Welcome to episode 22 of the EdTech Situation Room from September 14, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) had a special show. Rather than discuss a variety of recent technology news headlines, episode 22 focused exclusively on Dr. Nicholas Kardaras’ August 31, 2016 article for TIME Magazine, “Screens In Schools Are a $60 Billion Hoax.” The article highlights many of the key points in Kardaras’ newly published book, “Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction is Hijacking Our Kids—and How to Break the Trance.” Jason and Wes highlighted several of the valid points from the article regarding screentime, the powerful physiological influence of digital screens, and digital addictions. They also acknowledged misdirected educational technology movements, like the interactive whiteboard craze of the 2000’s and the race for educational technology companies to move standardized student assessments onto digital screens. Jason and Wes took issue, however, with Kardaras’ assertion that students in schools are better served with completely screen-free learning experiences. Referencing Neil Postman, John Seely Brown and other authors, they discussed how part of our obligation as educators it to prepare students to navigate the maze of digital distractions and information flows which characterize our modern age. Wes discussed the transformative benefits which digital technology can bring in differentiating reading experiences for students, and highlighted the example of his wife’s 3rd and 4th grade classroom in Oklahoma City which serves homeless students and families. Shelly Fryer (@sfryer) has taught in a 1:1 iPad classroom for the past 3 years, and uses apps like News-O-Matic to provide developmentally appropriate reading articles for students. Her students also use their technology tools to make and create, showing and sharing their learning and their developing skills. Jason took on the question, “If everything Kardaras’ argues is true, then what for schools?” He pointed out we can’t “un-invent” digital screens, so it’s important to help students become more saavy, intentional, and constructive users of digital screens to support learning and healthy living. Geeks of the week included amazing and affordable headphones from Monoprice (via Jason) and the free coding app for young kids, PBS Scratch Jr (from Wes). Check out past episode shownotes on https://edtechsr.com/links and be sure to follow @edtechSR for updates on Twitter http://twitter.com/edtechsr as well as on Facebook. If you listen to the show, please submit our listener survey using the shortened link http://wfryer.me/edtechsr which forwards to a Google Form. Your feedback and suggestions on the show are appreciated!
Welcome to episode 21 of the EdTech Situation Room from September 7, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the much-heralded Apple Event from earlier today which featured the announcement of the iPhone 7. Jason and Wes, in classic “Yayyyyy! …. or Mehhhhhhh…” analysis, broke down the major elements of the Apple Event. This included the iPhone 7 camera, the death of the headphone jack, newly announced AirPods, The Apple Watch Series 2, and iWork real-time collaboration. They also discussed missing announcements from the event, which included updates to the MacBook lineup, MacPro updates, iMac updates, or iPad/iPad Mini updates. They briefly discussed the Time Magazine article from August 31st, “Screens In Schools Are a $60 Billion Hoax,” and agreed to dedicate next week’s show entirely to analysis and responses to the varied (and slippery) arguments put forth by Nicholas Kardaras in the piece. Geeks of the week included the the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide (from Jason) and two outstanding videos to watch (from Wes) by Travor Muir and National Geographic. Check out the episode shownotes for links to referenced articles and resources. Also be sure to view our Google Doc with archived links from every show on edtechSR.com/links. Remember to follow us on Twitter @edtechSR and complete our listener/viewer survey, linked first this week in the shownotes! Your feedback counts and we love to hear from our fans around the world! (Note: About 18:45 of the show, we had some bandwidth hiccups in the Google Hangout… and we didn’t edit out that dead space from the show, so please persevere through this minor glitch. Overall given our tech constraints tonight, we’re thrilled with the audio and video quality!)
Shout out to Hall Davidson (@HallDavidson) & his legendary stories of recording audio tracks for his teen daughter’s iPad & changing meta info to masquerade as Miley Cyrus (back when she was cool with parents)
Welcome to episode 20 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 24, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the ascendency of smartphones as the primary media consumptive screen in U.S. households, NASA’s recent announcement to make all its research openly accessible, Google’s decision to discontinue Chrome apps for Mac and Windows, and Verizon’s continuing metamorphosis from a “baby bell” telco to a global corporate player in digital media. The November 2015 article in the Atlantic by Walter Kirn, “If You’re Not Paranoid, You’re Crazy” was also a catalyst for reflections in the show, as well as NASA’s press release about it’s newly installed docking portal in the International Space Station for commercial space vehicles from SpaceX, Boeing, and other companies. Check out all our podcast shownotes on https://edtechsr.com/links and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edtechSR. Please submit our short (6 question) listener survey using this link: http://wfryer.me/edtechsr
Welcome to episode 19 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 17, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed a heartwarming story from the Rio Olympics, the role (or non-role) of videoconferencing and live streaming in many K12 classrooms, the shutdown of Blab and the migration of Google Hangouts from Google+ to YouTube Live. Additional topics included the DMCA and “safe harbor” in the recording industry’s latest efforts to increase their take of streaming music revenues from YouTube, Verizon’s efforts to become a media company, the imminent arrival of Android apps to a Chromebook near you, and the effects of both social media and mobile screens on young minds. Geeks of the week included Remind.com and playposit.com. Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR to stay up to date upcoming live shows. Please reach out to us via Twitter and let us what you liked about the show and what you’d like to hear about in future episodes! Check out our shownotes on https://edtechsr.com/links.
Welcome to episode 18 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 3, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the impacts of cell phone availability for refugees in Greece, security and a new hack announced at the Black Hat Conference, millenial preferences for Microsoft Word over Google Docs for individual projects, the present and future of eBooks, the DNA revolution and DIY genomics. Geeks of the week included Paperpile (a software tool for research citations) and the @pfsense SG-2220 router. Follow us on Twitter @edtechSR to stay up to date on our live shows. If you listen to the show and especially if you like it, please reach out to us via Twitter and let us know! Check out our shownotes on https://edtechsr.com/links.
Welcome to episode 17 of the EdTech Situation Room from July 27, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the implications of Verizon’s announced purchase of Yahoo, the continued viral phenomenon of Pokemon Go, recent “billions records” of Apple and Facebook, and SpaceX’s successful launch of a new door for the International Space Station. Geeks of the week included the ViewMaster VR Headset, the 360 degree video panorama live broadcast from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, a crowd-sourced list of educational apps and videos for Google Cardboard, and the amazing Prisma app available for iOS and Android. Please follow us on Twitter for updates on shows @edtechSR, and check out our shownotes on https://edtechsr.com/links.
Welcome to episode 16 of the EdTech Situation Room from July 13, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed new Android phone security hacks, the viral phenomenon of Pokemon Go, and signs of the continuing disruptive upheaval of worldwide video distribution. We used a Google Hangout this week instead of Blab, but had some bandwidth issues which created some audio skips and interruptions in our webcast and podcast recording. We will continue to work on these connectivity and recording issues to bring you better audio next week! Please follow us on Twitter for updates on shows @edtechSR, and check out our shownotes on https://edtechsr.com/links.
Welcome to episode 15 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 28, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) were together in person at the ISTE Conference in Denver, Colorado! Following the day 2 keynote, they recorded a conversation about some of the exciting new announcements by Google, Amazon, and other companies during ISTE. Check out the podcast shownotes for links to referenced articles, which are also available on http://edtechSR.com/links. We had recording problems (again) with Blab, so are considering moving to a new livestreaming platform for the show. If you have suggestions we’d love to hear them! We’re considering Facebook Live or YouTube. We will NOT have a show next week on July 6 but should be back July 13. Follow us on Twitter @edtechSR to stay updated about days, times, and links for future live shows. We’d love for you to join us live if you can, and to send us feedback whenever you are able to listen to our show. Thanks for tuning in!
Welcome to episode 14 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 22, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) shared their best advice for educators attending the 2016 ISTE (International Society of Technology in Education) conference in Denver, Colorado. They also discussed important announcements from Apple’s recent Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) and what those may portend for teachers and schools. Additional news articles of discussion included the use of Periscope video on June 22nd by CSPAN when the US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan stopped “standard” TV coverage of a Democratic Party sit-in and the recent purchase of LinkedIn by Microsoft. Geeks of the Week included Jason’s pro-tip to shop for gamer-marketed computer mice and keyboards, and Wes’ recommendation of a $50 Jedi knight Star Wars costume on Amazon. Thanks to our live viewers Peggy in Arizona and Juan in Columbia for joining us live. We’re a worldwide show! Next week we’ll be broadcasting LIVE from ISTE in Denver, please mark your calendar and plan to join us. Also remember to follow @edtechSR on Twitter to stay updated with our latest episode showtimes. Note Wes had some bandwidth issues at about 51:30 of the show, so about 5 minutes of the webshow was edited out of the audio version of this episode but included in the video version.
Jason’s best ISTE advice: good shoes (prepare for lots of walking) and remember you can attend webcasted keynotes in less crowded lounges around the convention center! Don’t over do it with vendor hall swag!
Wes’ best ISTE advice: Attend the TeachMeet (Sunday- free!), Hangout in the Blogger’s Cafe, Watch all the Ignites before the Keynotes!
Welcome to episode 13 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 8, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed new research on teen media multitasking and cognition, project management software options including a new offering from Microsoft, more rumors of Apple’s WWDC event next week, continuing security / password hacks in the news and good advice for protecting your own web accounts, and more. Geeks of the week included Silicon Valley on HBO and the upcoming Coding and Minecraft Camps for Girls offered by Connected Camps. Check our updated episode links on https://edtechsr.com/links as well as the shownotes below for all the articles and resources mentioned in the show. Please reach out to us on Twitter or leave a comment to share feedback or just let us know you listened to the show and enjoyed it! Next week we will either be rescheduling or postponing due to a family birthday conflict, but we definitely WILL be both attending ISTE 2016 at the end of the month and hope to host a show there live from Denver! Follow @edtechSR on Twitter to stay updated with our latest episode dates, we’d love to have you join us live sometime!
