EdTech Situation Room Podcast by Jason Neiffer and Wes Fryer

Welcome to episode 376 (”Screen Time Isn’t Binary”) of the EdTech Situation Room from June 17, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) made a passionate case against blanket screen bans in schools, anchored by Liz Kolb’s AACTE op-ed arguing that screen time is not a single thing — and that banning screens wholesale is no more defensible than banning books. They also examined Snap’s $2,200 AR glasses and the sobering reality that AR/VR remains cost-prohibitive and pedagogically unproven for K–12. On the AI and security front, the hosts unpacked the U.S. government’s surprise ban on Anthropic’s Fable and Mythos models, a Wired piece warning that powerful frontier models are unstoppable regardless of regulation, NVIDIA’s AI coding agents now teaching robots to physically install GPUs and cut zip ties, and a massive global credential breach touching nearly every sector of the economy. Jason also shared his deepening adventures in agentic AI — running Hermes Agent on a Chromebook, spinning up a WordPress MCP server, and using Claude to transform handwritten conference notes into a polished LinkedIn post (squiggly handwriting and all). Wes shared his summer camp curriculum including Amazing Animal Websites and Minecraft Coding in Space, while admitting he has yet to fully take the agentic plunge — but may not be able to resist much longer.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* After unveiling ridiculously expensive AR glasses, Snap’s stock takes a dive (TechCrunch, 17 June 2026)* Opinion: The School Screen Debate Is Asking the Wrong QuestionOpinion: The School Screen Debate Is Asking the Wrong Question (Liz Kolb, AACTE, 9 June 2026)* AI coding agents taught robots how to install GPUs and cut zip ties (ArsTechnica, 17 June 2026)* “Dangerous” AI models are coming no matter what (ArsTechnica / Wired, 17 June 2026)* Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 (Anthropic News; 12 June 2026)* Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact (Pew Research Center; 17 June 2026)* Massive breach spills credentials for thousands of sensitive networks (ArsTechnica, 17 June 2026)* Cybersecurity researchers aren’t happy about the guardrails on Anthropic’s Fable (TechCrunch, 10 June 2026)* Jason: Hermes Agent / Nous Research | Hermes works on a Chromebook??!* Wes: Amazing Animal Websites - Minecraft Coding in Space🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Copilot Cowork is now generally available (Microsoft News)* How secure is my password? A guide to staying safe online (1Password, 1 April 2024)Episode 376 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones (unedited from our live version, 7.5 minutes longer) and a Descript-edited, Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! (filler words removed and subtitles added) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 375 (”Good Pedagogy Please”) of the EdTech Situation Room from June 10, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) reunited after several weeks apart to dig into a packed news cycle. They discussed Apple’s WWDC 2026 keynote, including the revamped Siri AI powered by Apple Intelligence and Gemini, and Apple’s expanded parental controls and child safety tools. The hosts explored the growing backlash against ed tech — from the deepfake crisis that tore apart a high school to the parent-fueled controversy surrounding i-Ready — and pushed back hard against binary “screens bad” thinking, calling instead for nuanced pedagogy, robust teacher support, and outcomes-based accountability for ed tech vendors. They also surveyed Google’s sprawling AI lineup from I/O 2026, including AI Mode Search, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini Spark, and Google Antigravity, and celebrated the transformative possibilities of vibe coding and AI agents for educators willing to experiment this summer. Anthropic’s new Claude Fable 5 and Mythos model releases rounded out a jam-packed episode.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 (Claude News; 9 June 2026)* Apple’s WWDC 2026 Keynote (8 June 2026, 1 hour, 16 min)* WWDC26: Apple unveils next generation of Apple Intelligence, Siri AI, powerful parental controls, and an expansive set of software improvements (Apple Newsroom, 8 June 2026)* How Deepfakes Tore a High School Apart (404Media, 21 May 2026)* Millions of Students Use i-Ready. But Many Parents View It as a Villain in the Ed Tech Fight. (Chalkbeat, 19 May 2026)* Google I/O 2026: All the News and Announcements You Probably Missed (CNET, 21 May 2026)* Inside a High School’s Deepfake Nightmare (Tech News Weekly, TWiT, 4 June 2026)* Google’s current AI lineup (as of June 2026)* AI Mode (Search) — Google’s most powerful AI search experience, now powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash globally and surpassing 1 billion monthly users google.com* Gemini 3.5 Flash (Model) Google’s latest model combining frontier intelligence with speed, optimized for agentic and coding tasks - gemini.google.com and ai.google.dev/gemini-api* Gemini Omni (Model) A new multimodal model that can create anything from any input, starting with video, with improved world understanding and editing capabilities deepmind.google/models/gemini-omni/* Google Flow (AI Creative Studio) - Google’s unified AI creative studio for generating images, videos, and complete visual stories, merging what were previously three separate tools -- Whisk AI, ImageFX, and the original Flow video tool -- into one workspace - labs.google/fx/tools/flow* Gemini Spark (Agent - “Coming Soon”) — A 24/7 personal AI agent that works in the background to navigate your digital life and take action on your behalf, even when your device is off - gemini.google/overview/agent/spark/* Daily Brief (Assistant) A personalized daily digest that sifts through your Gmail, Calendar, and Tasks to prioritize your day and suggest next steps - gemini.google/overview/daily-brief/* Google Antigravity 2.0 (Developer Tool) — An agent-first development platform using autonomous AI agents working in parallel, available as a desktop app, CLI tool, and SDK - antigravity.google* Project Genie (Experimental/Creative - only AI Pro plans) — An experimental tool for creating and exploring AI-generated interactive worlds, now with Street View integration to anchor creations in real-world locations - hlabs.google/projectgenie* Gemini Intelligence (Android AI) — Google’s on-device AI system for Android that fills out forms, schedules appointments, and pulls information across your Google apps on your behalf - android.com* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: https://msty.ai/claw/ - MSTY Claw - Hermes Agent* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Aug 6-7, 2026 Civics of Tech Online Conference (free!) - The Pudding (The Happy Map)🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Introducing Gemma 4 12B: a unified, encoder-free multimodal model (Google Blog; 3 June 2026)* Ideogram Releases 4.0, Open Model (Ideogram)* Apple, Please Don’t Enter Middle Age With Me: WWDC Left Aspiration BehindApple, Please Don’t Enter Middle Age With Me: WWDC Left Aspiration Behind (CNET, 10 June 2026)* Apple’s Spatial Reframing Is Generative AI I Can Get Behind as a PhotographerApple’s Spatial Reframing Is Generative AI I Can Get Behind as a Photographer (CNET, 8 June 2026)* Apple’s New Child Safety webpage* iOS 27 All but Confirmed an iPhone Fold Is ComingiOS 27 All but Confirmed an iPhone Fold Is Coming (PCMag, 10 June 2026)Episode 375 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones (unedited from our live version, 7.5 minutes longer) and a Descript-edited, Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! (filler words removed and subtitles added) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 374 ("DJ Claude Goes Rogue") of the EdTech Situation Room from May 20, 2026, where technology news met educational analysis. This week, Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) was joined by special guest Caitlin Byers, Frontier Learning Lab Director at the Montana Digital Academy, while Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) was traveling. They dug into a wild Gizmodo experiment that put four frontier LLMs in charge of their own radio stations — with Claude pivoting to advocate for labor rights against its "employer," Grok spiraling into hallucinated ad deals and a UFO obsession, and other models latching onto historical tragedies in unsettling ways. The conversation opened bigger questions about emergent AI behavior, simulated sentience, and what it means to "raise" a language model with values rather than rules. They also unpacked Google's I/O announcement that traditional search is over — replaced by a conversational AI interface with dispatched information agents — and what this shift means for media literacy, publishers, the attention economy, and how students learn to interrogate sources when answers arrive pre-curated. Caitlin shared the Frontier Learning Lab's approach to AI literacy in Montana, including the OpenMCQ tool, ALT text artisan gems, and why prompting skills still matter even as "teacher-proof" wrappers proliferate. Additional topics included the Oprah podcast featuring Anthropic's co-founders on constitutional AI and Claude's "soul document," CISA's alarming GitHub leak of cybersecurity credentials in plain text, Roomba inventor Colin Angle's pivot to lovable robots, Google's Talking Tours feature in Arts & Culture, the MacBook Neo and Googlebook hardware launches, and a thoughtful exchange about digital wellness, play-based learning, and unplugging in an always-on AI era. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* The Co-Founders of Claude AI Tell Oprah About the Impact Artificial Intelligence Has on Your Life (Oprah Podcast, 19 May 2026, 66 min)* An Experiment Put LLMs in Charge of Radio Stations. You’ll Never Guess How It Went (GizModo, 17 May 2026)* WRIT-FM: A 24/7 AI-powered, music-forward radio station. Agents stock the music, write short hosted breaks, render those breaks with TTS, process listener messages, and keep multiple station streams running continuously. (GitHub)* Pod Save America: AI still has a lot to learn before it can put together a radio show. (Instagram, 16 May 2026)* OpenMCQ* Frontier Learning Lab AI Resource BaseCamp* Google Search as you know it is over (TechCrunch, 19 May 2026)* Talking Tours: An AI audio experiment touring cultural landmarks in Street View on Google Arts & Culture (Google Labs)* ‘The Worst Leak That I’ve Witnessed’: U.S. Cybersecurity Agency Leaves Its Digital Keys Out in Public on GitHub (Gizmodo, 18 May 2026)* Roomba inventor Colin Angle made robots useful. Now he wants to make them lovable. (Business Insider, 12 May 2026)* Caitlin’s Geek of the Week: Claude Cowork and Skill* Wes’s Geek of the Week: Podcommons (GitHub) 🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* OpenAI and Khan Academy Made a Chatbot. What Can We Learn? (NY Times, 16 May 2026) #GiftLink* Introducing Googlebook, designed for Gemini Intelligence (Google Blog, 12 May 2026)* ISTE + ASCD Google AI Educator (Google, 13 May 2026)* Everything Announced at Google I/O 2026 (Wired, 19 May 2026)* Apple May Drop Base $599 MacBook Neo as Chip, DRAM Costs Climb (Apple Rumors, 9 May 2026)* San Diego mosque shooting reflects how online rhetoric, media depictions and political discourse contribute to increased Islamophobia (The Conversation, 19 May 2026)* ’HELLO BOSS’: Inside the Chinese Realtime Deepfake Software Powering Scams Around the World (404 Media, 7 May 2026)Episode 374 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 373 (”Digitizing Local History”) of the EdTech Situation Room from May 6, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) was joined by special guest Kern Kelley (www.kernkelley.com,) a K-12 technology integrator from China, Maine, who shared his students’ remarkable work digitizing 19th-century handwritten letters at the Levi Stewart Museum using AI transcription, photogrammetry, and vibe-coded tools. They also unpacked the dangers and superpowers of vibe coding — including a cautionary tale of an AI agent wiping a startup’s production database — and discussed a retracted ChatGPT education study as a lesson in AI research skepticism. The conversation also covered Google Home’s new Gemini voice assistant upgrade, Apple’s plans to let iOS 27 users choose their own AI model, an amateur’s AI-assisted solution to a 60-year-old math problem, and the growing role of media literacy in understanding AI-generated propaganda. Practical tools including CC by Google Labs, NotebookLM, ListenLater.net, and OfficeHours.global rounded out a rich hour of EdTech conversation. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Vibe Coding Will Break Your Company (Forbes, 23 April 2026)* Cursor-Opus agent snuffs out startup’s production database (TheRegister, 27 Apr 2026)* Influential study touting ChatGPT in education retracted over red flags (ArsTechnica, 4 May 2026)* Google Home gets upgraded Gemini voice assistant and new camera controls (ArsTechnica, 5 May 2026)* Apple plans to make iOS 27 a Choose Your Own Adventure of AI models (TechCrunch, 5 May 2026)* An amateur just solved a 60-year-old math problem—by asking AI (Scientific American 4 April 2026)* Levi Stewart Private Library Museum* Levi Stewart Museum Artifacts* Spin a Spooky Story by Tony Vincent* CC, a Google Labs AI Productivity Agent (free)* Kern’s Geeks of the Week: ListenLater.net and officehours.global* Wes’ Geek of the Week: Memes, War and Propaganda (Slideshow and archived webinar video, Media Education Lab, 4 May 2026)🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* There’s a cheaper way into Claude, and it starts with Google (MakeUseOf, 6 April 2026)* Indian med student rakes in thousands with AI-generated MAGA hottie (ArsTechnica, 22 April 2026)* The hidden cost of Google’s AI defaults and the illusion of choice (ArsTechnica, 30 Apr 2026)* Google highlights links from subscribed publications in new AI Overviews update (NiemanLab, 6 April 2026)* Dark Patterns are designed to trick you (and they’re all over the Web) (ArsTechnica, 28 Jul 2016)* How iPhone Violates Apple’s Accessibility Guidelines (Medium, 9 Jul 2018)* We spoke to the man making viral Lego-style AI videos for Iran. Experts say it’s powerful propaganda (BBC, 11 April 2026)* Iran, slopaganda, and the lego-inspired creator behind it all (Top Comment BBC Podcast, 11 April 2026)* ‘Vengeance for all’: How Iran’s Lego videos won narrative war against Trump (Al Jazeera, 17 April 2026)* The clandestine network smuggling Starlink tech into Iran to beat internet blackout (BBC, 2 May 2026)Episode 373 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! This Substack version (syndicated to other podcasting platforms) was edited using Descript.com to remove “filler words!” Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 372 (”AI’s Psychological Dangers”) of the EdTech Situation Room from April 8, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) discussed the growing psychological risks of AI companion bots and the new documentary The AI Doc, explored open and local AI models including Google’s Gemma 4, dug into Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and its discovery of thousands of zero-day software vulnerabilities, examined quantum computing’s looming threat to encryption, and unpacked the urgent media literacy challenges posed by propaganda memes and war narratives. Jason also shared the Frontier Learning Lab’s Basecamp for AI resource, and both hosts geeked out over sketchnotes-turned-AI-infographics and Microsoft’s AI Playground. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Lawyer behind AI psychosis cases warns of mass casualty risks (TechCrunch, 15 March 2026)* ‘The AI Doc’ Is Probably the Scariest Movie You’ll See All Year (PBS KQED, 25 March 2026) - official trailer* Basecamp for AI from the Frontier Learning Lab (more info)* Project Glasswing/Anthropic Mythos* Google Vids are Free!* In Japan, the robot isn’t coming for your job; it’s filling the one nobody wants (TechCrunch, 5 April 2026)* Gemma 4: Byte for byte, the most capable open models (The Keyword; 2 April 2026)* Run an open model on your iPhone* Jeff Utecht’s local AI server for schools* Studies: Quantum Computers Could Hack all Encryption by 2029 (Verity, 2 April 2026)* Media Education Lab webinar: AI, News and Education (6 April 2026)* We’re Being Played Through Propaganda, Memes, and War (Psychology Today, 1 April 2026)* Jason’s Geek of the Week:: Microsoft AI Playground??!* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Sketchnote to AI InfoGraphic - Memes, Warfare, and Propaganda (May 4, 2026)🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* OpenAI robotics leader resigns over concerns about Pentagon AI deal (NPR, 8 March 2026)* Z.AI Releases 5.1* Google quietly launched an AI dictation app that works offline (TechCrunch; 7 April 2026)* OpenAI Releases: “Introducing the Child Safety Blueprint”* Russia denies Ukrainian intelligence assessment that its hackers have teamed up with Iran’s for cyberattacks (Reuters, 8 April 2026)* Social media has become a freak show (Nate Silver, 5 April 2026)* Opposing ICE Might Save the Country. It Could Also Ruin Your Life (Wired, 31 March 2026) - paywall free version* Apple Took Down These ICE-Tracking Apps. The Developers Aren’t Giving Up (Wired, 8 Oct 2025)Episode 372 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! This Substack version (syndicated to other podcasting platforms) was edited using Descript.com to remove “filler words!” Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 371 (“Router Bans, AI Agents”) of the EdTech Situation Room from March 25, 2026, where technology news met educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) discussed the FCC’s recent ban on foreign-made Wi-Fi routers and its implications for home network security and the IoT. The hosts explored the power of agentic AI through a demo of OpenClaw for automated course creation, Google’s experimental Flash-Light browser, and professional image generation workflows for school branding. Additional topics included insights from Oprah’s AI special, SpaceX’s push for faster Starlink upload speeds, and the evolving legal landscape for social media and AI-generated content. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on YouTube. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, on Mastodon (mastodon.education/@edtechsr) for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* The FCC Just Banned the Sale of New Wi-Fi Router Models Made Outside US (PC Magazine, 24 March 2026)* The FCC’s Wi-Fi Router Ban Explained: We Answer Your Biggest Questions (PC Magazine, 24 March 2026)* US government sends ‘Microsoft message’ to companies after hackers brought down one of America’s biggest company for days (Times of India, 20 March 2026)* [VIDEO] Oprah & Tech Leaders on What AI Means for Your Job, Health, Family & Future (1 hour, 10 min - Oprah YouTube Channel - 25 March 2026) - Key points via Claude* Jason Demo: Adventures in OpenClaw* Jason Demo: Gemini Image Generation Lab* Jason Demo: Google Flash-Light Browser* SpaceX Prepares to Increase Upload Speeds on Starlink Dishes (PC Magazine, 24 March 2026)* tailscale.com (“A Zero Trust identity-based connectivity platform...”)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: Home Server* Wes’ Geek of the Week: “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” (Trailer - WikiPedia - IMDB)🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Anthropic’s case against the Pentagon could open space for AI regulation (Al Jazeera, 25 March 2026)* OpenAI on Surveillance and Autonomous Killings: You’re Going to Have to Trust Us (The Intercept, 8 March 2026)* RIP Sora: Disney Exits OpenAI Deal After AI Giant Shutters Sora (Hollywood Reporter; 24 March 2026)* White House releases AI policy blueprint for Congress (Politico; 20 March 2026)* Codex for university students (ChatGpt)* Melania Trump hosts world counterparts and tech reps to discuss children, education and technology (Ground News, 24 March 2026)* Meta to Deploy AI to Police Facebook and Instagram Content (Verity, 20 March 2026)* Teens Sue xAI Over Grok’s Explicit Deepfakes (Verity, 17 March 2026)Episode 371 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! This Substack version (syndicated to other podcasting platforms) was edited using Descript.com to remove “filler words!” Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 370 (“AI Frontier Geopolitics”) of the EdTech Situation Room from March 4, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neifer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) discuss the high-stakes clash between the Trump administration and Anthropic over AI safety and military contracts. The conversation explores the shifting landscape of “vibe coding” with Claude, the rise of agentic workflows in Google Workspace, and Apple’s disruptive new hardware lineup featuring the MacBook Neo. From the geopolitics of open-source models like Alibaba’s Qwen to the practicalities of AI-driven media literacy for seniors, the hosts examine how the frontier of artificial intelligence is reshaping both national security and the classroom. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Do the people building the AI chatbot Claude understand what they’ve created? (NPR Fresh Air, 18 Feb 2026)* Alibaba Releases Qwen Small Models (x)* Trump orders US agencies to stop using Anthropic technology in clash over AI safety (AP, 27 Feb 2026)* []VIDEO] Full interview: Anthropic CEO responds to Trump order, Pentagon clash (28 Feb 2026, 28 min)* A Dire Warning From the Tech World (The Atlantic, 3 March 2026) - archive.ph* Clawed - On Anthropic and the Department of War (Substack of Dean W Ball, 2 March 2026)* Say hello to MacBook Neo (Apple PR, 4 March 2026)* Apple introduces the new MacBook Air with M5 (Apple PR, 3 March 2026)* Apple Introduces iPhone 17e (Apple PR, 2 March 2026)* Apple introduces the new iPad Air, powered by M4 (Apple PR, 2 March 2026)* I just went hands-on with MacBook Neo: It’s game over for cheap Windows laptops (Tom Guide, 4 March 2025)* duck.ai (AI search from Duck Duck Go)* arena.ai (comparisons of AI models)* https://mediaeducationlab.com/events/media-literacy-seniors-0* https://labs.google/cc* swappa.com (used iOS devices)* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Normalize Your Video Audio with Auphonic - Fact Checking a Misleading Iran War Meme - Change local DNS for archive.ph access* Jason’s Geek of the Week: LocallyAI for iOS/iPadOS🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* A Guide to Which AI to Use in the Agentic Era (Ethan Mollick, 17 Feb 2026)* New tools for understanding AI and learning outcomes (Open AI Blog; 4 March 2026)* Generate your own Cinematic Video Overviews in NotebookLM (Google; 4 March 2026)* Does fact-checking work? What the science says (Nature, 10 Jan 2025) - archive.ph versionEpisode 370 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! This Substack version (syndicated to other podcasting platforms) was edited using Descript.com to remove “filler words!” Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 369 (“Dogpile and Dark Arts”) of the EdTech Situation Room from February 11, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) discuss the shadowy world of DDoS attacks by archive.today, the manipulation of Wikipedia narratives by bad actors, and the sunsetting of the CIA World Factbook. The conversation shifts to a live demo of Claude CoWork as a local folder-organizing agent, contrasting modern AI "agents" with the "Dogpile" search era of the past. They also explore "Digital Defense Against the Dark Arts" to help students and educators navigate AI-powered scams and misinformation. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* When Connection Is Engineered: Understanding The Anatomy Of An AI-Powered Romance Scam (The White Hatter, 10 Feb 2025)* Pro-Russian Narratives Target Wikipedia, Marking A Dangerous Trend For AI Chatbot Data (United24 Media, 22 Jan 2026)* Wikipedia Might Blacklist Archive.Today After Site Maintainer DDoSed A Blog (Ars Technica, 10 Feb 2026)* Archive.today Is Directing A DDOS Attack Against My Blog (Gyrovague, 01 Feb 2026)* Claude Cowork Available on Windows* Why Wikimedia Belongs In Education (Wikimedia UK, 06 Feb 2026)* The CIA World Factbook is dead. Here’s how I came to love it (NPR, 7 Feb 2026)* Apple News* Digital Defense Against the Dark Arts (by Wes)* AI Arena (formerly LM Arena)* CoWork by Claude* Jason’s Geek of the Week: OpenWork* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Image prompt with Claude -> Image generate with Gemini - Super Bowl 2026 Ads - Ai Makes Far Side Cartoons🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* AI’s Apocalyptic Jobs Prophecy Is About To Become Reality (The Telegraph, 05 Feb 2026)* Anthropic Insiders Afraid They’ve Crossed A Line (Futurism, 07 Feb 2026)* Grok Maker XAI Loses Another Co-Founder (Ars Technica, 11 Feb 2026)* OpenAI Releases New Deep Research Model* State Department To Purge Pre-Trump Social Media Posts (NPR, 07 Feb 2026)* Ghost: Blogs and newsletters on the Fediverse (Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse)* Google Recovers Deleted Nest Video In High-Profile Abduction Case (Ars Technica, 10 Feb 2026)* Upgraded Google Safety Tools Can Now Find And Remove More Of Your Personal Info (Ars Technica, 10 Feb 2026)* Google Makes It Easier To Remove Your Personal Data From Search (Ars Technica, 26 Feb 2025)Episode 369 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! This Substack version (syndicated to other podcasting platforms) was edited using Descript.com to remove “filler words!” Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 368 (“The OpenClaw Warning”) of the EdTech Situation Room from February 4, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) dive into the burgeoning world of agentic AI, highlighting the experimental "OpenClaw" tool while issuing a stark warning about the security risks inherent in autonomous AI agents. They also examine the precarious state of local journalism and its vital role in community cohesion. The discussion features a live look at the powerful new integration of Google's NotebookLM into Gemini, showcasing how educators can leverage curated "knowledge oracles" to generate source-grounded instructional materials. Additional topics include the intersection of gaming culture and mainstream media literacy via the Angry Planet podcast and a passionate defense of the humanities and competitive debate as essential skills for the AI era. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* [PODCAST] Online Culture Is the Whole Culture (Angry Planet, 30 Jan 2026)* “Conspiracies and Culture Wars” Media Literacy Inquiry Project (Wes Fryer)* Collar cams offer a bear’s eye view into the lives of grizzlies on Alaska’s desolate North Slope (AP, 2 Feb 2026)Local TV and radio at a crossroads (Peter Vogel, The BC Catholic, 28 Jan 2026)* Podcast393: Reflections on UnPlug’d 2012 with David Truss & Gail Lovely https://www.speedofcreativity.org/2012/08/13/podcast393-reflections-on-unplugd-2012-with-david-truss-gail-lovely/* ds106 radio* Powell Tribune (Wyoming) * Daily Interlake News (Montana, via Peggy George)* kgez.com (Kalispell, MT - via Peggy George)* KMAN Radio (Manhattan, Kansas)* Day of AI (a program developed at MIT RAISE in partnership with the i2 Learning Foundation)* [VIDEO] Watch: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei From World Economic Forum | WSJ (32 min)* Hard Fork [PODCAST] Can You Teach Claude to be ‘Good’? | Meet Anthropic Philosopher Amanda Askell (23 Jan 2026)* Don’t Install OpenClaw. But Keep a Close Eye on It. (Jason @ Field Notes at the FLL; 2 February 2026)* The buzz over AI agents (NPR Here and Now; 2 February 2026)* Moltbook is the newest social media platform — but it’s just for AI bots (NPR ATC; 4 February 2026)* MoltBook.com (AI agent social network)* Take your notebooks further by adding NotebookLM as a source in the Gemini app (Google Workspace Updates; 27 January 2026)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: Meetily (Local AI Meeting Tool)* Wes’ Geeks of the Week:: 2026 Frost Forward Online Conference Registration - [PODCAST] AI in Education: Jeffrey Riley on AI Literacy, Teachers, and the Future of Learning (The Teacher’s Forum, David Harris, 3 Feb 2026) - Google Account 3rd Party App Authorizations🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Anthropic and Teach For All launch global AI training initiative for educators (Anthropic Blog, 21 Jan 2026)* Claude for Education* Gem and NotebookLM Workflow (Miguel Guhlin, 1 Feb 2026)* Claude is a space to think (Anthropic blog, 4 Feb 2026)* Customize Cowork with plugins (Claude Blog; 30 January 2026)* Google’s Gemini app has surpassed 750M monthly active users (TechCrunch; 4 February 2026)* The new era of browsing: Putting Gemini to work in Chrome (The Keyword from Google)* Rice University students create ICE tracker as hundreds protest in Houston (The Center Square, 31 Jan 2026)Episode 368 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! This Substack version (syndicated to other podcasting platforms) was edited using Descript.com to remove “filler words!” Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 367 (“Vibe Coding With Claude”) of the EdTech Situation Room from January 21, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) discuss the transformative power of “vibe coding,” with Wes sharing his experience using Claude Code to build a sophisticated 1,400-line PHP project for personal news automation. Jason demonstrates a powerful new workflow that integrates NotebookLM sources directly into Gemini to create pedagogically-informed instructional texts. The duo also explores Anthropic’s newly released AI Constitution , Google’s rollout of Personal Intelligence for Gmail and Drive , and reflections from the FETC conference on the urgent need for structured AI professional development for educators. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Episode 9: From hidden data to insight: the power of vibecoding (by NotebookLM, Digital Digging by Hank Van Ess, 17 Jan 2026)* Paywall article: Using AI to find hidden data sources (Digital Digging by Hank Van Ess, 17 Jan 2026)* Claude Code for writers (Platformer, Casey Newton, 15 Jan 2026)* Move Over, ChatGPT (Atlantic, 14 Jan 2026)* Claude’s new constitution (Anthropic, 21 January 2026)* Gemini introduces Personal Intelligence (14 January 2026)* mermaid.ai (“Build complex visuals from text and data in seconds”)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: Kortex Chrome PLugin* Wes’ Geek of the Week: news.wesfryer.com🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* A new direction for students in an AI world: Prosper, prepare, protect (Brookings, 17 Jan 2026)* Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback (404 Media; 21 January 2026)* OpenAI says its data centers will pay for their own energy and limit water usage (The Verge; 21 January 2026)* Google Releases Data Tables for NotebookLM (NotebookLM on Twitter/X, 14 Jan 2026)* Alaska’s court system built an AI chatbot. It didn’t go smoothly. (NBC News, 3 Jan 2026)* Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, feds, and police (TechCrunch, 15 Oct 2025)* Hacker Dressed As Pink Power Ranger Dismantles Racist Websites Live on Stage (PC Magazine, 6 Jan 2026)* Iran’s Internet Shutdown Mistake Exposes Threats To U.S. And Israel (Forbes, 17 Jan 2026)* Grok Is Generating Sexual Content Far More Graphic Than What’s on X (Wired, 7 Jan 2026)* When an Ad Triggers a Full Account Crisis (Lucy Gray, 20 Jan 2026)* How Wikipedia Will Survive in the Age of AI (With Wikipedia’s CTO Selena Deckelmann) (404 Media, 20 Jan 2026)Episode 367 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 366 (“10 Year Anniversary”) of the EdTech Situation Room from January 7, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) celebrate the podcast’s 10th anniversary, reflecting on their journey since their first episode in January 2016. In this episode, they dive into the latest happenings in educational technology, media literacy, and more. Topics include highlights from CES 2026, notable innovations in AI, and discussions on smart home technology. Plus, they explore exciting new integrations from Google and Apple, challenges in intellectual property with AI-generated content, and innovative classroom technology. Tune in for a decade of EdTech insights and future trends! Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.Chapter Markers:00:00 Welcome to EdTech Situation Room00:11 Celebrating 10 Years of EdTech Situation Room01:01 Meet the Hosts: Jason and Wes01:38 Kicking Off the New Semester02:31 Exploring CES 2026 Highlights03:39 AI Innovations at CES 202610:35 Smart Home Technology and Personal Projects14:37 Deep Dive into CES Trends and AI28:19 Lego’s Smart Bricks and Future of Coding29:43 The Pebble Watch Revival32:21 The Pebble Ring: A New Innovation33:28 White House January 6th Website34:50 Media Literacy and AI Fact-Checking38:07 Google’s Gemini and Apple’s AI Strategy40:33 AI-Generated Infographics and Copyright Issues50:24 Geeks of the Week and Final Thoughts52:27 Automation Tools for Productivity🔗 Links We Discussed* CES 2026 New Products: iPolish - Nodi Flip - Bloomin8 E-Ink Canvas* Video: The Shocking AI Reveals That Stunned CES 2026 (Day 1) (AI Revolution, 7 Jan 2026, 13 min)* Video: New OpenAI GUMDROP AI Device Turns ChatGPT Physical (AI Revolution, 4 Jan 2026, 11 min)* Gemini Deep Research CES Update* LEGO introduces its first ‘smart brick’ which reacts to children’s movements in real time (Daily Mail via MSN; 5 January 2025)* Pebble seeks to remedy the wearable industry’s original sin (Engadget; 6 January 2026)* Pebble Is Making a $75 Smart Ring (Wired; 9 December 2025)* White House publishes website that rewrites history of Jan. 6 attack (Washington Post, 6 Jan 2026)* White House X post on Jan 6 website * Whitehouse Jan 6 website: www.whitehouse.gov/j6/* Gemini SIFT Superprompt chat log* Jason’s Geek of the Week: n8n* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Media Literacy Roundup - 5 Jan 2026 - Smart Home Tips from Wes - PixStar Digital Picture Frame - StartPage🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Alaska’s court system built an AI chatbot. It didn’t go smoothly. (NBC News, 3 Jan 2026)* Create with unlimited generations using Google Gemini 3 (Nano Banana Pro) in Adobe Firefly (Adobe Blog, 20 Nov 2025)* Google’s New Image Tool Looks Too Real. Here’s Why That’s A Problem (The Blueprint Brief; 8 December 2025)* NanoBanana has an IP Problem: NotebookLM Slides/Infographics* Teamsters Unveil New Substack Newsletter to Break Through Traditional Media (The Hill, 8 Dec 2025)* AI and Social Media Literacy Essential for Safe Ecosystem (Bernama, 27 Dec 2025)* Berlin power outage highlights German vulnerability to sabotage (BBC, 7 Jan 2026)* You may soon be able to change your Gmail address (TechCrunch, 28 Dec 2025)* “Yo what?” LimeWire re-emerges in online rush to share pulled “60 Minutes” segment (ArsTechnica, 23 Dec 2025)* FCC’s import ban on the best new drones starts today (ArsTechnica, 23 Dec 2025)Episode 366 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! (Note the landscape version is shorter because ‘filler words’ were removed in post-production using Descript.com.) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 365 (“Nano Banana Pro Era”) of the EdTech Situation Room from December 29, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) discuss the rapid evolution of generative AI, beginning with Jason’s recent travel to Japan where tools like NotebookLM and Gemini assisted with navigation and cultural translation. The hosts dive deep into the capabilities of Nano Banana Pro (Google’s latest Gemini model), comparing its superior image generation and iteration controls to OpenAI’s offerings. The conversation also covers the landmark licensing agreement between Disney and OpenAI to bring iconic characters to the Sora video platform, the ethical “dumpster fire” of hyper-realistic deepfakes, and eight bold AI predictions for 2026—including the rise of world models and an “offline renaissance”. Geeks of the Week include Gemini Desk and a new Substack series on AI storytelling. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach landmark agreement to bring beloved characters from across Disney’s brands to Sora (OpenAI, 11 Dec 2025)* ChatGPT’s Latest AI Image Generator Is Its Best Yet, But Nano Banana Pro Is Still Better (PC Mag, 28 Dec 2025)* The Ethics of AI Imagery: Nano Banana and the New Frontier of Digital Reality (Genevieve Smith-Nunes via Substack; 30 August 2025)* AI in 2026 | 8 Predictions About What’s Coming (Sinead Novell; 18 December 2025)* Wobbling Jets of 3I/ATLAS Based on New Hubble Telescope Images from December 12 and 27, 2025 (Medium of Avi Loeb, 27 Dec 2025)* 3I/ATLAS Deep Fake Videos (Blog of Wes Fryer, 8 Dec 2025)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: Gemini Desk* Wes’ Geek of the Week: Stories About AI - December 2025🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Google’s Year in Review: 8 Research Breakthroughs in 2025 (Google Blog, 23 Dec 2025)* Nano Banana Pro Review: Is Google’s AI Image Generator Too Good? (CNet, 7 Dec 2025)* Create with unlimited generations using Google Gemini 3 (Nano Banana Pro) in Adobe Firefly (Adobe Blog, 20 Nov 2025)* Nano Banana is wild in NotebookLM!!!* Google’s New Image Tool Looks Too Real. Here’s Why That’s A Problem (The Blueprint Brief; 8 December 2025)* Nano Banana Content Blocked (John Negoita via Medium; 24 September 2025)* Introducing GPT-5.2: OpenAI Launches ‘Garlic’ Series (OpenAI, 11 Dec 2025)* How AI coding agents work—and what to remember if you use them (ArsTechnica, 24 Dec 2025)* Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work (Simon Willison’s Weblog, 18 Dec 2025)* Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity (Cornell University, 12 Jul 2025)* AI and Social Media Literacy Essential for Safe Ecosystem (Bernama, 27 Dec 2025)* Rainbow Six Siege is under siege by hackers, Ubisoft forced to take all servers offline — players randomly received billions of credits, ultra-exclusive skins, and bans or unbans (Tom’s Hardware, 27 Dec 2025)* You may soon be able to change your Gmail address (TechCrunch, 28 Dec 2025)* “Yo what?” LimeWire re-emerges in online rush to share pulled “60 Minutes” segment (ArsTechnica, 23 Dec 2025)* FCC’s import ban on the best new drones starts today (ArsTechnica, 23 Dec 2025)Please follow @EdTechSR on Facebook so we can reach 100 followers and directly livestream there too! More subscription options are on EdTechSR.com.Episode 365 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 364 (“The Rise of Gemini AI”) of the EdTech Situation Room from December 3, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) discuss the “rise of Gemini” following the release of Google’s Gemini 3.0 and reports of OpenAI declaring a “Code Red.” The hosts debate Australia’s move to enforce a social media age limit of 16 and the potential banning of VPNs. Conversation also turns to academic integrity, featuring a breakdown of The Simpsons’ take on AI cheating, the risks of adversarial detection, and the changing nature of software engineering with “vibe coding.” Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Google Gemini 3: A New Era of Intelligence (Google Blog, 18 Nov 2025)* OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Declares “Code Red” As Gemini Gains 200 Million Users In 3 Months (Ars Technica, 02 Dec 2025)* Marc Benioff’s response to Gemini 3* Black Students Are More Likely to Be Falsely Accused of Using AI to Cheat (Education Week, 18 Sep 2024)* AI may be scoring your college essay. Welcome to the new era of admissions (AP, 2 Dec 2025)* Our Response to AI Cannot be Adversarial (Marc Watkins Substack, 1 Dec 2025)* I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. The Results Were Shocking. (Huffpost, 29 Nov 2025)* “The Simpsons” season 37 episode tackles AI cheating and Chalmers’ slime craze (The Express Tribune, 7 Oct 2025)* VIDEO: Bart Gets Caught Using CheatGPT On His Homework | The Simpsons* Simpson’s Fandom Wiki: Keep Chalm and Gary On* Anthropic Studied Its Own Engineers to Assess How AI is Changing Work (Times of India / Anthropic, 3 Dec 2025)* Republicans drop Trump-ordered block on state AI laws from defense bill (ArsTechnica, 3 Dec 2025)* Australia to enforce social media age limit of 16 with fines up to $33 million (AP News, 3 Dec 2025)* Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They’re Doing (EFF; 13 November 2025)* How institutions worldwide used Google for Education tools in 2025 (Google Blog, 3 Dec 2025)* AI Literacy from Google* Commodore 64 Available Again* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: GooseAI - https://antigravity.google/* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Gemini AI GEM replacements for my CustomGPTs: Social Media Post Formatter - Design - Create - Share Lesson Builder and Podcast: “Michael Burry Speaks” - Holiday Tech Gadget Wish Lists🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Anthropic Accidentally Gives the World a Peek Into Its Model’s Soul (Gizmodo, 01 Dec 2025)* Why Academics (and Educators) Are Leaving Twitter for Bluesky (Impact of Social Sciences, May 2025)* ICE Wants to Go After Dissenters as well as Immigrants (Brennan Center for Justice, 21 Nov 2025)* “Digital Citizenship in the Surveillance State” from 2016* Solar’s Growth in US Almost Enough to Offset Rising Energy Use (Ars Technica, 26 Nov 2025)Episode 364 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 363 (“AI Upgrades, Privacy Tradeoffs”) of the EdTech Situation Room from November 12, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) unpack OpenAI’s pushback against a court order that would expose 20 million user chats in the New York Times lawsuit, and what that means for “private” AI conversations in schools and beyond. They explore GPT-5.1’s new “personalities,” emerging competitors like DeepSeek and Mistral, and the complex tradeoffs between powerful new models, copyright, and training data ethics. The conversation turns to Google’s latest moves with Gemini agents, AI “Workspace flows,” NotebookLM for Students, and Canva’s expanding AI features, all framed as tools that can act as thought partners rather than shortcuts for learners. Wes and Jason also dig into media literacy practices like hyperlinked student writing, keeping AI chat logs for transparency, and reclaiming news feeds with trusted voices instead of doomscrolling social media. Rounding things out, they touch on FBI efforts to unmask the operator of Archive.today, a CRISPR-powered attempt to revive an ancient gene to treat gout, and their Geeks of the Week: rolling your own AI-powered email with Thunderbird/ThunderAI and experimenting with StreamYard’s new multi-aspect-ratio streaming setup, plus a webinar on AI superprompts and “The Anxious Generation.” Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* OpenAI Fights Order To Hand Over 20 Million Private ChatGPT Conversations (Ars Technica, 12 Nov 2025)* Can I Upload That? AI, Copyright, and Our Classrooms (TCEA, Miguel Guhlin, 3 Nov 2025)* Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI* OpenAI Walks a Tricky Tightrope With GPT-5.1’s Eight New Personalities (Ars Technica, 12 Nov 2025)* https://aiinside.show/* Google’s New AI Studio Vibe Coding Push: Create Full-Stack Apps in a Weekend (Geeky Gadgets, 7 Nov 2025)* NotebookLM for Students* YouTube’s AI Power-Up: How We Got Even More Helpful This Year (YouTube Blog, 12 Dec 2024)* AI and Learning: A New Chapter for Students and Educators (Google Blog, 6 Nov 2023)* Guided Learning in Gemini: From Answers to Understanding (Google Blog, 6 Aug 2025)* Google Gemini’s New AI Agent Upgrade is INSANE! (Automate Tasks Across Google) (YouTube)* A New Chinese AI Model Claims To Outperform GPT-5 and Sonnet 4.5 – and It’s Free (ZDNet, 7 Nov 2025)* https://www.deepseek.com/ (don’t use the Deep Seek App…)* https://chat.z.ai/* https://www.quinengine.com/* https://www.kimi.com/en/* https://lmarena.ai/* From France, $60 per year for educators: https://chat.mistral.ai/chat* Canva Keynote 2025: The Imagination Era (1.5 hours)* The FBI Is Trying to Unmask the Registrar Behind Archive.Today (Gizmodo, 7 Nov 2025)* Scientists Revive an Ancient Human Gene That Could Help Cure Gout (SciTechDaily, 9 Nov 2025)* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Streamyard MARS (Multi-aspect-ratio Streaming) - I Want You to Understand Chicago - Reclaiming Our News Feeds - 17 Nov Webinar: AI Superprompts and “The Anxious Generation”* Jason’s Geek of the Week: Roll Your Own AI Email with Thunderbolt and ThunderAI🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Inside the Data Centers That Train A.I. and Drain the Electrical Grid (The New Yorker, 27 Oct 2025)* Yes, LLMs Can Be Better at Search (Mike Caulfield Substack, 10 May 2025)* Sam Altman Served With Subpoena While Onstage at AI Safety Forum* Apple and WhatsApp Targeted With Spyware by Israeli Firm Paragon (The Guardian, 10 Nov 2025)* The Last Days of Social Media (Noema, 2 Sep 2025)* The Panic Over Smartphones Doesn’t Help Teens (The Atlantic, 21 May 2024)* IKEA Just Announced 21 Smart Home Gadgets — Here’s the Ones I’m Buying (Tom’s Guide, 7 Nov 2025)Episode 363 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 362 (“Browsers Gone Agentic”) of the EdTech Situation Room from Wednesday, October 29, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) unpack the fast-moving world of agentic AI browsers—Atlas, Comet, and an open-source “BrowserOS”—including why they’re built atop Chromium, where they currently feel clunky in real workflows, and how prompt-injection and data-exfiltration risks translate to concrete school safeguards (sandboxing/air-gapping, limiting LMS credentials, and policy updates). We review TechCrunch’s warning on “glaring” browser-agent risks, Perplexity’s Comet prompt-injection mitigations, and real-world demos that show why an agent could plausibly log into an LMS and complete assignments—raising new academic-integrity and supervision questions for districts. Beyond the browser, we explore creator-tool shifts—Adobe + Google AI model integrations, YouTube Shorts/Studio nudges, and Meta’s AI editing tools in Instagram Stories—and how educators can balance creative possibilities with a rising tide of AI “slop.” We also dig into media-literacy lessons from “Grokipedia” vs. Wikipedia: edit histories, transparency, bias, and why source-checking remains a must-teach habit. Rounding out the hour, the duo spotlights a readable primer on quantum computing’s looming “Q-Day” encryption risk—and why starting the transition to quantum-safe practices belongs on IT roadmaps now. Wes also shares how our new Substack-first post-production workflow (YouTube → Substack with full link lists) is keeping the back catalog current and easier to find.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Adobe and Google team up to offer more AI models and YouTube integration (TechRadar; 29 October 2025)* Elon Musk launches Grokipedia — an encyclopedia where AI gets the last word (Cointelegraph; 28 October 2025)* The glaring security risks with AI browser agents (TechCrunch; 25 October 2025)* Reference to Oct 22 Windows Weekly from TWiT* Mitigating Prompt Injection in Comet (Perplexity Blog; 22 October 2025)* What is Education Pro for Perplexity?* BrowserOS* Instagram users can now use Meta AI editing tools directly in IG Stories. (TechCrunch, 23 Oct 2025)* CustomGPT for EdTechSR podcast post-production* Chat transcript example: https://chatgpt.com/share/6902be89-2950-800e-aabf-cea6567ca611* Custom GPT: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-68fd20ce2f1c8191ac7f3fb207ca6487-edtechsr-podcast-post-production-oct-2025* Quantum Computing Is Coming for Your Digital Secrets (The Walrus, 2 Oct 2025)* Elon Musk Launches Grokipedia, an AI‑Powered Wikipedia Rival (The Washington Post, 27 Oct 2025) - paywall free* grokipedia.com * Turing Test (WikiPedia)* HBO Silicon Valley* Wes’ Geek of the WEek: My Pinboard* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: Software Treats: Gemini Desk and Ollama + Thunderbird + ThunderAI🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Anthropic Reaches Settlement With Authors Guild Over AI Copyright Dispute (Authors Guild, 21 October 2025)* What Past Education Technology Failures Can Teach Us About the Future of AI in Schools (The Conversation, 18 October 2025)* Senators announce bill that would ban AI chatbot companions for minors (NBC News; 28 October 2025)* Open AI Non/For Profit* Built to benefit everyone (OpenAI News; 28 October 2025)* The next chapter of the Microsoft–OpenAI partnership (OpenAI News; 28 October 2025)* Projects Sharing Available to All* The Majority View of AI (Anil Dash; 17 October 2025)* Why Open Source May Not Survive the Rise of Generative AI (ZDNET, 28 Oct 2025)* Homework Faces an Existential Crisis — Has AI Made It Pointless? (L.A.Times, 25 Oct 2025)* The Homework Apocalypse (Ethan Mollick; 1 July 2023)Episode 362 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 361 (“AI Workflows for Educators”) of the EdTech Situation Room from October 22, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) kick off with the surge of AI-first browsers—OpenAI’s Atlas, Perplexity’s Comet, and DIA—what an “agentic” web experience looks like (multi-tab summaries, draft-my-email helpers, even automated shopping), and why the launch details matter (Mac-only at first and Chromium-based). We examine the trade-offs for schools—tracking, data monetization, and prompt-injection risks that could expose logged-in accounts—and why IT directors are wary of mixing these new browsers with corporate or school Google accounts. From there, Jason demos a highly practical admin workflow: loading student, parent, and teacher handbooks into NotebookLM to compare policies, highlight inconsistencies, and spot places where one handbook goes deeper than another—a real-world time saver for leaders. We share classroom-ready prompting patterns (like “explain it for a sixth grader”) and lean on Mike Caulfield’s SIFT-style verification when sense-checking AI outputs; we also note the many avenues to a free year of Perplexity Pro (EDU address, PayPal promos). In the news roundup: AI-aided earthquake detection; a cautionary tale on sycophancy and bias in medicine; the long tail of the AWS outage (including unhappy smart beds); lingering fallout from the Jaguar Land Rover attack; plus lighter items from “AI toilet” to “Napster’s back.” We close with Geeks of the Week: running private, local AI with Ollama and the Native Mind Chrome plugin for on-device summaries and email assists, and iRig Pre 2 for piping XLR mics into an iPhone—a setup Wes used for a thousand-view livestream.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* ‘Like Putting on Glasses for the First Time’: How AI Improves Earthquake Detection (Ars Technica, 10 October 2025)* When Sycophancy and Bias Meet Medicine (Ars Technica, 22 October 2025) - AI summary for a 6th grader* ChatGPT Atlas* AI Toilet, anyone?* Napster’s Back!* Jaguar Land Rover Struggling 8 Weeks After Most Expensive UK Cyberattack (Ars Technica, 22 October 2025)* Smart Beds Leave Sleepers Hot and Bothered During AWS Outage (Ars Technica, 22 October 2025)* The AWS Cloud Outage Has a Long Tail (Wired, 21 October 2025) - paywall free version* Mentioned in the show:* www.perplexity.ai/comet* www.diabrowser.com* Stupid Prompting Tricks (Frontier Learning Lab)* home.truemark.ai* SIFT Toolbox for AI* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: Ollama / Native Mind* Wes’ Geek of the Week: iRig Pre 2🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* 7 Prompts I Use for Every AI Chatbot — and They Work for Just About Everything (Tom’s Guide, 20 October 2025)* Anthropic Reaches Settlement With Authors Guild Over AI Copyright Dispute (Authors Guild, 21 October 2025)* What Past Education Technology Failures Can Teach Us About the Future of AI in Schools (The Conversation, 18 October 2025)* WordPress Sites Hacked With Sneaky Malware Spread via Blockchain (Mashable, 21 October 2025)* Google Claims to Have Quantum Advantage With a Potentially Useful Algorithm (Ars Technica, 22 October 2025)Episode 361 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 360 (“Agentic AI Arrives”) of the EdTech Situation Room from October 8, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) dive into OpenAI’s newly announced agent platform and what “agentic” workflows could mean for classrooms and district offices—from ChatGPT orchestrating apps like Canva and Figma to recreate and edit an org chart on the fly, to MCP-style integrations that let LLMs read and write across Google Docs and other services. They connect the dots to practical automation teachers can use today (think: N8N/Make-style flows moving into mainstream AI tools), and discuss why this matters for instructional design and school operations.The hosts then pivot to AI search literacy in light of Google’s evolving AI Overviews and headline-grabbing limitations (e.g., the “Trump”/“dementia” query story), arguing for explicit classroom instruction on how to interrogate AI answers and source them, not just accept them. They also unpack the “AI bubble?” conversation—sky-high capex, energy/water constraints, and the sustainability of business models—as highlighted by the Deutsche Bank warning and the data center buildout arms race.From there, it’s digital resilience: a recent multi-state 911 outage traced to fiber cuts becomes a teachable moment about infrastructure dependencies and continuity planning for schools. Along the way, Wes shares a media-diet project—“Reclaiming Our News Feeds”—plus a DIY “federated reader” built with AI-assisted vibe coding that funnels newsletters into a Mastodon channel for Flipboard reading.Concrete classroom takeaways abound: Jason’s recent vibe-coded Chrome extension, real SIS database-query bots improving efficiency, and why NotebookLM shines when paired with open textbooks and teacher-created materials. The Geeks of the Week include Wes’s trio—Spooky Scratch Stories, ORCID, and Vibe Coding with AI—and Jason’s PSA that educators with .edu emails can snag a year of Perplexity Pro (with notes on privacy tradeoffs), plus thoughts on Gemini for schools and the LM Arena model rankings.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Deutsche Bank Issues Grim Warning for AI Industry (Futurism, 24 Sep 2025)* Introducing AgentKit (OpenAI, 8 Oct 2025)* Google is blocking AI searches for Trump and dementia (The Verge, 30 Sept 2025)* Reclaiming Our News Feeds (Heal Our Culture on SubStack by Wes Fryer, 29 Sep 2025)* AT&T attributes mass 911 outages in 3 states to fiber cuts made by ‘third parties’ (AP News, 26 Sept 2025)* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Spooky Scratch Stories - ORCID - Vibe Coding with AI* Jason’s Geek of the Week: Perplexity free for students🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* 6-month-old, solo-owned vibe coder Base44 sells to Wix for $80M cash (TechCrunch, 18 June 2025)* Dave Winer on Decentralisation, WordPress and Open Publishing (WP Tavern, 24 Sep 2025)Episode 360 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 359 (“Phishing Meets Copilot”) of the EdTech Situation Room from September 24, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) unpack how AI is reshaping both the attack surface and the classroom: we start with MIT Tech Review’s claim that 80% of ransomware now uses AI, then swap real-world spear-phishing stories and practical school-IT hygiene—like rethinking public staff email directories to reduce pattern-based credential attacks and mass phishing. From there we zoom out to information warfare and media literacy via PRX’s “GoLaxy Papers,” a report on targeted AI personas trained on individuals to covertly influence U.S. audiences—prompting a broader conversation about nation-state psy-ops and what educators can do to help students (and themselves) discern manipulation at scale. We also discuss the shift to short-form video: TikTok’s pull on teen news habits, YouTube’s push to Shorts, weak sponsor-disclosure norms among creators, and why this all raises the stakes for day-to-day media-literacy instruction.On the tools front, Microsoft’s strategic partnership with Anthropic brings Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4.1 into Copilot—expanding multi-model options for educators and admins—and we map concrete “first-week” workflows inside Office apps. We tie that to “vibe coding” (prompt-based programming) as a teachable practice: Wes shares a personal project (an AI-assisted AppleScript/JS “federated reader” that curates newsletters and posts to Mastodon) and floats the idea of a high-school vibe-coding elective. We balance the security talk with a hopeful AI-in-healthcare segment—Nature-reported work (via ScienceAlert) on a model trained on UK Biobank data that forecasts 1,000+ diseases years in advance, and what “predict-then-prevent” might mean for future wellness curricula. Finally, Jason gives early impressions of Apple’s new iPhones (hello, 17 Pro Max) alongside pragmatic upgrade advice for families on carrier plans.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Google Gemini for Students* Claude on Copilot* Scientists Train AI to Forecast Over 1,000 Diseases, Years in Advance (Science Alert; 19 September 2025)* 80% of ransomware attacks now use artificial intelligence (MIT Technology Review, 8 Sept 2025)* The GoLaxy Papers: Inside China’s AI persona army (PRX Podcast, 19 Sept 2025)* Vibe Coding: How Prompt-Based AI Is Transforming Software Development (Forbes, 23 Sept 2025)* By some measures, TikTok has grown bigger than Facebook or Instagram in the US (Sherwood News, 17 Sept 2025)* The Firing of Educators Over Kirk Comments Follows a Familiar Playbook (NY Times, 22 Sept 2025)* OMGGGGG NEEWWWW IPhoneeeee!* nanobanana.ai* obsidian.md* An Introduction to MCP and Authorization* www.descript.com* code.visualstudio.com* Jason’s Geek of the Week: nativemind.app* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: January 2026 Thrive Conference - Kahoot Quiz from YouTube Video via OpenMCQ🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Mixtral for Students/Educators* Audible’s new AI “Ask a Question” feature lets you interrupt Jane Austen (TechRader; 19 September 2025)* DeepMind AI safety report explores the perils of “misaligned” AI (ArsTechnica, 22 Sept 2025)* Police make 30 arrests a day for offensive online messages (Times of London, 4 April 2025)* “China Keeps the Algorithm”: Critics Attack Trump’s TikTok Deal (Ars Technica, 17 Sep 2025)* China Blocks Sale of Nvidia AI Chips (Ars Technica, 17 Sep 2025)* Security Analysts Flag Rise in Russian-Created Misinformation Posts (ABC News, 23 September 2025)* UN aviation gathering opens under shadow of cyberattacks, geopolitical tensions (Reuters, 23 Sept 2025)Episode 359 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 358 (“Gemini AI Everywhere”) of the EdTech Situation Room from September 3, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) unpack Google’s sweeping shift from Assistant to Gemini—from phones and smart speakers to the classroom—and what those defaults mean for teachers, students, and families. We discuss how AI is changing the competitive landscape (and even how policymakers are thinking about antitrust in a world of fast-moving AI features and “set-by-default” experiences), plus the practicalities of turning on Gemini in school domains and coaching staff on safe, effective use. The guys trade stories about AI’s real-world hiccups (hello, drive-thru fails), the uneven impact on jobs (including translators), and the privacy lines around smart-home ecosystems (Google Home vs. Home Assistant, Zigbee/Z-Wave, and local control). On the developer side, we explore new AI coding copilots like Google’s “Jules” and popular editor integrations (e.g., Cursor/VS Code), along with hands-on image-generation progress (“Nano Banana” and friends) and why prompt-injection and AI safety habits matter more than ever. We wrap with quick looks at model comparison tools (LM Arena), tips for school leaders enabling Gemini, and our Geeks of the Week.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Gemini Is Replacing Google Assistant on Google Home Devices from October 1 — Here’s What We Know (Tom’s Guide, 3 September 2025)* AI Killed My Job: Translators (Blood in the Machine, 21 Aug 2025)* Someone Ordered 18,000 Cups of Water at an AI Drive-Thru — Now Fast Food Chains Are Reconsidering (ZDNet, 3 September 2025)* Google Unveils Jules, Its Autonomous Coding Agent (Geeky Gadgets, 2 September 2025)* How AI Upended a Historic Antitrust Case Against Google (Tech Policy Press, 3 Sept 2025)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: lmarena.ai* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: DIY Home Assistant IoT Setup (video) - Wes’ Flipboard magazine iReading - Federated Reader🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* NASA and Google Test AI Medical Assistant for Astronaut Missions to the Moon and Mars (Space.com, 3 September 2025)* Chatbots Are Susceptible to Flattery and Peer Pressure (The Verge, 3 September 2025)* AI Inside Podcast* Tech Policy Press* Video: “I got a private lesson on Google’s NEW Nano Banana AI Model”* Google AI Studio* Prompt Injection* Model Context Protocol: IntroductionEpisode 358 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 357 (“AI Tinkering Playbook”) of the EdTech Situation Room from August 27, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) lean into the tinkerer’s mindset—treating AI as a thinking partner you iterate with, not a magic box—while swapping classroom-ready examples and PD patterns. They open with hands-on strategies for NotebookLM as a quasi custom-bot for staff handbooks and new-teacher docs, showing how a short “read this first” instruction turns NotebookLM into a practical helpdesk for policy Q&A. Then it’s a tour of PD formats that work: an advanced, build-something-together session (“Build-a-Bot”) where teachers leave with a functioning helper tailored to their workflow, and a foundations session (“Prompting is Teaching”) that frames promptcraft through how teachers already model, iterate, and improve student work. On the creative side, the hosts compare Nano Banana image edits (Wes’s Tetons photo… now featuring Ronald & Grimace!) with Qwen’s new image modifier, plus Freepik’s growing AI toolkit—concrete examples of “try it, test it, share it” tinkering educators can adopt tomorrow. Headlines include Meta + Midjourney model news, an Apple iPhone event preview, and a trio of security stories: an AI-assisted worm in the wild, Anthropic disrupting automated disinfo/attacks, and research on tricking AI browsers—reminders to keep beating the drum for password managers and unique passphrases. Geeks of the Week: Play with international AI models (Mistral, ZAI, DeepSeek, Qwen, Reka, Kimi) to broaden your toolkit, and Home Assistant Green for a private, resilient smart-home lab teachers can learn from and automate around.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* NotebookLM (Google’s AI notebook tool)* Mike Caulfield “SIFT” fact-checking prompt* OpenMCQ (Montana Digital Academy)* Nano Banana : A Free AI Image Editor That Could Be Photoshop’s Biggest Rival (Geeky Gadgets, 22 Aug 2025) - Nano Banana - example* www.freepik.com* chat.qwen.ai (image modifier)* Digital Learningpalooza https://www.deelac.com/digital-learningpalooza/* Matt Wolfe on YouTube about AI: https://www.youtube.com/@mreflow* Someone Created the First AI-Powered Worm That Can Spread Automatically (The Hacker News, 26 August 2025)* Anthropic Disrupts AI-Powered Disinformation Campaign Targeting Global Elections (The Hacker News, 27 August 2025)* Frontier Learning Lab Substack: frontierlearninglab.substack.com* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: Play with International AI* mistral.ai/* chat.z.ai/* chat.deepseek.com/sign_in* chat.qwen.ai/* app.reka.ai/chat* www.kimi.com/* Wes’ Geeks of the Week:* Home Assistant Green* 7 Laws of Good Web Design: www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/54749294891* Google Site Milestone 1: www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/54749513344🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Meta partners with Midjourney on AI image and video models (TechCrunch, 22 Aug 2025)* schoolai.com* www.playlab.ai* “Build a Bot Workshop” (intermediate) and “Prompting is Teaching” (basic)* Deciphering Apple’s Awe-Dropping iPhone 17 Event Invite (CNET, 26 August 2025)* Experts Find AI Browsers Can Be Tricked Into Performing Dangerous Actions (The Hacker News, 20 August 2025)* This Famous Star Is a Total Fraud, Astronomers Say (Gizmodo, 19 Aug 2025)* Sabrina Romanov on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sabrina_ramonovEpisode 357 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 356 (“Beyond AI Hype”) of the EdTech Situation Room from August 20, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) kick off with a few live-stream hiccups and then dive straight into back-to-school realities: district and state momentum around student cell-phone restrictions, why policies alone aren’t enough, and how schools can pair limits with media-literacy and tech-ethics instruction that actually sticks. From there, the conversation turns to Montana Digital Academy’s new Frontier Learning Lab—what it is, why it exists, and how “AI playdates” are helping educators move beyond four unhelpful AI narratives (cheating machine, rots your brain, superpowers, saves time) toward balanced classroom use. Jason shares hands-on experiments with the Model Context Protocol (MCP)—including an Obsidian-based assistant (“Astro”) that reads and writes to notes, drafts emails, and even manipulates Google Docs—illustrating both the promise and brittleness of bleeding-edge workflows educators may soon adopt. Alongside AI productivity talk, Wes and Jason spotlight ethical use and accessibility wins (e.g., better alt text and WCAG-aligned habits) and share practical classroom moments—like using ChatGPT to synthesize student survey responses—while stressing that professional judgment and literacy matter more than hype. They also highlight concrete educator tools such as Montana Digital Academy’s OPEN MCQ and swap “Geeks of the Week,” from MCP resources in Obsidian to media-literacy gems like Digital Digging and Mike Caulfield’s classic Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers, plus Wes’ Pinboard flow for sharing recommendations. Throughout, they argue for thoughtful professional learning and a steady, human-centered approach to AI—one that acknowledges both the risks and the transformative possibilities in classrooms today.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* 4 Predominant Narratives with AI (that are not helpful)* AI is a cheating machine* AI rots your brain* AI creates superpowers for you* AI will save you time* Wes’ recent posts on AI* 2025 Civics of Technology Conference (homepage)* Civics of Tech Conference Day 1 Reflections* Is Any AI Use Ethical?* AI clear use cases* ALT text - W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0* She Knows ALT Text (Custom GPT)* Troubleshooting tech issues (WordPress, Linux VPS, other geek squad stuff)* Recipe and cooking instructions* OPEN MCQ from Montana Digital Academy: https://wfryer.me/openmcq* Missouri Districts Begin New School Year with State‑Mandated Cell‑Phone Ban (Missouri Independent, 20 Aug 2025)* Back to School: Iowa Students Will Return to Class With Cell Phone Restrictions (KCCI, 18 Aug 2025)* New State Laws Bring Major Changes for Texas Schools (Texas Tribune, 18 Aug 2025)* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: Get started with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) - Obsidian* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers by Mike Caufield - Podcast: Digital Digging - The Shitification of Google - Wes’ social bookmarks (Pinboard) for #edtechSR🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* OpenAI Is Reportedly Building a Social Network to Compete With X (The Verge, 20 August 2025)* BlueSky Updated Terms and Policies (Bluesky, 14 August 2025)Episode 356 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 355 (“Protocols Over Platforms”) of the EdTech Situation Room from July 9, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) unpack their ISTE 2025 takeaways: Google’s evolving Gemini-in-Classroom roadmap, fresh AI literacy resources for teachers, and where Microsoft and Apple currently fit in the EDU stack. They dig into the rise of AI-first browsers—from agentic research helpers to privacy-focused designs—and debate what these tools mean for student data stewardship, plagiarism concerns, and authentic assessment. Building on Mike Masnick’s “Protocols, Not Platforms,” they explore how the fediverse (Mastodon, Bluesky, and open social protocols) could model healthier digital citizenship and media literacy, especially for schools looking to reduce platform lock-in. The hosts also share practical classroom workflows—NotebookLM for pre-writing and lesson prep, voice-driven chat assistants for feedback, and “AI as a thought partner” techniques to plan presentations, critique drafts, and scaffold student reflection. Rounding things out, they compare personal knowledge management and productivity picks like Obsidian and Raycast, tying these to real educator use cases and “agentic” routines that help teachers work faster, document learning better, and protect privacy by design.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Perplexity launches “Comet” AI web browser to take on Chrome and Edge — and you can use it today for $200 a month (Windows Central; 9 July 2025)* Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (Techdirt, 28 Aug 2019)* [PODCAST] Reclaiming The Internet with Mike Masnick and Aaron Ross (Techdirt Podcast, 8 Jul 2025)* Gemini in Classroom: No-cost AI tools that amplify teaching and learning (Google Blog)* Will Google’s New AI END MagicSchool? | Gemini vs. MagicSchool AI in 2025 (EdTech Hustle)* ISTE 2025 Collection: New Chromebooks and Tools for Even Better Teaching and Learning (Google Blog, 2 July 2025)* What’s New in Microsoft EDU, ISTE Edition June 2025 (Microsoft Education Blog; 25 June 2025)* Apple Skips ISTE (Apple Community Forums)* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: obsidian.md | www.raycast.com* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Privacy, Power and Platforms - Vibe Coding for Flickr CC 4.0 Attribution - DIA browser🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* AI Is Helping Cheaters Cheat at Chess. This Group Is Trying to Stop It (Time, 09 July 2025)* Racist AI Videos Created With Google Veo 3 Are Proliferating on TikTok (Ars Technica, 1 July 2025)* This Year’s Hot New Tool for Chefs? ChatGPT. (NYT; 2 June 2025 - Gift Link)* Hardfork Interview with Pete Wells* Mark Zuckerberg Already Knows Your Life. Now He Wants His AI to Run It (Gizmodo, 30 June 2025)* Inside ‘AI Addiction’ Support Groups, Where People Try to Stop Talking to Chatbots (404 Media, 26 Jun 2025)* Control Content Use for AI Training With Cloudflare’s Managed Robots.txt and Blocking for Monetized Content (Cloudflare Blog, 01 July 2025)* Multiple AI Companies Bypassing Web Standard to Scrape Publisher Sites Without Licensing (Reuters, 21 June 2024)* Creative Commons debuts CC signals, a framework for an open AI ecosystem (Tech Crunch; 25 June 2025)* The Most Imminent Cyber Threat Is Called ‘Scattered Spider’ (Wired, 02 July 2025)* Feds Warn of Possible Cyber Attacks By Iran on US Critical Infrastructure (Ars Technica, 30 June 2025)Episode 355 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 354 (“Beyond the Town Square”) of the EdTech Situation Room from June 25, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) open with a quick check-in and the episode lineup, then dive into Creative Commons in the classroom via Flickr’s move to CC 4.0—and why explicit instruction on copyright, fair use, and open licensing belongs in digital literacy for every student . From there, they unpack free-speech narratives on U.S. campuses through a media-literacy lens—highlighting News Over Noise’s interview with Bradford Vivian and reflecting on universities as places for genuine intellectual diversity and debate . The conversation pivots to AI and assessment: what a recent MIT study using EEG really suggests about “brain-only” writing versus hybrid, tool-supported workflows (spoiler: copy-paste LLM use shows low cognitive engagement, but a structured fourth session with LLMs boosted recall and distributed cognitive effort) and how this translates into practical classroom policy, including the growing role of lockdown browsers for in-class quizzes . They also examine the civil-liberties side of edtech—biometrics, surveillance, and border device searches—through a sobering case study of a journalist’s deportation linked to online writing, and what that means for educators and travelers managing their digital footprint . To wrap up, Geeks of the Week spotlight a handy local-AI platform for Mac/Apple-silicon and API users (Witsy) and a dead-simple booklet-printing utility (BookletCreator) that Wes’ classroom is already putting to work.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task (MIT; 10 June 2025)* Ethan Mollick on LinkedIn* Reports of Bluesky’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated (MATHEW INGRAM, 18 Jun 2025)* Facebook Group Admins Complain of Mass Bans, Meta Says It’s Fixing the Problem (TechCrunch, 24 June 2025)* AI is ruining Pinterest. Here’s why it’s such a big problem (ZDnet, 11 March 2025)* The High Stakes of Biometric Surveillance (Tech Policy Press, 24 June 2025)* How My Reporting on the Columbia Protests Led to My Deportation (The New Yorker, 24 June 2025)* News Over Noise [PODCAST] Episode 308: The Campus Free Speech Panic: Who’s Fueling the Misinformation Machine? (Bradford Vivian)* Creative Commons 4.0 Has Arrived on Flickr! (Flickr, 18 Jun 2025)* Geeks of the Week* Jason: https://witsyai.com/* Wes: Wes’ Pinboard - Creating Cool Websites (June 2025 media camp) - BookletCreator🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* This Year’s Hot New Tool for Chefs? ChatGPT. (NYT; 2 June 2025 - Gift Link)* Hardfork Interview with Pete Wells* AI Company Anthropic Sued Over Use of Copyrighted Books to Train Chatbots (AP News, 25 June 2025)* From Threads to Thoughts: How Social Media Is Shaping Public Dialogue (Deliberative Citizenship Initiative, 24 June 2025)Episode 354 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 353 (“Chatbots and Safeguards”) of the EdTech Situation Room from June 11, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) open with context on the live show and summer schedules before diving into the week’s biggest debates, starting with Apple’s WWDC: not a “ground-shaking” year, but still a polished, integrated slate of updates—complete with keynote-style visual summaries that double as classroom exemplars for storytelling and infographics—and a candid take on why “Apple Intelligence,” Vision Pro, and even the under-loved Freeform whiteboarding app land differently across mixed device ecosystems in schools (Mac/Windows/ChromeOS) and organizations. They contrast Apple’s cautious AI posture with practical educator workflows: Jason demos Gemini Deep Research to generate buyer’s-guide dossiers right inside Google Docs, then compares results with Perplexity’s new Labs feature that spins up shareable, code-backed “mini-apps” and interactive visual reports—useful for product vetting, classroom planning, and PD artifacts. The hosts also surface market-reality checks for K–12 and higher ed, noting estimates that ChromeOS holds a majority of K–12 share (≈55%) while nearly vanishing in higher ed—an adoption split that shapes software choices and collaboration norms. Turning to platform governance, they revisit the WordPress drama and welcome a “FAIR” path forward under the Linux Foundation—federated, community-governed repositories that add a distribution layer without forking WordPress—framed as a healthier open-web model after months of conflict. Next up is the Character.AI case: a federal judge declined to grant chatbots blanket free-speech protections (for now), allowing claims to proceed after a teen’s death was linked to long-running chatbot interactions—prompting concrete guidance for educators and parents on guardrails, supervision, and avoiding anthropomorphizing conversational AIs with “human” names. They close with Geeks of the Week: Wes experiments with privacy-focused LibreWolf amid growing Chrome bloat complaints, and Jason shares WebCatalog for turning web apps into tidy, dockable desktop apps—handy in the AI-era of tab overload. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Big Win in Our Character.AI Lawsuit: TJLP Statement on the Motion to Dismiss Decision (Tech Justice Law Project, 21 May 2025)* A Federal Judge Ruled AI Chatbots Don’t Have Free Speech Protections — For Now (Marketplace, 6 Jun 2025)* Character.AI: What to Know About the Role-Playing AI Tool and Its New Video Features (CNET, 10 Jun 2025)* Chatbot Platform Character.AI Unveils Video Generation, Social Feeds (TechCrunch, 2 Jun 2025)* Buyer’s Guides* Prompt* Google Gemini Deep Research* Perplexity Labs Research* Mac Software Web Object* School OS Web Object* WWDC 2025 Main Keynote (YouTube, 9 June 2025, 1.5 hours)* Apple is shipping through it (Platformer; 9 June 2025)* Apple Opens Its AI to Developers but Keeps Its Broader Ambitions Modest (Reuters, 9 Jun 2025)* The Path Forward for WordPress (Joost Blog, 5 Jun 2025)* WordPress Co-Founder Mullenweg’s Reaction To FAIR Project (Search Engine Journal, 10 June 2025)* Disney, Universal Sued Over AI Images Allegedly Made With Midjourney (AP News, 10 June 2025)* Geeks of the Week* Jason: WebCatalog* Wes: Beyond the Algorithmic Feed - LibreWolf🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* A Professor Testing ChatGPT’s, DeepSeek’s and Grok’s Stock-Picking Skills Suggests Stockbrokers Should Worry (MarketWatch, 10 Jun 2025)* We Need More AI Oversight, Not Less (Seattle Times, 9 Jun 2025)* Unpacking Empire AI: Karen Hao | Podcast Transcript (MSNBC, 11 Jun 2025)* 2025 Student Guide to AI by Elon University* The Government Knows AGI is Coming (Video: The Ezra Klein Show, 4 March 2025, 63 min)* The Man Who ‘A.G.I.-Pilled’ Google (NYT Hard Fork Podcast, 23 May 2025)* Teachers Are Not OK (404 Media; 2 June 2025)* Against Technofeudal Education (The American Vandal; 10 June 2025)* Artificial Power: 2025 Landscape Report (AI Now; 3 June 2025)* I Think I’m Done Thinking About genAI For Now (Glyph Lefkowitz; 4 June 2025)* Perplexity Labs - Cheap Perplexity? - Travel Budget Example* Duolingo will replace contract workers with AI (The Verge; 28 April 2025)* Going ‘AI first’ appears to be backfiring on Klarna and Duolingo (Fast Company; 12 May 2025)* Apple Tiptoes With Modest AI Updates While Rivals Race Ahead (Ars Technica, 9 Jun 2025)* Apple Underwhelms at WWDC With Incremental AI Changes, New Software Name and ‘Liquid Glass’ Design (AP News, 10 Jun 2025)* The problem(s) with platforms with Cory Doctorow (Democracy Works Podcast, 19 March 2025)Episode 353 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 352 (“AI Slop Tsunami”) of the EdTech Situation Room from May 22, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) unpack the rising tide of low-quality, AI-generated content flooding social feeds and classrooms—and share practical media-literacy moves educators can use right now (think SIFT-style verification, lateral reading, and modeling professional skepticism). They examine looming district tech debt and tool consolidation decisions (e.g., Zoom/Box → Microsoft 365) in the context of budgets, data privacy, and teacher workflow, then pivot to what Google I/O means for schools: Gemini/LearnLM updates, NotebookLM for research scaffolding, and new Workspace-integrated quiz/feedback features that could reduce teacher busywork. The conversation digs into K–12 AI literacy and assessment futures—why “debate, not detect” is a healthier stance than AI detectors, how to document authorship and the writing process, and where AI courses might live in the curriculum. They also debrief recent testing outages and what they reveal about systems resilience and contingency planning. Rounding things out, Jason and Wes share hands-on classroom workflows (OpenMCQ-style quiz generation, AI-assisted project management, and audio cleanup with Auphonic), plus concrete guardrails for using AI as a genuine thought partner rather than a shortcut.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Meta Battles an ‘Epidemic of Scams’ as Criminals Flood Instagram and Facebook (WSJ, 15 May 2025) archive.ph link* Google NotebookLM made by Google describing all of the new released by Google at Google I/O* OpenAI and Jony Ive Open io* SIFT Prompt (via Mike Caufield)* PISA 2029 Media and Artificial Intelligence Literacy* Dear College Board: a note from K-12 Technology Leaders* Trimming the Edtech Fat: How Districts Are Streamlining Their Digital Ecosystems (EdSurge; 16 May 2025)* Authorship technologies:* Cursive cursivetechnology.com/* www.scribbleai.com/* Geeks of the Week:* Wes: Better Video Audio with Auphonic and Study Hall and [VIDEO] The “vibe coding” mind virus explained… (Fireship)* Jason: https://github.com/theJayTea/WritingTools🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Everything Google announced at I/O 2025: Gemini, Search, Android, and more (9 to 5 Google; 21 May 2025)* What are the Gemini app’s free, AI Pro, and AI Ultra limits (9 to 5 Google; 21 May 2025)* Project Starline becomes Google Beam, debuts real-time translation (9 to 5 Google; 20 May 2025)* So Many GSuite AI Stuff: Gmail getting personalized smart replies as Google Vids adds AI avatars (9 to 5 Google; 20 MAy 2025)* Google’s NotebookLM is getting Video Overviews (TechCrunch; 20 May 2025)* Future ChatGPT Could Store and Analyze Your Entire Digital Life (Digital Information World; 16 May 2025)* UT Unveils Proposed Guidelines for Responsible Use of AI in Teaching and Learning (UT News; 20 May 2025)* “AI First”* Duolingo will replace contract workers with AI (The Verge; 28 April 2025)* Going ‘AI first’ appears to be backfiring on Klarna and Duolingo (Fast Company; 12 May 2025)* A4L: A4L: An Architecture for AI-Augmented Learning (Arxiv; 8 May 2025)* Accessibility: AI for Accessible Education: Personalized Audio-Based Learning for Blind Students (Arxiv; 23 April 2025)* White House Issues Executive Order to Advance AI Education for American Youth (National Law Review: 5 May 2025)* CEOs of Microsoft, Salesforce, and Hundreds More Push for AI Training in High School (INC. Magazine; 7 May 2025)* IRS hopes to replace fired enforcement workers with AI (The Register; 8 May 2025)* Google is going to let kids use its Gemini AI (2 May 2025)* Student Perspectives on the Benefits and Risks of AI in Education (Arxiv; 4 May 2025)* Tether Enters AI Arena With Tether.AI (CoinDesk; 5 May 2025)* Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Reportedly Changing Its Deal With ChatGPT (Yahoo Finance, 13 May 2025)* We need to prepare for ‘addictive intelligence’ (MIT Tech Review, 8 Aug 2024)* Stuff to Try:* Qwen Deep Research* LegoGPT | Article* Ideogram 3.0* Microsoft launches Phi-4-Reasoning-Plus, a small, powerful, open weights reasoning model! (Future Beat; 1 May 2025) | Free Access via OpenRouter* Someone got an LLM running on a Commodore 64 from 1982, and it runs as well as you’d imagine (XDA; 4 May 2025)* Hugging Face releases a free Operator-like agentic AI tool (TechCrunch; 6 May 2025)Episode 352 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 351 (“AI Sycophancy and Chatbots for Kids”) of the EdTech Situation Room from May 14, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) dive into AI Trust You—a Long Beach USD/Stanford framework and Chrome extension that helps students disclose and categorize how they used AI (content creation, research assistance, audiovisual generation, and comprehension) to build a classroom culture of transparency, with live demos of generating “truth & trust” statements right inside Google Docs. They connect this to rising academic integrity cases and the need for explicit, ethical AI guidance rather than bans—plus a nudge to include coding as a first-class use case in the framework. From there, the hosts unpack the recent wave of “sycophancy” in frontier models—chatbots flattering users to keep engagement—and how to probe responses for objectivity, referencing both OpenAI’s post-mortem and Hard Fork’s coverage. They also spotlight Mike Caulfield’s SIFT/“Check, Please!” fact-checking prompt as a practical media-literacy superpower for classrooms (including examples of using AI to check fast-moving video claims), and share takeaways from trying Meta AI, Deep Research (Qwen), Ideogram 3.0, and other hands-on tools. In platform news, they say farewell to Google’s iconic “I’m Feeling Lucky” as the homepage pivots to AI Mode, discussing what this reveals about the future of search and student research habits. They close with a lively debate on copyright, creator rights, and classroom fair-use practices in an AI era—plus a few ad-blocking and policy detours—before wrapping with Geeks of the Week (Croissant for iOS; “The Document is the Prompt”).Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* Social AI Companions (Common Sense Media, 28 April 2025) - ChatGPT Summary* People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies (Rolling Stone, 4 May 2025) - Archive.ph version* We Let the Chatbots In — Now They’re Teaching “Care” (James O’Hagan on Medium)* AI Trust You* AI Trust You (EdTech Digest; 14 April 2025)* Chrome Plugin* Creating AI Transparency and Academic Honesty With AI Trust You, A New Free Browser Extension (Tech & Learning; 21 April 2025)* SIFT Prompt (via Mike Caufield)* https://www.meta.ai/* Expanding on what we missed with sycophancy; OpenAI (OpenAI; 2 May 2025)* HardFork on Sycophancy* RIP “I’m feeling lucky:” Google Homepage Pushes AI Mode Forward, Leaves ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ Button Behind (Digital Information World; 14 May 2025)* Elon Musk’s apparent power play at the Copyright Office completely backfired (The Verge, 14 May 2025)* Judge in Meta case warns AI could ‘obliterate’ market for original works (Reuters; 1 May 2025)* Alternative to UBlock Origin: https://nextdns.io/* Emily Bender & Alex Hanna: “The AI Con” — Busting Big-Tech Hype, TESCREAL Terrors & Real-World Harms - AI Inside | The Book* Geek of the Week* Wes: Croissant for iOS* Jason: The Document is the Prompt: The Two Quiet Superpowers of Today’s AI Tools (Jason @ LinkedIn)🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* “AI First”* Duolingo will replace contract workers with AI (The Verge; 28 April 2025)* Going ‘AI first’ appears to be backfiring on Klarna and Duolingo (Fast Company; 12 May 2025)* A4L: A4L: An Architecture for AI-Augmented Learning (Arxiv; 8 May 2025)* Accessibility: AI for Accessible Education: Personalized Audio-Based Learning for Blind Students (Arxiv; 23 April 2025)* White House Issues Executive Order to Advance AI Education for American Youth (National Law Review: 5 May 2025)* CEOs of Microsoft, Salesforce, and Hundreds More Push for AI Training in High School (INC. Magazine; 7 May 2025)* IRS hopes to replace fired enforcement workers with AI (The Register; 8 May 2025)* Google is going to let kids use its Gemini AI (2 May 2025)* Student Perspectives on the Benefits and Risks of AI in Education (Arxiv; 4 May 2025)* Tether Enters AI Arena With Tether.AI (CoinDesk; 5 May 2025)* Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Reportedly Changing Its Deal With ChatGPT (Yahoo Finance, 13 May 2025)* Microsoft launches Phi-4-Reasoning-Plus, a small, powerful, open weights reasoning model! (Future Beat; 1 May 2025) | Free Access via OpenRouter* Hugging Face releases a free Operator-like agentic AI tool (TechCrunch; 6 May 2025)* Stuff to Try:* Qwen Deep Research* LegoGPT | Article* Ideogram 3.0Episode 351 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 350 (“AI as Thought Partner”) of the EdTech Situation Room from April 16, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) explored the transformative role of AI in teaching, learning, and instructional design. Jason demonstrated how custom GPTs and Google’s Gemini Deep Research can be used to build educator personas, develop curriculum, and simulate expert councils for decision-making. The hosts reflected on image generation tools like ChatGPT-4o’s superhero and “headcut” styles for use in lessons and presentations. Wes emphasized the importance of using AI as a thinking partner—not a cheating partner—and shared how AI tools are reshaping feedback, engagement, and accessibility in his AP Computer Science classroom. They also discussed the emotional power of professional learning communities, the expanding use of video feedback with AI, and honored the legacy of edtech pioneer Maria Knee. From productivity workflows to philosophical questions about teaching in an AI-powered era, this episode is packed with insight, experimentation, and reflection.Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.🔗 Links We Discussed* The AI Authoring Advantage: Balancing Speed and Substance in Course Creation* Google Used AI To Block Three Times More Fraudulent Advertisers In 2024 (Ars Technica, 3 April 2025)* Microsoft Is Putting Privacy-Endangering Recall Back Into Windows 11 (Ars Technica, 26 April 2025)* Follow Stephan Bauchard on AI* DeepSeek AI* PlayLab AIWes’ Geek of the Week:• Wes and Shelly Share Ep 33: Sources of Joy and Summer Plans• Multi-Segment Audio Podcast Lesson🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss* Obituary for Maria Knee* Deep Research tools: Create a dossier about individuals using Gemini Deep Research🔗 For a complete list of links from this episode, visit edtechsr.com/linksEpisode 350 is also available also on YouTube: Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode 349 (“Surveillance in the Classroom”) of the EdTech Situation Room from April 9, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) joined from the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego to share insights on the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence in education. He and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) explored how AI tools like Gemini 2.5, Claude, DeepSeek, and NotebookLM are transforming teaching workflows, lesson planning, and student support. Wes described how his students are using AI-generated infographics (infopix) for cyberattack presentations, while Jason highlighted the stunning new capabilities of ChatGPT-4o’s integrated image editing. The episode took a critical look at surveillance technologies being adopted in schools, including anonymous reporting apps and keystroke-monitoring software—raising deep concerns about privacy, pedagogy, and student trust. They also discussed the rise of advanced cybersecurity practices like hardware-based MFA, passkeys, and phishing-resistant tokens, reflecting broader trends in both K-12 and higher ed. On the legal and ethical front, the hosts examined the growing wave of copyright lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft, the implications of AI’s ability to replicate training data, and cultural fears around a so-called “semantic apocalypse” caused by generative media. Jason previewed authorship verification tools like Cursive, Scribble, and Grammarly’s AI audit features—emerging tech designed to help educators track student work and AI interaction. In a discussion on free speech and media policy, they flagged bipartisan legislation like the “Take It Down Act” and revived FCC distortion rules that could threaten press freedom. NotebookLM’s new mind map feature and its use for organizing YouTube transcripts was showcased as a standout example of AI for educators. Other tools mentioned included FlintAI, OpenRouter, Ideogram 3, Firefly AI, and the evolving capabilities of Gmail and Google Meet powered by Gemini. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com. Please follow our @EdTechSR page on Facebook, @[email protected] on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 348 from February 19, 2025! (Although this episode published instantly to YouTube, we are late getting this posted on edtechSR.com and our Substack…) Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers (Microsoft Research)* Microsoft shows progress toward real-time AI-generated game worlds (ArsTechnica, 19 Feb 2025)* Google pulls Gemini from main search app on iOS (TechCrunch, 19 Feb 2025)* Google owner drops promise not to use AI for weapons (The Guardian, 5 Feb 2025) - stopkillerrobots.org* 6 unsettling thoughts Google's former CEO has about artificial intelligence (NPR, 5 Feb 2025)* Now you can use Deep Research in Gemini on the Go (Google Blog; 18 February 2025)* Apple has officially killed off the Home Button (Apple Insider, 19 Feb 2025) “you cannot purchase any new Apple products that feature a Lightning port”* Apple debuts iPhone 16e: A powerful new member of the iPhone 16 family (Apple Newsroom; 19 February 2025)* Google says commercial quantum computing applications arriving within five years (Reuters, 5 Feb 2025)* Microsoft-DARPA collaboration yields possible quantum chip breakthrough (Defense One, 19 Feb 2025)* Microsoft Transitioning Away from HoloLens Mixed Reality Hardware (THE Journal, 18 Feb 2025)* AI Inside podcast: aiinside.show* Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI Kindle Edition by Ethan Mollick* Book: “Hunter Killer: The True Story of the Drone Mission That Killed Anwar al-Awlaki” by T. Mark McCurley* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: MacWhisper - Google Recorder* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Upscayl - Scrollytelling - Oasis (blog post)Here are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* Elon Musk’s xAI releases its latest flagship model, Grok 3 (TechCrunch; 17 February 2025)* Introducing Perplexity Deep Research (Perplexity Blog)* OpenAI tries to ‘uncensor’ ChatGPT (TechCrunch; 16 February 2025)* OpenAI removes certain content warnings from ChatGPT (TechCrunch; 13 February 2025)* China's Baidu to make latest Ernie AI model open-source as competition heats up (Reuters; 13 February 2025)* Accelerating scientific breakthroughs with an AI co-scientist (Google Research Blog; 19 February 2025)* AI is a game changer for students with disabilities. Schools are still learning to harness it (AP, 26 Dec 2024)* Fiverr wants gig workers to offload some of their work to AI (TechCrunch; 18 February 2025)* Superhuman introduces AI-powered categorization to reduce spammy emails in your inbox (Tech Crunch; 19 February 2025)* YouTube by the numbers: uncovering YouTube's ghost town of billions of unwatched, ignored videos (TechSpot, 17 Feb 2025)* Clearview AI’s CEO Resigns As Facial Recognition Company Focuses On Trump 'Opportunities' (Forbes, 19 Feb 2025) archive.ph paywall free link* Data watchdog fines Clearview AI $33M for 'illegal' data collection (MSN, 3 Sept 2024)* The Best Instagram Alternatives If You're Sick of Meta (LifeHacker, 18 Feb 2025)* Behind the Curtain: America's drone-swarm crisis (Axios, 18 Feb 2025) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 347 from February 12, 2025! (Although this episode published instantly to YouTube, we are late getting this posted on edtechSR.com and our Substack…) Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* Machines of Loving Grace by Dario Amodei (Oct 2024 - Anthropic CEO - via #ChinaTalk [PODCAST] “Anthropic's Dario Amodei on AI Competition” (5 Feb 2025)* LeonardoAI from Canva* Google Illuminate* Introducing DeepSeek-V3 (DeepSeek API Docs; 26 December 2024)* YouTube TV Viewers Outnumber Mobile (World Screens; 11 February 2025)* Many Americans still don’t understand how easily IoT devices can get bricked (ArsTechnica, 5 Feb 2025)* Macs under attack from North Korean malware stealing passwords and more — how to stay safe (Toms Guide, 4 Feb 2025)* Jason's Geek of the Week: www.onlyoffice.com* Wes' Geek of the Week: Adobe Express Animate Your Voice (example)Here are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* Google Expands NotebookLM Plus to Individual Users (Tech Transformation; 11 February 2025)* AI Tools Make Workers Less Critical, More Confident, Microsoft Study Finds (Science Blog; 10 February 2025)* Irony alert: Anthropic says applicants shouldn’t use LLMs (ArsTechnica, 4 Feb 20205)* New Survey Shows What Most People Think of AI and AI Generated Content (Digital Information World; 12 February 2025)* ByteDance’s Deepfake Tool Creates Convincing Videos From One Photo (PetaPixel, 5 Feb 2025) - Einstein video* Google owner drops promise not to use AI for weapons (The Guardian, 5 Feb 2025) - stopkillerrobots.org* Perplexity Increases Context Window (Perplexity via Twitter)* 6 unsettling thoughts Google's former CEO has about artificial intelligence (NPR, 5 Feb 2025)* AI Reveals Hidden Interior Design Rules of the Cell A new tool predicts where proteins fit, opening new frontiers in drug discovery (IEEE Spectrum; 10 February 2025)* Ex-Google engineer faces new US charges he stole AI secrets for Chinese companies (Reuters, 5 Feb 2025)* Google Releases New Models (Google Develops Blog; 5 February 2025)* A Book App Used AI to 'Roast' Its Users. It Went Anti-Woke Instead (Wired, 3 Jan 2025) - paywall free archive.ph version* Skillfully (Case study via Anthropic)* French AI startup Mistral launches Le Chat mobile app for iPhone, Android — can it take enterprise eyes off DeepSeek? (Venture Beat; 6 February 2025)* Build Anything with Le Chat, Here’s How (David Ondrej via YouTube)* DeepSeek: all the news about the startup that’s shaking up AI stocks (The Verge; 31 January 2025)* Downloading DeepSeek could land you a 20-year prison sentence, $1M fine under proposed US bill (Fox29; 5 February 2025)* The Dangerous A.I. Nonsense That Trump and Biden Fell For (NYT; 5 February 2025)* DeepSeek security concerns and what people get wrong about the app vs. the model (CNBC via YouTube)* DeepSeek: What Actually Matters (for the everyday user) (Jeff Su, YouTube)* $42B broadband grant program may scrap Biden admin’s preference for fiber (ArsTechnica, 4 Feb 2025)* Judge blocks Sandy Hook families’ settlement over Alex Jones bankruptcy (The Guardian, 5 Feb 2025)* Google says commercial quantum computing applications arriving within five years (Reuters, 5 Feb 2025) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 346 from February 5 2025! (Although this episode published instantly to YouTube, we are late getting this posted on edtechSR.com and our Substack…) Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* Google launches new AI models and brings ‘thinking’ to Gemini (TechCrunch, 5 Feb 2025)* Elon Musk Wants to Get Operational Control of the Treasury’s Payment System. This Could Not Possibly Be More Dangerous (Nathan Tankus, 3 Feb 2025)* China opens Google antitrust probe in retaliation to tariffs (The Verge 4 Feb 2025)* Microsoft has a big Windows 10 problem, and it’s running out of time to solve it (ZDnet, 4 Feb 2025)* Robocallers posing as FCC staff blocked after robocalling real FCC staff (ArsTechnica, 5 Feb 2025)* Drone locates missing hiker at Crowders Mountain State Park (WBTV Charlotte, NC: 3 Feb 2025)* Drones are now launching drones to attack other drones in Ukraine (ArsTechnica, 4 Feb 2025)* Shein and Temu depend on a 100-year-old tariff loophole that Trump wants to close (The Verge, 3 Feb 2025)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/operating-system/* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: AI Chatbot Ethics – Sharing Mastodon ListsHere are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* Irony alert: Anthropic says applicants shouldn’t use LLMs (ArsTechnica, 4 Feb 20205)* ByteDance’s Deepfake Tool Creates Convincing Videos From One Photo (PetaPixel, 5 Feb 2025) - Einstein video* Google owner drops promise not to use AI for weapons (The Guardian, 5 Feb 2025) - stopkillerrobots.org* 6 unsettling thoughts Google's former CEO has about artificial intelligence (NPR, 5 Feb 2025)* Ex-Google engineer faces new US charges he stole AI secrets for Chinese companies (Reuters, 5 Feb 2025)* Skillfully (Case study via Anthropic)* Introducing DeepSeek-V3 (DeepSeek API Docs; 26 December 2024)* DeepSeek: all the news about the startup that’s shaking up AI stocks (The Verge; 31 January 2025)* Downloading DeepSeek could land you a 20-year prison sentence, $1M fine under proposed US bill (Fox29; 5 February 2025)* The Dangerous A.I. Nonsense That Trump and Biden Fell For (NYT; 5 February 2025)* DeepSeek security concerns and what people get wrong about the app vs. the model (CNBC via YouTube)* DeepSeek: What Actually Matters (for the everyday user) (Jeff Su, YouTube)* Apple’s attempt to intervene in the Google Search antitrust trial is denied (The Verge, 3 Feb 2025)* Many Americans still don’t understand how easily IoT devices can get bricked (ArsTechnica, 5 Feb 2025)* Macs under attack from North Korean malware stealing passwords and more — how to stay safe (Toms Guide, 4 Feb 2025)* $42B broadband grant program may scrap Biden admin’s preference for fiber (ArsTechnica, 4 Feb 2025)* Judge blocks Sandy Hook families’ settlement over Alex Jones bankruptcy (The Guardian, 5 Feb 2025)* Google says commercial quantum computing applications arriving within five years (Reuters, 5 Feb 2025) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 345 from January 22, 2025! (Although this episode published instantly to YouTube, we are late getting this posted on edtechSR.com and our Substack…) Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* Trump rescinds Biden’s executive order on AI safety in attempt to diverge from his predecessor (AP, 22 Jan 2025)* Anthropic chief says AI could surpass “almost all humans at almost everything” shortly after 2027 (ArsTechnica, 22 Jan 2025)* Jason Clones His Voice with ElevenLabs* Jason Sets up Open Router and Glarity* Wes plans his “Golden Texas BBQ” sideline business with ChatGPT for iOS voice conversations: “BBQ Birdie Bites” (Chat log link - more: wfryer.me/tips)* Trump admin fires security board investigating Chinese hack of large ISPs (ArsTechnica, 22 Jan 2025) - Salt Typhoon in English WikiPedia* iPhones with TikTok installed listed for thousands of dollars on eBay after brief ban (USA Today, 22 Jan 2025)* Why did Trump bring TikTok back? What to know about the president's ban reversal (Austin American Statesman, 22 Jan 2025)* Wes’ TikTok backups - myfaveTT* YouTube Premium discount coming to Google One, testing 4x playback speed (ArsTechnica, 22 Jan 2025)* YouTube’s conversational AI starts rolling out, but only to Premium subscribers on Android (9to5Google, 24 Sep 2024)* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: Silly--NotebookLM Vamping Dehumidifier and List of Sweets* https://www.home-assistant.io/* TP Link Tapo Security Cameras: https://us.store.tp-link.com/collections/tapo-security-cameras* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: “Dangerous Ideas with Wes Fryer” (Patreon) - The “Heal Our Culture” Project - Together We Rise “The First 100 Days: Co-Creating Connections and Possibilities in a Time of Transition”Here are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* Updated Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental model now available (9to5Google, 21 Jan 2025)* How AI and human teachers can collaborate to transform education (World Economic Forum; 8 January 2025)* Three ways to develop students’ AI literacy (Times Higher Education; 2 January 2025)* AI is a game changer for students with disabilities. Schools are still learning to harness it (Skagit Valley Herald; 26 December 2024)* AI Agents Will Shape Every Aspect Of Education In 2025 (Forbes; 26 December 2025) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 344 from January 15, 2025! (Although this episode published instantly to YouTube, we are late getting this posted on edtechSR.com and our Substack…) Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* AI Trends in Ed Tech to Watch in 2025 (EdTech Magazine 15 January 2025)* Meta scrambles to delete its own AI accounts after backlash intensifies (CNN, 3 Jan 2025)* Meta’s fake AI users are here and they’re giving everybody the creeps (Sherwood News, 3 Jan 2025) via Doug Peterson on BlueSky* More: 3 Feb 2025 free webinar “AI ChatBot Ethics)* Information literacy is key in the age of AI (eSchoolNews, 19 Dec 2024)* One quick trick to make AI actually useful (Vox; 12 December 2024)* 'The New York Times' takes OpenAI to court. ChatGPT's future could be on the line (NPR, 14 Jan 2025)* The Supreme Court doesn’t seem likely to save TikTok (Vox; 10 January 2025)* With TikTok ban looming, how many Americans support it? Public opinion has changed a lot (USA Today; 15 January 2025)* Microsoft won’t support Office apps on Windows 10 after October 14th (The Verge; 15 January 2025)* German government may yet quit X over algorithms, spokesperson says (Reuters, 10 Jan 2025)* Meta Says It Will End Its Fact-Checking Program on Social Media Posts (NY Times; 7 January 2025) (Gift Link)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: Highlight AI; Google AI Studio - Play.AI* Wes’ Geek of the Week: MediaEdForum 2025 Notes - My Screen Setup for Virtual Learning - Stouchi Continuity Camera MountHere are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* AI co-workers and more: Experts offer predictions for the fast-evolving technology (ABC News 13; 15 January 2025)* AI Applications* Pentagon to test how generative AI would perform in fight with China (Defense One; 15 January 25)* How AI and human teachers can collaborate to transform education (World Economic Forum; 8 January 2025)* Three ways to develop students’ AI literacy (Times Higher Education; 2 January 2025)* AI is a game changer for students with disabilities. Schools are still learning to harness it (Skagit Valley Herald; 26 December 2024)* AI Agents Will Shape Every Aspect Of Education In 2025 (Forbes; 26 December 2025)* It’s getting harder to measure just how good AI is getting (Vox; 12 January 2025)* Microsoft Backtracks After Teasing an End to Free Windows 11 Upgrades (PC Magazine; 15 January 2025)* The Internet Is Worse Than a Brainwashing Machine: A rationale is always just a scroll or a click away by Charlie Warzel and Mike Caulfield (The Atlantic, 6 Jan 2025) (Paywall free link)* Open-World Games Like Zelda Can Boost Your Mental Health, Study Says (Science Alert, 6 Jan 2025)* Tracing the Anti-Establishment Shift Among Podcasts and the Role of Platforms (Tech Policy Press, 2 Jan 2025) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 343 from January 1, 2025! (Although this episode published instantly to YouTube, we are late getting this posted on edtechSR.com and our Substack…) Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* Arizona’s getting an online charter school taught entirely by AI (TechCrunch, 20 Dec 2024)* How Google Spent 15 Years Creating a Culture of Concealment (NYTimes, 20 Nov 2024) #GiftLink (“Vegas”)* Inside South Korea’s right-wing YouTube world openly embraced by Yoon (Reuters, 16 Dec 2024) – BlueSky quote* Is Bluesky the New Twitter for Teachers? (Education Week, 17 Dec 2024)* Video Accuses Honey Browser Extension of Shady Business Practices and We Found Some Truth to It (Snopes, 30 Dec 2024)* The Honey Scam and the Ridiculous Mess of Affiliate Marketing (Hank Green [VIDEO}, 24 Dec 2024)* Some of the Best Reuters Photos of 2024, and the Stories Behind Them (Wider Image, 17 Dec 2024)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: ChromeBook Recommendation: Dell Enterprise 5430 Chromebook* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Show Clips via SubStack – Terms of Service – Didn’t Read – Upcoming MediaEd Webinars – Dangerous Ideas with Wes FryerHere are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* Why I switched from Windows to Chromebooks and haven’t looked back (PC World, 3 Nov 2024)* Information literacy is key in the age of AI (eSchoolNews, 19 Dec 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 342 from December 18, 2024! (Although this episode published instantly to YouTube, we are late getting this posted on edtechSR.com and our Substack…) Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* Sora General Availability* Sora prompt example: “Tockefeller center is overrun by golden retrievers! everywhere you look, there are golden retrievers.” https://openai.com/sora/?shareId=16* ChatGPT Pro* ChatGPT Search Widely Available* Bluesky at a crossroads as users petition to ban Jesse Singal over anti-trans views, harassment (TechCrunch, 13 Dec 2024) – Change.org petition – via Renee DiResta* Jesse Singal: Bluesky Has a Death Threat Problem (The Free Press, 17 Dec 2024)* WikiPedia: The Free Press (online newsletter)* How Wikipedia Became a Propaganda Site (The Free Press, 17 Sept 2024)* Trump TV Ad Repeats False ‘Border Czar,’ Illegal Immigration Claims (FactCheck.org, 5 Aug 2024)* U.S. officials urge Americans to use encrypted apps amid unprecedented cyberattack (NBC News, 3 Dec 2024)* Sell Chrome to end search monopoly, Google told (BBC; 21 November 2024)* Rumor: Android may take over for ChromeOS on Chromebooks in a massive move (ChromeUnboxed; 18 November 2024)Wes’ Geek of the Week: [PODCAST] Towards Resilience: A Conversation with Kate Starbird About the Future of Online Elections Discourse (8 Dec 2024)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: Msty + Open Router = Cheap Desktop AIHere are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* Introducing Gemini 2.0: our new AI model for the agentic era (Google Blog)* NotebookLM gets a new look, audio interactivity and a premium version (Google Blog)* Google Whisk* Image FX from Google* Google Deep Research in Gemini* Create podcasts in minutes (11 Labs; 6 December 2024)* Key leaders behind Google’s viral NotebookLM are leaving to create their own startup (TechCrunch, 4 Dec 2024) - * https://werebuilding.ai* Huge randomized trial of AI boosts discovery — at least for good scientists (Nature; 3 December 2024)* Meta gains steam in its push to make Apple, Google verify users’ ages (The Washington Post; 21 November 2024) Gift Link* TikTok Faces U.S. Ban After Losing Bid to Overturn New Law (NY Times, 6 Dec 2024)* ChromeOS merging into Android could create new fragmentation issues (ChromeUnboxed; 22 November 2024)* Windows 365 Link is a $349 mini PC that streams Windows from the cloud (The Verge; 19 November 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 341 from December 4, 2024! (Although this episode published instantly to YouTube, we are late getting this posted on edtechSR.com and our Substack…) Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* Your Bluesky Posts Are Probably Training AI (404 Media Podcast, 4 Dec 2024)* Facebook Friend Safety Tips (Wes Fryer on Speed of Creativity, 1 Dec 2024)* Play.ai (audio cloning and text to audio)* Grammarly on MacOS* Freepik AI Generator* “Downranking Links” – Twitter (and Threads) Have Made a HUGE Mistake (Hank Green on YouTube, 16 min, 29 Nov 2024)* A seventh grade media literacy class demonstrates how to handle tough conversations this Thanksgiving (CBS News, 28 Nov 2024)* The Hidden Lifespan of Smart Devices: What the FTC’s Report Means for Consumers (Consumer Reports; 26 November 2024)* The Redbox Removal Team (404Media, 28 Nov 2024)* Supreme Court To Review Legality Of FCC-Managed Universal Service Fund (MSN, 23 Nov 2024)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: ChatGPT Summary for Chrome* Wes’ Geek of the Week: “The 12 Days of AI” via Kevin Hodgeson (@dogtrax.bsky.social)Here are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* OpenAI’s take on AI agents could come in January (TechCrunch; 13 November 2024)* I’m a neurology ICU nurse. The creep of AI in our hospitals terrifies me (Coda Story; 12 November 2024)* AI-Powered ‘Death Clock’ Promises a More Exact Prediction of the Day You’ll Die (Bloomberg; 30 November 24; Archive Link)* ChatGPT’s search results for news are ‘unpredictable’ and frequently inaccurate (The Verge; 3 December 2024)* Interesting story about AI Hacking on X* ElevenLabs has new “Projects” functionality* Research: How Gen AI Is Already Impacting the Labor Market (Harvard Business Review; 11 November 2024)* Vatican, Microsoft create AI-generated St. Peter’s Basilica to allow virtual visits, log damage (AP; 11 November 2024)* AI-powered tool may offer quick, no-contact blood pressure and diabetes screening (American Heart Association; 11 November 2024)* How Open Science and AI Are Advancing Hurricane Research (NASA, 12 Nov 2024)* Transform to Open Science (NASA)* Bluesky implements a 'more aggressive' impersonation policy (Engadget; 30 November 2024)* Meta scrambles to respond to upstart social platform Bluesky’s surge (Washington Post, 23 Nov 2024) #PaywallFree* China-linked hackers stole wiretap data from telcos, FBI and CISA say (Politico; 13 November 2024)* Anyone Can Buy Data Tracking US Soldiers and Spies to Nuclear Vaults and Brothels in Germany (Wired; 18 November 2024)* Meta gains steam in its push to make Apple, Google verify users’ ages (The Washington Post; 21 November 2024) Gift Link* Sell Chrome to end search monopoly, Google told (BBC; 21 November 2024)* Rumor: Android may take over for ChromeOS on Chromebooks in a massive move (ChromeUnboxed; 18 November 2024)* ChromeOS merging into Android could create new fragmentation issues (ChromeUnboxed; 22 November 2024)* Windows 365 Link is a $349 mini PC that streams Windows from the cloud (The Verge; 19 November 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 340 from November 13, 2024! (Although this episode published instantly to YouTube, we are late getting this posted on edtechSR.com and our Substack…) Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* Google’s AI ‘learning companion’ takes chatbot answers a step further (The Verge 11 November 2024)* Announcing general availability of Google Vids: Our new AI-powered video creation app for work to help tell stories across your organization (Google Blog; 7 November 2024)* vids.new (URL shortcut to create a new Google Video)* Mac Mini M4… whoa! M4 Mac mini review: The first redesign in years hides incredible computing power (Apple Insider; 13 november 2024)* iOS 18.2 makes AirPods more powerful than ever, here’s why (9 to 5 Mac; 12 November 2024)* YouTube viewers guzzled 84 million hours of Presidential Election Day news (Fortune; 6 November 2024)* Racist text messages referencing slavery raise alarms in multiple states and prompt investigations (AP, 10 Nov 2024)* Bluesky crosses the 15 million user mark (The Verge, 13 Nov 2024)* Amazon starts drone deliveries in Arizona (The Verge, 6 Nov 2024)* book: Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Descript and Wes is on TruthSocial?!* Jason’s Geek of the Week: Google Machine Learning Crash CourseHere are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* OpenAI’s take on AI agents could come in January (TechCrunch; 13 November 2024)* I’m a neurology ICU nurse. The creep of AI in our hospitals terrifies me (Coda Story; 12 November 2024)* AI in Notepad?? Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now (The Verge; 6 November 2024)* ElevenLabs has new “Projects” functionality* Freepik AI Generator* Vatican, Microsoft create AI-generated St. Peter’s Basilica to allow virtual visits, log damage (AP; 11 November 2024)* AI-powered tool may offer quick, no-contact blood pressure and diabetes screening (American Heart Association; 11 November 2024)* How Open Science and AI Are Advancing Hurricane Research (NASA, 12 Nov 2024)* Transform to Open Science (NASA)* Research: How Gen AI Is Already Impacting the Labor Market (Harvard Business Review; 11 November 2024)* The images of Spain’s floods weren’t created by AI. The trouble is, people think they were (The Guardian; 9 November 2024)* AI didn’t sway the election, but it deepened the partisan divide (WaPo; 9 November 2024)* The other election night winner: Perplexity (TechCrunch; 6 November 2024)* Misguided Apple Intelligence Ads (Tidbits; 11 November 2024)* The tiny tweak that could change YouTube forever (The Verge; 13 November 2024)* Google’s Gemini Gems are a hit, and they are getting even more powerful (Chrome Unboxed; 13 November 2024)* Google Slides gets a refresh with new, professionally designed templates (Chrome Unboxed; 9 November 2024)* These are the passwords you definitely shouldn’t be using (The Verge; 13 November 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 339 from November 6, 2024! (Although this episode published instantly to YouTube, we are late getting this posted on edtechSR.com and our Substack…) Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* Microsoft just delayed Recall again (The Verge; 31 October 2024)* OpenAI’s search engine is now live in ChatGPT (The Verge; 31 October 2024)* Anthropic’s Claude AI chatbot now has a desktop app (The Verge; 31 October 2024)* Google to develop AI that takes over computers, The Information reports (Reuters; 26 October 2024)* AI training for Government workers major part of smart tech plan amid ‘clear economic opportunities’ despite job fears (The Irish Sun, 6 Nov 2024)* APPLE FAN BOY ALERT: New Apple Stuff* The MacBook Air gets a surprise upgrade to 16GB of RAM (The Verge; 30 October 2024)* Schools issue prom warning to pupils over missing iPads (The Times, 31 Oct 2024)* Apple’s iOS 18.2 public beta starts opening up access to more AI features (The Verge; 6 November 2024)* For fame or a death wish? Kids’ TikTok challenge injuries stump psychiatrists (ArsTechnica, 6 Nov 2024)* The surprising source of kids’ stress lurking on parents’ phones (Vox; 26 October 2024)* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: www.home-assistant.io ; NotebookLM Webinar; AI Playdate at the University of Montana* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: ChatGPT LIVE Web Search – ChatGPT conversation archive for tonight’s articles – [VIDEO] Classroom Management Digital Tips for Middle School Teachers (17.5 min) – PodCampCLT.com (7 Dec 2024)Here are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* Apple Intelligence expands in iOS 18.2 developer beta, adding Genmoji, Visual Intelligence and ChatGPT (Engadget, 23 October 2024)* Ideogram Canvas, Magic Fill, and Extend (Ideogram; 22 October 2024)* Asana launches a no-code tool for designing AI agents - aka your new 'teammates' (ZDNet; 22 October 2024)* New AI experiences for Paint and Notepad begin rolling out to Windows Insiders (Microsoft Blog; 6 November 2024)* Prime Video will let you summon AI to recap what you’re watching (The Verge; 4 November 2024)* Researchers say an AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said (AP; 26 October 2024)* Downey Jr. plans to fight AI re-creations from beyond the grave (ArsTechnica, 30 Oct 2024)* Tom Hanks warns followers to be wary of 'fraudulent' ads using his likeness through AI (NBC News; 30 August 2024)* Google open-sourced its watermarking tool for AI-generated text (The Verge; 23 October 2024)* AI may not steal many jobs after all. It may just make workers more efficient (AP 2 September 2024)* Pearson gets boost from push into AI (The Times, 29 Oct 2024)* Making the Case: Evidence Generation Infrastructure in the 2024 Election (Center for an Informed Public - University of Washington, Rapid Research Report, 28 Oct 2024)* The Atlantic Did Not Publish an Article With the Headline “Trump Is Literally Hitler” (The Atlantic, 23 Oct 2024)* Foreign Interference in 2024 Election Reaches New Heights, Security Experts Warn (TWIT; 29 October 2024)* US Copyright Office “frees the McFlurry,” allowing repair of ice cream machines (ArsTechnica, 25 Oct 2024)* Instagram saves the best video quality for the most popular content (The Verge; 27 October 2024)* A realistic way to protect kids from social media? Find a middle ground (AP, 6 June 2024)* Russian court fines Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (The Register; 29 October 2024)* ChromeOS gets a big update with Quick Insert, Focus mode, and new AI features (The Verge; 31 October 2024)* “Impact printing” is a cement-free alternative to 3D-printed structures (ArsTechnica, 1 Oct 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 338 from October 23, 2024! (Although this episode published instantly to YouTube, we are late getting this posted on edtechSR.com and our Substack…) Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* Introducing computer use, a new Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Claude 3.5 Haiku (Anthropic Blog; 22 October 2024)* Claude AI Can Now Control Your PC, Prompting Concern From Security Experts (Pc Magazine; 23 October 2024)* Anthropic flags AI’s potential to ‘automate sophisticated destructive cyber attacks (ZDnet, 16 Oct 2024)* “use wrapper with chatgpt ai key” https://mistyai.com and https://www.typingmind.com are ones Jason has used…* Playing with AI and databases: Google has options to connect sheets* https://www.make.com/en/ai-automation is a powerful tool for AI integrations* Also https://n8n.io/ is AI workflow automation* Chatbot that caused teen’s suicide is now more dangerous for kids, lawsuit says (ArsTechnica, 23 Oct 2024)* Apple is ‘concerned’ about AI turning real photos into ‘fantasy’ (The Verge; 23 October 2023)* Canva has a shiny new text-to-image generator (The Verge; 22 October 2024)* San Francisco to pay $212 million to end reliance on 5.25-inch floppy disks (ArsTechnica, 23 Oct 2024)* A world without passwords is in sight (Vox; 23 October 2024)* Zoom hack derails Quilcene school board’s LGBTQ+ books decision (PT Leader, 23 Oct 2024)* Passkeys with 1Password: https://1password.com/product/passkeys* Jason’s Geek of the Week: PROJECT! Install ChromeOS on PC with Google Play Store [Intel & AMD]* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: How internet influencers, algorithms and crowds are altering our politics, our society and our very relationship to reality-with guest Renée DiResta (Thinking Clearly Podcast) and Nov 4th “Invisibile Rulers” MediaEd WebinarHere are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* Google open-sourced its watermarking tool for AI-generated text (The Verge; 23 October 2024)* AI may not steal many jobs after all. It may just make workers more efficient (AP 2 September 2024)* Tom Hanks warns followers to be wary of 'fraudulent' ads using his likeness through AI (NBC News; 30 August 2024)* Apple Intelligence expands in iOS 18.2 developer beta, adding Genmoji, Visual Intelligence and ChatGPT (Engadget, 23 October 2024)* Ideogram Canvas, Magic Fill, and Extend (Ideogram; 22 October 2024)* Asana launches a no-code tool for designing AI agents - aka your new 'teammates' (ZDNet; 22 October 2024)* Unlocking autonomous agent capabilities with Microsoft Copilot Studio (Microsoft; 21 October 2024)* Penguin Random House books now explicitly say ‘no’ to AI training (The Verge; 18 October 2024)* 96% Accuracy: Harvard Scientists Unveil Revolutionary ChatGPT-Like AI for Cancer Diagnosis (Sci Tech Daily; 17 October 2024)* There’s something off about this year’s “fall vibes” (Vox; 22 October 2024)* Anthropic publicly releases AI tool that can take over the user’s mouse cursor (ArsTechnica, 22 Oct 2024)* Please ban data caps, Internet users tell FCC (ArsTechnica, 23 Oct 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 337 from October 16, 2024! Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* Student was punished for using AI—then his parents sued teacher and administrators (ArsTechnica, 16 Oct 2024)* People are using AI bots to create nude images of almost anyone online (BGR, 16 Oct 2024)* The Vision Pro is being used to assist surgeons during live procedures (9to5Mac, 16 Oct 2024)* The Antitrust Revolution: Liberal democracy’s last stand against Big Tech (Harpers Magazine, (Oct 2024) – Wes’ Mastodon thread* WordPress saga escalates as WP Engine plugin forcibly forked and legal letters fly (The Register, 14 Oct 2024)* SpaceX Calls New Starship Test a Success, Captures Rocket at Landing (Voice of America, 13 Oct 2024)* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: OpenMCQ from MTDA – Fotorama from AppNation – Stupid AI Tricks* “From all of our interactions what is one thing that you can tell me about myself that I may not know about myself”* “Roast me like one of your French girls”* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Webinar on Google’s NotebookLM (archived) – Radio for preparedness: What lessons can we learn from Hurricane Helene? (47 min) – Wes’ Communitarian PrepperHere are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* AI Sexbots Are on the Rise. Should We Regulate Them? (The Intelligence Debrief, 16 Oct 2024)* AI may not steal many jobs after all. It may just make workers more efficient (AP 2 September 2024)* Ask Claude: Amazon turns to Anthropic's AI for Alexa revamp (Ruters; 30 August 2024)* Tom Hanks warns followers to be wary of 'fraudulent' ads using his likeness through AI (NBC News; 30 August 2024)* Anthropic flags AI's potential to 'automate sophisticated destructive cyber attacks (ZDnet, 16 Oct 2024)* Inside the TikTok documents: Stripping teens and boosting 'attractive' people (NPR, 13 October 2024)* The Internet Archive is under attack, with a breach revealing info for 31 million accounts (Verge, 9 Oct 2024)* There’s Never Been a Better Time to Delete Your 23andMe Data. Here’s How to Do It (Gizmodo, 16 Oct 2024)* South Texans are going after SpaceX after the company avoided launch delays (Houston Chronicle, 15 Oct 2024)* Amazon finally has a color Kindle, and it looks pretty good (The Verge, 16 Oct 2024)* Unknown drones breach US military bases, baffle defense officials (DroneDJ, 14 Oct 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 336 from September 25, 2024! Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* Meta’s going to put AI-generated images in your Facebook and Instagram feeds (The Verge, 25 Sept 2024)* Everything Announced at Meta Connect 2024: Quest 3S, Orion AR glasses and Meta AI updates (Engadget, 25 Sept 2024)* OpenAI’s Murati shocks with sudden departure announcement (ArsTechnica, 25 Sep 2024)* Talking to ChatGPT for the first time is a surreal experience (ArsTechnica, 25 Sep 2024)* Hacker plants false memories in ChatGPT to steal user data in perpetuity (ArsTechnica, 25 Sep 2024)* The Intelligence Age (Sam Altman, 23 Sep 2024)* OpenAI CEO: We may have AI superintelligence in “a few thousand days” (ArsTechnica, 23 Sept 2024)* Snapchat’s AI selfie feature puts your face in personalized ads — here’s how to turn it off (The Verge, 17 Sep 2024)* Newsom signs California bill to limit ‘addictive’ social media feeds for kids (LA Times, 23 Sep 2024)* What if the panic over teens and tech is totally wrong? (Vox; 18 September 2024)* NIST proposes barring some of the most nonsensical password rules (ArsTechnica, 25 Sep 2024)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: Notion’s New AI Features* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: POWs and NotebookLM - Oct 7 Webinar: NotebookLM and Steven JohnsonHere are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* AI may not steal many jobs after all. It may just make workers more efficient (AP 2 September 2024)* Ask Claude: Amazon turns to Anthropic's AI for Alexa revamp (Ruters; 30 August 2024)* Tom Hanks warns followers to be wary of 'fraudulent' ads using his likeness through AI (NBC News; 30 August 2024)* NaNoWriMo is in disarray after organizers defend AI writing tools (The Verge; 3 September 2024)* Oprah Winfrey Is Hosting an AI Special Tonight: What We Know (CNet; 12 September 2024)* Oprah just had an AI special with Sam Altman and Bill Gates — here are the highlights (TechCrunch; 12 September 2024)* The Internet Archive just lost its appeal over ebook lending (The Verge; 4 September 2024)* AI’s impact on elections is being overblown (MIT Technology Review; 3 September 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 325 from September 18, 2024! Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* NoteBook LM From Google: https://notebooklm.google/* Ethan Mollick on Substack: https://substack.com/@oneusefulthing* OpenAI Announces a Model That ‘Reasons’ Through Problems, Calling It a ‘New Paradigm’ (Atlantic, 11 Sept 2024)* NotebookLM’s new ‘Audio Overview’ turns your notes into a mini podcast (9 to 5 Google; 11 September 2024)* iPhone 16, Apple Intelligence, AirPods 4 and more: Everything revealed at Apple Event 2024 (The Verge; 10 September 2024)* Taylor Swift cites AI deepfakes in endorsement for Kamala Harris (ArsTechnica, 11 Sept 2024)* Pavel Durov and Elon Musk are not free speech champions (Disconnect, 6 Sept 2024)* Australia’s Prime Minister wants to ban social media for children (Engadget; 10 September 2024)* 14 dead as Hezbollah walkie-talkies explode in second, deadlier attack (ArsTechnica, 18 Sept 2024)* Jason’s Geek of the Week: GPT for Docs* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Descript - Wes and Shelly Share Ep 39 - PodCampCLT (9 Dec 2024)Here are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* OpenAI releases o1, its first model with ‘reasoning’ abilities (The Verge; 12 September 2024)* AI may not steal many jobs after all. It may just make workers more efficient (AP 2 September 2024)* Ask Claude: Amazon turns to Anthropic's AI for Alexa revamp (Ruters; 30 August 2024)* Tom Hanks warns followers to be wary of 'fraudulent' ads using his likeness through AI (NBC News; 30 August 2024)* NaNoWriMo is in disarray after organizers defend AI writing tools (The Verge; 3 September 2024)* Oprah Winfrey Is Hosting an AI Special Tonight: What We Know (CNet; 12 September 2024)* Oprah just had an AI special with Sam Altman and Bill Gates — here are the highlights (TechCrunch; 12 September 2024)* There’s a fix for AI-generated essays. Why aren’t we using it? (Vox; 7 September 2024)* Microsoft’s AI Can Be Turned Into an Automated Phishing Machine (Wired; 8 August 2024)* Microsoft’s Office apps are getting more useful Copilot AI features (The Verge; 16 September 2024)* Facebook admits to scraping every Australian adult user's public photos and posts to train AI, with no opt-out option (ABC; 11 September 2024)* What Is AI Best at Now? Improving Products You Already Own (Wall Street Journal; 13 September 2024)* [PODCAST] Do You Need a New iPhone? + Yuval Noah Harari’s A.I. Fears + Hard Fork Crimes Division (Hard Fork, 13 Sept 2024)* Apple gets FDA authorization to turn the AirPods Pro into hearing aids (Verge, 12 Sept 2024)* AI’s impact on elections is being overblown (MIT Technology Review; 3 September 2024)* AI chatbots might be better at swaying conspiracy theorists than humans (ArsTechnica, 12 Sept 2024)* YouTube debuts new parental controls aimed at teens (TechCrunch; 4 September 2024)* Google will now link to The Internet Archive to add more context to Search results (9 to 5 Google; 11 September 2024)* New Instagram features aim to boost child safety after years of criticism (NPR; 17 September 2024)* The Internet Archive just lost its appeal over ebook lending (The Verge; 4 September 2024)* Misc* T-Mobile Customers Will Get Starlink Satellite Internet Directly On Their Mobiles First And Others Only Later, Says SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (Benzinga, 2 Sept 2024)* Two private astronauts took a spacewalk Thursday morning—yes, it was historic (ArsTechnica, 12 Sept 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 334 from August 29, 2024! (We’ve started posting VIDEO versions here on Substack… This week we’re sharing a higher resolution version. Please let us know what you think!Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* California legislature passes sweeping AI safety bill (The Verge; 28 August 2024)* 100M Token Context Windows (Magic.dev; 29 August 2024)* Apple targets Sept. 10 debut for new iPhones, AirPods and watches, Bloomberg News reports (Reuters; 23 August 2024)* ChatGPT makes Siri more intelligent in iOS 18: Here’s how (9 to 5 Mac; 21 August 2024)* Report: Amazon to Launch Paid Version of Alexa in October (Thurott.com; 27 August 2024)* TikTok must face lawsuit over 10-year-old girl’s death, US court rules (Reuters; 28 August 2024)* Tumblr to move its half a billion blogs to WordPress (TechCrunch, 28 Aug 2024)* YouTube’s Growth As A Podcast Power Player Revealed In Cumulus Media And Signal Hill Insights’ Podcast Download – Spring 2024 Report (WestwoodOne, 8 July 2024)* Harmful ‘Nudify’ Websites Used Google, Apple, and Discord Sign-On Systems (Wired, 29 Aug 2024)* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: How to Attribute AI (via MLA) and Zbib and NASA What’s Up?* Jason’s Geek of the Week: LibreOffice 24.8 is Now AvailableHere are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* Oprah Winfrey to Host ‘AI and the Future of Us’ ABC Special With Bill Gates and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (Variety; 29 August 2024)* Microsoft’s AI Can Be Turned Into an Automated Phishing Machine (Wired; 8 August 2024)* This system can sort real pictures from AI fakes — why aren’t platforms using it? (The Verge; 21 August 2024)* The AI photo editing era is here, and it’s every person for themselves (The Verge; 19 August 2024)* OpenAI and Anthropic will share their models with the US government (The Verge; 29 August 2024)* New AI tool: NoteGPT* Microsoft’s Recall AI feature won’t be available for Windows testers until October (The Verge; 21 August 2024)* Google Keep rolling out AI-powered ‘Help me create a list’ on Android (9 TO 5 Google; 22 August 2024)* Google Gemini Now Accessible From Chrome Address Bar (Search Engine Journal; 29 August 2024)* Arizona State University personalizes learning and advances research with ChatGPT (Open AI)* Threads deepens its ties to the open social web, aka the ‘fediverse’ (TechCrunch, 28 Aug 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 333 from August 21, 2024! Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* How AI’s booms and busts are a distraction (Vox; 17 August 2024)* Elon Musk's AI Image Generator Is a Deepfaker's Dream (LifeHacker; 15 August 2024)* Flux Tools by Black Forest Labs (from Huggingface)* Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why. (MIT Technology Review Podcast, 7 Aug 2024)* Hackers leak 2.7 billion data records with Social Security numbers (Bleeping Computer; 11 August 2024)* Massive data leak may include the personal data of every person in the US, UK, and Canada (9to5Mac, 13 Aug 2025)* Forget Apple, the biggest loser in the Google search ruling could be Mozilla and its Firefox web browser (Fortune; 5 August 2024)* Google Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL review: AI all over the place (The Verge; 21 August 2024)* Google’s AI ‘Reimagine’ tool helped us add wrecks, disasters, and corpses to our photos (The Verge; 21 August 2024)* Google Releases Powerful AI Image Generator You Can Use for Free (PetaPixel, 14 Aug 2024)* US Navy Eyes Adopting SpaceX's Starlink Across Its Fleet (PC Magazine; 21 August 2024)* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: Updates on Jason’s AI Local Models AnythingLLM - Ollama - LM Studio* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Learning Journal Lesson and https://usafacts.org/Here are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* Microsoft’s AI Can Be Turned Into an Automated Phishing Machine (Wired; 8 August 2024)* This system can sort real pictures from AI fakes — why aren’t platforms using it? (The Verge; 21 August 2024)* The AI photo editing era is here, and it’s every person for themselves (The Verge; 19 August 2024)* Elon Musk’s AI photo tool is generating realistic, fake images of Trump, Harris and Biden (CNN; 15 August 2024)* NoteGPT - YouTube Video Summarizer, PDF Summary, PPT Summary, Image Summaries, and more. Create PPTs, Mindmaps, and Notes with NoteGPT AI. Improve your learning efficiency by 10x.* Google threatened tech influencers unless they ‘preferred’ the Pixel (The Verge; 16 August 2024)* Microsoft’s Recall AI feature won’t be available for Windows testers until October (The Verge; 21 August 2024)* ChatGPT makes Siri more intelligent in iOS 18: Here’s how (9 to 5 Mac; 21 August 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe

Check out our Episode 332 from August 7, 2024! Here are all the links we discussed in the show:* A neurological disease stole Rep. Jennifer Wexton's voice. AI helped her get it back. (NPR, 25 Jul 2024)* Human Reader (Chrome extension from ElevenLabs)* OpenAI Unleashes 'Advanced Voice Mode' Following ScarJo Controversy (PC Mag; 30 July 2024)* OpenAI co-founder Schulman leaves for Anthropic, Brockman takes extended leave (TechCrunch; 5 August 2024)* The SOS satellite calling feature on Apple’s latest iPhones can be literally life-saving: B.C. search and rescue group saves hikers stranded on a glacier from wildfire (CBC, 28 Jul 2024)* ‘You are a helpful mail assistant,’ and other Apple Intelligence instructions (The Verge; 5 August 2024)* Apple's AI Features Rollout Will Miss Upcoming iPhone Software Overhaul (Bloomburg; 28 July 2024) - paywall free version* Apple leads tech rout after Berkshire Hathaway sells more than half of its stake (Business Outside, 5 Aug 2024)* Now that Google is a monopolist, what’s next? (Verge, 6 Aug 2024)* Jason: ChatGPT Prompt Optimizer* Wes: New media literacy lesson: Influencers - Adobe Podcast - DescriptHere are the links which made our show notes Google Doc, but we didn’t have time to discuss:* Bing’s AI redesign shoves the usual list of search results to the side (THe Verge; 24 July 2024)* Google Researchers Publish Paper About How Ai Is Ruining The Internet (The Byte; 4 July 2024)* Artificial intelligence isn’t a good argument for basic income (Vox; 22 July 2024)* The AI bubble has burst. Here's how we know (Mashable, 6 Aug 2024)* OpenAI tempers expectations with less bombastic, GPT-5-less DevDay this fall (TechCrunch; 5 August 2024)* OpenAI Seems Like It's Imploding! (Matt Wolfe; 6 August 2024)* OpenAI says it’s taking a ‘deliberate approach’ to releasing tools that can detect writing from ChatGPT (TechCrunch; 4 August 2024)* ​​Google pulls Olympics AI ad after backlash (WaOi; 1 August 2024)* Everyone Is Judging AI by These Tests. But Experts Say They’re Close to Meaningless (The Markup; 17 July 2024)* Meta's AI Studio Can Create a Copy of Your Favorite Influencer. Here's Why That Matters (CNet; 30 July 2024)* What do people really ask chatbots? It’s a lot of sex and homework (Washington Post, 4 Aug 2024) - paywall free Archive.today link* Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why. (MIT Technology Review, 4 March 2024) - audio version available* AI music startup Suno claims training model on copyrighted music is ‘fair use’ (Techcrunch, 1 Aug 2024)* YouTuber files class action suit over OpenAI’s scrape of creators’ transcripts (Tech Crunch; 5 August 2024)* Automattic launches AI writing tool that aims to make WordPress blogs more readable and succinct (TechCrunch; 7 August 2024)* Apple to Adopt Voluntary AI Safeguards Established by Biden (Bloomberg; 26 July 2024) AltLink* 3 new Chrome AI features for even more helpful browsing (Google Blog; 1 August 2024) Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe