Teachers are seeing a gap open between what their classroom strategies were designed to do and what today's students actually need. At Iona University's Gabelli Center for Teaching & Learning Fall 2026 conference on September 25, educators will confront that gap directly, with a full-day program built around practical responses to generative AI, shifting student development, and a new experiment in bridging academic and professional life.
The conference features a keynote from Marc Watkins, co-author of The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching and director of the AI Institute for Teachers at the University of Mississippi. His work training faculty in AI literacy has drawn national attention, and his approach starts from a position he calls "curious skepticism." Watkins believes educators should be equally supported whether they choose to work with AI or deliberately introduce friction to limit its influence on student learning.
A keynote built on code and shareable tools
Watkins' keynote, "AI-Aware Education: Teaching with Confidence in the Age of AI," runs from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. Rather than a static slide deck, he will build the presentation platform using AI code during the talk and make it accessible to attendees afterward. The session covers analog responses to AI, responsible use cases, and advanced applications, followed by a Q&A. For educators sorting through what Watkins calls a "contested, consequential, ethically tangled" subject that changes weekly, the focus is on helping students develop discernment when they encounter these tools.
Watkins' work predates ChatGPT. He regularly writes about AI and education on his Substack Rhetorica, and his faculty training model has been profiled in The Washington Post. For teachers seeking structured professional development on these topics, AI for Teachers Courses offer a learning path that aligns with the kind of AI literacy Watkins advocates.
What changed in today's students
The 10:30 a.m. session takes on a problem faculty across higher education are naming: strategies that once worked no longer land. Christy Solorio and Allyson Compton, both assistant professors at Iona, will examine what shifted in traditional-age college students. Their session, "What We Expect vs. What They Need," traces the developmental changes, attention patterns, and workload expectations that have altered classroom dynamics. Participants leave with a clearer picture of the current student and concrete adaptations for meeting them where they are.
At 11:30 a.m., Eric Abrams narrows the lens to what generative AI specifically broke. His presentation, "Fixing What Chatbots Broke," rejects the claim that AI merely exposed pre-existing fractures in education. Instead, Abrams examines the damage to relationships among teachers, students, technology, knowledge, and truth. The session includes hands-on experimentation with AI tools and discussion aimed at helping educators decide how the technology should or should not fit into their practice.
An experiment in closing the study-to-work gap
The afternoon block, running from 1:15 to 3 p.m., presents findings from Iona's Education in Real Life initiative. Over the spring and summer, the university piloted a course model designed to connect academic study with professional work. Faculty collaborators Rob Kissner, Ivy Linton Stabell, and Dean DeFino worked with industry innovators, engaged students with emerging technologies, and rethought classroom practices entirely. The session includes a student panel, so attendees hear directly from participants about what the experiment produced.
The course set out to help students face ambiguity with curiosity and confidence. The closing session will share what the faculty learned and where the model goes next, offering a concrete case study for institutions wrestling with how to prepare students for workplaces being reshaped by AI.
Why this matters for educators
This conference does not treat AI as a single-session topic. The program threads it through every conversation: what it broke, how to teach with it or against it, and what it means for the transition from classroom to career. For K-12 and higher education professionals, the takeaway is a set of strategies that acknowledge AI's presence without ceding ground on fundamental skills, human connection, or the discernment students need to navigate tools that will keep changing.
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