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EdTechSR Ep 326: Live from Japan!

Welcome to episode 326 (“Live From Japan!”) of the EdTech Situation Room from May 8, 2024, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) joined live from Kyoto, Japan, and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) joined from Charlotte, North Carolina. They discussed a variety of topics including Jason’s travel experiences in Japan, the latest Apple product updates, and the significance of privacy and security in technology. Key discussions included: Jason’s culinary adventures in Japan and observations on the strong dollar’s impact on travel costs. The latest updates to Apple’s iPads, with a focus on their implications for education and the mixed reactions from the tech community. The importance of multi-factor authentication highlighted by a major healthcare cyber attack due to its absence. The role of debate in developing critical thinking skills in an AI-dominated world. Media literacy and the new challenges posed by sophisticated propaganda and misinformation campaigns. “Geeks of the Week” included Google’s free webinar series “Generative AI for Teachers” (from Wes), and Amazon Prime’s series “Fallout” based on the popular video game (from Jason). Our show was live-streamed and archived simultaneously on YouTube Live as well as Facebook Live via StreamYard.com. Please follow our @EdtechSR page on Facebook, @edtechsr@mastodon.education on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All shownotes are available on edtechSR.com/links. AI Disclosure: An initial draft of this episode summary was generated using youtubetranscript.com and a custom GPT on ChatGPT, as well as options for our show title! Stay savvy and safe!

Shownotes

  1. Subscribe to our EdTechSR Substack Newsletter!
  2. EdTech Situation Room Listener Survey: wfryer.me/edtechsr
  3. Follow EdTechSR on Facebook, Mastodon and Substack!
  4. Audio podcast feed (Subscribe with iTunes or Stitcher)
  5. Video version on YouTube
  6. Check out our video podcast feed and subscribe to our YouTube Channel (episodes also in this YouTube playlist)
  7. Jason Neiffer (Mastodon: mastodon.cloud/@neif) – aicentrist.com – blog: blog.ncce.org
  8. Wes Fryer (Mastodon: mastodon.cloud/@wfryer) – wesfryer.com/after
  9. Google’s New AI Predicts Molecular Behavior, Which Could Supercharge Drug Discovery (CNet, 8 May 2024)
  10. Our Students’ Future in an AI-World is Debatable (Higher Education Digest; 3 May 2024)
  11. Related: The American Lyceum
  12. AIs can now pull quotes from articles without hallucination (Stefan Bauschard; 8 May 2024)
  13. This Week in Tech 977 Gahoo Yoogle (with Amy Webb and Kevin Rose)
  14. Mitt Romney Reveals Twisted Reason Why Congress Moved to Ban TikTok (New Republic, 6 May 2024)
  15. OMG NEW APPLE STUFF!  Everything announced at Apple’s Let Loose iPad event (Engadget; 8 May 2024)
  16. Apple’s Crushing iPad Ad Trashed By Hugh Grant, Justine Bateman & Almost Everyone Else (Deadline, 8 May 2024)
  17. Is Apple BEHIND on AI???  Fitting Facts To The Narrative At The Washington Post (John Gruber, Daring Fireball; 6 May 2024)
  18. The New Propaganda War (The Atlantic, June 2024)
  19. How your behavior became the world’s biggest resource (Technically Optimistic Podcast, 24 April 2024)
  20. Change Healthcare cyberattack was due to a lack of multifactor authentication, UnitedHealth CEO says (AP News, 1 May 2024)
  21. UnitedHealth says Change hackers stole health data on ‘substantial proportion of people in America’ (TechCrunch, 22 Apr 2024)
  22. Jason’s Geeks of the Week: ChatGPT… for travel advice! and Fallout on Amazon Prime
  23. Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Democracy and Human Rights Need Your Voice! (2.5 min) and all recorded “Webinars with Wes” are FREE! And free Grow with Google course “AI for Educators”
“AI Jason in Japan” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

EdTechSR Ep 324: Deep Dives into Disinformation

Welcome to episode 324 (“Deep Dives in Disinformation”) of the EdTech Situation Room from April 17, 2024, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer and Dr. Wesley Fryer discussed a variety of important topics in educational technology and AI’s impact on education, from San Diego, California and Charlotte, North Carolina respectively. Jason opened the episode by sharing his experiences at the ASU + GSV conference, which brought together leaders in education and technology. The discussions at the conference focused heavily on the integration of AI in educational settings and the ethical implications of new technologies. Wes and Jason then delved into the pressing issue of Kremlin-backed actors spreading disinformation through sophisticated AI tools. They discussed the evolution of disinformation tactics and the crucial role of media literacy in combating these threats. The co-hosts explored various other technological updates, including new developments from Google and Microsoft, emphasizing the educational potentials and challenges of these innovations. They also addressed the need for thoughtful integration of AI tools in education, to enhance learning without compromising ethical standards. “Geeks of the Week” featured valuable tools and resources for educators. Among these, Jason highlighted an AI-powered music creation tool, emphasizing its potential to revolutionize educational content delivery. Our show was live-streamed and archived simultaneously on YouTube Live as well as Facebook Live via StreamYard.com. Please follow our @EdtechSR page on Facebook, @edtechsr@mastodon.education on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All shownotes are available on edtechSR.com/links. AI Disclosure: An initial draft of this episode summary was generated using youtubetranscript.com and a custom GPT on ChatGPT, as well as options for our show title! Stay savvy and safe!

Shownotes

  1. Subscribe to our EdTechSR Substack Newsletter!
  2. EdTech Situation Room Listener Survey: wfryer.me/edtechsr
  3. Follow EdTechSR on Facebook, Mastodon and Substack!
  4. Audio podcast feed (Subscribe with iTunes or Stitcher)
  5. Video version on YouTube
  6. Check out our video podcast feed and subscribe to our YouTube Channel (episodes also in this YouTube playlist)
  7. Jason Neiffer (Mastodon: mastodon.cloud/@neif) – aicentrist.com – blog: blog.ncce.org
  8. Wes Fryer (Mastodon: mastodon.cloud/@wfryer) – wesfryer.com/after
  9. Texas will use computers to grade written answers on this year’s STAAR tests (Texas Tribune, 9 April 2024)
  10. Hard Fork Podcast: “A.I.’s Data Wall + a Surprise Privacy Bill + What Happened to the TikTok Ban?” (12 Apr 2024)
  11. AI Music Generation Takes Center Stage: Udio and Suno
  12. Kremlin-backed actors spread disinformation ahead of US elections (ArsTechnica, 17 Apr 2024)
  13. https://substack.com/@katieharbath 
  14. The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness? (Nature; 29 March 2024)
  15. Apple Plans to Overhaul Entire Mac Line With AI-Focused M4 Chips (Bloomberg; 11 April 2024)
  16. Apple is reportedly planning a big AI-focused M4 Mac upgrade (The Verge; 11 April 2024)
  17. Jason’s Geek of the Week: AI Chat Battle!
  18. Wes’ Geek of the Week: StoryGraph
“EdTech Situation Room: Episode 324” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

EdTechSR Ep 233 Privacy Protection Prescriptions

Welcome to episode 233 (“Privacy Protection Prescriptions”) of the EdTech Situation Room from September 29, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Apple updates to its productivity software suite, iPhone 13 stress tests and reviews, and strategies to avoid a Facebook hack. An important new guide to “resetting privacy controls” on your devices from the Washington Post, the NSA and CIA’s behavioral endorsement of ad blockers in our “dangerous” advertising environment, and the inability of anyone to “escape Facebook tracking” today were also discussed. Lithuania’s extreme request to people to throw away Huawei (Chinese made) smartphones, the EFF’s positive announcement that secure website connections (https) have finally been normalized in all popular web browsers, and a questionable password security website were highlighted topics. Jason’s recommendation of the Darknet Diaries podcast, the a data breach in Canada by a vaccine verification app (Portpass), EU warnings to Russia over possible election cyberattacks in Germany, the new Amazon device announcements, and the power of teen influencers on TikTok to disrupt scientific research were articles rounding out this week’s show. Geeks of the Week included former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s recent interview on “How AI Shapes Our Human Future” (aka “Misinformation Is About to Get So Much Worse”) and the power of “pocket notebooks” (like Field Notes) to boost personal productivity. Please see our shownotes for links to all these articles and resources! Our show was live streamed and archived simultaneously on YouTube Live as well as our Facebook Live page via StreamYard.com, and compressed to a smaller video version (about 100MB) on AmazonS3 using Handbrake software. 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. Stay savvy and safe!

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) – wesfryer.com/after
  8. Apple updates free Keynote, Pages and Numbers iWork apps to take on Microsoft Office (CNet; 28 September 2021)
  9. iPhone 13 Pro Max sets record in smartphone battery stress test, with almost ten hours of continuous use (9 to 5 Mac; 24 September 2021)
  10. Apple iPhone 13 Review: The Most Incremental Upgrade Ever (The New York Times; 21 September 2021)
  11. How to Avoid a Facebook Hack – with a personal password audit (Wes Fryer’s SubStack, 27 Sept 2021)
  12. Privacy Reset: A guide to the important settings you should change now (Washington Post, 23 Sept 2021)
  13. The NSA and CIA Use Ad Blockers Because Online Advertising Is So Dangerous (Motherboard; 23 September 2021)
  14. There’s no escape from Facebook, even if you don’t use it (Washington Post, 29 August 2021)
  15. Lithuania urges people to throw away Chinese phones (BBC News, 22 Sept 2021)
  16. Electronic Frontier Foundation will deprecate HTTPS Everywhere plugin (ArsTechnica, 27 Sept 2021)
  17. Not sure about the safety of this site: www.xposedornot.com
  18. Darknet Diaries (podcast recommendation from Jason)
  19. Portpass app may have exposed hundreds of thousands of users’ personal data (CBC News, 28 Sept 2021)
  20. EU warns Russia over cyberattacks ahead of German elections (AP, 24 Sept 2021)
  21. Everything to know about 3 new Amazon devices unveiled on Tuesday (Fortune, 28 Sept 2021)
  22. A teenager on TikTok disrupted thousands of scientific studies with a single video (Verge, 24 Sept 2021)
  23. Wes’ Geeks of the Week: [VIDEO] How AI Shapes Our Human Future (Eric Schmidt, 19.5 min) – Transcript titled “Misinformation Is About to Get So Much Worse” and NASA’s Artemis Rover to Land Near Nobile Region of Moon’s South Pole (2:45 video)
  24. Jason’s Geek of the Week: A Pocket Notebook Is the Best Productivity Booster (LifeSavvy; 20 September 2021) – Field Notes – Much Cheaper Alternative

EdTechSR Ep 225 Beware Video Embeds

Welcome to episode 225 (“Beware Video Embeds”) of the EdTech Situation Room from July 28, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed media literacy, privacy, changing iOS app icons, Microsoft Edge’s latest version, Google news, social media updates from Clubhouse, Twitter and Facebook, and a cautionary tale from a defunct video sharing site. Please see our shownotes for links to all these articles and resources! Our show was live streamed and archived simultaneously on YouTube Live as well as our Facebook Live page via StreamYard.com, and compressed to a smaller video version (about 100MB) on AmazonS3 using Handbrake software. 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. Stay savvy and safe!

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) – wesfryer.com/after
  8. Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds (The Guardian, 17 July 2021)
  9. Disinformation for Hire, a Shadow Industry, Is Quietly Booming (NY Times, 25 July 2021)
  10. QR Codes Are Here to Stay. So Is the Tracking They Allow (New York Times; 26 July 2021)
  11. This outed priest’s story is a warning for everyone about the need for data privacy laws (Recode, 21 July 2021)
  12. iOS 14.7 lets you change iPhone app icons. Here’s how to make your home screen ‘aesthetic’ (cNet; 25 July 2021)
  13. Microsoft Edge 92 starts rolling out to mainstream users (ZDNet; 22 July 2021)
  14. Classroom adapts for the future of learning and teaching (Google Blog; 22 July 2021)
  15. YouTube’s newest monetization tool lets viewers tip creators for their uploads (TechCrunch, 20 July 2021)
  16. Google is finally doing something about Google Drive spam (ArsTechnica, 23 July 2021)
  17. Google pushed a one-character typo to production, bricking Chrome OS devices (Ars Technica; 22 July 2021)
  18. Clubhouse is now out of beta and open to everyone you (TechCrunch, 21 July 2021)
  19. Twitter is shutting down Fleets on August 3, citing low usage (TechCrunch, 14 July 2021)
  20. How Facebook let fake engagement distort global politics: a whistleblower’s account (Guardian, 12 April 2021) via Your Undivided Attention (9 July 2021)
  21. Twitter for iOS begins testing dislike button for some users (9to5Mac, 21 July 2021)
  22. Twitter shares a first look at the ‘big overhaul’ coming to TweetDeck (The Verge; 20 July 2021)
  23. A Defunct Video Hosting Site Is Flooding Normal Websites With Hardcore Porn (Motherboard; 22 July 2021)
  24. Jason’s Geeks of the Week: Present at NCCE 2022! – Gravy Podcast on Prison Food
  25. Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Google’s Paint with Music and Digital Learning Activities with Google Drawings and Twitter Bookmarks

EdTechSR Ep 202 – Google Down

Welcome to episode 202 (“Google Down”) of the EdTech Situation Room from December 16, 2020, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Google news including Wednesday’s temporary service outage, acquisition of Neverware, the death of Cloud Print, and the controversial firing of AI researcher and ethicist watchdog Timnit Gebru. Updates to Firefox and Microsoft Office for native MacOS M1 processor support, and developer-mandated revelations about the jaw-dropping ways Facebook’s iOS app tracks user behavior and collects private data. Facebook’s new PR ad campaign “advocating for small businesses” (ok, whatever…), YouTube’s streaming music dominance over all other players, the huge popularity of gaming videos on streaming networks, and disinformation commentary from Roger McNamee as well as Facebook’s oversight board’s initially selected cases were topics rounding out this week’s show. Geeks of the Week included T-Mobile’s first 5G hotspot and dataplan, DownDetector.com, and Troy Hunt’s spectacularly helpful “Compromised Password Checker.” Our show was live streamed and archived simultaneously on YouTube Live as well as our Facebook Live page via StreamYard.com, and compressed to a smaller video version (about 100MB) on AmazonS3 using Handbrake software. 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

  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 – Shared Media Literacy Lessons & Curriculum
  8. 2021 Will Launch the Platinum Age of Piracy (Wired, 12 Dec 2020)
  9. Gmail was messed up for a ‘significant’ number of users today (The Verge, 15 Dec 2020)
  10. Google acquires Neverware, a company that turns old PCs into Chromebooks (The Verge, 16 Dec 2020)
  11. Google acquires Neverware, the company that brings Chrome OS to older laptops with CloudReady (About Chromebooks, 15 Dec 2020)
  12. Migrate From Google Cloud Print With These 12 Alternatives (Chrome Unboxed, 7 Dec 2020)
  13. More than 1,200 Google workers condemn firing of AI scientist Timnit Gebru (The Guardian, 4 Dec 2020)
  14. We read the paper that forced Timnit Gebru out of Google. Here’s what it says. (MIT Technology Review, 4 Dec 2020)
  15. Timnit Gebru: Google and big tech are ‘institutionally racist’ (BBC News, 14 Dec 2020)
  16. “I started crying”: Inside Timnit Gebru’s last days at Google—and what happens next (MIT Technology Review, 16 Dec 2020)
  17. Firefox’s latest update brings native support for Apple’s Arm-based Macs (The Verge, 16 Dec 2020)
  18. Microsoft releases native Office apps for M1 Macs (ComputerWorld, 15 Dec 2020)
  19. Latest iOS update shows all the ways Facebook tracks you. There are a lot. (Mashable, 16 Dec 2020)
  20. Facebook attacks Apple in full-page newspaper ads over ad-tracking (95o5Mac, 16 Dec 2020)
  21. This Week In Tech 800 – It’s Coming From Leo2 (TWiT, 6 Dec 2020)
  22. Did you know: The most popular music streaming platform isn’t Spotify (Android Authority, 6 Dec 2020)
  23. YouTube touts 40M active gaming channels with 100B hours of watch time in 2020 (9to5 Google, 8 Dec 2020)
  24. 2020 Was The Year Of The Twitch Streamer (The Verge, 16 Dec 2020)
  25. Roger McNamee on disinformation’s spread: Everyone is ‘isolated in their own Truman Show’ (NBC Universal / Yahoo News, 12 Dec 2020)
  26. From hate speech to nudity, Facebook’s oversight board picks its first cases (Reuters, 1 Dec 2020)
  27. Jason’s Geek of the Week: T-Mobile introduces its first 5G hotspot and a 100GB standalone plan for $50 (The Verge, 10 Dec 2020)
  28. Wes’ Geek of the Week: DownDetector – Compromised Password Checker by Troy Hunt