Welcome to Episode 298 (“AI Overlords Loom”) of the EdTech Situation Room from June 14, 2023, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com/after) discussed the past week’s technology news through an educational lens. In this week’s episode, Jason and Wes started by sharing their “Geeks of the Week,” including the Whisper voice transcription app and the link shortening service short.io. They then dove into recent Apple news, discussing the positive reviews of the new 15-inch MacBook Air and the dropping of support for many older Intel Macs in the upcoming macOS update. A good portion of the episode focused on AI developments, including Microsoft’s rushed integration of ChatGPT into Bing despite warnings from OpenAI, new AI regulations being developed in the EU, estimates that AI poses a 20-30% risk of catastrophe (P-doom), Amazon using AI to crack down on fake reviews, and more. Jason and Wes emphasized the need for thoughtful conversations and reasonable regulations around these powerful AI technologies. The hosts announced they would be taking a multi-week summer break. In the meantime, past episodes are still published across platforms like YouTube and podcast feeds. To find the hosts during the break, one could look for @techsavvyteach on Twitter for Jason and www.westfryer.com/after for Wes. 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.
Welcome to episode 286 (“Mom Isn’t Calling”) of the EdTech Situation Room from March 22, 2023, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer@mastodon.cloud) discussed the ongoing impacts of artificial intelligence / AI including ChatGPT, the release of Minecraft for Chromebooks by Microsoft, the challenges to actors and voice actors posted by corporate contracts in the age of AI-powered voice creation, and the pending copyright / intellectual property case involving the Internet Archive and publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random House. AI-faked images of Donald Trump’s arrest, a new interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and AI voice scams tricking people into believing their loved ones are calling in crisis and need help were also explored. The fate of the pirate eBook site Z-Library and the resignation of an FCC appointee because of a deluge of personal attacks on social media were discussed. Geeks of the Week included the uber-powerful package tracking website 17Track, and a wonderful new post by Steven B Johnson about lessons to be learned from historical innovation mistakes. (ChatGPT and other AI tools were NOT used for this week’s podcast summary, btw!) 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 9 pm Eastern / 8 pm Central / 7 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 283 (“AI Promises and Perils”) of the EdTech Situation Room from February 1, 2023, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer@mastodon.cloud) discussed topics including Internet censorship / content moderation, TikTok bans, “The Tech Correction,” artificial intelligence, free speech, and media literacy. They also shared their thoughts on the impact of technology on education, safety concerns related to installing apps, and the intersection of technology and performance-based assessments. Additionally, they mentioned some news articles, including Indian police detaining students over a banned BBC Modi documentary, a decades-old law obstructing a nationwide TikTok ban, the U.S. Air Force’s plan to install surveillance tools powered by AI technology in Central Command sites, and recent layoffs in the tech industry. The hosts shared their experiences with using AI tools like GPT-3 and discussed the potential implications of AI-generated content for student learning and assessment. They also mentioned some other articles related to AI, including one on the potential of AI to improve the accuracy of cancer diagnoses and another on the risks of bias in AI decision-making. Overall, the podcast offered a thoughtful and informative discussion on the latest trends and issues in the world of technology and education. (AI Disclosure: This show summary was initially created by ChatGPT. The show title was also influenced by ChatGPT queries.) 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 9 pm Eastern / 8 pm Central / 7 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 280 (“LastPass Security Breach”) of the EdTech Situation Room from January 11, 2023, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week’s topics include the recent breach of password manager LastPass and what that means for users, as well as security best-practices overall. (Spoiler: Keep using a recommended password manager!) Additional security articles discussed included leaked addresses of millions of Twitter users, and a Supreme Court decision allowing the NSO iPhone hacking (Pegasus spyware) case to move forward. On the Google front, the 2022 Chromebook of the year, enhanced spam prevention in Google Voice, and a review of the “Framework Chromebook” were highlighted and analyzed. Lastly, a variety of articles on the artificial intelligence / AI front were explored. These included articles highlighting the ability of ChatGPT to write malware, a college student’s software program to “detect” AI-authored essays, and others. Geeks of the Week included the search engine Neeva, youtubetranscript.com, and a free Chrome extension which facilitates summarization of YouTube video transcripts using ChatGPT. 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 and Mastodon (@edtechsr@mastodon.education) for updates, and join us LIVE on Wednesday nights (normally) if you can at 9 pm Eastern / 8 pm Central / 7 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 277 (“Generative AI Alarms”) of the EdTech Situation Room from December 22, 2022, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed artificial intelligence developments and controversies, the ongoing Twitter dumpster fire, TikTok security concerns, and a facial recognition headline from New York which sounds like a headline from China. Rumors of third party iOS app stores coming to Europe soon, and the punishment FTC fine of Epic games were also highlighted. Geeks of the Week included “Hotel Tonight” and #edtechSR tagged posts on Mastodon by Wes. 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 9 pm Eastern / 8 pm Central / 7 pm Mountain / 7 pm Pacific or 3 am UTC. All shownotes are available on http://edtechSR.com/links. Stay savvy and safe!
