K12 Tech Talk

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 privacy agreements, and a listener email about student account compromises from downloaded apps and VPNs.

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Disclaimer: The views and work done by Josh, Chris, and Mark are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions or positions of sponsors or any respective employers or organizations associated with the guys. K12 Tech Talk itself does not endorse or validate the ideas, views, or statements expressed by Josh, Chris, and Mark's individual views and opinions are not representative of K12 Tech Talk. Furthermore, any references or mention of products, services, organizations, or individuals on K12 Tech Talk should not be considered as endorsements related to any employer or organization associated with the guys.

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 cost, student data privacy, and looming screentime debates.

The hosts share practical takeaways and predictions for 2026! AI, screentime, vendor accountability, tighter budgeting, and more!!!

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Music by Colt Ball

Disclaimer: The views and work done by Josh, Chris, and Mark are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions or positions of sponsors or any respective employers or organizations associated with the guys. K12 Tech Talk itself does not endorse or validate the ideas, views, or statements expressed by Josh, Chris, and Mark's individual views and opinions are not representative of K12 Tech Talk. Furthermore, any references or mention of products, services, organizations, or individuals on K12 Tech Talk should not be considered as endorsements related to any employer or organization associated with the guys.

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 exposure.

The main topic is on the rising issue of wearable smart glasses (Meta/Ray Ban) on campus - privacy, covert recording risks, policy implications, and how districts might respond.

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Join the K12TechPro Community (exclusively for K12 Tech professionals)

Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

Email us at [email protected]

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Music by Colt Ball

Disclaimer: The views and work done by Josh, Chris, and Mark are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions or positions of sponsors or any respective employers or organizations associated with the guys. K12 Tech Talk itself does not endorse or validate the ideas, views, or statements expressed by Josh, Chris, and Mark's individual views and opinions are not representative of K12 Tech Talk. Furthermore, any references or mention of products, services, organizations, or individuals on K12 Tech Talk should not be considered as endorsements related to any employer or organization associated with the guys.

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 agreements to shift programs to other federal agencies. Plus Jeff from VIZOR joins to explain asset and device management features, repair workflows, and budgeting/ROI.

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Join the K12TechPro Community (exclusively for K12 Tech professionals)

Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

Email us at [email protected]

OR our "professional" email addy is [email protected]

Call us at 314-329-0363

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Music by Colt Ball

Disclaimer: The views and work done by Josh, Chris, and Mark are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions or positions of sponsors or any respective employers or organizations associated with the guys. K12 Tech Talk itself does not endorse or validate the ideas, views, or statements expressed by Josh, Chris, and Mark's individual views and opinions are not representative of K12 Tech Talk. Furthermore, any references or mention of products, services, organizations, or individuals on K12 Tech Talk should not be considered as endorsements related to any employer or organization associated with the guys.

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 environments.

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VIZOR

ChromebookParts.com YouTube Channel

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Fortinet

Managed Methods

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Join the K12TechPro Community (exclusively for K12 Tech professionals)

Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

Email us at [email protected]

OR our "professional" email addy is [email protected]

Call us at 314-329-0363

X @k12techtalkpod

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Music by Colt Ball

Disclaimer: The views and work done by Josh, Chris, and Mark are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions or positions of sponsors or any respective employers or organizations associated with the guys. K12 Tech Talk itself does not endorse or validate the ideas, views, or statements expressed by Josh, Chris, and Mark's individual views and opinions are not representative of K12 Tech Talk. Furthermore, any references or mention of products, services, organizations, or individuals on K12 Tech Talk should not be considered as endorsements related to any employer or organization associated with the guys.

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 Broadband Coalition (SHLB) joins to break down the Supreme Court ruling preserving the Universal Service Fund/E‑Rate, the future of E‑Rate funding, cybersecurity pilots, school bus Wi‑Fi and what these changes mean for district planning and broadband equity.

Our new Swag Store is OPEN - Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

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Lumu

VIZOR

ChromebookParts.com YouTube Channel

Extreme Networks

Fortinet

Lightspeed Systems

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Join the K12TechPro Community (exclusively for K12 Tech professionals)

Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

Email us at [email protected]

OR our "professional" email addy is [email protected]

Call us at 314-329-0363

X @k12techtalkpod

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Music by Colt Ball

Disclaimer: The views and work done by Josh, Chris, and Mark are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions or positions of sponsors or any respective employers or organizations associated with the guys. K12 Tech Talk itself does not endorse or validate the ideas, views, or statements expressed by Josh, Chris, and Mark's individual views and opinions are not representative of K12 Tech Talk. Furthermore, any references or mention of products, services, organizations, or individuals on K12 Tech Talk should not be considered as endorsements related to any employer or organization associated with the guys.

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 nutrition programs, proposed age‑verification and disclosure rules for AI chatbots, Character.ai’s under‑18 ban, Jamf’s acquisition by Francisco Partners, and practical outage response tactics (status checks, communications, and redundancy thresholds).

Expect hands‑on advice about managing departed staff accounts and shared Drive ownership, recommended tools and resources, plus sponsor shoutouts and listener contact info. A concise, actionable episode for district tech leaders and educators navigating policy, reliability, and student safety.

Our new Swag Store is OPEN - Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

--------------------

NTP

Lumu

ChromebookParts.com YouTube Channel

Jurassic Parts with ChromebookParts.com

Extreme Networks

Fortinet

Managed Methods

--------------------

Join the K12TechPro Community (exclusively for K12 Tech professionals)

Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

Email us at [email protected]

OR our "professional" email addy is [email protected]

Call us at 314-329-0363

X @k12techtalkpod

Facebook

Visit our LinkedIn

Music by Colt Ball

Disclaimer: The views and work done by Josh, Chris, and Mark are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions or positions of sponsors or any respective employers or organizations associated with the guys. K12 Tech Talk itself does not endorse or validate the ideas, views, or statements expressed by Josh, Chris, and Mark's individual views and opinions are not representative of K12 Tech Talk. Furthermore, any references or mention of products, services, organizations, or individuals on K12 Tech Talk should not be considered as endorsements related to any employer or organization associated with the guys.

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: rolling out multi-factor authentication (MFA) to every student. Learn how they tackled user experience and training to ensure stronger identity security for their entire K12 population.

Our new Swag Store is OPEN - Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

--------------------

ChromebookParts.com YouTube Channel

Jurassic Parts with ChromebookParts.com

Extreme Networks

Fortinet

Lightspeed Systems

--------------------

Join the K12TechPro Community (exclusively for K12 Tech professionals)

Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

Email us at [email protected]

OR our "professional" email addy is [email protected]

Call us at 314-329-0363

X @k12techtalkpod

Facebook

Visit our LinkedIn

Music by Colt Ball

Disclaimer: The views and work done by Josh, Chris, and Mark are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions or positions of sponsors or any respective employers or organizations associated with the guys. K12 Tech Talk itself does not endorse or validate the ideas, views, or statements expressed by Josh, Chris, and Mark's individual views and opinions are not representative of K12 Tech Talk. Furthermore, any references or mention of products, services, organizations, or individuals on K12 Tech Talk should not be considered as endorsements related to any employer or organization associated with the guys.

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! 

Tech Department Salary Survey

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Our new Swag Store is OPEN - Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

--------------------

NTP

ChromebookParts.com

VIZOR

Fortinet

Managed Methods

--------------------

Join the K12TechPro Community (exclusively for K12 Tech professionals)

Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

Email us at [email protected]

OR our "professional" email addy is [email protected]

Call us at 314-329-0363

X @k12techtalkpod

Facebook

Visit our LinkedIn

Music by Colt Ball

Disclaimer: The views and work done by Josh, Chris, and Mark are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions or positions of sponsors or any respective employers or organizations associated with the guys. K12 Tech Talk itself does not endorse or validate the ideas, views, or statements expressed by Josh, Chris, and Mark's individual views and opinions are not representative of K12 Tech Talk. Furthermore, any references or mention of products, services, organizations, or individuals on K12 Tech Talk should not be considered as endorsements related to any employer or organization associated with the guys.

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 tactics, digital twins of school layouts, integration with existing panic systems, and safety and ethical concerns.

Chris, Josh, Mark, and the guests discuss technical details as well as broader policy questions about scaling, costs, and the role of legislators versus schools in preventing gun violence.

Articles referenced in this episode:

https://www.axios.com/2025/10/13/newsom-california-ai-chatbot-bill

https://apnews.com/article/california-chatbots-children-safety-ai-newsom-33be4d57d0e2d14553e02a94d9529976

Our new Swag Store is OPEN - Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

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Lightspeed - K12TechPro Signal Review

ChromebookParts.com

Fortinet

Extreme Networks

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00:00:00-Introduction to K12 Tech Talk

00:01:19-Jury Duty and Travel Tales

00:06:06-California AI Legislation

00:10:56-New York’s Lawsuit Against Social Media

00:13:58-Drones for School Safety

00:27:13-Drone Technology and Safety Features

00:33:17-Incident Response Protocol

00:55:29-Addressing the Root Problem

--------------------

Join the K12TechPro Community (exclusively for K12 Tech professionals)

Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!

Email us at [email protected]

OR our "professional" email addy is [email protected]

Call us at 314-329-0363

X @k12techtalkpod

Facebook

Visit our LinkedIn

Music by Colt Ball

Disclaimer: The views and work done by Josh, Chris, and Mark are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions or positions of sponsors or any respective employers or organizations associated with the guys. K12 Tech Talk itself does not endorse or validate the ideas, views, or statements expressed by Josh, Chris, and Mark's individual views and opinions are not representative of K12 Tech Talk. Furthermore, any references or mention of products, services, organizations, or individuals on K12 Tech Talk should not be considered as endorsements related to any employer or organization associated with the guys.