EdTech Situation Room Episode 67

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!