Leadership Spotlight: You Need to Know Alex and Bob

Narrator 00:02
Welcome to Talking Technology with ATLIS, the show that plugs you into the important topics and trends for technology leaders all through a unique Independent School lens. We'll hear stories from technology directors and other special guests from the Independent School community and provide you with focus learning and deep dive topics. And now please welcome your host, Christina Lewellen.

Christina 00:24
Hello everyone and welcome back to Talking Technology with ATLIS. I'm Christina Lewellen, the Executive Director of the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools.

Bill Stites 00:34
And I am Bill Stites, the Director of Technology at Montclair Kimberly Academy.

Hiram 00:39
And I'm Hiram Chavez, the Director of Information Systems and Academic Technology at St. Christopher's School in Richmond, Virginia.

Christina 00:45
We have a couple extra introductions to do today, guys; I'm gonna get right into it. We are also joined today by Bob Cireddu and Alex Inman from STS Education.
Hey guys! You guys are the hosts of an exciting new podcast called Learning Through Technology. And so we're doing something kind of cool today. We're gonna do a crossover episode. But before we kind of get into that episode that we recorded together, I wanted to take a moment and just make sure you guys have a chance to say hi to our community and to introduce yourselves.
I think a lot of folks probably know Alex, but maybe not as familiar with Bob Cireddu. So let's start with Bob.
Bob, who are you? And thank you for coming, but who are you? Tell us who you are.

Bob Cireddu 01:27
I am Alex's silent sidekick. [laughter]
So I'm the founder of the EduTech Group, which is an educational IT company, and I've worked in educational technology for 20 years.
Now it seems longer since I've been working with Alex, but I'm also co-host of the podcast with Alex and, uh… This is where I run out of things to say and go, “Alex, take it from here.”

Christina 01:50
That's okay. Alex, take it from here. Everybody knows you, but go for it anyway.
Just in case somebody fell out from under a rock or fell off the turnip truck, as my dad would say, and they don't know Alex Inman, please impart some knowledge. [laughter]

Alex Inman 02:04
Well, so hello and thanks for having me. Yes, I'm Alex Inman, cohost of the Learning Through Technology podcast. So STS is the group that does the sort of sponsoring of the podcast. But I work with Educational Collaborators, which is the tech consulting and PD company that has been an ATLIS sponsor partner for almost as long as ATLIS has existed. And I also came from the independent school space as a technology director, CIO at Sidwell Friends, Woodfield, University of Lake School. So a good number of independent schools.

Christina 02:39
Well, thank you guys for joining us. Now, my question, Bill and Hiram, I have enough of a task on my hands on a regular basis, keeping you two under control. And now we have added… I mean, Bob seems like a real standup guy. I'm not worried about Bob, but now we got Alex in the mix too. So how do you think this is gonna go, friends? Am I gonna be, like, muting you guys from the admin level today, or how's this gonna go?

Bill Stites 03:05
Well, I'm going to go there. I'm going to steal Hiram's thunder and just say it would be “inconceivable” to think that this would go smoothly. [laughter]

Hiram 03:13
Well done. Well played.

Alex Inman 03:20
Oh, the thinly veiled reference to their mockery of me as Vizzini on The Princess Bride.

Bill Stites 03:29
It's not so thinly veiled. It's...

Christina 03:32
Okay, before we lose 10 minutes of my life that I can never get back while y'all start throwing quotes out that I do not understand, I'm just gonna say let's get into the episode. How about that?
So this is an exciting day. We get this opportunity to come together. We're doing a crossover episode! So if there isn't anything that can make you feel more official in podcasting than a crossover episode, I just, I don't even know what we're doing with our lives.
This is really exciting because we're here with the co-host of Learning Through Technology and the co-host of Talking Technology, that is, a podcast hosted by ATLIS.
So hello everyone, here we go.
It's time – let's cross over. Let's start with… I know, right?
Let's start with a conversation about what we've all learned, because I think that we have come into this space, all of us, fairly recently.
So Bill, and Hiram, and I had this idea to launch a podcast for ATLIS because we really wanted to have a more regular interface with our community and be able to address topics as they were coming up without waiting six months for a magazine or 12 months for a conference.
And you guys have been on the scene for a few months now, too, with Learning Through Technology, which is an STS education podcast. So this is exciting.
Let's all talk a little bit about what we've learned so far, and is podcasting what you expected when you got into it?
Bob, Alex – do you guys wanna go first with yours?

Alex Inman 05:01
I always talk first and get in trouble for it from Bob. So I'm going to toss it to Bob to start.

Bob Cireddu 05:09
This doesn't count as you letting me have one, Alex, because you actually spoke first, as usual. [laughter] So for those of you keeping score at home, that's one for Alex. So I'm the engineer of the two of us. And I came at this a bit more reluctantly than Alex will say politely.
But what I've learned is we've had several episodes that have not really centered around technology at all. They have centered around equity, diversity… some conversations about teacher burnout. Some touch on technology, but they've not, we've had many that haven't centered around technology and those seem to be the podcasts that we get the most comments on, or at least I hear the most comments on. So that's been surprising to me.
I thought we were gonna talk ones and zeros like the name says, but we really have been, we've been interested in all things, education, with some... with a little emphasis on technology, I guess. Okay, Alex, it's your turn.

Alex Inman 06:05
Well, you know, we didn't… We were thinking about, “how do we want to share all the experience that we had in our in our company?” And so somebody – I think they were more joking than anything else – said you guys should do a podcast, and it should be Bob and Alex doing the podcast and… Bob and I are pretty different from one another just in terms of our style and our affect. But the reality is we both are truly committed to K-12 ed tech, right? And we committed our careers to it.
And so when we started this, we actually thought that we would only get three listeners, which would be, you know, our parents. And so now we've got this thing out there, and we're getting hundreds of listens every single day, which is crazy to us. I don't know who listens to this thing.
But it's awesome to get it out there. And people that we didn't know were listening send us messages and say, “hey, gosh, that was a great episode on your latest podcast.” And so it's been… I guess some folks are listening, and it's kind of working. Yeah.

Christina 07:05
Yeah, I love that. We also found that while we are a technology-focused organization in the independent school space, our topics are pretty wide ranging as well. So we think of our podcast generally… Sometimes we get into the nuts and bolts of a solution, but then other times we're just celebrating leaders in our space. And that's just as interesting and cool as the nuts and bolts stuff too. So it's been fun.
Bill and Hiram, has it been what you guys expected when I kind of dragged you in, not really, kicking and screaming?

Bill Stites 07:37
I was looking for two things most of all. I was looking for an opportunity to hear myself talk more often, and I was looking forward to an opportunity to spend more time annoying Hiram, which I think both have been accomplished through the use of the podcast.
[laughter]

Christina 07:52
Much to my dismay.

Alex Inman 07:53
You needed a podcast to annoy Hiram.

Bill Stites 07:58
But no, I think one of the biggest things that drew me to doing this was… One of the things that Christina kind of mentioned earlier was the community.
I always appreciate it – more so than anything else – the conversations that we've had at the conferences over the years. And you know… Alex, Hiram… I mean, we've been running that circuit for quite a while. And it was always the most important thing about getting together. It was getting to know the community getting to share out to the community, I think.
You know after 30 years here at MKA, I've taken so much from the community. I was looking for an opportunity to have conversations to give back to the community. And I think that's really been the biggest thing. And the one thing I would also add is that – for somebody who does like to talk a lot… Doing this, making this work, keeping this conversation going, is not as easy as it seems.
And I learned that during one of the episodes where I had a kind of wrangle an API conversation. And I've said ever since then, I appreciate Christina in new ways every time I went through that, because she does this so masterfully that it makes it look easy. And it's definitely not.
You know, it's not just showing up and talking, it's showing up and figuring out how to keep the flow going and asking the right questions and stopping me from talking, which you probably need to do right about now, so that other people can actually get their input in.
So it's really been giving back and having those conversations with that community. That's been one of the biggest things for me at this.

Hiram 09:27
And I would say “hear, hear” to what everything Bill said. And I could just be quiet because Bill said so much.
But as dissimilar as Alex and Bob claim to be, and claim that they are to each other, Bill and I are actually very, very similar, which is quite frightening in and of itself. We have the same interests, we like the same music, the same movies, the same podcasts, and we have this strong desire to assist in this space.
And one of the things that I found most interesting about doing the podcast is… Yes, it is entirely much more difficult than one would ever expect. It's kind of like when rendering DVDs for the first time for your school was a thing, and people say, “oh, can you make this change?” Like – “I've already rendered this.”
This is a lot of work to produce all of this. But it's an opportunity for me to not only give back, but I leave every episode excited because I've learned something new, every single time we conduct one of these.
And I remember the first episode that Alex and Bob put together with Mary Beth – I listened to that, and I ended up listening to that one three times, because it was so good on the work that she was doing. So this is wonderful.
This is the DC to my Marvel. This is the Star Trek to my Star Wars.

Alex Inman 10:42
All right, Bob, I get to be Marvel if we're doing the DC and Marvel thing.
The point is, it is a lot of work to get this out the door. I think like you said, Bill and Hiram, it's more than more than most people think.
But you know – Hiram, as you were saying – the characters that we get to meet, the people that we get to meet and hear their stories – it’s always a great time.
Even when we're interviewing somebody that I know, I pick up a nugget that just changes my perspective, and it just kind of makes my job and life a little bit better. It's great.

Christina 11:12
Yeah, and you know, I appreciate that, Bill. I think that your perspective of me kind of wrangling… Hurtling cats or wrangling cattle, whatever it is… I had my career started in journalism. And so I don't think I ever lost my deeply inquisitive nature. And so this format really suits me because, oh, you know, I get to bring out questions, you know, and kind of like probe and kind of get to the heart of matters when I'm, let's say, in an ATLIS board meeting, or if I'm writing for the magazine. But it doesn't always… I don't get to play with that tool in my toolbox every day. And so the podcast has been really cool and exciting.
And so one of the questions that I have for you guys is, then… So you've been doing this for a little while. So I'd love to kind of go around the horn and talk about… Which of the episodes you've done so far has been the biggest like, aha?
Like you say, you're learning new things and you're enjoying the process. I certainly am too. But for me, I'll just kind of start by saying that we had the opportunity to interview the three founders of ATLIS.
And, you know, for those of us… For those listeners who may be in this crossover experiment and don't know ATLIS very well – we're not even 10 years old as an organization. And so our three founders got together eight or nine years ago, almost 10 years ago, and said, “you know, the technology people who are serving independent schools, K-12 education, don't really have a home. And so we think they should have a home. We think that this industry and this expertise is becoming finite and distinct enough that there needs to be conversations around these issues because it's really an aspect of leadership for the schools that are doing it really well.” And it's a point of competitive differentiation for the schools that are doing it well. And so our founders got together, formed ATLIS, started with an event that people will still brag if they were at the first one.
How many of you guys were at the first one, by the way? Nope, not Bill, not Hiram, not Alex. Oh my gosh. Well, okay, see, I wasn't there either. So I guess we're all not at the first one. But...

Alex Inman 13:10
I was not, I came to the second. I missed the first one.

Christina 13:14
You know, people are very proud of that, just so you understand. I should get like badges or something made up – “I was at the first ATLIS conference.”
But what was cool is that [the founders] have now since moved into other spaces of serving the independent school industry. They are not involved in the leadership of ATLIS anymore, because that was always their goal – hand it off, create a strong board of wonderful leaders, get a strong staff passionate about the mission. So they've moved on, but they're still around.
And so we interviewed them for our podcast, and we kind of got the ATLIS origin story. And maybe not every listener will be excited about that. But for me in particular, it's such a creative and cool and unique opportunity to have a direct connection with the people who started the organization, now that I have the reins as the executive director. And now that I'm leading it into the future with my incredible board and my really passionate staff to have that direct connection to the people who actually saw fit to start this is really cool.
So my favorite episode so far has been interviewing the founders. I feel like we'll keep that forever. And it's really neat to hear in their own words why they did this.

Alex Inman 14:29
That's awesome. And I was a member of the National Association of Independent Schools Technology Task Force, which no longer exists – it existed because there was no ATLIS. And so it was a task force that became a standing committee, like way too many task forces do, especially in independent schools.
And the three founders came in and requested to that task force that they be given… not permission, because they didn't need NAIS's permission, but they sort of asked for a blessing to get that going, right? And so even though I wasn't at the first conference, I was there to sort of see it… that genesis come about. I was part of the origin story – the Marvel origin story.

Christina 15:10
Still part of the origin story.

Alex Inman 15:11
So my favorite episodes… I'll cover them quickly.
The first is obviously when Bob interviewed me and I got to be guest and co-host. That was clearly an outstanding episode. [laughter] As Bill says, I got to hear lots of myself talk, which was actually, though… The reason it's one of my favorite episodes is not because of the guest, but because of the host. When I was in the seat of the guest, I only did one episode like that where Bob interviewed me.
You know, when I was in the seat of the guest, Bob really ran the show. And it was, it was quite masterful. And so for a guy who always says, “Hey, I'm an engineer, and I don't belong being here” and all that kind of stuff. He was really remarkable. And I thought it was a high quality interview because of the host. That was great.
There you go, Bob. You got a public pat on the back that you deeply, deeply deserve.
The second one was… My second favorite episode was, I think, Lisa Dixon, a superintendent in Columbus public city schools. And I know this audience is really more geared towards the independent schools, but I thought one of the most… The reason I liked that one so much – there's so much going on in schools today, particularly public schools that can be bad. And her entire demeanor, outlook, recommendation, focus was all on community working together to solve problems. And if we just focus on the community first, so many of these problems just instantly go away and we can start to make real positive changes.
And it was just such a… It was so uplifting and not at all what I expected the episode to be. And I think that those are the best kinds – when you come in with a thought about where you're going to go with it, and where it goes is so much better than what you could have possibly imagined or planned.

Bob Cireddu 17:01
All right, I have to follow Alex now. [laughter]
One, I called him a visionary in our podcast, which reluctantly was true. The thing that Alex foresaw that many people didn't is amazing. You got it, Alex. I do appreciate the kind words. I would say… I couldn't pick out a single episode, because it's all been learning for me.
I can tell just in this time that we've spoken together, that you're all very comfortable with people and I'm not. Alex will tell you I'm not, and this is the last place I want to be is behind a microphone or in front of an audience.
So it's been a journey for me to learn, to become… I love asking questions. So I have loved our conversations. We have had some outstanding guests – maybe Alex is the best one, maybe not but… We've had some outstanding guests. But I've learned along the way my part and how I can contribute.
And I've… But it's just remarkable, the quality of people that work to educate our kids. And I think the small part that we could bring in… There actually are people who listen to us, that aren't just our parents or my daughter, that get to hear their stories and what they're doing – not just the technical, not just about AI or e-sports, but the people they are, the challenges they've faced, the way they got to where they're at and how they keep moving forward. That's really been my favorite part of all of it.

Bill Stites 18:25
One of the things… As we're talking, I'm looking at the list of guests that we've had, and it's like we're at our sweet 16. And given the time of year we're doing this, it's a nice number for the month of March, but it's one of those things… You don't want to pick from any of your children, so to speak. But the one thing that…
There was one episode in particular where I think – and I think Hiram will agree with me on this – where we were talking to Bob Olson, who's at Ankura. And it was a great conversation. He's been a longtime supporter of ATLIS; longtime supporter here at MKA. We've worked with them in the past. And it was a statement that we made – and we kind of dug in on a little bit, in that conversation and then following up with our conversation with Tim Fish – was that education… You always hear education is not enterprise. And one of the things that Bob said that really stood out to me – he's like, “Yeah, because it's harder.”
And that was one of the things that really, in terms of all the episodes, and when you think about all the guests and all the things that we've talked about, and you think of the diversity of ideas and topics that we talk about – that's what makes it harder, is that we need to be fluent; we need to be conversational in all of those areas, because that's the job. And if you're in enterprise; if you're in corporate someplace, you know – you've got your manual, you've got your things that you can follow, you've got everything that you, you've got scripts that you can follow, you've got software that you're gonna use, you can say yes or no to certain things, you've got certain compliance things, which we have to deal with all of those. And then we have to deal with all of those things that the fourth grader brought to us, and that the teacher who needed that tool to get through COVID brought to us. And you know, all of those other things.
And I think I'll go back to what I said originally about giving back to the community, because it is hard, because there is so much. It's what I value so much about these conversations. It's what I value with any of the conversations I have with any of you, is… What am I learning? What are we sharing? What are we giving back? And that conversation with Bob, you know, where we dug in on that, I think was the one thing that, if I was gonna have anyone listen to anything that we do, in the different aspects of our school, I'd want them to hear that statement. Because I think that carried so much weight, at least for me, and I think it carries weight for others, just in terms of the work that we're doing, the value that we bring, the service that ATLIS provides and that you guys provide, by doing these things. I think it's just… It really resonated with me.

Alex Inman 20:55
Yeah.
Can I share a quick story? And of course, I'm just going to move on and do it anyways. [laughter] And you guys can cut it out later.
But you guys know that I ran a Linux one-to-one program at one of my schools, right? Woodfield School in St. Louis. And we got invited to the Global Linux Collaboration Summit, where all the open source rock stars and all the open source projects all come together.
And I was on a panel with the director of computing for Citroën Peugeot, the auto manufacturer, who had, I think, 25,000 Linux work stations in their environment. And then the other person on the panel was the CIO of the German air traffic controllers who had about 70,000 Linux desktops around. And I had 600 Linux laptops, compared to all those. And it was a panel discussion, and there's probably about 300 Linux developers, leaders out there.
And they started asking questions – peppering us with questions – about how users use desktop and all that kind of stuff. But almost all of the questions came to me. And when I got the question, I'd answer it, and then I'd toss it to my colleagues. And the questions just kept coming back to me.
And at the end of the panel, I said, “Guys, I'm sorry. I don't understand why all those questions are coming to me. You guys run these massive installations.” And both of them looked at me and said, “It's because your job is so much harder than ours.”
And so, I mean, Bill, they said the exact same thing, right? They understood in enterprise, everyone has a role and computing also has a role. But in education, every device is expected to support an artist, a scientist, a writer, an investigator, right? All of these things have to be done and supported on every device by technology leaders in schools. And so it really is, it is a ridiculous… And with anywhere from, generally about one fifth the staff of our enterprise colleagues as well.
Hiram, what's your favorite episode?

Hiram 22:52
I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation we had with Matt Scully, mainly because I'm trying to figure out how to get past HR when I make the statement that his mother made to him, which was that “you're not good looking enough to be useless.” [laughter]

Alex Inman 23:10
Bob says the same thing to me all the time.

Hiram 23:17
And so the wisdom of a parent to be able to say that to their child, with just extreme earnestness… And for Matt to be able to just share wholeheartedly how he works, out at Providence Day, how he used to hide in his office with the lights closed, reading the manuals so that he could figure out how to restart a switch.
I just loved that podcast, and it was the true essence of the types of sharing that goes on within ATLIS in terms of being a resource. And I am also so thrilled to hear that he was going to be one of three pillar award winners for this coming year. And so that was one of my favorite episodes.
And I must say, doing these with Christina is no doubt… She is the queen of this. She totally gets it. She's wonderful at it. But I never see Bill enough. And so when I have the opportunity to hang out with Bill – when we're not texting with Jason Ramsden or Barry Kallmeyer – this is just a treasured moment in my day when I get to hang out with Bill, because Bill is the quintessential sharer. He's got his fingers in so many pies. He is answering on listservs all the time. He's writing his own blog posts, and yet he still has the time to text you to see how you're doing.

Christina 24:37
Yeah, and I think that it's cool because our community enjoys having access to you guys too.
You know, Alex and Bob, I don't know what you guys hear in terms of feedback about your podcast, but the couple of comments that I get over and over again… First of all, people really like the chemistry between myself and Bill and Hiram, I think mainly because they consider me the adult in the room. And there's always a little bit of an element of “is she going to keep them under control on this episode or not?” [laughter]
So we get a lot of comments about our chemistry, which I love. It's really my favorite coffee date of the week, is when we record. I just… I love it.
But we also are getting some cool energy from our community. So I wanna pivot to that and talk about that a little bit too.
One thing that… I made an off-handed, you know… I'll make these off-handed comments during the podcast, but then my brain hasn't fully caught up to the fact that they live, then, in eternity.
So we were talking one day about monitor setups, and that became this whole thing on social media. Because I said in a podcast, “oh, we should have a ‘show me your monitor’ competition on LinkedIn, right?” And then my staff suddenly has an actual “show me your monitor” setup, and there's rules, and we're giving something away, and there's a whole thing.
So I think that's a cool part of a podcast, is that even though it seems to be a closed conversation when we record them, once we let them out into the wild, they're out there and people can have this multi-way conversation back with us. It may be a little asynchronous, but I think it's, again, more real time and more organic. Because we can keep this communication going, whether it be on social media or just when we run into people. I think they feel like they're getting to know us and the things that are important to us. So that kind of community has been really cool, on our side anyway.

Hiram 26:23
And how about Jeff Dayton with the quad monitor setup at Madeira? I thought I had him beat with three, and then all of a sudden he shows up doing with his “day trading apparatus” to… It was just unreal.

Christina 26:36
I mean, I knew that was gonna be a throwdown. I knew that as soon as Jeff Dayton dropped that, I was like, “oh, Hiram's gonna flip.” It was hilarious. I think he's leading the race.

Bill Stites 26:45
I think you still have them beat with the total number of monitors in the room. It might not be on your desk, but I think you've got them beat with the number of monitors in the room, if I remember correctly.

Hiram 26:50
I think you're right there. I think you're right.

Alex Inman 26:52
We had another ATLIS member, Darrell Loy, was presenting at our Collaborator Conference. We had a virtual conference about a week or so ago. And he shares a photo of his… Basically, he set up a studio for himself for his sessions and his work, where he had not only a big screen interactive panel showing multiple screens of what all was going on, but he had multiple screens set up in front of him, and he had an interactive panel behind so that he could like do a weatherman's report while he was talking. It was… And he had a two camera operation along with his mic. He had a huge switcher next to him. I was like, “uh, okay.”

Bob Cireddu 27:26
So Alex, when are they delivering all of your stuff so that you can match that setup? Because I assume you were ordering right then, right? Amazon delivers for you, right?

Alex Inman 27:39
Well, after I saw that, yes, the order went in.

Bill Stites 27:43
I'm just going with the Vision, the Apple Vision, and I'll just be pinching and poking and walking around. I won't need it, because I'll have them all virtually within. So I don't know how you'll count that, but that's my next step.

Bob Cireddu 27:54
We did end up with posters from an offhand comment. So there are “Learning Through Technology” posters. Apparently Sophia takes some things I say a little too seriously. And then my daughter is like, “I need one of those.” And now there's posters. It's like people want posters. They don't realize that Alex and I are on them, I assume. So once they get them, they will change their mind, I suspect.

Christina 28:18
I mean, in that vein, you guys were just talking about how you have some… You have “Learning Through Technology” swag, water bottles, and now I feel like we're dropping the ball.
Hiram and Bill, we need to have a conversation around some “Talking Technology” swag. I'll make sure we have something for our event in Reno, but we gotta figure out what we want to have be our podcast swag.

Bill Stites 28:38
We got a good logo. I think we can do it.

Hiram 28:40
Oh, no problem. No problem.

Christina 28:42
So let's pivot now to… That's right. I do need a Sophia; she can help pick our swag.
So we have an ATLIS conference – our annual conference is coming up, and I know we wanted to kind of talk about that a little bit, because as we talk about this community that we're capturing through our podcasts, there's also this valuable, important community that comes together in our industry events.
You know, Alex, you've been an incredible supporter of ATLIS for a long time and a big proponent of our conference. And I will say, having represented other industries and other association leadership roles, I was surprised myself, coming into the ATLIS community. It is so warm and so positive. And when we hire people at ATLIS who come on the staff, we're always, “just wait till you meet them.” Like, “wait till you go to the conference. It's such an incredible, warm, sharing group of people.”
It's really kind of unique. I'm sure everybody says that about their events and about their community, but the technology educators and technologists that support education, it really is a very unique and special community.

Alex Inman 29:45
Yeah, it's, I think the biggest reason I've been, well, I've been a supporter for ATLIS as long as you guys have been around, because I think it's an organization that was overdue and needed, right? And then when ATLIS was founded, I was still an independent school tech director. So I was directly benefiting from ATLIS as an ATLIS member, while having also been the co-founder of Educational Collaborators as an ATLIS sponsor, right? So I got to wear two hats with the organization.
And I, through Educational Collaborators, I also feel deeply, deeply tied to the ATLIS community. And even though it's an association, it is, as you said, Christina, it's a community, even more than it is an association. And you know, your two co-hosts on the show, they,
work as collaborators, and educational collaborators, right? Many of the Pillar Award members… And I keep mine; it's just a little out of the shot, but I keep my ATLIS Pillar Award right on my desk, close behind it, so that whenever I'm on a conference call, I can see it.
So, you know, I, you know, my organization, Educational Collaborators, there you go.

Christina 30:44
That's awesome. Hiram's got his too. Show us your Pillar. Is that what's next? Not “show us your monitor”; “show us your Pillar”. That's awesome.

Alex Inman 30:53
“Show us your Pillar.”
It's just… These are my people, right? Like your community are my people. And I feel like they're my people, right? And so it's a great synergy. I've always enjoyed the conference as well, just because it is, like you said, so much a community.
We did a podcast recently – actually our most recently released one – was with Christine Feenstra, who's the executive director of Q. And I would say, on the public school side, that's the closest competitor to ATLIS in terms of a community feel, right? And that, it just makes all the difference.
Your organization is a community that is there to support and help people. And the people who go through your leadership programs and the people who attend your conference and the people who go to your cybersecurity workshops, they stay connected with your community. Every touch with ATLIS is a deepening of a relationship, not just another transaction of knowledge. And that's pretty cool.

Christina 31:46
Yeah, our conference is coming up soon, and maybe this will even be posted after the fact. I'm not sure, but there's just so much energy around it.
Bill and Hiram, I know you guys have obviously been long time come to the conference type people, but specifically about the community, either through the podcast or through the events that we're talking about. Just any opportunity that we have to connect with each other seems to be like a winner. You can't go wrong, if you put technology people together, in the education space. Good things happen.

Bill Stites 32:14
Now, it's definitely one of the hallmarks of the organization. When I think about when we have problems here, when we have questions here… One of the things I always ask my colleagues is, “if we don't know, who have you reached out to? Where have you gone? Have you posted it to ATLIS, to the community board, to see what you can get out of the group?”
Because it's the best opportunity to hear from people who are trying to do the same things you are and struggling with the same problems and questions and need similar answers to really pull it all together. And you're gonna get the good, bad, and the ugly. You're gonna hear all sides of it. You know what I mean? You have people that'll say, “this worked great and I loved it.” And others that'll say, “not quite so much for me.” You know what I mean? You're gonna get all sides of it and it's not just going to be, you know… Because you can post on LinkedIn, you can post in different places, and you can get vendors coming back that may be very well-intentioned, but there is also… They're trying to pitch their product to solve your problem. And you may need that, and that may be the most helpful thing that you can get out of that, but you also need those differing opinions, those differing ideas.
You know, when we said this was hard, one of the reasons it's hard is because we're all working with constrained budgets. So, you know, being able to find the easiest, the best, and the most economical way to do things is really one of the things I take out of the organization as much as I hopefully put back into it. So it's been great for developing that and building that.

Alex Inman 33:37
So you sort of bring up what is, in some ways, kind of the paradox of Bob and I's roles. So we do our podcast to share our insights, discoveries, and amazing people with our community. But the other part is we're also vendors. And so, we are sponsors of the ATLIS Conference, Educational Collaborators and STS Education who sponsors our podcast, and Bob's group, Edu Tech.
And the reason we're there, and really the reason why we prioritize that, is because we serve your community. Like Educational Collaborators and Edu Tech, we work with publics and privates, but those independent schools are the needs that they have. Bill, you mentioned we're all budget constrained, but we have needs. The kinds of services that we bring to the marketplace are really aligned very well with the kind of membership that you have. And it really, it also sort of represents… Your membership represents a large, significant portion of our existing customer base.
Bill Stites 34:38
I would also say that those – because, you know, Hiram and I being one of them – those people that represent Educational Collaborators represent that community as well, because it's an organization, it's a company that's based on taking community members and bringing their services to bear and their knowledge to bear in other areas. So it really serves similar purposes in terms of leveraging the power that the community brings to bring resources. And even though, in the comment mentioning, what they bring into these different things, there's a lot of value that's there.
And the one thing I have found is that the vendors that support ATLIS, support it to a core level that I think in independent schools, a lot of other… A lot of people don't understand the private school world the way… Because everyone is kind of unique and they understand that uniqueness, and they're not, they can, exactly, but finding people that you can work with that understand that difference, that understand the language and the vocabulary that's used, just simply coming in and not talking about who's your superintendent and principal when it has no bearing on anything that we use in independent schools… Having those relationships, understanding the community, and putting that community first, I think is the benefit of both.

Christina 36:00
So if I could flip that for a second, that actually triggers an interesting kind of line of conversation. Alex and Bob, you guys work with both. So what would you say are the similarities right now between public and private schools? I mean, we swim in our independent private school lane, but what are some of the things, like, high level, that we're grappling with that are really similar that you guys observe?

Bob Cireddu 36:22
So I think actually this will sound odd from the engineer, right, is I think they're grappling with what technology….what role technology should play in schools. Everything from, you know, we read every day about students. As a parent, I read about how my daughter shouldn't spend as much time in front of a screen, yet we send them to school where they're going to spend a great deal of time in front of a screen. And we hear about the future of AI and how our, you know, we're going to live our lives and our children are gonna live their lives in a world of AI, but yet we don't really quite know how to handle AI in schools yet. And we aren't maximizing its potential for teachers, but we're also not teaching our students yet how best to handle it.
So I think the whole role… I don't wanna go on and on, but I think the whole role of technology is still something we're getting our arms around when we got flooded with it in COVID. And now we're still... Public, independent, charter… We're still kind of figuring that out. But I'm sure Alex will have… Nah, Alex and I kind of agree on stuff, but what do you think Alex?

Alex Inman 37:15
No, particularly on this stuff, we agree. And honestly, when you're talking about the classroom, I don't think there's a ton of differences between what's happening in public and private education.
There really is an incredible… It all starts with an incredible, caring teacher. And when you've got an incredible, caring teacher, that dynamic is all about whoever happens to be in that room at that particular time. And I think that is true kind of across all realms of education.
Where some of the differences lie – to your question, Christina – are, I think, a little bit more on the staffing and the infrastructure side, and both of those are related to scale. The numbers are larger in public school than they are in independent school, with very few exceptions. There's a handful of independent schools that rise to the same size as small districts, but even a medium-sized district is much larger than a large independent school. And public schools in general have a lower staffing ratio, as ratio of full-time employees to devices and/or students, than the independent schools do. So how they think about systems and how they think about both human systems and digital systems and operations – those are different. And of course, technology can really serve that, right? And serve in terms of scale and limitations and productivity, right? So I think with our public school clients, we spend a little more time thinking about those kinds of things.
But the biggest difference when it comes to the classroom – Bill, I think you nailed it – it's language. Independent schools wanna know that you talk their language. Public schools, Montessori, charter schools run pretty differently. They use “executive director” instead of “head of school” or “superintendent.” They want to know that – who they are – so that those nuances that make a difference are addressed.
Just to add a little color to something you said earlier, Bill… When Educational Collaborators was working with a client, our approach, our methodology, might be fundamentally the same across public, private, and charter, or parochial even. But the people that we assign to the projects are people who have experience in those communities. They know the language, and they know the nuances that exist between them.
But in terms of fundamentals, it's all about the connection between students and other students and students and that teacher. And that, I think, is fairly universal.

Christina 39:37
So one of the things that generally happens on our podcast – and I know with yours as well – you guys ask a standing question. I tend to change the question up a lot. So I've asked the guys…

Alex Inman 39:48
[interrupts] That makes it not a standing question, Christina. You're aware of that, right? If you change the question every time, it's not a standing question anymore. [laughter]

Bill Stites 39:55
No, no…. It's a standing, random question. And you just get used to it, and you roll with it, Alex. You just go with the flow, and you sit there, and Hiram and I sit there like, “all right, where is she going now with this? What are we doing? Okay. No, I have no idea, no idea.”
So you gotta be on your toes.

Christina 40:10
And I never give them a heads up. So, you know, so… That's right, you gotta listen.

Alex Inman 40:17
Oh great. We send you our question in advance, and it's the same question every time.

Hiram 40:21
Bill is the muscle in this group here. He's the muscle.
[laughter]

Christina 40:23
So we're gonna do both.
So then the question becomes… Do you guys wanna do the one that we know about first, which is Alex and Bob's question from Learning Through Technology, or do you wanna do the “random Christina question” that you get through Talking Tech with ATLIS?

Alex Inman 40:38
I'm game with random. Bob?

Bob Cireddu 40:40
Gotta be random, right? We're the guests. Or, we're not the guests. I'm still confused. We're in here for this long, and I'm still confused. But yes, let's go random.

Christina 40:47
I love it.
All right, so in the past, I've asked about, “what was your first job?” Back in the early days, I think that always is a demonstration of character. I've asked, “what device could you not live without?” Because I happened to have left the office one day to run to the post office, and I forgot my phone. And I was in the car, in dead silence, going, “what do I do with myself?” I've also asked what your soul city is. Everybody has a soul city, and weirdly, I think we finally nailed why Hiram and Bill and I have such great chemistry – because we all pick Seattle.
So we've had different questions along the way. So I think that my random question today is going to be a little bit out of left field, but I want to know, “when you are interested to feel a connection with other humans, where do you go?” In other words, it could be a hobby, but it also could be a social media site. So, when you are just feeling like you need to connect with people. And I mean more on a daily basis; not a “get on a plane and come to the ATLIS conference” basis.
For me, my example is that many of you know that I sing a cappella harmony in my personal life. So I'm just thinking about this, because yesterday you can tell my voice is a little fried. I was traveling last week for NBOA and NAIS. I'm not feeling the best with allergies, but I had chorus rehearsal. And my husband's the director; my youngest daughter is in the chorus with us; my mom's in the chorus – it's my community. So even though I didn't feel well or feel my best, it's where I go for my people, and it's where I go for my interaction.
So my question for you is, “when you need people, when you need humans, whether real life or virtual, where do you go?”

Bob Cireddu 42:31
Should I answer, Alex: that never happens for me? I never feel an overwhelming desire to be with people. [laughter]

Christina 42:41
All right, Bob, okay… I'm gonna give you an alternate, because I can tell that you're our introvert here.

Bob Cireddu 42:46
I could answer it, but may I choose, like, Monty Hall, behind door number one and door number two? Like, do you wanna answer -this- or do you wanna…

Christina 42:54
Yes, you may. You can shape this… You can shape it however you want. Or maybe it's “where do you go to get a dog or a cat hit?” Like, “if you don't want humans, what brings you joy?”

Bob Cireddu 43:02
Oh, so my dog does. My dog Wilbur is a rescue, and he does indeed, as does our family. I do enjoy being around our family. We are… Our girls are all over the place. They're both 16, so they drive, and we don't ever see them. And Aiden is in college, so he only comes home in intermittently, but… I do enjoy walking with my dog to relax, but I do… It'll sound odd – this might be the most introverted answer ever – I compete in Taekwondo, and I compete in race cars. So I like being… Those are my relaxing people. So I go and get in a race car by myself to be around people. Or I get onto a mat and I punch and kick people. Those are my people.
But that's my answer. You get what you get with me, I guess.

Christina 43:42
I think there's a lot to unpack here.

Bob Cireddu 43:48
That’s right, that’s right. Let's write a whole episode on what's wrong with Bob.

Christina 43:52
Bob, I love it. You know what, I'm married to an introvert and I get it. Sometimes the best thing in the world is if I say, “honey, do you wanna go to a movie by yourself?” He loves it.

Bill Stites 44:02
Bob, all I can tell you is that those two skills will serve you well driving in New Jersey. The race car driving and the taekwondo skills. I think you can put the two of them together and you're the quintessential Jersey driver.

Bob Cireddu 44:15
It's good to know that my unique combination of introvertedness, physical aggression, and speed serve me somewhere.
Now onto the regular people and their answers. Bill, you spoke up.

Bill Stites 44:26
No, I would probably say one of the places that I go, though – depending on where I am in my rollercoaster ride – would be the gym. I go to the gym.
It's been a place where, you know, over the years, regardless of where I've been in my life, whether I'm going with my family or my wife or my friends or whatever it would be, it would be...
We'll be finding that place where you can go and just, you know, everyone's there and they're getting something out there. They're trying to work out; they're trying to get some frustrations out there. They're trying to do what they can do. I go to a very, kind of, close knit gym where I can be me and often you know, I am me, and I know that… You know, when the owner of the gym, who I'm very good friends with, would bring in new people, he'd be like, “and this is Bill. And Bill comes with the gym. And you have to get used to Bill. And here he is.”
You know, it's definitely one of those places where you can kind of just let it all out. And you need that in your life every once in a while. You need to just be able to go in and lift heavy things and make loud noises and grunt. Just be surly at times and have fun.

Christina 45:22
Yeah, we don't let him grunt on the podcast.

Hiram 45:26
So most people probably don't realize that I'm actually an introvert/extrovert. I spend a lot of time at school forging relationships and being around people to make sure everything's going as it should. And sometimes when I get home, the last thing I want to do is also be around people. The only exception is my bride, my daughter, and our dog. So it's a very peaceful time when we're all home together.
I used to be a long-distance runner, in high school and in college. So I spent a lot of time by myself on the roads. So I'm used to that and kind of getting into my thoughts, and they didn't have podcasts back then. I would have loved to have had podcasts back in the day.
But that's how I recharge, is, when I have an opportunity to be home. My bride is very much an introvert. And as a high school anatomy teacher, there's a lot of work that goes on in trying to keep boys and girls focused on, you know, “don't cut yourself with the scalpels,” you know, as they're dissecting things. But needless to say, we both enjoy our quiet time together. We'll sit back and watch some TV at the end of the day and go for some nice evening walks out in the woods with our black lab.

Alex Inman 46:36
Everybody's got dogs in here. You know, I was also a runner, Hiram, right? Not as good as… I wasn't a college runner like you were, man, but a good college runner. But I live in Colorado. So, when I need time for myself to unwind… Because I do spend a lot of time with people, but it's not always relaxing and recharging. Sometimes I just need to unplug, right.
So Colorado is great for hiking, right? And I choose the difficulty of the hike for how much I want to blind my thinking, right? If I want to reflect, I'll take a hike in a forest, right, and not super steep. But if I want to, as you said, Bill, kind of work some things out, but I don't wanna think, I just need to like, just work out, then I'll do a summit hike and something that's really steep and hard and all that kind of stuff.
But when – and this is going to really surprise everyone on this podcast – when I want to connect with people, if I'm just looking for a place to just go and chat and connect with people, yes – it is a pub. That is, that is where I will find my friends. Cause after a few drinks, everyone let's go.

Hiram 47:39
Why does that not surprise me? My first invitation to meet Alex was at Rumbuggy in Memphis.

Christina 47:50
I'm pretty sure that Alex tried to poison me with beer at one point, because I'm allergic to gluten, so I'm thinking that was you as well. So I see how you connect with people.

Alex Inman 48:01
That's right. All out of love.

Bob Cireddu 48:03
Christina, I feel like I hijacked your question. It all turned about how they get alone, when clearly anybody who's been around Alex likes to be around people. And I can tell Bill and Hiram are exactly the same. So I assume there are those rare occasions when they want to be alone.
In Alex's instance, I think it's when his wife tells him, “it's time for you to go for a hike.” And you think she means go up a mountain, but she really means get out of my way. But we'll let Alex believe what he believes.
[laughter]

Hiram 48:32
Bob, you want Bill and me, if you're part of the zombie apocalypse. We're your people. We'll take good care of you.

Christina 48:39
These guys always bring it back to the zombies, dude. This is… We gotta keep this on the rails.
And so now we can go to kind of the standing traditional question. Who usually asks that on your podcast? Do you guys take turns?

Bob Cireddu 48:51
So this is, yeah, this question ended up because I was, I think, not the best student. I think that's generous to say, I was not the best student. I was mostly an absent student as I got further along into school, but not the best student. But I'll explain my answer in the end.
So my question, though, is… I believe everybody has a teacher who made an impact on them.
So we're gonna start with you Christina. “Who is your favorite teacher who made the biggest impact on you?”

Christina 49:15
I will say, I have two. I'll make it as quick as I can.
One in high school… I went to a really small, rural school in Western New York. And I was pretty awesome at school. I was all right. And I was kind of plowing down this path of, “I'm gonna be a lawyer” or I'm gonna, you know, I just, “I'm gonna be a business person.” And I had a sociology, psychology, social studies teacher in my senior year kind of pause and go, “wait, what are you majoring in, in college? You should be a writer. Why aren't you going into…” And I'm like, “cause I need to make money. I want health insurance.” Like that's why, um, small town girl needed to be independent. But Mr. Tom Mamoney was my social studies teacher, and he really said, “well, you should go, you're a great writer, do something with that.” And it really shifted my mindset. And I still pursued business and communications, but I also added that journalism piece. I also got a degree, undergrad in English, because I wanted to be well-versed in the canon and just understanding what great writers had done. And so I think a part of my communication skills I really attribute there.
But then to follow that up, when I was an adult, I was encouraged to go back to school and get my MBA. And I will tell you that as a writer, English person, I had it in my head that maybe I wasn't the best at math.
So I was really nervous about going back to [business] school because I didn't know if I could handle the global finance and the statistics and the accounting.
As it turns out, I'm actually really, really good at that stuff. And I just had it in my head, probably because of my gender, probably because of the generation in which I grew up, that wasn't a girl thing. And so I just always said, “I'm not great at math.” Well, I am good at math. I just never did math.
So when I went to my executive MBA program at the Rochester Institute of Technology, there's an accounting professor, Daniel Tassoni, who really saw me. And as it turns out, I did that program with a lot of PhDs and CEOs and doctors, like medical doctors and engineers. And I was second in my class, because I knew how to communicate back what I had learned. So even in accounting, even in the math classes, the global finance, I could take that data and digest it and spit it back.
But I needed those two individuals, Mr. Maimone and Dr. Tosoni, to kind of just look at me and say, “I see you and I see more in you than you see in yourself.”

Alex Inman 51:40
That is awesome. That's a great story.
We just finished an episode with an ATLIS board member, Denise Musselwhite, to talk about women in tech. And we addressed some of those biases that sort of statistically exist and how they affect us not only societally, but individually, like what you just shared. That's great. Thank you.
Our listeners have heard me answer this question before, when Bob interviewed me. But for your listeners, and for you guys, it was my ninth grade teacher, Mrs. Roper. She was a spectacular English teacher… Like Sting – you know, from The Police – Sting actually wrote a ninth grade English curriculum, and she used that curriculum heavily in our class. And I just thought, “how freaking cool is that?” Right?
But my favorite thing that she did, that really helped shape kind of my approach to education is, I guess… Your familiar with the phrase, “those who can, do; those who can't, teach,” right? So she had a t-shirt that she wore, when the faculty was kind of in a dispute with the district administration, that said, “those who can, teach; those who can't, administrate.”
So she was totally thumbing her nose at her bosses, right? And she was willing to do so at her own peril, because of her care for what she felt was right for the students. So that woman shaped me.
And in fact, for a long time, our slogan at Educational Collaborators was, “those who can, teach.” And it comes straight from her t-shirt. So Mrs. Roper was great on that.
Hiram. Hiram, share yours.

Christina 53:07
That's awesome.

Hiram 53:09
So my teacher was Mr. George Duffy. And I actually had him for chemistry and for physics, but he was also my high school track coach. So Kings Park High School on Long Island did not have, essentially, much of a team. We were just a handful of guys. And George Duffy, particularly by the time I got to be a junior, he went ahead and would pick me up at my house and drive me to meets all over Long Island, New York City, Schenectady, the Penn Relays... And when I was being recruited to run in college, he was instrumental in convincing me to take a serious look at the College of William & Mary.
He was recruited to play football there and soon realized that he wasn't big enough to play football there. But he said, “Hiram, of all the schools that are interested in you, you really, really have to take a long hard look at the College of William & Mary.”
It was really quite fascinating, because in 2001, he came down to Williamsburg to be a part of a celebration when I was inducted into the William & Mary Athletic Hall of Fame. And I wasn't even sure if he was gonna make it. And I spoke about him there. And there he was in the audience. Because so much of what he did for me, not only to teach me chemistry and physics, because I'm a science guy by nature, is he really taught me the value of hard work, and he was gonna hold me accountable through and through.
One quick story. I was finishing a race, and I thought I had this in the bag – was gonna win the county meet – and I put my hands up, and I got beat at the tape. The guy came out of nowhere; never even saw him coming. And from that moment on, whenever I ran 400s for practice, it was 410 meters for practice. And that was where my time was being recorded. He said, “You are never going to stop at the finish line, ever again. You're gonna run through that finish line.”
And for the better part of 18 months, into my junior and senior year, that's what I had to do. I ran 410 meters. So I am who I am today, mainly because George Duffy was an instrumental part of guiding me to get to the college, and I am who I am. So I thank you, George.

Alex Inman 55:35
And he was… You didn't know that he was in the audience when you were being inducted?

Hiram 55:40
I had a feeling he was gonna try and make it, and then all of a sudden, sure enough, there he was. I saw him when I was actually speaking.

Alex Inman 55:47
Wow, that's awesome. I think we would all wish to have the opportunity to share back with those teachers these moments. That's great.
So Bob, you actually asked the question, but answer it for us.

Bob Cireddu 55:55
So I did, I did. So our listeners have heard the story of Miss Parrish and Mr. Wampum – both English teachers. I’m not an English guy. Ones and zeros, numbers, science – that's my thing. Miss Parrish just saw that I didn't learn the way everybody else did; that I had a great deal of potential to learn, but I just couldn't learn the way everybody else did. And she engaged me in that. Mr. Wampum, on the other hand, was this smallish guy who dressed perfectly, and not most people's kind of guy, but everybody liked him. In the words of the secretary on Ferris Bueller's day off, they all thought he was “a righteous dude.” And Mr. Wampum, he was good.
But Christina, you made me think about talking about college. I found myself running a business here. So several years ago, I thought, “I need to go and learn something about business.” So I enrolled to get a degree – a bachelor's degree in business. I wanted to get an MBA, and they looked at me and went, “Bob, you had one economics course when you were studying engineering. You're going to need a lot more before they let you in for doing MBA.” So I pursued, or I looked into, a degree, and Cindy Wilson was the executive director of the program and one of my instructors. And she constantly reminded me that I could do this and that I was smart enough, and that I had the dedication to do it. And it worked out – I got the degree. And Cindy… I'm going to have to send her a link to this podcast, because I don't think she understands how great it was that she was there to encourage me and to let me know that I had what it took to go back to college while working full time, and running a business, and being a dad, and all the other things that you do. So that's my answer.
And I think Alex, all three of these sound like people who knew right off the bat who the people were. So that's three more for Bob. You can explain why that matters.

Alex Inman 57:30
Yeah, this one's not counting for me at all. But for the record, we did send them the question in advance.
Bob and I, with the first time we shifted to this, the bet on the table was, “would the guest know off the top of their head who their favorite teacher was?” And Bob's wager was that they would. And my wager was that they would have to think for a minute and sort of pull out that best teacher.
And that was the only official time that the bet was actually levied, and I won that one. Just sayin’, Bob.

Christina 58:03
Let's see if maybe Bill will break your streak. Bill, you're not allowed to say your wife, so who's your favorite teacher?

Bill Stites 58:08
Well, I'll go sappy then, and I'll say both my parents were teachers, so I'll say it was my parents. [laughter] No, no, no.

Alex Inman 58:14
Oh, did… Were you their student? Were you in their classes; your parents’ classes?

Bill Stites 58:17
Uh, sort of, kind of. My mom ran a daycare in our basement. I don't know whether that counts, but… No, I was never, I was never… I don't think you ever could be a true student of… of one of your parents. I don't think that was allowed.
But I can tell you that… It’s a very easy question, and it was my third grade teacher, Nancy Brushka. And it was… It was one of those things, even before she was my teacher, she was my favorite teacher. Because one of the things that I would draw on was in our last conversation with Tim Fish, the last episode that we aired… He talked in there about students being seen and known. And he talked about this next piece of feeling, but going that extra step and making them feel needed. And that was the thing that Mrs. Breschel always made me feel. She always made me feel needed. She always brought that to the table, regardless of what we were doing. It was like every kid had a purpose and a need that was exhibited in some way in the classroom, even in third grade. You know, I couldn't tell you what those things were. You know, as we're all talking, I'm thinking about all the different things, but I know that I continue to go back to see her.
She continued to be interested in everything that I was doing throughout high school and even into college. And we've kept in touch. We've lost touch recently, to be frank. But we kept in touch for many, many years after I even was out of the class and out of high school and even into college. And just continually makes and has made an impact. It's why I became a third grade teacher.
You know, so it was one of those things that, you know, really drove a lot of where and how I got to where I would be. I do have… We all were mentioning college, and I do have one college professor that was probably my least favorite, but made the biggest impact. And she was the head of my program, who actually told me at one point that she never liked me and she never liked my attitude and I would amount to nothing in education.
Alex Inman 1:00:12
Bill, most think that. It's just most don't tell you that. So… [laughter]

Bill Stites 1:00:16
Yeah, I know. I know.
So that was one of those statements that you hear and you're kind of like, “okay, let's see where this is going to go.” It was literally… It was like, “all right, game on. Let's go. Let's see how we're doing here.”
And, you know, it was, you know, so there are… You learn from the good and the bad, you know, and you move on.

Christina 1:00:37
That's right.
So speaking of moving on… As we start to wrap all this up, I can tell… Let's just kind of close things out talking about what's next for each of our podcasts. Because I know that as we're sort of getting our sea legs on all of this, we have had some exciting things that we've been sort of falling into the pattern. We talk to people, we talk to leaders, we talk about ideas in educational technology. We're gonna also add in things – fun things like this, where we're doing crossover conversations, but also we might record a couple podcasts live when we're at our annual conference. We have some really incredible guests coming up that represent different aspects of diversity in our space. And so we just wanna bring in as many voices as possible. And we'll of course hit those topics that are really relevant to our listeners.
But we also always wanted to maintain a “people first” kind of energy with our podcast, and so you'll definitely see that moving forward on Talking Technology with ATLIS.
So what do you guys have in the hopper? What's coming up for y'all?

Bob Cireddu 1:01:38
So there's so much, as we're still learning, like “what is going to be new?” I think that with Sophia and Alex and I… We get together after every podcast and they tell me how it went, because I don't listen to myself in a podcast. So they tell me what I have to do differently. And now I get it in real time from Sophia while I'm talking.
But I think what we have found… I have a dear friend who listens to this podcast, has nothing to do with education, nothing at all. But he listens to it while he works out, just like Bill. And he gets that time away, and he texts me – our podcasts go out on Wednesday – he texts me Wednesday, Wednesday at noon, because he was working out and listening, and he talks about the interesting people. He always tells me, “Everybody has an interesting story.”
So I think Alex and I… Getting better at finding that interesting story is what we need, because it's not always the story that people want to tell. It's not always the interesting… Now, there are things – and maybe Alex has some ideas on that as well; I'm sure Alex has something to say about that – but in addition to that, he may talk more about some of the guests and topics we have lined up. It's all yours now, Alex.

Alex Inman 1:02:38)
You know, kudos and ditto to what you just said. But we did a live episode, and that was kind of a wild experience from an audio engineering standpoint. And then also, just… It's a different kind of dynamic when you're live versus on a platform like this. We had one of those.
We've got a couple of bigger names that we haven't locked in yet, so I don't want to release them yet. But we've got a couple of bigger names that we haven't locked in…kind of got a little bold with some of our asks this season. And so some of those may come out.
But I think the one that I'm most excited about is… We were up at the IETA conference up in Idaho – the tech directors conference up there. And they had an e-sports tournament going on. And they were playing Rocket League in that tournament. And we had a little Rocket League station in our own booth. And they started to play in our booth. And before it was all said and done, some of our partners came and saw these guys playing. And now we're sponsoring these kids with Lenovo equipment – eSports gaming equipment – and helping to facilitate some conversations with them in colleges about eSports as a way to help fund their college experience.
And one – there's three guys on the team – one wasn't even considering college, because financially it wasn't even something that he could think about. And now – and he's the best on their team – and now he's talking to colleges about this.
And so the student eSports episode that's coming up – I can't wait to record that. That one's gonna be a ton of fun.

Christina 1:04:02
That's really great. Well, this has been a ton of fun. It was so cool to kind of just hang out as podcasters for a few minutes. I hope you guys had fun. It was a real pleasure for us.

Alex Inman 1:04:13
Yeah, it was great. Thanks so much for having us.

Christina 1:04:16
Awesome.

Narrator 1:04:18
This has been Talking Technology with ATLIS, produced by the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools. For more information about ATLIS and ATLIS membership, please visit the atlis.org If you enjoyed this discussion, please subscribe, leave a review and share this podcast with your colleagues in the independent school community. Thank you for listening.