Edtech Situation Room By @techsavvyteach & @wfryer

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 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 http://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

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 surveill

Welcome to episode 27 of the EdTech Situation Room from November 2, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed a variety of announcements from both Microsoft and Apple from recent PR events. Topics included Microsoft's Surface Studio, Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro, AppleTV updates, and the changing identities as well as customer niche foci of Microsoft and Apple. Jason and Wes discussed the wisdom or folly of Apple going "all in" for the USB-C port in new MacBooks, and the possibility that laptop innovation has plateaued across platforms today. They also talked about the massive and unprecedented cybertattacks from two weeks ago, the role of hacked IoT (Internet of Things) devices in the attack, and the implications of this hostile cyber-environment for consumers as well as schools. Wes gave a big shout out to Brian Krebs, his security blog, and 2014 book "Spam Nation - The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime-from Glo

A Seedlings podcast mini-reunion! Welcome to episode 26 of the EdTech Situation Room from October 19, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) was again out on assignment, so Wes Fryer (@wfryer) joined Alice Barr (@alicebarr) and Cheryl Oakes (@cheryloakes50) for a discussion about recent technology news affecting the world of education. Alice and Cheryl have been educational podcasters for MANY years, and are two of Wes' personal "podparents" (if such a thing is a thing...) "Seedlings Forever!" Alice, Cheryl and Wes talked about new study statistics showing teens significantly prefer Snapchat and Instagram over Facebook for social media interaction, and how many kids (even older ones who are pre-service teachers) have difficulty viewing and using Twitter for professional networking. They discussed the recent name change of "Google Apps" by Google to the "G Suite," and both Alice and Cheryl shared a few of their takeaways from last summer's Google Geo I

Welcome to episode 25 of the EdTech Situation Room from October 12, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) was out on assignment, so Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) joined Miguel Guhlin (@mguhlin) for a lively conversation about the positive power of Internet technologies to connect us to information as well as each other. Discussion also focused on Google's new Duo videoconferencing and collaboration platform/app, the implications of AI (artificial intelligence) for our lives and our classrooms, and a recent anti-tech rant by educational policy wonk Diane Ravitch. Wes shared a shout-out to the new "Voices of DARPA" podcast, and Miguel reflect how the outbreak of "predatory academic journals" reminds of the mid-2000's as blogs exploded and many pundits heralded the end of information trust and credible sources. Miguel's Geeks of the Week included the OneNote app and OneNote for Teachers, The Microsoft Selfie app (no that's not a joke, it's a real app) and Goog

Welcome to episode 24 of the EdTech Situation Room from October 5, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the challenges of teaching civics in a heated election season and the affordances of social media during election debates. They also discussed some highlights from Google's Pixel Phone event this week, including the Pixel phone, new wifi routers, a new Google Home device, and the role of AI (artificial intelligence) in Google's corporate products and services evolution. The rumor of an October 27th MacBook laptop refresh was also discussed, along with some iPhone/Android phone comparisons. Wes shared an endorsement for the new movie "Snowden" and gave a shout out to ProPublica's new article series, "BREAKING THE BLACK BOX: What Facebook Knows About You." Jason and Wes also discussed their ISTE 2017 submitted proposal for a session titled, "Digital Citizenship in Our Surveillance State." Geeks of the week includ

Welcome to episode 23 of the EdTech Situation Room from September 28, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Martin Horejsi (@martinhorejsi) hosted the show and dived into a variety of technology related topics. Wes Fryer (@wfryer) was out on assignment this week and was not able to join live. Topics for episode 23 with Jason and Martin included the recently released Horizon Report (K12 Edition) and a great discussion about classroom learning spaces. They also discussed Elon Musk's recently updated vision for Mars colonization, and the uses of technology to both fact check and distract viewers Monday night during the first U.S. Presidential candidate debate. Martin's geek of the week was the TI-Innovator Hub, and Jason's was the Flash Forward Podcast. Check out the episode shownotes for links to referenced articles and geeks of the week. Check out past episode shownotes on http://edtechsr.com/links and be sure to follow @edtechSR for updates on Tw

Welcome to episode 22 of the EdTech Situation Room from September 14, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) had a special show. Rather than discuss a variety of recent technology news headlines, episode 22 focused exclusively on Dr. Nicholas Kardaras' August 31, 2016 article for TIME Magazine, "Screens In Schools Are a $60 Billion Hoax." The article highlights many of the key points in Kardaras' newly published book, "Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction is Hijacking Our Kids—and How to Break the Trance." Jason and Wes highlighted several of the valid points from the article regarding screentime, the powerful physiological influence of digital screens, and digital addictions. They also acknowledged misdirected educational technology movements, like the interactive whiteboard craze of the 2000's and the race for educational technology companies to move standardized student assessments onto digital screens. Jason and Wes took issu

Welcome to episode 21 of the EdTech Situation Room from September 7, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the much-heralded Apple Event from earlier today which featured the announcement of the iPhone 7. Jason and Wes, in classic "Yayyyyy! …. or Mehhhhhhh…" analysis, broke down the major elements of the Apple Event. This included the iPhone 7 camera, the death of the headphone jack, newly announced AirPods, The Apple Watch Series 2, and iWork real-time collaboration. They also discussed missing announcements from the event, which included updates to the MacBook lineup, MacPro updates, iMac updates, or iPad/iPad Mini updates. They briefly discussed the Time Magazine article from August 31st, "Screens In Schools Are a $60 Billion Hoax," and agreed to dedicate next week's show entirely to analysis and responses to the varied (and slippery) arguments put forth by Nicholas Kardaras in the piece. Geeks of the week incl

Welcome to episode 20 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 24, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the ascendency of smartphones as the primary media consumptive screen in U.S. households, NASA's recent announcement to make all its research openly accessible, Google's decision to discontinue Chrome apps for Mac and Windows, and Verizon's continuing metamorphosis from a "baby bell" telco to a global corporate player in digital media. The November 2015 article in the Atlantic by Walter Kirn, "If You’re Not Paranoid, You’re Crazy" was also a catalyst for reflections in the show, as well as NASA's press release about it's newly installed docking portal in the International Space Station for commercial space vehicles from SpaceX, Boeing, and other companies. Check out all our podcast shownotes on http://edtechsr.com/links and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edtechSR. Please submit our short (6 question

Welcome to episode 19 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 17, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed a heartwarming story from the Rio Olympics, the role (or non-role) of videoconferencing and live streaming in many K12 classrooms, the shutdown of Blab and the migration of Google Hangouts from Google+ to YouTube Live. Additional topics included the DMCA and "safe harbor" in the recording industry's latest efforts to increase their take of streaming music revenues from YouTube, Verizon's efforts to become a media company, the imminent arrival of Android apps to a Chromebook near you, and the effects of both social media and mobile screens on young minds. Geeks of the week included Remind.com and playposit.com. Please follow us on Twitter @edtechSR to stay up to date upcoming live shows. Please reach out to us via Twitter and let us what you liked about the show and what you'd like to hear about in future episod

Welcome to episode 18 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 3, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the impacts of cell phone availability for refugees in Greece, security and a new hack announced at the Black Hat Conference, millenial preferences for Microsoft Word over Google Docs for individual projects, the present and future of eBooks, the DNA revolution and DIY genomics. Geeks of the week included Paperpile (a software tool for research citations) and the @pfsense SG-2220 router. Follow us on Twitter @edtechSR to stay up to date on our live shows. If you listen to the show and especially if you like it, please reach out to us via Twitter and let us know! Check out our shownotes on http://edtechsr.com/links.

Welcome to episode 17 of the EdTech Situation Room from July 27, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the implications of Verizon's announced purchase of Yahoo, the continued viral phenomenon of Pokemon Go, recent "billions records" of Apple and Facebook, and SpaceX's successful launch of a new door for the International Space Station. Geeks of the week included the ViewMaster VR Headset, the 360 degree video panorama live broadcast from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, a crowd-sourced list of educational apps and videos for Google Cardboard, and the amazing Prisma app available for iOS and Android. Please follow us on Twitter for updates on shows @edtechSR, and check out our shownotes on http://edtechsr.com/links.

Welcome to episode 16 of the EdTech Situation Room from July 13, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed new Android phone security hacks, the viral phenomenon of Pokemon Go, and signs of the continuing disruptive upheaval of worldwide video distribution. We used a Google Hangout this week instead of Blab, but had some bandwidth issues which created some audio skips and interruptions in our webcast and podcast recording. We will continue to work on these connectivity and recording issues to bring you better audio next week! Please follow us on Twitter for updates on shows @edtechSR, and check out our shownotes on http://edtechsr.com/links.

Welcome to episode 15 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 28, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) were together in person at the ISTE Conference in Denver, Colorado! Following the day 2 keynote, they recorded a conversation about some of the exciting new announcements by Google, Amazon, and other companies during ISTE. Check out the podcast shownotes for links to referenced articles, which are also available on http://edtechsr.com/links. We had recording problems (again) with Blab, so are considering moving to a new livestreaming platform for the show. If you have suggestions we'd love to hear them! We're considering Facebook Live or YouTube. We will NOT have a show next week on July 6 but should be back July 13. Follow us on Twitter @edtechSR to stay updated about days, times, and links for future live shows. We'd love for you to join us live if you can, and to send us feedback whenever you are able to listen to our s

Welcome to episode 14 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 22, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) shared their best advice for educators attending the 2016 ISTE (International Society of Technology in Education) conference in Denver, Colorado. They also discussed important announcements from Apple's recent Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) and what those may portend for teachers and schools. Additional news articles of discussion included the use of Periscope video on June 22nd by CSPAN when the US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan stopped "standard" TV coverage of a Democratic Party sit-in and the recent purchase of LinkedIn by Microsoft. Geeks of the Week included Jason's pro-tip to shop for gamer-marketed computer mice and keyboards, and Wes' recommendation of a $50 Jedi knight Star Wars costume on Amazon. Thanks to our live viewers Peggy in Arizona and Juan in Columbia for joining us live. We're a worl

Welcome to episode 13 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 8, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed new research on teen media multitasking and cognition, project management software options including a new offering from Microsoft, more rumors of Apple's WWDC event next week, continuing security / password hacks in the news and good advice for protecting your own web accounts, and more. Geeks of the week included Silicon Valley on HBO and the upcoming Coding and Minecraft Camps for Girls offered by Connected Camps. Check our updated episode links on http://edtechsr.com/links as well as the shownotes below for all the articles and resources mentioned in the show. Please reach out to us on Twitter or leave a comment to share feedback or just let us know you listened to the show and enjoyed it! Next week we will either be rescheduling or postponing due to a family birthday conflict, but we definitely WILL be both a

Welcome to episode 12 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 1, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This weekJason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed spatial computing, an amazing discovery in Kazakhstan from 2015 by a Google Earth user, and the way app designers often intentionally create digital addictions using "intermittent variable rewards" like slot machines in casinos. They also offered predications for Apple announcements at the upcoming WWDC and the first use of a military-grade drone in the continental United States for an agricultural bio-technology mapping project. Geeks of the week the retirement (death?) of some much-beloved Google Chrome extensions as well as Adobe's 2.0 version of the Adobe Voice app: Adobe Spark. Special kudos to our top fan and webcast attendee Peggy George in Phoenix, Arizona! Check out our podcast shownotes and our links page on http://edtechsr.com/links for all referenced resources and websites from our show. Tune in next we

Welcome to episode 11 of the EdTech Situation Room from May 4, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. We've been off for a few weeks and we're glad to be back! This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the evolving role of digital assistants powered by artificial intelligence, Google's announcement that the Google Play Store is coming to Chrome OS, and the continuing evolution of machine learning. Other discussion topics included learning experiences which cultivate "grit," Apple Stock (and Warren Buffett's response), and the sunset for floppy disks in US Air Force missile silos. Geeks of the week included Google's Project Aura and the upcoming National Week of Making in the United States, June 17-23, 2016. Check out the podcast shownotes for links to these and other resources, which you can also find on http://edtechsr.com/links. Please follow us on Twitter (@edtechSR) http://twitter.com/edtechSR for updates. We expect to be back on our regular Wednesday

Welcome to episode 10 of the EdTech Situation Room from May 4, 2016, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the benefits of using Google Slides for presentation sharing, new updates to Google Classroom, desired updates for Google Apps for Education tools, the relation of maturing genomics & robotics industries to STEM education, the slow adoption dynamics of wearable technologies in the consumer market, and the reported comparative benefits of handwritten class notes over typed versions. Check out our shownotes and discussion links on http://edtechsr.com/links for all referenced resources. Jason shared Slide Carnival for his geek of the week, and Wes shared a couple fitness/nutrition apps as well as a recent slide deck on "Inside and Outside Sharing." As always your feedback on the show is welcome via Twitter or as a comment on our website. Tune in next Wednesday night at 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain for more insightful