EdTechSR Ep 232 Instagram = Teen Poison

10/03/21 • 64 min

EdTech Situation Room by Jason Neiffer and Wes Fryer

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!

Previous Episode

EdTechSR Ep 231 Epic Apple Show

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!

Next Episode

EdTechSR Ep 233 Privacy Protection Prescriptions

Welcome to episode 233 ("Privacy Protection Prescriptions") of the EdTech Situation Room from September 29, 2021, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Apple updates to its productivity software suite, iPhone 13 stress tests and reviews, and strategies to avoid a Facebook hack. An important new guide to "resetting privacy controls" on your devices from the Washington Post, the NSA and CIA's behavioral endorsement of ad blockers in our "dangerous" advertising environment, and the inability of anyone to "escape Facebook tracking" today were also discussed. Lithuania's extreme request to people to throw away Huawei (Chinese made) smartphones, the EFF's positive announcement that secure website connections (https) have finally been normalized in all popular web browsers, and a questionable password security website were highlighted topics. Jason's recommendation of the Darknet Diaries podcast, the a data breach in Canada by a vaccine verification app (Portpass), EU warnings to Russia over possible election cyberattacks in Germany, the new Amazon device announcements, and the power of teen influencers on TikTok to disrupt scientific research were articles rounding out this week's show. Geeks of the Week included former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's recent interview on "How AI Shapes Our Human Future" (aka "Misinformation Is About to Get So Much Worse") and the power of "pocket notebooks" (like Field Notes) to boost personal productivity. 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!