Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast

AL Kingsley joins the podcast from the UK with 35 years as an EdTech CEO, a background in school governance and government advisory work, and a long-running focus on AI in education. He chairs the advisory board of the Institute of AI in Education, which funds doctoral research on using AI safely in primary schools. AL explains why fear of technology keeps creeping back, why we shouldn’t confuse s...

Creativity takes experimentation, revision, and a willingness to try something that might not work. How do we protect that process when AI can deliver a finished-looking product in seconds? Jeremy Mikla and David Berner welcome artist, educator, and STEAM Power author Tim Needles to Integrate This! EdTech for a conversation about creativity, learning, and keeping students actively involved when us...

Jacob Kantor, known as "Chief Dodo," joins the podcast to share a rare inside view: running 100-150 district calls a month as a consultant connecting EdTech companies with school and district leaders. Jacob breaks down what's actually driving (or killing) a district's decision to adopt a new tool, from budget pressure, to why efficacy and case studies open the door but rarely close the sale on the...

What changes when student work doesn't end on a screen? Jeremy Mikla and David Berner are joined by Peter Valinski of Sawgrass Technologies and Vik Patel of Craft Express for a conversation about moving student creation from the digital world into something students can actually hold, share, use, and even sell. What begins with personalized products quickly becomes a much larger conversation about...

What happens when the numbers we use to define success in school don’t actually measure what matters most? Jeremy Mikla and David Berner are joined by education advocate, author, filmmaker, and former venture capitalist Ted Dintersmith for a provocative conversation about what schools prioritize—and what students actually need for life beyond the classroom. Drawing from his book Aftermath , Ted ch...

Dr. Nadine Ebri, CEO of Ebri Education and a 2026 Presidential Leadership Scholar, joins the podcast to share how working with her daughter after an autism diagnosis led her to build an app called Free Indeed, designed to track development and give other parents tools to support their kids at home. Nadine also talks through her Presidential Leadership Scholars project, The Ripple Effect, which tra...

Jeremy catches up with past Integrate This! guest Jon Laven from Snorkl at the Educators AI Summit at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. In this quick conversation, Jon shares what’s new with Snorkl and how the platform is helping students explain their thinking and receive immediate AI-powered feedback without allowing AI to do the thinking for them. They also discuss cognitive offloading, stu...

Jose Gonzalez, a 21st Century Learning Specialist at Compton Unified School District, joins the podcast to share years of hands-on, project-based learning with his students, from building aquaponics systems on trucks and ships to designing a scaled-down interstellar mission in collaboration with a school in Brazil. He talks through how normalizing failure, giving students real problems to solve, a...

AI is changing quickly—but better technology doesn’t automatically mean better learning. In this episode of Integrate This! EdTech , Jeremy Mikla and David Berner sit down with Dan Fitzpatrick, The AI Educator , fresh off the 2026 Back to School AI Summit, to talk about where AI in education is headed and what educators should be paying attention to right now. The conversation moves beyond the bas...

Dr. Nekia Becerra — Education Strategist at Dell Technologies and former classroom teacher, campus administrator, and district leader — joins David Berner and Jeremy Mikla on the Integrate This! EdTech Podcast to talk about what actually matters as AI transforms K-12 education: empathy, design thinking, and preparing students for jobs that don't exist yet. Nekia shares her journey from fourth-grad...

What happens when we put the human side of learning first and use technology with purpose? In this episode of Integrate This!, Jeremy and David are joined by Zareen Levien, Principal Educator at Padlet, for a conversation about student voice, collaboration, AI, and what better EdTech should actually look like. Zareen shares her journey from the tech world at Yahoo to the classroom, instructional c...

Megan Diede and Kara Rigsby, co-founders of Integrated Edu, join the podcast for a deep dive into their framework for student engagement. They share how a casual "let's start running together" turned into a business partnership, and break down their core philosophy that engagement is an outcome, not a strategy, built through purposeful design, consistency, and connection (their "3 C's"). Megan and...

Jeremiah Frink spent 20 years in public education, from elementary teacher to district administrator, before moving to Dell as an education strategist. He joins the podcast to talk about Data Dunkers, Dell's program that teaches data and AI literacy through basketball stats from the WNBA and NBA, and the ISTE + ASCD Innovator Challenge, where student teams use AI to tackle real problems in their c...

How can schools take advantage of powerful technology without adding more noise to an already crowded instructional landscape? In this episode of Integrate This! , Jeremy and David sit down with Dr. Gene Kerns, Chief Academic Officer at Renaissance, to explore what effective educational technology should really accomplish. Gene shares his journey from the classroom to more than 20 years with Renai...

What does it really mean to prepare every student for a future we cannot fully predict? Jeremy and David are joined by sisters and Innovageous co-founders Shira Woolf Cohen and Alicia Woolf for a conversation about moving beyond career days, isolated programs, and technology that only gives the appearance of innovation. Shira and Alicia explain why future-focused education is not about directing s...

Dr. Sheldon Eakins, host of the Leading Equity podcast and founder of Purposeful Teaching Academy, joins the podcast to share his journey from history teacher to school administrator to equity consultant. He talks about what sparked his work in culturally responsive teaching after moving from the Virgin Islands to Idaho, where he served as a special education director for the Shoshone and Bannock...

In this episode of Integrate This! , Jeremy Mikla and David Berner sit down with Dr. Jenny Pieratt, PBL expert, author, curriculum designer, and founder of Crafted Curriculum, to talk about project-based learning that is real, rigorous, and student-centered. Jenny shares her journey into PBL through High Tech High, explains the difference between doing a project and designing true project-based le...

Aman Sahota, co-founder of Factors Education, joins David Berner and Jeremy Mikla to talk about building an AI platform that personalizes learning around a district's Portrait of a Graduate. He shares his path from studying sustainability to founding Factors Education, the mentor who pushed him into K-12, and how the platform uses student learner profiles to personalize resources by Lexile level,...

Stephanie Howell, Education Strategist at School AI, joins the podcast at ISTE to talk through her packed conference schedule, including a poster session exploring Ethan Mollick's framework for AI as tutor, coach, and learning support, and hands-on sessions covering visible learning, poetry and storytelling, and student research and creation with Adobe. She also shares how she ran an asynchronous,...

In this short conversation from ISTE, Jeremy sits down with Rick Ballew, a Minnesota educator, computer science teacher, ISTE certification facilitator, and self-described badge collector. Rick shares his perspective on the ISTE/ASCD certification process, including the differences between the edtech leader, instructional leader, and edtech teacher certifications. He also talks about why the certi...

Brittany Blackwell, host of the Resilient Teacher Podcast, joins the show at ISTE to talk about teacher burnout, why work-life balance is the wrong goal, and how to build work-life alignment instead. She walks through a simple energy in vs. energy out exercise for spotting what's draining your energy as a teacher, plus how systemizing and automating dreaded tasks, including with AI, can help. Chec...

In this short conversation from ISTE, Jeremy sits down with Lindy Hockenbary to talk about what keeps educators coming back to ISTE year after year, how national conferences can re-energize educators, and why building a strong professional network matters so much in edtech. Lindy shares her perspective as a longtime ISTE attendee and presenter, reflecting on the value of hallway conversations, exp...

Megan Diede and Kara Rigsby of Integrated Edu join the podcast at their first ISTE conference to talk about their session, The Engagement Blueprint, and their core philosophy that engagement isn't a strategy, it's the outcome. They break down how they help schools take existing curriculum and layer in movement, auditory, and visual pathways to boost engagement and student growth. They also share w...

In this short conversation from ISTE, Jeremy sits down with Leonardo Ortiz Villacorta from The Pokémon Company International to learn more about why Pokémon had such a strong presence at the conference and how the company is supporting schools through play-based learning. Leonardo shares details about Pokémon’s new after-school club program, developed in partnership with ISTE, designed to bring th...

Stevie Frank, tech coach at Zionsville Community Schools, sits down at ISTE to talk about what makes her district human-centered first, her work with Adobe's Student Ambassador program, and a project where fifth graders used AI to become animated race car drivers for an Indy 500 unit. She also shares advice for educators new to big conferences and why connecting with other educators matters more t...