The Education Innovators Podcast

Tech-Intentional Education

A former middle school English teacher and parent of two, Emily Cherkin, MEd., Emily Cherkin, MEd., The Screentime Consultant, witnessed the simultaneous rise of technology use for school, and smartphone and social media use for kids. Today, Emily consults with parents, offers school presentations and professional development training, and writes about parenting, education, and screentime to bring her tec...

Beyond Academics – Life Skills

Nitin Gour is the Founder and CEO of Bloomster. He is passionate about transforming education to focus on holistic student development. Bloomster is a dynamic platform that empowers students by teaching over 25 essential life skills, helping them thrive in five key areas critical to navigating today’s ever-changing world. With nearly two decades of experience in the corporate world, spanning technol...

Sharon Gal-Or: Regenaissance – The Call to Heal

Sharon Gal-Or is a regenerative consultant, public speaker, and author. He caught my attention with his latest book “Regenaissance: The Call to Heal”, and with his passion for innovation in education and his transformative works that explore the intersections of spirituality, ecology, future of humanity, and regenerative movements. In this episode he takes us on a philosophical, yet...

Mila Devenport – A Vision for Digital Wellbeing

Mila is an AI ethicist and the Founder and Chief Education Officer of the Kigumi Group, a social enterprise here in Hong Kong doing digital well-being for digital natives, including teaching them about AI ethics, cybersafety, and metacognitive skills. She is a certified AI ethics assessor by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a character educator who focuses o...

Laura Jacob is the Superintendent of the California Area School District and founder and CEO of California Academy of Learning Charter School. 

In her current capacity as Superintendent of Schools, she maintains a focus on creating schools where all children love learning, with a focus on teaching environmental sustainability. The Moonshot Program eliminates grades, and grade levels and establishes an individualized learning plan...

Zone of Proximal Development – In this episode, Chris Hess, from Pearson, helps connect the dots between training for a triathlon and preparing to take an exam. By targeting the zone of proximal development, he is helping Pearson develop AI tools for education that optimize learning experiences to achieve this state of higher performance.

Chris Hess currently serves as the director of AI product management for higher education at...

Bedales – Head Hand and Heart

This episode is about a school with over 130 years of history as a progressive and innovative educational institution. An exclusive school with old world charm and new world perspectives on teaching and learning.

I am joined by Will Goldsmith who is the Head of Bedales School in Petersfield England. Founded by John Badley in 1893, it is a private school offering an alternative to GCSE courses and asses...

Phillip Alcock is the founder of AIxPBL, a startup focused on AI-powered project-based learning. He is experienced in STEM/STEAM education, Project-Based Learning (PBL) research and implementation, Game-Based Learning, Sustainability education, AI-enhanced curriculum design, and learner-centric pedagogies.

Phillip publishes a very popular and powerful newsletter on LinkedIn (link below). Phil’s writing is both informative and ver...

Season 3 Trailer

This is a quick recap of some highlights from season 2 and a look forward at our aspirations for season 3.

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 admi...

Dr Michelle Ament is an educational pioneer renowned for creating the Learning, Experienced (LXP) model. She leads educational systems to develop Human Intelligence, the essential human-centered skills needed to be career-ready in an AI world. An architect of the groundbreaking approach to teaching and assessing social-emotional wellness with experiential learning through a build, apply and transfer instructional model. Her com...

Romy Alexandra is a learning experience designer and experiential learning trainer on a mission to humanize learning spaces (in-person, online, and hybrid). She is passionate about designing and delivering transformative learning experiences that integrate experiential learning, psychological safety, emotional intelligence, the neuroscience of learning, and behavior change.

Romy brings over a decade of international facilitation ex...

Joel Birch is a longtime K-12 educator and instructional coach. He is also a Certified Facilitator and Pro Trainer of LEGO Serious Play. He relies on the power of play, stories, and solving problems by thinking with our hands. Joel works with school leaders to help them conduct the big, important conversations that help them to steer their schools towards their preferred vision of the future.

In this episode Joel and Eric talk ab...

This episode was filmed on location at The Hong Kong Developmental Paediatrics and Child Neurology Centre where I got the chance to meet Moxie the Compassionate Robot and to talk with Dr. Fanny Lam and Dr Cecelia Lam.

Dr Fanny Wai Fan Lam - Specialist in Developmental Behaviour Paediatrics at Blue Sky Precision Medicine

Dr Fanny Wai Fan Lam is a Specialist in Developmental-Behavioural Paediatrics with three decades of clinical ...

Hayes Greenfield is founder of Creative Sound Play (CSP), a sound-based, generative learning system for Pre-K, as well as an award-winning jazz musician, notable film composer, and innovative educator. His book, Creative Sound Play for Young Learners

(Routledge, Eye on Education Series, 2024), invites educators to use sound-making as collaborative educational play.

Hayes began working as a teaching artist in public and private K-...

Alan Tang believes education can make the world a better place. He is the founder and CEO of CoLab an online program that uses games, discussions and escape rooms to teach kids skills for the modern world. He found his way here through a path that included 6 years in corporate finance in the renewable energy field and spent some time as a chef at some of London’s top restaurants. He has worked with startups as a “fractional chief o...

This episode is a book review of Salman Khan’s new book – “Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (And Why That's a Good Thing)”. Sal is the Founder and CEO of Khan Academy, and his book is a brave and visionary look at the impact of generative AI on education. This is a solo episode, no guests, just me sharing my thoughts about the book.

The Education Innovators Podcast is a weekly conversation between Eric Byron and...

This is part 1 of my conversation with Mark DeLoura, who spent almost 2 years as a Senior Advisor on Digital Media at the White House. A great storyteller with amazing insights into the educational games industry and the business of making games.

Mark DeLoura is a games and education technology leader, and he believes in their power to transform the world. He has been a game maker, a game leader, and a game changer, in various role...

This is part 2 of my conversation with Mark DeLoura. Mark is a collaborator, a connector of people and teams. In this part we really dive into the challenges of making educational games and how we can bring the right people together.

Mark DeLoura is a games and education technology leader, and he believes in their power to transform the world. He has been a game maker, a game leader, and a game changer, in various roles from Silico...

Adam Sparks was an English and Social Studies teacher for 7 years before recently completing his masters in Learning Design and Technology at Stanford. At Stanford, Adam's work focused on formative assessment, peer feedback, and writing instruction. He now works full-time on Short Answer, a gamified K12 writing tool that began as his master's capstone project. Through his work with Short Answer, Adam works with schools across the U...