Welcome to episode 79 of the EdTech Situation Room from December 27, 2017, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach), Beth Holland (@brholland) and Wes Fryer (@wfryer) discussed “The 2017 EdTech Year in Review.” The first discussion topic was the misinterpretation of “research” in educational technology and how it leads to editorials about banning technology in classrooms. Secondly, the line between “creepy surveillance” (by social media companies for advertising as well as governmental mass surveillance) and helpful artificial intelligence / algorithm powered information filtering was explored, but definitely not definitively resolved since many of the recent disclosures related to data mining and privacy have multiple facets of benefit and trade offs which make “black and white” conclusions difficult. The third topic of the show was the ways in which Google and Microsoft faced off in educational technology circles in 2017, from the Chromebook to Windows 10 S, to Google Docs and Microsoft 365 (including OneNote). Several additional topics were included in the show planning document (linked in our shownotes) but not addressed because of time limitations. Geeks of the week included $20 Amazon Fire Tablets, ways to view and correct information Twitter has collected and analyzed about your personal account, and great MakerEd / STEM gifts for young people in your life: Makedo and Bloxels. Don’t miss our referenced links, resources, articles and books in our shownotes, as well as the articles and topics we didn’t discuss on our special show planning Google Doc. Follow @edtechSR on Twitter for updates, and tune in next week for our first “regular” show of 2018. Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus, and Happy New Year to everyone!
Welcome to episode 78 of the EdTech Situation Room from December 20, 2017, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wes Fryer (@wfryer) revived a Neiffer classroom holiday tradition: the “Airing of Grievances” (#edtech focused) inspired by “The Holiday of Festivus” and the 1997 Seinfeld episode, “The Strike.” In addition to sharing technology grievances, Jason and Wes discussed the remarkable backstory to the Mirai botnet attacks revealed in an Alaska courtroom last week. Other security related topics included the U.S. government’s fingering of North Korea for the WannaCry ransomware attack, China’s livestreaming servers for public surveillance cameras, and DARPA’s “unhackable” computer currently under development at the University of Michigan. Apple related topics included recent reports that the iPhone is designed to slow down with age, tips on how to increase iPhone performance, and a predication that Apple will allow developers to create universal apps in 2018 which run on both iOS and MacOS devices. Google articles included the expected launch in February of Google Chrome’s built-in ad blocker and the updated function of Google Sites (the new version) to permit embedding and Javascript. Tears were shed for the death of AOL’s instant messenger platform. Geeks of the week included the “Broadcast Voice Messages” feature of Google Home, the 2017 documentary “Unacknowledged” by Dr. Steven Greer (@DrStevenGreer), and the 6 year anniversary price ($1) for the Nova Launcher for Android. Note next week’s “2017 EdTech Year in Review” show will start an hour earlier for east coast guests and livestream fans. Please join us, and follow @edtechSR on Twitter for updates.
"Special Access Projects" in the US military's black budget are a Constitutional violation of the chain of command. Glad to see coverage referring to SAPs in @nytimeshttps://t.co/aazKX17nam For more on this listen to @DrStevenGreer
Welcome to episode 77 of the EdTech Situation Room from December 13, 2017, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wes Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Google’s recent announcement to discontinue web store apps, the importance of the open web, and the upcoming net neutrality vote by the FCC. Additional topics included the prevalence of email tracking and whether or not this surveillance is something to be concerned about, the upcoming shutdown of Storify, Google Assistant coming to older Android devices, and a recent PBS Frontline Special (“Putin’s Revenge”) as well as Guardian article about the weaponization of the web by Russia. Geeks of the week included a recent article about going anonymous online with the Tor browser (Jason) and the expensive, hybrid human/digital assistant “Fin” (Wes). Please check out all our shownotes (including articles we did not have time to address in this week’s show) on http://edtechSR.com/links and follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/edtechSR for updates.
Welcome to episode 67 of the EdTech Situation Room from September 27, 2017, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wes Fryer (@wfryer) discussed prison time given to a Volkswagon engineer who wrote the emissions test dodging car code, updates to Google Slides, Team Drives for G Suite users, and G Suite’s new File Stream app for offline file access. Additional topics included the recent war of words between Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg, Doug Belshaw’s post about why he deleted all his past Twitter likes/favorites as well as most of his tweets, and an alleged $5 million purchase by Mexico of Israeli technology which permits monitoring of anyone’s cell phone location, text messages and phone calls by just using their phone number or phone IMEI number. (This article prompted Wes’ tin foil hat for part of the show.) The possible risks of biometric smartphone security was discussed, along with a slew of new product announcements from Amazon bring the menu of Alexa-powered devices to eight. (Wes is still not ready to purchase any of them for home use, however.) It’s Happy Birthday time for Google, and apparently time for the U.S. Congress to fire the current chairman of the FCC,Ajit Pai. Geeks of the week included Gazelle (a smartphone reseller to consider using when upgrading), the free iPad app “TextingStory Chat Story Maker,” and the upcoming “Google Camp OKC” $25 PD event on Saturday, November 4, 2017 in Oklahoma City (@googlecampOKC). Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR for updates, and reach out to us if you listen to the show! If a particular article or topic is especially thought provoking or interesting to you, please let us know. The EdTech Situation Room is produced live each week (almost) on Wednesday nights at 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain time. Thanks for tuning in. Stay safe and stay savvy!
Welcome to episode 61 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 16, 2017, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wes Fryer (@wfryer) discussed new updates for Google Sheets and Slides for education (G Suite) users, and a helpful (but NSFW) article highlighting the “why” of Internet troll culture as well as many Internet culture personalities and events which could be considered essential for adults wanting to understand teens and their digital context today. On the surveillance front, Jason and Wes talked about the recent FBI warning to parents regarding “smart toys,” and the troubling demand by the US Department of Justice to ISPs for names and data on 1.3 million Internet users who visited a Trump resistance website prior to the inauguration in January. A recent Google survey on ransomware, the recent HBO hack, the mind-bogglingly HUGE hack of Sweden’s national database back in 2015, and a July article from the Atlantic exploring whether companies should be allowed to offensively hack rounded out security articles for the episode. Jason also shared some articles with updates on the forthcoming ChromeOS and Android merger. Geeks of the week included two weather mobile apps (Storm and DarkSky), Tony Vincent’s “Classy Graphics with Google Drawings Fall 2017” online class, and an article explaining how you can “Use your Phone as a ChromeCast Hotspot in Hotels.” 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 56 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 19, 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 Wes Fryer (@wfryer) were back after several weeks apart, which included some international travel for Jason to Sweden. This week discussion topics included the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on “a right to social media access” as part of 1st Amendment rights, and recent announcements from Apple at WWDC including new iPads, the iMac Pro and HomePod speakers. The proposed purchase of Whole Foods by Amazon, the degree to which we can societally prepare for job displacement from automation, and efforts by Amazon and Google to address offensive content as well as terrorist-related media using human moderators were also discussed. An amazing (but apparently true) event in Ethiopia was also discussed, in which the nation shut down the entire Internet for several days to prevent cheating on high school student end-of-year exams. Several surveillance and security related news articles were also addressed. Geeks of the Week included the Podcast App, 60db (by Jason) and two from Wes: SiteSucker for macOS and the Eclipse Megamovie Project. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @edtechSR to stay up to date on upcoming shows! Next week we’ll attempt a live show from ISTE in San Antonio on Monday evening, June 26th.
Welcome to episode 43 of the EdTech Situation Room from March 8, 2017, where technology news meets educational analysis. Visit https://edtechsr.com/links to access all referenced links from our show. Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) was out on assignment this week. Carrying the #edtechSR torch forward, Miguel Guhlin (@mguhlin) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the lackluster state of iBooks and the “abandonware” status of iBooks Author. They also explored the implications of Vault 7, the WikiLeaks archive of alleged CIA documents which highlights security vulnerabilities in supposed “secure” messaging apps and platforms, as well as the hackability of smartTVs and other iOT devices. Miguel and Wes talked about the educational implications of these announcements, especially as they relate to digital citizenship, privacy, and Constitutional / human rights. Wes briefly highlighted the DNA storage milestone of the past week (215 petabytes per gram) as well as an enlightening article on the future of Apple’s Macintosh computer and various revenue streams. Shout outs were shared by Wes to Susan Bearden’s excellent book “Digital Citizenship: A Community-Based Approach,” Brian Krebs’ book “Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime-from Global Epidemic to Your Front Door,” and the Committed Podcast (a weekly tech podcast.) Miguel’s Geeks of the Week included an excellent smartphone microphone for podcast interview recording (iRig Mic Cast), an amazing web-based audio editor (Beautiful Audio Editor for Chrome), and the book “Digital Media in the Classroom.” Please refer to our podcast shownotes for links to all referenced articles, videos, and resources from the show, and take a few minutes to complete our listener survey on http://wfryer.me/edtechsr.
If you're writing about the CIA/@Wikileaks story, here's the big deal: first public evidence USG secretly paying to keep US software unsafe. pic.twitter.com/kYi0NC2mOp
Welcome to episode 29 of the EdTech Situation Room from November 16, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jen Carey (@TeacherJenCarey) joined Wes Fryer (@wfryer) for a YouTube Live conversation about student privacy, government and corporate surveillance, digital citizenship, strategies to stem the onslaught of fake news, helpful Google Chrome extensions, and more! Geeks of the Week included the app Google PhotoScan and ATLIS (The Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools) from Jen, and several from Wes. Those included “Chromebook Apps Thumbnail links from Maize, Kansas,” Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points (from Apple), and Google Street View Animator. Check out past episode shownotes on https://edtechsr.com/links and be sure to follow @edtechSR for updates on Twitter http://twitter.com/edtechsr as well as on Facebook. If you listen to the show, please submit our listener survey using the shortened link http://wfryer.me/edtechsr which forwards to a Google Form.
7 minutes of the original recording were removed because of bandwidth/connectivity issues during the live show. Thanks SO much to Jen for flying solo and carrying on despite Wes’ bandwidth problems!
Welcome to episode 28 of the EdTech Situation Room from November 9, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) briefly discussed the historic and surprising (to many) U.S. Presidential election result, but spent the majority of the show talking about “Digital Citizenship in the Surveillance State.” Wes and Jason have submitted a proposal for ISTE 2017 on this topic (www.edtechSR.com/nsa) and Wes will be sharing a TEDx talk on this subject in Enid, Oklahoma, on November 19th. This week’s discussions served, in part, as brainstorming and preparation time for both of those presentations. In addition to the “related resources” available at the bottom of www.edtechSR.com/nsa, check out the “Guiding Questions” we used for the show on our shownotes page at www.edtechSR.com/links. Some of the questions we addressed in this show included: What personal stories can you share which highlight the importance of this discussion about surveillance? What is the current state of surveillance in the United States and why does it matter? Where do you draw the line between reasonable awareness / concern about surveillance and paranoia / unreasonable fear? How can people best stay up to date on surveillance issues? Geeks of the week included “Google Home” (Jason) and “CMRA for Apple Watch” (Wes). Check out past episode shownotes on https://edtechsr.com/links and be sure to follow @edtechSR for updates on Twitter http://twitter.com/edtechsr as well as on Facebook. If you listen to the show, please submit our listener survey using the shortened link http://wfryer.me/edtechsr which forwards to a Google Form. Your feedback and suggestions on the show are appreciated!
