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.
Becoming Human Using Assessment Data
What if testing was more human centric and not so scary and indiscriminate? Listen to this discussion about bringing back meaning to assessments through new skills in data and logic that work even in distance learning scenarios. EduJedi LeiLani Cauthen interviews CEO Laura Slover and Joey Web, Director of Academic Services, of CenterPoint Education Solutions.
Lights, Camera, Action! What about On-Camera Simultaneous Teaching
EduJedi LeiLani Cauthen and Fred King from Cisco discuss the “why” of simultaneous teaching in a live classroom plus via video online feels a lot like going on stage. Behavior tends to change when cameras are panning, tilting, zooming, so a new Cisco solution modifies all that with a stationary “quad-cam” and audio detection that auto-creates a split-screen and software manages everything. Plus comments about how it all mitigates cyberbullying, does auto-translations and closed captioning, plus helps with data privacy and averting data loss. New tech is so cool!
Learning Recovery Starts with Seeing and Hearing A.I.
Schools now have a big worry about lack of learning because students just can’t see or hear well, either because of masks and plexiglass everywhere on site or from a distance over video feeds. Guest Daniel Kleman and EduJedi LeiLani Cauthen discuss things like invisible sound bubbles that block background noise, artificial intelligence managing audio beams so the teacher is heard by all and students don’t get left behind.
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Secure Your Investment, Manage Risk
Let’s hear from a technical expert on K12 school security about the big picture on information security. LeiLani interviews Doug Walsten from Cisco who mentions both data-at-rest and data-in-motion with regards to school data, which most school and district leaders know is “everywhere” in their systems, in the cloud, or on some teacher’s desktop. All of it has encompassing laws that need to be considered by leaders since schools are using thousands of Apps and many major systems that hold personal information of students. Listen to this podcast for an excellent sketch of concerns accompanied by various stories about what goes on in schools and some trends.
Become a Hybrid Learning Pro: Tips & Resources to Keep Students Engaged Anywhere
The transformation of learning where suddenly students and teachers are not physically together has driven widespread use of video conferencing. Screen fatigue complaints and disengagement were center stage early on, but certain folks like Suzanne Phillips rode in to show how to do it right. LeiLani interviews Suzanne Phillips from Cisco Webex who has focused on creating tips and resources for teachers, by learning from successful educators worldwide. Teaching virtually can still be human with real connection, provided simple workflows and special tricks are used to create a learning ambiance. Who would have predicted that since the pandemic, over one million views of educator video conferencing tips would have happened in just a few months?
New Digital Personalized Approaches to Equity
Schools are bringing on professional grade digital curriculum and aiming at true personalization. LeiLani hosts Liz Brooke and Michele Eaton, Director of Virtual And Blended Learning from the M.S.D. of Wayne Township. This discussion about what software can do in schools reveals how leaders are trying to balance human teaching within a new context of real personalization because of more sophisticated software so that they can rid themselves of systemic inequities.
Esports Driving All Academic Achievement
Esports is the new “hook” to keep students working in other subjects despite being remote or partially physically attending schools in some sort of hybrid schedule. LeiLani discusses the emerging ultra-significance of esports and gaming in K12 education with Dr. Miles Harvey, 8th Grade Video Game-Based Learning and Esports Coach, Albuquerque Public Schools and Luke Stebick, Account Executive at TIG. Hear them talk about the real-life workings of student attendance and engagement because of esports, getting started as a school, and what sort of life-long opportunities are out there for students.
Data Driven Return to Learning
Given the ongoing pandemic, schools, districts and whole States have been grappling with awkward school schedules, hybrid style environments, and mismatched achievement because student online attendance during the later part of Spring was so unpredictable. States have stepped in to measure both academics and social-emotional learning to get achievement back on track. This podcast discusses what that looks like and hosts Anita Qonja Collins-Executive Director of Elementary Instruction/Dr. Christine Russell-MTSS Coordinator/Gary A. van Staveren, Ph.D.-Assessment, Grants and School Improvement Supervisor.
Paying for the Giant Leap in K12
The nation made a giant leap forward into technology for K12 in 2020 and that transition continues, with some new twists. LeiLani hosts Renee Patton, Global Director of Education and Healthcare from Cisco’s Industry Solutions Group. With “so many newbies,” the new schools and districts since the pandemic started, all rolling out massive numbers of computing devices to students, they discuss what that means for networks, achievement and student equity. New address to small schools and districts with innovations in equipment, pricing and help for funding questions have been part of the Cisco pivot to help – detailed by Patton. Interesting new ideas about what’s next up with schools having to be “extra-limital” are also discussed.
Pushed into 1-to-1? What’s next for successful programs.
LeiLani discusses with Justin Reilly, the CEO of Impero, a missing ingredient for managing the sudden mass deployments of devices by K12 schools. Student safety, but more importantly, the well-being of students socially and emotionally, has a new guardian with advanced mobile device management software. Reilly’s comments about what’s imperative now that schools are still mostly hybrid or remote learning are particularly timely. It’s not enough to create a connection to learning, vigilance by schools about student well-being means they retain those students while driving achievement.