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(recorded December 11, 2025)

Episode Sponsor: Insight Financial Services

Join Marc, Rachel, and our guests:

Kevin Johnson, Director of Technology at Fife School District and ACPE Board Member

and

Leigh Anne Scherer, Director of Technology & Information Services in the North Clackamas School District

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We chat this episode about technology purchases, levies, long-range planning, replacement cycles, and paying for it all. We also dither on future tech K-12 shifts to the as-a-service model. What comes next?

*Oh, and Kevin and Marci look forward to seeing how many impalements per show there are on Chicago Fire. Noted.

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(recorded December 4, 2025)

Episode Sponsor: Magic School AI

Join Marc, Rachel, and our guest Kris Hagel, CIO at Peninsula School District.

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We chat this episode about AI. We focus first on the people change that Kris has led in PSD the past four years. And then we settle into a broad-ranging tech and human-focused conversation about AI and its impacts in our lives, schools, and the world.

*Oh, and Marc is mean to Claire Danes, but we're so happy about his successful surgery that we're only slightly mean back to him. Defend Claire Danes.

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(recorded October 14, 2025)

Episode Sponsor: Advanced Classroom Technologies

Join Marc and Rachel for this Season Two opener, with guests:

Owen Craig, Director of Technology at Nooksack Valley School District
and
Matthew Ross, Director of Technology at Napavine School District

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We chat this episode about Esports. Owen and Marc both end up tearing up. Owen and Matthew bring us up to speed on the esports domain, WSSEA in Washington, invisible careers, creating spaces and connection for students, and inspiring each of us to dream.

*Oh, and Matthew will know when esports has made it when the teams have cheerleaders. Brilliant, visible measure of success.

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In this B-Sides track from Plugged In S2 E1, Marc and Rachel chat with Matthew and Owen about the dystopian and utopian themes that showed up in several season one episodes. Marc has special powers. Matthew schools us. And, Owen did the wrong homework assignment, but still gets an A+.

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(recorded October 4, 2025)

Episode Sponsor: ClassLink

Join Marc and Rachel for our twelfth episode, with guests:

The ACPE Board

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We chat this episode about ACPE, specifically the planning for BelieveIT, our 2026 annual conference. Steve Langford is this year's president and shares the meaning and his vision for the conference. We also check-in with board members from each of the committees that make the conference a success each year, discussing the importance of community engagement via session proposals and anticipation for this year's giveaways and store catalog. We also highlight our annual student scholarships and the thematic elements of the conference that will deliver us to Ted Lasso's London neighborhood each evening.

*Oh, and if you're watching this episode, we do a lot of musical chairs.

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(recorded September 29, 2025)

Episode Sponsor: BumpArmor

Join Marc and Rachel for our eleventh episode, with guests:

Emilie Nangle, Systems Analyst at Northshore SD

and

Jeff Gibbs, Executive Director of Technology Services at Gresham-Barlow SD

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We chat this episode about ACPE Mentoring. Emilie and Jeff catch us up on the genesis of this collaboration, their hopes, plans, and how to get involved. It's an invitation for ACPE folks young and old, from early career techs to engineers who started back when Ethernet topped out at 10 Mbit/s. Marc honors his former coach who observed "If you're green you're growing, if you're ripe you're rotting." And Rachel (discovered in post production) used the word 'trope' twice.

*Oh, and DJ Diesel (also known as Shaquille O'Neal) commands the mosh pit.

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(recorded September 24, 2025)

Episode Sponsor: Motorola Solutions

Join Marc and Rachel for our tenth episode, with guests:

Josh Kesecker, Technology Coordinator at Wallowa County ESD

and

Dr. Joe Morelock, Superintendent at Willamette ESD

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We chat this episode about amateur (ham) radio with our two favorite ham radio aficionados and fellow ACPE board members. Joe and Josh tell stories, teach us the basics, and talk about the importance of ham radio in emergency preparedness. We also chat about the growing fox hunt tradition at ACPE!

*Oh, and the gray/grey line is the magical, liminal transition between darkness and light, dusk and dawn—the twilight zone—and used to describe distinct the related conditions.

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(recorded September 11, 2025)

Episode Sponsor: Comcast Business,

Join Marc and Rachel for our ninth episode, with guests:

Chris Bailey, Director Of Technology at Edmonds School District

and

Kevin Meckler, Partner, Cipriani & Werner Attorneys at Law

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We chat this episode about navigating cyber incidents. Chris provides a first-person K-12 perspective and Kevin shares his decade plus observations as an incident response attorney. And a big catch-up on pop culture, especially that Tony #1 is the very worst of the Hulu Four Weddings and a Funeral series. (That's for my kids! xoxo —rwc)

*Oh, and it's Florida versus all, y'all. Despite the episode title, which was Rachel's best accidental trash talking in years....