Podcasts with LeiLani Cauthen
Author, Researcher, Systems Strategist
These conversations go beyond trends to examine what is structurally changing in education—and what must follow.
Topics include the forces reshaping learning at every level: legislation and policy constraints, AI agent and temporal personalization, the collapse of industrial-era schooling models, emerging learning architectures, and the evolving intersection of technology, human development, and economic reality. Discussions span system design, identity and security, organizational change, learner motivation, hybrid logistics, and the growing shift toward networked, distributed learning environments.
A Distinct Point of View
People often sense that education isn’t working—but cannot articulate what replaces it.
The issue isn’t a lack of options. It’s a lack of structural understanding.
Technology is not simply a set of tools layered onto classrooms. It is a force that redefines how time, access, instruction, and organization work together. When those elements shift, the entire model of schooling must shift with them.
Today’s tension in education reflects a deeper misfit:
- between how humans actually learn and how time is structured
- between institutional models and economic realities
- between policy frameworks and technological possibility
Choice, in this context, is not meaningful unless the underlying structure is understood.
These podcasts explore that structural shift—what is breaking, what is emerging, and what is still missing. They connect leadership decisions, technology architectures, and learning design into a coherent view of where education is going.
Most importantly, they aim to make the future visible—not as speculation, but as something already taking shape.
About the Host
LeiLani Cauthen brings a rare combination of perspectives—researcher, author, media leader, and technology architect. As the founder of Learning Counsel and Knowstory, her work spans industry analysis, system design, and the development of next-generation learning models, including Time AI and AI-driven course creation.
Through conversations with education and technology leaders, she surfaces not just what is happening—but how the pieces fit, and what they point to next.
5 Ways to Accelerate Math by Doing
A discussion with Ki Karou about the challenges of teaching today. Karou introduces five areas that the science of learning have identified as key to students’ doing – and how those are aids to accelerating learning, including the awesome capability of helping learners potentially jump through multiple grades to catch up in little time. Listen in to learn about things the neuroscience has uncovered including “self belief,” “schema building,” and more.
Ki Karou is the Senior Director of Product Content at MIND Education, where he leads a team oflearning and game designers, artists and mathematicians. Ki has been designing neuroscience-driven ed tech solutions for over a decade and is widely published and a top speaker in the edtech industry.
Responsible AI and Future AI
LeiLani interviews Justin Jordan, a former educator and Senior Product Manager at Cisco about the definitions of AI, how AI has permutated into many aspects of technology and what we need to be responsible for as we humans brave the new world where AI is in everything. Also find out things about Cisco and AI you might not have known by listening and learning.
How We Should Respond to AI and What's Next
Listen in as LeiLani discusses how we should be responding to AI in education with long-time friend and esteemed colleague in the field, Roland Antoine, Innovative Projects Manager at Dallas ISD in Texas. Roland introduces the idea that the problem is the “problems definition” and that we must proceed to use AI against clearly defined problems, and that AI should be able to act like a GPS of content for students. Both agree AI will not replace teachers but that we are in an age of applying a new wave of creativity in the same way humans applied it in the transition from the farming Agrarian Age to the Industrial Age and into the Technology Age. At each turning point, more horizons opened. Hear what’s next that AI will also bring to education that will also change how space and time is used.
Making the Most of Remaining ESSER Funds
Fear of the “fiscal cliff” and what to spend remaining ESSER funds on is a hot topic in schools. Listen in as Leilani discusses the topic with Jon Hummell, Director of State Initiatives at Lexia Learning. Productive use of the money may not be what you think.
AI and Algebraic Thinking About Time and Space in Schools
Listen in as LeiLani chats with Maurice Draggon, Sr. Director of Digital Learning at Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Florida. First they discuss the implications of AI in schools and then the emerging time and space AI known as Intelligent Calendaring for its possibilities and then the combination of both new technologies for “uberizing” learning. Along the way, comments about what AI will not do and the human teacher intersecting live with students more efficiently makes for an interesting conversation you don’t want to miss.
Shrinking School IT Teams and 3 Imperatives
Listen in as LeiLani discusses the problems of shrinking school IT teams and three imperatives with Mary Schlegelmilch, who as a former educator has extensive knowledge in distance learning and online learning as a member of the Cisco Education team. Discover how the three imperatives are a “team sport” of administrative, teacher and even bus driver activity.
What is the Science of Reading (Through the Lens of Pedagogy and Teacher Practice)?
Listen in as LeiLani learns a thing or two about the what the science of reading really is from Carey Sweet, National Senior Education Advisor Education Partnerships at Lexia Learning. While reading may be thousands of years old, the science of it has evolved over time. Good literacy instruction has elements and components – and deliberate practice. For certain the wars over reading instruction are getting an infusion of research and new approaches that are worth finding out about.
A Social-Emotional Imperative: Supporting both Dyslexia and Developmental Language Disorders (DLD) through Software Innovation
Every Superintendent in America seems to be identifying their number one issue is the social-emotional wellness of students. Interestingly, aspects of instruction may be the front line of address. Missing ingredients to instruction can exacerbate problems with achievement for students with dyslexia or DLD – inevitably reducing willingness and wellness. Who knew how different and interrelated reading and comprehension issues were for both, and how student agency and exact teaching practices could make a world of difference? Find out in this important discussion with Dr. Suzanne Carreker from Lexia Learning.
Education Technology for Emergent Bilinguals: Overlooked Aspects to Consider When Interpreting the Research
In this episode of the Learning Leadership Society Podcast, your host, Learning Counsel News Media and Research CEO LeiLani Cauthen, talks with Nicholas Feroce, Ph.D., Research Scientist at Lexia Learning about research design in the area of emergent bilinguals, and program causality to effect notable gains among that population.
Cybersecurity in K12
In this episode of the Learning Leadership Society Podcast, your host, Learning Counsel News Media and Research CEO LeiLani Cauthen, talks with Mary Schlegelmilch, Education Advocate at Cisco. They discuss the changes in K-12 education, and how the pandemic changed culture and mindset, and brought cybersecurity in education to another dimension.