As artificial intelligence is firmly entrenched in academia at all levels, and technology continues to evolve at breakneck speed, some teachers, whether they are teaching kindergarteners or graduate students, lack a firm understanding of the technology and its applications in the field.
So for the second year in a row, educators at California State University, Fullerton hosted an AI and academic conference.
The conference, held on February 20th at the Pollack Library, featured workshops, panel discussions, presentations, and keynotes designed to improve AI literacy for all experience levels.
This year’s conference, titled “The Future of Critical Thinking,” attracted nearly 200 faculty members from 14 California State University campuses, a significant expansion from the 2025 conference, which only invited CSUF faculty.
CSUF mathematics professor Alison Marzocchi, who organized the conference with Leslie Bruce, lecturer in English, comparative literature, and linguistics, said the conference is beneficial because it provides an opportunity for learning and collaboration on AI.
Marzocchi and Bruce are both faculty fellows in the Writing Across the Curriculum LIAISONS program.
“This event is a departmental event,” Marzocchi said. “So we really wanted to bring together faculty from across Cal State to share ideas, solve problems together, and present different perspectives and perspectives on how we’re using AI, whether we should be using it, and the implications for critical thinking.”
“I think the bottom line is it’s here to stay,” Marzocchi added. “So what’s the best way we can use it?”
In contrast to last year, when most participants were new to AI, the 2026 conference gave faculty who have been running AI projects for a year an opportunity to present their research results, she said.
Bruce said the conference’s diverse sessions highlighted educational strategies to focus students on using AI that is ethical and prioritizes student critical thinking.
Topics include assessing the impact of AI on “critical thinking,” “integrating ethical AI in the classroom,” “integrating ethical AI beyond the classroom,” “challenges and concerns about AI on campus,” and “AI faculty professional development.”
Faculty with little or no AI literacy were able to re-engage with AI in a casual setting in a session titled “Playgroup for Beginners.”
Added to this year’s conference schedule is a roundtable discussion titled “Connections: K-12 and CSU” featuring CSUF professors and administrators from Anaheim, La Habra, and Newport-Mesa Unified School Districts.
The discussion was thorough and insightful, focusing on issues and challenges facing K-12 school districts to higher education educators.
The consensus among panelists was that AI is here to stay. Students are using it and this technology is not going away.
The following questions were therefore posed to the panel:
If you eliminated AI tomorrow, would you feel a sense of loss or relief?
“It’s both,” said Nancy Watkins, CSUF’s education doctoral program director and professor of educational leadership. “I think once that’s completely gone, I’ll be relieved, because we’re back in our comfort zone. That’s why I’m going to the other side. That’s why it’s good to have it. It’s an evolution. It’s been around much longer than it’s been open to anyone. And I often say to PhD students, it helps you go even faster, but it doesn’t replace the research you’re doing on the ground.”
Jenice Mishn, director of education technology for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, said AI can “level the playing field” for students whose families can’t afford private tutors.
“In Newport-Mesa, we are in very high and low economic areas,” Mishneh said. “That means we have students from lower economic backgrounds who don’t have access. … The translation alone is huge. But we have to make sure that we’re teaching it. Our students are using it, so we have to teach them how to do it.”
Eduardo Perez, a computer science major, was among a group of students who participated in a student roundtable to share his experiences about how AI is impacting critical thinking.
Banning the use of AI instead of establishing parameters for students would be fighting a battle that cannot be won,” Perez said.
Rather, it’s important for professors to create guidelines for students about AI.
But Perez also offered some cautionary advice to his fellow students.
“If you use AI too much, the parts of your brain that you wanted to use when you were a student will gradually turn off,” he says.
