Welcome to episode 114 of the EdTech Situation Room from November 14, 2018, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the past week’s technology news through an educational lens. Topics for the show included college students at UC Berkeley developing browser extensions to identify political bot accounts on social media, prospects for liberal democracy portrayed in PBS Frontline’s recent series “The Facebook Dilemma,” and issues of both trust and due process involving Facebook, content takedowns and smart assistants like Alexa and Google Home. Microsoft’s problems with recent Windows10 updates and its new crowdsourced feedback process for updates, and new research on the value of doodling for learning and retention were also discussed with a shout out to Sylvia Duckworth’s (@sylviaduckworth) new book on sketchnoting. The “Shift Happens” video series 10 years later, problems with drone videos and wildlife harassment, Google’s pleas to content creators to help oppose new copyright legislation in Europe, and a Mozilla report identifying the “creepiest” tech gifts this holiday season from a privacy / surveillance standpoint rounded out the show. Geeks of the week included FFWorks / FFMpeg for video encoding, Thankful Bot from the Noun Project, a funny U.S. election meme on Twitter, and the virtual keyboard project CopyChar. Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR for updates, and join us LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can (normally) at 10 pm Eastern / 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific or 3 am UTC.
Welcome to episode 112 of the EdTech Situation Room from October 24, 2018, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) and special guest Jennifer Carey (@thejencarey) discussed the past week’s technology news through an educational lens. Co-host Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) was on special assignment. Topics highlighted in this week’s show included data privacy, the “hackability” of the human mind, the recent FBI warning on student data privacy, and Tim Cook’s recent criticism of Silicon Valley over privacy. Additional topics included a U.S. cyberoperation against Russia aimed at protecting U.S. elections, the book “Algorithms of Oppression” by Safiya Umoja Noble, and fake news surrounding the death of Jamal Khashoggi. Geeks of the week included CoSpaces Edu, “PD in the Privy” by Cyndi Kuhn, Digital Citizenship presentations for students by Wes, and tips from the Family Online Safety Institute for cleaning up your digital footprint. Check out our shownotes on edtechSR.com/links. Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR for updates, and join us LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can (normally) at 10 pm Eastern / 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific or 3 am UTC. Note we will not have a show next week on Halloween, but will be back on November 7th with special guest, Jason Kern!
Welcome to episode 105 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 29, 2018, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the challenges of filtering / censoring Internet content at school and now (in the U.K.) at a national level through ISPs. The privacy perils and potential subpoena conflicts relating to cell phone location tracking, the ethical challenges of “native advertising” in podcasts, rumors of Apple removing 3D touch in forthcoming iPhones, and the security danger of sideloading Fortnight software on Android devices were also discussed. Final topics included the monstrous challenges facing Facebook in moderating user generated content on its platform worldwide for 2 billion people and the way Facebook is adopting a trustworthy scale for users in its fight against fake news. Geeks of the week included the Stikbot Studio app for iOS, Google Assistant’s “Tell me something good” new feature, YouTube’s new built-in screen monitoring / management tools, and the keyboard shortcut Control/Command K in Google Docs to add links. Check out edtechSR.com/links for all shownotes, including those listed below. Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR for updates, and join us LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can at 10 pm Eastern / 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific or 3 am UTC.
Welcome to episode 104 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 22, 2018, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the impact of social media platforms on journalism and the ascendency of China seeking to influence global Internet standards. Rumors of Apple updates to the Mac Mini, a browser extension to identify fake news, the amplified burnout of Elon Musk on Twitter, the “right to disconnect,” and a tense meeting at Google discussing China plans while an employee live-tweeted the event were also highlighted and analyzed. Geeks of the Week included the Amazon Firestick (great for hotel travel), the SurfSafe browser extension, ways you should “Treat your passwords like your underwear,” and a free podcasting course sponsored by the Knight Foundation. Check out edtechSR.com/links for all shownotes, including those listed below. Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR for updates, and join us LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can at 10 pm Eastern / 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific or 3 am UTC.
Welcome to episode 103 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 15, 2018, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed universities deploying smart assistants in student dorms to answer questions, the privacy concerns of smart assistants in educational contexts, and the shortcomings of the latest MacBook Pro laptops relative to Windows-based competitors. Rumors of dual-booting Chromebooks (also booting to Windows), whether or not social media platforms are “publishers,” and strategies to stop or avoid “stalking ads” on social media were also addressed. Social media / fake news controversies over the temporary (7 day) banning of Alex Jones / InfoWars on Twitter, hacker threats to home routers (VPNfilter) and IoT devices, the advent of Fortnite on ALL Android devices (but not via the Google Play Store), and Google’s location tracking of users who turn off location services rounded out the news articles addressed in this show. Geeks of the Week included the Timer Tab app (ad-free), an incredible photo of our sun during a “Coronal Mass Ejection” with the earth shown to scale, and the recent PBS documentary, “Documenting Hate: Charlottesville.” Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR for updates, and join us LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can at 10 pm Eastern / 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific or 3 am UTC.
Resources on Privacy Issues for Smart Assistants in the Classroom: Common Sense Media Privacy (@cs_privacy) Bill Fitzgerald (@funnymonkey) and Susan Bearden (@s_bearden)
Welcome to episode 63 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 30, 2017, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wes Fryer (@wfryer) discussed iPhone 9 rumors, Apple’s recent Emmy Award, CRISPR and human DNA embryo editing (“DNA surgery”), fake news surrounding Hurricane Harvey, and Google’s forthcoming Chromebook Pixel laptop. Additional topics included the newly announced collaboration between Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana and YouTube updates removing black bars on vertical videos. Geeks of the week included the Blue Yeti Mic and a $26 HDMI to Component Video converter with the power to rescuccitate a HDMI-disabled flatscreen TV. Check out the podcast shownotes for links to a post about that incident and all the referenced articles / resources from the show. Follow us on Twitter @edtechSR to stay up to date about upcoming shows. Please try to join us LIVE online if you can, normally on Wednesday nights at 10 pm Eastern / 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific.
Welcome to episode 51 of the EdTech Situation Room from May 10, 2017, where technology news meets educational analysis. Visit https://edtechsr.com/links to access all referenced links from our show. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Apple’s forthcoming (but rumored) “Today at Apple” retail sessions, and a TEDideas article suggesting we replace the term “digital natives” with the terms “digital orphans,” “digital exiles” and “digital heirs.” Additional subjects included the continued growth of the digital home assistant market and the new “Echo Show” product from Amazon, next-generation mesh-based home routers, and privacy articles highlighting surreptitious surveillance smartphone apps using “ultrasonic sounds” and new advice from NIST changing generally accepted safe password recommendations. Additionally, a new video promoting Microsoft’s Minecraft for Education’s Code Builder Tool and Google’s new tools to battle fake news in suggested search results were discussed. Geeks of the week included 5.11 Tactical Bags for Nerds from Jason and the TIDE Podcast (Today in Digital Education) by Dai Barnes (@daibarnes) and Doug Belshaw (@dajbelshaw) from Wes. Please follow us on Twitter (@edtechSR) to stay up to date on upcoming shows and infrequent show start time changes. Generally you can join us live at 10 pm Eastern / 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific on Wednesday nights on YouTube Live! Please share feedback with us if you listen to the show, have ideas for future show topics, or have a suggestion for a guest on a future episode.
Welcome to episode 49 of the EdTech Situation Room from April 26, 2017, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Martin Horejsi from the University of Montana discussed Apple’s struggle to keep and win back school users, the new online newspaper from WikiPedia founder Jimmy Wales, and varying perspectives on robotics. Wes Fryer was out on assignment but will return next week. Please follow @edtechSR on Twitter to stay up to date about our upcoming show schedule. Thanks for listening (and possibly watching) the EdTech Situation Room!
