June 4, 2026 • 46 mins
On this week’s episode, the guys test whether artificial intelligence can replace a person - with AI‑cloned "Josh" sprinkled through the episode.
Chris and Mark cover the rapid early success of Apple’s new MacBook Neo, including Kansas City Public Schools’ plan to replace roughly 30,000 Windows PCs and Chromebooks after a 4,500‑unit proof of concept.
Elizabethtown Area School District’s cell phone and smartwatch ban (and the community reaction to program names like “Cellcatraz” versus “Device Den”) is discussed. The guys highlight new guidance from the National Council of Teachers of English on using AI in ELA classrooms, centered on a practical stoplight model (red, yellow, green) that helps teachers define AI use. A major segment revisits last week’s episode about showing movies in class. Finally, Chris interviews Chantell Manahan, Director of Technology at MSD of Steuben County, to discuss her district’s experience with SysCloud.
Join us July 6th-10th, 2026 – GAMEIS Conference in Savannah, GA
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
On this week's episode of the K-12 Tech Talk podcast, we find out if artificial intelligence
(00:04):
is capable of replacing one of us.
We also talk about the early success of the Mac Neo and reactions from last week's episode
about movies in the classroom.
Thanks for listening.
Live from the NTP studios, this is the K-12 Tech Talk podcast.
My name is Josh, and unfortunately I went to bed early this week, so these clowns cloned
(00:28):
my voice for this episode.
He's going to hate that so much.
He's really going to hate that.
So what's going on, Mark?
Uh, nothing.
Not much.
It's, you know, the end of the school year is always crazy around here, so a million
things going back and forth, and unfortunately we're recording this episode a little bit
late because we had some schedule conflicts, and Josh said it's too late for him, and he
(00:51):
went to bed.
Am I too late?
It's like way early.
It's still early.
Like, the sun is still out.
I did point out to Josh that the sun is still out, and he said...
In Boston and in Missouri.
Like the sun is out.
Right.
Right, right, right, right.
But he was too tired, and so I was going to, like, grab a whole bunch of clips.
We've done this before.
We grabbed clips of his voice, and then I realized, why don't I just clone his voice?
(01:14):
So we've got some AI Josh sprinkled throughout this episode.
We'll see how it goes and how angry we can get Josh on this episode.
Did he even say NTP studios?
He was still tired?
He did.
Yeah, yeah.
Whatever, Josh.
Like, whatever.
Yeah.
I think he's going to be really upset about the AI.
I think he's going to be mad, Mark.
(01:35):
Oh, whatever.
I guess we'll see.
I guess we'll see how it goes.
Yeah, and if you like AI Josh better than real Josh, shoot us an email at info at k12techtalkpodcast.com.
Give me a break.
Oh.
Sorry, Josh.
Because we'll see if AI Josh has personality or not.
(01:58):
Who knows?
Um, no.
All right.
Anyway, Josh usually says this, but Mark, do you have any news for us?
Well, just to clarify, Josh does say that tonight.
So Mark, what is going on for news this week?
I love it.
(02:19):
All right.
A couple stories, actually, from your neck of the woods.
Kansas City Public Schools has announced that they're going to be transitioning to become
an all Apple district.
They're moving from Chromebooks to the new MacBook Neo.
They made an announcement to the community that they're going to be replacing about 30,000.
Sorry, I said Chromebooks.
They're Windows PCs.
They're replacing 30,000 Windows PCs and Chromebooks with Apple devices.
(02:44):
These things will be procured over the next year or so.
They've already procured 4,500 Mac Neos, and they've already used that as their proof
of concept to move forward.
Apple even recognized and mentioned this on their Q2 earnings call as a major example
of the success of their MacBook Neo line.
And they have increased production of the Mac Neos to keep up with demand.
(03:10):
There are reports that they have doubled from 5 million MacBook Neos to 10 million in 2026.
So that is a huge, huge surge in demand that they were, I don't know, maybe not expecting.
Tim Cook had even noted that Apple under-called the initial enthusiasm, saying that the laptop
has driven a record number of first-time Mac buyers.
(03:32):
So this will be really interesting to see what this does.
I haven't really seen too many other school districts that have gone all-in like Kansas
City Public Schools.
And obviously, that's a very big district to make that decision.
But we'll see in the next school year what happens as more and more districts begin their
device refresh plans.
Yeah, I think I'm surprised because it's just been March that we got to touch one for the
(03:54):
first time.
So to even say 4,500 and, hey, we're ready to go, that's a pretty quick turnaround on
that decision.
I easily agree with if you think you, I mean, if you're picking out a device, you are going
to pick it and you're going to roll hard.
I mean, yes, like replace the whole thing.
You don't want a mixed environment.
No one really does that anymore as far as like, hey, I got Chromebooks and MacBooks
(04:16):
and Windows devices all over the place.
So that makes sense to me that they're going to plunge right into it.
But yeah, not a whole lot of time has passed to make a big decision like that.
But kudos to them for thinking that that's the right path and having some, I don't know,
taking that lead.
I always want to be second or third or fifth to go.
(04:38):
Yeah.
Well, I've also talked to districts that are previously Apple districts and they have said,
well, of course, we're going over to the Mac Neo.
That cuts their costs in half.
So I don't know if Kansas City was in that boat that they were already going to be transitioning
to a MacBook and this just suddenly saved them a ton of money off their budget.
But if you are Apple, you are probably going to be monitoring the conversions of Chromebooks
(05:03):
and PCs to Macs, but also the downgrading of if you're buying MacBook Airs and now you're
buying MacBook Neos, that's actually a loss for them.
So it'll be interesting to see what happens.
I was just talking to a school this week.
I think there are about 3,000 students and they would always give their teachers a higher
end MacBook and they're going Neo.
(05:25):
So yeah, I would see if you're Apple on that.
That's not necessarily the plan that you thought you were going to do.
But I mean, I'm eagerly waiting for my laptop to die and then so I can take the plunge and
get a $500 MacBook.
So are you considering it for any of your classes, maybe a subsection of your students
or your school?
(05:45):
No, I would say, you know, we just moved.
We used to do Windows desktop computer with Chromebook as a companion device for the teacher.
We just finished up.
I mean, we're probably just like a year moving over to just Windows laptops and docking stations
with all of our people.
(06:05):
We give our students Chromebooks.
We do give our paraprofessionals Chromebooks as well.
So we just settled into that.
And I have a hard time with, you know, that, I mean, we still do a technology plan, a district
technology plan, and it's like a four-year plan.
I don't usually pivot a whole lot off of that just because some new technology comes
(06:26):
out.
So I think we'll probably wait that three to four years until we would consider such
a thing again.
Now to tell me I won't consider student Chromebooks in two years or three years, I would probably
think about a MacBook Neo because I could do that per building and I would treat student
devices differently than staff.
(06:48):
Yeah, yeah.
I still think there are a lot of districts that struggle with the Chromebook as the standard
device but then your high-tech classrooms, your art, your music, your video production
classes.
I think this is a good entry point to that.
But you know, if the class needs processing, that's going to be a tough swing because this
(07:09):
is running off of essentially an iPhone chip.
So it may not be the highest processing speed for video production, but if you just need
a solid MacBook environment, PC environment, I think this is a very, very good entry point
for those classrooms instead of a Chromebook.
Yeah.
All right.
Now over to...
(07:30):
Josh, do you have an opinion on that?
I don't think we'd have all these problems if it weren't for these damn teachers.
Josh.
Come on, Josh.
Anyway, Mark, what other news do you have?
All right.
(07:50):
We'll go over to Elizabethtown Area School District in Pennsylvania.
They have come out with their cell phone ban and smartwatch ban per a state law as many
other districts have done.
But they've had to go back and make a minor modification to the name of the program.
So the community actually came back and said, hey, we're on board with this one, but we're
really, really concerned about the name of your cell phone ban program.
(08:15):
Chris, how do you think a cell phone ban in your school district would go if the name
was Cellcatraz?
I don't know.
Why does it need a special name?
Oh, I don't think so.
I don't know either, Josh.
I mean, who knows?
Maybe it's a part of their advertising plan to get it out there.
(08:35):
But a lot of people name programs that they have.
Cellcatraz maybe didn't go over well with some people.
So they're leaning towards naming it the Device Den instead.
Okay.
I wonder, they obviously have names for all of their programs.
Like they spend time on this.
I think it's cute, right?
(08:57):
You're a young student.
You bring in your cell phone.
You're going to put it into the Device Den or the Cellcatraz.
Cellcatraz.
I don't know.
I think it's cute.
But I can see why some people in the community may want to take this a little bit more seriously.
I used to do these after school classes and I would call them like, Tech No, Tech Yes.
(09:20):
And then I had one called Tech It To The Limit.
But as I got older, I realized that we don't need those names.
That is the dumbest idea I've ever heard.
Shut up, Josh.
I don't know.
I like naming programs and things like that.
But yeah, I can see why some folks have a tough time with this one.
(09:40):
That's funny.
Anyways, you guys have a cell phone ban in your state, right?
Yeah, we do.
So a year in, I guess, it went well.
We just called it the cell phone ban.
It was just a thing added to our handbooks and added to our discipline stuff.
It was kind of already in place.
I would just say that we weren't completely following it until Missouri said so kind of
thing.
(10:01):
But yeah, it's been a good year with that.
And did you have to extend it to other devices or you just strictly stick with cell phones?
Because I know there was always the smartwatch conversation and the MetaGlasses and all that
stuff.
Yeah, all that was said in there.
And again, actually, our stuff, we already had local policy in place.
We just hadn't.
I'd say we had drifted away from it slightly.
Okay, cool.
(10:21):
All right.
And then my final story, another one, there's a little bit of a Missouri connection in here.
The National Council of Teachers of English, the NCTE, if you are, I know this is obviously
more for tech audiences, but if your English teachers are concerned about AI, the NCTE
has just come out with their guidance for ELA teachers using artificial intelligence.
(10:43):
They really use, they view AI as a partner in inquiry to deepen learning rather than
a tool for policing and compliance and replacing human thought.
The Missouri connection here, I don't know too many English teachers, but there was somebody
out of Missouri, Bill Bass, who I know.
Yeah, we know that guy.
Yeah.
He was involved in the creation of this one.
(11:03):
So they really are focusing on students as critical thinkers, really trying to elevate
human centered agency, using AI for translation and language scaffolding.
So it's really trying to put a positive spin on it.
But they also have some concerns or some, I would say, warnings around making sure that
your students are using it for ethical and responsible use.
(11:24):
And I really like this a lot.
I've echoed a lot of similar models out of this one where you have a stoplight system,
a red, yellow, green, red meaning, you know, your students are relying entirely on raw
human intellect or analog tools.
So if you're an English teacher, you might assign the student and say, hey, this is a
red light assignment where you are only using your own personal thoughts.
(11:47):
You're not using AI.
Yellow meaning AI is supporting, you may be used for scaffolding, ideation, kind of practicing
those kinds of things.
And then a green light, meaning you're heavily relying on strategies, you prompt engineering,
deep AI integration.
So great way for English teachers to dip their toes into AI and have some sort of structure
(12:07):
around how to use it in your classroom and some of the other things to think about.
So if you are trying to support your English teachers out there, I definitely recommend
downloading the NCTE AI guidelines or guidance from their website.
We'll link that in the show notes and provide that to teachers.
It is free of charge.
Yeah, that stoplight system, I've seen that kind of be used in other policies and regulations
(12:33):
as they popped up in our school district.
I think we landed on, and it was from our attorneys more kind of thing, but it was like
four different levels that could be broken.
I kind of wish, looking at the stoplight, I wish it was three, because this is easy
to remember.
But that's what we ended up pushing with our AI committee that I've talked about, that
(12:55):
if an assignment doesn't have an AI label on it, that means it's red.
That means don't use it.
And that's what we've been evangelizing to our middle school and high school kids.
That's the assumption.
The teacher will tell you otherwise.
And they'll tell you if you can use AI tools at all, or they'll tell you what that encouragement
(13:16):
is to go crazy on AI.
But that's how you establish, again, that ethics stuff.
You are cheating if you're using AI, unless the teacher told you that you can use AI.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, that's really, I do a lot of work with districts around AI and working with
teachers.
And that's the very first thing I say is you can't hold a student accountable for an expectation
you haven't given.
(13:36):
And that structure of being able to say, before you give an assignment out, this is a red,
yellow, green, I think it's very easy to understand, very easy to remember for students and for
teachers.
So I like it.
And that's what I've realized through that committee, that getting the message out, and
we had an AI policy and regulation all year.
(13:58):
And it wasn't really until the end of the school year that we really started explaining
it in good detail to our faculty, to our staff, to our students.
And that's what they needed.
They've been waiting to hear those things.
And again, I think we're getting to this place where we're almost behind, and we need to
play catch up.
(14:18):
I had a person in my district that has been involved with our AI committee ask me about
ChatGPT usage today, like letting me know that she is using it and had questions around
it.
And she knows that ChatGPT isn't on our vetted and approved list.
(14:41):
And it was like blowing my mind.
And again, that just shows to me that I still have work to do, our committee still has work
to do, because we're saying Gemini, and we're saying Notebook LM, and we're saying Magic
School, and we're saying actually don't use ChatGPT, use these things within our walls.
And someone that's close to that is still going astray, let alone the person that doesn't
(15:01):
even know that we have a policy and a regulation to follow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A conversation I just had with a couple of teachers is the difference between using Gemini
and ChatGPT and Anthropic with your school district Google account versus Gemini in your
school district's domain versus Gemini in your personal.
(15:25):
And a lot of people, and I understand why this is very confusing, not understanding
that hey, your district is using Google apps, and therefore you have terms of service with
them.
That is very, very different from using ChatGPT, but logging in with your school district Google
account, you still don't have the same terms of service with ChatGPT.
(15:46):
So there was a lot of security questions, too, around not just what apps I'm allowed
to use, but whether or not logging in with your school account makes a difference or
not from a security and privacy perspective.
And I can totally understand why.
A lot of people just don't understand that just because you log in with your school account
doesn't make it safe.
(16:07):
So different topic, but that has come up quite a lot with the AI tools.
Two things.
One, meter.
Check out meter.com slash K12 Tech Talk.
They can help you with your network infrastructure.
They do full stack networks, so they can help you design what you need, do your hardware,
they introduce the software, they can optimize your operations, they understand K12.
(16:28):
So check out meter.com slash K12 Tech Talk.
I had another AI thing come up.
I guess that's been about two weeks I've been digging into this.
We had a department that has a lot of meetings with people.
And they started using some AI note-taking tools, where before it was always handwritten
(16:49):
or typed out.
Again, that's easy from the sea.
I can turn this thing on while we're in the Zoom call.
It's going to take notes for me.
It's beautiful.
But that's not approved.
We don't say yes to that.
And then in a funny little turn of events, so it, of course, shares those notes with
everyone that had participated in that meeting, while we had those other people flagging that
(17:12):
as potential spam or phishing attempt or what the heck is this thing, because, again, going
back to this meeting, they weren't aware that AI notes were being taken.
And again, I'm in a district now that we've been evangelizing what we do with our AI,
and we still have a lot of work to do to know what is right and what is wrong.
(17:36):
So then I got asked, well, what are we supposed to do if we can't use that tool?
And I said, I don't know.
Whatever you were doing six months ago, like, whatever that was, that's what you're still
supposed to be doing.
And I'm not saying that we can't end up finding what AI note-taking tool we believe in.
But we don't have one approved today, so quit using it.
(17:58):
We don't have a, oh, have Josh say something about DPA.
That is the dumbest idea I've ever heard.
Okay, I'll take it.
I forgot we were limited on Josh AI.
Was that it for the news?
That is it for the news.
Well, I wanted to talk about, so last week, episode 266, we talked about summer school
(18:22):
screen time and movies, and a chunk of the episode was spent, Mark, you broke us down
when the teacher says, can I watch that movie in my classroom?
We discussed copyright and fair use and the difference between streaming subscriptions
and what is licensed and what is not.
I posted that thing on the K12 System and subreddit.
(18:47):
That's just been a day ago.
And it is at 40 comments from K12 techs, breaking down if they allow it, if they don't
allow it.
We knew that was a hot topic.
I mean, we talked about being a hot topic, and it literally is.
It literally is a hot topic because the results are mixed on what K12 techs do across the
nation and beyond with movies in class.
(19:10):
A lot of us turn our heads, a lot of us block it all.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I think if you look over the comments, the general agreement is there is fair use
of using movies and professional movies in the classroom setting that is allowable, that
is understandable under fair use and copyright law.
(19:34):
But the other side of it, the flip side, is use of streaming services like Disney Plus
and Hulu and Netflix.
Obviously, people understand that there's a difference between the two, and just because
you have the right doesn't mean you can use the service.
In terms of what techs do about it, that's where the variability was.
A lot of folks saying, I'm blocking all this stuff, I'm not putting my name on this, we
(19:57):
want to keep it out of our classrooms.
Whereas other folks saying, I just do what I am told by the principal.
If the principal allows it, then he or she has made that decision.
One person saying, if you're the IT tech, it's not your job to decide what is quote
unquote educational.
I do agree with that, I do.
(20:17):
I think the challenge though is with this category, you're also bridging into what is
allowable, what is legal.
If we know that something is inappropriate or illegal in the school environment, it makes
it hard for us to govern that one.
The flip side I would say is we do have people on their spare time during their lunch break
(20:42):
who might want to use this or watch movies.
I'm not condoning that, I'm just saying that is a legal usage of it.
But in terms of using Netflix and Hulu in your classroom, that would probably fall against
their terms of service.
There's always this bigger, well, it's ethics.
This bigger thing going on which is called ethics.
(21:07):
I think at K-12 Tech, we should not be wrestling with our personal ethics and whether or not
we think a movie is cool or not.
That shouldn't be coming into play.
It's what you just said.
If you know the right thing to do and you don't do it, or if you know the thing you
shouldn't be doing and you still do it, that's not ethical.
(21:31):
That's wrong.
That's at the district level.
That's not at Chris Wharton's heart level.
And even as a K-12 Tech, especially if you're in the director position, you have a responsibility.
The same AI conversation.
Our job is to inform.
(21:51):
So once you know this information, yes, you should be telling your administration we're
not doing this right or we are doing this right.
Someone said whip out the TV cart and the DVDs and just move on.
Another crazy rest 5026.
That made those conversations a little differently when they couldn't find the DVD to play illegally
(22:13):
still.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think for us, the tipping point was we were getting, I don't know what you call them.
I don't want to say copyright strikes, but we were getting official emails and notifications
for movie companies.
And because my network admin, his name was on the ISP, they were coming to his name and
(22:35):
we have to do something about this.
This is my name.
And so I totally understand that when you are, you, when you're getting an official
strike or official warning from a copyright owner and your name is on that, then, okay,
I need to do something about this one.
I might elevate the urgency of this one, but you know, ultimately this is the superintendent's
decision.
They're the owner of the, of the district I would say, or I would say quote unquote
(22:59):
governor of the district.
And hopefully you've got a superintendent where you can have that kind of conversation
with.
Yeah.
Two things with that.
So check out managed methods, managed methods.com.
They can do backups and monitor student safety, all that kind of stuff of your Microsoft and
Google environments.
Sticking with the ethics conversation too, I've always, even to get on the rant about,
(23:24):
you know, when you buy the one textbook and you make a bunch of copies of it and we're,
and it literally says on the piece of paper and not make copies.
Yeah.
And when we distribute that and then going back and sticking with the streaming movie,
when the teacher is in a classroom and those 25 kids know that what the teacher is doing
is wrong, that's what, that's what we're teaching.
(23:46):
Like we're, we're teaching that when the kid receives the piece of paper that says do not
make copies.
Yeah.
We're teaching the kid that kind of thing.
So almost all of our school districts have the line about, you know, empowering students
for successful lives and we're teaching them some, some things in there that we're saying
are okay that I don't know if it's okay.
(24:08):
It's not right.
That stuff sticks with kids.
I still remember my very first job I worked at a corner store.
This is up on the coast of Maine and I was trained some rather unethical things to do.
I was a kid when that happened and that sticks with you.
So when an adult is telling you to be immoral or break the rules as a kid, that sticks a
(24:30):
little bit more than as an adult.
We the Chromebook, we have Chromebook insurance and the amount of, I, you know, I call it
insurance fraud, you know, so we're self, you know, we're self maintaining our, our
insurance, but you know, we've had the kid report that he punched a screen and then we
know that he talked to his dad.
(24:50):
So then the kid comes back and he's like, actually, you know, I just dropped it off
my, you know, my bunk and, you know, that's, that's insurance fraud.
You know, that's teaching dishonesty.
Yeah.
And then we had to introduce, you know, this whole, like we had the kid that didn't have
insurance and you can buy insurance.
(25:10):
So then we didn't have it get checked.
So the kid would buy insurance and then within five minutes he had a cracked screen.
Well, that means that the cracked screen was cracked prior to insurance.
So then we had to do this, you know, just like your real insurance does work.
We have to make sure we have to check out the device before we issue your insurance.
And again, this, this bigger picture thing of the ethics that we're fighting through
(25:34):
with, with all of this.
Yeah.
I guess I should block all streaming services.
But I did the whole thing.
Swank was talked about several times in the comments.
I pitched Swank, I think twice and it was denied.
In some conversation and not with my current super, but basically, well, what are they
(25:56):
doing today?
And I can kind of describe it.
You know, what are teachers streaming?
How are they doing things today?
And oh, that doesn't cost us any money.
So I can either do the whole turn my head thing where we say what to do and not to do,
but we don't fully investigate it.
Or I can pay, you know, to fix things and I can go out and block all these, these
(26:16):
services.
It's a hard, it's a hard bit.
Yeah.
Well, one user speaking of Maine, Mainer 188 had actually linked the terms of service
for each of the main, the major streaming services in there.
And, and with a quote of how these services are only used for personal use and not for
commercial or, or non personal use of the service.
(26:38):
So very helpful.
If you take a look at that comment all the way at the bottom of the post on Reddit.
Yep.
Yep.
Love it.
And we love k12sysadmin subreddit.
Always great on there.
We sure do.
All right.
I think the other, the other little topic we can talk about Mark is, uh, is summer.
(27:00):
Um, last week we talked about account, you know, disabling or creation, all that kind
of stuff.
I think we did anyway.
It's all blur, but, uh, how's your summer?
I guess Mark is the question and what all, uh, do you see summer as the prime season
for, uh, in terms of the tech program overall?
(27:21):
Yeah, I mean, this is, it's such a balance between routine maintenance and then trying
to move the needle forward.
I'm, I'm working with a particular district and, uh, probably going to be doing some on
the ground tech work this summer because she just needs help getting stuff moving
forward.
We need to do DMARC.
We need to do a switch over their ISP and start to move some security stuff in the
(27:43):
Google admin console.
And she's like, I got thousands of Chromebooks coming in.
I don't have time for that.
So, you know, it is, it's such a huge balance between just getting things turned
over, getting devices turned over, uh, cleaned out and ready for the new school
year.
And then by the way, this is the only time of year when you can do all this
maintenance stuff.
So how are you doing this summer?
What have you got on your plate for maintenance and, uh, new initiatives?
(28:09):
Yeah, I was telling you before we hit the record button.
So my school district passed the bond, uh, and that suddenly just upticked all, all
these tech projects that we knew were going to come if, if, if the vote went
through.
Uh, but then it's just peddled to the floor cause then you're trying to get as
much done as you can.
And we couldn't order those things until there was money.
Uh, so we've just now placed, placed those orders, just got E-rate funding as
(28:32):
well.
Uh, and again, summer's the prime time to do your wireless projects, all that kind
of thing.
I was telling you, I feel like I am in, uh, I'm, I'm having to use my brain more
than normal.
Uh, like the, the sparks in, in, in the back are having to fly a little bit more.
I've had to do some subnet calculation things and just planning the big stuff and
(28:53):
the stuff that got me into K-12 tech to begin with.
Yeah.
Uh, but that's where my focus is at.
Uh, and then trying to get that timing right.
Like we have summer school going on and I'm needing to make some significant
changes that could mess up things.
But then I'm looking at the calendar and man, we're already in June, you know,
kids will come back in August and that seems like a long time.
(29:16):
Uh, but the days are flying and I'm like, I'm okay.
I can't do these projects.
I can't do this because kids are still here.
Okay.
So I can schedule this company to come and we can do these particular things.
But that gives me a little bit of window, uh, for downtime and different things to
happen.
Um, I love summer though.
I, we have a new tech this year.
(29:36):
I just gave him the big task and I can't tell if he liked it or not.
Uh, but basically to go through all of our inventory, uh, and you know, organize
the shelves.
Uh, we have a room we call the bone yard where things go to get near recycling,
near retirement, uh, that we don't really touch during the school year.
It just kind of, you know, piles up.
(29:58):
Uh, so, so told him like, go check out the bone yard, go own that thing.
Uh, give us a good inventory.
Uh, he, he's, he today was sitting at a table, just going through, uh, cabling to
give us good counts to try to figure out what we have and don't have.
Uh, I think summer is always a great time, uh, for that as well.
(30:18):
Do you do documentation day?
I think you had mentioned this a few years ago with something you guys do.
Yeah.
And sometimes we do, uh, I, I, I think we have seasons.
Uh, so we use it glue, uh, for documentation.
Uh, and it's usually we'll do it on a Friday.
We try to do that whole read only Friday thing probably every couple months.
Uh, I'll say, okay, we can't answer the phone and we're not going to look at our
(30:42):
email, uh, and for like half a day, uh, we'll just do documentation.
So I usually buy the guys, uh, some lunch and then we just sit and try to document
anything and everything that we can.
It's hard to not answer the phone.
It's hard to not check email.
Usually something bad happens like during that time.
Uh, but usually we, we, we do a decent job of pushing through and we do try to.
(31:07):
Uh, document, uh, and I'd say the last two, three years, we've done a better job of
getting things out of our Google drives, uh, even in a shared, you know, driver
shared folder, uh, but putting it into another place, uh, that we can all just
see really well, you can probably put it in like a, a notebook LM notebook.
(31:27):
And now all of a sudden you've got an amazing AI chat bot to, we've talked
about doing that with our student technician program because we've sent
them so much stuff over the years.
Yeah.
That we could spin up a notebook LM on that for sure.
All right.
I think that's it for the, for the week.
It's, it's hard without Josh.
It is a little hard without Josh.
(31:48):
Uh, he's sleeping by now.
I'm sure.
Uh, so Josh, we miss you.
Actually, that's, uh, I felt like, I thought I, I feel like it's been really
easy conversation because Josh interrupts.
It's definitely, it's definitely a lot better, uh, easier without Josh.
Uh, my vote is for AI Josh, but let us know, email info
(32:11):
at k12techtalkpodcast.com.
Do you like Josh or do you like AI Josh?
Uh, which is the better Josh, which is the better personality.
Uh, well, Mark, I did this interview.
Uh, we'll segue into this with Chantel.
She's a customer of syscloud.
Uh, this is our last episode with syscloud for 2026, uh, a proud
(32:33):
sponsor of the K12 Tech Talk Podcast.
Uh, check out this interview with Chantel, a customer of syscloud.
Thanks for listening.
All right.
I am hanging out with Chantel because supposedly, uh, she knows a
thing or two about syscloud.
Chantel, how are you today?
Doing pretty well.
(32:53):
It's the first week of summer school here.
So, you know, the craziness that comes with the first week of all of that and
the transition and schedules and who's in what building is always a little bit
fun, but we're almost at the end of this week.
So let's talk about your school district.
So I, I, I guess, would you talk about yourself and then talk
about your school district?
How many kids, that kind of thing?
(33:15):
Okay.
Um, so my name is Chantel Manahan.
I'm the director of technology here at MSD of Steuben County schools.
Um, I've been with the district 14 years.
I've been the director of technology 10 and a half years here.
Um, prior to that, I was a classroom teacher.
I taught high school kids, French and English.
Uh, so lots of people think that's strange that the French teacher
(33:38):
became the CTO of a school district.
That's a journey for sure.
Yeah.
Well, I always tell people it's really not that different, right?
Because if you are teaching a foreign language to students, you're trying
to take two disparate systems and make them make sense together.
And that's a lot of what we do in technology leadership is bring
disparate systems together and try to make them make sense or translate
(34:00):
from the tech department side to maintenance or the tech side to leadership.
So it's not all that different.
Um, so I do, I say, I do a lot of translating still.
So how many, how many, uh, students are at your district?
Yeah, we're a small rural district in Northeast Indiana.
We have 2,400 kids, K-12.
Um, four elementary schools, one middle school, one high school.
(34:22):
Um, we've been a Google district for 12 years and we've been one-to-one
at all grade levels for 10 years.
Nice.
Um, so, okay, now let's go back to summer school.
So summer school, we are on day, I guess we're on day four.
Um, and I always say summer school, like it's like a circus.
(34:45):
Um, and, and I, I worked at another school district and it felt like a circus.
Uh, the playbooks kind of go out the window.
Teachers get put into different classrooms that they've never been in before.
Um, we, we just want kids to attend.
So we just, we just say, come on.
Is it similar your way?
I guess.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
We try, you know, our best, um, to plan every step of the way, right?
(35:08):
Like which teacher way in advance, which teacher is going to be in which
classroom, um, hire those teachers like in April.
So they have plenty of time to know.
Um, we send letters to families that say, you know, we think that your
child would be really great in this summer school program because
we do different varieties.
Um, we do some more test prep for our early, early literacy, third grade
(35:30):
tests, uh, so it's a more focused summer school opportunity.
We partner with some community organizations where our teachers
teach classes for elementary kids through the month of June.
We do credit recovery only at our high school.
Um, so all of that's going on, but the first day is always complete chaos.
(35:50):
Like the bus, because we're picking up at more community focused locations
instead of every stop, um, especially here in town, we do have a lot of rural
kids who still need to be bused, but maybe we didn't know they were coming
to summer school because I guarantee you every year we have at least five
kids at every building to show up.
They haven't registered.
(36:11):
We haven't had any inkling they're coming.
Um, you know, our kids do keep their Chromebooks all summer.
We don't turn them in at the end of the year.
So they were nice own device with them to summer school, which has helped.
We've been doing that.
Um, five years now, um, I'm all summer and then we swap out the new grade
(36:32):
levels who get Chromebooks, um, on the first day of school next year.
Okay.
Awesome.
All right.
So I guess we can transition to talking about syscloud some.
So you said Google environment.
Um, I guess talking about syscloud, what do they do for you?
And I assume that they're doing your Google backups for one.
So, uh, would you unpack that a little bit for us?
What does cloud do for you?
(36:53):
Yeah.
So the Google backups was actually kind of top of mind for us.
Um, it's been amazing to see the transition over the last 12 years.
You know, when we first had Google, everyone was scared to use it, right?
They were still using their.
Like w drive on our device.
They were still using office.
(37:13):
They were very hesitant to move in the beginning to the new system.
And then once they saw what Google could offer and the ways that it really has a
lot of features that can be tailored to education specifically, right.
Interest started picking up.
And as we've seen more teacher turnover these last few years, um, we got to the
(37:36):
point where if somebody doesn't work in an office in one of our buildings, we
aren't giving them a home drive.
Like they only have Google available to them.
Um, so really office staff at all of our buildings and here at the central office
are the only people who are still using those drives.
And a lot of times they're only using them because they have to do different
(37:58):
reports and spreadsheets for the state.
And the state is not really on the Google train yet.
Um, so if they didn't have to do those specific things that require specific
formatting, specific file types, um, if sometimes the, the logic goes away on
their spreadsheets when they can convert it.
(38:19):
So.
All, almost all of our files live in Google now.
And, you know, for a long time I was like, well, why would we back that up?
Like, isn't Google backing it up?
Like, but what happens if they aren't, or what happens if you can't get access to
that?
I mean, that's where all of our curriculum is stored.
(38:39):
That's where a lot of our assessments are stored.
School would basically stop.
So my team and I sat together and we were like, okay, we're going to have to figure
out what to do about this because we are backing up all of those, you know, Microsoft
files and PDFs on the home drives.
We always have been.
Um, but if most of our data is living somewhere else now, shouldn't we be backing
(39:03):
that up too?
Um, so we looked at a couple of options and syscloud seemed the best fit for us.
So we did the demo.
It was one of those, like, it was an easy sell, honestly, by the time it was over, um,
they walked us through a lot of the features and functionality that did the 30 day demo.
And we were like, sold.
(39:23):
Yes.
Sign me up.
And part of it was, it was so simple to set up and it's so simple to run it and knock
on wood.
We have not had to, uh, worry about using those backups yet, as far as we've lost
someone's entire, uh, entire Google drive, but we have them there if we needed to.
(39:45):
And it, it, it lets you back up individual files or whatever, that kind of stuff too.
Right.
Yeah.
And I was just on a call.
We're doing a Google admin console audit, uh, this summer, just in the next month or
so we got, just got on a call with them and they were like, oh, I don't recommend that
you delete users like you're doing.
And I was like, well, if we back all the users files up in syscloud and have all
(40:09):
their files, and we're, we're backing up students as well, because yeah, students,
um, have, have actually been where we've had to restore things and not because
they're lost, but because they've lost access to their account, their account
suspended.
Um, we have a lot of dependencies built into our system.
(40:29):
Um, we use class link to, uh, provision accounts.
So once those students roll over in our SIS, like their account is deactivated, it
goes to suspended and without a doubt every year, at least three kids come to us
in December who just graduated the year before and are like, I need this file out
(40:52):
of my, um, so we've been able to, you know, restore from there and able to solve
those problems.
So that's been really where we've used it as far as backups.
Um, the other thing that really has helped us in our workflow is, um, I don't know
about your district, but in the post COVID landscape, we are losing between 10 and
(41:15):
25% of teachers each year.
There's that much turnover.
And historically our district, if we had eight new staff members in one year, we
were losing our minds because that was a lot.
Um, and now, you know, we have a room full of 40 people sometimes or 50 people that
we're onboarding as new teachers.
And without a doubt, you know, all of those curriculum files live in Google
(41:38):
drive and they're supposed to be in a shared drive so that when that person leaves
here, they, we don't lose access to curriculum that's been built.
We always find that some teacher has created all the files for a specific
course or cluster of courses in their own drive, and now they didn't
share it and now it's gone.
So, you know, before it would be either someone on our team or the supervisor,
(42:03):
the principal of the building or the curriculum director, et cetera, like
digging through that Google drive and trying to make sure that, um, we could
get the files back that we needed.
With SysCloud, it's so easy to bring up that specific user and
look for those specific files.
So we only restore those files and we can restore it to that shared drive that
(42:24):
we're aiming for, instead of having to give that to a principal who has to
remember to give it to a teacher or to a new teacher who might not know where to
look yet.
Nice.
So that's been great.
Awesome.
So you said you did a, uh, 30 day like trial.
So you did that.
You made sure that that was going to work well.
Uh, and then that was just some integration I'm guessing, like within
(42:45):
Google admin console to get going and that's, that's it.
I think we set it up in about 10 minutes on a call.
Um, and then once we converted to the subscription that there was just, you
know, a purchase order and eventually an invoice came to us, but we didn't
have to do anything else.
It just kept doing what it was doing in those 30 days.
(43:07):
So yeah, 10 minutes set up total.
Um, and then a couple of check-in calls with the account manager, just to make
sure that we knew what we were looking at, where to look, um, seeing if everything
was going okay, working through a couple of pretend use cases that we might do,
um, within the system.
And all of that was super simple.
(43:27):
Probably 20 minutes total of calls, 10 to 10 minute check-ins in the 30 days.
Awesome.
Cool.
Well, so syscloud, a proud sponsor of the K-12 Tech Talk podcast.
You can check them out at syscloud.com.
Uh, get a demo, check it out.
Uh, Chantel says they're pretty good.
I've used syscloud now for a while as well.
We've had good experiences.
So check out syscloud.
(43:48):
Chantel, thank you so much.
Uh, we, we were up at, uh, in, in the end, the podcast did a great place, great
community, uh, I sounds like we were in the same area of, of dinner we had met
previously.
So, uh, nice to see you again.
Good to see you too.
All right.
We have some events coming up.
(44:09):
Uh, Jason Rooks over at K-12 Tech Pro is going to be at the Summit, uh, Summit
LTC Conference in Urbana.
I don't even know if I'm saying that right.
Illinois.
That's June 16th to the 17th.
Uh, and then the podcast, uh, all three of us, we're going to be at the
Gamus Conference in Savannah, Georgia.
That's July 6th through the 10th.
Uh, those events are made possible by our sponsors like Fortinet podcast.
(44:32):
You can email Fortinet podcast at fortinet.com and Netwatch.
Uh, let me tell you about Netwatch cause they're going to be at Midwest
Tech Talk, and then I'll tell you about Midwest Tech Talk.
Uh, you are as a K-12 Tech, you are balancing student safety, campus
communication, cybersecurity, uh, and more.
Netwatch has been around for 20 years.
They have partnered with schools to create safer and smarter learning
(44:53):
environments.
They integrate technology and security solutions.
They can do your AI power, video surveillance, access control, uh,
emergency communications, paging systems, structured cabling,
it-managed services, and more.
Uh, they do access communications.
They're a gold solution partner.
Uh, they give you industry leading security technology, uh,
(45:14):
backed by their trusted expertise.
So check out Netwatch.
Uh, Netwatch is here to help.
I'll put a link to them in the podcast description.
They're going to be at Midwest Tech Talk.
That's July 20th and 21st with the kickoff on the 19th.
If you're interested in Midwest Tech Talk, go to MidwestTechTalk.com.
Again, thanks for listening.
(45:46):
The views and opinions expressed on the K-12 Tech Talk podcast are the
personal opinions of Josh, Chris, and Mark, and do not represent the views
or opinions of our sponsors or other organizations that we're affiliated with.
The material information presented here is for general information
and entertainment purposes only.
Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.
On this week's episode of the K-12 Tech Talk podcast, we find out if artificial intelligence
(00:04):
is capable of replacing one of us.
We also talk about the early success of the Mac Neo and reactions from last week's episode
about movies in the classroom.
Thanks for listening.
Live from the NTP studios, this is the K-12 Tech Talk podcast.
My name is Josh, and unfortunately I went to bed early this week, so these clowns cloned
(00:28):
my voice for this episode.
He's going to hate that so much.
He's really going to hate that.
So what's going on, Mark?
Uh, nothing.
Not much.
It's, you know, the end of the school year is always crazy around here, so a million
things going back and forth, and unfortunately we're recording this episode a little bit
late because we had some schedule conflicts, and Josh said it's too late for him, and he
(00:51):
went to bed.
Am I too late?
It's like way early.
It's still early.
Like, the sun is still out.
I did point out to Josh that the sun is still out, and he said...
In Boston and in Missouri.
Like the sun is out.
Right.
Right, right, right, right.
But he was too tired, and so I was going to, like, grab a whole bunch of clips.
We've done this before.
We grabbed clips of his voice, and then I realized, why don't I just clone his voice?
(01:14):
So we've got some AI Josh sprinkled throughout this episode.
We'll see how it goes and how angry we can get Josh on this episode.
Did he even say NTP studios?
He was still tired?
He did.
Yeah, yeah.
Whatever, Josh.
Like, whatever.
Yeah.
I think he's going to be really upset about the AI.
I think he's going to be mad, Mark.
(01:35):
Oh, whatever.
I guess we'll see.
I guess we'll see how it goes.
Yeah, and if you like AI Josh better than real Josh, shoot us an email at info at k12techtalkpodcast.com.
Give me a break.
Oh.
Sorry, Josh.
Because we'll see if AI Josh has personality or not.
(01:58):
Who knows?
Um, no.
All right.
Anyway, Josh usually says this, but Mark, do you have any news for us?
Well, just to clarify, Josh does say that tonight.
So Mark, what is going on for news this week?
I love it.
(02:19):
All right.
A couple stories, actually, from your neck of the woods.
Kansas City Public Schools has announced that they're going to be transitioning to become
an all Apple district.
They're moving from Chromebooks to the new MacBook Neo.
They made an announcement to the community that they're going to be replacing about 30,000.
Sorry, I said Chromebooks.
They're Windows PCs.
They're replacing 30,000 Windows PCs and Chromebooks with Apple devices.
(02:44):
These things will be procured over the next year or so.
They've already procured 4,500 Mac Neos, and they've already used that as their proof
of concept to move forward.
Apple even recognized and mentioned this on their Q2 earnings call as a major example
of the success of their MacBook Neo line.
And they have increased production of the Mac Neos to keep up with demand.
(03:10):
There are reports that they have doubled from 5 million MacBook Neos to 10 million in 2026.
So that is a huge, huge surge in demand that they were, I don't know, maybe not expecting.
Tim Cook had even noted that Apple under-called the initial enthusiasm, saying that the laptop
has driven a record number of first-time Mac buyers.
(03:32):
So this will be really interesting to see what this does.
I haven't really seen too many other school districts that have gone all-in like Kansas
City Public Schools.
And obviously, that's a very big district to make that decision.
But we'll see in the next school year what happens as more and more districts begin their
device refresh plans.
Yeah, I think I'm surprised because it's just been March that we got to touch one for the
(03:54):
first time.
So to even say 4,500 and, hey, we're ready to go, that's a pretty quick turnaround on
that decision.
I easily agree with if you think you, I mean, if you're picking out a device, you are going
to pick it and you're going to roll hard.
I mean, yes, like replace the whole thing.
You don't want a mixed environment.
No one really does that anymore as far as like, hey, I got Chromebooks and MacBooks
(04:16):
and Windows devices all over the place.
So that makes sense to me that they're going to plunge right into it.
But yeah, not a whole lot of time has passed to make a big decision like that.
But kudos to them for thinking that that's the right path and having some, I don't know,
taking that lead.
I always want to be second or third or fifth to go.
(04:38):
Yeah.
Well, I've also talked to districts that are previously Apple districts and they have said,
well, of course, we're going over to the Mac Neo.
That cuts their costs in half.
So I don't know if Kansas City was in that boat that they were already going to be transitioning
to a MacBook and this just suddenly saved them a ton of money off their budget.
But if you are Apple, you are probably going to be monitoring the conversions of Chromebooks
(05:03):
and PCs to Macs, but also the downgrading of if you're buying MacBook Airs and now you're
buying MacBook Neos, that's actually a loss for them.
So it'll be interesting to see what happens.
I was just talking to a school this week.
I think there are about 3,000 students and they would always give their teachers a higher
end MacBook and they're going Neo.
(05:25):
So yeah, I would see if you're Apple on that.
That's not necessarily the plan that you thought you were going to do.
But I mean, I'm eagerly waiting for my laptop to die and then so I can take the plunge and
get a $500 MacBook.
So are you considering it for any of your classes, maybe a subsection of your students
or your school?
(05:45):
No, I would say, you know, we just moved.
We used to do Windows desktop computer with Chromebook as a companion device for the teacher.
We just finished up.
I mean, we're probably just like a year moving over to just Windows laptops and docking stations
with all of our people.
(06:05):
We give our students Chromebooks.
We do give our paraprofessionals Chromebooks as well.
So we just settled into that.
And I have a hard time with, you know, that, I mean, we still do a technology plan, a district
technology plan, and it's like a four-year plan.
I don't usually pivot a whole lot off of that just because some new technology comes
(06:26):
out.
So I think we'll probably wait that three to four years until we would consider such
a thing again.
Now to tell me I won't consider student Chromebooks in two years or three years, I would probably
think about a MacBook Neo because I could do that per building and I would treat student
devices differently than staff.
(06:48):
Yeah, yeah.
I still think there are a lot of districts that struggle with the Chromebook as the standard
device but then your high-tech classrooms, your art, your music, your video production
classes.
I think this is a good entry point to that.
But you know, if the class needs processing, that's going to be a tough swing because this
(07:09):
is running off of essentially an iPhone chip.
So it may not be the highest processing speed for video production, but if you just need
a solid MacBook environment, PC environment, I think this is a very, very good entry point
for those classrooms instead of a Chromebook.
Yeah.
All right.
Now over to...
(07:30):
Josh, do you have an opinion on that?
I don't think we'd have all these problems if it weren't for these damn teachers.
Josh.
Come on, Josh.
Anyway, Mark, what other news do you have?
All right.
(07:50):
We'll go over to Elizabethtown Area School District in Pennsylvania.
They have come out with their cell phone ban and smartwatch ban per a state law as many
other districts have done.
But they've had to go back and make a minor modification to the name of the program.
So the community actually came back and said, hey, we're on board with this one, but we're
really, really concerned about the name of your cell phone ban program.
(08:15):
Chris, how do you think a cell phone ban in your school district would go if the name
was Cellcatraz?
I don't know.
Why does it need a special name?
Oh, I don't think so.
I don't know either, Josh.
I mean, who knows?
Maybe it's a part of their advertising plan to get it out there.
(08:35):
But a lot of people name programs that they have.
Cellcatraz maybe didn't go over well with some people.
So they're leaning towards naming it the Device Den instead.
Okay.
I wonder, they obviously have names for all of their programs.
Like they spend time on this.
I think it's cute, right?
(08:57):
You're a young student.
You bring in your cell phone.
You're going to put it into the Device Den or the Cellcatraz.
Cellcatraz.
I don't know.
I think it's cute.
But I can see why some people in the community may want to take this a little bit more seriously.
I used to do these after school classes and I would call them like, Tech No, Tech Yes.
(09:20):
And then I had one called Tech It To The Limit.
But as I got older, I realized that we don't need those names.
That is the dumbest idea I've ever heard.
Shut up, Josh.
I don't know.
I like naming programs and things like that.
But yeah, I can see why some folks have a tough time with this one.
(09:40):
That's funny.
Anyways, you guys have a cell phone ban in your state, right?
Yeah, we do.
So a year in, I guess, it went well.
We just called it the cell phone ban.
It was just a thing added to our handbooks and added to our discipline stuff.
It was kind of already in place.
I would just say that we weren't completely following it until Missouri said so kind of
thing.
(10:01):
But yeah, it's been a good year with that.
And did you have to extend it to other devices or you just strictly stick with cell phones?
Because I know there was always the smartwatch conversation and the MetaGlasses and all that
stuff.
Yeah, all that was said in there.
And again, actually, our stuff, we already had local policy in place.
We just hadn't.
I'd say we had drifted away from it slightly.
Okay, cool.
(10:21):
All right.
And then my final story, another one, there's a little bit of a Missouri connection in here.
The National Council of Teachers of English, the NCTE, if you are, I know this is obviously
more for tech audiences, but if your English teachers are concerned about AI, the NCTE
has just come out with their guidance for ELA teachers using artificial intelligence.
(10:43):
They really use, they view AI as a partner in inquiry to deepen learning rather than
a tool for policing and compliance and replacing human thought.
The Missouri connection here, I don't know too many English teachers, but there was somebody
out of Missouri, Bill Bass, who I know.
Yeah, we know that guy.
Yeah.
He was involved in the creation of this one.
(11:03):
So they really are focusing on students as critical thinkers, really trying to elevate
human centered agency, using AI for translation and language scaffolding.
So it's really trying to put a positive spin on it.
But they also have some concerns or some, I would say, warnings around making sure that
your students are using it for ethical and responsible use.
(11:24):
And I really like this a lot.
I've echoed a lot of similar models out of this one where you have a stoplight system,
a red, yellow, green, red meaning, you know, your students are relying entirely on raw
human intellect or analog tools.
So if you're an English teacher, you might assign the student and say, hey, this is a
red light assignment where you are only using your own personal thoughts.
(11:47):
You're not using AI.
Yellow meaning AI is supporting, you may be used for scaffolding, ideation, kind of practicing
those kinds of things.
And then a green light, meaning you're heavily relying on strategies, you prompt engineering,
deep AI integration.
So great way for English teachers to dip their toes into AI and have some sort of structure
(12:07):
around how to use it in your classroom and some of the other things to think about.
So if you are trying to support your English teachers out there, I definitely recommend
downloading the NCTE AI guidelines or guidance from their website.
We'll link that in the show notes and provide that to teachers.
It is free of charge.
Yeah, that stoplight system, I've seen that kind of be used in other policies and regulations
(12:33):
as they popped up in our school district.
I think we landed on, and it was from our attorneys more kind of thing, but it was like
four different levels that could be broken.
I kind of wish, looking at the stoplight, I wish it was three, because this is easy
to remember.
But that's what we ended up pushing with our AI committee that I've talked about, that
(12:55):
if an assignment doesn't have an AI label on it, that means it's red.
That means don't use it.
And that's what we've been evangelizing to our middle school and high school kids.
That's the assumption.
The teacher will tell you otherwise.
And they'll tell you if you can use AI tools at all, or they'll tell you what that encouragement
(13:16):
is to go crazy on AI.
But that's how you establish, again, that ethics stuff.
You are cheating if you're using AI, unless the teacher told you that you can use AI.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, that's really, I do a lot of work with districts around AI and working with
teachers.
And that's the very first thing I say is you can't hold a student accountable for an expectation
you haven't given.
(13:36):
And that structure of being able to say, before you give an assignment out, this is a red,
yellow, green, I think it's very easy to understand, very easy to remember for students and for
teachers.
So I like it.
And that's what I've realized through that committee, that getting the message out, and
we had an AI policy and regulation all year.
(13:58):
And it wasn't really until the end of the school year that we really started explaining
it in good detail to our faculty, to our staff, to our students.
And that's what they needed.
They've been waiting to hear those things.
And again, I think we're getting to this place where we're almost behind, and we need to
play catch up.
(14:18):
I had a person in my district that has been involved with our AI committee ask me about
ChatGPT usage today, like letting me know that she is using it and had questions around
it.
And she knows that ChatGPT isn't on our vetted and approved list.
(14:41):
And it was like blowing my mind.
And again, that just shows to me that I still have work to do, our committee still has work
to do, because we're saying Gemini, and we're saying Notebook LM, and we're saying Magic
School, and we're saying actually don't use ChatGPT, use these things within our walls.
And someone that's close to that is still going astray, let alone the person that doesn't
(15:01):
even know that we have a policy and a regulation to follow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A conversation I just had with a couple of teachers is the difference between using Gemini
and ChatGPT and Anthropic with your school district Google account versus Gemini in your
school district's domain versus Gemini in your personal.
(15:25):
And a lot of people, and I understand why this is very confusing, not understanding
that hey, your district is using Google apps, and therefore you have terms of service with
them.
That is very, very different from using ChatGPT, but logging in with your school district Google
account, you still don't have the same terms of service with ChatGPT.
(15:46):
So there was a lot of security questions, too, around not just what apps I'm allowed
to use, but whether or not logging in with your school account makes a difference or
not from a security and privacy perspective.
And I can totally understand why.
A lot of people just don't understand that just because you log in with your school account
doesn't make it safe.
(16:07):
So different topic, but that has come up quite a lot with the AI tools.
Two things.
One, meter.
Check out meter.com slash K12 Tech Talk.
They can help you with your network infrastructure.
They do full stack networks, so they can help you design what you need, do your hardware,
they introduce the software, they can optimize your operations, they understand K12.
(16:28):
So check out meter.com slash K12 Tech Talk.
I had another AI thing come up.
I guess that's been about two weeks I've been digging into this.
We had a department that has a lot of meetings with people.
And they started using some AI note-taking tools, where before it was always handwritten
(16:49):
or typed out.
Again, that's easy from the sea.
I can turn this thing on while we're in the Zoom call.
It's going to take notes for me.
It's beautiful.
But that's not approved.
We don't say yes to that.
And then in a funny little turn of events, so it, of course, shares those notes with
everyone that had participated in that meeting, while we had those other people flagging that
(17:12):
as potential spam or phishing attempt or what the heck is this thing, because, again, going
back to this meeting, they weren't aware that AI notes were being taken.
And again, I'm in a district now that we've been evangelizing what we do with our AI,
and we still have a lot of work to do to know what is right and what is wrong.
(17:36):
So then I got asked, well, what are we supposed to do if we can't use that tool?
And I said, I don't know.
Whatever you were doing six months ago, like, whatever that was, that's what you're still
supposed to be doing.
And I'm not saying that we can't end up finding what AI note-taking tool we believe in.
But we don't have one approved today, so quit using it.
(17:58):
We don't have a, oh, have Josh say something about DPA.
That is the dumbest idea I've ever heard.
Okay, I'll take it.
I forgot we were limited on Josh AI.
Was that it for the news?
That is it for the news.
Well, I wanted to talk about, so last week, episode 266, we talked about summer school
(18:22):
screen time and movies, and a chunk of the episode was spent, Mark, you broke us down
when the teacher says, can I watch that movie in my classroom?
We discussed copyright and fair use and the difference between streaming subscriptions
and what is licensed and what is not.
I posted that thing on the K12 System and subreddit.
(18:47):
That's just been a day ago.
And it is at 40 comments from K12 techs, breaking down if they allow it, if they don't
allow it.
We knew that was a hot topic.
I mean, we talked about being a hot topic, and it literally is.
It literally is a hot topic because the results are mixed on what K12 techs do across the
nation and beyond with movies in class.
(19:10):
A lot of us turn our heads, a lot of us block it all.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I think if you look over the comments, the general agreement is there is fair use
of using movies and professional movies in the classroom setting that is allowable, that
is understandable under fair use and copyright law.
(19:34):
But the other side of it, the flip side, is use of streaming services like Disney Plus
and Hulu and Netflix.
Obviously, people understand that there's a difference between the two, and just because
you have the right doesn't mean you can use the service.
In terms of what techs do about it, that's where the variability was.
A lot of folks saying, I'm blocking all this stuff, I'm not putting my name on this, we
(19:57):
want to keep it out of our classrooms.
Whereas other folks saying, I just do what I am told by the principal.
If the principal allows it, then he or she has made that decision.
One person saying, if you're the IT tech, it's not your job to decide what is quote
unquote educational.
I do agree with that, I do.
(20:17):
I think the challenge though is with this category, you're also bridging into what is
allowable, what is legal.
If we know that something is inappropriate or illegal in the school environment, it makes
it hard for us to govern that one.
The flip side I would say is we do have people on their spare time during their lunch break
(20:42):
who might want to use this or watch movies.
I'm not condoning that, I'm just saying that is a legal usage of it.
But in terms of using Netflix and Hulu in your classroom, that would probably fall against
their terms of service.
There's always this bigger, well, it's ethics.
This bigger thing going on which is called ethics.
(21:07):
I think at K-12 Tech, we should not be wrestling with our personal ethics and whether or not
we think a movie is cool or not.
That shouldn't be coming into play.
It's what you just said.
If you know the right thing to do and you don't do it, or if you know the thing you
shouldn't be doing and you still do it, that's not ethical.
(21:31):
That's wrong.
That's at the district level.
That's not at Chris Wharton's heart level.
And even as a K-12 Tech, especially if you're in the director position, you have a responsibility.
The same AI conversation.
Our job is to inform.
(21:51):
So once you know this information, yes, you should be telling your administration we're
not doing this right or we are doing this right.
Someone said whip out the TV cart and the DVDs and just move on.
Another crazy rest 5026.
That made those conversations a little differently when they couldn't find the DVD to play illegally
(22:13):
still.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think for us, the tipping point was we were getting, I don't know what you call them.
I don't want to say copyright strikes, but we were getting official emails and notifications
for movie companies.
And because my network admin, his name was on the ISP, they were coming to his name and
(22:35):
we have to do something about this.
This is my name.
And so I totally understand that when you are, you, when you're getting an official
strike or official warning from a copyright owner and your name is on that, then, okay,
I need to do something about this one.
I might elevate the urgency of this one, but you know, ultimately this is the superintendent's
decision.
They're the owner of the, of the district I would say, or I would say quote unquote
(22:59):
governor of the district.
And hopefully you've got a superintendent where you can have that kind of conversation
with.
Yeah.
Two things with that.
So check out managed methods, managed methods.com.
They can do backups and monitor student safety, all that kind of stuff of your Microsoft and
Google environments.
Sticking with the ethics conversation too, I've always, even to get on the rant about,
(23:24):
you know, when you buy the one textbook and you make a bunch of copies of it and we're,
and it literally says on the piece of paper and not make copies.
Yeah.
And when we distribute that and then going back and sticking with the streaming movie,
when the teacher is in a classroom and those 25 kids know that what the teacher is doing
is wrong, that's what, that's what we're teaching.
(23:46):
Like we're, we're teaching that when the kid receives the piece of paper that says do not
make copies.
Yeah.
We're teaching the kid that kind of thing.
So almost all of our school districts have the line about, you know, empowering students
for successful lives and we're teaching them some, some things in there that we're saying
are okay that I don't know if it's okay.
(24:08):
It's not right.
That stuff sticks with kids.
I still remember my very first job I worked at a corner store.
This is up on the coast of Maine and I was trained some rather unethical things to do.
I was a kid when that happened and that sticks with you.
So when an adult is telling you to be immoral or break the rules as a kid, that sticks a
(24:30):
little bit more than as an adult.
We the Chromebook, we have Chromebook insurance and the amount of, I, you know, I call it
insurance fraud, you know, so we're self, you know, we're self maintaining our, our
insurance, but you know, we've had the kid report that he punched a screen and then we
know that he talked to his dad.
(24:50):
So then the kid comes back and he's like, actually, you know, I just dropped it off
my, you know, my bunk and, you know, that's, that's insurance fraud.
You know, that's teaching dishonesty.
Yeah.
And then we had to introduce, you know, this whole, like we had the kid that didn't have
insurance and you can buy insurance.
(25:10):
So then we didn't have it get checked.
So the kid would buy insurance and then within five minutes he had a cracked screen.
Well, that means that the cracked screen was cracked prior to insurance.
So then we had to do this, you know, just like your real insurance does work.
We have to make sure we have to check out the device before we issue your insurance.
And again, this, this bigger picture thing of the ethics that we're fighting through
(25:34):
with, with all of this.
Yeah.
I guess I should block all streaming services.
But I did the whole thing.
Swank was talked about several times in the comments.
I pitched Swank, I think twice and it was denied.
In some conversation and not with my current super, but basically, well, what are they
(25:56):
doing today?
And I can kind of describe it.
You know, what are teachers streaming?
How are they doing things today?
And oh, that doesn't cost us any money.
So I can either do the whole turn my head thing where we say what to do and not to do,
but we don't fully investigate it.
Or I can pay, you know, to fix things and I can go out and block all these, these
(26:16):
services.
It's a hard, it's a hard bit.
Yeah.
Well, one user speaking of Maine, Mainer 188 had actually linked the terms of service
for each of the main, the major streaming services in there.
And, and with a quote of how these services are only used for personal use and not for
commercial or, or non personal use of the service.
(26:38):
So very helpful.
If you take a look at that comment all the way at the bottom of the post on Reddit.
Yep.
Yep.
Love it.
And we love k12sysadmin subreddit.
Always great on there.
We sure do.
All right.
I think the other, the other little topic we can talk about Mark is, uh, is summer.
(27:00):
Um, last week we talked about account, you know, disabling or creation, all that kind
of stuff.
I think we did anyway.
It's all blur, but, uh, how's your summer?
I guess Mark is the question and what all, uh, do you see summer as the prime season
for, uh, in terms of the tech program overall?
(27:21):
Yeah, I mean, this is, it's such a balance between routine maintenance and then trying
to move the needle forward.
I'm, I'm working with a particular district and, uh, probably going to be doing some on
the ground tech work this summer because she just needs help getting stuff moving
forward.
We need to do DMARC.
We need to do a switch over their ISP and start to move some security stuff in the
(27:43):
Google admin console.
And she's like, I got thousands of Chromebooks coming in.
I don't have time for that.
So, you know, it is, it's such a huge balance between just getting things turned
over, getting devices turned over, uh, cleaned out and ready for the new school
year.
And then by the way, this is the only time of year when you can do all this
maintenance stuff.
So how are you doing this summer?
What have you got on your plate for maintenance and, uh, new initiatives?
(28:09):
Yeah, I was telling you before we hit the record button.
So my school district passed the bond, uh, and that suddenly just upticked all, all
these tech projects that we knew were going to come if, if, if the vote went
through.
Uh, but then it's just peddled to the floor cause then you're trying to get as
much done as you can.
And we couldn't order those things until there was money.
Uh, so we've just now placed, placed those orders, just got E-rate funding as
(28:32):
well.
Uh, and again, summer's the prime time to do your wireless projects, all that kind
of thing.
I was telling you, I feel like I am in, uh, I'm, I'm having to use my brain more
than normal.
Uh, like the, the sparks in, in, in the back are having to fly a little bit more.
I've had to do some subnet calculation things and just planning the big stuff and
(28:53):
the stuff that got me into K-12 tech to begin with.
Yeah.
Uh, but that's where my focus is at.
Uh, and then trying to get that timing right.
Like we have summer school going on and I'm needing to make some significant
changes that could mess up things.
But then I'm looking at the calendar and man, we're already in June, you know,
kids will come back in August and that seems like a long time.
(29:16):
Uh, but the days are flying and I'm like, I'm okay.
I can't do these projects.
I can't do this because kids are still here.
Okay.
So I can schedule this company to come and we can do these particular things.
But that gives me a little bit of window, uh, for downtime and different things to
happen.
Um, I love summer though.
I, we have a new tech this year.
(29:36):
I just gave him the big task and I can't tell if he liked it or not.
Uh, but basically to go through all of our inventory, uh, and you know, organize
the shelves.
Uh, we have a room we call the bone yard where things go to get near recycling,
near retirement, uh, that we don't really touch during the school year.
It just kind of, you know, piles up.
(29:58):
Uh, so, so told him like, go check out the bone yard, go own that thing.
Uh, give us a good inventory.
Uh, he, he's, he today was sitting at a table, just going through, uh, cabling to
give us good counts to try to figure out what we have and don't have.
Uh, I think summer is always a great time, uh, for that as well.
(30:18):
Do you do documentation day?
I think you had mentioned this a few years ago with something you guys do.
Yeah.
And sometimes we do, uh, I, I, I think we have seasons.
Uh, so we use it glue, uh, for documentation.
Uh, and it's usually we'll do it on a Friday.
We try to do that whole read only Friday thing probably every couple months.
Uh, I'll say, okay, we can't answer the phone and we're not going to look at our
(30:42):
email, uh, and for like half a day, uh, we'll just do documentation.
So I usually buy the guys, uh, some lunch and then we just sit and try to document
anything and everything that we can.
It's hard to not answer the phone.
It's hard to not check email.
Usually something bad happens like during that time.
Uh, but usually we, we, we do a decent job of pushing through and we do try to.
(31:07):
Uh, document, uh, and I'd say the last two, three years, we've done a better job of
getting things out of our Google drives, uh, even in a shared, you know, driver
shared folder, uh, but putting it into another place, uh, that we can all just
see really well, you can probably put it in like a, a notebook LM notebook.
(31:27):
And now all of a sudden you've got an amazing AI chat bot to, we've talked
about doing that with our student technician program because we've sent
them so much stuff over the years.
Yeah.
That we could spin up a notebook LM on that for sure.
All right.
I think that's it for the, for the week.
It's, it's hard without Josh.
It is a little hard without Josh.
(31:48):
Uh, he's sleeping by now.
I'm sure.
Uh, so Josh, we miss you.
Actually, that's, uh, I felt like, I thought I, I feel like it's been really
easy conversation because Josh interrupts.
It's definitely, it's definitely a lot better, uh, easier without Josh.
Uh, my vote is for AI Josh, but let us know, email info
(32:11):
at k12techtalkpodcast.com.
Do you like Josh or do you like AI Josh?
Uh, which is the better Josh, which is the better personality.
Uh, well, Mark, I did this interview.
Uh, we'll segue into this with Chantel.
She's a customer of syscloud.
Uh, this is our last episode with syscloud for 2026, uh, a proud
(32:33):
sponsor of the K12 Tech Talk Podcast.
Uh, check out this interview with Chantel, a customer of syscloud.
Thanks for listening.
All right.
I am hanging out with Chantel because supposedly, uh, she knows a
thing or two about syscloud.
Chantel, how are you today?
Doing pretty well.
(32:53):
It's the first week of summer school here.
So, you know, the craziness that comes with the first week of all of that and
the transition and schedules and who's in what building is always a little bit
fun, but we're almost at the end of this week.
So let's talk about your school district.
So I, I, I guess, would you talk about yourself and then talk
about your school district?
How many kids, that kind of thing?
(33:15):
Okay.
Um, so my name is Chantel Manahan.
I'm the director of technology here at MSD of Steuben County schools.
Um, I've been with the district 14 years.
I've been the director of technology 10 and a half years here.
Um, prior to that, I was a classroom teacher.
I taught high school kids, French and English.
Uh, so lots of people think that's strange that the French teacher
(33:38):
became the CTO of a school district.
That's a journey for sure.
Yeah.
Well, I always tell people it's really not that different, right?
Because if you are teaching a foreign language to students, you're trying
to take two disparate systems and make them make sense together.
And that's a lot of what we do in technology leadership is bring
disparate systems together and try to make them make sense or translate
(34:00):
from the tech department side to maintenance or the tech side to leadership.
So it's not all that different.
Um, so I do, I say, I do a lot of translating still.
So how many, how many, uh, students are at your district?
Yeah, we're a small rural district in Northeast Indiana.
We have 2,400 kids, K-12.
Um, four elementary schools, one middle school, one high school.
(34:22):
Um, we've been a Google district for 12 years and we've been one-to-one
at all grade levels for 10 years.
Nice.
Um, so, okay, now let's go back to summer school.
So summer school, we are on day, I guess we're on day four.
Um, and I always say summer school, like it's like a circus.
(34:45):
Um, and, and I, I worked at another school district and it felt like a circus.
Uh, the playbooks kind of go out the window.
Teachers get put into different classrooms that they've never been in before.
Um, we, we just want kids to attend.
So we just, we just say, come on.
Is it similar your way?
I guess.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
We try, you know, our best, um, to plan every step of the way, right?
(35:08):
Like which teacher way in advance, which teacher is going to be in which
classroom, um, hire those teachers like in April.
So they have plenty of time to know.
Um, we send letters to families that say, you know, we think that your
child would be really great in this summer school program because
we do different varieties.
Um, we do some more test prep for our early, early literacy, third grade
(35:30):
tests, uh, so it's a more focused summer school opportunity.
We partner with some community organizations where our teachers
teach classes for elementary kids through the month of June.
We do credit recovery only at our high school.
Um, so all of that's going on, but the first day is always complete chaos.
(35:50):
Like the bus, because we're picking up at more community focused locations
instead of every stop, um, especially here in town, we do have a lot of rural
kids who still need to be bused, but maybe we didn't know they were coming
to summer school because I guarantee you every year we have at least five
kids at every building to show up.
They haven't registered.
(36:11):
We haven't had any inkling they're coming.
Um, you know, our kids do keep their Chromebooks all summer.
We don't turn them in at the end of the year.
So they were nice own device with them to summer school, which has helped.
We've been doing that.
Um, five years now, um, I'm all summer and then we swap out the new grade
(36:32):
levels who get Chromebooks, um, on the first day of school next year.
Okay.
Awesome.
All right.
So I guess we can transition to talking about syscloud some.
So you said Google environment.
Um, I guess talking about syscloud, what do they do for you?
And I assume that they're doing your Google backups for one.
So, uh, would you unpack that a little bit for us?
What does cloud do for you?
(36:53):
Yeah.
So the Google backups was actually kind of top of mind for us.
Um, it's been amazing to see the transition over the last 12 years.
You know, when we first had Google, everyone was scared to use it, right?
They were still using their.
Like w drive on our device.
They were still using office.
(37:13):
They were very hesitant to move in the beginning to the new system.
And then once they saw what Google could offer and the ways that it really has a
lot of features that can be tailored to education specifically, right.
Interest started picking up.
And as we've seen more teacher turnover these last few years, um, we got to the
(37:36):
point where if somebody doesn't work in an office in one of our buildings, we
aren't giving them a home drive.
Like they only have Google available to them.
Um, so really office staff at all of our buildings and here at the central office
are the only people who are still using those drives.
And a lot of times they're only using them because they have to do different
(37:58):
reports and spreadsheets for the state.
And the state is not really on the Google train yet.
Um, so if they didn't have to do those specific things that require specific
formatting, specific file types, um, if sometimes the, the logic goes away on
their spreadsheets when they can convert it.
(38:19):
So.
All, almost all of our files live in Google now.
And, you know, for a long time I was like, well, why would we back that up?
Like, isn't Google backing it up?
Like, but what happens if they aren't, or what happens if you can't get access to
that?
I mean, that's where all of our curriculum is stored.
(38:39):
That's where a lot of our assessments are stored.
School would basically stop.
So my team and I sat together and we were like, okay, we're going to have to figure
out what to do about this because we are backing up all of those, you know, Microsoft
files and PDFs on the home drives.
We always have been.
Um, but if most of our data is living somewhere else now, shouldn't we be backing
(39:03):
that up too?
Um, so we looked at a couple of options and syscloud seemed the best fit for us.
So we did the demo.
It was one of those, like, it was an easy sell, honestly, by the time it was over, um,
they walked us through a lot of the features and functionality that did the 30 day demo.
And we were like, sold.
(39:23):
Yes.
Sign me up.
And part of it was, it was so simple to set up and it's so simple to run it and knock
on wood.
We have not had to, uh, worry about using those backups yet, as far as we've lost
someone's entire, uh, entire Google drive, but we have them there if we needed to.
(39:45):
And it, it, it lets you back up individual files or whatever, that kind of stuff too.
Right.
Yeah.
And I was just on a call.
We're doing a Google admin console audit, uh, this summer, just in the next month or
so we got, just got on a call with them and they were like, oh, I don't recommend that
you delete users like you're doing.
And I was like, well, if we back all the users files up in syscloud and have all
(40:09):
their files, and we're, we're backing up students as well, because yeah, students,
um, have, have actually been where we've had to restore things and not because
they're lost, but because they've lost access to their account, their account
suspended.
Um, we have a lot of dependencies built into our system.
(40:29):
Um, we use class link to, uh, provision accounts.
So once those students roll over in our SIS, like their account is deactivated, it
goes to suspended and without a doubt every year, at least three kids come to us
in December who just graduated the year before and are like, I need this file out
(40:52):
of my, um, so we've been able to, you know, restore from there and able to solve
those problems.
So that's been really where we've used it as far as backups.
Um, the other thing that really has helped us in our workflow is, um, I don't know
about your district, but in the post COVID landscape, we are losing between 10 and
(41:15):
25% of teachers each year.
There's that much turnover.
And historically our district, if we had eight new staff members in one year, we
were losing our minds because that was a lot.
Um, and now, you know, we have a room full of 40 people sometimes or 50 people that
we're onboarding as new teachers.
And without a doubt, you know, all of those curriculum files live in Google
(41:38):
drive and they're supposed to be in a shared drive so that when that person leaves
here, they, we don't lose access to curriculum that's been built.
We always find that some teacher has created all the files for a specific
course or cluster of courses in their own drive, and now they didn't
share it and now it's gone.
So, you know, before it would be either someone on our team or the supervisor,
(42:03):
the principal of the building or the curriculum director, et cetera, like
digging through that Google drive and trying to make sure that, um, we could
get the files back that we needed.
With SysCloud, it's so easy to bring up that specific user and
look for those specific files.
So we only restore those files and we can restore it to that shared drive that
(42:24):
we're aiming for, instead of having to give that to a principal who has to
remember to give it to a teacher or to a new teacher who might not know where to
look yet.
Nice.
So that's been great.
Awesome.
So you said you did a, uh, 30 day like trial.
So you did that.
You made sure that that was going to work well.
Uh, and then that was just some integration I'm guessing, like within
(42:45):
Google admin console to get going and that's, that's it.
I think we set it up in about 10 minutes on a call.
Um, and then once we converted to the subscription that there was just, you
know, a purchase order and eventually an invoice came to us, but we didn't
have to do anything else.
It just kept doing what it was doing in those 30 days.
(43:07):
So yeah, 10 minutes set up total.
Um, and then a couple of check-in calls with the account manager, just to make
sure that we knew what we were looking at, where to look, um, seeing if everything
was going okay, working through a couple of pretend use cases that we might do,
um, within the system.
And all of that was super simple.
(43:27):
Probably 20 minutes total of calls, 10 to 10 minute check-ins in the 30 days.
Awesome.
Cool.
Well, so syscloud, a proud sponsor of the K-12 Tech Talk podcast.
You can check them out at syscloud.com.
Uh, get a demo, check it out.
Uh, Chantel says they're pretty good.
I've used syscloud now for a while as well.
We've had good experiences.
So check out syscloud.
(43:48):
Chantel, thank you so much.
Uh, we, we were up at, uh, in, in the end, the podcast did a great place, great
community, uh, I sounds like we were in the same area of, of dinner we had met
previously.
So, uh, nice to see you again.
Good to see you too.
All right.
We have some events coming up.
(44:09):
Uh, Jason Rooks over at K-12 Tech Pro is going to be at the Summit, uh, Summit
LTC Conference in Urbana.
I don't even know if I'm saying that right.
Illinois.
That's June 16th to the 17th.
Uh, and then the podcast, uh, all three of us, we're going to be at the
Gamus Conference in Savannah, Georgia.
That's July 6th through the 10th.
Uh, those events are made possible by our sponsors like Fortinet podcast.
(44:32):
You can email Fortinet podcast at fortinet.com and Netwatch.
Uh, let me tell you about Netwatch cause they're going to be at Midwest
Tech Talk, and then I'll tell you about Midwest Tech Talk.
Uh, you are as a K-12 Tech, you are balancing student safety, campus
communication, cybersecurity, uh, and more.
Netwatch has been around for 20 years.
They have partnered with schools to create safer and smarter learning
(44:53):
environments.
They integrate technology and security solutions.
They can do your AI power, video surveillance, access control, uh,
emergency communications, paging systems, structured cabling,
it-managed services, and more.
Uh, they do access communications.
They're a gold solution partner.
Uh, they give you industry leading security technology, uh,
(45:14):
backed by their trusted expertise.
So check out Netwatch.
Uh, Netwatch is here to help.
I'll put a link to them in the podcast description.
They're going to be at Midwest Tech Talk.
That's July 20th and 21st with the kickoff on the 19th.
If you're interested in Midwest Tech Talk, go to MidwestTechTalk.com.
Again, thanks for listening.
(45:46):
The views and opinions expressed on the K-12 Tech Talk podcast are the
personal opinions of Josh, Chris, and Mark, and do not represent the views
or opinions of our sponsors or other organizations that we're affiliated with.
The material information presented here is for general information
and entertainment purposes only.
Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.
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