis for various development tasks and general use, including coding, password management, utility/productivity, package management, and image optimization. Coding/Development Firebug (Firefox Plugin) Chrome Developer Tools Firefox Developer Edition GIT and SourceTree Tower ($$) Password Management 1Password Wiki for internal passwords LastPass mSecure Password Safe Utility/Productivity To... Read more »
We talk about languages, which are the most popular, and which ones we like the best (and why). Iowa launches a new admissions website. How we use content types, and ways we could use them better. Why does Dan love (hate?) Cold Fusion? Why not just PHP? http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ (CF is not in the top 50)... Read more »
GVSU launches their new site and get a lot of comments (some good, some not). We talk about what went into the new site, and the process taken to launch. We also discuss how we use our CMS to assign rolls and edit across different audiences. GVSU Homepage Launch (www.gvsu.edu) How did you launch? (this... Read more »
We add our comments to an article criticizing university websites, and then add even more comments to a response from Michael Fienen to the original article. Original Article: University websites: The so-so, the bad, and the egregious Michael Fienen Response: Dear Higher Ed Administrators Urban Dictionary: ParaText
School colors and how they’re used on the website. What does that mean for link colors and accessibility? What sort of branding policy is in place? How does it work. The guys take different stances on the best way to brand a university website. What are your school’s colors, and what issues do you run... Read more »
How we got into tech (and our embarrassing first websites). Some Hangout members purchased the Squatty Potty and they want to talk about it. Plus the first ever HEH topic lightning round. Intros: How we got into web/tech/job (our history with tech) Our First Sites: Dave: https://web.archive.org/web/20000229152442/http://www.greedyfly.com/ Dan(iel): https://web.archive.org/web/20010802034103/http://www.geocities.com/pokemon_games/index3.html Scott (high school site): https://web.archive.org/web/19961223105333/http://www.netins.net/showcase/ahschool/ Squatty... Read more »
Page-turn PDF viewers, smartphone apps, virtual tours, and how The University of Waterloo protects its students from geese. Magazine page turning (PDF viewers) Not accessible “If we use it we could be sued” Create dynamic web content as an alternative Re-purpose source material into new and interesting interfaces (tablet/smartphone/magic new device) University Smartphone Apps Use... Read more »
Highlights from the Smashing Conference in New York, Custom 404 pages, beautiful calligraphy and more. Smashing Conference Update from Scott and Dan http://smashingconf.com/ny-2016/schedule Design for touch Future input devices (touch+keyboard/mouse, voice, etc.) Design everything bigger: touch first Can’t assume based solely on screensize alone anymore SVG Responsive SVG Shared pattern language Take an interface, cut... Read more »
Learn how the (high ed) hangout got started with the HEH! origin story. Site performance: Dan spills his guts on how he got a 100 on the Google page-speed test. UrbanDictionary Word of the Day: Breastie? Origin Story (SXSW 2007, 2008) Mobile admission application experiences How do you plan for web groups Audiences Presentations? Site... Read more »
This episode takes a deep dive into accessibility and how we try to keep our sites accessible. Accessibility WCAG 2.0 AA is the rule for all our schools SiteImprove (GVSU, UALR) Compliance Sherif (Iowa) We need a tool that checks on the fly for content editors – or an API into existing checkers. Training should... Read more »
Site search options, browsers, computer platform of choice, and more… Site Search (what do you use?) Google Custom search with a Google Appliance at GVSU Library Search (collections vs. website) Firefox or Chrome? Safari is the new IE Everyone uses Chrome now (except for Scott, who likes his plugins) What machines do the Geeks use?... Read more »
OK, here we go… the very first hangout! The geeks talk web carousels, site navigation and how to determine your site audience. Carousels Homepage Audience? Prospective students? Current students? Athletics fans? Alumni?