Keynote Speakers

C. Edward Watson. American Association of Colleges and Universities (USA)

Keynote: Embracing AI as Essential Learning: Preparing Students for Life Beyond College

Generative AI tools have had an astonishingly quick impact on the ways we learn, work, think, and create. While higher education’s initial response was to develop strategies to diminish AI’s influence in the classroom, it is now clear that AI competencies and literacies must be embraced as essential learning for most colleges and universities. These responses and realities create a challenging tension that higher education must work to resolve. Drawing from his new book, Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024), Dr. C. Edward Watson will detail the challenges and opportunities that have emerged for higher education, especially in terms of pedagogical practice and student learning. The core focus of this keynote will be on concrete approaches and strategies higher education can adopt, both within the classroom and across larger curricular structures, to best prepare students for the life that awaits them after graduation. It will also detail the pedagogical possibilities regarding how AI can have a positive impact on student learning.

Workshop: Exploring AI for Teaching and Learning

Designed for those who are interested in employing AI within the context of their curriculum and/or courses, this hands-on workshop will begin by providing participants with a guided, hands-on exploration of key generative AI tools currently being used today. The world of generative AI is not monolithic, as there are a variety of systems and each has different strengths and weaknesses. After exploring this landscape, the workshop will shift to specific applications of AI within teaching and learning settings. A key theme will be how faculty can ensure their students achieve the learning outcomes of their course while also engendering AI competencies and literacies that are of increasing demand in the world of work. Assignment design, feedback, and grading will be key topics. A hallmark of this session will be opportunities for attendees to explore AI within the specific context of their own course. Relatedly, participants are encouraged to bring at least one assignment they plan to use in the fall semester or have recently used and would like to reconsider within the context of opportunities presented by AI.

About C. Edward Watson

C. Edward Watson, Ph.D., is the Vice President for Digital Innovation at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). He is also the founding director of AAC&U’s Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum. Prior to joining AAC&U, Dr. Watson was the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Georgia (UGA) where he led university efforts associated with faculty development, TA development, learning technologies, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. He continues to serve as a Fellow in the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at UGA and recently stepped down after more than a decade as the Executive Editor of the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. His most recent book is Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024). Dr. Watson been quoted in the New York Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Campus Technology, EdSurge, EdTech, Consumer Reports, UK Financial Times, and University Business Magazine and by the AP, CNN and NPR regarding current teaching and learning issues and trends in higher education.

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