Tech Talk and Personal Asks: AI, Advice, and Desert Island Picks From Our Hosts
This unique "Ask Us Anything" episode offers a blend of professional insights and personal revelations as technology leaders from independent schools answer questions about everything from AI literacy and data analysis to favorite mammals and dream barbershop quartets. Listen in for valuable advice on navigating challenges like burnout and technology integration, alongside lighthearted moments that reveal the personalities behind the podcast.
Resources
- South by Southwest EDU (SXSW EDU)
- CES - Consumer Electronics Show
- ATLIS (Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools)
- TLIS Certification (ATLIS)
- Educational Collaborators
- NJS - New Jersey Schools Cooperative Technology Group (assumed similar group)
- Flint AI (AI for students in a walled garden)
- Napkin.ai – Turn text into visuals
- EdWeek: Four Developmental Stages of Teaching AI
- SAMR Model (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition)
- TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge)
- OneRoster (IMS Global Standard)
- The Last of Us (HBO Series)
- Suits (TV Show)
- ER (TV Show)
- CHiPs (TV Show)
- Emergency! (TV Show)
- Magnum, P.I.
- Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
- Six the Musical
- Hamilton the Musical
- Harmony, Incorporated
- Legacy Quartet on YouTube (suggested based on mention)
- Origin of the term "computer crash" (related to early hard drive platters)
- Office Space Printer Scene (YouTube) [NSFW]
- Honey Badger Video (YouTube) [NSFW]
Transcript
Peter Frank 00:00:02
Phil, welcome to Talking Technology with ATLIS,
Peter Frank 00:00:05
the show that plugs you into the important topics and trends for
Peter Frank 00:00:08
technology leaders all through a unique Independent School lens.
Peter Frank 00:00:12
We'll hear stories from technology directors and other
Peter Frank 00:00:15
special guests from the Independent School community,
Peter Frank 00:00:17
and provide you with focused learning and deep dive topics.
Peter Frank 00:00:21
And now please welcome your host. Kristina Lewellen,
Christina Lewellen 00:00:25
Hello everyone, and welcome back to
Christina Lewellen 00:00:26
talking technology with Atlas. I'm Kristina Lewellen, the
Christina Lewellen 00:00:29
President and CEO of the Association of Technology
Christina Lewellen 00:00:32
Leaders in Independent Schools. And
Bill Stites 00:00:35
I'm Bill Stites, the Director of Technology at
Bill Stites 00:00:37
Montclair Kimberly Academy in Montclair, New Jersey,
Hiram Cuevas 00:00:40
and I'm Hiram Cuevas, Director of Information
Hiram Cuevas 00:00:42
Systems and Academic Technology at St Christopher school in
Hiram Cuevas 00:00:45
Richmond, Virginia.
Christina Lewellen 00:00:47
Hey guys, how's everything today going?
Christina Lewellen 00:00:49
Well? Yeah, that's all good. I am joining you from Austin,
Christina Lewellen 00:00:53
Texas, where I am currently attending South by Southwest
Christina Lewellen 00:00:56
edu. I think I've mentioned before that I try to attend at
Christina Lewellen 00:01:00
least one educational event per year, given that I'm not an
Christina Lewellen 00:01:04
educator, and it really helps me, I really try to focus in on
Christina Lewellen 00:01:08
the topics that are relevant to Atlas membership, and I learn a
Christina Lewellen 00:01:12
ton, and I meet cool people. We get great ideas for our
Christina Lewellen 00:01:15
conference. And so I'm wandering around among a bunch of
Christina Lewellen 00:01:19
educators, feeling a little out of my depth, if I'm honest, but
Christina Lewellen 00:01:22
I have been really enjoying it, and I'm only on day two, so I am
Christina Lewellen 00:01:26
hyped up and ready for this conversation today. This will
Unknown 00:01:30
be a fun one. I'm excited. Yeah,
Bill Stites 00:01:33
I wanted to go down there before I told you, right
Bill Stites 00:01:35
before we got on getting down to South by Southwest, the
Bill Stites 00:01:38
education track, I think, is something I've had on my bucket
Bill Stites 00:01:41
list for quite a while. I
Christina Lewellen 00:01:42
can't wait to tell you about it. I mean,
Christina Lewellen 00:01:44
I'm taking some notes, and I'll save materials for you that I'll
Christina Lewellen 00:01:47
share with you afterwards, because AI is just everywhere.
Christina Lewellen 00:01:51
It permeates every track, every session. But there's also just a
Christina Lewellen 00:01:56
lot of really cool topics that are more education specific,
Christina Lewellen 00:02:00
that maybe don't necessarily cross over into the technology
Christina Lewellen 00:02:02
realm. So if I had no technology affiliation, I would have a
Christina Lewellen 00:02:08
really difficult time figuring out where to go. But because of
Christina Lewellen 00:02:12
our connection with tech, I try to stay in that space. But
Christina Lewellen 00:02:16
there's just so much cool stuff down here. I just I love it.
Hiram Cuevas 00:02:19
Now, either of you attended CES, that's the
Hiram Cuevas 00:02:22
Consumer Electronic Show in Vegas, which is usually in
Hiram Cuevas 00:02:26
January. No So South by Southwest is one that I've
Hiram Cuevas 00:02:30
always wanted to go to, but I did manage to go to CES a few
Hiram Cuevas 00:02:34
years ago, and it's unreal, because it's all hardware and
Hiram Cuevas 00:02:38
different products that are either on the verge of going
Hiram Cuevas 00:02:42
live to the public or their prototypes. It's just fantastic.
Christina Lewellen 00:02:47
I can imagine you being on the show
Christina Lewellen 00:02:51
floor with no sunlight for days. Is that kind of how that show
Christina Lewellen 00:02:54
went?
Unknown 00:02:56
Absolutely. It was fabulous.
Bill Stites 00:02:58
It's in Vegas, so it could go in a lot of
Bill Stites 00:03:00
different directions. With Hiram there, I'm sure. Yeah, we stayed
Unknown 00:03:03
Planet Hollywood. There you go. I love it. Well,
Christina Lewellen 00:03:06
today, guys, we have no guest. Well, I guess
Christina Lewellen 00:03:09
we kind of have a guest because we are welcoming back to the
Christina Lewellen 00:03:12
podcast. Our producer, Peter Frank, Hello, Peter. How are
Christina Lewellen 00:03:15
you?
Peter Frank 00:03:16
Hey everybody. I'm well, good to be here. I mean,
Peter Frank 00:03:19
I'm here all the time, but you know, I'm actually talking this
Peter Frank 00:03:21
time. So
Christina Lewellen 00:03:24
once in a while, we take him off mute.
Christina Lewellen 00:03:27
Peter, we've asked to come join us today, because we have been
Christina Lewellen 00:03:31
promoting for a while, and ask us anything episode. And so I
Christina Lewellen 00:03:36
guess Peter, you've been the keeper of the questions. Have we
Christina Lewellen 00:03:39
received some good ones. Are people excited about this idea?
Peter Frank 00:03:43
Absolutely, yes. We have several questions here,
Peter Frank 00:03:46
from long time listeners, I assume that, yeah, some of them
Peter Frank 00:03:51
are techie. Some of them are less techie, but still
Peter Frank 00:03:56
interesting. They took the anything of the Ask Me Anything
Peter Frank 00:03:59
concept very seriously.
Christina Lewellen 00:04:02
I mean, I can expect nothing less of the
Christina Lewellen 00:04:05
Atlas community, our folks, if we say anything, they're like
Christina Lewellen 00:04:09
anything. All right, well, I'll turn it over to you. Then. Now
Christina Lewellen 00:04:12
you're in charge. All right. Let's start
Peter Frank 00:04:14
with something related to work and technology
Peter Frank 00:04:18
and why we're here. Dan McGee, who is Tila certified, by the
Peter Frank 00:04:22
way, Dan asks, What advice might you have for mid career
Peter Frank 00:04:25
technology leaders who still feel challenged in their career,
Peter Frank 00:04:28
but maybe looking for new challenges or ways to not become
Peter Frank 00:04:32
stagnant? That's one for anybody. I think what
Bill Stites 00:04:36
I have found is getting involved both, I'll say,
Bill Stites 00:04:39
inside, but also outside of your school, I think really helps,
Bill Stites 00:04:44
because speaking as someone who's got a very long tenure at
Bill Stites 00:04:47
a school, you get in certain routines. There's certain things
Bill Stites 00:04:50
that are consistent from year to year. There's certain things
Bill Stites 00:04:53
that change, but you've got almost blinders on as you're
Bill Stites 00:04:56
going through things, and it's it's only when I think you get
Bill Stites 00:04:59
out. Whether it's attending other conferences. I started
Bill Stites 00:05:03
going to NJ meetings, which is a New Jersey based educational
Bill Stites 00:05:08
cooperative thing here, and it was public schools and
Bill Stites 00:05:11
independent schools and the like, and starting there and
Bill Stites 00:05:13
attending those meetings and coming back with information,
Bill Stites 00:05:16
because again, you only see what you see when you're at your
Bill Stites 00:05:19
school. And that opened up the door to volunteering to helping
Bill Stites 00:05:23
to put together the conference again at the state level, then
Bill Stites 00:05:26
doing more with NJS, and then doing more with other people
Bill Stites 00:05:31
that you meet at these pieces, and then going from there.
Bill Stites 00:05:34
Because if you're not getting out of the building, you are
Bill Stites 00:05:38
going to become stagnant, because you don't know what else
Bill Stites 00:05:40
is out there and is possible. Hiram and I have gotten out
Bill Stites 00:05:44
there through educational collaborators and done some
Bill Stites 00:05:47
consulting work, if you can get in with that. That's some of the
Bill Stites 00:05:49
best PD, that I've done is the consulting work that I've done,
Bill Stites 00:05:53
but it also lets you hear from other people and experience
Bill Stites 00:05:57
different things that you don't get when you're just stuck in
Bill Stites 00:06:00
your your space.
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:02
One, I agree completely with everything Bill
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:04
said, but this is a position where you have the opportunity
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:08
to regularly reinvent yourself, because so much of what we do
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:15
changes on a regular basis. I mean, five years ago, who was
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:18
even engaging in conversations about AI who is actually
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:22
engaging in serious conversations about data,
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:26
information and institutional research. Now we're having some
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:30
really thoughtful conversations, and it's the kind of challenge
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:34
that you have to take on personally to grow. And
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:37
hopefully, if you have that growth mindset, it's very
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:40
natural. Otherwise, you do run the risk of becoming stagnant in
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:45
your environment, because it is pretty routine. And every year
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:49
the academic calendar is start of school, Christmas break, re
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:54
enrollment season, etc, and it kind of rinse and repeat. And so
Hiram Cuevas 00:06:58
I would say, make sure you get out like Bill mentioned, but
Hiram Cuevas 00:07:02
reinvent yourself with a new skill set, and that T list is
Hiram Cuevas 00:07:05
definitely a way to go.
Christina Lewellen 00:07:07
I'll just add that it's hard sometimes
Christina Lewellen 00:07:09
when you're at that midpoint in your career to see where to go
Christina Lewellen 00:07:13
next. Either you have too many options or you feel fairly
Christina Lewellen 00:07:16
limited by your options, but the trajectory is sometimes messy,
Christina Lewellen 00:07:21
like it doesn't always go in a straight line from A to B, and I
Christina Lewellen 00:07:24
think that most folks look back on their careers and say, Well,
Christina Lewellen 00:07:29
it all kind of made sense how I got here, but it sure didn't
Christina Lewellen 00:07:32
feel like that in the moment. So wherever you are in the moment,
Christina Lewellen 00:07:36
just know that this growth mindset definitely will take you
Christina Lewellen 00:07:38
to that next place, and there are different ways to get there.
Christina Lewellen 00:07:41
Just because Bill got there, or I got there or Hiram got there
Christina Lewellen 00:07:44
in a certain way doesn't mean that that's what's going to work
Christina Lewellen 00:07:46
for the person coming up behind us. So I think that there's a
Christina Lewellen 00:07:49
lot of ways and a lot of paths to walk to get to where you want
Christina Lewellen 00:07:52
to
Peter Frank 00:07:53
be. Indeed, that's great advice. We got serious
Peter Frank 00:07:55
real fast. That's good, because some of these questions are
Peter Frank 00:07:59
nonsense, but that's okay. That's gonna be fun. Speaking of
Peter Frank 00:08:02
silly, Hiram, we've got a question here for you, the
Peter Frank 00:08:06
person asking wish to remain anonymous, okay, oh, that's not
Peter Frank 00:08:10
good, but I'll tell you, when we get together in Atlanta at the
Peter Frank 00:08:13
conference, you can pull me aside. We'll have a beverage,
Peter Frank 00:08:16
and I'll tell you, okay, so Hiram, you are running a 5k
Peter Frank 00:08:23
which three people would you like to run the 5k with dead or
Peter Frank 00:08:29
alive, real or fictional? This
Hiram Cuevas 00:08:32
actually a pretty easy question. One would be
Hiram Cuevas 00:08:34
Louis Zamperini from the movie unforgiven. He was an Olympic
Hiram Cuevas 00:08:39
medalist in the 5k Billy Mills running brave, because when I
Hiram Cuevas 00:08:44
used to wear a flat top in college, a lot of people thought
Hiram Cuevas 00:08:48
I looked like Billy Mills. So that'd be pretty cool to run,
Hiram Cuevas 00:08:51
run with him, and then Sebastian co would be my third. Sebastian
Hiram Cuevas 00:08:56
CO was the British 1500 meter Olympic champion at 815 100
Hiram Cuevas 00:09:01
meters.
Christina Lewellen 00:09:02
So you're stacking your team like you got
Christina Lewellen 00:09:04
competitive. You didn't pick like people that you love. You
Christina Lewellen 00:09:07
didn't pick me. And Bill, no,
Unknown 00:09:09
I'm not gonna win. Trust me, I'm not gonna win this
Unknown 00:09:11
one.
Hiram Cuevas 00:09:13
This is Who would I want to run a 5k with, and
Hiram Cuevas 00:09:16
this is going to be a very pedestrian jog,
Unknown 00:09:19
or Yog, all right,
Unknown 00:09:21
all right, here's the problem. I'm
Hiram Cuevas 00:09:23
also 60 pounds heavier than I used to be in
Hiram Cuevas 00:09:25
college, so I was a buck 25 back in the day. All
Peter Frank 00:09:30
those people are too. You'd be fine. All right,
Peter Frank 00:09:33
let's talk about burnout. This is a question from shonder
Peter Frank 00:09:37
shondur Simon, how do you deal with burnout? How do you avoid
Peter Frank 00:09:40
it, recognize it, recover from it. All aspects
Christina Lewellen 00:09:44
we talk a lot about burnout and mental
Christina Lewellen 00:09:46
health, more than we ever have, and I think that there's some
Christina Lewellen 00:09:48
benefit in that, because at least we're talking about it and
Christina Lewellen 00:09:51
being vulnerable about it, and bringing our full picture to
Christina Lewellen 00:09:55
whether it's the workplace or our volunteer roles, but it's.
Christina Lewellen 00:10:00
Are because things have gotten more layered and complicated.
Christina Lewellen 00:10:02
Things are moving faster than they ever have. The best piece
Christina Lewellen 00:10:06
of advice I got not too long ago from my executive coach is to
Christina Lewellen 00:10:11
vacation in the small moments, meaning I can't always turn
Christina Lewellen 00:10:16
everything off and go on a two week vacation. Last year, I
Christina Lewellen 00:10:19
famously tried to go up to my parents lake house, and it was
Christina Lewellen 00:10:24
failcation 2024 that lasted for about three days, and then I was
Christina Lewellen 00:10:28
working. And I don't take pride in that, by the way, I say it
Christina Lewellen 00:10:31
out loud, because it's kind of embarrassing that I couldn't
Christina Lewellen 00:10:33
even manage to stay unplugged for a couple of weeks. So
Christina Lewellen 00:10:37
instead, this year, I'm giving myself some grace, and part of
Christina Lewellen 00:10:40
how I'm mitigating burnout is to find vacation in small moments.
Christina Lewellen 00:10:47
I will just say, without getting too overly sentimental, that
Christina Lewellen 00:10:51
works for me, because mentally, I believe a marriage is built in
Christina Lewellen 00:10:56
the small moments, not in the grand gestures. My husband and I
Christina Lewellen 00:11:00
tend to like overlook things like our anniversary or
Christina Lewellen 00:11:03
birthdays. We don't do big showy things, but we really try to
Christina Lewellen 00:11:07
work on our relationship and our connection in these very, very
Christina Lewellen 00:11:11
small moments that we have amidst a really busy life. So to
Christina Lewellen 00:11:15
me, the idea of vacationing in small moments. So I also think
Christina Lewellen 00:11:18
fighting the burnout in small moments might be the way we all
Christina Lewellen 00:11:21
have to do it. Like, who has time to, like, stop in the
Christina Lewellen 00:11:24
middle of a busy day and do some of these techniques, meditate or
Christina Lewellen 00:11:29
go to a yoga class every five minutes, like, whatever those
Christina Lewellen 00:11:31
traditional measures are, get a massage or go on vacation. I
Christina Lewellen 00:11:35
mean, even getting ready for vacation can be really
Christina Lewellen 00:11:37
stressful. Coming back from vacation can be really
Christina Lewellen 00:11:40
stressful. So I think just finding smaller definitions of
Christina Lewellen 00:11:44
peace or comfort or things that refill your cup, I
Bill Stites 00:11:48
mean, I think to that end when you can find the
Bill Stites 00:11:51
time to truly unplug. Because I think that's the hardest thing
Bill Stites 00:11:55
being in this type of position in a school to do, because the
Bill Stites 00:12:00
only time where I know that I get that time, and Hiram
Bill Stites 00:12:04
mentioned it earlier, is during our winter breaks, because
Bill Stites 00:12:08
that's the only time where the school is actually shut down.
Bill Stites 00:12:12
When you have those opportunities to truly unplug
Bill Stites 00:12:15
because no one's working, that's really important to prioritize
Bill Stites 00:12:19
those so that's something I always do on an annual basis,
Bill Stites 00:12:24
because it allows me to really not open the laptop, not open
Bill Stites 00:12:28
email, because I know there's no one else that's really sending
Bill Stites 00:12:31
me anything during those times. But Kristina, to your point
Bill Stites 00:12:35
about finding those smaller moments, or those individual
Bill Stites 00:12:38
times where you can step away, and if you can do that, I'm
Bill Stites 00:12:42
literally just getting back from a long weekend up in Vermont,
Bill Stites 00:12:46
getting out and getting that time, and I think that's one of
Bill Stites 00:12:49
the things, because of my schedule here, I can actually
Bill Stites 00:12:53
afford to do that. But the one biggest thing, I would say with
Bill Stites 00:12:57
avoiding burnout is recognizing that it's something that we can
Bill Stites 00:13:02
now talk about a little bit more openly than we might have
Bill Stites 00:13:05
before, and then reaching out and asking for help, whether
Bill Stites 00:13:10
that's amongst the people at your school, or whether it's out
Bill Stites 00:13:14
to the community as a whole. I think where when I found myself
Bill Stites 00:13:18
in that burnout position is where I was frustrated with
Bill Stites 00:13:22
something I didn't have answers for. And I think once you've
Bill Stites 00:13:25
expanded out your circle, you can mitigate that burnout a lot
Bill Stites 00:13:30
easier, because you can share about that and get answers, and
Bill Stites 00:13:34
maybe not get answers, but just that, this is a problem that
Bill Stites 00:13:37
we're all dealing with, and we're still dealing with it. And
Bill Stites 00:13:39
if I'm feeling particularly weighed down by it, maybe I
Bill Stites 00:13:42
shouldn't, because it's something that everyone is
Bill Stites 00:13:46
trying to figure out as well, and it's not just me.
Hiram Cuevas 00:13:50
I've had to retrain myself, because I think
Hiram Cuevas 00:13:53
there are times where you feel in our roles, you just got to
Hiram Cuevas 00:13:57
keep pushing. There's always something to do. Your
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:00
notifications are going off, and you're seeing the detriment that
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:03
it's done to our youth, but it's been doing it to our generation
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:08
for quite some time now. Even pre smartphone, it's really easy
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:12
to get caught up on that treadmill and not have an escape
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:16
route. So it has to be very intentional to retrain yourself
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:20
to say, You know what? We're going to turn this off. We're
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:23
not going to worry about it. I'm going to spend some quality time
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:26
with family, friends, the outdoors, whatever it is that's
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:30
cathartic to you, such that you can come back to the workforce
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:36
rejuvenated. Because if you come back and you're exhausted,
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:39
nobody's really winning, and all you're doing is jumping one step
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:43
up and then falling back too, because your overall wellness is
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:49
in the hopper. I've had to be really cognizant of it, and it
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:53
reminded me, back when I was competing, we would do a lot of
Hiram Cuevas 00:14:55
visualization prior to races, and it's actually a. Very good
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:00
technique to use to kind of anticipate what you're going to
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:04
go through during a particular event, and you can easily
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:08
connect that to the workplace. So by the same token, it's all
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:12
right now I've got to visualize what it's like to relax and
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:16
Bill. I don't know if Brooke does this to you, but when I
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:19
have nothing to do. My wife looks at me. She goes, You don't
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:23
know how to relax anymore. And I'm like, I'm trying. I'm trying
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:27
really, really hard, especially the first few days of a
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:30
vacation. You're kind of like, I just don't know what to do. And
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:34
this happened in Arizona. We were sitting out by the pool.
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:37
She's like, it's okay to relax. It's okay to relax. I was like,
Hiram Cuevas 00:15:40
All right, I got this. It's all good.
Unknown 00:15:42
I don't
Bill Stites 00:15:42
have that problem. Surprise, surprise. Now it's
Bill Stites 00:15:46
like, there are times where, you know, it's just like, on the
Bill Stites 00:15:49
weekends in particular, Brooke will be grading papers. She'll
Bill Stites 00:15:51
be doing different things. I will have gone to the gym, run a
Bill Stites 00:15:54
couple hands, and then I'm taking a nap. Both my parents
Bill Stites 00:15:56
were teachers. My father would come home at the end of the day,
Bill Stites 00:15:58
almost every day, and go upstairs and take a nap at the
Bill Stites 00:16:01
end of the day. And I would always look at them. I'm like,
Bill Stites 00:16:04
What are you doing? Like, I mean, seriously, like, how tough
Bill Stites 00:16:06
can it be? Like, what are you doing? And I remember teaching
Bill Stites 00:16:10
the first year or two I had my teaching job, I would come home
Bill Stites 00:16:12
and I would pass out. I would take that nap. I remember
Bill Stites 00:16:16
talking to my father, and I'm like, I get it. So it's
Bill Stites 00:16:19
definitely one of those things, where, as Christina said, You
Bill Stites 00:16:22
got to find the time in the moments. Yeah,
Peter Frank 00:16:24
I'm with you there, Bill, I think, like Christina
Peter Frank 00:16:26
said, it's so personal. It is something that you need to
Peter Frank 00:16:29
figure out for yourself, but it helps to talk to others and hear
Peter Frank 00:16:32
how they do it. And maybe you find an idea that works for you,
Peter Frank 00:16:35
but it is such a personal thing put on with Bill, if I need a
Peter Frank 00:16:38
nap, I can take a nap. I app. We thank you Chandra for that
Peter Frank 00:16:44
question. That's a good question. We got heavy there.
Peter Frank 00:16:47
That's really good. Lot of substance. We'll ruin that for a
Peter Frank 00:16:50
second here, and we'll go off to another one of the sillier
Peter Frank 00:16:53
questions here in our Ask Me Anything episode. So this is for
Peter Frank 00:16:57
Bill, but others could chime in if you were living in the world
Peter Frank 00:17:01
of The Last of Us television adaptation for how many episodes
Peter Frank 00:17:06
would you actually survive? Well,
Bill Stites 00:17:09
I'm only going to be worth my medal if I say I
Bill Stites 00:17:11
think I can make it to the end. I think I could get to the fort
Bill Stites 00:17:14
at the end. I've got to believe that the research that I've done
Bill Stites 00:17:18
up into this point has led me to that. However, I think it's
Bill Stites 00:17:22
eight episodes. There's one in the sixth where I think I might
Bill Stites 00:17:26
not make it, which is where zombies are literally coming up
Bill Stites 00:17:30
from the underground and going out. And it's a total free for
Bill Stites 00:17:35
all. So if I was going to bite it in any one place, it would be
Bill Stites 00:17:39
there, probably due to somebody else causing my untimely demise.
Bill Stites 00:17:46
And I'd probably blame Hiram running past me, because he'd be
Bill Stites 00:17:49
running faster, and he would just simply push me into the
Bill Stites 00:17:53
pile and keep running straight ahead. I'd never do that. I'm
Bill Stites 00:17:58
slow man. You'd be pushing me out of my way, you old man, and
Bill Stites 00:18:02
you'd re push me, and I'd be in the pile, then I'd be gone.
Peter Frank 00:18:05
You'd be cursing hiram's name. I would be
Peter Frank 00:18:08
goodness. So the last of us, just to help our listeners out,
Peter Frank 00:18:11
that's a TV show based on a video game, right? Yep, and
Bill Stites 00:18:14
it's funny, because just to prove how committed we
Bill Stites 00:18:17
are in the state's household, my young son Craig, has a tattoo of
Bill Stites 00:18:23
part of The Last of Us on his shoulder. It's his only tattoo.
Bill Stites 00:18:28
It is his favorite show, and he's got a firefly tattooed on
Bill Stites 00:18:32
his shoulder because he was so enamored with all that.
Unknown 00:18:36
Well done, Craig, I haven't seen that yet. Yeah, it
Bill Stites 00:18:40
was hard to say no, because Dad's got two. Sean has
Bill Stites 00:18:43
one, and now Craig has one. So yeah. So Brooke is the clean
Bill Stites 00:18:48
canvas she is. She talks about it, but just can't bring herself
Bill Stites 00:18:52
to do it. She hates needles.
Peter Frank 00:18:54
A TV show you would like to live in, Hiram and
Peter Frank 00:18:56
Christina. Is there a TV show that you I would love to live in
Peter Frank 00:18:59
that show? Whether you survive or not, well you probably will.
Peter Frank 00:19:03
Suits Excellent.
Christina Lewellen 00:19:05
That was another path in my life. So I
Christina Lewellen 00:19:07
feel like I love suits, I love the puzzle, and I feel like the
Christina Lewellen 00:19:12
outfits and the heels are fabulous, and I feel like I
Christina Lewellen 00:19:14
could be a pretty killer lawyer.
Unknown 00:19:16
There you go. Hiram. Er, wow. Er, why? Er, I always
Unknown 00:19:23
wanted
Unknown 00:19:23
to be a doctor.
Bill Stites 00:19:24
You're both wrong. It's Lifestyles of the Rich and
Bill Stites 00:19:28
fast.
Peter Frank 00:19:31
Wow, because that's going to
Bill Stites 00:19:33
put me at a certain level. Now, you got to be at a
Bill Stites 00:19:34
certain level to be on that show, and that just puts you at
Bill Stites 00:19:37
that level.
Unknown 00:19:38
All right, let me take the clock back a little
Unknown 00:19:40
bit. Chips. Ooh, wow. Chips, yep. All right,
Bill Stites 00:19:47
the younger audience is not gonna know any
Bill Stites 00:19:49
of these things. No,
Peter Frank 00:19:51
there's so many links going in the show notes at
Peter Frank 00:19:53
this point.
Christina Lewellen 00:19:54
Do you think that young girls listen to this?
Christina Lewellen 00:19:56
I'm pretty sure everyone who listens knows what chips is.
Christina Lewellen 00:19:59
Guys. Sorry, you think?
Unknown 00:20:02
Yes, I don't know. How about Louis too low? You think
Unknown 00:20:05
Louis too low knows what chips is. I bet
Unknown 00:20:07
he does. Chips
Bill Stites 00:20:08
from the late 70s, early 80s. Chips, yes. Why would
Bill Stites 00:20:12
they know what this is?
Christina Lewellen 00:20:13
Because they were raised by a bunch of dudes.
Christina Lewellen 00:20:15
Louis too low, please drop a comment. I'm betting money right
Christina Lewellen 00:20:19
now. Do not let me down, sir, we're reaching out. We'll find
Christina Lewellen 00:20:22
out. Somebody text him right now.
Peter Frank 00:20:24
Louis probably knows.
Hiram Cuevas 00:20:26
I'll be Eric Estrada and Bill could be Larry
Hiram Cuevas 00:20:28
Wilcox.
Peter Frank 00:20:31
I'm gonna get AI on that right now, generating that
Peter Frank 00:20:33
video. Or Bill and
Unknown 00:20:35
I could be the firefighters in emergency.
Unknown 00:20:40
Wow. Kristina could be Dixie. Oh,
Bill Stites 00:20:43
my god, stop next question, please. Next question.
Peter Frank 00:20:48
I'll be Magnum PI great. There you go. Back to
Peter Frank 00:20:53
technology. This is talking technology with
Christina Lewellen 00:20:56
Atlas, not today. It's not Oh, my Lord.
Christina Lewellen 00:20:59
We're gonna
Peter Frank 00:21:00
bring it back for our listeners that are about to
Peter Frank 00:21:02
get off the treadmill or whatever they're doing. I'll ask
Peter Frank 00:21:04
this specific question. Then I'll introduce some of these
Peter Frank 00:21:07
other notes that our listener, Lizzie has provided for us. So
Peter Frank 00:21:11
the question is about supporting developmentally appropriate AI
Peter Frank 00:21:16
literacy skills for those student groups who are too young
Peter Frank 00:21:20
to actually use the AI. So for example, Lizzie is mentioning,
Peter Frank 00:21:24
it seems like there's a void of conversation around the K
Peter Frank 00:21:27
through eight setting, where, obviously these students may be
Peter Frank 00:21:29
too young for most user agreements to use the technology
Peter Frank 00:21:34
at all. But shouldn't we still be developing AI literacy in
Peter Frank 00:21:37
these age groups, even if they can't use it yet. So thoughts
Peter Frank 00:21:41
about that this, ask me anything episode might turn into a ideas
Peter Frank 00:21:44
for future episodes, because that might be something we could
Peter Frank 00:21:48
talk about for an entire hour
Hiram Cuevas 00:21:50
there. Well, there are plenty of applications in
Hiram Cuevas 00:21:53
which it's that walled garden for the younger groups. So there
Hiram Cuevas 00:21:58
is availability. And one that comes to mind is Flint AI. You
Hiram Cuevas 00:22:02
can actually create these safe havens, essentially for your
Hiram Cuevas 00:22:06
students, and the output can be based on grade level as well. So
Hiram Cuevas 00:22:11
you actually are catering the prompt to what you want your
Hiram Cuevas 00:22:15
outcome to be for a specific group of students, which also
Hiram Cuevas 00:22:19
then lends itself to differentiation as well. You can
Hiram Cuevas 00:22:22
actually see what kind of work your students are doing in terms
Hiram Cuevas 00:22:26
of developing their own tutorials. There are some tools
Hiram Cuevas 00:22:29
out there that enable you the capacity to use them in a safe
Hiram Cuevas 00:22:34
way and appropriate way. I
Bill Stites 00:22:36
would go to first wanting to define what we're
Bill Stites 00:22:39
talking about when we're talking about AI usage, because it's
Bill Stites 00:22:43
been around in various forms for quite a while. Are we talking
Bill Stites 00:22:47
about it in the 2024, 2025, school year iteration of the
Bill Stites 00:22:52
conversations around AI? Are we talking about it in the AI
Bill Stites 00:22:56
pieces that are built into some of the tools that we're using?
Bill Stites 00:22:59
So wanting to understand where that is. But to Hiram, was point
Bill Stites 00:23:03
about finding those walled gardens, finding those areas
Bill Stites 00:23:06
that I think are safe for use at those younger years. The other
Bill Stites 00:23:11
thing that you mentioned Hiram, that I would want to build on is
Bill Stites 00:23:16
you talked about what the prompt is, and a lot of the ways in
Bill Stites 00:23:20
which I talk about how you want to think about technology
Bill Stites 00:23:23
integration, for me, centers around the research cycle,
Bill Stites 00:23:27
because that can go across multiple areas, English, foreign
Bill Stites 00:23:30
language. It can go anywhere, you know, when you're talking
Bill Stites 00:23:33
about research, and when it comes to research, the prompt or
Bill Stites 00:23:36
the question, what is it that I'm asking? I think if you can
Bill Stites 00:23:41
think about developing those skills, I think that is part of
Bill Stites 00:23:47
what can lead into the later uses of AI. I forget who said
Bill Stites 00:23:53
it. It may have been on the podcast we were talking about
Bill Stites 00:23:56
it, or something I had heard elsewhere in this age, where you
Bill Stites 00:24:00
can get your answers out of AI, it's about how meaningful Your
Bill Stites 00:24:06
questions are, that you can pose that in a lot of ways
Bill Stites 00:24:11
demonstrate your understanding and your knowledge of a
Bill Stites 00:24:17
particular area, if you could Ask that deeper level of
Bill Stites 00:24:21
question. And I think if we can work with our youngest students,
Bill Stites 00:24:25
and our students of all ages but our youngest students, to
Bill Stites 00:24:28
develop that mindset, that research mindset, in that area,
Bill Stites 00:24:32
where and when appropriate, I think that's where I would
Bill Stites 00:24:35
focus. Because again, put my third grade school teacher at on
Bill Stites 00:24:38
we would be working in the analog before we move to the
Bill Stites 00:24:41
digital that, I think is the same corollary I'd make between,
Bill Stites 00:24:45
you know, jumping into a full AI based prompt engineering type
Bill Stites 00:24:49
thing. You need to know how to ask a good question first. And
Bill Stites 00:24:51
let's start there.
Hiram Cuevas 00:24:52
What's interesting there is our librarians
Hiram Cuevas 00:24:56
typically do a fantastic job peer here. Um. Helping students
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:02
develop those questions, because we're not asking our kids to go
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:05
to Google to do searches when it comes to research, we're asking
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:09
to use vetted tools, vetted database systems that are
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:12
present within our libraries. And they have been doing this
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:16
for years, and it's built a wonderful foundation, and it's
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:19
actually a natural extension to using AI in the classroom. It's
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:24
something that I have held our librarians in high esteem for
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:28
the work that they have been doing over the years, because
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:31
our kids talk about the validity of the information that they're
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:35
getting, the veracity of the information that they're
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:37
acquiring online, and that's because of the work that all of
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:41
our librarians have been doing over the years to improve their
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:44
research skills. So I think 100% you're nailing it right on the
Hiram Cuevas 00:25:48
head with timing, with your research cycles. Yeah, Bill,
Christina Lewellen 00:25:51
I'm pretty sure that was Richard gullata
Christina Lewellen 00:25:53
That was pointing out on the podcast the importance of asking
Christina Lewellen 00:25:56
questions. So I think that's where that came from. And I'll
Christina Lewellen 00:25:58
just say that what I've been seeing Lizzie as I've been
Christina Lewellen 00:26:01
traveling around, is that the scaffolding we're talking about
Christina Lewellen 00:26:04
is important that where we can't necessarily hook a third grader
Christina Lewellen 00:26:07
up with Chat GPT, that's not appropriate, but what we can
Christina Lewellen 00:26:11
hook a third grader up with is understanding how to be a
Christina Lewellen 00:26:13
discerning consumer of the information that they get from
Christina Lewellen 00:26:17
these various sources. You have to be a questioner, and you have
Christina Lewellen 00:26:19
to make sure that you know how these platforms are working. And
Christina Lewellen 00:26:24
so there is an opportunity for us down the path of digital
Christina Lewellen 00:26:27
citizenship that we can maybe ramp that up a little bit to
Christina Lewellen 00:26:31
prepare kids, once they are eligible, to use more public
Christina Lewellen 00:26:36
facing AI bots and things like that, generative AI.
Unknown 00:26:39
I'll also
Peter Frank 00:26:40
mention, Lizzie included a link to an article
Peter Frank 00:26:43
that she liked from Ed week.org about four developmental stages
Peter Frank 00:26:48
for teaching AI, age appropriate use of AI. So we will include
Peter Frank 00:26:51
that in the show notes. All right, we have a question that
Peter Frank 00:26:55
is both relevant and fun, and it's for Christina. There's been
Peter Frank 00:27:00
plenty for the guys. We'll give Christina a question here. So as
Peter Frank 00:27:05
someone who joined an organization full of tech folks
Peter Frank 00:27:08
and educators who like their acronyms and jargon, it says
Peter Frank 00:27:14
like but it's love, isn't it? They love their acronyms and
Peter Frank 00:27:17
jargon. Of all these acronyms and jargon, Kristina, which do
Peter Frank 00:27:21
you find the most nonsensical or notable, or which acronyms and
Peter Frank 00:27:26
jargon to really stand out to you? Gosh, that's
Christina Lewellen 00:27:29
a really good question. I can't even name
Christina Lewellen 00:27:32
them, but I think it's educator stuff that still baffles me,
Peter Frank 00:27:35
like the framework, like T pack. Yes, T pack, that's
Peter Frank 00:27:39
fun. It's fun to say T pack.
Christina Lewellen 00:27:41
There's certain like pedagogical
Christina Lewellen 00:27:43
approaches to how to deliver something that still baffles me,
Christina Lewellen 00:27:47
because I definitely have not done a deep dive in that space,
Christina Lewellen 00:27:50
but for the most part, the tech stuff I kind of can keep up
Christina Lewellen 00:27:53
with. I thought I was going to be lost in the API conversation
Christina Lewellen 00:27:57
or the one roster conversation, but I can generally find a way
Christina Lewellen 00:28:00
to connect that to, like, normal, you know, I love a good
Christina Lewellen 00:28:04
metaphor. I love a good analogy. So generally speaking, I can
Christina Lewellen 00:28:07
keep up, but I think that the teaching stuff still kind of
Christina Lewellen 00:28:10
baffles me a little bit. Samer, yeah. Samer, I mean, what is
Christina Lewellen 00:28:16
SAMR like now that I've said that word out loud, I'm sure
Christina Lewellen 00:28:18
that my phone is going to deliver me some Sam or
Christina Lewellen 00:28:21
materials, but, like, I still don't even know what that
Bill Stites 00:28:26
is, a good RACI chart. You know Christine is
Bill Stites 00:28:28
like, I'm just shaking my head. I have no idea what these people
Bill Stites 00:28:31
are talking about.
Peter Frank 00:28:32
What are acronyms that we've lost over the years?
Peter Frank 00:28:35
Like, are there acronyms that, man, no one. We don't use that
Peter Frank 00:28:37
anymore because the technology's gotten none
Bill Stites 00:28:39
that I can use on the podcast I know right,
Christina Lewellen 00:28:46
probably something to do with like wires
Christina Lewellen 00:28:48
or switches or servers on prem type stuff. There's got to be
Christina Lewellen 00:28:52
something in there that we don't use quite as often, maybe, well,
Hiram Cuevas 00:28:55
they're terms that we don't use very often, like
Hiram Cuevas 00:28:58
floppy floppy disk.
Christina Lewellen 00:29:01
Don't say that ever again on this. No. But
Christina Lewellen 00:29:03
you know what
Bill Stites 00:29:04
the funny thing is, is some people, I remember
Bill Stites 00:29:07
seeing this or hitting this somewhere, is that in some of
Bill Stites 00:29:10
the Microsoft products that the two of you, Kristina and Peter,
Bill Stites 00:29:13
love so much, the save icon is still a disc, right? And like,
Bill Stites 00:29:17
people like, what is that? Why is what is that?
Christina Lewellen 00:29:21
They don't know what that is. Kids don't
Christina Lewellen 00:29:22
know what that is. They
Unknown 00:29:24
know what means save, but they don't know why.
Hiram Cuevas 00:29:26
Now, Kristina, do you know the origin of the
Hiram Cuevas 00:29:29
phrase my computer crashed? No. So the old computers had these
Hiram Cuevas 00:29:34
massive platters for hard drives, and when that armature
Hiram Cuevas 00:29:37
fell, it made this horrendous sound. Hence the crash. Oh
Christina Lewellen 00:29:42
my gosh. If that were to happen to me while
Christina Lewellen 00:29:45
I was working on a computer, I would probably be traumatized,
Christina Lewellen 00:29:48
like I would be just waiting for that noise. Do you still hear it
Christina Lewellen 00:29:51
in the back of your head? Hiram,
Hiram Cuevas 00:29:54
well, I've never had a platter that large that
Hiram Cuevas 00:29:57
even predates me my first computer. Was a Commodore 64
Hiram Cuevas 00:30:01
which had a five and a quarter inch drive.
Bill Stites 00:30:04
And people are asked, What does that mean in
Bill Stites 00:30:06
terms of like the Commodore, right? Well, no, the five and a
Bill Stites 00:30:09
half the size of the discs, that's how you talked about
Bill Stites 00:30:12
them, right?
Unknown 00:30:13
Yeah, and it truly was floppy. It bent, right? I've
Unknown 00:30:17
been around
Peter Frank 00:30:17
those platters. My father worked at General
Peter Frank 00:30:19
Electric, and he was in Computer Services, and I remember as a
Peter Frank 00:30:22
kid walking through kid walking through those rooms, and I could
Peter Frank 00:30:24
imagine one crashing. That's my favorite thing I've ever learned
Peter Frank 00:30:27
on this podcast. I think ever that's why we say computers
Peter Frank 00:30:30
crash. I had no idea, Bill, did you know that? I did not. Well
Peter Frank 00:30:34
done. Hiram. Point to Hiram.
Christina Lewellen 00:30:36
Hiram wins. He wins the show. Very well
Christina Lewellen 00:30:39
done, sir. You won the 5k and now you've won the show. It's
Christina Lewellen 00:30:42
all fine.
Hiram Cuevas 00:30:43
Now, Bill, have you ever notched the other side
Hiram Cuevas 00:30:45
of a floppy disk? Oh,
Bill Stites 00:30:47
yeah. Oh, 100% I was gonna say that when you were
Bill Stites 00:30:49
mentioning that, I can remember notching them out. Yeah?
Bill Stites 00:30:52
Remember putting tape on them so you could go back over it.
Unknown 00:30:55
I've done that too. So you went
Hiram Cuevas 00:30:57
from 360k to 720k and you're like, Oh, this is
Hiram Cuevas 00:31:01
awesome.
Unknown 00:31:04
Oh yeah, yep. All right,
Peter Frank 00:31:06
so we'll bring it back to Atlas here. This is for
Peter Frank 00:31:08
all three of you. What is your favorite Atlas, annual
Peter Frank 00:31:12
conference tradition, steak. We're celebrating our 10th
Peter Frank 00:31:17
anniversary this year of the annual conference. What's your
Peter Frank 00:31:21
favorite annual tradition that you can speak freely about on
Peter Frank 00:31:25
this public listening podcast, steak with Bill.
Christina Lewellen 00:31:31
Nice. Do you guys always go for steaks? Why
Christina Lewellen 00:31:33
was I never invited for steaks? Who's paying for these steaks?
Christina Lewellen 00:31:38
They are gluten free. Oh, I'm aware. I'm very aware. I get a
Christina Lewellen 00:31:44
little sentimental about the pillar awards because I really
Christina Lewellen 00:31:49
just think it's very special that our members are being
Christina Lewellen 00:31:52
recognized for a lifetime of work and contributions. I love
Christina Lewellen 00:31:57
that we're expanding that this year to include the Atlas Aspire
Christina Lewellen 00:32:00
award so that we can recognize even more people in our space
Christina Lewellen 00:32:04
who are doing great work. I also find it really fun to just
Christina Lewellen 00:32:08
wander around during the receptions. I think that when I
Christina Lewellen 00:32:12
attend other industry events, the networking receptions are
Christina Lewellen 00:32:16
always a little meh, and people leave no I mean, at Atlas, do
Christina Lewellen 00:32:20
you know that Kelsea last year had to put closing time on a
Christina Lewellen 00:32:24
speaker and walk through the vendor Hall to basically say,
Christina Lewellen 00:32:28
could you guys go get dinner somewhere? Could you all leave?
Christina Lewellen 00:32:31
No one leaves. And that also, it's kind of silly, and it's not
Christina Lewellen 00:32:35
really a tradition, but it really touches me that we create
Christina Lewellen 00:32:38
the kind of community that no one is rushing out the door.
Christina Lewellen 00:32:42
It's not like they show up and do a loop and then leave. That's
Christina Lewellen 00:32:46
pretty satisfying. I
Bill Stites 00:32:47
would agree 100% this even honestly, predates
Bill Stites 00:32:51
Atlas, and I'll just say Inman, because wherever Alex Inman ends
Bill Stites 00:32:57
up, you're definitely in for a good time, and probably a show.
Bill Stites 00:33:03
If you've never seen in men do the worm you haven't been to a
Bill Stites 00:33:07
Atlas event. But for me, one of the things that I always try to
Bill Stites 00:33:11
do is find time outside of the sessions to sit down. You know,
Bill Stites 00:33:16
I will be up and out late downstairs, in like the lobbies,
Bill Stites 00:33:20
where you can sit down and talk to people all hours of the
Bill Stites 00:33:23
evening, you know, and have those pieces. And Kristina, I
Bill Stites 00:33:26
think it speaks to what you said, is that when we're
Bill Stites 00:33:29
together, we're together, you don't see people going out. I
Bill Stites 00:33:33
mean, people are going out, don't get me wrong, but I mean,
Bill Stites 00:33:35
like going out on their own and separating from the group, if
Bill Stites 00:33:38
you're going out, you're going out in a pack, if it's a small
Bill Stites 00:33:42
pack, or if it's a large pack, you're always cramming people
Bill Stites 00:33:46
into a car that might be too small and going out for food, or
Bill Stites 00:33:50
getting together at the end of the night, or going out to one
Bill Stites 00:33:53
of the vendor receptions or the Atlas reception, and really
Bill Stites 00:33:56
having those times. If
Christina Lewellen 00:33:58
I could just say one quick thing about that,
Christina Lewellen 00:34:00
one of the things that I want to just make known, if you're
Christina Lewellen 00:34:02
fairly new to the Atlas community or this is not your
Christina Lewellen 00:34:05
experience, like, if you haven't really found your crowd, one of
Christina Lewellen 00:34:08
the things that my staff will often do if you let us know why
Christina Lewellen 00:34:12
you're there, like, Why did you come to Atlas? Why did you pay
Christina Lewellen 00:34:15
the money and take off a school and deal with the full inbox? If
Christina Lewellen 00:34:18
you come tell my team why you are there. We will connect you
Christina Lewellen 00:34:23
with people who can help you, and we will introduce you to
Christina Lewellen 00:34:26
people, especially Kelsea Watson man. She is crazy like this. If
Christina Lewellen 00:34:30
she knows what your vibe is, she will introduce you to 10 more
Christina Lewellen 00:34:34
people just like you. And so if you tend to be a little
Christina Lewellen 00:34:36
introverted, or if a bigger conference like this kind of
Christina Lewellen 00:34:39
gets a little intimidating, at least. Just come find one of my
Christina Lewellen 00:34:43
teammates, and we'll connect you with people. So if you don't
Christina Lewellen 00:34:47
have your get a steak crowd, we will help you find your go get a
Christina Lewellen 00:34:50
steak crowd.
Hiram Cuevas 00:34:52
Kristina, were you present when we used to have the
Hiram Cuevas 00:34:55
different dinners, and they were like 10 different restaurants
Hiram Cuevas 00:34:58
that a bunch of us
Christina Lewellen 00:34:59
would all go? Do, yeah, dine arounds.
Hiram Cuevas 00:35:02
That was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed that back
Hiram Cuevas 00:35:04
when we were doing that, met some really neat people that are
Hiram Cuevas 00:35:07
doing that. Hey,
Christina Lewellen 00:35:08
maybe we'll have to think about bringing
Christina Lewellen 00:35:10
back the diner rounds. That's a little easier to do in some of
Christina Lewellen 00:35:13
the smaller, walkable cities, and we have quite a few of those
Christina Lewellen 00:35:16
on tap. So if you guys want dine arounds back, we can definitely
Christina Lewellen 00:35:19
look into that. We can do that again.
Peter Frank 00:35:21
Nice. All kinds of stuff happened on this podcast
Peter Frank 00:35:24
episode here. This is great. We're getting stuff done. All
Peter Frank 00:35:28
right.
Bill Stites 00:35:30
You can't say that without laughing. You cannot say
Bill Stites 00:35:33
that without laughing.
Peter Frank 00:35:34
Fine. We're getting something done.
Hiram Cuevas 00:35:37
The zombie VR was great last year. Oh,
Peter Frank 00:35:42
my god, is that going to become a tradition,
Peter Frank 00:35:44
though?
Bill Stites 00:35:45
Well, there better be one in Atlanta. That's all I
Bill Stites 00:35:47
know. I don't know there's
Peter Frank 00:35:49
live band karaoke in Atlanta. I can tell you that
Peter Frank 00:35:52
I've done that. That could be a fun tradition for everybody.
Christina Lewellen 00:35:56
I'm not surprised that you know that
Christina Lewellen 00:35:58
Peter Frank is a karaoke guy.
Peter Frank 00:36:02
There's no way I'm singing. All right, we'll see.
Peter Frank 00:36:05
So this question comes from Tracey, as we are currently in a
Peter Frank 00:36:10
time where learning power, bi or Tableau is essential. Do you
Peter Frank 00:36:14
believe uploading data files into AI can produce accurate
Peter Frank 00:36:17
analytical results in moments for schools to make data driven
Peter Frank 00:36:21
decisions, compared to hours of building dashboards
Unknown 00:36:26
to Slippery slope. Yes,
Christina Lewellen 00:36:29
I'll say this quick in situations where
Christina Lewellen 00:36:31
my data is anonymized, I have tried to use generative AI to
Christina Lewellen 00:36:37
give me some analysis, and it's hit or miss. Honestly, I feel
Christina Lewellen 00:36:41
like it just depends on what you're doing, and I think it's
Christina Lewellen 00:36:44
better with words, with open ended qualitative stuff, but
Christina Lewellen 00:36:50
that's just me. I know it can do this stuff, and I've had some
Christina Lewellen 00:36:53
success, but sometimes when you put in hard quantitative data,
Christina Lewellen 00:36:58
it doesn't always necessarily jump you to the right
Christina Lewellen 00:37:01
conclusion. Sometimes it sort of hops around a little bit in a
Christina Lewellen 00:37:05
very annoying, AI kind of way. So maybe I'm wrong, but I'll
Christina Lewellen 00:37:09
just say that we're still in the adolescent phase of the power of
Christina Lewellen 00:37:12
these tools. I bet they'll get better, but I think that it's
Christina Lewellen 00:37:16
hit or miss. What do you guys think?
Bill Stites 00:37:18
I definitely think the anonymized piece of dumping
Bill Stites 00:37:21
data in is really important, or you need to know what the
Bill Stites 00:37:25
privacy standards are around the tool that you're using. Now I
Bill Stites 00:37:29
will say that Hudson Harper, when I was working on The CIRIS
Bill Stites 00:37:34
Guide with him, when we got together on that a couple years
Bill Stites 00:37:36
ago, I saw him doing some really interesting stuff, with prompts,
Bill Stites 00:37:42
with data, connecting on the back side of these things and
Bill Stites 00:37:46
developing out a lot of different measures, a lot of
Bill Stites 00:37:50
different tools for analyzing and visualizing the data, which
Bill Stites 00:37:53
I thought was interesting. Again, like with anything, you
Bill Stites 00:37:57
continually have to iterate on what you're asking it to get the
Bill Stites 00:38:01
most out of it. And I think when you talk about how you're using
Bill Stites 00:38:04
AI with students, one of those areas is using it as a thought
Bill Stites 00:38:08
partner or something to help you develop ideas around trends that
Bill Stites 00:38:14
you might have missed. That's where I might use it. I might
Bill Stites 00:38:18
still want to get in and really look at the data, the way in
Bill Stites 00:38:23
which I know the data, and do those final pieces with that but
Bill Stites 00:38:27
from that thought partnership role, I think it could be a
Bill Stites 00:38:31
helpful piece in the early stages of that work,
Unknown 00:38:35
I would say we
Hiram Cuevas 00:38:37
have yet To see some mainstream AI tools that
Hiram Cuevas 00:38:41
are doing dashboarding in the sense that I think we would like
Hiram Cuevas 00:38:44
to see dashboarding. I think they're probably coming, or they
Hiram Cuevas 00:38:47
may be developed already at the corporate level, and are being
Hiram Cuevas 00:38:50
used internal, because they have that walled garden. We do need
Hiram Cuevas 00:38:53
to be cognizant of that, being able to anonymize the
Hiram Cuevas 00:38:56
information that's in there. I'd love to pose this question to
Hiram Cuevas 00:38:59
Vinnie Rodney, because they've got their AI tool built for
Hiram Cuevas 00:39:03
Kincaid and to see if they're actually trying to develop that.
Hiram Cuevas 00:39:07
But I think if we're looking at a large language model, it's not
Hiram Cuevas 00:39:10
really designed for visualization, but it could
Hiram Cuevas 00:39:12
develop the code, perhaps for like a tableau, or for Looker
Hiram Cuevas 00:39:16
Studio. You can create the coding in there as well. My son
Hiram Cuevas 00:39:21
just sent me a couple days ago, and I'd be curious what you all
Hiram Cuevas 00:39:24
think the next few days. Napkin.ai, and essentially, it
Hiram Cuevas 00:39:29
takes your text and it converts it into all these types of
Hiram Cuevas 00:39:33
graphics that are visualizations.
Christina Lewellen 00:39:36
I use it all the time. I love it. You do use
Christina Lewellen 00:39:39
it,
Hiram Cuevas 00:39:39
okay? It's fabulous. I was stunned by what
Hiram Cuevas 00:39:44
it could do.
Christina Lewellen 00:39:45
The graphics are somewhat limited right now,
Christina Lewellen 00:39:47
like the output, it has a vibe almost like, you know, when
Christina Lewellen 00:39:51
you're using, like PowerPoint or something, and you insert, you
Christina Lewellen 00:39:54
know, there's only so many of them, and you know, they came
Christina Lewellen 00:39:57
from PowerPoint, like they all kind of look alike. So.
Christina Lewellen 00:40:00
Napkin.ai. Is similar right now. It only has a dozen or so
Christina Lewellen 00:40:05
graphic kind of approaches, but yeah, you highlight your text
Christina Lewellen 00:40:08
and you say, insert a graphic, and it creates a graphic based
Christina Lewellen 00:40:11
on what that text is. It is cool. It's one of my favorite
Christina Lewellen 00:40:15
tools to play with right now.
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:16
To get back to Tracey's question, does she
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:19
think we need to spend more time learning Tableau, and I do think
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:23
learning Tableau, or Looker studio, it's important to have
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:27
that foundation in order for you to develop a prompt that's
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:30
appropriate for the AI, to generate the type of dashboard
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:33
that you're looking for. It's what we were talking about
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:35
earlier in terms of prompt engineering and developing the
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:38
right questions. If you don't know the right questions, or if
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:41
you don't have a foundation in some of the statistics, I think
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:44
it's going to be really difficult to develop some of the
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:46
dashboarding that starts to get more complex with multiple
Hiram Cuevas 00:40:50
tables and multiple data sets. All
Peter Frank 00:40:53
right? We got to start bringing this home. We got
Peter Frank 00:40:55
a lot of questions here. We got to start going rapid fire here,
Peter Frank 00:40:58
a little bit, because there's some really good questions that
Peter Frank 00:41:01
we want to get to, and I know that all of our listeners are
Peter Frank 00:41:03
dying to know the answers to some of these questions. So
Peter Frank 00:41:06
first of all, Kristina, we'll let you pick between two.
Peter Frank 00:41:09
Someone here believes you sing in quartets or something. I
Peter Frank 00:41:13
don't know anything about that, but someone asks a liar. You can
Peter Frank 00:41:17
answer this question or both, but the first question is, who
Peter Frank 00:41:21
makes up your dream quartet? If you were to sing in a quartet
Peter Frank 00:41:24
with anybody who would fill out that quartet, and or if you were
Peter Frank 00:41:28
stranded on a desert island with one character from a musical,
Peter Frank 00:41:32
who would it be? Man,
Christina Lewellen 00:41:34
those are both really good. I do sing in a
Christina Lewellen 00:41:38
barber shop quartet with my 19 year old daughter i They are my
Christina Lewellen 00:41:42
dream quartet. I'm having so much fun with them. We sing with
Christina Lewellen 00:41:45
another mother daughter duo. We are called Legacy quartet, and
Christina Lewellen 00:41:50
we have some YouTube videos starting to leak out there, and
Christina Lewellen 00:41:54
we have a really great time. So I think that in a lot of ways,
Christina Lewellen 00:41:56
singing with my kid is really kind of a dream come true. She's
Christina Lewellen 00:41:59
a third generation barber shopper, because my dad did this
Christina Lewellen 00:42:01
too. As far as being stuck on a musical Island, I sort of feel
Christina Lewellen 00:42:05
like maybe one of the queens from six kind of thing. That's a
Christina Lewellen 00:42:09
great musical. And those women are they rock and roll. So I
Christina Lewellen 00:42:12
feel like that could be cool. I also think that it would be neat
Christina Lewellen 00:42:15
to be on an island with Lafayette from Hamilton, because
Christina Lewellen 00:42:18
that's a cool character. Too.
Unknown 00:42:20
Nice. All
Peter Frank 00:42:22
right, rapid fire. If you could office space, any
Peter Frank 00:42:26
piece of technology. So if you don't know the movie, office
Peter Frank 00:42:29
space, there is a very notable scene in the film where everyone
Peter Frank 00:42:33
is so upset with their copier that they take it out back and
Peter Frank 00:42:37
in slow motion, just beat it until it's unusable with a
Peter Frank 00:42:41
baseball bat. So if you could office space any piece of
Peter Frank 00:42:45
technology, what would it be? Bill
Bill Stites 00:42:49
switch? No one knows what it is, but it was the
Bill Stites 00:42:53
bane of my existence. For years. There was a saying out there,
Bill Stites 00:42:59
you can't go wrong if you buy you can go wrong if you buy it.
Unknown 00:43:04
It was horrible
Christina Lewellen 00:43:07
bill. We're gonna get sued.
Unknown 00:43:09
Wow, we'll bleep it out.
Bill Stites 00:43:11
No, horrible, I don't care come after me because
Bill Stites 00:43:15
they couldn't make it work.
Unknown 00:43:17
So they agree, yes,
Christina Lewellen 00:43:19
we're gonna have to bleep that out, man.
Bill Stites 00:43:22
Unbelievable, unbelievable. Didn't even have
Bill Stites 00:43:25
to think twice about that.
Unknown 00:43:26
Hire him anything. I've been pretty satisfied with
Unknown 00:43:29
most of my equipment.
Bill Stites 00:43:33
Then you're not a real tech hot stop. You're fine
Bill Stites 00:43:37
turn in your tech card because you've lost. I'm
Unknown 00:43:41
pretty pleased. I know how to make things work. Oh,
Unknown 00:43:44
stop,
Unknown 00:43:45
stop, stop. I
Peter Frank 00:43:47
was gonna say, right, but you've never been
Peter Frank 00:43:49
challenged by a piece of equipment. Hiram is what you're
Peter Frank 00:43:52
saying. I see okay, that's
Bill Stites 00:43:54
really funny. Oh, my God. Seriously. I mean,
Hiram Cuevas 00:43:58
you know who can't handle the blue screen of death.
Hiram Cuevas 00:44:01
Come on.
Christina Lewellen 00:44:02
I think that mine might be a PC, computer,
Christina Lewellen 00:44:06
Mac all the way baby like the minute I got rid of all that
Christina Lewellen 00:44:08
virus nonsense, I was so happy.
Bill Stites 00:44:12
Hiram drives around in a truck that has no heat. So
Bill Stites 00:44:15
it's not that he has no problems with it. He just refuses to fix
Bill Stites 00:44:19
the problems when he has them. So please don't everyone think
Bill Stites 00:44:23
that Hiram is like, you know, at this different level of like,
Bill Stites 00:44:26
tech stardom. No, no, no. He just ignores the problem. He
Bill Stites 00:44:29
bundles up, he wears, like, three pairs of wool socks when
Bill Stites 00:44:33
he gets in this truck. I drove in the truck once I came out
Bill Stites 00:44:36
chattering Bill,
Unknown 00:44:37
who fixed your Honda stop? I
Peter Frank 00:44:44
All right, we'll bring down the last question
Peter Frank 00:44:46
here for everybody. We'll give you a moment to think, but then
Peter Frank 00:44:49
you gotta rattle it off, excluding humans and your pets,
Peter Frank 00:44:54
what is your favorite mammal and why dolphin? But why do. They
Hiram Cuevas 00:45:00
are extremely intelligent, and when we swam
Hiram Cuevas 00:45:04
with the dolphins in Florida, it's just the most surreal
Hiram Cuevas 00:45:08
experience one can have with an organism that large in a body of
Hiram Cuevas 00:45:13
water. I'm
Bill Stites 00:45:14
not just saying that. To say it, I would agree
Bill Stites 00:45:16
with Hiram and mine was not from swimming with them. There was
Bill Stites 00:45:20
one time down the Jersey Shore, mid September weekend, beautiful
Bill Stites 00:45:24
weekend, I was surfing. I got up on a wave, and I looked in the
Bill Stites 00:45:29
wave as I was riding the wave, and there was a dolphin in the
Bill Stites 00:45:33
wave going with me as I was surfing the wave. So it wasn't
Bill Stites 00:45:38
like I just saw them out, kind of going around. This dolphin
Bill Stites 00:45:41
was in the wave with me as I was surfing, and I was screaming my
Bill Stites 00:45:45
head off because it was the coolest thing I think I'd ever
Bill Stites 00:45:49
experienced on a surfboard. It was fabulous. Top 10 memory.
Bill Stites 00:45:54
That's excellent. I love that. I
Christina Lewellen 00:45:56
feel like after that very sweet and
Christina Lewellen 00:45:58
sentimental answer from the gents, I'm gonna just have to
Christina Lewellen 00:46:01
buck this trend and go with the honey badger. And if you're not
Christina Lewellen 00:46:05
familiar with the honey badger, go look up the YouTube video,
Christina Lewellen 00:46:11
because most days, especially when I'm recording this podcast,
Christina Lewellen 00:46:15
I feel like the honey badger, or at least the person who narrates
Christina Lewellen 00:46:20
the honey badger video, I sometimes feel should be like a
Christina Lewellen 00:46:24
narrator of my life. So whoever does that, if you're looking for
Christina Lewellen 00:46:28
side gigs, I need you to come narrate my life. For me, I'm
Christina Lewellen 00:46:31
going Honey Badger all the way
Peter Frank 00:46:33
nice. That's really good. No one asked me when this
Peter Frank 00:46:36
asked me anything, but I'll offer a sloth, because when a
Peter Frank 00:46:39
sloth wants to take a nap. It just takes a nap, and that's
Peter Frank 00:46:42
what I'm like too. So with or with you, Peter. So with that,
Peter Frank 00:46:48
Kristina, I think we've exhausted our questions here.
Christina Lewellen 00:46:51
Thank you, Peter for being the host today.
Christina Lewellen 00:46:53
I really appreciate it. Now you, I think, understand if you need
Christina Lewellen 00:46:56
a nap right now, my friend, it's how I feel most days when we are
Christina Lewellen 00:47:00
trying to wrangle these cats, but as always, gentlemen, I
Christina Lewellen 00:47:03
laughed hard. I had a great time, and this was a lot of fun,
Christina Lewellen 00:47:06
so we'll have to do it again sometime soon.
Unknown 00:47:09
Yeah, absolutely. See you in Atlanta. Take it easy,
Unknown 00:47:12
Bill.
Christina Lewellen 00:47:12
Just don't get upset about
Bill Stites 00:47:14
okay, I'll calm down now. My blood pressure has
Bill Stites 00:47:17
dropped.
Christina Lewellen 00:47:18
Okay. Thank God see you soon.
Peter Frank 00:47:21
See ya and hears my voice. This has been talking
Peter Frank 00:47:25
technology with Atlas, produced by the Association of Technology
Peter Frank 00:47:28
Leaders in Independent Schools. For more information about Atlas
Peter Frank 00:47:32
and Atlas membership, please visit the atlas.org if you
Peter Frank 00:47:36
enjoyed this discussion, please subscribe, leave a review and
Peter Frank 00:47:40
share this podcast with your colleagues in the independent
Peter Frank 00:47:42
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