While virtual learning has become more prevalent since 2020, the founders of Banyan Global Learning have been offering digital learning experiences for over 20 years.

Some people are excited about the possibilities technology offers. Others are backpedaling or worrying that tech does more harm than good.

Like most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

The outcomes depend on how experiences (both virtual and in-person) are designed and how learners are asked to engage.

Passive consumption rarely leads to meaningful learning, but well-structured virtual experiences can support problem solving, perspective-taking, and authentic connection across contexts.

Not as a replacement to in-person experiences, but as an additional option to provide opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

That’s why I invited Seth Fleischauer to De Facto Leaders to talk about how to use virtual field trips to connect with peers and learn about cultures and experiences worldwide.

Seth Fleischauer is the President of Banyan Global Learning, which he founded in 2008 after teaching elementary school with NYC Teaching Fellows. Banyan pioneered daily international EFL distance learning and has since expanded to train teachers and educate K-12 students across three continents. His programs focus on teaching digital and cultural competencies through a global lens and have delivered over 40,000 live teaching sessions. Seth has also hosted over 100 podcast episodes, including Make It Mindful and Why Distance Learning?

In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy

You can learn more about Seth’s company, Banyan Global Learning at: https://banyangloballearning.com/

Listen to my previous interview with Seth on De Facto Leaders here: Ep 193: Using Distance Learning to Increase Access and Opportunity (with Seth Fleischauer) here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-193-using-distance-learning-to-increase-access-and-opportunity-with-seth-fleischauer/

Banyan Global Learning’s Global Learning Live kicks off in spring 2026. Global Learning Live is led by Banyan teachers and blends live virtual field trips, collaboration, and reflection into an experiential journey for global competence. Students connect with real people and explore real places while building confidence through authentic global connection. Learn more about the Global Learning Live Spring ‘26 Pilot here: https://banyangloballearning.com/global-learning-live/

Learn more about Banyan Global’s live virtual field trips here: https://banyangloballearning.com/live-virtual-field-trips-2/

Listen to the Make it Mindful Podcast at: https://feeds.transistor.fm/make-it-mindful-an-education-podcast

Listen to Make it Mindful Podcast Interview about Executive Functioning here: https://makeitmindful.transistor.fm/episodes/rewind-50-executive-functioning-with-dr-karen-dudek-brannan

Listen to the Why Distance Learning Podcast at: https://whydistancelearning.transistor.fm/

Learn more about the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration here: https://www.cilc.org/

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Have you met “Jessica” the virtual speech helper? I certainly remember hearing about it the first time.

This concept raised a lot of questions in the clinical community. Are we trying to replace clinicians, and was that the intention behind this application?

If you’ve had these questions too, you won’t want to miss this conversation.

This episode is the second half of my interview with Maura Connor from BetterSpeech, the company that created an AI “virtual speech helper” to enhance and extend work being done in therapy sessions.

In this conversation we talk about:

✅ How the “speech helper” was intended (and NOT intended) to be used

✅ Discussion on why technology initiatives fail in schools

✅ How can technology decrease work for educators (instead of adding more)?

Maura Connor is an accomplished executive leader with deep expertise at the intersection of education and healthcare technology. She currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of Better Speech, where she is leading the launch of Streamline, an AI-powered special education management platform that helps districts reduce administrative complexity for providers and teachers, ensure compliance visibility, and strengthen support for students and families. With a career spanning executive roles in ed tech, health tech, and clinical operations, Maura has built a reputation for scaling organizations, driving innovation, and leading high-performing teams through periods of transformation. Her work focuses on uniting vision, strategy, and execution to deliver measurable outcomes for schools, clinicians, and the communities they serve. Maura is passionate about advancing solutions that enable educators and clinicians to spend more time on direct impact—helping children grow, thrive, and reach their potential—while ensuring that systems of care are more efficient, compliant, and sustainable.

You can connect with Maura on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maura-connor-2508929/

Learn more about BetterSpeech’s telehealth platform and services here: https://www.betterspeech.com/

Learn more about Streamline by BetterSpeech here: https://www.streamline-sped.com/why-streamline
Streamline is an AI solution that automates evaluation, service tracking, and compliance workflows, freeing up time for clinical judgement and engagement.

In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

When I first started working in the schools in the early 2000s, there was a push for integrating technology into classrooms and therapy sessions

It was even a box that got checked on my employee evaluation.

Now there’s a defined space referred to as “EdTech”.

It took me a while to realize that this was a thing, and I didn’t even realize I was a part of it until someone referred to me as the “EdTech person” during a job interview (they were “FinTech” people, short for “Financial Technology”).

In the work I do now creating a caseload management system, I often think about how important it is to define who the intended user of technology is. In product development, we refer to this as the “end user”.

Sometimes the end user is an administrator pulling analytics or managing the budget.

Sometimes it’s a teacher or clinician collecting data, managing a schedule, tracking referrals, or trying to reduce the administrative burden of their jobs so they can focus on human connection instead of paperwork.

Sometimes it’s a professional providing virtual therapy to students to increase access to services.
And sometimes, the end user is the student.

When we think about how technology is helping or hurting education, we have to look at each of these verticals separately.

A common answer I get when I talked to district leaders about technology is this:

“We know technology has caused problems and is often poorly utilized. But what we were doing before wasn’t working either.”

We had service deserts where therapy wasn’t accessible.

There were clinicians spending hours on paperwork or data collection.

We had administrators without the data they needed to evaluate what’s working or manage fiscal resources.

That’s why I wanted to have a conversation about how technology is being used, and what is and isn’t working.

I invited Maura Connor from BetterSpeech on to this episode to start the conversation.

This episode is the first half of our interview.

Maura Connor is an accomplished executive leader with deep expertise at the intersection of education and healthcare technology. She currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of Better Speech, where she is leading the launch of Streamline, an AI-powered special education management platform that helps districts reduce administrative complexity for providers and teachers, ensure compliance visibility, and strengthen support for students and families. With a career spanning executive roles in ed tech, health tech, and clinical operations, Maura has built a reputation for scaling organizations, driving innovation, and leading high-performing teams through periods of transformation. Her work focuses on uniting vision, strategy, and execution to deliver measurable outcomes for schools, clinicians, and the communities they serve. Maura is passionate about advancing solutions that enable educators and clinicians to spend more time on direct impact—helping children grow, thrive, and reach their potential—while ensuring that systems of care are more efficient, compliant, and sustainable.

You can connect with Maura on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maura-connor-2508929/

Learn more about BetterSpeech’s telehealth platform and services here: https://www.betterspeech.com/

Learn more about Streamline by BetterSpeech here: https://www.streamline-sped.com/why-streamline
Streamline is an AI solution that automates evaluation, service tracking, and compliance workflows, freeing up time for clinical judgement and engagement.

In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.