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-billhttps://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB243
https://apnews.com/article/california-chatbots-children-safety-ai-newsom-33be4d57d0e2d14553e02a94d9529976
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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
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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.

In this episode, Josh and Chris discuss the impact of personal device bans, noting increased Google Docs traffic and the creative ways students attempt to access unblocked games. Chris shares insights into managing content filtering and the ongoing battle with unwanted websites. Finally, Chris interviews Brian Edwards, Director of Educational Streaming, with Swank Motion Pictures to discuss copyright, performance licensing, and streaming in K12.
 
For more information on the topics discussed in this episode with Brian Edwards, Director of Educational Streaming, with Swank Motion Pictures:
Learn more about Swank K-12 Streaming here
Learn more about copyright and licensing here
 
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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.

This episode covers significant developments including the confirmed merger of Chrome and Android, the FCC's proposed changes to the E-rate program affecting school bus Wi-Fi and hotspots, and a critical discussion on controlling student account spamming and its associated risks like internal spam, data exfiltration, and privilege escalation.
 
Referenced Links:
https://chromeunboxed.com/its-official-google-says-the-android-and-chromeos-merger-is-coming-next-year/
https://www.k12dive.com/news/fcc-erate-hotspot-school-bus-wifi-carr/759432/
https://statescoop.com/cisa-confirms-its-ending-ms-isac-support/
https://k12six.org/compromise
00:00:00-Intro
00:03:52-ChromeOS & Android Update
00:05:11-Federal Funding Shifts
00:14:49-Compromised Student Accounts
 
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Lightspeed - Chris' Signal Review
Arista
Fortinet
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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 233 discusses the newest tensions between AI and schools: teenagers using AI companions and alarming incidents tied to platforms like Character.ai that have drawn federal attention.
Josh talks about his student MFA pilot using Clever, how onboarding works (and how MFA can be network-aware to reduce classroom friction), and using student-led help desks to test the rollout. The guys discuss a post from Jay on K12TechPro asking about IT leadership background (educators and non‑educators in K12 tech dept roles).
The episode’s guest is Peter Kaplan from Fortinet, an E‑Rate expert. He breaks down why E‑Rate matters, outlines the FCC’s cybersecurity pilot (challenges with procurement, reporting, and evaluating success), and discusses gaps left by potential MS‑ISAC funding changes. He also highlights CISA's K12 resources and Fortinet’s no‑cost cybersecurity awareness materials for schools.
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Managed Methods
Arista
VIZOR
Fortinet
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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.

On Episode 222, we unpack a busy week in school tech: a nationwide Google outage that disrupted Chromebook logins, new Sophos data showing improving ransomware recovery and falling ransom payments, and CETA’s annual report putting AI at the top of state priorities.
The conversation dives into the controversial campus drone pilot approved in Florida (non‑lethal pepper‑ball drones and on‑demand airborne security) and the AI Whack‑A‑Mole challenge as AI features appear inside search engines and become hard to block.
We also discuss promising advances in live, voice‑to‑voice translation for K12 meetings and classrooms.
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00:00:00-Intro
00:09:46-Swag Store Update
00:12:59-Cybersecurity Trends
00:20:30-Killer Drones in Schools
00:30:53-AI Search
00:41:10-Real-Time Language Interpretation
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Arista
Lightspeed Systems
Fortinet
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Join the K12TechPro Community (exclusively for K12 Tech professionals)
Buy some swag (tech dept gift boxes, shirts, hoodies...)!!!
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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, Josh, Chris, and Mark unpack their top five back-to-school trends shaping K-12 technology in 2025. Topics include shifting budgets and funding pressures, rising costs for materials and software, widespread school cell phone policies and bell-to-bell enforcement, the rapid expansion of AI tools in classrooms (including Notebook LM and Gemini), and growing school safety technology demands.
The episode also highlights practical use cases for Notebook LM (flashcards, handbook summarization) and discusses vendor and licensing concerns.
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Josh talking about schools banning phones - The New York Times
Notebook LM Flash Cards
 
00:00:00-Intro
00:01:41-School Year Kickoff
00:02:18-New Notebook LM Features
00:05:03-AI’s Role in Education
00:12:47-Top 5 Trending Topics in Education
--------------------
NTP
Managed Methods
Arista
VIZOR
Fortinet
--------------------
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]
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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, the guys are back together with Mark sharing a story about a tech emergency during his recent Alaskan cruise vacation. This episode covers current events, including a potential cut in federal Title 1 funding and the elimination of all Title 2, 3, and 4 funding in a proposed House of Representatives budget. Chris, Josh, and Mark celebrate the news that Google will not be forced to sell off Chrome, as a judge ruled against this measure in a recent antitrust case. They delve into the challenges of managing both Office 365 and Google Workspace within the same school district. Finally, Chris interviews Greg Purcell, a customer of Prey.
 
00:00:00-Intro
00:06:24-Federal Funding Cuts (Again)
00:11:02-Google's Antitrust Conclusion
00:19:30-Managing Google & Office365
 
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Lightspeed
Arista
Fortinet
Chromebookparts.com
--------------------
Join the K12TechPro Community (exclusively for K12 Tech professionals)
Buy some swag (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.

Josh and Chris recap the hectic second week of school, covering Chromebook rollouts, Clever headaches, cell‑phone bans, and a recent ChromeOS update rollback. They also ask the question "Is Esports a sport?" 
The episode highlight? A candid interview with Adeel Khan, founder and CEO of MagicSchool. Adeel shares MagicSchool's origin story, how MagicSchool uses AI models with human‑in‑the‑loop evaluations, its focus on K12 privacy, and its plans for customizable district tools and an AI operating system for schools.
--------------------
NTP
Managed Methods
Arista
Fortinet
--------------------
Join the K12TechPro Community (exclusively for K12 Tech professionals)
Buy some swag (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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Facebook
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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.