More than 200 educators from across the tri-state region gathered at Iona University for the Gabelli Center for Teaching & Learning’s Fall 2026 conference focused on the changing role of artificial intelligence in education.
The second annual event, titled “The Future of Teaching: Meeting the Challenge of AI-Aware Education,” brought together K-12 and higher education leaders to discuss responsible AI use, adolescent development, attention, classroom instruction and preparing students for an evolving workforce.
Marc Watkins, founding director of the Mississippi AI Institute and assistant director of Academic Innovation at the University of Mississippi, delivered the keynote. Watkins is also co-author of “The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching.”
The conference focused on maintaining critical thinking, creativity and human connection as AI becomes increasingly embedded in education.
Iona’s Gabelli Center for Teaching & Learning was founded in April 2024. Through the center and its AI@Iona initiative, the university has invested in faculty fellowships and professional development, collaborated with K-12 educators and hosted speakers working across AI, education, ethics and industry.
Other sessions examined changes in how students learn and the implications of AI-powered tools for teaching practice. Eric Abrams, senior director of clinical experiences and clinical lecturer of education at Iona, led a session titled “Fixing What Chatbots Broke.”
The conference also featured Iona’s Education in Real Life pilot program, which is designed to connect academic study with workplace experiences.
The initiative has worked with organizations in energy, construction and hospitality, including Eos Energy Enterprises, Consigli Construction, Union Square Hospitality Group and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts.
Students and faculty participated in a panel examining what the program revealed about the changing relationship among classroom instruction, technology and work.
The event also drew educators from public, private and Catholic K-12 schools, creating a forum for discussing how different institutions are responding to AI in the classroom.
KEY QUOTES:
“I believe Iona is in a leadership position to host these critical conversations around AI and our human values.
“A lot of people I’ve talked with feel like AI is happening to them, or that they don’t have agency or control. I hope they realize that their decisions matter right now. I think [Iona University] is doing a great job of having these types of actual, formal discussions, thinking about where AI fits in this space. A lot of larger, massive universities aren’t able to do this.”
Marc Watkins, Founding Director of the Mississippi AI Institute and Assistant Director of Academic Innovation at the University of Mississippi
“As we heard throughout the conference, the takeaway is clear: In a world filled with increasingly fast answers, education must help students develop the courage, wisdom and discipline to pause and ask the most important questions. The future of education will not simply happen to us—educators have an essential role in shaping it.”
Tricia Mulligan, Ph.D., Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Iona University
“I hope participants walk away with some great questions to ask—not only of their students, but of themselves and their teaching practices. I hope they get inspired to look at the underlying systems and try to imagine what this can look like in a new paradigm, and ask, how can we make teaching and learning better? Because it always has to get better. I think once you think that you’re a great teacher, maybe it’s time to walk away—because you can always get better and adapt, change and progress your practices.”
Eric Abrams, Ph.D., Senior Director of Clinical Experiences and Clinical Lecturer of Education at Iona University
“This is such a rapidly changing environment and being part of the conversation has really been motivating for me. Being a student that gets to be included has been super rewarding; I really like offering my perspective and also just getting the opportunity to learn and inspire myself. I feel like I’m at the forefront of all of this, and I think it’s really important for students to be a part of it. So to be one of them has meant a lot to me.”
Chloe Marblestone, Iona University Class of 2028
“AI has transformed the way we engage with information and I felt that I needed to be in a place where people were having open conversations about it, talking about the hard things—our fears, our hopes and just our wonderings. Like I tell my students, ‘What are you wondering about?’ AI has been adopted in every sphere of our lives, whether we are aware of it or not. So, we need to understand what’s going on—how it’s reshaping things and what potential it might have to impact the way our students engage with their worlds outside of school. We need to be more cognizant and aware of the world we are preparing them for.”
June Gondi, The Shipley School
“Challenges exist everywhere… We have to be the human element in this equation. I will take a great deal back with me from today. There were really great presentations and there was a real good spirit in what they were presenting. But also, there wasn’t in any way a sense that we couldn’t accomplish something great together. So we felt like we can walk away confident going back to our classrooms.”
Robert York, Assistant Principal at Kellenberg Memorial
“I think the thing that really stands out to me is that they’re helping me as an educator have a language to talk about AI and help to understand how it could best be deployed in my classroom. I think there’s a lot of concern [about AI], but I think for a lot of parents in particular, they’re also engaging with it on a daily basis. So they’re wondering how, as teachers, we’re helping their kids and preserving their formative cognitive development while at the same time giving them some limited and very guided direction in the application. And that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Christina Reidel, Eighth-Grade U.S. History Teacher in Bronxville
“What I really love about the message and what Iona is doing—first of all, to be at the forefront of this work and asking these difficult questions—but also putting it into the ethos of Catholic education and the spirit of the person. Because I do think what the beautiful thing is, is to be reminded of the soul and the heart and the intellect of the person being the most important. And while AI might become a tool, it doesn’t necessarily have to dominate the good learning that our students do. We are just really interested in deepening the conversation and exploring these questions of what it means to be human in this world of artificial intelligence.”
Kathleen McGreal, Scarsdale High School English Teacher
