About the summit
Thank you all for coming to our Day 1 Keynotes! A recording of each keynote presentation will be available in early October. We will send an email notification when they are ready to watch!
Artificial intelligence is changing education quickly, but educators are still searching for practical, trustworthy guidance. Many are asking themselves: How should AI fit into teaching and learning? What policies actually work? How can we prepare students for a world where AI is integrated into everyday life while protecting academic integrity and critical thinking?
The Public AI Summit for Educators is a free, two-day virtual professional development event designed especially for educators at community colleges, public schools, minority-serving institutions, and other broad-access educational settings, while remaining open to anyone interested in the future of AI and education.
Across keynotes, demonstrations, hands-on workshops, and live Q&A sessions, participants will learn from experienced educators and leading researchers who have spent the past several years experimenting with AI in real classrooms. Sessions will explore topics including AI literacy, course policies, assessment, prompt design, institutional leadership, career readiness, and practical strategies for integrating AI into existing curricula.
Whether you’re just starting to explore AI or refining an established approach, you’ll leave with reusable teaching materials, actionable strategies, and a stronger foundation for making thoughtful, values-driven decisions about AI in education.
The Summit is co-hosted by the AI Pedagogy Project and the Data Nutrition Project, with support from Axim Collaborative.
Keynotes
Does AI Use Help or Hurt Learning? That’s the Wrong Question
Asking whether AI helps or hurts learning is the wrong question. In this talk, leading AI scholar Arvind Narayanan will discuss how AI’s effect on learning is not an inherent or inevitable property of the technology itself. Instead, he will explore the agency we possess in how we use it, and…
Arvind Narayanan
Creating, Together
Creating is one of the most human things we do—a way of expressing ourselves, making sense of ideas, and connecting with one another. Our creating, and what we learn from it, are deepened when supported by others, whether as guides, collaborators, audiences, or critics. Generative AI is radically…
Karen Brennan
The Homework Machine: Navigating Uncertainty and the Arrival of AI
Since the arrival of ChatGPT four years ago, schools have faced three interlocking dilemmas. First, schools need to do something–many of the typical routines used in secondary schools and colleges no longer foster learning. Second, we do not know what to do next. No one has developed AI…
Justin Reich
Workshops
AI Climate Reality Check
AI Prompting and Pedagogy
Building a Media Gut Check: Working Criteria for Multimedia in the AI Era
Demystifying AI: How It Works, Builds, and Reasons
Finding the Sweet Spot: When to Embrace AI, When to Set Limits, and Why
Forgive My Sin: I Talk to AI Way More Than to All People in My Life, Combined :(
Help Workshop a (soon-to-be-published) Set of Customizable Classroom AI Use Labels
Practical Strategies for Building AI-Ready Assignments and Policies
Teaching Students to Question Every (Human and Artificial) Narrative
The AI to Z Workshop: Finding the Words We Need Now
To What (Writing) Problem is AI the Solution?
Schedule
Day 1 – Keynotes
September 16, 2026 @ 12:00-3:30pm ET
| Time | Description | Speaker(s) |
| 12:00–12:15 PM | Welcome & Introduction | Sarah Newman, Kasia Chmielinski |
| 12:15–1:00 PM | Keynote: The Homework Machine: Navigating Uncertainty and the Arrival of AI | Justin Reich |
| 1:15–2:00 PM | Keynote: Does AI Use Help or Hurt Learning? That’s the Wrong Question | Arvind Narayanan |
| 2:00–2:15 PM | Break | – |
| 2:15–3:15 PM | Keynote: Creating, Together | Karen Brennan |
| 3:15–3:30 PM | Getting Involved & What's Next | Sarah Newman |
Day 2 – Workshops
September 17, 2026 @ 1:00-3:30pm ET
| Time | Description | Speaker(s) |
| 1:00–1:30 PM | Welcome & Workshop Overviews | Sarah Newman |
| 1:30–2:15 PM | Workshop Session 1 | Various |
| 2:15–2:30 PM | Session 1 Debrief | Sarah Newman, Maria Dikcis, Sebastian Rodriguez |
| 2:30–3:15 PM | Workshop Session 2 | Various |
| 3:15–3:30 PM | Session 2 Debrief & What's Next | Sarah Newman, Maria Dikcis, Sebastian Rodriguez |
Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Arvind Narayanan
Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University
Karen Brennan
Timothy E. Wirth Professor of Learning Technologies, Harvard University
Justin Reich
Associate Professor of Digital Media, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Workshop Leads
Tazin Daniels
Associate Director, Center for Teaching & Learning, University of Michigan
Jotwan T. Daniels
Associate Dean of Planning, Assessment, Improvement and Impact, Colorado Mountain College
Laura Dumin
Professor & AI Coordinator, University of Central Oklahoma
Jon Ippolito
Professor of New Media and Director of Digital Curation, University of Maine
Dan Be Kim
AI Fellow, Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Anna Mills
English Instructor, College of Marin
Sarah Newman
Co-Organizer
David Olson
Director of Education, Retro Report
Jane Rosenzweig
Director, Harvard Extension School Writing Center
Olivia Tai
Independent Researcher/Artist
Matt Taylor
Technical Lead, Data Nutrition Project
JT Torres
Director of the Harte Center for Teaching and Learning, Washington & Lee University
Randi Williams
Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction, Carnegie Mellon University
