EdTech Situation Room Episode 162

Welcome to episode 162 of the EdTech Situation Room from January 15, 2020, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Microsoft’s new Edge Chromium web browser, Instagram’s new policy to hide ‘faked’ images, ‘Techlash” against the big tech companies on college campuses, and new research about blue light and sleep with our digital screens. More U.S. states mandating media literacy education, the arrival of WiFi 6 at last, the NSA’s laudable decision to share a zero day exploit with Microsoft, and an update on recent drone formation sightings at night in eastern Colorado were also highlighted topics. On the security front, terrible password advice from the South China Morning Post and an update emergency for FireFox highlighted by U.S. Homeland Security officials were discussed. Boeing employees provided a good case study and reminder for us all about email retention with recently revealed “FAA mocking” messages, SpaceX as the world’s top satellite operator, and a recent critical article in Oklahoma City news about the Norman Public Schools’ laptop initiative rounded out the show. Geeks of the Week included Luke Miani’s YouTube Channel (amazing hacks and repurposing of older MacOS and iOS devices), Twinkly, and the “No Dumb Questions” podcast episode 72 on “How Did Humans Find Hawaii?” Our show was live streamed and archived simultaneously on YouTube Live as well as our Facebook Live page via StreamYard.com. Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR for updates, and join us LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can at 10 pm Eastern / 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific or 3 am UTC. All shownotes are available on http://edtechSR.com/links.

Shownotes:

  1. EdTech Situation Room Listener Survey: wfryer.me/edtechsr
  2. Follow @edtechSR on Twitter!
  3. Audio podcast feed (Subscribe with iTunes or Stitcher)
  4. Video version on YouTube
  5. Check out our video podcast feed and subscribe to our YouTube Channel (episodes also in this YouTube playlist)
  6. Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) – blog: blog.ncce.org
  7. Wes Fryer (@wfryer) – blog: speedofcreativity.orgWes’ Media and Digital Literacy Curriculum / Classroom Website
  8. Microsoft’s new Edge Chromium browser launches on Windows and macOS (The Verge; 15 January 2020)
  9. Instagram is hiding faked images, and it could hurt digital artists (The Verge; 15 January 2020)
  10. ‘Techlash’ Hits College Campuses (New York Times; 11 January 2020)
  11. Forget What You Think You Know About Blue Light and Sleep (Time; 10 January 2020)
  12. More States Say They’re Teaching Media Literacy, But What That Means Varies (Education Week, 8 Jan 2020)
  13. Wi-Fi 6 is finally here (The Verge; 11 January 2020)
  14. The NSA Could’ve Used This Major Windows Security Flaw for Intel Work. Instead, It Told Microsoft About it (Time; 14 January 2020)
  15. Theories Persist About Mystery Drones Seen in Rural Region (AP via Snopes, 15 Jan 2020)
  16. Terrible Password Security Advice: How to protect your smart home devices from hackers: smart speakers, robotic vacuums, video doorbells – all are vulnerable (South China Morning Post, 14 Jan 2020)
  17. The U.S. Government Says You Need to Update Firefox Right Now (Digital Trends, 10 Jan 2020)
  18. Boeing Employees Mocked FAA Privately In Emails Before 737 Max Disasters (NPR, 10 Jan 2020) – Good email retention case study and reminder
  19. SpaceX is now the world’s largest satellite operator (ArsTechnica, 6 January 2020)
  20. ‘They want them gone’: Norman parents complain of school devices (The Oklahoman, 14 Jan 2020)
  21. Thoughts on Content Filtering, Parent Education, and School Laptop Initiatives (Wes Fryer, 14 Jan 2020)
  22. Most U.S. teens who use cellphones do it to pass time, connect with others, learn new things (PEW Research, Aug 2019)
  23. Jason’s Geek of the Week: Luke Miani YouTube Channel
  24. Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Twinkly and How Did Humans Find Hawaii? – No Dumb Questions Podcast Episode 72 (@nodumbqs) – reddit discussion thread)

EdTech Situation Room Episode 117

Welcome to episode 117 of the EdTech Situation Room from December 5, 2018, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the past week’s technology news through an educational lens. Topics for the show included Microsoft’s embrace of Chromium for their Windows10 web browser, the death of the Edge Browser, best choices on Mac laptops for schools after October’s special Apple event, and the perils of YouTube networks for content creators. The recent unfortunate content filtering / inappropriate content access situation on a Chromebook in Ridgewood Schools, New Jersey, reasons most doctors seem to hate their computer systems at work, Rudy Giuliani’s recent demonstration of Twitter ignorance, and a recent, amazing robot video from Boston Dynamics rounded out the show. We did have some technical glitches for about two minutes in the middle of this show, but that portion has been edited out of the downloadable audio and video versions posted here. Geeks of the week included TechSoup for nonprofits and an excellent podcast series on “The Daily” by the New York Times, “What The West Got Wrong About China.” Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR for updates, and join us LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can (normally) at 10 pm Eastern / 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific or 3 am UTC. All shownotes are available on http://edtechSR.com/links. Next week’s show will our holiday “Technology Shopping Cart” episode, check our shownotes for a link to our publicly editable Google Doc so you can share your own holiday tech tips for Santa!

Shownotes:

  1. EdTech Situation Room Listener Survey: wfryer.me/edtechsr
  2. Follow @edtechSR on Twitter!
  3. Audio podcast feed (Subscribe with iTunes or Stitcher)
  4. Video version on YouTube
  5. Check out our video podcast feed and subscribe to our YouTube Channel (episodes also in this YouTube playlist)
  6. Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) – blog: blog.ncce.org
  7. Wes Fryer (@wfryer) – blog: speedofcreativity.org
  8. Microsoft is building a Chromium-powered web browser that will replace Edge on Windows 10 (Windows Central, 3 Dec 2018)
  9. Google Chrome Is Poised to Swallow the Whole Internet (Popular Mechanics, 4 Dec 2018)
  10. The State of the Mac in 2018 (9 to 5 Mac, 2 Dec 2018)
  11. [VIDEO] Ultimate MacBook Showdown: MacBook Pro vs MacBook Air vs MacBook (Snazzy Labs, 24 Nov 2018, 18 min)
  12. Outcry For Alleged Sexual-Murder Video On Ridgewood School Laptop (Patch, 23 Nov 2018)
  13. Reading, Writhing And ‘Rithmetic: Ridgewood Mom Says Kids See Porn, Violence On School Laptops (Fort Lee Daily Voice, 20 Nov 2018)
  14. Security in place on school Chromebooks after mom says son saw ‘murder video’ (App.com, 23 Nov 2018)
  15. From the 4 Dec 2018 Ridgewood Schools District newsletterPresentation slides by IT Manager Serhiy Morhun
  16. Why Doctors Hate Their Computers (New Yorker, 12 Nov 2018)
  17. Rudy Giuliani Says Twitter Sabotaged His Tweet. Actually, He Did It Himself.
  18. Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Can Now Chase You Up the Stairs (Popular Mechanics, 11 Oct 2018)
  19. Trump administration releases Postal Service review after Amazon attacks (The Verge, 4 November 2018)
  20. Jason’s Geek of the Week: TechSoup for Non-Profits
  21. Wes’ Geek of the Week: What the West Got Wrong About China, Part 1 and Part 2 (The Daily by @mikiebarb)

EdTech Situation Room Episode 75

Welcome to episode 75 of the EdTech Situation Room from November 29, 2017, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wes Fryer (@wfryer) discussed rumors on other edtech podcasts that they are “a bit nerdy,” recent Apple security issues with the default root user account, and YouTube with respect to protecting kids and restricting content. Additional topics included the state of email in 2017 and useful apps / email workflow strategies, the amazingly fast new FireFox browser from Mozilla, exciting new announcements for more Android apps on Chromebooks, and the continued march of automation via AI, especially involving trucking. Geeks of the week included the upcoming December 15-31 “Ditch that Textook Digital Summit” (from Wes) and Google Voice (from Jason.) Refer to our podcast shownotes for all referenced news articles and links. Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR to stay updated, and join us LIVE for a future show at 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain most weeks on Wednesday night. Check all our shownotes on http://edtechSR.com/links

Shownotes:

  1. EdTech Situation Room Listener Survey: wfryer.me/edtechsr
  2. Follow @edtechSR on Twitter!
  3. Audio podcast feed (Subscribe with iTunes or Stitcher)
  4. Video version on YouTube
  5. Check out our video podcast feed and subscribe to our YouTube Channel (episodes also in this YouTube playlist)
  6. Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) – blog: blog.ncce.org
  7. Wes Fryer (@wfryer) – blog: speedofcreativity.org
  8. Wes and Jason called “a bit nerdy:” EdTech Take Out, Episode 35
  9. Anyone Can Hack Macos High Sierra Just By Typing “Root” (Wired; 28 November 2017)
  10. Apple releases update to fix critical macOS High Sierra security issue (The Verge, 29 November 2017)
  11. YouTube is not for kids (TechCrunch; 29 November 2017)
  12. YouTube advertisers quit over predatory child videos (USA Today; 24 November 2017)
  13. Jellies is a kid-friendly, parent-approved alternative to YouTube Kids (TechCrunch, 27 Nov 2017)
  14. YouTube Kids app (for iOS and Android)
  15. Block YouTube Ads in your Browser: UBlock Origin for Chrome and for FireFox
  16. YouTube Red
  17. Turn on YouTube Restricted Mode for Kids
  18. Email sucks, right?  Email Is Broken. Can Anyone Fix It? (Wired; 27 November 2017)
  19. Hop for Email: https://gethop.com
  20. Google/Apache Wave
  21. David Allen’s Getting Things Done
  22. InBox Zero [VIDEO] (Merlin Mann at Google Talks in 2007)
  23. Introducing the New Firefox: Firefox Quantum (Mozilla, 14 Nov 2017)
  24. Ciao, Chrome: Firefox Quantum Is The Browser Built For 2017 (Wired; 25 November 2017)
  25. Firefox Quantum Isn’t Just “Copying” Chrome: It’s Much More Powerful (How-to Geek; 25 November 2017)
  26. https://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php
  27. Chrome is the most popular web browser of all (ZDNet, Jan 2017)
  28. Nearly 60 Chromebooks now have Android apps enabled with more on the way (9 to 5 Google; 15 November 2017)
  29. Microsoft Office Lands on Chromebooks Everywhere (Chrome Unboxed; 22 November 2017)
  30. Will Tesla’s Automated Truck Kill Trucking Jobs? (Wired, 17 Nov 2017)
  31. VIDEO: How job surveillance is transforming trucking in America (Vox, 20 Nov 2017)
  32. Automation could kill 73 million U.S. jobs by 2030 (USA Today; 28 November 2017)

EdTech Situation Room Episode 38

Welcome to episode 38 of the EdTech Situation Room from January 25, 2017, where technology news meets educational analysis. Visit https://edtechsr.com/links to access all referenced links from our show. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach), Ben Wilkoff (@bhwilkoff) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed in-depth the new Chromebook announcements by the Google Chrome team, Samsung and Asus, and Microsoft’s announcement of “Intune for Education,” a cloud-based tool offering functionality to manage Windows10 devices similar to the Administration console in Google Apps for Education (gSuite). They discussed the alarming aggregation of data on millions of U.S. citizens by private companies using innocuous sounding web interactives like “Facebook quizzes.” Topics also included a recent major ransomware security event in U.S. libraries, China’s new crackdown on VPN connections, Walt Mossburg’s reflection on FireFox (the first serious alternative to the dominant Internet Explorer browser from Microsoft), and Trump’s new appointee to lead the FCC who may be hostile to network neutrality. Geeks of the week included resources and tutorial videos to help with USB-C dongle confusion (Jason), a very cool family Raspberry Pi project with local weather (Ben), and TinkerCAD’s 3D design export functionality to Minecraft (Wes). Please refer to our podcast shownotes for links to all referenced articles, videos, and resources from the show, and take a few minutes to complete our listener survey on http://wfryer.me/edtechsr.

Shownotes

  1. EdTech Situation Room Listener Survey: wfryer.me/edtechsr
  2. Follow @edtechSR on Twitter!
  3. Audio podcast feed (Subscribe with iTunes or Stitcher)
  4. Video version on YouTube
  5. Check out our video podcast feed and subscribe to our YouTube Channel (episodes also in this YouTube playlist)
  6. Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach)
  7. Ben Wilkoff (@bhwilkoff)
  8. Wes Fryer (@wfryer)
  9. Robots will start delivering food to doorsteps in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., today (18 Jan 2017, ReCode)
  10. A new generation of Chromebooks, designed for millions of students and educators (Chrome Blog, 24 January 2017)
  11. Samsung Chromebook Plus and Asus C213 Touch-based Chromebook Initial Thoughts Review (15 min video review by @bhwilkoff, 25 Jan 2017)
  12. To Re-Capture the Education Market, Microsoft Aims to Offer a Compelling Alternative to Google’s Chromebook (EdSurge, 25 January 2017)
  13. Trump’s FCC Pick Doesn’t Bode Well For Net Neutrality (Wired, 23 January 2017)
  14. The Secret Agenda of a Facebook Quiz (NY Times, 19 Nov 2016)
  15. China tightens Gr8 Firewall by declaring unauthorised VPN services illegal by @TheRealJoshYe (South China Morning Post @SCMP_News 23 Jan 2017)
  16. US libraries hit by ransomware attack (@BBCNews 24 Jan 2017)
  17. Mossberg: What’s up with Firefox, the browser that time forgot? (ReCode, 25 January 2017)
  18. Browser Statistics
  19. Visualization of Browser Market Share
  20. Facebook is changing its Trending section to fight the spread of fake news (Recode, 25 January 2017)
  21. Echo Chamber (WikiPedia)
  22. Jason’s Geek of the Week: From the Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog: Ask a Tech-Savvy Teacher: Help me with dongle-land!
  23. Wes’ Geek of the Week: Tinkercad – one of the easiest 3D design Minecraft mods around!
  24. Ben’s Geeks of the Week: Window on the Weather for Raspberry Pi and My daughter’s version (in Scratch)