The Tech Director's Expanding Universe: Risk, Leadership, and Onboarding with Dan McGee, TLIS
Presented by:
Dan McGee, TLIS, Chief Technology Officer at Laurel School, joins the podcast to discuss why being a tech director is the best job in a school. He shares insights into his expansive role, which includes enterprise-level risk management, major construction projects, and the "archeological dig" of offboarding a long-tenured Head of School.
- Laurel School, all-girls private school in Shaker Heights, OH
- Swank, movie and TV show licensing
- Technology Leaders in Independent Schools (TLIS), ATLIS’s certification program
- ATLIS Board of Directors
- Huddle camera, wireless and wired cameras with pan, tilt, and optical zoom capabilities
- TRS-80, one of the earliest mass-produced and mass-marketed retail home computers, launched in 1977 by Tandy Corporation
Transcript
Narrator:
Dan, welcome to Talking technology with ATLIS,
Narrator:
the show that plugs you into the important topics and trends for
Narrator:
technology leaders all through a unique Independent School lens.
Narrator:
We'll hear stories from technology directors and other
Narrator:
special guests from the Independent School community,
Narrator:
and provide you with focused learning and deep dive topics.
Narrator:
And now please welcome your host. Christina Lewellen,
Christina Lewellen:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to
Christina Lewellen:
talking technology with ATLIS. I'm Christina Lewellen, the
Christina Lewellen:
President and CEO of the Association of technology
Christina Lewellen:
leaders in independent
Bill Stites:
schools. And I am Bill Stites, the Director of
Bill Stites:
Technology at Montclair Kimberly Academy in Montclair, New
Bill Stites:
Jersey,
Hiram Cuevas:
and I'm Hiram Cuevas, the Director of
Hiram Cuevas:
Information Systems and Academic Technology at St Christopher
Hiram Cuevas:
school in Richmond, Virginia.
Christina Lewellen:
Okay, gentlemen. Now, normally I would
Christina Lewellen:
start by asking how you are. However, we got on our call
Christina Lewellen:
today to start this podcast recording, and I can tell that
Christina Lewellen:
both of you are in the mix of the beginning of school, you're
Christina Lewellen:
looking like you're carrying some weight on your shoulders.
Christina Lewellen:
And so where you guys generally bring a lot of light and
Christina Lewellen:
happiness and energy to my world, I feel like I need to
Christina Lewellen:
repay the favor, so I'm going to bring the cheerleader vibes
Christina Lewellen:
today and try to get you in a good mood by the end of this
Christina Lewellen:
podcast. Do you think I can do it
Bill Stites:
perfect year? This is the highlight, the smiling
Bill Stites:
moment of my day, so I don't doubt that one whatsoever. I'm
Bill Stites:
all in. Okay. I
Christina Lewellen:
mean, you guys are at least game for a
Christina Lewellen:
great conversation, which I know we'll have. But I do know, in
Christina Lewellen:
all seriousness, it's been kind of a rocky couple of days
Christina Lewellen:
heading into the school year. You guys just have a lot coming
Christina Lewellen:
at you. Are you just taking it one task at a time,
Bill Stites:
trying to, trying to, that's always the big piece
Bill Stites:
of it is just trying to figure out how to get past the one
Bill Stites:
thing and on to the next, and do it in a way that works. Well,
Bill Stites:
I'm still trying to clear the inbox. Hiram told me a very
Bill Stites:
scary detail about the number of messages in his inbox. I'm
Bill Stites:
hovering in the 300 range right now, which has got me twitching.
Bill Stites:
That pales in comparison to what my friend Hiram has, which I
Bill Stites:
shudder to even think about it, Hiram, what's your number 23,000
Christina Lewellen:
what in the Wait a minute. Okay, that is
Christina Lewellen:
insane. Now I know ATLIS is a little bit advanced because of
Christina Lewellen:
the fact that we don't send internal emails to each other.
Christina Lewellen:
So if you eliminate all of my staff emails, that certainly
Christina Lewellen:
helps, right? But I have three unread emails right now, and I
Christina Lewellen:
don't even have to scroll to get to the bottom of my inbox. I can
Christina Lewellen:
see my entire inbox in front of me. I know this is probably
Christina Lewellen:
making your eye twitch, but how do you have so many.
Hiram Cuevas:
I store everything in folders as well, and so that
Hiram Cuevas:
count stays active based on the folders that I have, and it
Hiram Cuevas:
just, you can't seem to swipe left enough to delete emails as
Hiram Cuevas:
they're coming in.
Bill Stites:
There were a few days where I was, like, locked
Bill Stites:
in on a project and it would take, like a couple of hours,
Bill Stites:
and when I returned to my inbox, there were like 40 new messages
Bill Stites:
in the inbox. So you compound that with every project or thing
Bill Stites:
that you take on, and then it just builds. I would get through
Bill Stites:
them by the end of the day, and you wake up the next morning and
Bill Stites:
you've got another set of them, and within the first hour of
Bill Stites:
school, you've got another
Hiram Cuevas:
group of them, and that doesn't include
Hiram Cuevas:
notifications that you're receiving from systems as well.
Christina Lewellen:
I feel like I would burn it to the ground.
Christina Lewellen:
You hear about people who go on vacation and then they just
Christina Lewellen:
delete their entire inbox when they get back, because they
Christina Lewellen:
figure if it was important enough, the person would send it
Christina Lewellen:
again or whatever. Like, I feel like, if I had hiram's inbox, I
Christina Lewellen:
would probably just delete the entire thing and just start
Christina Lewellen:
over.
Bill Stites:
And the thing is, it's not just like a simple
Bill Stites:
response. A lot of times it's like, all right, I now need to
Bill Stites:
take 20 minutes and dig in on this one thing, to figure out
Bill Stites:
what's going on, to solve that problem, to get them the
Bill Stites:
response back, so I don't get three more emails on the same
Bill Stites:
issue within the either the next day or the next day and
Hiram Cuevas:
a half. So when you were asking earlier how
Hiram Cuevas:
things were going right now, I'm just trying to keep it between
Hiram Cuevas:
the mayonnaise and the mustard as we're driving along, and I'm
Hiram Cuevas:
going to turn on the 80s music here, and I am aspiring to love
Hiram Cuevas:
her boy working for the weekend, because this weekend I get to
Hiram Cuevas:
see my baby girl at Parents Weekend up in Virginia.
Christina Lewellen:
Tech. Nice. All right. Well, we're seeing
Christina Lewellen:
some rays of sunshine coming from Hiram, which is good news.
Christina Lewellen:
But let me also add a new layer on top of this, which is that we
Christina Lewellen:
have a wonderful guest with us today. We have Dan McGee. Dan,
Christina Lewellen:
you're a smiley guy by nature, but you in particular need to
Christina Lewellen:
bring it today, because I'm holding down the fort over here
Christina Lewellen:
with guys who have insane inboxes. So before I introduce
Christina Lewellen:
you, Dan, can you tell everyone how many emails are sitting
Christina Lewellen:
unread in your inbox?
Dan McGee:
Okay, so it's not so pretty, but not nearly to the
Dan McGee:
extent of hirams. I have 158 emails unread in my inbox right
Dan McGee:
now, which I'm twitching. Like I walked in the door today
Dan McGee:
twitching.
Christina Lewellen:
If we put this video online, everyone will
Christina Lewellen:
understand why I'm the most smiley, and Dan is the second
Christina Lewellen:
most Smiley. And then today, Bill and Hiram, you guys are
Christina Lewellen:
just toast. You're buried in your inbox. But let's set that
Christina Lewellen:
aside for a little bit of time, and we'll chat with Dan. Dan,
Christina Lewellen:
you are the chief technology officer at the Laurel School
Christina Lewellen:
Based in Ohio. You've been there for quite a while. You also just
Christina Lewellen:
joined the ATLIS board, so it's really awesome to have you in
Christina Lewellen:
ATLIS leadership. So how are you today, aside from those 100 plus
Christina Lewellen:
emails waiting for you,
Dan McGee:
aside from that, I'm doing pretty good. I'm really
Dan McGee:
happy to be here and talking with you. Great people.
Christina Lewellen:
Awesome. So as usual, we'll start with kind
Christina Lewellen:
of your journey, and have you tell our listeners a little bit
Christina Lewellen:
about yourself. But also, if you don't mind, could you tell us
Christina Lewellen:
about the
Dan McGee:
Laurel School? Yeah. So Laurel School, we're in
Dan McGee:
Shaker Heights, Ohio, right outside of Cleveland, so we have
Dan McGee:
the benefit of being in the suburban area of Cleveland, and
Dan McGee:
we have another campus that's about 17 minutes away. That's
Dan McGee:
rural, and we can get to downtown in about the same
Dan McGee:
amount of time. So we have a lot of places in the area that are
Dan McGee:
great, like our middle school today. They're all at the Rocket
Dan McGee:
Mortgage Field House, which is where the Cavs play, and there's
Dan McGee:
a big announcement coming about W NBA. So lots of excitement
Dan McGee:
there. But we are a girls school, a K through 12, and we
Dan McGee:
have boys and girls in our early childhood, so we cover a wide
Dan McGee:
variety of ages, and we really have just possibilities for
Dan McGee:
every student here at Laurel, especially in technology.
Christina Lewellen:
That's really amazing. And you've been
Christina Lewellen:
there for a while, so you've been the Chief Technology
Christina Lewellen:
Officer since 2012 is that when you started
Dan McGee:
there it is, yeah. So I started at Laurel after being
Dan McGee:
a technology director at another independent school, another
Dan McGee:
girls school. And I like to joke too, I have two boys, so of
Dan McGee:
course, I spend my entire career basically in girls schools, and
Dan McGee:
they can only attend for a very short time.
Christina Lewellen:
Yeah, too bad you can't do like an
Christina Lewellen:
exchange student situation with Hiram, right?
Dan McGee:
That would be pretty useful, although I think they
Dan McGee:
maybe missed me a little bit.
Christina Lewellen:
So what's your background been like? Were
Christina Lewellen:
you a teacher before you got into technology?
Dan McGee:
It's funny, I was studying to be a teacher when I
Dan McGee:
entered for my bachelor's degree. I thought, You know
Dan McGee:
what? I want to travel the world. I want to do an
Dan McGee:
international business. And I got into an economics class, and
Dan McGee:
the first day I said, this is really not for me. And my
Dan McGee:
roommate was doing the same thing, and he said the same
Dan McGee:
thing the first day. So we both declared different majors. I
Dan McGee:
became a German major with an education minor, and so I wanted
Dan McGee:
to be a German teacher or a German professor, and I decided
Dan McGee:
I went on and got a master's degree in German Studies. And
Dan McGee:
then the writing on the wall before the economic crisis, and
Dan McGee:
sort of the mid aughts was there, and programs started
Dan McGee:
closing, left and right. My program closed. I couldn't go on
Dan McGee:
and do a PhD like I thought I could. And so I thought, well, I
Dan McGee:
guess I'll go out and find a job. And there really weren't
Dan McGee:
jobs teaching German, somewhat to my surprise, after spending
Dan McGee:
six years studying all of this, and I sort of was throwing
Dan McGee:
resumes out, and I had a background in computers, so I
Dan McGee:
had worked summers for Harley Davidson dealer systems, which
Dan McGee:
is their software division, and I wrote documentation for them
Dan McGee:
on their software, and just had kind of an interesting
Dan McGee:
background there. And I thought, You know what? I've done that?
Dan McGee:
And when I was in college, I worked for the IT department
Dan McGee:
there. I'm going to try applying to some computer related jobs,
Dan McGee:
but in schools, and I came up with one and was hired. And so
Dan McGee:
the rest is kind of history. So I kind of think I'm one of the
Dan McGee:
last of the group of people the you seem good with computers,
Dan McGee:
come lead technology at our school. Like I didn't have the
Dan McGee:
formal training or degree to support it, but I had know how
Dan McGee:
and not afraid to just try. So I got into that, and then moved to
Dan McGee:
my current role after I was there for a few years. I can't
Dan McGee:
imagine doing any other job in my school like this is
Dan McGee:
secretively the best job in the school,
Hiram Cuevas:
it was that trs 80 you played with as a youth. It
Dan McGee:
definitely was getting those floppy disks out.
Dan McGee:
And, you know, I remember saying to my dad, I was probably, I
Dan McGee:
don't know, eight, like, what is that next to the computer? Oh,
Dan McGee:
well, that's a modem. And even after you explained it, I didn't
Dan McGee:
know what it did. But, you know, now it's just a completely
Dan McGee:
different environment. But I feel like those formative
Dan McGee:
experiences really helped me tinker and play around and
Dan McGee:
figure things out.
Hiram Cuevas:
Impressed that you had a floppy disk as opposed to
Hiram Cuevas:
a cassette.
Dan McGee:
My brother, actually, he still programs on a Commodore
Dan McGee:
64 with a cassette. Love it like really throwback stuff. You're
Bill Stites:
kidding me? That's awesome.
Dan McGee:
No, not at all. He bought it in the 80s, the mid
Dan McGee:
80s, and still uses it to this day.
Christina Lewellen:
That's a whole nother conversation that I
Christina Lewellen:
think we probably need to go to. Maybe we need to have your
Christina Lewellen:
brother on the pod at some point to ask why. But in the meantime,
Christina Lewellen:
since you're bringing this energy about having this opinion
Christina Lewellen:
that tech director is the best job at a school and. Since my
Christina Lewellen:
friends today are feeling a little overwhelmed with all the
Christina Lewellen:
things they have on their plate, tell us a little bit about why
Christina Lewellen:
you think being the tech director is the best job at an
Christina Lewellen:
independent school.
Dan McGee:
Well, a double edged sword of that is you're never
Dan McGee:
bored, and that can go either way. And I think we all feel
Dan McGee:
that every year, every day is just a little bit different
Dan McGee:
lends itself to its own craziness, I think too. But I
Dan McGee:
get to see and do so many different things with so many
Dan McGee:
different people. There's so many opportunities to make a
Dan McGee:
change in the school, make a difference and make things
Dan McGee:
better. And I just love tinkering. And I think that
Dan McGee:
extends even to just the work in the school, working with my
Dan McGee:
colleagues, working with students as well. Tinkering
Dan McGee:
isn't just sitting down in a room and playing with a dei boy
Dan McGee:
or electronics.
Bill Stites:
You know, one of the things that we'll always ask
Bill Stites:
is, what encompasses your role as director of technology?
Bill Stites:
Because I know what my role was when I started, changed, and
Bill Stites:
after it changed, it changed again. I love going down and
Bill Stites:
talking to the people in our ed tech department, talking with
Bill Stites:
our librarians, but I also enjoy getting in and having
Bill Stites:
conversations with our development office or our
Bill Stites:
admissions team. So what does that look like for you there at
Bill Stites:
Laurel?
Dan McGee:
Yeah, definitely all of those groups, those are folks
Dan McGee:
that I talk to regularly, and if I don't talk to them regularly,
Dan McGee:
I realize, oh, I need to go visit them. I haven't talked to
Dan McGee:
them in a while, but really it's so many things. Hiram Bill, you
Dan McGee:
guys have been at your schools longer than I have, and I've
Dan McGee:
been here 14 years. So you can imagine the things that have
Dan McGee:
been collected on my plate and things that have been added just
Dan McGee:
by my longevity at the school. One thing that I've been in
Dan McGee:
charge of and worked with heavily is like risk management
Dan McGee:
in the school, which is not an easy topic, really, and it's a
Dan McGee:
wide topic. So that's something that you wouldn't necessarily
Dan McGee:
see in this role, but I think it relates, because there's so much
Dan McGee:
about it, and a lot of it's really project management, which
Dan McGee:
I think is a necessary skill that all of us need to have in
Dan McGee:
technology, but in management and leadership roles. So that's
Dan McGee:
kind of an outlier. We're building a new building at our
Dan McGee:
other campus right now, the one where I'm not at at this moment,
Dan McGee:
and so managing that project is like a second job, or like a
Dan McGee:
part time job. So that is something that comes around.
Dan McGee:
It's not every day in the life of our school, but when it's
Dan McGee:
ongoing, it becomes something that's really key to my day to
Dan McGee:
day work, working with teachers in every capacity, working with
Dan McGee:
parents. You know, if you take a project like we've just rolled
Dan McGee:
out a new attendance system, and when you look at that, that
Dan McGee:
touches on parents, students, teachers, admin assistants,
Dan McGee:
division directors, all of those people combined, that's a huge
Dan McGee:
number of people that in our school. That's well over 1000
Dan McGee:
1500 people when you include students and parents. So really
Dan McGee:
working with all of those different people, you have to
Dan McGee:
manage that and manage the relationships, just as much as
Dan McGee:
you're managing the software and the questions that come up, and
Dan McGee:
that really contributes to the excitement at the beginning of
Dan McGee:
the school year. I must say,
Hiram Cuevas:
you mentioned risk management that takes a variety
Hiram Cuevas:
of different forms in independent schools under that
Hiram Cuevas:
hat of yours. Does that extend beyond cybersecurity?
Dan McGee:
Yeah, it does. So what I've done is I've developed
Dan McGee:
a dashboard that really is a Google Sheet, and it has tabs
Dan McGee:
for things like governance, the reputation of the school finance
Dan McGee:
HR, just to name a few, I think there are eight total
Dan McGee:
categories, including technology and cybersecurity, but it
Dan McGee:
encompasses all of those. So I'm part of the audit and risk
Dan McGee:
committee of the board, and my job, and my role in doing that,
Dan McGee:
is keeping track of this and presenting the information to
Dan McGee:
the board and helping them review in their capacity as
Dan McGee:
board members and make sure that the school is managing risk
Dan McGee:
successfully. And we've been able to do that. It's been a
Dan McGee:
process, probably over the past seven or eight years since I've
Dan McGee:
been working on this, and really all the time it's just
Dan McGee:
tightening it and getting back to it, because I think we're
Dan McGee:
managing risk every day, at least in our roles as tech
Dan McGee:
leaders and other leaders in the school. We may not realize it,
Dan McGee:
but we're doing it. And then when you get back to the
Dan McGee:
dashboard and it's time to evaluate what's there, you see
Dan McGee:
that scope. And so it's really key to keep that front of mind
Dan McGee:
and making sure that everybody knows what's happening in terms
Dan McGee:
of how we're managing risk in the school.
Hiram Cuevas:
So Dan, I'm really fascinated that you have that
Hiram Cuevas:
many tabs for risk. I'm curious is the appetite for risk
Hiram Cuevas:
variable across each of those areas, because there's a certain
Hiram Cuevas:
level of risk that you say the school. Role is willing to
Hiram Cuevas:
assume. But how about each of those different areas?
Dan McGee:
I think it depends on a lot of things. So it depends
Dan McGee:
kind of on who is in the seat for those roles, whether it's
Dan McGee:
the HR director looking at HR risk, the CFO looking at
Dan McGee:
financial risk. Sometimes it's dependent on their role,
Dan McGee:
sometimes it's dependent on their personality, and sometimes
Dan McGee:
it's dependent on the makeup of the board. If you have a lot of
Dan McGee:
lawyers on the board, they may be a little more risk averse.
Dan McGee:
And I think over the time period of looking at risk within the
Dan McGee:
school, we've seen it shift a little bit and focuses naturally
Dan McGee:
shift. So I think right now we're focusing a lot on changes
Dan McGee:
in leadership. We have a new head of school, and so with that
Dan McGee:
presents opportunities and possible risks, so we have to
Dan McGee:
maintain the good reputations that we've had and kind of grow
Dan McGee:
with that.
Bill Stites:
Dan, I want to drill in on that last piece,
Bill Stites:
just really quickly, because when you talk about all the
Bill Stites:
different areas of risk, I'm curious as to how you as the
Bill Stites:
tech director, are assisting with this, because I think this
Bill Stites:
might fall in the communications area, and I'm just curious of it
Bill Stites:
is the reputational risk piece. How are you assisting with that
Bill Stites:
piece of it at the school? Because the other areas, I kind
Bill Stites:
of got a good mental picture of what that might look like. I'm
Bill Stites:
wondering what that means. And what do from a reputational
Bill Stites:
sense?
Dan McGee:
That's a great question. I'm not doing anything
Dan McGee:
specifically on the reputation side of it. I'm really the
Dan McGee:
arbiter of the dashboard. So we'll get together at a
Dan McGee:
leadership meeting and say, Okay, those of you in these
Dan McGee:
different roles, it's time for us to sit and spend 3045,
Dan McGee:
minutes looking at the risks. And then we set the clock, and
Dan McGee:
we go, so I'm really just the cheerleader and the person that
Dan McGee:
surfaces it up to that group. And then the individuals then
Dan McGee:
take on their own components of it. And then if there's
Dan McGee:
tightening within the sheet, if we need clarification, I'll put
Dan McGee:
a comment on it and say, Hey, so and so. What do you think about
Dan McGee:
this, or can you finish this? Can you fix this? So I'm glad I
Dan McGee:
don't have to bear all of that, because that would be way too
Dan McGee:
much for me to do. But really it's the project management
Dan McGee:
piece where I come into play, keeping it organized.
Christina Lewellen:
In particular, one issue that we
Christina Lewellen:
talk a lot about with safety, security oversight project
Christina Lewellen:
management is in the realm of off boarding and onboarding, and
Christina Lewellen:
how those systems are really important in a school situation,
Christina Lewellen:
both on the student population, the leadership team, the
Christina Lewellen:
faculty, but you also have some experience with Head of School,
Christina Lewellen:
onboarding, off boarding. Tell us a little
Dan McGee:
bit about that. That's right. Yes. So our Head
Dan McGee:
of School, Anne Klotz, was here for 21 years, which is a long
Dan McGee:
time for a head of school. And so she retired this summer, and
Dan McGee:
we welcomed a new head of school, Christina Breen, to our
Dan McGee:
school in July. And so managing a head of school transition is
Dan McGee:
sort of the granddaddy of onboarding and off boarding, you
Dan McGee:
have somebody who holds so much institutional knowledge, so much
Dan McGee:
information, so many different roles, especially when you look
Dan McGee:
at that risk management dashboard, they are involved in
Dan McGee:
all of those pieces, in a level that I'm not. And so it presents
Dan McGee:
its own challenges, its own risks, its own complexities. And
Dan McGee:
you know, when you have a head of school who's been in that
Dan McGee:
role for 21 years, more than 20 years, you have so much that has
Dan McGee:
changed in technology over that time period. And so as you're
Dan McGee:
working to off board that person in that role, it's like being an
Dan McGee:
archeologist. You're going down through the rock and the
Dan McGee:
different layers of technology and the things that they've
Dan McGee:
collected and amassed in their time, and you're sifting through
Dan McGee:
it, and you have to play sort of a game with that. There's so
Dan McGee:
much in there. I didn't realize how much would be involved. It
Dan McGee:
was my first, and probably not my last off boarding of ahead of
Dan McGee:
school, but there were a lot of things that I had to learn along
Dan McGee:
the way
Christina Lewellen:
that's really interesting and quite
Christina Lewellen:
complicated. I'm sure I could imagine. The same could be said
Christina Lewellen:
about transitioning a tech leader. We should talk to Jeff
Christina Lewellen:
Dayton, our colleague on the board, because he just retired
Christina Lewellen:
after a long time and just even off boarding himself, probably
Christina Lewellen:
was quite a project, right?
Dan McGee:
I think about that too. Like when I first started
Dan McGee:
at my job, everything is sort of personality dependent in
Dan McGee:
figuring out things and what is left for you. And nobody wants
Dan McGee:
to think all the time on their job. How do I need to leave this
Dan McGee:
for somebody else? But you kind of have to on a certain level in
Dan McGee:
order to make sure you're doing a service to your school,
Dan McGee:
yourself and your legacy.
Christina Lewellen:
Absolutely, we talk about that a lot around
Christina Lewellen:
ATLIS, business continuity planning is how we kind of frame
Christina Lewellen:
that up, you know, talking about coming in as the last of this
Christina Lewellen:
group of like, Hey, you're good with tech lead our tech
Christina Lewellen:
strategy. G at our school, right? So you're part of that OG
Christina Lewellen:
crew. I think part of what that did for you, good or bad, is
Christina Lewellen:
that it pulled you into our T list item writing, because you
Christina Lewellen:
do have a breadth of knowledge in a lot of different realms, as
Christina Lewellen:
what I call the unicorn. I think Hiram and Bill refer to you guys
Christina Lewellen:
as the OGs. I say unicorn. We brought together unicorns to
Christina Lewellen:
help write the technology leader in independent school
Christina Lewellen:
certification program. You were among the first people to obtain
Christina Lewellen:
that certification. You helped us write it. Tell us why you got
Christina Lewellen:
involved in that and what that experience has been like for
Christina Lewellen:
you.
Dan McGee:
So I think in our schools, nobody knows what we
Dan McGee:
do, even people in our department, sometimes we don't
Dan McGee:
know what we do, right? Our head of school doesn't know. And if
Dan McGee:
we disappear, how are we? They going to find somebody? And this
Dan McGee:
is not saying that what we do is irreplaceable, but it's hard to
Dan McGee:
find somebody who has the capacity to come in and figure
Dan McGee:
this stuff out. So that was really sort of the reason for my
Dan McGee:
existence in tlis, is adding my voice to this super wide ranging
Dan McGee:
conversation of what is the technology leader in an
Dan McGee:
independent school and what makes them successful? I think
Dan McGee:
I've been fairly successful. Obviously, we make mistakes,
Dan McGee:
right? But I've been able to figure it out, or I wouldn't be
Dan McGee:
here still. And it is such a wide ranging job, it's changed
Dan McGee:
so much, really. I mean, even in my 14 years here at Laurel, the
Dan McGee:
things that we do on a day to day basis are completely
Dan McGee:
different than what we did in 2012 and they're completely
Dan McGee:
different than what we did in 2020 and so I think that makes
Dan McGee:
it that much more important to be able to assess what people
Dan McGee:
know and say there is a standard really. Even though independent
Dan McGee:
schools can be a cottage industry, there are things that
Dan McGee:
are common among those roles. If it's not a dictionary, it's a
Dan McGee:
thesaurus, helping you to find what it is,
Christina Lewellen:
and those roles, I think, have gotten more
Christina Lewellen:
complicated. I mean, certainly since the pandemic, I really
Christina Lewellen:
feel like T list had a certain halo effect, or this perfect
Christina Lewellen:
timing. It was very fortuitous that the T list program, the
Christina Lewellen:
funding from EE Ford, it all sort of was born out of this
Christina Lewellen:
additional layer of complication. They got
Christina Lewellen:
sandwiched on top of everything that you guys were already doing
Christina Lewellen:
in a normal school situation. So then here comes covid, and then
Christina Lewellen:
everything after covid, and now we're in this realm of AI. So
Christina Lewellen:
that role, I think, continues to get more complicated, is that
Christina Lewellen:
your experience?
Dan McGee:
Oh, definitely, yeah, I mean 2020, was where we really
Dan McGee:
put the foot in the accelerator, and I don't think we've lifted
Dan McGee:
it since then. And not only that, we've been adding to it.
Dan McGee:
So you mentioned AI, that's something that's really just
Dan McGee:
been added to our slate, and nothing else has really come off
Dan McGee:
of it. And so that's been a big, big, big focus you can't
Dan McGee:
understate or overstate, really, the role of AI. It's super huge
Dan McGee:
in our schools, and it's something that we have to be
Dan McGee:
involved in, and we have to be really on top of so many other
Dan McGee:
topics that are coming our way in our schools, because people
Dan McGee:
look to us as experts, inside experts, especially
Christina Lewellen:
so all three of you, what could come off the
Christina Lewellen:
plate? How can you slow this down? I know you all feel it.
Christina Lewellen:
What are the solutions? I mean, I'm trying to stump you a little
Christina Lewellen:
bit on purpose, being slightly provocative with my question.
Christina Lewellen:
But like, if somebody wanted to make this better, if your
Christina Lewellen:
leadership teams wanted to make it better, what could make it
Christina Lewellen:
better? What could slow it down? I think
Hiram Cuevas:
what's interesting. I'm actually kind
Hiram Cuevas:
of having these conversations right now, and I think it's a
Hiram Cuevas:
Christopher, it's fair to say, we need an extra body. Sometimes
Hiram Cuevas:
it's something as simple as an FTE. And then I think as
Hiram Cuevas:
schools, there's always a tendency to be shrewd and say,
Hiram Cuevas:
Well, can we get away with a part time person versus a full
Hiram Cuevas:
time person? And I think when you're dealing with some of the
Hiram Cuevas:
topics that Dan has already mentioned, like risk mitigation,
Hiram Cuevas:
onboarding, off boarding, you're talking about a lot of sensitive
Hiram Cuevas:
information, and it's very different than, say, a help desk
Hiram Cuevas:
technician, where they're not necessarily dealing with some of
Hiram Cuevas:
the domains that our roles are dealing with on a regular basis
Hiram Cuevas:
that have risk associated with them. You need somebody who is
Hiram Cuevas:
judicious. You need somebody who has a keen understanding about
Hiram Cuevas:
sensitive information,
Christina Lewellen:
a unicorn. You need a unicorn. Yeah,
Hiram Cuevas:
and so it's not somebody that you can also get
Hiram Cuevas:
for $20 an hour or $25 an hour, you need somebody who can
Hiram Cuevas:
actually serve in this capacity to be a true sounding board for
Hiram Cuevas:
you as a tech director, so that you can say, hey, what do you
Hiram Cuevas:
think about this? Let's execute this together and do a little
Hiram Cuevas:
bit more cross pollination. Because what I think all of us
Hiram Cuevas:
are experiencing. In this space is the best schools do cross
Hiram Cuevas:
pollinate, but most of us are still very siloed, and even
Hiram Cuevas:
using Dan's best approach of trying to create that legacy for
Hiram Cuevas:
the next person, that's a lot of work.
Bill Stites:
The other thing that I think is problematic, I'm
Bill Stites:
going to say here at MKA, but is, I think, indicative of a
Bill Stites:
number of independent schools, is we're additive in a lot of
Bill Stites:
ways, and very little gets taken off of anyone's plate. I think
Bill Stites:
it's a systemic problem.
Hiram Cuevas:
Bill, I dare say, What was the last thing that got
Hiram Cuevas:
taken off your plate?
Bill Stites:
I don't even know that's the rub. You think about
Bill Stites:
it and like it was like, oh, you know, as soon as copiers got on
Bill Stites:
the network, that was it, as soon as phones went off of a
Bill Stites:
local PBX and went into the cloud, that got added in
Hiram Cuevas:
the lighting system, 100%
Bill Stites:
I mean, it's unbelievable. And the lighting
Bill Stites:
system, I mean, I spent an hour on a call yesterday looking at a
Bill Stites:
Lutron lighting control system and having to figure out, like,
Bill Stites:
where all of that plugged in? Because, Dan, as you mentioned,
Bill Stites:
you know, you take on construction, right? There's
Bill Stites:
another language you talk about, languages, German, you know, you
Bill Stites:
got to learn the language. You got to learn all these
Bill Stites:
languages. I spend half the time in these construction meetings
Bill Stites:
googling what they're absolutely saying, because I don't know the
Bill Stites:
acronyms. I know what it's like to sit on another side of the
Bill Stites:
conversation with all of us, on the IT side of things that are
Bill Stites:
like, What are they talking about with all these different
Bill Stites:
acronyms? You know, go to a construction meeting, and that's
Bill Stites:
exactly what that's like. So it's very hard to think about
Bill Stites:
the things that can come off your plate due to what I'll say
Bill Stites:
are the ongoing complexities of them. But something that you
Bill Stites:
mentioned around the work that you're doing with your
Bill Stites:
librarians, I find us spending a lot of time talking with those
Bill Stites:
tech or ed tech adjacent areas of the school. If there is an
Bill Stites:
area where some of that work can be picked up, it's in those
Bill Stites:
overlap areas, and where I think about that, particularly visa
Bill Stites:
vie our librarians, is when we start talking about the research
Bill Stites:
cycle, and we start thinking about the ways in which our
Bill Stites:
librarians, our media specialists, work with our
Bill Stites:
students and our faculty on research and what that means,
Bill Stites:
and I think about the research cycle and the way in which
Bill Stites:
technology informs that cycle, that's the single best place. I
Bill Stites:
think we've gone for a true partnership and a way of not
Bill Stites:
offloading, but a way of sharing the burden of how are we going
Bill Stites:
to deliver on all of those things when we talk about the
Bill Stites:
portrait of a student, what they look like when they graduate?
Bill Stites:
Where does that and how does that happen in a schedule that
Bill Stites:
is constantly losing time in schools? How do we do that? We
Bill Stites:
do that through the librarians. And that's been one of the
Bill Stites:
single biggest places where I've been thankful for a partnership.
Dan McGee:
Yeah, I think the more holistic education you can
Dan McGee:
provide, which is what you should provide, the more complex
Dan McGee:
it's going to get. So Bill, you mentioned the librarians, like
Dan McGee:
two things that are really big topics with us right now.
Dan McGee:
Obviously, AI, our librarians are deep in that, especially in
Dan McGee:
our middle and upper schools. And my librarian in middle and
Dan McGee:
upper she said, I don't know that I should be on the AI
Dan McGee:
committee, because I don't always agree that it's the best
Dan McGee:
solution. And I said, That's exactly why you should be on the
Dan McGee:
AI committee, because you need to be that voice in the room
Dan McGee:
that's questioning it and working it in terms of research
Dan McGee:
and where it's appropriate. And then a conversation this morning
Dan McGee:
that we had, you know, copyright is not keeping up at all with
Dan McGee:
our current digital environment and streaming and things like
Dan McGee:
that. So we've blocked all movie streaming because we know that
Dan McGee:
those services don't align with what we can show in our school
Dan McGee:
environment. But we use an external service. We use swank
Dan McGee:
for that which has 45 46,000 titles until it doesn't have
Dan McGee:
what we want, and then we have to examine with the librarian,
Dan McGee:
with the teacher, why they can't show this thing on Amazon Prime
Dan McGee:
that's really, really cool, integrates with what they're
Dan McGee:
talking about in class, but we also can't run afoul of these
Dan McGee:
copyright agreements and these use policies, and that's All
Dan McGee:
Time. That was a 30 minute conversation this morning where,
Dan McGee:
I mean, it's a risk management conversation, I suppose, too,
Dan McGee:
right? Everything comes back to each other. At some point. I was
Dan McGee:
telling a teacher the other day. I think my job is kind of like a
Dan McGee:
Seinfeld episode. You can't tell the whole run from start to
Dan McGee:
finish of a Seinfeld episode unless you tell the whole
Dan McGee:
episode, right? Everything comes back to each other at one point,
Dan McGee:
it seems. And I think everything just gets a little trickier and
Dan McGee:
a little murkier as we dig deeper and deeper
Hiram Cuevas:
Dan. What's interesting is you use the term
Hiram Cuevas:
murky, and I think this has been the challenge even within ATLIS,
Hiram Cuevas:
defining. What it is to be a tech director, because it varies
Hiram Cuevas:
so much from school to school. When you're hiring a CFO, you
Hiram Cuevas:
know what you're getting when you're hiring an HR person? You
Hiram Cuevas:
know what you're getting, an athletic director? You know what
Hiram Cuevas:
you're getting a physics teacher? You know what you're
Hiram Cuevas:
getting. The unicorn example that Christina mentioned earlier
Hiram Cuevas:
is so incredibly apropos, because it's dependent on school
Hiram Cuevas:
size, it's dependent on funding. It's Do you have managed
Hiram Cuevas:
services all these different pieces and parts? And I found it
Hiram Cuevas:
fascinating when you said, I don't know what you do. When
Hiram Cuevas:
somebody asks that question, and whose job is that, to try and
Hiram Cuevas:
provide the agency for tech directors. Do you think
Dan McGee:
I mean, at some respect, it's us in the job.
Dan McGee:
We're hired and we're trusted to know what needs to be done, and
Dan McGee:
we get the job done. And it kind of goes back to that cartoon
Dan McGee:
that I saw a long time ago, where, when everything's going
Dan McGee:
right, what do we pay you for? When everything's going wrong,
Dan McGee:
what do we pay you for so you almost can't win, but you can
Dan McGee:
win all the time too, right? And so as long as you have that
Dan McGee:
trust in that relationship, like with your head of school, with
Dan McGee:
your other leaders in the school, then things are moving
Dan McGee:
in the right direction. Things can get off the rails, I think,
Dan McGee:
pretty easily, pretty quickly, but hopefully the work is
Dan McGee:
visible, and if it's not the things that aren't breaking and
Dan McGee:
the things that are running smoothly, people just understand
Dan McGee:
that's part and parcel to the job too. What do you
Christina Lewellen:
think you would say to someone who would
Christina Lewellen:
want to come into a role like this, Dan, like if someone
Christina Lewellen:
approaches you, let's say, at an ATLIS event or another industry
Christina Lewellen:
event, and says, you know, I'm thinking about trying to be a
Christina Lewellen:
tech director. I want to be a CIO, a CTO at an independent
Christina Lewellen:
school. What is your advice in terms of mapping that, in terms
Christina Lewellen:
of being ready to be the unicorn? How could somebody
Christina Lewellen:
prepare for that when your job is so big and it's like trying
Christina Lewellen:
to catch smoke in a lot of ways?
Dan McGee:
Yeah, it really is like trying to catch smoke. You
Dan McGee:
know, I had somebody who hired me in my first school and I
Dan McGee:
probably wouldn't have hired myself, to be perfectly honest.
Dan McGee:
I don't think that I would have. I'm glad that I was hired. But
Dan McGee:
if somebody came to me and said, You know, I'm thinking about a
Dan McGee:
role like yours, you have to look at it in a balance. What is
Dan McGee:
your experience, and that's wide ranges of experience. And then
Dan McGee:
what's your attitude and your aptitude? Whenever I'm making a
Dan McGee:
hire, I really am looking for those things, but especially
Dan McGee:
attitude and aptitude. In an independent school, you have to
Dan McGee:
have certain habits of mind, a certain kind of attitude, to
Dan McGee:
work in that environment, because it's not always the
Dan McGee:
easiest place. A lot of times it's the most fun, but you have
Dan McGee:
to be able to roll with things right, and be adaptable and
Dan McGee:
aptitude also, because the things that I know now I didn't
Dan McGee:
know a year ago, or five years ago, 10 years ago, and you have
Dan McGee:
to be able to be adaptable and have the aptitude to learn. And
Dan McGee:
if I don't know the answer, I know exactly where I'm going.
Dan McGee:
I'm talking to one of you. I'm talking to somebody in the ATLIS
Dan McGee:
community. I'm finding somebody definitely who knows the answer,
Dan McGee:
and you have to have that network too. So I think if that
Dan McGee:
person came to me, I'd say, Well, if you don't have that
Dan McGee:
network, I'm helping you start that right
Christina Lewellen:
now. That's really interesting. And I if I
Christina Lewellen:
can go back to the attitude place, I think that we're seeing
Christina Lewellen:
a lot of burnout, not just among faculty, but among
Christina Lewellen:
administrators as well. But it's got to be hard for you guys to
Christina Lewellen:
be around faculty all the time, because a lot of them are
Christina Lewellen:
feeling the weight of the world. So do you have advice for either
Christina Lewellen:
your own tech team or for just tech leaders in general? Because
Christina Lewellen:
it's infectious, right? Like you pick up on the energy of people
Christina Lewellen:
around you, and if the faculty, the admin, the heads of school,
Christina Lewellen:
oh, that job, forget it like that's insane, right? So how is
Christina Lewellen:
it that you keep smiling when the people around you are
Christina Lewellen:
carrying a lot of stress.
Dan McGee:
I mean, it's a balance. It's really hard to
Dan McGee:
keep things in balance. I think the low point for just about
Dan McGee:
everybody was that return to school at the very first part of
Dan McGee:
the pandemic. I remember coming to school, sitting in my office,
Dan McGee:
basically, with the door closed most of the day, having meetings
Dan McGee:
on zoom with people in the school, people just like tearing
Dan McGee:
up and being emotional about the whole situation, and if we see
Dan McGee:
that as a low point, I guess everything might be easier. But
Dan McGee:
really, I think the most important thing that keeps me
Dan McGee:
afloat, mentally and my colleagues as well, is just
Dan McGee:
having a good community around you and having people who you
Dan McGee:
can trust to lean on and support you. And I know in my
Dan McGee:
department, we have that my most recent hire was two years ago,
Dan McGee:
and the one that I hired before that was 2017 on the tech side.
Dan McGee:
So we have people who have a long time in my department, long
Dan McGee:
standing relationship. Relationships and a deep bench
Dan McGee:
of experience in independent schools like Hiram, you
Dan McGee:
mentioned those Help Desk roles, like my person in the Help Desk
Dan McGee:
role, he's worked as long as I have in independent schools. And
Dan McGee:
I think one of the benefits that's kind of helped me in
Dan McGee:
terms of centering like my own ethos, my own mood, is being
Dan McGee:
able to lean on those people who maybe they had a less senior
Dan McGee:
role originally, but their longevity in that role has sort
Dan McGee:
of bumped them up and allowed them to level up. But also me,
Dan McGee:
so I think that becomes visible, and I think the small wins that
Dan McGee:
you get, either personally or as a team, are very helpful. I
Dan McGee:
remember we had a teacher who left a couple years ago, and
Dan McGee:
when he left, he said, I've worked in a few schools. I've
Dan McGee:
never encountered a team like yours who've been so helpful and
Dan McGee:
so on top of things, what we need to do. You know, not
Dan McGee:
everything's perfect, but it's moments like that where you can
Dan McGee:
sense the trust and it feels good, especially when you have
Dan McGee:
like those low days where just everything you touch seems to
Dan McGee:
break or take three hours to do
Hiram Cuevas:
absolutely Dan, I'd like to pivot a little bit
Hiram Cuevas:
so you are new to the board and you have experienced your first
Hiram Cuevas:
board retreat. What excites you most about your potential career
Hiram Cuevas:
here on the board with ATLIS.
Christina Lewellen:
I mean, I know it's got to be the AX
Christina Lewellen:
throwing, right?
Dan McGee:
I was going to say the opposite. It's not the AX
Dan McGee:
throwing, because I was absolutely terrible at that,
Dan McGee:
although that was a lot of fun. You have some potential, yeah?
Dan McGee:
Well, we have our first Governance Committee meeting
Dan McGee:
this week, and I'm really excited about that, because I
Dan McGee:
see that as kind of a direct relationship to the work that I
Dan McGee:
do in the school. I'm definitely able to see how that
Dan McGee:
professional development that I'll be gaining through that
Dan McGee:
role with ATLIS is going to help me come back to Laurel and say,
Dan McGee:
Hey everybody, I've learned these strategies, and we can use
Dan McGee:
this right away, because I think it's important to be inward and
Dan McGee:
outwardly reflective, look and see what others are doing,
Dan McGee:
whether it's the ATLIS board, whether it's other schools and
Dan McGee:
really that opportunity, you can't put a price tag on that,
Dan McGee:
like I don't need to go and get another Master's degree or an
Dan McGee:
MBA. I just need to talk to everybody on this podcast, or
Dan McGee:
everybody who's listening to this podcast, because I'll be
Dan McGee:
able to learn so much. So I think the learning is really
Dan McGee:
what is key and what really is exciting about jumping into the
Dan McGee:
ATLIS board,
Bill Stites:
the service is the best professional development.
Bill Stites:
You'll get serving on a board as someone who is new to the board
Bill Stites:
this year as well. Last night, we had our first finance and
Bill Stites:
Facilities Committee Meeting of our board, and I've served on
Bill Stites:
that committee, on the facility side of it for quite a while,
Bill Stites:
but with ATLIS, I'll be serving on the Finance Committee, and
Bill Stites:
it's always been one of those black box areas where I'm like,
Bill Stites:
I kind of get it, but not really. And, you know, by the
Bill Stites:
time I'm at the board meeting, a lot of the discussions have
Bill Stites:
already been had, you know, in a lot of those areas. So I'm very
Bill Stites:
eager and interested for much of the same way that you're talking
Bill Stites:
about from a governance perspective, getting in and
Bill Stites:
being able to do the work a little bit more. I think it just
Bill Stites:
will help inform all of us. So it's my long winded way of
Bill Stites:
saying, if you think about serving, if you're interested in
Bill Stites:
serving, do it, because you'll get more out of it than you
Bill Stites:
could have ever
Dan McGee:
imagined, I think too a testament to Christina, the
Dan McGee:
board, everybody ATLIS staff, here's a little call back right
Dan McGee:
the onboarding for the board. I went to our executive assistant
Dan McGee:
to the head, and said, ATLIS has it figured out if we need to ask
Dan McGee:
anything about tech setup, those kinds of things, I know where I
Dan McGee:
can direct you and we can learn a lot. So that was really,
Dan McGee:
really great to see. And I mean, obviously this is a tech
Dan McGee:
bleeding edge organization, I would expect nothing less,
Dan McGee:
right? But it's there all of that stuff and more.
Christina Lewellen:
Well, thank you for that. And also, I mean,
Christina Lewellen:
a big part of that is that I not only report to a board as a CEO,
Christina Lewellen:
but I serve on boards, and I think that it makes me a better
Christina Lewellen:
leader in a staff capacity, because I've served on great
Christina Lewellen:
boards with healthy cultures and really buttoned up
Christina Lewellen:
communication, and I've served on really unhealthy boards with
Christina Lewellen:
terrible cultures, you know, and so it's important to me to
Christina Lewellen:
experience those, because then I can kind of bring that to the
Christina Lewellen:
table. So appreciate you saying that. So I have a question for
Christina Lewellen:
you about AI, and in particular, your background with language.
Christina Lewellen:
Obviously, there's a lot of advancement in the realm of
Christina Lewellen:
language, and for those immediate translations, we've
Christina Lewellen:
had the Google Translate plug in on our websites for a while and
Christina Lewellen:
things like that. But now there's actual tools that are
Christina Lewellen:
growing in popularity. They're being embedded into the other
Christina Lewellen:
tools we already use, let alone. You could just go to chat, GPT,
Christina Lewellen:
or whatever bot you prefer, and ask it to translate something so
Christina Lewellen:
especially as we talk about the need for a human and humanness
Christina Lewellen:
compared to the speed and efficiency and accessibility of
Christina Lewellen:
AI, where do you fall on the spectrum? Dan, like, do you feel
Christina Lewellen:
like you know your degree in German? I doubt you would do
Christina Lewellen:
that today. I doubt many kids will do that. Or do you think
Christina Lewellen:
I'm wrong? Do you think that there's still that human in the
Christina Lewellen:
loop, piece of it, that an AI bot or an automatic translating
Christina Lewellen:
technology is going to just not get right? It's pretty
Christina Lewellen:
impressive when you see some of these things where you know,
Christina Lewellen:
you'll upload a YouTube video, and you're speaking in English,
Christina Lewellen:
and then suddenly you the AI bot version of you is speaking
Christina Lewellen:
another language that you don't know. So it's moving quickly. So
Christina Lewellen:
I'm just curious what you think about all that.
Dan McGee:
Yeah, I mean, I don't know, honestly, if I had it to
Dan McGee:
do over again, if I would study German, but I also teach
Dan McGee:
computer science at the school, I don't know if I study computer
Dan McGee:
science either, which might be like a sinful thing to say, but
Dan McGee:
I've had ai do things for me, from a programming perspective,
Dan McGee:
that would have taken me months to do, and it's just like out of
Dan McGee:
the box a day later, good to go, ready to use. So I think the key
Dan McGee:
in that, though, is I knew kind of what I was doing, what I
Dan McGee:
needed. I knew how to interpret what it was giving me. And that
Dan McGee:
makes the human aspect, the human component, that much more
Dan McGee:
important. And kind of looping back to librarians, we think
Dan McGee:
about when the internet came out in force in schools and online
Dan McGee:
databases, you know, even think back to when Encarta was on like
Dan McGee:
a CD ROM, right? That didn't mean that a kid could just sit
Dan McGee:
there at a computer and look up something and then just be done
Dan McGee:
with it. They still need somebody who can explain it to
Dan McGee:
them. And AI is like a step forward with that, but it's
Dan McGee:
almost like an overeager teaching assistant, they're
Dan McGee:
going to be a yes man, yes woman, whatever, and kind of
Dan McGee:
just affirm whatever you already believe. So that makes it that
Dan McGee:
much more important again, for a human to be in the mix, and a
Dan McGee:
human that maybe is a little bit smarter than you or just a
Dan McGee:
little more seasoned than you, like I had a teacher in high
Dan McGee:
school that said, study with somebody smarter than you. I
Dan McGee:
think that applies in so many aspects of life, but it
Dan McGee:
definitely also applies here with AI, can you
Christina Lewellen:
tell us a little bit about where your
Christina Lewellen:
school stands? Yeah.
Dan McGee:
So personally, I'm never like an absolutist. I'm
Dan McGee:
more a pragmatist, middle of the road, and we jumped into AI, at
Dan McGee:
least in like a sandbox II kind of way, pretty early on. But we
Dan McGee:
didn't move super quickly to adopt tools. We wanted people to
Dan McGee:
really try things out. And I think that's really in the ethos
Dan McGee:
and the spirit of an independent school. Teachers and students
Dan McGee:
come to our schools because they want something different. They
Dan McGee:
want something more personalized, tailored to them.
Dan McGee:
And if we just sign on to a one size fits all box, basically,
Dan McGee:
that doesn't really fit with that. And I was just talking
Dan McGee:
with someone in the school earlier today, and I said, you
Dan McGee:
know, I'm really glad we didn't sign on with XYZ tool a couple
Dan McGee:
years ago, because I'm sure right now it would be in the Ed
Dan McGee:
Tech graveyard. So we have to be really measured and careful, and
Dan McGee:
that's what we've been doing, letting people try things out,
Dan McGee:
giving them some guidelines. Policies can be great, but I
Dan McGee:
don't think people ever read them. If you just tweak that
Dan McGee:
word and say, guidelines, I think it becomes much more
Dan McGee:
workable and much more helpful to kind of show people the path
Dan McGee:
and give them some possibilities. Like I had a
Dan McGee:
teacher come up to me yesterday and say, Okay, what was that
Dan McGee:
tool that you showed me right at the beginning of school during
Dan McGee:
meetings? And I said, Oh, it was Google's notebook, LM. And she
Dan McGee:
said I gave it a task that I thought it could never do. It
Dan McGee:
did it better than I could do and better than I thought it
Dan McGee:
could. And so I think that too shows that's kind of our
Dan McGee:
approach. Let people go there, try it out, and they're going to
Dan McGee:
learn more by doing it, and they're going to see the benefit
Dan McGee:
of it more than if I say this is a great thing, because I say it
Dan McGee:
often, I had a committee working with me this summer, committee
Dan McGee:
of teachers working on AI and I said, this is not the Dan group.
Dan McGee:
This is the AI group. And we're all talking about these things.
Dan McGee:
I'll bring you things to discuss, learn and talk about,
Dan McGee:
but I'm not dominating this conversation, because that's not
Dan McGee:
helpful for anybody, because we don't want this to be
Dan McGee:
personality dependent.
Hiram Cuevas:
Dan, do you have a student AI group or club?
Dan McGee:
We don't yet. That's something we definitely want to
Dan McGee:
do this year. We talked about that this summer. I think it's
Dan McGee:
really interesting, like when we've had conversations with
Dan McGee:
students about AI. So I mentioned I teach computer
Dan McGee:
science. Clients, I actually showed Google's notebook, LM, to
Dan McGee:
my students. I just gave them a test yesterday on their first
Dan McGee:
unit, and I said, Here's notebook. Lm, I loaded up all of
Dan McGee:
my slide decks, my lesson plans, all my materials for that unit,
Dan McGee:
and I gave it to them. And that kind of freaked them out a
Dan McGee:
little bit. Surprisingly, I turned on the little podcast
Dan McGee:
thing that it makes it's not going to put this podcast out of
Dan McGee:
business, but it's pretty good, right? They were freaked out by
Dan McGee:
it. Then there's even a video summary. Now that's relatively
Dan McGee:
new, and I think their sort of reticence about it is really
Dan McGee:
refreshing, and gives me hope that they're not just going to
Dan McGee:
sign on to these things and not think about it and think about
Dan McGee:
how it fits in their life.
Christina Lewellen:
Dan, we're at the beginning of a school
Christina Lewellen:
year. What is on tap for you this school year? Are you
Christina Lewellen:
looking forward to anything? Any big projects you're tackling?
Dan McGee:
Yeah, right now we're working through a network
Dan McGee:
project that just didn't get completed over the summer.
Dan McGee:
Sometimes it happens, we're replacing all of our switches in
Dan McGee:
our campus here in Shaker Heights, and that's a big,
Dan McGee:
ongoing project. The weird thing about it, as complex as it is
Dan McGee:
now, it's a little bit easier in some ways than it was five years
Dan McGee:
ago, two years ago, 15 years ago, and things are just a
Dan McGee:
little bit more plug and play, easy to use. That's a big
Dan McGee:
project. We're looking at our Wi Fi in general too. So relating
Dan McGee:
to the network, we're going to kick off a survey soon doing a
Dan McGee:
heat map of our school to make sure that we've got coverage set
Dan McGee:
the way it needs to be. And the terrifying aspect of that is
Dan McGee:
we're going to be looking at outside Wi Fi, exterior Wi Fi.
Dan McGee:
So we might need to hold a support group for me soon on
Dan McGee:
that, because that is a big topic.
Bill Stites:
Dan, let me tell you, if you need anyone to talk
Bill Stites:
to that was my past two summers, happy to jump on a call off of
Bill Stites:
the pod. That would be great and talk through all of this,
Bill Stites:
because there is a lot to all of it, for sure.
Hiram Cuevas:
Yeah, same here we have places, especially because
Hiram Cuevas:
of all the streaming of athletic events in the various locations
Hiram Cuevas:
on campus,
Dan McGee:
I found out we got a huddle camera yesterday, or
Dan McGee:
actually this morning. I said, Oh, that's new. What's that
Dan McGee:
power cable from? That's from our Hudson camera. Oh, okay,
Dan McGee:
cool. I didn't know about that.
Hiram Cuevas:
Watch that throughput on your internet
Hiram Cuevas:
connection. It's a resource hog.
Bill Stites:
It's great. How you find out about those things, not
Bill Stites:
that you were involved in the conversation, not that you were
Bill Stites:
discussed or consulted. It's like, oh, yeah, we got one of
Bill Stites:
these, or we have three of them. How are we gonna, you know,
Bill Stites:
like, yeah,
Dan McGee:
like, how do we get this to work? Wait, get what to
Dan McGee:
work. Yeah, the other big project, we're upping our
Dan McGee:
bandwidth to five gigs, so that will be a big improvement. Wow,
Dan McGee:
either this week or next week, jealous, it'll be really nice.
Dan McGee:
And it was cheaper than what we had before, which was really
Dan McGee:
something we're
Christina Lewellen:
gonna have to put that video up because
Christina Lewellen:
Hiram and Bill's reactions. Are you guys jealous? You want Dan's
Christina Lewellen:
bandwidth?
Hiram Cuevas:
100% sure. Why not stream everything 4k
Dan McGee:
I'll tell you offline how much it costs, and you'd be
Dan McGee:
surprised
Christina Lewellen:
see all you need to get these guys in a
Christina Lewellen:
better mood is just a little pod therapy.
Hiram Cuevas:
Sounds like a candle scent pod
Christina Lewellen:
therapy, I'm not sure I want to know what
Christina Lewellen:
your candle scent would be. I
Bill Stites:
don't want to smell that scent. It might smell like
Bill Stites:
whiskey, is all I'm saying. Probably smell like a chai latte
Dan McGee:
at this point of the year, it would just smell like
Dan McGee:
sweat and tears, maybe
Bill Stites:
smells like despair.
Christina Lewellen:
Well, my three unicorns. Thank you so
Christina Lewellen:
much, Dan. Thanks for being a part of the pod. It was great to
Christina Lewellen:
have you on and great to get to know a little bit more about
Christina Lewellen:
you. We love that you've joined the ATLIS board, so I know we'll
Christina Lewellen:
be spending some time together, and hope you've already reviewed
Christina Lewellen:
your agenda for the Governance Committee meeting. That's my
Christina Lewellen:
homework assignment to you. Absolutely awesome. Thank you so
Christina Lewellen:
much for being here. I really appreciate it.
Dan McGee:
Thanks. It was awesome to be here with all of
Dan McGee:
you.
Narrator:
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Narrator:
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Narrator:
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