With artificial intelligence firmly entrenched in all levels of academia, and as the technology continues to evolve at breakneck speeds, some teachers, whether they teach kindergarteners or graduate students, don\u2019t have a firm grasp on the technology and its applications in their field.<\/p>\n
And so, for the second year in a row, educators at Cal State Fullerton organized the AI and Academia Conference.<\/p>\n
Held Feb. 20 in the Pollak Library, the conference featured workshops, panel discussions, presentations and a keynote speaker, all designed to increase AI literacy for all experience levels.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s conference, titled \u201cThe Future of Critical Thinking,\u201d drew nearly 200 faculty from 14 California State University campuses, a significant expansion from the 2025 conference, when only CSUF faculty were invited.<\/p>\n
The conference is beneficial because it provides the opportunity for learning and collaboration around AI, said CSUF mathematics professor Alison Marzocchi, who organized the conference with Leslie Bruce, lecturer in English, comparative literature and linguistics.<\/p>\n
Both Marzocchi and Bruce are faculty fellows in the Writing Across the Curriculum LIAISONS Program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis event is the for-faculty-by-faculty event,\u201d Marzocchi said. \u201cSo, we really wanted to get faculty across the Cal State system together to share ideas and problem solve together, present varying viewpoints and perspectives about how we\u2019re using AI, whether we should be using AI, its impact on critical thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the conclusion is that it is here to stay,\u201d Marzocchi added. \u201cSo, what\u2019s the best way we can use it?\u201d<\/p>\n
In contrast to last year, when most participants were new to AI, the 2026 conference gave faculty who had been running AI projects for a full year the opportunity to present their findings, she said.<\/p>\n
Bruce said that the conference\u2019s diverse sessions highlighted teaching strategies for focusing students on AI uses that are ethical and that prioritize students\u2019 critical thinking.<\/p>\n
Topics included Assessing AI\u2019s Impact on \u201cCritical Thinking,\u201d \u201cEthical AI Integrations in the Classroom,\u201d \u201cEthical AI Integrations Beyond the Classroom,\u201d \u201cChallenges and Concerns about AI on Campus\u201d and \u201cAI Faculty Professional Development.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faculty who had little or no AI literacy could once again tool around with AI in a casual setting in a session titled \u201cPlaygroup for Beginners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added to the schedule for this year\u2019s conference was a roundtable discussion titled \u201cConnections: K-12 and the CSU,\u201d which featured CSUF professors and administrators from the Anaheim, La Habra and Newport-Mesa Unified school districts.<\/p>\n
The discussion was in-depth and insightful, focusing on issues and challenges faced by educators from K-12 school districts on up to educators in higher education.<\/p>\n
The consensus among the panelists was that AI is here to stay. Students are using it and the technology is not going away.<\/p>\n
As such, a question was presented to the panel:<\/p>\n
If we removed AI tomorrow, would it feel like a loss, or would it feel like a relief?<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth,\u201d said Nancy Watkins, director of CSUF\u2019s Educational Doctorate Program and educational leadership professor. \u201cIf it was completely gone, then I think there would be a relief, because we\u2019re back in our comfort zone.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s why I go to the other side, which is why it\u2019s a good thing that we have it. This is evolution. It\u2019s been around a lot longer than it\u2019s been open to everyone. And I often say to my doctoral students, it\u2019s going to help you go further faster, but it doesn\u2019t replace the research you\u2019re doing on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenith Mishne, director of educational technology at the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, said AI can \u201clevel the playing field\u201d for students whose families can\u2019t afford a personal tutor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a very high economic-low economic area in Newport-Mesa,\u201d Mishne said.\u00a0 \u201cSo, we have low-economic students who don\u2019t have access. \u2026\u00a0 Just the translation alone is huge. But we just have to make sure that we are teaching. Our students are using it, so we have to teach them how.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eduardo Perez, a computer science major, was among a group of students who participated in a student roundtable, sharing their experiences on the impact of AI on their critical thinking.<\/p>\n
Forbidding the use of AI, instead of establishing parameters for students, would be fighting an unwinnable battle,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n
Instead, the key for professors is to develop guidelines around AI for their students.<\/p>\n
But Perez also offered some cautionary advice for his fellow students.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing AI too much will slowly turn off parts of your brain you want to use as a student,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With artificial intelligence firmly entrenched in all levels of academia, and as the technology continues to evolve at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,2627,7,2628,2306,23,611,77],"class_list":["post-218321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-cal-state-fullerton","tag-california","tag-fullerton","tag-higher-education","tag-local-news","tag-orange-county","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}