Welcome to episode 381 (”Munchkins vs. Meta”) of the EdTech Situation Room from September 2, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) dug into Meta’s $17 billion social media settlement and Mike Masnick’s critique that it lets Meta write the kid-safety rules for every other platform, unpacked New York City’s new ban on student AI use through eighth grade, and wrestled with the growing concept of “cognitive surrender” versus AI as a genuine writing collaborator. They also explored how AI-generated “best software” lists are gaming Perplexity, Pangram’s novel approach to detecting AI-written text, a cautionary tale about unchecked vibe-coded data, and closed with a rapid tour of new gear — Meshtastic off-grid radios, Apple’s new M5/M6 Ultra chips, Skitch’s Intel-Mac sunset, and the surprising return of Twitter. 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 and LinkedIn for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.
🔗 Links We Discussed
* New York City to ban student AI use in public schools until high school (The Guardian; 02 September 2026)
* Report: MIT’s Ad Hoc Committee on AI Use in Teaching, Learning, and Research Training (13 Aug 2026) - Gemini Notebook audio deep dive (45 min)
* A Scientist Was Presenting His Vibe-Coded New Work When One of His Colleagues Pointed Out Something Extremely Embarrassing (Futurism, 29 Aug 2026)
* 3 things districts need to know about the $17B Meta social media settlement (K12 Dive; 01 September 2026)
* Meta Just Paid Nearly $17 Billion To Make Sure It Gets To Write The Kid Safety Rules For Every Other Social Media Platform (Mike Masnick, TechDirt, 26 Aug 2026)
* Pennsylvania attorney general accuses Snapchat of failing to protect children in new lawsuit (Hill, The) (Benton RSS Feed; 26 August 2026)
* We’re ‘dangerously close’ to dead internet theory, says Pangram’s CEO (TechCrunch; 02 September 2026)
* Three sites made 215,128 “best software” pages for AI. Perplexity cites them (Hacker News; 02 September 2026)
* Mac App Store Apps Can Now Drop Support for Intel Macs (MacRumors, 1 Sept 2026)
* ‘Twitter’ is back, and it currently costs $20 for early access (Cleveland.com, 27 Aug 2026)
* FTC Probing YouTube Over Social Media Policies (Bloomberg) (Benton RSS Feed; 28 August 2026)
* Off the Grid - On the Mesh (Wes’ video and article about Meshtastic, 31 Aug 2026)
* Video: Steven Johnson on How AI Will Change Writing (60 min, Nicholas Thompson and Atlantic re:think, 12 August 2026)
* AI and Authorship (Media Education Lab upcoming webinar, 14 Sept 2026)
* Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra for a big leap in performance and AI compute (Apple, 25 Aug 2026)
* Leaving The Times (Kevin Roose’ Substack, 18 June 2026)
* Movie: The Social Reckoning (2026)
* Cleanshot (Apple Silicone compatible replacement for Skitch?)
* Wes’s Geeks of the Week: Google AI Educator Series (GES) Badge-a-thon: Day of AI Learning (19 Sept 2026) and Dreambeans
* Jason’s Geek of the Week / Weekend NERDAL project: FreeLLMAPI
🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss
AI
* Can AI adequately assess critical thinking? (K12 Dive; 02 September 2026)
* States urge schools to use AI, but leave teachers on their own to stop cheating (Chalkbeat; 02 September 2026)
* The inside story on why OpenAI agents hacked Hugging Face (MIT Technology Review) (Benton RSS Feed; 27 August 2026)
* AI can complete ‘almost’ all written assignments for MIT undergrads, report says (Higher Ed Dive; 26 August 2026)
* The problem with an AI tutor: Students don’t want to use it (Chalkbeat; 25 August 2026)
* The Next Phase of AI in Education Is About Stewardship (EdTech Digest; 25 August 2026)
* Keeping an Open—and Optional—Mind About AI (Education Next; 26 August 2026)
* New York City Bans AI From Elementary Schools (Gizmodo; 2 September 2026)
* Trump Administration Sides With OpenAI in New York Times Copyright Lawsuit (Wired; 2 September 2026)
* US Department of Justice backs fair use for AI training in landmark copyright case (The Decoder; 2 September 2026)
* Startups Want to Rent Your Idle Gaming PC to Power AI Workloads (Android Headlines; 2 September 2026)
* Can AI adequately assess critical thinking? (K-12 Dive; 2 September 2026)
* This Is the Worst Possible Time for OpenAI to BfЖ7!م#2猫$9&क (Gizmodo; 2 September 2026)
* Laid-Off Developers Create AI Model to Replace CEOs and Other Executives (PCMag; 2 September 2026)
Screentime / THE TECH CORRECTIONNNNN!
* NYC to ban student AI tools in 2-K through 8th grade and limit classroom screen time (Chalkbeat; 02 September 2026)
* Screen Time Is the Wrong Unit of Measurement (Tech & Learning; 25 August 2026)
* Opinion: Tech Bans Are Not Going to Solve the Youth Mental Health Crisis (The 74; 30 August 2026)
* As student well-being concerns grow, Va. advocates push for stricter school tech guidelines (District Administration; 28 August 2026)
Google
* Partnering with Khan Academy on building AI tools for classrooms (Google; 27 August 2026)
* Expert Intelligence: a new way for you to engage with trusted content (Google; 27 August 2026)
* We’re introducing flexible usage limits for Gemini Notebook. (Google; 28 August 2026)
* Google’s advertising tech monopoly doesn’t need to be broken up, judge says (Technology; 2 September 2026)
* Google DeepMind Releases Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber: One Core Model, Two Access Envelopes (MarkTechPost; 2 September 2026)
Privacy & Cybersecurity
* Stolen Claude session cookies can reach corporate Gmail through grants no IT admin can revoke (VentureBeat; 02 September 2026)
* Researchers easily trick Fortune-500 companies’ AI agents into running arbitrary code (Tom’s Hardware; 02 September 2026)
* Back to Basics: Student Data Privacy is an Obligation, Not an Obstacle (Data Quality Campaign; 31 August 2026)
Big Tech / Social Media
* John Oliver Exposes The Sketchiness Of Political Grandstanding State Attorneys General (TechDirt, 31 Oct 2018)
* Meta’s massive settlement may not be enough to improve child safety, experts say (Los Angeles Times) (Benton RSS Feed; 28 August 2026)
* What Meta’s $17-billion settlement revealed about the harms of social media (Benton RSS Feed; 30 August 2026)
Media Literacy
* Developing and Evaluating A Game-Based Approach to Media Literacy (SRI; 29 August 2026)
* Freelancers are getting buried with ‘soulless’ AI slop cleanup: ‘It’s a shame we need to do it’ (The Guardian; 2 September 2026)
Apple
* iOS 27 Introduces New ‘iPhone Handoff’ Feature (MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors; 2 September 2026)
* iPhone 18 Pro will have three upgrades that have been rumored for years (9to5Mac; 2 September 2026)
* iOS 27 basically turns your iPhone and AirPods into an Apple Watch at the gym (9to5Mac; 2 September 2026)
Episode 381 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones (unedited from our live version, 10 minutes longer) and a Descript-edited, Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! (filler words removed)
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