Welcome to episode 237 (“Fixing Social Media”) of the EdTech Situation Room from November 3, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed an amazing Wall Street Journal article featuring 12 Internet and cultural visionaries on “How to Fix Social Media.” Other articles on the social media / “tech correction” topic included “Facebook’s Lost Generation,” Facebook’s name change to “Meta,” the impact of Zuckerberg’s dream to transform the web into a “Ready Player One” VR playground. The financial impact of Apple’s iPhone privacy changes, Google’s policy to remove under-18 photos from search results, the debut of MacOS Monterey, and reasons you do NOT need the new MacBook Pro were also topics of discussion. The long awaited (for Jason) arrival of MacOS M1 processor native Google Drive for Desktop, the death of iMovie Theater, Google’s facilitation of work/life separation on Android devices, and Google Calendar’s option to schedule “Focus Time” were also highlighted. The arrival of Adobe PhotoShop on the web for Chromebook users, powerful, web-based image editing tools, and Geeks of the Week including a new NASA astronaut bio video, a “Parent University” slideshow about online influencers, and the “Mindful Schools” website as “geeks of the week” rounded out this weeks’ show. 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!
Welcome to episode 236 (“Shame on Canon”) of the EdTech Situation Room from October 20, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the biggest announcements from Apple’s Monday “Unleashed” event, The Apple Music Voice plan, Google’s Pixel 6 Event announcements, and the forthcoming launch of Chrome OS 94 with better human sounding voices. Other topics included MacOS’ forthcoming update to “Monterey” on October 25th, the Google Assistant’s updated code to stand up to profane users, and Canon’s distasteful choice to disable all-in-one scanning features for users when they run out of ink. A counter-point to last week’s article about a former Pentagon official declaring the US has already lost the AI race with China, the mental and physical health costs of TikTok, and Facebook’s concerns about Instagram losing youth marketshare were also discussed. Possibilities for “an effective social media regulator,” Facebook’s secret blacklist of prohibited people, organizations and topics, Donald Trump’s announced “Truth Social” platform, and some miscellaneous articles about drones saving dogs from volcanoes, Russian space snafus and the confused Missouri governor who thinks “view HTML source” is criminal hacking were final article topics rounding out the show. Geeks of the Week included SortMyList.com, a podcast about Charles Babbage by Steven B. Johnson, a whimsical videoconferencing platform in beta (ooo for web) and the New York Times’ new invite-only audio app experiment. 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!
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!
Welcome to episode 230 (“Don’t Shame WikiPedians”) of the EdTech Situation Room from September 9, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Google’s new ChromeOS notetaking web app, Cursive, Microsoft’s addition of “Reading” to MS Teams, and Windows 11 CPU requirements for older computers. Apple’s upcoming September 14th iPhone event and Twitter powered notification service, a call to stop “source shaming” the use of WikiPedia in academic research, and the regulatory effort in Germany to required 7 years of smartphone operating system updates were highlighted. Also on the Google front, an op-ed advocating for a ‘fix’ to auto-installs on new Chromebooks, a UK study highlighting the high frequency of extremist views among students in schools, and a report revealing continued problems with AI-powered facial recognition for black men were discussed. Additional topics included the start of “Super Follower Subscriptions” on Twitter, the expected dramatic reduction in price for Starlink Internet connectivity, Starlink’s projected expansion of production, and Logitech’s new technology to improve security for wireless computer peripherals. Geeks of the Week included the recent Angry Planet podcast episode, “Space: Final Frontier or Billionaires Playground,” the web advertising and data harvesting demo site how-i-experience-web-today.com, and the subscription-based iOS / WatchOS app, SleepWatch. 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!
Welcome to episode 226 (“Big YouTube EDU Changes”) of the EdTech Situation Room from August 4, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed news articles on Microsoft Office running on Chromebooks, PWAs (progressive web apps), emojis, cloud-based Windows 365 computers for rent, and the near-disaster on the International Space Station involving the new Nauka module from Russia. Problems with M1 MacBook displays, “The Day the Good Internet Died,” improvements to Google’s native office document editing, and substantial changes to the way YouTube can be used by students under 18 in schools were also highlighted. The security dangers of password autofill in browsers, the reliability of “Have I Been Pwned,” the influencer army hired by the White House to battle COVID disinformation, and the battle over remote work at large companies were also topics discussed in this week’s show. Several app options for “proving” your COVID vaccine status digitally were highlighted as well. Geeks of the Week included the online flight simulator Geo FS, Wes’ presentation for faculty at his school, “Google Classroom August 2021: Updates and Tips,” and Wes’ recent blog post, “More YouTube Restriction Options for Schools.” 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!
Welcome to episode 223 (“Windows 11 Underwhelms”) of the EdTech Situation Room from July 14, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the plethora of proposed “big tech regulations” in the U.S. Congress (our ongoing “tech correction,”) the underwhelming and somewhat confusing release of Windows 11 by Microsoft, AI content filtering by TikTok, and some articles about educational technology lessons school leaders should heed after our experiences during COVID with remote and hybrid learning models. Google and ChromeOS news including the release of the desktop version of the Opera browser for Android (and now ChromeOS) in the Google Play Store, and the sad change in Audacity Software (an open source project) into the “surveillance capitalism” fold with user data tracking. Geeks of the Week included SimpleNote by Automattic and a great new video from Veritasium YouTuber (Derek Muller) titled, “The Biggest Myth in Education,” focusing on learning styles and the complete LACK of educational research support for this theory. 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!
Welcome to episode 222 (“Ransomware Canary Speaks”) of the EdTech Situation Room from June 9, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed our ongoing computer chip shortage and likely impacts, the FCC-managed $7 billion connectivity fund for U.S. schools, and tech reviews on Lon.TV. Media recommendations from Wes’ middle school students, Apple’s WWDC 2021 announcements (just a few of them, there were a TON of newly announced features) and Apple’s forthcoming AirTag improvements were also highlighted. A clever video of AirTag tracking sent to North Korea, Tim Cook and Elon Musk, Amazon Prime Day June 21-22, the password breach behind the Colonial Pipeline hack, and the FBI Director’s Ransomware 9-11 warning / comparison were topics rounding out the show. Geeks of the Week included ArcGIS StoryMaps, River Runner, a permanent Minecraft enchantment, and the Digital Learning Annual Conference. 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. Note we will be on a 4 week summer break starting next week! Our next show will be Wednesday, July 14, 2021. Stay savvy and safe!
Welcome to episode 220 (“The Big Lebowski”) of the EdTech Situation Room from May 26, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Jason’s increasing resemblance to Jeff Bridges, lots of updates to Google Workspace (formerly known as Google Suite,) Google I/O 2021 updates, and Google’s apparent rediscovery of RSS. The less-than-perfect ways people are using password managers, the forthcoming retirement (in 2022) of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, malware on MacOS, and the malware dangers faced by remote workers were also highlighted. Additional Google show topics included the Google Teacher Center and Google Educator Certifications. On the security front, Joe Biden’s secret Venmo account was discussed. On the social media / “tech correction” front, a Florida law to punish “politician deplatforming” online, a new Russian law pushing Google to delete “offending” content within 24 hours, and the “empty promise” of Facebook’s new feature to “hide likes” were explored. On the hardware front, a recent Verge article evaluating “best student laptops” (which didn’t mention Apple laptops, interestingly) and the announcement that USB-C is moving from 100W to 240W were mentioned. Geeks of the Week were in abundant supply this week, including the DLAC 2021 conference, the DigLitCon conference, Canva Pro (free for teachers,) Apple’s new privacy ad and wheelofnames.com. 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.
Welcome to episode 219 (“Ransomware Threats Abound”) of the EdTech Situation Room from May 12, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the Emotet botnet takedown, ransomware evolution, and the importance of evolving your own MFA (multi-factor authentication) from SMS / text messaging to a more secure option. Microsoft’s abandonment of Windows 10X, rumors about next week’s Google I/O event, faster Google Docs on the way, and the death of Nuzzle (at the hands of Twitter, no less) were also highlighted topics. A bizarre social media story involving FaceApp and an older Japanese Twitter user, testimony in an Irish court about Facebook content moderator nightmares, Amy Klobachar’s new book to usher in the “Tech Correction,” and OneDrive’s overdue casting support were topics rounding out the show. Geeks of the Week included a recorded webinar for language teachers by Wes, and an NCCE Live session on amazing Minecraft lessons. 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.
Welcome to episode 171 of the EdTech Situation Room from April 1, 2020, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) continued to discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on teachers, students, and parents, but also highlighted some recent technology headlines involving security, media literacy, and other issues. Those included the completion of the T-Mobile and Sprint merger, PBS Learning Media Resources for Home Learning integrating with Google Classroom, the recent FBI warning to teachers and school administrators to avoid “Zoom-jacking,” and some helpful articles / tips about videoconferencing from home, including updating your home WiFi access points. (Wes recommends Google Nest!) Access archived MP3 audio and smaller 360P video archives of this and past shows on edtechSR.com. 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.