Keynote
What Can We Do About (and With) AI? Education as a Case Study
When generative AI first emerged, educators responded by forming collaborative networks, sharing resources, and creating spaces for critical discussion. This talk explores how these communities have shaped AI implementation through collective learning and peer support, recognizing that the existence of generative AI has an emotional impact on educators and also offers an opportunity for self-reflection on philosophies, values, and meaningful learning. We'll examine how educators balance practical experimentation with critical analysis, teaching both with and about AI while addressing issues of bias, access, and labor. The session demonstrates how professionals in any discipline can approach new technologies democratically by building on existing networks, prioritizing community knowledge over corporate narratives, and ensuring that those most affected by AI participate in shaping its use.
Speakers
Maha Bali
Professor of Practice, American University in Cairo
Maha Bali is Professor of Practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo. She has a PhD in Education from the University of Sheffield, UK. She is co-founder of virtuallyconnecting.org (a grassroots movement that challenges academic gatekeeping at conferences) and co-facilitator of Equity Unbound (an equity-focused, open, connected intercultural learning curriculum, which has also branched into academic community activities Continuity with Care, Socially Just Academia, a collaboration with OneHE: Community-building Resources and MYFest, an innovative 3-month professional learning journey. She writes and speaks frequently about social justice, critical pedagogy, and open and online education. She blogs regularly at https://blog.mahabali.me and tweets @bali_maha.
Anna Mills
English Instructor, College of Marin
Anna Mills has taught writing in California community colleges for 20 years and is author of the widely used open educational resource textbook How Arguments Work: A Guide to Writing and Analyzing Texts in College. Her writing on AI appears in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Computers and Composition, AIPedagogy.org, and TextGenEd: Continuing Experiments. She serves on the Modern Language Association Task Force on Writing and AI and as faculty for the American Association of Colleges and Universities Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum. As a volunteer advisor, she has shaped the pedagogical approach of MyEssayFeedback.ai, and she currently serves as prompting and communications lead for the Peer and AI Review & Reflection project funded by the California Education Learning Lab.
