The Education Innovators Podcast

Season 5 Premiere: Youth Perspectives — Laura Schroeder on Grades, AI, and Learning in Action
 
Laura doesn't hold back on what's broken — grades that serve comparison over learning, pressure that turns curiosity into performance, a system that asks students to wait until a doctoral thesis to rediscover the curiosity they were born with. But she doesn't stop at the critique. She offers alternatives: portfolios, rubrics, project-based learning, and AI used as a creative tool rather than a shortcut. She also makes a case for why student voices are the missing perspective in education conversations — and she's right.
 
In this episode:
- Personalization as a spectrum, not a switch
- The Knowledge Society: what happens when you give curious teens real problems
- Why grades exist — and who they really serve
- AI in the classroom: cheating tool or creative engine?
- Passion Fruit and the case for student-built solutions
- Laura's closing message: just talk to students
 
Guest bio: Laura Schroeder is a 12th-grade student in Bavaria, Germany, and a member of The Knowledge Society (TKS), a 10-month global innovation accelerator for teens aged 13–17. She writes about education on Medium and is currently building “Passion Fruit”, a platform to help students start their own projects. She has studied in both Germany and the United States.
 
EIP is now one of the top education podcasts in Asia and features conversations with educators, students, founders, and innovators from all over the world who are reimagining how we teach and learn. Host Eric Byron explores practical ideas and real-world examples from schools, startups, and learning environments — from AI in the classroom to project-based learning, student voice, and the future of assessment. If you care about where education is heading, this is your show.
 
 
Links:
 
Laura Schroeder:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-schroeder07/
 
The Knowledge Society (TKS):
https://www.tks.world/
 
The Education Innovators Podcast Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551034804742
 
The Education Innovators Podcast YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLru4kYugzLerU1S8mQu2Jo2-jX6H_3kd3
 
The Human Intelligence movement:
https://www.humanintelligencemovement.org/
 
This podcast is produced entirely by Eric Byron.
You can contact Eric at eric@edinnovationpod.com

EIP - Season Five Trailer
This is a brief introduction to the fifth season of EIP.
Season Five of The Education Innovators Podcast is focused on youth perspectives. Eric Byron talks to students and experts from all over the world as he seeks out practical examples of innovation in education that can inspire educators to be the catalyst for change as our students prepare to enter a world with AI that looks very different than the world we have been preparing them for.
 

Athletics AND Academics – Remove the Compromise
 
Andy Williams is the Founding Head of School at Masters Academy International, a new boarding and day school opening this fall in Stow, Massachusetts. Designed for student-athletes in grades 6–12, Masters Academy pairs elite athletic development with a rigorous, forward-thinking academic model.
A lifelong educator, Williams previously held leadership roles at Avenues: The World School, where he helped shape innovative learning environments across campuses in New York, São Paulo, Miami, and online.
At Masters Academy, he is leading the development of a ground-up academic program built to match the intensity and ambition of high-level athletics, integrating flexible scheduling, interdisciplinary learning, and emerging technologies.
Williams is driven by a belief that traditional school structures often fail to meet the needs of today’s students, especially student-athletes, and is working to build a model that prepares students not just for college sports but for meaningful lives beyond them.
 
The Education Innovators Podcast is a set of conversations between Eric Byron and guests from all aspects of education around the world. We look for innovative ideas and practical examples of things happening in schools and learning environments that are of interest to teachers, corporate trainers, school administrators, EdTech providers, students, parents, and anyone else interested in education.
 
Links:
 
Andy Williams:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andywilliamseducator/
 
Masters Academy International
https://www.mastersacademyinternational.com/
 
The Education Innovators Podcast Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551034804742
 
The Education Innovators Podcast YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLru4kYugzLerU1S8mQu2Jo2-jX6H_3kd3
 
The Human Intelligence movement:
https://www.humanintelligencemovement.org/
 
This podcast is produced entirely by Eric Byron.
You can contact Eric at eric@edinnovationpod.com
 

Is Your Best Teacher Getting Paid Less than Your Worst?
This is a short solo episode by Eric Byron as he talks about teacher agency and how we can do better at rewarding teachers for being innovating instead of rewarding just length of service and playing it safe. Eric doesn’t pull any punches in this hard-hitting criticism of how we fail to compensate teachers and how the system neglects to give teachers the agency and support they need to fail forward and take risks.
The Education Innovators Podcast is a set of conversations between Eric Byron and guests from all aspects of education around the world. We look for innovative ideas and practical examples of things happening in schools and learning environments that are of interest to teachers, corporate trainers, school administrators, EdTech providers, students, parents, and anyone else interested in education.
 
Links:
 
The Education Innovators Podcast Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551034804742
 
The Education Innovators Podcast YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLru4kYugzLerU1S8mQu2Jo2-jX6H_3kd3
 
The Human Intelligence movement:
https://www.humanintelligencemovement.org/
 
This podcast is produced entirely by Eric Byron.
You can contact Eric at eric@edinnovationpod.com
 

Why Good Ideas Die in Schools
 
Rebecca E. Wolfe is an education innovation and systems scholar dedicated to advancing equitable, personalized, and competency-based learning. As the Founder and Director of Threadwell Solutions, she brings over 20 years of experience in field-shaping initiatives that bridge the gap between research and practice.
 
Rebecca previously held senior leadership roles at KnowledgeWorks and Jobs for the Future, where she focused on economic mobility and systemic educational change. She is the author of the influential Hoover Institution paper, “Can’t Get There from Here: A Framework for the Start, Spread, and Scale of Bottom-Up Innovation in Education,” which provides a roadmap for how local practitioner-led innovations can achieve large-scale impact. Dr. Wolfe holds a PhD in Education Administration and Policy from Stanford University and an AB in Sociology from Harvard University.
 
The Education Innovators Podcast is a set of conversations between Eric Byron and guests from all aspects of education around the world. We look for innovative ideas and practical examples of things happening in schools and learning environments that are of interest to teachers, corporate trainers, school administrators, EdTech providers, students, parents, and anyone else interested in education.
 
 
Links:
 
Rebecca Wolfe:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaewolfe/
 
Threadwell:
http://threadwell.org/
 
The Education Innovators Podcast Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551034804742
 
The Education Innovators Podcast YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLru4kYugzLerU1S8mQu2Jo2-jX6H_3kd3
 
The Human Intelligence movement:
https://www.humanintelligencemovement.org/
 
This podcast is produced entirely by Eric Byron.
You can contact Eric at eric@edinnovationpod.com
 

The Future of Education Report
 
This is a short solo episode that reviews the Future of Education Report from the Future Design School. Eric discusses the tension between being a for-profit business while trying to provide legitimate services that have a positive impact on learning in schools.
 
The Education Innovators Podcast is a set of conversations between Eric Byron and guests from all aspects of education around the world. We look for innovative ideas and practical examples of things happening in schools and learning environments that are of interest to teachers, corporate trainers, school administrators, EdTech providers, students, parents, and anyone else interested in education.
 
 
Links:
 
Future Design School:
https://futuredesignschool.com/
 
Future of Education Report:
https://futuredesignschool.com/pages/future-of-education-report
 
 
The Education Innovators Podcast Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551034804742
 
The Education Innovators Podcast YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLru4kYugzLerU1S8mQu2Jo2-jX6H_3kd3
 
The Human Intelligence movement:
https://www.humanintelligencemovement.org/
 
This podcast is produced entirely by Eric Byron.
You can contact Eric at eric@edinnovationpod.com
 

Make New Rules – David Bryan says, “Why Not?”
 
A 50+ year career in the trades, business, and education, has prepared David Bryan to be a curious and eager student of many fields. Dr. Bryan has taught at the middle school, high school, and university levels at various institutions in the United States. In 1995 he co-founded New Roads School, a unique independent school in southern California, where he served as a faculty member, the Founding Head of School and President from 1995 until he left in 2013 to found his own consulting business and teach at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He was the inaugural director of The Center for The Common Good, a joint venture of The Herb Alpert Foundation and New Roads School, to incubate creative innovation in business, education and community partnerships. In addition, Dr. Bryan consults privately with several not-for-profit and for-profit businesses on matters of board and workplace organization, employee training, and online education, and generational workplace dynamics. He serves as a director on the board of Motorcar Parts of America, and is currently the Chair of the Board of the Ojai Foundation and the Chair of the Board Governance Committee at Brave New Films.  Dr. Bryan received a B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, an M.S. from the University of California at Los Angeles and a J.D. and Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
 
The Education Innovators Podcast is a set of conversations between Eric Byron and guests from all aspects of education around the world. We look for innovative ideas and practical examples of things happening in schools and learning environments that are of interest to teachers, corporate trainers, school administrators, EdTech providers, students, parents, and anyone else interested in education.
 
 
Links:
David Bryan:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-bryan-b2868b25/
 
Curiosity Invited Podcast:
https://curiosityinvitedpodcast.com/
 
The Education Innovators Podcast Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551034804742
 
The Education Innovators Podcast YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLru4kYugzLerU1S8mQu2Jo2-jX6H_3kd3
 
The Human Intelligence movement:
https://www.humanintelligencemovement.org/
 
This podcast is produced entirely by Eric Byron.
You can contact Eric at eric@edinnovationpod.com
 

Khan TED Institute
 
This episode is another in Eric’s regular reviews of Sal Khan’s efforts to revolutionize education. He’s at it again, this time getting ready to launch the Khan TED Institute, offering low-cost accredited college degrees. It’s an interesting proposal and Eric attempts to be more objective in his review of this initiative.
 
The Education Innovators Podcast is a set of conversations between Eric Byron and guests from all aspects of education around the world. We look for innovative ideas and practical examples of things happening in schools and learning environments that are of interest to teachers, corporate trainers, school administrators, EdTech providers, students, parents, and anyone else interested in education.
 
 
Links:
 
The Khan Ted Institute:
https://khanted.org/Home
 
The Education Innovators Podcast Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551034804742
 
The Education Innovators Podcast YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLru4kYugzLerU1S8mQu2Jo2-jX6H_3kd3
 
The Human Intelligence movement:
https://www.humanintelligencemovement.org/
 
This podcast is produced entirely by Eric Byron.
You can contact Eric at eric@edinnovationpod.com
 
 
 

Mr. Metacognition
 
Nathan Burns is one of the premier experts of metacognition in the UK. Having established himself as an effective classroom practitioner in a number of roles across schools in the East Midlands, primarily as a Head of Maths, Nathan now works full-time in delivering high-quality metacognitive training and change support across educational contexts, both in the UK and worldwide. The author of three books on metacognition, with a fourth in the works, Nathan has supported schools and colleges across phases, as well as working in state, private and international contexts. He delivers staff facing training, leadership development support, curriculum development support and overarching metacognitive consultancy. 
 
The Education Innovators Podcast is a set of conversations between Eric Byron and guests from all aspects of education around the world. We look for innovative ideas and practical examples of things happening in schools and learning environments that are of interest to teachers, corporate trainers, school administrators, EdTech providers, students, parents, and anyone else interested in education.
 
 
Links:
 
Nathan Burns:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrmetacognition/
 
MrMetacognition:
https://www.mrmetacognition.com/publications-and-conferences
 
The Education Innovators Podcast Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551034804742
 
The Education Innovators Podcast YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLru4kYugzLerU1S8mQu2Jo2-jX6H_3kd3
 
The Human Intelligence movement:
https://www.humanintelligencemovement.org/
 
This podcast is produced entirely by Eric Byron.
You can contact Eric at eric@edinnovationpod.com
 

Khanmigo – Why Kids Don’t Use It
 
This is a solo episode, inspired by a recent announcement by Sal Khan admitting that Khanmigo, Khan Academy’s AI tutor, failed to revolutionize education, as he had previously predicted it would. Eric Byron bought into the early hype around Khanmigo, and this is his reflection on why he was also wrong about its potential.
 
The Education Innovators Podcast is a set of conversations between Eric Byron and guests from all aspects of education around the world. We look for innovative ideas and practical examples of things happening in schools and learning environments that are of interest to teachers, corporate trainers, school administrators, EdTech providers, students, parents, and anyone else interested in education.
 
Links:
 
Article from Chalkbeat that inspired this episode:
https://www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/09/sal-khan-reflects-on-ai-in-schools-and-khanmigo/
 
The Education Innovators Podcast Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551034804742
 
The Education Innovators Podcast YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLru4kYugzLerU1S8mQu2Jo2-jX6H_3kd3
 
The Human Intelligence movement:
https://www.humanintelligencemovement.org/
 
This podcast is produced entirely by Eric Byron.
You can contact Eric at eric@edinnovationpod.com