EdTech & Innovation · Weekly
Real talk and real strategies that make EdTech feel doable.
A weekly podcast for K–12 educators and the EdTech community focused on stories that feel joyful, insights that actually help, and solutions that keep things grounded in learning.
Host
Lindy is a former classroom teacher turned EdTech consultant who works with K–12 districts to make technology feel doable in the classroom. Raised in rural Montana, she brings a grounded, practical voice to conversations about AI, screen time, and digital literacy — always centering teachers and students.
District leader & learning advocate
📍 United States
Dr. Stacy Hawthorne is a district leader and national speaker who helps K–12 systems lead with learning first and technology second. She partners with school systems across the country to design forward-leaning programs that put student possibility ahead of compliance.
View full profile →School-based technology specialist, Saratoga Elementary
📍 Fairfax County, Virginia
Debbie Tannenbaum is a school-based technology specialist in Fairfax County, an author, and a sought-after speaker on meaningful technology integration. She is best known for reframing 'screen time' as 'screen value' and championing creative, purposeful tech use in elementary classrooms.
View full profile →Education researcher & former classroom teacher
📍 United States
Adam Sparks is an education researcher and former classroom teacher whose work translates academic findings on edtech and screen time into practical guidance for educators, families, and policymakers.
View full profile →Director of Instructional Technology, Stratford Public Schools
📍 Stratford, Connecticut
Dr. Michelle Eckler leads instructional technology for Stratford Public Schools, bringing classroom-tested perspective to district-wide decisions about devices, digital literacy, and student wellbeing.
View full profile →Assistive technology leader & dyslexia advocate
📍 United Kingdom
Jack Churchill is an assistive technology leader, dyslexic learner, and great-grandson of Winston Churchill. He builds and advocates for tools that make reading, writing, and learning accessible — arguing that assistive tech isn't cheating, it's access.
View full profile →Educator & Descript education advocate
📍 Wyoming, USA
Aaron Makelky is a high school social studies teacher and AI-in-the-classroom advocate who now also partners with Descript to help educators tell better stories with audio, video, and AI. He's known for grounded, classroom-tested takes on agentic AI and creator tools.
View full profile →Librarian & esports coach
📍 Montana, USA
Marne Bender is a Montana school librarian and esports coach who uses the library and competitive gaming to reach students who don't see themselves in traditional school activities — building belonging, leadership, and digital skills along the way.
View full profile →Digital citizenship lead, Learning.com
📍 United States
Dr. Kelli Erwin works with Learning.com to bring digital citizenship and computer literacy curriculum to K–12 schools nationwide. She focuses on what gets lost when students get devices without learning how to be thoughtful citizens online.
View full profile →French teacher & AI fluency advocate
📍 United States
Merissa Sadler-Holder is a high school French teacher who has become a leading voice for AI fluency in world language classrooms — refusing to cast technology as hero or villain and instead modeling thoughtful, daily use with students.
View full profile →"Green Screen Gal" & classroom video coach
📍 Massachusetts, USA
Erika Sandstrom — better known online as the "Green Screen Gal" — is a media teacher and creator who helps educators bring video, calm, and joy into their classrooms without adding another thing to their plate.
View full profile →Lisa Snow is closing in on 20 years in the English Language Arts classroom. Lisa and Lindy dig into the "kids can't read" narrative and ask whether standardized tests are actually measuring the kind of reading students do every day. Lisa walks through how she decides when tech in her AP English classroom is helping…
What does AI literacy actually look like in a kindergarten classroom? For Tara Menghini, it starts with no AI tools at all. Tara has built a hands-on progression for teaching kids AI literacy from Kindergarten through 6th grade. All without touching AI chatbots. In this episode, she walks Lindy through what that…
Game-based learning and gamification are not the same thing, and in this episode, Lindy is setting the record straight with not one but TWO guests. Dan Ryder and Jacquie Gardy join the show to break down what game-based learning actually is, why it works at every grade level and in every subject, and how teachers can…
Dr. Stacy Hawthorne shares stories from districts across the country proving that when technology starts with a learning problem instead of a device, students don't just learn more — they imagine more.
Lindy sits down with Debbie Tannenbaum, school-based technology specialist at Saratoga Elementary in Fairfax County, to flip the screen time debate on its head.
The screen time debate is loud, emotional, and increasingly driving education policy. But what does the research actually say? Adam Sparks breaks it down.
Dr. Michelle Eckler, Director of Instructional Technology for Stratford Public Schools, brings practitioner insight to a national debate that needs it.
The TikTok comments came in fast. "It's too late." "That's on parents, not teachers." "Banning is the only answer." Lindy gets the frustration — and strongly disagrees.
A kid creating a digital book for a real audience. A kid clicking through a digital worksheet. A kid doom-scrolling at 10pm. All three involve a screen, but they are not the same.
Lindy builds on the question every educator and parent is asking, using new research from Stanford to separate hype from helpful.
Lindy sits down with Jack Churchill — assistive technology leader, dyslexic learner, and great-grandson of Winston Churchill — to unpack accessibility in the classroom.
It's AI Literacy Day and episode 10 of Make EdTech 100. Lindy digs into a big question: what does the research actually say about AI literacy?
Lindy explores how AI tools can support learning while keeping teachers firmly in control.
We've moved beyond text generation. Aaron Makelky helps educators understand what agentic AI means for schools.
What happens when a Montana librarian starts an esports team? Marne Bender shares how she finds students who otherwise slip through the cracks.
Lindy steps out from behind the mic to share how her journey in rural Montana shaped the way she thinks about education and technology.
Students live in a world of video — and school can't pretend otherwise. Lindy makes the case for why teacher-created video matters.
Lindy sits down with Dr. Kelli Erwin from Learning.com to unpack what's missing when we hand students devices without teaching digital citizenship.
Lindy is joined by Merissa Sadler-Holder, French teacher, to talk about what happens when we stop treating technology as either hero or villain.
What if video wasn't one more "thing" on your plate, but a pathway back to joy in teaching? Lindy sits down with Erika Sandstrom, the legendary Green Screen Gal.
In the first episode of Make EdTech 100, Lindy tackles the growing challenge of "AI slop" in student work and why AI detection tools are not the solution.
