Pedagogy Day
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Equity in AI
Register Now
About the Event
Welcome to Pedagogy Day 2026, a one-day conference hosted at Eastern Illinois University. The purpose of this event is to cultivate a space where faculty and instructors can explore, share, and engage with proven effective practices for teaching and learning at the university level.
As AI tools become deeply embedded in academic, professional, and everyday life, educator are increasingly called to help learners navigate this landscape with confidence, integrity, and critical awareness
The theme for Pedagogy Day 2026 is Equity in AI, which invites us to consider how we can understand and use these technologies more thoughtfully, communicate their strengths and limitations, and design learning experiencing that prepare learners equitably for a rapidly evolving future. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Kevin Hallinan, has been a leading voice on the role of AI in engineering education and on developing instructional approaches that foster ethical, equitable, and responsible technology use.
Keynote Speaker
Professor Emeritus, University of Dayton, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; and Director of Impact Mining, Saynota.io.
Dr. Hallinan's work at Synota.io is on advancing investment in solar micro-grids/coupled with AI facilitated education to enable productive use of energy in unpowered communities in sub-Saharan Africa. His background is eclectic, despite serving as professor at different levels for 36 years. In his early career, he did research for NASA which culminated in an experiment that was conducted on the Space Shuttle in 1996. He then led the development of the New Engineer Program at UD, which emphasized engineering for social impact. A core feature of this is the UD Ethos program, which for 20+ years has provided students at UD an opportunity to do real engineering in support of non-profits in Latin and South America, Africa and Asia. He also was the founding director of the UD Renewable and Clean Energy Program in 2010.
Always interested in testing new approaches to education, he has worked on experimental courses combining art and theater with engineering and in other transdisciplinary learning opportunities. Moreover, his recent teaching emphasized big data, machine learning and natural language processing; and when ChatGPT hit the pavement, he was off and running with experiments to test its place in education.
Since leaving his role as an educator at UD, his focus has been equity in AI.
Call for Proposals
Under this year’s theme, we invite proposals that address both foundational and emerging pedagogical practices related to teaching with, about, or alongside AI. We encourage submissions from all disciplines and teaching contexts—including K-12, undergraduate, graduate, online, hybrid, and experiential learning.
Proposals for presentations will be accepted until11:59 PM, Friday, January 16, 2026. Please submit proposals to fdic@eiu.edu. The primary contact person will receive a decision via email no later than February 1, 2026.
While we welcome proposals on various aspects of pedagogical innovation and excellence, our specific areas of focus include, but are not limited to:
- Assessment strategies that foster learner engagement, equity, and meaningful knowledge generation.
- Active learning practices that support deeper engagement with course concepts, peers, and real-world problem-solving.
- Strategies for supporting students with uneven access to learning tools and technologies.
- Innovative or redesigned instructional materials that promote clarity, inclusivity, and deeper learning.
- Assignment design that promotes academic integrity, authenticity, and equitable learning opportunities.
- Approaches for teaching students to critically evaluate information, sources, and digital content.
-
Pedagogical models that emphasize transparency, ethics, equity, and responsible use of learning technologies.
These areas of focus can be considered from various institutional perspectives, including faculty and instructors, the Library, Writing Center, and other academic resources, learner support services, learners themselves, and instructional technology support.
Proposal Information
The proposal form includes the following fields:
- Name, title, department and institution name, and email address of each facilitator.
- Session format (see below).
- Session title.
- Keywords related to the selected areas of focus for the session (assessment strategies, active learning, learner engagement, instructional materials, technology-enhanced teaching, Universal Design for Learning, inclusive instructional design, or other).
- Description of session, including background and evidence of effectiveness of work being presented (400-word limit) and participant learning outcomes and/or engagement (100-word limit), submitted as a single document.
Successful proposals will address many of the following criteria:
- Inform pedagogical approaches with concrete examples.
- Highlight the impacts on learning outcomes.
- Define how engagement will take place for session attendees.
- Provide physical and/or digital access to key takeaway resources.
Session Formats
- Paper Presentation (10-12 minutes): Papers may report the results of completed research, describe research in progress, or present a position on a compelling problem or issue relevant to one or more of the conference areas. Research papers should highlight the problem, results, and conclusions while very briefly touching on method. Papers will be grouped into sessions with similarly themed projects.
- Panel Presentation (45 minutes, 2-4 panelists): Panel sessions offer two to four presenters the opportunity to weave together innovative ideas, practical experiences, fresh approaches and perspectives, and critical reflection on a theme or topic related to the conference theme of Small Changes with Big Impacts. Lasting a total of 45 minutes for all speakers and Q&A, these sessions are intended to inspire participants to consider multiple, diverse perspectives on a particular topic and their potential impact.
- Facilitated Roundtable Discussion (45 minutes): Facilitated roundtable discussions provide time for colleagues to examine topics of similar interest through a sharing of expertise and experiences. They provide an opportunity to work through concepts, engage in problem-solving, and explore new ideas—all from multiple perspectives. Facilitators should be prepared to share 3-4 questions and related materials in advance for interested participants to consider prior to attending the session.
- Poster Session: Poster presenters share visual models of curricular and cocurricular innovations and novel approaches, strategies for institutional transformation and/or new project development, findings and data from research projects, or novel designs for supporting high-impact practices.
- “Lightning Talk” Innovation Sessions (new tool, technology or approach) (7 minutes): "Lightning talks" are brief innovation sharing sessions during with a new tool, idea or approach is discussed. These sessions should build in time for inspiring participants to engage in dialogue and collaborative problem-solving and trying something new.
Registration
While participation in this event is free, registration is required to ensure adequate space and resources for all attendees. Please register by Friday, March 6 to help us prepare for your participation.
Register Now
This event is hosted by the Faculty Development and Innovation Center (FDIC)
Eastern Illinois University
Charleston, Illinois 61920
Questions? Contact us at fdic@eiu.edu or call 217-581-7051
