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EdTechSR Ep 303 Happy Birthday Google!

Welcome to Episode 303 (“Happy Birthday Google!”) of the EdTech Situation Room from August 30, 2023, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com/after) discussed a range of technology topics, analyizing the latest news at the intersection of education and technology. They covered the 25th Birthday of Google, developments in artificial intelligence, including Google’s new image generation tool in Google Slides, a watermarking technique from Google to help track AI-generated images, and Ideogram, a powerful new free AI image generation tool Neiffer discovered. Fryer shared insights on military AI, highlighting the US Air Force’s plans to use autonomous drone “wingmen” alongside human pilots. The hosts also talked about upcoming Apple announcements, anticipating the likely release of the iPhone 15. They weighed the potential benefits of switching to USB-C charging and the need for schools to adapt. Social media topics included Facebook’s staff cuts impacting content moderation, lawsuits against tech companies related to student mental health, and the risks of election misinformation with weakened oversight. In other news, hosts highlighted the new US Cybersecurity Trustmark for IoT devices and Google’s plans to integrate AI writing assistance across Chromebooks. For their “Geeks of the Week,” Fryer shared a tutorial on using Voice Memos for student oral history projects, and Neiffer highlighted a deal on the MacBook Air M1, praising its speed and value. The show was live-streamed and archived simultaneously on YouTube Live as well as Facebook Live via StreamYard.com. Please follow @edtechSR on Twitter and @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 claude.ai, as well as options for our show title!

Shownotes

  1. Subscribe to our EdTechSR Substack Newsletter!
  2. EdTech Situation Room Listener Survey: wfryer.me/edtechsr
  3. Follow @edtechSR on Twitter and on Mastodon!
  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: @neif@mastodon.cloud – Twitter: @techsavvyteach) – blog: blog.ncce.org
  8. Wes Fryer – wesfryer.com/after
  9. OMG APPLE EVENT
  10. Google is 25 Years Old!!! (Android Police; 8 August 2023)
  11. AI images are getting harder to spot. Google thinks it has a solution (The Washington Post; 29 August 2032)🎁Link
  12. Guy Puts Artist Back Into AI System After He Begs to Be Removed (Futurism , 2 Aug 2023)
  13. Stephen Wolfram on Computational Thinking (Wes’ blog post from 7 Aug 2023)
  14. A.I. Brings the Robot Wingman to Aerial Combat (NY Times, 27 Aug 2023) 🎁Link
  15. AI Image Generation in Google Slides is Here (Flipped Classroom via YouTube)
  16. Google’s “Help Me Write” AI is coming to Chromebooks on a system-wide level (Chrome Unboxed; 25 August 2023)
  17. Following Elon Musk’s lead, Big Tech is surrendering to disinformation (Washington Post, 25 Aug 2023) 🎁Link
  18. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education sues social media companies over mental health impacts (25 Aug 2023) 
  19. The ‘US Cyber Trust Mark’ finally gives device makers a reason to spend big on security (TechCrunch, 23 Aug 2023)
  20. Jason’s Geek of the Week: MacBook Air M1 on Sale! 
  21. Wes’ Geek of the Week: [VIDEO] Sharing Voice Memos (Family Oral History Project) – full lesson
“Google Birthday Box!” (CC BY 2.0) by clevercupcakes

EdTech Situation Room Episode 119

Welcome to episode 119 of the EdTech Situation Room from December 26, 2018, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed copyright and intellectual property issues on the Teachers Pay Teachers (@tptdotcom) website, YouTube creator backlash amidst other “trust issues” with Google, and the challenges of radicalization and “outlier content” on YouTube based on its attention-maximizing algorithms. Continuing warnings from U.S. security officials to avoid Huawei smartphones and telecommunications gear because of the Chinese government’s hacking threat, the four variations of recommended 2 step verification for account security, and the promise of podcasting for the “slow democracy movement” were also highlighted and explored. Amazing recent space photos of the planet Jupiter, China’s ongoing space exploration milestones on the moon, disclosure challenges for Instagram creators for paid advertising, and the power of Fortnite as a social media hangout were other topics addressed in the show. The advent of autonomous / AI powered databases by Oracle and the upcoming release of HTML 5 compliant Scratch 3.0 software rounded out the show. Geeks of the week included a wonderful (and inexpensive) sketch journal from Michael’s (via Jason) and the printed photo book service of Motif for Apple Photos users (via Wes). 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. 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
  8. On ‘Teachers Pay Teachers,’ Some Sellers Are Profiting From Stolen Work (Education Week, 19 Dec 2018)
  9. TurnItIn.com (@turnitin)
  10. How Content ID Works (YouTube)
  11. Copyright Chapter from “Playing with Media: Simple Ideas for Powerful Sharing” (Wesley Fryer, 2011)
  12. Copyright for Educators (Wesley Fryer, 2009)
  13. The Verge 2018 tech report card: Google (The Verge, 26 December 2018
  14. YouTube faces backlash on Twitter over lifted, uncredited holiday video (The Verge; 26 December 2018)
  15. YouTube Rewind 2018 is officially the most disliked video on YouTube (The Verge, 13 December 2018)
  16. Made by Google profit estimated at $3B for 2018 as Pixel, Home hardware gains ‘traction’ (9 to 5 Google, 24 December 2018)
  17. How YouTube Pulled These Men Down a Vortex of Far-Right Hate (Daily Beast, 17 Dec 2018)
  18. Caliphate Podcast (highly recommended)
  19. Pegasus Spyware (English WikiPedia)
  20. How China can spy on your electronics—even in the U.S. (CBS News – 60 Minutes, 23 Dec 2018)
  21. Huawei and the Creation of China’s Orwellian Surveillance State (The Epoch Times, 24 Dec 2018)
  22. Don’t use Huawei phones, say heads of FBI, CIA, and NSA (Verge, 14 Feb 2018)
  23. Two-factor authentication can save you from hackers (TechCrunch, 25 Dec 2018)
  24. Podcasting and the Slow Democracy Movement (Larry Lessig, 8 Oct 2018)
  25. Space Photos of the Week: Juno Spies Jupiter’s Mesmerizing Clouds (Wired 22 Dec 2018)
  26. With First-Ever Landing on Moon’s Farside, China Enters “Luna Incognita” (PBS, 23 Dec 2018)
  27. Inside The Pricey War To Influence Your Instagram Feed (Wired; 18 November 2018)
  28. Rising Instagram Stars Are Posting Fake Sponsored Content (The Atlantic, 18 December 2018)
  29. Fortnite was 2018’s most important social network (The Verge, 21 December 2018)
  30. 2018: The Year The Database Went Autonomous (Forbes, 19 Dec 2018)
  31. Scratch 3.0 FAQ
  32. Moving your Scratch backpack to 3.0 (Scratch Team, 29 Nov 2018)
  33. Jason’s Geek of the Week: Artist’s Loft Notebook @ Michael’s
  34. Wes’ Geek of the Week: Printed Photo Books with Apple Photos by Motif (@MotifPhotos)