EdTech Situation Room by Jason Neiffer and Wes Fryer

Welcome to episode 260 (“Honorlock Cheating Accusations”) of the EdTech Situation Room from June 1, 2022, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Meta/Facebook challenges with user data management and metaverse ("Horizon World") safety. USB-C compatibility on inexpensive Amazon Fire tablets, the "Amazon Fire Toolbox," Elon Musk's push to in-person work at Tesla, and Apple's termination of the much-loved iPod Touch were also discussion topics. Apple iPhone testing with USB-C cables, Google's attempt to merge messaging and communication apps Meet and Duo, and the new ChromeOS feature to warn users when an incompatible USB-C charging cable has been plugged in were discussed. The popularity of The Weather Channel's new "live streaming" app and subscription option, the end of cryptocurrency donations to the WikiMedia Foundation, and some "Cautionary Tales from Cryptoland" were also explored in this week's show. A recent NYT article detailing controversy surrounding cheating accusations originating with the Amazon AI / facial recognition powered remote testing verification service "Honorlock" was also discussed. Geeks of the Week included WiteBoard, an outstanding video about NFTs and CryptoCurrency by Dan Olsen, and a recommended podcast interview with Dan. Check out our shownotes for links to all the articles we discussed, and subscribe to our Substack to receive all the links we discussed and also didn't have time to talk about in this week's show in your email inbox! 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 243 (“Bad Idea Alexa”) of the EdTech Situation Room from December 29, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Alexa sharing a dangerous TikTok challenge, LastPass credential stuffing, and cybersecurity discoveries in 2021. Russia's Google fine, Texas' misguided social media law, and a New York Times editorial challenging us to figure out what to do with our amazingly powerful technology tools were also highlighted articles. Predictions for how Apple may transform the Macbook Air in 2022, a lawsuit from earlier in 2021 challenging Apple's use of the word "buy" instead of "rent" in the iTunes store, and ways our cloud-based infrastructure model is broken were also discussed. A shout out to the Smarter Every Day video, "Is Your Privacy An Illusion? (Taking on Big Tech)" and a brief mention of a complex San Francisco Chronicle article about a secret recording of a teacher presentation were topics rounding out the show. (We'll talk more about the last article next time.) Geeks of the Week included Coffitivity, Xway web design software, and Wes' latest blog post on social media stories, Instagram Reels and Mojo Videos. 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 NOT HAVE A SHOW ON DECEMBER 22, but will be back on December 29th. Stay savvy and safe!

Welcome to episode 232 ("Instagram = Teen Poison") of the EdTech Situation Room from September 22, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed exciting features in the new iOS 15, The Wall Street Journal's new series harshly criticizing the behavior and culture of Facebook, "The Facebook Files," and a New York Times article explaining Facebook's new PR effort to avoid apologies and promote positive articles about itself via the Facebook newsfeed algorithm. The toxicity of both Facebook and Instagram to teenage girls, Facebook's claim it hasn't known about fixable flaws in its algorithm, and a new social media law in Texas aimed and preventing censorship and de-platforming (which is likely to be struck down) were also highlighted topics in the show. An outstanding episode on "The Past and Future of Big Tech" by the No Jargon Podcast, a new lawsuit in Turkey criticizing Google for favoring its own review sites in search results, a CNET article summarizing new Surface device announcements from Microsoft were articles rounding out this week's show, and a thought provoking article explaining why everyone should have a PERSONAL laptop to sandbox projects away from employers / enterprise organizations were articles rounding out the show. Geeks of the Week included "Affinity Suite" creative software (an alternative to Adobe's offerings) and the U.S. Department of Education's new "Digital Literacy Accelerator" program. 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 231 ("Epic Apple Show") of the EdTech Situation Room from September 16, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed virtually every aspect of the September 14th Apple Event. (Seriously, this is our most egregious Apple fanboi episode to date...) New iPads, new iPad Minis, new iPhones, new Apple Watches and other updates were all highlighted and analyzed. The introductory video to Apple's September 14th event really is stunning and amazing, so if nothing else be share to check that out. Overall the cinematography of these events (this one had more drone shots / footage than ever before) is pretty spectacular. Apple's announcement of an "emergency security update" was discussed on the security front. In addition to the Apple Event, other topics addressed included the court ruling last Friday on the Epic versus Apple lawsuit, which included mixed results that promise to be positive for consumers. In Microsoft news, what to expect from their upcoming September 22nd event was highlighted, along with Microsoft's announcement that users can now go "passwordless" using their second authentication factor exclusively for authentication. The limitations of Spotify as a podcast "podcatcher app" for power users was also explored. Geeks of the Week included "Track My Subs" from Peggy in our chat room, a Media Literacy certification opportunity from PBS, Wes' video and resources for a recent presentation on "Why Care About Privacy and Surveillance Capitalism," and Jason's recommendation to "Download Your Twitter Data." 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 330 (“AI Summer Surge”) of the EdTech Situation Room from July 18, 2024, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) discussed a variety of topics with a focus on artificial intelligence and its broader implications. Key discussions included the increasing dominance of AI in various sectors, the ethical challenges surrounding AI usage, and the impact of AI on social media and disinformation. The hosts also touched on the significance of AI vision tools and their practical applications, from personal use cases to educational settings. The episode covered the evolving landscape of social media algorithms and their effects on user engagement and information dissemination. Dr. Fryer shared his personal experiences with algorithmic bans on social media platforms and the importance of computational thinking in education. The conversation also highlighted the latest updates from major tech companies, including Microsoft’s changes in Windows updates and Apple’s advancements in iOS 18. “Geeks of the Week” included "Claude AI" and "Chad GPT Vision Tools" (from Jason) and "Ideogram AI Visuals" and "Perplexity Answer Engine" (from Wes). Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube via StreamYard.com. We created our episode show art with Ideogram.ai. Please follow our @EdtechSR page on Facebook, @[email protected] 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 a custom GPT on ChatGPT, as well as options for our show title! Stay savvy and safe!