K12 Tech Talk

Episode 248 has a listener poll of viral snow-day announcement songs from districts around the country. Check out the videos below and tell us your favorite by emailing us at info@k12techtalkpodcast.com:

Option 1: Benson Boone - Ozarks Schools (MO)

Option 2: Extraordinary - Novi Community School District (MI)

Option 3: Code Red - Montgomery County Public Schools (MD)

The second half of this episode is an interview with Dr. Richard ...

On this episode we talk about free certifications, Google Gemini updates, and updates to Microsoft’s Copilot Teach and Study & Learn Agents. We discuss SSL certificate lifetime changes and ACME automation. Finally, we unpack and react to last week’s Senate hearing on screen time led by Senator Ted Cruz - including perspectives from Dr. Jean Twenge and Senator Markey.

Senate Hearing on Screen Time: https://www.c-span.org/program...

Hosts Josh, Chris, and Mark unpack a week of wild headlines and K12 tech policy: viral AI images that complicated a search for wild vervet monkeys in St. Louis, Denver Public Schools’ decision to block ChatGPT for students, and a preview of a Senate hearing on kids and screen time.

They discuss a Texas district fighting state regulators over bell‑to‑bell phone bans, cybersecurity warnings about teen recruitment by criminal hacking ...

And we're back! We discuss the New Year spike in cyber attacks on schools over the holiday break and practical strategies for vacation periods - automated alerting, third‑party monitoring, suspending or shutting down non‑critical services.

Other topics include what to look for when hiring technician, the rise of remote psycho-educational testing, early findings from the E‑Rate cybersecurity pilot, vendor liability caps in data priv...

Josh, Chris, and Mark close out the year on Episode 244 with a fast-paced, candid recap: reviewing last year’s predictions, unpacking the biggest 2025 themes, and making bold calls for 2026. Chris shares a story about Missouri-flavored smoked ribs and a district core switch outage.

Key topics include the mainstreaming of AI in K12, vendor security scrutiny (PowerSchool and Infinite Campus MFA), continued funding uncertainty, device...

Josh, Chris, and Mark discuss students and screen time - including Australia’s ban on social media accounts for under 16, a NTIA listening session on excessive screen time in schools, and proposed Missouri legislation limiting K‑5 screen use and tech‑required homework. They dig into enforcement and equity concerns, district reporting and instructional use of devices, and the tension between digital literacy and reduced screen expos...

Episode 242 digs into the messy rollout of ChatGPT for Teachers and what it means for districts. We discuss the first‑in admin problem, educator verification (pay‑stub/DNS issues), SSO/SAML concerns, the 18‑month trial/pricing uncertainty, and whether OpenAI rushed the launch to capture market share.

We also cover recent news: the FTC’s action against Illuminate over a 2021 data breach and the Department of Education’s tentative ag...

Episode 241 covers ChatGPT’s new free teacher tier (available through June 2027), Google’s Gemini 3.0 release, and Wired’s investigation into bathroom vape detectors (aka “snitch boxes”) that raise serious privacy and microphone concerns.

The guys also discuss the Canadian Privacy Commissioner’s findings on the PowerSchool breach, camera and sensor policy questions, and a tip to reduce calendar‑invite spam in Google and Microsoft e...

On this episode of K12 Tech Talk, we cover a busy week in school tech: Linewize and Google outages, handling suspicious Google logins, parental pushes to tighten cell phone rules, and worries about AI being used to draft IEPs and 504 plans. We discuss reports of malware tied to Teachers Pay Teachers and discuss the question - Should schools block Teachers Pay Teachers? 

Guest Joey Wender from the Schools, Health & Libraries Bro...

Join Josh and Mark on this week’s K‑12 Tech Talk as they break down the real-world effects of the federal government shutdown on schools, walk through a new federal AI bill (the GARD Act) and discuss major service outages that disrupted classrooms — including Chromebook/Google login problems, recent AWS and Entra incidents, and how districts should respond.

Topics include the shutdown’s impact on SNAP, Head Start and school nutriti...

Holy MFA, Batman! This week, the guys discuss the sentencing of the individual behind the PowerSchool data breach, the recent AI weapons detection system that mistook a bag of chips for a gun and prompted police response, and Mark's Batman mask. Yes, it's Halloween time!

The main segment is an interview with the tech team from Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District. They share their lessons learned from a highly ambitious project: r...

In this episode, we debrief last week’s Campus Guardian Angel interview, dig into Google’s new policy to delete inactive accounts after two years, and reflect on the recent AWS/DNS outage that impacted services. Then, K12TechPro's Hayden the New Guy brings multiple on‑site interviews from the MOREnet conference! 

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Our new Swag Store is OPEN - Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirt...

On Episode 236 of K12 Tech Talk, we discuss California’s new law to protect students using AI chatbots and revisit Campus Guardian Angel, a startup building drone-based responses for active shooter scenarios.

The episode features an in-depth interview with Justin Marston (CEO/co-founder) and Bill King (Chief Tactical Officer/co-founder) from Campus Guardian Angel, covering drone design, networking, AI safeguards, operational tactic...

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Episode 233 discusses the newest tensions between AI and schools: teenagers using AI companions and alarming incidents tied to platforms like Character.ai that have drawn federal attention.

Josh talks about his student MFA pilot using Clever, how onboarding works (and how MFA can be network-aware to reduce classroom friction), and using student-led help desks to test the rollout. The guys discuss a post from Jay on K12TechPro askin...

On Episode 222, we unpack a busy week in school tech: a nationwide Google outage that disrupted Chromebook logins, new Sophos data showing improving ransomware recovery and falling ransom payments, and CETA’s annual report putting AI at the top of state priorities.

The conversation dives into the controversial campus drone pilot approved in Florida (non‑lethal pepper‑ball drones and on‑demand airborne security) and the AI Whack‑A‑M...

On this episode, Josh, Chris, and Mark unpack their top five back-to-school trends shaping K-12 technology in 2025. Topics include shifting budgets and funding pressures, rising costs for materials and software, widespread school cell phone policies and bell-to-bell enforcement, the rapid expansion of AI tools in classrooms (including Notebook LM and Gemini), and growing school safety technology demands.

The episode also highlights...