EdTech Situation Room Podcast by Jason Neiffer and Wes Fryer

Welcome to episode 145 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 28, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed lengthening consumer smartphone replacement purchase patterns, Android's switch to more boring OS names, and laments from teachers about "students these days not reading anymore." The different way...

Welcome to episode 144 of the EdTech Situation Room from August 14, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Congressional interest in addressing the "digital divide" in the U.S. between rural and urban areas, a "sign of the times" story of a teen resorting to the use of IoT devices (including the family...

Welcome to episode 143 of the EdTech Situation Room from July 31, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed U.S. Senator Josh Hawley’s proposed "SMART Act" (the Social Media Addiction Reduction Technology Act), the state of adblocking online in mid-2019, and amazing developments in the world of eSports wit...

Welcome to episode 142 of the EdTech Situation Room from July 24, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed why data privacy is complicated, the FTC's $5 billion fine of Facebook, the limitations of SMS for 2 factor authentication (2FA) / multi-factor authentication (MFA), and exciting recent Apollo 11 50...

Welcome to episode 141 of the EdTech Situation Room from July 17, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the forthcoming commercial release of Boston Robotics' "Spot" robot, Jony Ive's announced departure from Apple, updates to the Apple portable laptops, and Amazon's policy to basically keep user audio...

Welcome to episode 140 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 26, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed options for live webinars like ours when YouTube's "Hangouts on Air" goes away later this year, exciting updates to ChromeOS, Google's addition of media literacy lessons to its free digital citizensh...

Welcome to episode 139 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 19, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed tips for both attendees and virtual learners during the 2019 International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) Conference in Philadelphia next week. Additional topics included updates from Google...

Welcome to episode 138 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 12, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Apple's June 2019 event announcements, more rumblings of forthcoming tech giant regulations, Microsoft's official pronouncement that "mandatory password changing is “ancient and obsolete," and much m...

Welcome to episode 137 of the EdTech Situation Room from June 6, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) was out on assignment, so Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) welcomed special guest Dave Quinn (@EduQuinn) to break down some of the technology headlines from recent weeks. Topics addressed included YouTube's important policy change regarding censor...

Welcome to episode 136 of the EdTech Situation Room from May 29, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed school cybersecurity, a shocking iPhone security vulnerability for WhatsApp, NASA's free media library, and copyright issues in Houston ISD as well as for YouTube Creators. Distorted political videos...

Welcome to episode 135 of the EdTech Situation Room from May 22, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the threat posed by cyberattacks in the airline industry, a recent ransomware attack on Oklahoma City Public Schools (@okcps), and revelations of Google storing passwords as plaintext for over a decad...

Welcome to episode 134 of the EdTech Situation Room from May 15, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed a touching video about Google Lens and literacy from Google I/O and the winners of the NPR student podcasting challenge. Jason provided a review of his new Google Pixel 3A smartphone, and the surprise...

Welcome to episode 133 of the EdTech Situation Room from May 8, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed lots of news from this week's Google I/O Conference. Topics included Google's renewed focus on user privacy, shift in focus from search and answers to productivity, improved digital well-being tools, t...

Welcome to episode 132 of the EdTech Situation Room from April 24, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed recent headlines highlighting the dangers of USB-borne malware as well as "USB Killer" devices maliciously used on a college campus to destroy computers. The recent, courageous talk shared by Carole...

Welcome to episode 131 of the EdTech Situation Room from April 17, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed proposed changes to the way Twitter is designed and works, the challenges of online discussion / dialog, buzz around the release of the Samsung Fold Android smartphone, and the continuing DNS hacks...

Welcome to episode 130 of the EdTech Situation Room from April 10, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed YouTube's challenges moderating objectionable content, the human costs of that content moderation, and the incredibly hostile digital infrastructure which is now online amplifying that content for a...

Welcome to episode 129 of the EdTech Situation Room from April 3, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed more technology links than should technically be "legal" for a free #edtech podcast. Topics included the NSO Group and Pegasus iPhone malware and the proliferation of Android-based pre-installed apps...

Welcome to episode 128 of the EdTech Situation Room from March 27, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed how amazing Garageband software continues to be, this past week's Apple Event announcements, implications of Article 13's passage in the EU for user created content, freedom of expression, and the p...

Welcome to episode 127 of the EdTech Situation Room from March 7, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed Google's new Chromebook App Hub website, OpenAI's decision to NOT share a new AI text generator, and Microsoft's forthcoming "Windows Lite" operating system. Dipayan Ghosh & Ben Scott's advocacy to p...

Welcome to episode 126 of the EdTech Situation Room from February 28, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) was on assignment at the NCCE Conference in Seattle. In this episode, Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) and Beth Holland (@brholland) discussed baby duck syndrome, resources by PBS Learning Media including "The Cat in the Hat" online, and what...

Welcome to episode 125 of the EdTech Situation Room from February 13, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the death of NASA's Mars Opportunity rover, cybersecurity incidents in K12 schools, weak U.S. government enforcement of privacy laws, and criticism of both Apple and Google for allowing Saudi men...

Welcome to episode 124 of the EdTech Situation Room from February 6, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed YouTube's most recent letter to Creators, Google's Jigsaw project which uses AI to help human moderators identify toxic posts which violate community standards, and the Japanese government's plans...

Welcome to episode 123 of the EdTech Situation Room from January 30, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the advance of YouTube's local video content, Google's attempt to address conspiracy / outlier content on YouTube, and the new Gmail app for Android and iOS. The global decline in smartphone sales...

Welcome to episode 122 of the EdTech Situation Room from January 23, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed highlights from the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and a series of articles further highlighting our ongoing "Technology Correction." These included a new fine for Google bec...

Welcome to episode 121 of the EdTech Situation Room from January 10, 2019, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussed the implications of Apple's disappointing earnings projection for the first quarter of 2019, Baratunde Thurston's Tech Manifesto addressing how we should protect data privacy, and the intense tech...