Episode 286 dives into Josh and Chris' Google Education Leaders Series meeting in Atlanta, a Brookings study tracking student reactions to school cell phone bans across a full school year, and Common Sense Media’s evaluation of ChatGPT for Teens.
The Google coverage centers on Gemini and the new Canvas feature. The guys describe creating polished Google Sheets dashboards and accessible tools in minutes and show how quick, whimsical vibe coding can generate games - but they warn that those same creative powers let students build distractions or bypass controls.
Finally, Chris interviews Skip Cooley from Managed Methods (Skip is a former K12 tech) and he introduces Cloud Admin - a new admin tool for Google Workspace that exposes recent admin activity, simplifies bulk user/group/device operations, manages shared calendars and allowed domains, and offers easier remediation without command‑line tools.
Articles discussed:
Guidance to Educational Institutions on Swatting Threats (ED and DOJ Dear Colleague Letter GEN-26-04, September 25, 2026)
A year later, what teens tell us about school cellphone bans (Brookings, September 10, 2026; Dan Silver, Amie Rapaport, Morgan Polikoff)
ChatGPT for Teens Risk Assessment (Common Sense Media Youth AI Safety Institute, updated October 7, 2026)
Play the Josh-the-Avenger Game!
*Mark created this game... this game is NOT as good as the game Chris created... but it's still good lolololol... Vide code your own Josh game... lol
Controls:
Space = Say NO to teachers
Alt = Smash the AI bots with a Googlebook
E = Use the Magical Bidet
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Music by Colt Ball
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