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.