Welcome to episode 88 of the EdTech Situation Room from March 13, 2018, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week special guest Jennifer Carey (@TheJenCarey) and Wes Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the admirable way Florida teens have used social media to advocate for political change following the Parkland school shooting, how we can help curb trolling and harassment on Twitter by reporting it when we see it, and how YouTube seems coded to be a radicalizing influence through its recommendation engine. Social media analysis continued with discussion about a recent Wired article highlighting how Russia’s “abuse” of Facebook during the 2016 elections essentially constituted an adept use of the platform as it’s been designed to serve advertisers through micro-targeting, and the ways “the smartphone has become the new bogeyman” for many parents decrying the ills of social media much like parents blaming television watching in the 1980s. The need for expanded digital citizenship conversations at school to include “digital hygiene” including a focus on password managers and two-step verification was discussed, as well as the solution to a recent mystery involving laughing Amazon Alexa smart assistants. A discussion about Apple’s emphasis on privacy but lagging innovation with artificial intelligence and Siri rounded out the discussion, including rumors of a new (and less expensive) MacBook Air laptop coming in the second quarter. Geeks of the week included a discounted laser cutter from Glowforge, Gaggle’s Safety Management service, Slack for team messaging, the new Google Sites, and amazing augmented reality examples from the New York Times featuring Olympic athletes. Check out our full list of links on edtechsr.com/links, and be sure to follow us on Twitter for show updates @edtechSR. Next week special guest Carl Hooker (@mrhooker) will join Wes at our regular show time (9 pm central on Wednesday) as Jason Neiffer continues to hunker down and finish his dissertation this month. Please share feedback by reaching out on Twitter or leaving a comment on our website at edtechsr.com.
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)
- Jennifer Carey (@TheJenCarey) – blog
- Wes Fryer (@wfryer) – blog: speedofcreativity.org
- ATLIS 2018 Conference
- What Parkland Tells us About Teens and Social Media (JSTOR Daily, 6 March 2018)
- YouTube, the Great Radicalizer (NY Times, Zeynep Tufekci, 10 March 2018)
- Digital Citizenship Conversations (Digital Citizenship videos and discussion questions by Casady School)
- Bad Actors Are Using Social Media Exactly As Designed (Wired, 11 March 2018)
- Has dopamine got us hooked on tech? (Guardian, 4 March 2018)
- Wait Until 8th Grade (to give your kid a smartphone)
- Schools Teach ‘Cyber Hygiene’ to Combat Phishing, Identity Theft (Education Week, 6 March 2018)
- Amazon Knows Why Alexa Was Laughing at Its Customers (NY Times, 8 March 2018)
- Joanna Stern video “Facebook Really Is Spying on You, Just Not Through Your Mic” (Wall Street Journal, 7 Mar 2018)
- A cheaper MacBook Air makes perfect business sense for Apple (CNBC, 5 March 2018)
- Jen’s Geeks of the Week: Slack, New Google Sites, Augmented Reality (How We Achieved an Olympic Feat of Immersive Journalism, NYTimes 8 Feb 2018)
- Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Pre-Order Pricey Glowforge 3D Laser Printer and Gaggle Safety Management
Excellent video by @JoannaStern for a #DigCit lesson with students on social media & advertiser tracking https://t.co/rLs7ovEuIB #edtechSR
— Wesley Fryer 🌎🎙🚀 (@wfryer) March 12, 2018
