By Dr. Xin Bai
York College faculty collaborated with colleagues from across CUNY to design and facilitate an international professional development workshop on artificial intelligence (AI) in education, hosted at Guttman Community College in January 2026. The workshop was initiated by CUNY Central’s Computing Integrated Teacher Education (CITE) program and the Don’t AI Alone working group and sponsored by the Mayor’s Office of Colina, Chile.
The CUNY–Chile AI in Education Professional Development Workshop (Jan. 12-15, 2026) brought 22 K–12 educators from Colina, Chile, to New York for a four-day learning experience focused on ethical, creative, and classroom-ready applications of generative AI.
The workshop was facilitated by a faculty team from York College, the College of Staten Island, and Kingsborough Community College, including Dr. Xin Bai, Dr. Ting Yuan, Professor Casandra Silva Sibilin, and Dr. Laura Scheiber. Together, the team guided participants through AI ethics, creative computing, robotics, custom chatbots, and pedagogical strategies for integrating emerging technologies into K–12 classrooms in culturally responsive ways.
The program opened with a welcome from Guttman Community College President Elizabeth de León Bhargava and Sara Vogel, director of Computing Integrated Teacher Education (CITE) at CUNY Central, both of whom addressed the visiting educators in Spanish. The multilingual welcome reflected New York City’s diverse culture and set an inviting, human-centered tone for the workshop.
A distinctive feature of the program was its maker-centered approach. Packed into two well-traveled suitcases, York’s Teacher Education Makerspace made its way to Guttman, bringing laptops, robotics kits, games, and hands-on tools that transformed the space into a pop-up learning environment for the week and supported collaborative, experiential AI activities.
The workshop also created meaningful professional learning opportunities for York students. Teacher candidates Chelsea Sandoval (also a York Makerspace Scholar), Christian Ramos, and Sebastian Rodriguez served as bilingual facilitators and learning assistants, supporting translation, small-group collaboration, instructional activities, and daily logistics. Students described the experience as both challenging and deeply meaningful.
As a closing celebration, the Chilean educators surprised the CUNY team with a traditional cueca dance, inviting faculty and students to join in a moment that reflected the strong human connections and cultural exchange developed during the workshop.
Looking ahead, the CUNY-Chile AI collaboration is planned as an ongoing partnership, with Chilean partners currently working to bring another delegation of educators to CUNY next year.
This initiative reflects York College’s campus culture of collaboration, support, and innovation, where faculty across disciplines are encouraged to pursue meaningful, outward-facing work. The team is deeply grateful for the institutional support that made this collaboration possible, including continued investment in York’s Makerspace by CUNY Central and York College, along with upcoming earmark funding that will help expand this work in technology-enhanced teacher preparation, community engagement, and international collaboration.
Dr. Xin Bai is a professor of Educational Technology in the Department of Teacher Education at York College/CUNY.
Mar 2, 2026 5:00 AM