Welcome to episode 177 (“COVID-19 May Change Colleges and Schools Forever”) of the EdTech Situation Room from May 13, 2020, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed predictions for how the COVID-19 pandemic may significantly disrupt higher education to the benefit of “top tier” universities, the glaring inequities in educational opportunities laid bare by mandated “remote learning” / learning at home today, and Congressional initiatives to expand broadband funding. The impact of paranoia of cheating on remote learning, and the “teachable moment” provided by the disinformation video “Plandemic” for media literacy, were discussed. On the security front, a major security flaw involving “Thunderbolt” computer ports, National Password Day, and an unfortunate disruption of an Oklahoma college graduation by a racist troll were highlighted. Privacy issues with smartphones in the COVID-19 pandemic was briefly discussed, and will be addressed at greater length in a future episode. Geeks of the Week included Goosechase mobile media scavenger hunt free upgrades for teachers, disinformation and social media visualization tools, a free 3 hour media literacy course on the “SIFT” framework, and a new way to run 1.5 million Android apps and games on your PC or Mac. Our show was live streamed and archived simultaneously on YouTube Live as well as our Facebook Live page via StreamYard.com. Thanks to everyone who joined us live and shared comments in our live chat! Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR for updates, and join us LIVE on Wednesday nights (normally) 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
- EdTech Situation Room Listener Survey: wfryer.me/edtechsr
- Follow @edtechSR on Twitter!
- Audio podcast feed (Subscribe with iTunes or Stitcher)
- Video version on YouTube
- Check out our video podcast feed and subscribe to our YouTube Channel (episodes also in this YouTube playlist)
- Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) – blog: blog.ncce.org
- Wes Fryer (@wfryer) – blog: speedofcreativity.org – Class website – Remote Learning Support Resources
- The Coming Disruption to College (NY Mag Intelligencer, 11 May 2020)
- Paranoia about cheating is making online education terrible for everyone (Recode; 4 May 2020)
- KidWriting Project by the National Writing Project (via @pgeorge)
- Facebook and YouTube are rushing to delete “Plandemic,” a conspiracy-laden video (MIT Technology Review, 7 May 2020)
- That ‘Plandemic’ conspiracy video has been thoroughly debunked, people. Stop pushing it on us. (Upworthy, 7 May 2020)
- Judy Mikovits in Plandemic: An antivax conspiracy theorist becomes a COVID-19 grifter (David Gorski, 6 May 2020)
- If Someone Shares the ‘Plandemic’ Video, How Should You Respond? (The Atlantic, 9 May 2020)
- “PlanDemic” Disinformation Teachable Moment During COVID-19 (Wes Fryer, 9 May 2020)
- Thunderbolt flaw allows access to a PC’s data in minutes (Recode; 11 May 2020)
- National Password Day project: A unique password for every website you go to (USA Today; 7 May 2020)
- Oklahoma University’s Virtual Graduation Ceremony Disrupted by Racist Hacker (Time Magazine, 10 May 2020)
- “The differences between the haves and have-nots:” Hispanic students disproportionately lack internet access (Denver Post, 27 April 2020)
- House Democrats want $5.5 billion for pandemic broadband funding (Recode; 12 May 2020)
- Americans are surprisingly open to letting their phones be used for coronavirus tracking (The Verge; 30 April 2020)
- Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Goosechase Education Free Upgrade till Sept 1st – Misinformation Tools by Indiana University Observatory on Social Media – Free 3 Hour Mini-Course on SIFT Media Literacy Framework
- Jason’s Geek of the Week: Weekend Nerd Project: How to run 1.5M Android apps, games on your PC, Mac (USA Today; 9 May 2020)
