About Dr. David Guralnick

David Guralnick envisions a new approach to education and workplace learning. His vision integrates progressive learning theory, advanced technology, and creative, entertaining storytelling to create learning experiences that help people learn to think critically, reflect, and make thoughtful decisions. David holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, where his work synthesized concepts from the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence, instructional design, and cognitive psychology. Over the past 30 years, he has designed and evaluated a variety of simulation-based training applications, performance support systems, online courses, mobile applications, and authoring tools for corporate, non-profit, and university audiences.

David holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University, where his work synthesized concepts from the fields of computer science/artificial intelligence, instructional design, and cognitive psychology. Over the course of his thirty years in online learning, he has designed and developed simulation-based training applications, electronic performance-support systems, and specialized authoring tools which allow non-technical people, such as writers and trainers, to build e-learning sites.

Among David’s most notable achievements are the creation of the first learn-by-doing simulation for corporate training purposes and the first authoring tool for a non-technical audience that was specific to e-learning. He has been the recipient of over 200 e-learning design awards, and his work has been featured in Wired magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and Training magazine (as an Editor's Choice). He has been a regular speaker at both industry and academic events since 1991. He is also the author of the recent book How Organizations Can Make the Most of Online Learning.

David is the current President and CEO of Kaleidoscope Learning. He is also the current president of the International E-Learning Association; founder and chair of The Learning Ideas Conference; Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Advanced Corporate Learning; Chair of the International E-Learning Awards; and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University.

About Dr. Diana Andone

Dr. Andone is the Director of Department of Digital Education and Distance Education (previously the eLearning Center) of Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania, where she's responsible for planning and implementing digital education.

She is an associate professor in multimedia, interactive and web technologies, an EDEN Senior Fellow, an IEEE Education Society 2021 Distinguished Chapter Leadership Award winner, and the IEEE Education Society Vice President (2024-2027), with extensive research and publication experience and more than 30 research and educational international projects.

Dr. Andone teaches course modules in universities from the UK, France, USA, Finland, Italy, and Greece.

New Horizons in Open Practices with AI

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is not just changing digital and open education, it is enhancing it, especially from the perspective of educating today's generation. As AI systems increasingly can personalize learning, change how we do assessment, and scale access across borders, the boundaries of traditional education are dissolving. In the context of digital education, I'll explore how AI can transform educational ecosystems into open environments, how AI-driven platforms are accelerating global access to open education, breaking language barriers, and supporting inclusivity. How are practices in open education and digital education practices changing due to GAI? How do we build systems that are fair, transparent, and globally accessible?

About Dr. Eran Gal

Dr. Eran Gal is a digital learning and learning innovation expert with over 25 years of experience applying cross-company technology-based learning solutions.

Dr. Gal heads the graduate program at the Instructional Technologies Faculty, HIT. The program offers students a unique certification track in AI for learning applications in addition to M.A. in Instructional Technologies.

Dr. Gal teaches learning design using AI and learning innovation. He also oversees the research initiatives of the program focusing on empirical research of organizational and technologically enhanced learning.

Since January 2023, Dr. Gal's research and studies have been focused on successful implementation of GenAI services in academic and organizational learning.

About Dr. Gila Kurtz

Dr. Kurtz is the Dean of the Faculty of Instructional Technologies at the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT) in Israel. She has a wealth of experience, having served as the Academic Vice President at a company specializing in e-learning solutions for the corporate sector for several years.

Before joining HIT, she developed and managed an ICT and a Learning M.A. program at the College for Academic Studies in Israel. Dr. Kurtz has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) Graduate School in the Master of Distance Education and E-learning Program, where she co-developed and co-taught online courses.

Dr. Kurtz's other positions were head of interactive television satellite-based unit at the Open University of Israel (OUI) and director of an e-learning center at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. She was also the academic vice president of a company that provided e-learning solutions for the corporate industry. She served as a director and the secretary of The International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction, (IBSTPI) where she was a co-author of a book titled ""Online Learner Competencies: Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills for Successful Learning.""

For several years, Dr. Kurtz was a member of the Steering Committee of the European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN). She serves as a member on the Peer Review Board of The Journal of Educators Online and The European Journal of Open and Distance Learning. For several years, Dr. Kurtz was the Editor-in-Chief of The Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Skills and Lifelong Learning (IJELL). She has been a visiting scholar at several academic institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley's School of Education and at Syracuse University.

What the Future Holds for GenAI in Higher Education

Generative AI (GenAI) is fundamentally reshaping the landscape of higher education (HE). This presentation explores the trajectory of these powerful tools, moving beyond current applications to examine their transformative potential. We will discuss emerging opportunities in personalized learning pathways and accelerated research paradigms. Concurrently, we will address the critical challenges, including evolving definitions of learning and teaching, with the need for robust ethical frameworks. This session aims to foster a forward-looking dialogue on how HE institutions can strategically navigate and harness the future of GenAI.

About Isabella Loaiza

Isabella Loaiza is a Computational Social Scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Her research focuses on understanding the human capabilities that complement AI technologies, as well as the opportunities for worker augmentation and reskilling.

Insights from her work have informed corporate and policy discussions on the future of work. She has advised the Spanish Presidential Office on its labor force report, HispanIA 2025, and shared her perspectives with the Chilean Congress’s Committee on AI and Labor. Her work has been featured in ABC News, NPR's Planet Money, Telemundo and El Pais among others. She earned her Ph.D. in 2023 from the MIT Media Lab.

The EPOCH of AI: Human-Machine Complementarities at Work

In this session, I'll introduce the EPOCH framework (Empathy, Presence, Opinion, Creativity, and Hope), a framework that has been designed to capture human capabilities that artificial intelligence can, and should, complement rather than replace. Using network-based methods that mapped task interdependencies across all U.S. occupations, our team developed three metrics: (i) an overall score (the "EPOCH score") that measures human-intensive skills, (ii) a potential-for-augmentation score, and (iii) a risk-of-substitution score.

The EPOCH framework explicitly distinguishes AI’s roles in augmenting work versus automating it, addressing a key gap in the literature. Our results show a clear shift toward more human-intensive work. New tasks that emerged in 2024 carried significantly higher EPOCH scores than pre-existing tasks, and high-EPOCH tasks were performed more frequently. At the occupational level, EPOCH-intensive jobs experienced stronger employment growth from 2015 to 2023 and higher hiring rates in 2025, and have more favorable projections through 2034. In contrast, occupations with higher substitution risks show consistently negative outcomes across past employment, current hiring, and future projections. Finally, augmentation scores are negatively associated with recent employment and hiring trends, but show no significant link to long-run employment projections.

About Dr. Nafiza Akter

Nafiza Akter has an Ed.D. in Adult Learning and Leadership from Teachers College Columbia University. Prior to joining Pfizer, she had over 13 years of experience working in online course design in Higher Education, working across academic disciplines on graduate/undergraduate courses, executive education, and non-degree programming. She served as the Associate Director of Instructional Design at Teachers College, Columbia University. In 2021, she joined Pfizer's Research & Development team as an Associate Director, Training Development Lead. Her work involves creating engaging e-learning designs with inclusion, innovation, and evidence-based practices in mind. She leads the efforts to manage instructional tools, as well as adoption of organizational initiatives such as adopting matrixed ways of working, AI adoption, and leveraging critical thinking in everyday practices.

About Gerald Sastra

Gerald Sastra is a designer who is currently a graduate student in Interior Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he concentrates in Exhibition and Narrative Environments. His work explores how emerging technologies, including AI, intersect with creativity, learning, and spatial storytelling, particularly within educational and cultural contexts.

With a foundation in Graphic Design from the University of Houston and professional experience in experience design, Gerald approaches AI not as a replacement for creative authorship, but as a tool that reshapes how designers think, iterate, and learn. His research and hands-on work investigate investigate how AI can support design thinking, expand modes of inquiry, and challenge traditional boundaries between making, teaching, and reflection.

Gerald has presented his work at national and international design forums. Through both academic and professional practice, he is interested in how designers can critically and ethically engage AI to enhance creativity while keeping human values, intuition, and cultural context at the center of the design process.

About Miki Wei

Miki Wei is a second-year graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University, studying Developmental Psychology. Her research interests center on emotional development, perfectionism, and young adult well-being. As someone navigating learning across cultures and disciplines, she is particularly curious about how emerging technologies like AI might influence how students learn, stay motivated, and understand themselves in a rapidly changing world. She is excited to contribute a student voice to the conversation on AI, creativity, and education.

About Casandra Silva Sibilin, Ed.D.

Dr. Casandra Silva Sibilin is a Lecturer in Philosophy at York College, City University of New York (CUNY). She is one of the organizers of “Don’t AI Alone,” a CUNY grassroots community bringing together faculty, staff, and students to discuss the challenges of AI in education. She has written about ChatGPT through the lens of philosophy of education and created open educational resources to empower faculty and students to develop their own AI tools. Beyond CUNY, Silva Sibilin is the founder and leader of the subgroup on Custom Bots/GPTs for “AI in Education,” a global community of educators dedicated to sharing resources related to the impact of AI on teaching and learning.

Philosophy Meets AI: Designing Creative, Ethical, Human-Centered Learning

Custom AI chatbots built by faculty and staff are increasingly common, supporting teaching, learning, and assessment. This same technology takes on a new dimension when students are put in the driver’s seat, and when philosophy meets AI in the “EduBot-a-thon” project. In this project, students from across disciplines progress from exploring custom bots as users to identifying an educational problem and building their own bots. In the latest iteration, inspired by NASA Space Apps and coding communities, teams assume cross-functional roles, work in time-boxed sprints, and deliver short pitches that clarify a bot’s purpose, boundaries, and intended users. Research findings from student evaluations and reflections will be shared, highlighting how “building AI” and “getting under the hood” cultivates creativity, ethical awareness, and human-centered learning.

About Robert Stein

Robert Stein is the Chief Information Officer at the National Gallery of Art where he leads a dynamic team to advance the use of technology, data, and ai to ensure a secure, stable, and efficient IT operation that helps advance the strategic impact of the National Gallery.

Rob brings deep experience leading museums in many different areas from his former roles as Deputy Director at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, and Indianapolis Museum of Art. An active proponent of the role that art museums can play in our communities, Rob is a well-known champion for innovative applications of technology and the use of data to inform strategic decision-making across the cultural sector.

In addition to his work leading museums, he also served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Program officer of the American Alliance of Museums where he worked with museum leaders in the U.S. and abroad to highlight the essential role that museums play in the world.

Prior to his work in museums, Rob developed custom technologies in the field of high-performance computing where his work in human computer interface, scientific visualization, and virtual reality helped to create data-informed insights for the public and domain scientists.

Down the Rabbit Hole: How AI Helps Us Connect with Art

"I almost wish I hadn’t gone down that rabbit-hole – and yet – and yet – it’s rather curious, you know, this sort of life!” -Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Since the earliest beginnings of museums in America, the goal of providing access and enrichment to the broadest possible public has been one of the guiding principles of museums as cultural organizations. Research in the field has long shown that the experience of free-choice learning in the context of museums and museum collections is both inherently enjoyable, enriching, and effective. While the results of that research have been long-standing and repeatedly demonstrated – a variety of factors often causes museums to regress to overly academic and scholarly interpretation that in turn creates a barrier to entry for those who may not have received formal training in art history or those with only a passing interest in art at all.

If we turn our lens towards the digital realm, we find that those same benefits and barriers are still in place for users who want to engage with art online. In fact – one could argue that the experience only magnifies both the positive and negative aspects of how the public engages with art. In a single sitting, and from the comfort of their couch, the public can freely and easily explore the world’s treasures and access unbelievably high-resolution depictions of artworks that in many ways surpass what you could ever see in the museum itself. At the same time, museums find it difficult to convey the richness of the stories behind each artwork in a way that can be retold on the web and that engage and inspire the way that a knowledgeable guide could aptly do.

In this talk, we’ll explore recent ideas and efforts undertaken at the National Gallery of Art to reexamine the nature of online engagement with art. We feel that current models are outdated, fall short of a promise of joyful learning, and reinforce common barriers to access that are not in the best interests of our audience. We will share new directions that leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to bridge gaps in understanding, contextualize rich primary source documentation, and cast a wide net on the connections that exist between these amazing cultural artifacts.

While many of us disconnect and escape from the day by endlessly scrolling vacuous feeds of advertising and influencers – what would a similarly captivating experience of exploring art online look like? What if we could invite curious explorers to follow us down the rabbit hole and into a Wonderland of art?

About Dr. David Guralnick

David Guralnick envisions a new approach to education and workplace learning. His vision integrates progressive learning theory, advanced technology, and creative, entertaining storytelling to create learning experiences that help people learn to think critically, reflect, and make thoughtful decisions. David holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, where his work synthesized concepts from the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence, instructional design, and cognitive psychology. Over the past 30 years, he has designed and evaluated a variety of simulation-based training applications, performance support systems, online courses, mobile applications, and authoring tools for corporate, non-profit, and university audiences.

David holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University, where his work synthesized concepts from the fields of computer science/artificial intelligence, instructional design, and cognitive psychology. Over the course of his thirty years in online learning, he has designed and developed simulation-based training applications, electronic performance-support systems, and specialized authoring tools which allow non-technical people, such as writers and trainers, to build e-learning sites.

Among David’s most notable achievements are the creation of the first learn-by-doing simulation for corporate training purposes and the first authoring tool for a non-technical audience that was specific to e-learning. He has been the recipient of over 200 e-learning design awards, and his work has been featured in Wired magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and Training magazine (as an Editor's Choice). He has been a regular speaker at both industry and academic events since 1991. He is also the author of the recent book How Organizations Can Make the Most of Online Learning.

David is the current President and CEO of Kaleidoscope Learning. He is also the current president of the International E-Learning Association; founder and chair of The Learning Ideas Conference; Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Advanced Corporate Learning; Chair of the International E-Learning Awards; and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University.

AI, New Technologies, and a Human-Centered Approach to Learning

Technology, particularly within the world of education, can all too easily be perceived as cold and impersonal. The way technology-based systems and learning experiences are designed in higher education, workplace learning, and other educational environments is often far from ideal. But AI and new technologies offer opportunities for us to create warm, meaningful, and personally-relevant learning experiences, if we follow a sound design approach.

In this session, we’ll discuss what such an approach can involve. By drawing from progressive learning theory and other areas, such as cognitive science and motivational theory, we can use technology in creative ways to produce experiences that resonate with learners and feel “warm” without feeling as if they’re pretending to be human replacements. This approach can create and deliver meaningful, personal, engaging, immersive experiences on a large scale, designed to reach a wide audience and to allow people to learn in individualized ways.

About Dr. David Guralnick

David Guralnick envisions a new approach to education and workplace learning. His vision integrates progressive learning theory, advanced technology, and creative, entertaining storytelling to create learning experiences that help people learn to think critically, reflect, and make thoughtful decisions. David holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, where his work synthesized concepts from the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence, instructional design, and cognitive psychology. Over the past 30 years, he has designed and evaluated a variety of simulation-based training applications, performance support systems, online courses, mobile applications, and authoring tools for corporate, non-profit, and university audiences.

David holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University, where his work synthesized concepts from the fields of computer science/artificial intelligence, instructional design, and cognitive psychology. Over the course of his thirty years in online learning, he has designed and developed simulation-based training applications, electronic performance-support systems, and specialized authoring tools which allow non-technical people, such as writers and trainers, to build e-learning sites.

Among David’s most notable achievements are the creation of the first learn-by-doing simulation for corporate training purposes and the first authoring tool for a non-technical audience that was specific to e-learning. He has been the recipient of over 200 e-learning design awards, and his work has been featured in Wired magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and Training magazine (as an Editor's Choice). He has been a regular speaker at both industry and academic events since 1991. He is also the author of the recent book How Organizations Can Make the Most of Online Learning.

David is the current President and CEO of Kaleidoscope Learning. He is also the current president of the International E-Learning Association; founder and chair of The Learning Ideas Conference; Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Advanced Corporate Learning; Chair of the International E-Learning Awards; and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University.