WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.940 I want you to picture a scene. It's a Tuesday 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:06.400 morning, maybe 10 a .m. We're in a conference 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:08.560 room at a big school district's central office. 00:00:08.750 --> 00:00:11.310 Oh, I know that room. You know that room. It 00:00:11.310 --> 00:00:14.550 smells like stale coffee and floor wax. And around 00:00:14.550 --> 00:00:16.850 this huge table, you've got the power players, 00:00:17.550 --> 00:00:19.109 the superintendent, assistant superintendent 00:00:19.109 --> 00:00:21.949 for instruction, maybe HR. Well, comfortable. 00:00:22.170 --> 00:00:23.910 Mm -hmm. They're leaning back. They know each 00:00:23.910 --> 00:00:26.250 other. Exactly. They're laughing at some inside 00:00:26.250 --> 00:00:30.370 joke about state testing. And the vibe is just... 00:00:30.370 --> 00:00:33.170 it's coherent. They speak a shared language, 00:00:33.530 --> 00:00:35.829 finish each other's sentences about, you know... 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:38.920 pedagogy and stakeholder engagement. It's club. 00:00:39.060 --> 00:00:41.880 It's a club. But then I want you to shift your 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:45.039 focus to the far end of that table. There's one 00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:47.299 person sitting there. Yeah. And they're not laughing. 00:00:47.539 --> 00:00:50.140 They're looking at a laptop, maybe typing furiously, 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:52.859 maybe just staring. Physically in the room, but 00:00:52.859 --> 00:00:54.780 mentally somewhere else entirely. He might as 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:56.979 well be on Mars. That is the perfect image to 00:00:56.979 --> 00:00:59.159 start with. Because today we're talking about 00:00:59.159 --> 00:01:02.850 that person. the tech leader, and why, according 00:01:02.850 --> 00:01:05.370 to the research, they are the loneliest person 00:01:05.370 --> 00:01:07.769 in that room. Welcome back to the Deep Dive. 00:01:08.150 --> 00:01:09.730 We're doing something a little different today. 00:01:09.909 --> 00:01:12.109 Usually when we talk ed tech, we're talking about 00:01:12.109 --> 00:01:15.430 the gadgets, right? The VR headsets, the AI tutors, 00:01:15.989 --> 00:01:18.709 the Wi -Fi. The shiny objects. The shiny objects. 00:01:19.250 --> 00:01:23.060 But today, we are ignoring the hardware. We're 00:01:23.060 --> 00:01:25.099 looking at the human architecture that decides 00:01:25.099 --> 00:01:27.280 how all that hardware gets used. And that is 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:29.819 such a critical pivot. We so often blame the 00:01:29.819 --> 00:01:32.260 technology when things go wrong in a school. 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:35.200 Oh, totally. The app is glitchy. The network 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:37.680 is slow. But the source we're looking at today 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:40.260 argues the glitch isn't in the software. The 00:01:40.260 --> 00:01:43.079 glitch is in the org chart. We are digging into 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:45.420 a really fascinating piece called School Leaders 00:01:45.420 --> 00:01:47.819 in Technology. It was written by Gary Ackerman 00:01:47.819 --> 00:01:50.019 for Hack Science Education, and it just came 00:01:50.019 --> 00:01:52.500 out February 2026. So this is, you know, fresh 00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:55.019 thinking. And Ackerman really puts his finger 00:01:55.019 --> 00:01:58.819 on a structural tension. He argues there's this 00:01:58.819 --> 00:02:01.260 fundamental disconnect between the people who 00:02:01.260 --> 00:02:03.439 hold the power in schools, the traditional leadership, 00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:06.000 and the people who hold the digital keys. And 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:07.840 it all starts with what he calls the pathway 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:10.599 to power. I love that phrase. It sounds like 00:02:10.599 --> 00:02:13.099 a documentary about medieval kings, the pathway 00:02:13.099 --> 00:02:15.460 to power. It does, doesn't it? But in this case, 00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:18.199 it's really just about the resume. How does someone 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:20.719 get to sit in the superintendent's chair? Ackerman 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:24.139 breaks down the typical career arc. Walk us through 00:02:24.139 --> 00:02:26.479 that. It's remarkably consistent. If you look 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:29.460 at the resume of almost any high level school 00:02:29.460 --> 00:02:32.159 administrator, where does it start? The classroom. 00:02:32.330 --> 00:02:34.770 Exactly. They start as teachers. They spend years 00:02:34.770 --> 00:02:37.189 with students, grading papers, dealing with the 00:02:37.189 --> 00:02:39.590 day -to -day of instruction. Then they decide 00:02:39.590 --> 00:02:41.990 they want to lead. So what's the next step? They 00:02:41.990 --> 00:02:44.449 go back to school. Get that admin credential. 00:02:44.530 --> 00:02:46.949 Right. They go to grad school. And let's look 00:02:46.949 --> 00:02:49.229 at what they study there. They study school law. 00:02:49.449 --> 00:02:52.250 They study finance and budgeting, personnel management. 00:02:52.469 --> 00:02:54.090 All the nuts and bolts of running a physical 00:02:54.090 --> 00:02:56.889 school. Precisely. Then they become an assistant 00:02:56.889 --> 00:02:59.780 principal. They spend a few years breaking up 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:02.219 fights in the cafeteria, dealing with bus schedules. 00:03:02.659 --> 00:03:04.620 Then they become a principal and eventually they 00:03:04.620 --> 00:03:06.900 move to the central office. So by the time they're 00:03:06.900 --> 00:03:09.039 making these big decisions, they have 20, maybe 00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:13.000 30 years of experience, they are absolute experts 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.680 in the rhythm of the school system. They are. 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:18.500 But, and this is the massive but that Ackerman 00:03:18.500 --> 00:03:21.659 highlights, at no point in that whole 20 -year 00:03:21.659 --> 00:03:25.169 journey was technology stratagem. core requirement. 00:03:25.310 --> 00:03:27.550 Wasn't a gatekeeper. Not at all. You can become 00:03:27.550 --> 00:03:30.069 the CEO of a multi -million dollar school district 00:03:30.069 --> 00:03:32.330 without ever really understanding how a server 00:03:32.330 --> 00:03:36.409 works or what an API is or how data privacy architecture 00:03:36.409 --> 00:03:39.199 is built. That is wild when you really think 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:42.379 about it. In 2026, a school district is basically 00:03:42.379 --> 00:03:45.139 a massive data corporation that also happens 00:03:45.139 --> 00:03:47.419 to teach kids. How can you run the place if you 00:03:47.419 --> 00:03:49.240 don't understand the infrastructure? And Ackerman 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:51.500 makes a really subtle distinction here. He notes 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:53.979 that these leaders do use technology. They're 00:03:53.979 --> 00:03:56.439 on email. They use the student information system. 00:03:56.620 --> 00:03:58.960 They're glued to their phones. Of course. They're 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:02.020 consumers. Exactly. But there is a massive difference 00:04:02.020 --> 00:04:04.460 between consuming technology and managing it. 00:04:04.539 --> 00:04:06.580 It's a difference between driving a car and being 00:04:06.580 --> 00:04:10.099 a Or, to take it a step further, it's the difference 00:04:10.099 --> 00:04:12.960 between driving a car and being the city planner 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:15.860 who designs the whole traffic grid. Ackerman 00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:17.980 points out that while these leaders are prepared 00:04:17.980 --> 00:04:20.720 for almost everything else, legal, financial, 00:04:20.939 --> 00:04:23.779 pedagogical, they just have not built a career 00:04:23.779 --> 00:04:26.899 around studying or deploying technology. And 00:04:26.899 --> 00:04:28.420 what I found so interesting in the article is 00:04:28.420 --> 00:04:30.680 that this isn't some secret. They're not trying 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:33.720 to hide this. No, not at all. Ackerman notes 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:36.439 that most school leaders will freely admit it. 00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:39.139 How many times have you heard a principal or 00:04:39.139 --> 00:04:41.620 a superintendent say something like, oh, don't 00:04:41.620 --> 00:04:44.379 ask me, I'm not a tech person? A million times. 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:46.259 It's usually said with a little chuckle, like, 00:04:46.300 --> 00:04:49.180 oh, I can barely program the microwave. Exactly. 00:04:49.339 --> 00:04:52.000 It's the socially acceptable admission of ignorance. 00:04:52.259 --> 00:04:54.660 But let's just swap the nouns for a second. Imagine 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:56.980 if a superintendent stood up at a budget hearing 00:04:56.980 --> 00:04:59.730 and said, with a laugh, Oh, don't ask me about 00:04:59.730 --> 00:05:01.750 the numbers. I'm just not a finance person. I 00:05:01.750 --> 00:05:03.730 don't really get how money works. They would 00:05:03.730 --> 00:05:05.689 be escorted out of the building. Immediately. 00:05:06.329 --> 00:05:08.230 Or imagine them saying, you know, I'm not really 00:05:08.230 --> 00:05:11.189 a child safety person. You cannot say that. It's 00:05:11.189 --> 00:05:13.709 disqualifying. Of course not. But in education 00:05:13.709 --> 00:05:16.829 leadership, saying I'm not a tech person is seen 00:05:16.829 --> 00:05:19.910 as a perfectly valid standard limitation. It's 00:05:19.910 --> 00:05:21.569 almost a badge of honor, like it proves you're 00:05:21.569 --> 00:05:23.790 focused on the human side of things. But the 00:05:23.790 --> 00:05:27.040 irony is that the human side. now runs on digital 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:30.879 rails. You can't protect student safety if you 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:33.779 don't understand cybersecurity. You can't manage 00:05:33.779 --> 00:05:36.660 the budget if you don't understand software licensing 00:05:36.660 --> 00:05:39.860 costs. That is the crux of the issue. We've put 00:05:39.860 --> 00:05:42.540 people in charge who self -identify as novices 00:05:42.540 --> 00:05:45.759 in a critical infrastructure layer. But Ackerman 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:48.660 goes deeper. He says the problem isn't just the 00:05:48.660 --> 00:05:51.160 individual leader, it's who they hang out with. 00:05:51.389 --> 00:05:54.149 The group. The advisory circle. The cabinet. 00:05:54.310 --> 00:05:56.470 Whatever you want to call it. Okay, so, let's 00:05:56.470 --> 00:05:58.910 play devil's advocate for a second. If I'm a 00:05:58.910 --> 00:06:01.089 CEO and I know I'm weak in tech, shouldn't I 00:06:01.089 --> 00:06:02.829 just surround myself with people who are good 00:06:02.829 --> 00:06:05.269 at it? I mean, that's management 101. You would 00:06:05.269 --> 00:06:07.790 think so, but Ackerman highlights a phenomenon 00:06:07.790 --> 00:06:10.709 called homophily. It's a fancy term that basically 00:06:10.709 --> 00:06:12.689 just means birds of a feather flock together. 00:06:12.810 --> 00:06:14.949 Okay, so how does that play out in the superintendent's 00:06:14.949 --> 00:06:17.209 cabinet? Well, look at who gets hired for those 00:06:17.209 --> 00:06:19.730 top roles. Yeah. The assistant superintendent 00:06:19.730 --> 00:06:22.709 for instruction. Former teacher, former principal. 00:06:23.029 --> 00:06:25.069 The director of student services. Former teacher, 00:06:25.269 --> 00:06:27.889 former principal. The director of HR. Often a 00:06:27.889 --> 00:06:29.910 former principal, you see the pattern. It's the 00:06:29.910 --> 00:06:31.949 same resume, just with different names at the 00:06:31.949 --> 00:06:34.490 top. Essentially. Ackerman points out, this group 00:06:34.490 --> 00:06:37.089 is made up of professionals on a path just like 00:06:37.089 --> 00:06:39.769 the one the CEO took. They have, and I'm quoting 00:06:39.769 --> 00:06:42.889 here, similar preparation and similar experiences. 00:06:43.290 --> 00:06:46.750 They share a professional DNA. They do. And Ackerman 00:06:46.750 --> 00:06:50.069 is fair about this. He notes, that has huge gilfits. 00:06:50.269 --> 00:06:52.269 Right, the shorthand. They can move quickly. 00:06:52.689 --> 00:06:54.290 Exactly. They don't have to explain to each other 00:06:54.290 --> 00:06:56.930 what a formative assessment is or why bus duty 00:06:56.930 --> 00:06:59.689 is a nightmare. They share a mental model of 00:06:59.689 --> 00:07:02.370 how a school should work. They get the same jokes. 00:07:02.670 --> 00:07:05.509 But the downside is pretty big. They all share 00:07:05.509 --> 00:07:09.069 the same blind spot. Correct. It leads to what 00:07:09.069 --> 00:07:12.550 he calls groupthink. Because they have such similar 00:07:12.550 --> 00:07:14.930 experiences, they tend to validate each other's 00:07:14.930 --> 00:07:17.490 perspectives. If the superintendent says, I'm 00:07:17.490 --> 00:07:19.509 not a tech person, so let's just buy what the 00:07:19.509 --> 00:07:22.180 district next door bought, Everyone else nods. 00:07:22.360 --> 00:07:24.139 That makes sense. We aren't tech people either. 00:07:24.420 --> 00:07:27.420 It becomes this echo chamber of technical avoidance. 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:31.319 It creates a consensus reality where technology 00:07:31.319 --> 00:07:33.680 is just a commodity like buying paper towels 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:36.699 rather than a strategic lever. And because they 00:07:36.699 --> 00:07:39.379 all agree, they feel confident in the decision, 00:07:39.420 --> 00:07:41.439 even if that decision is, you know, technically 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:43.720 a disaster waiting to happen. Which brings us 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:45.600 right back to our lonely figure at the end of 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:48.720 the table, the one person who is not a former 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:51.810 principal. The tech director. The single voice. 00:07:52.310 --> 00:07:54.910 Ackerman really emphasizes this. In most of those 00:07:54.910 --> 00:07:56.870 leadership cabinets, you're likely to have only 00:07:56.870 --> 00:07:59.610 one technology professional. Just one. Against 00:07:59.610 --> 00:08:02.129 a whole phalanx of former principals. Think about 00:08:02.129 --> 00:08:04.209 that contrast. The curriculum director has a 00:08:04.209 --> 00:08:06.550 team. They have instructional coaches, principals, 00:08:07.029 --> 00:08:09.089 department heads. They all speak curriculum. 00:08:09.269 --> 00:08:12.019 They have peers to bounce ideas off of. And the 00:08:12.019 --> 00:08:14.519 tech leader is a singular entity at that level. 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:17.139 A singular entity. And Ackerman says they work 00:08:17.139 --> 00:08:19.360 in isolation. Yes. And he doesn't just mean they 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:21.220 sit in a different office, right? No, he means 00:08:21.220 --> 00:08:23.500 intellectual isolation. This is the part of the 00:08:23.500 --> 00:08:26.199 article that really hit me. Ackerman writes that 00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:29.699 the tech leader has limited access to others 00:08:29.699 --> 00:08:32.399 on the leadership team to brainstorm or otherwise 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:34.879 problem solve. Let's unpack that word brainstorm 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:36.480 because I think people hear it and they think 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.059 of like sticky notes on a whiteboard. It's much 00:08:39.059 --> 00:08:42.070 deeper than that. It's about the cognitive process 00:08:42.070 --> 00:08:46.129 of solving a complex problem. To brainstorm effectively, 00:08:46.429 --> 00:08:48.750 you need a partner who actually understands the 00:08:48.750 --> 00:08:50.649 nuances of what you're talking about. Give me 00:08:50.649 --> 00:08:53.049 an example. Okay, so imagine you're a principal 00:08:53.049 --> 00:08:55.409 and you have a crisis with a parent group. You 00:08:55.409 --> 00:08:57.210 walk into another principal's office and say, 00:08:57.470 --> 00:09:00.929 the PTA is revolting. The other person immediately 00:09:00.929 --> 00:09:03.850 gets the context, the politics, the stakes. They 00:09:03.850 --> 00:09:06.509 get it. You can riff. You can bounce ideas back 00:09:06.509 --> 00:09:08.990 and forth. What if we tried this? No, that would 00:09:08.990 --> 00:09:11.809 backfire because of X. You're building a solution 00:09:11.809 --> 00:09:13.370 together. Because you speak the same language. 00:09:13.850 --> 00:09:17.000 Precisely. Now... Imagine you're the tech director. 00:09:17.419 --> 00:09:20.120 You realize that the new AI platform the board 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:23.080 wants to buy is going to require opening up firewall 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:25.919 ports that create a massive security vulnerability. 00:09:26.360 --> 00:09:28.779 OK, that sounds bad. It is bad. So you go to 00:09:28.779 --> 00:09:31.500 the assistant superintendent to brainstorm. You 00:09:31.500 --> 00:09:33.919 explain the port issue. You explain the firewall 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:35.600 architecture. And they just look at you like 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:38.200 you're speaking Klingon. They literally cannot 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:41.019 process the information. They can't offer a suggestion 00:09:41.019 --> 00:09:43.340 like, well, what if we routed it through a proxy? 00:09:43.850 --> 00:09:46.049 because they don't know what a proxy is. The 00:09:46.049 --> 00:09:48.009 conversation just dies. They just ask, well, 00:09:48.090 --> 00:09:50.370 can we use the app or not? So the tech director 00:09:50.370 --> 00:09:52.889 isn't having a strategic dialogue. They're just 00:09:52.889 --> 00:09:55.970 reporting a status. It's a yes or no. That is 00:09:55.970 --> 00:09:58.539 the brainstorming deficit. When the tech leader 00:09:58.539 --> 00:10:01.259 works in isolation, they're forced to simplify 00:10:01.259 --> 00:10:03.940 these incredibly complex problems into binary 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:06.419 choices. They can't walk the team through the 00:10:06.419 --> 00:10:09.340 why or the how. They can only deliver the what. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:11.720 And that feels like a really dangerous place 00:10:11.720 --> 00:10:14.919 for an organization to be. It's incredibly dangerous. 00:10:15.279 --> 00:10:17.840 It means the organization is making major decisions 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:20.740 without ever understanding the trade -offs. It 00:10:20.740 --> 00:10:23.120 silences all the nuance. It also seems like it 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:25.179 would force the tech director into a corner. 00:10:25.750 --> 00:10:27.909 If you can't explain the nuance and you know 00:10:27.909 --> 00:10:30.470 there's a risk, you basically just have to say 00:10:30.470 --> 00:10:32.809 no all the time. And you become the department 00:10:32.809 --> 00:10:35.929 of no. This is such a common complaint in schools. 00:10:36.529 --> 00:10:39.110 Oh, IT blocks everything. It won't let us have 00:10:39.110 --> 00:10:41.669 any fun. We've all heard that. But Ackerman's 00:10:41.669 --> 00:10:43.769 analysis suggests this isn't because IT people 00:10:43.769 --> 00:10:46.549 are grumpy. It's because they are the only ones 00:10:46.549 --> 00:10:49.210 carrying the full weight of the risk. That is 00:10:49.210 --> 00:10:52.669 a great point. If a reading program fails, Who 00:10:52.669 --> 00:10:54.929 takes the blame? The whole team. They all reviewed 00:10:54.929 --> 00:10:57.250 it. They all agreed on the pedagogy. It's a collective 00:10:57.250 --> 00:10:59.909 failure. But if the network gets hacked... It's 00:10:59.909 --> 00:11:01.809 the tech director's fault. One hundred percent. 00:11:02.070 --> 00:11:04.649 Exclusively. So you've got a situation where 00:11:04.649 --> 00:11:06.990 the tech director has the highest personal risk 00:11:06.990 --> 00:11:09.710 and the lowest amount of collaborative support. 00:11:09.970 --> 00:11:11.649 Of course they're going to be conservative. Of 00:11:11.649 --> 00:11:12.909 course they're going to block things. They're 00:11:12.909 --> 00:11:16.000 defending the castle all by themselves. Meanwhile, 00:11:16.259 --> 00:11:18.399 the group is getting frustrated because they 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:20.539 don't understand why they can't just buy the 00:11:20.539 --> 00:11:22.659 cool new thing they saw at a conference. And 00:11:22.659 --> 00:11:24.679 because of that group think dynamic we talked 00:11:24.679 --> 00:11:28.019 about, the group usually wins. Ackerman suggests 00:11:28.019 --> 00:11:30.519 the collective desire of the administration just 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:33.879 overpowers the solitary concern of the tech professional. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:36.840 So the group says we're doing it anyway, and 00:11:36.840 --> 00:11:39.360 the tech person is left to frantically try and 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:41.340 patch it all together in the background. Exactly. 00:11:41.480 --> 00:11:43.860 The tech professional becomes a contractor in 00:11:43.860 --> 00:11:46.629 their own house. They aren't helping to shape 00:11:46.629 --> 00:11:49.470 the strategy. They're just being told to execute 00:11:49.470 --> 00:11:51.769 a strategy that was decided by people who don't 00:11:51.769 --> 00:11:54.269 understand the tools. This explains so much. 00:11:54.330 --> 00:11:56.070 I mean, if you're a listener and you've ever 00:11:56.070 --> 00:11:59.100 wondered... why school technology feels so clunky 00:11:59.100 --> 00:12:01.980 or disjointed or like it was bought by someone 00:12:01.980 --> 00:12:04.159 who has never used a computer. It's because it 00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:06.659 probably was. Or at least the decision was driven 00:12:06.659 --> 00:12:09.840 by a group who prioritized educational theory 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:12.879 over technical reality. And the one person who 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:15.080 could have bridged that gap was structurally 00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:18.129 sidelined. And it's important to say again, Ackerman 00:12:18.129 --> 00:12:21.529 isn't saying these are bad people. The superintendent 00:12:21.529 --> 00:12:23.990 isn't trying to cause problems. No, absolutely 00:12:23.990 --> 00:12:26.730 not. These are dedicated, intelligent professionals. 00:12:27.409 --> 00:12:30.690 Ackerman is critiquing the system, not the individuals. 00:12:31.529 --> 00:12:34.690 It's a structural flaw in how we set up our educational 00:12:34.690 --> 00:12:37.889 hierarchies. We have a preparation gap where 00:12:37.889 --> 00:12:40.669 we don't train leaders in tech colliding with 00:12:40.669 --> 00:12:43.429 an isolation factor, where we don't give tech 00:12:43.429 --> 00:12:46.559 leaders any peers. It's like building a hospital 00:12:46.559 --> 00:12:48.840 where all the administrators are brilliant surgeons, 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:51.480 which makes sense. But the person running the 00:12:51.480 --> 00:12:53.899 electricity and the life support systems is kept 00:12:53.899 --> 00:12:56.019 in the basement and only allowed to speak for 00:12:56.019 --> 00:12:57.840 two minutes at the end of the meeting. That is 00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:00.259 a perfect analogy. And when the power goes out 00:13:00.259 --> 00:13:03.240 during surgery, everyone yells at the electrician, 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:05.799 even though the surgeons all voted to cut the 00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:08.000 generator budget because they wanted nicer scalpels. 00:13:08.059 --> 00:13:09.740 And the electrician is just standing there saying, 00:13:10.100 --> 00:13:12.980 I tried to tell you. I sent you a memo. But because 00:13:12.980 --> 00:13:15.879 the memo was technical, nobody read it. So, okay, 00:13:15.879 --> 00:13:18.419 we've diagnosed the patient. The school system 00:13:18.419 --> 00:13:21.000 is suffering from this disconnect between authority 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:24.580 and technical competency. What's the takeaway 00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:26.559 here? If I'm listening, why does this matter 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:28.960 to me beyond just, you know, schools are messy? 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:31.080 I think the big takeaway from Ackerman's work 00:13:31.080 --> 00:13:33.740 is that we need to stop looking at technology 00:13:33.740 --> 00:13:36.879 as a product that schools buy and start looking 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:39.460 at it as a competency that schools need to embody. 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:42.039 What does that mean in practice? It means we 00:13:42.039 --> 00:13:44.259 probably need to rethink that path to power. 00:13:44.409 --> 00:13:47.370 Maybe we need to start requiring technology strategy 00:13:47.370 --> 00:13:50.269 as part of the admin credential. Maybe a principal 00:13:50.269 --> 00:13:52.009 shouldn't be able to get certified unless they 00:13:52.009 --> 00:13:54.230 can demonstrate they understand data privacy. 00:13:54.649 --> 00:13:57.370 So close the preparation gap. Right. And stop 00:13:57.370 --> 00:13:59.710 accepting I'm not a tech person as a valid excuse. 00:14:00.230 --> 00:14:02.029 In 2026, if you're not a tech person, you're 00:14:02.029 --> 00:14:05.090 not a leader. You're a liability. Ooh, that is 00:14:05.090 --> 00:14:08.009 harsh. You're a liability. It is harsh, but look 00:14:08.009 --> 00:14:11.179 at the world. Look at AI. Look at the data breaches 00:14:11.179 --> 00:14:13.860 happening every week. If the person at the top 00:14:13.860 --> 00:14:16.500 doesn't get it, the entire organization is vulnerable. 00:14:16.679 --> 00:14:19.039 And what about the loneliness of the tech leader? 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:21.700 How do we fix that part? We have to break the 00:14:21.700 --> 00:14:24.639 silo. Ackerman implies that the isolation is 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:26.620 the root cause of that brainstorming deficit. 00:14:27.059 --> 00:14:29.320 So maybe the cabinet needs more than one tech 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:32.179 voice. Safety in numbers. Or at least diversity 00:14:32.179 --> 00:14:35.080 of thought. Maybe you need a chief technology 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:39.110 officer and a chief data officer. Or maybe the 00:14:39.110 --> 00:14:41.190 assistant superintendents need to be cross -trained 00:14:41.190 --> 00:14:43.210 enough that they can actually be thought partners 00:14:43.210 --> 00:14:46.149 on this stuff. They need to learn to speak just 00:14:46.149 --> 00:14:48.049 a little bit of Klingon. Just enough to have 00:14:48.049 --> 00:14:50.990 a conversation. Just enough to say, OK, I understand 00:14:50.990 --> 00:14:53.850 why that firewall port is a problem. Let's brainstorm 00:14:53.850 --> 00:14:56.009 a different way to get this data. That feels 00:14:56.009 --> 00:14:58.360 like the dream, right? a roundtable where everyone 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:00.179 actually speaks the same language or at least 00:15:00.179 --> 00:15:03.120 enough of it to function as a real team. That's 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:05.259 the goal. But until we address these structural 00:15:05.259 --> 00:15:08.240 issues, the resume gap and the silo effect, we're 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:10.399 just going to keep seeing this friction. It really 00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:12.440 changes how you look at a school board meeting, 00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:15.080 doesn't it? You see that row of people up there 00:15:15.080 --> 00:15:18.059 and you realize there's this invisible wall between 00:15:18.059 --> 00:15:21.399 the one person with a laptop and everyone else. 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:24.220 It's a reminder that organizations are just people. 00:15:24.600 --> 00:15:26.840 And if those people are sorted into buckets where 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:28.860 they can't effectively talk to each other, the 00:15:28.860 --> 00:15:31.720 whole organization is going to stutter. So let's 00:15:31.720 --> 00:15:34.440 wrap this up. We've unpacked Gary Ackerman's 00:15:34.440 --> 00:15:37.159 piece, School Leaders in Technology. We've seen 00:15:37.159 --> 00:15:39.960 the preparation gap. We've seen the isolation 00:15:39.960 --> 00:15:43.960 factor and the danger of groupthink. And we've 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:47.240 seen why the tech person always says no. Justice 00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:49.440 for the tech person. But seriously, I want to 00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:51.080 leave our listener with a final thought to chew 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:53.070 on. We've been talking about the present, but 00:15:53.070 --> 00:15:55.570 let's look, say, five years down the road. Okay. 00:15:55.789 --> 00:15:58.250 Technology is not getting any simpler. It's getting 00:15:58.250 --> 00:16:00.429 exponentially more complex. We're talking about 00:16:00.429 --> 00:16:04.570 immersive VR, biometric data tracking, AI that 00:16:04.570 --> 00:16:06.909 runs the curriculum. The stakes are getting higher 00:16:06.909 --> 00:16:10.809 every single day. So if we don't fix this structural 00:16:10.809 --> 00:16:14.230 disconnect now, if we continue to have decision 00:16:14.230 --> 00:16:17.230 makers who openly admit they don't understand 00:16:17.230 --> 00:16:20.370 the tools they're buying, here's the question. 00:16:21.579 --> 00:16:25.240 Are our schools structurally designed to lose 00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:27.980 control of their own future? That is the haunting 00:16:27.980 --> 00:16:30.240 question because if the leadership can't understand 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:32.379 the machine, eventually the machine just runs 00:16:32.379 --> 00:16:35.340 itself. And on that slightly terrifying note. 00:16:35.659 --> 00:16:37.759 Sorry to bring the doom. No, it's good. It's 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:40.179 what we do here. We dive deep. We certainly do. 00:16:40.379 --> 00:16:42.259 Thank you for helping us unpack the human architecture 00:16:42.259 --> 00:16:44.200 of our school. Always a pleasure. And thank you 00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:46.019 for listening. We'll see you on the next Deep 00:16:46.019 --> 00:16:46.240 Dive.