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AI Literacies in Practice Series

Constructive and Critical AI Literacies

May 28, 2026 | 11:00 AM EDT | 1 Hour

Building With AI and Asking What It Builds


We understand the timing of these sessions may not work for your timezone. The sessions will be recorded and available to watch on-demand for anyone who is unable to attend live. To ensure you get the recordings to your inbox, please register!

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Speakers

Dr. Angela Gunder

CEO & Founder, Opened Culture

Dr. Angela Gunder

CEO & Founder, Opened Culture

Angela Gunder, Ph.D., is the CEO and founder of Opened Culture, a pioneering collaboratory dedicated to empowering stakeholders across the educational ecosystem to advance academic innovation and cultures of openness. She is also an online instructor at The University of Arizona where she has been teaching in Brightspace for over a decade.

Dr. Cristi Ford

Chief Learning Officer

Dr. Cristi Ford

Chief Learning Officer

Dr. Cristi Ford serves as the Chief Learning Officer at D2L. She brings more than 20 years of cumulative experience in higher education, secondary education, project management, program evaluation, training and student services to her role. In this role, she offers thought leadership and direction to the academic affairs unit of the organization. Her previous roles have allowed her to have impact in education from secondary and higher education settings within North America and as part of the international landscape. Her reach has allowed her to focus on building online education in the US and in Africa.

In addition to her experience building new online learning programs and research related to online teaching and learning, Dr. Ford possesses significant experience in the design and delivery of integrated educational support, training and transition services for young adults and children with neurodevelopment disabilities.

Dr. Ford was selected by the Online Learning Consortium as the 2022 OLC Fellow (the highest professional distinction offered by the association). She is a tireless advocate for quality online education and has leveraged her passion and expertise in many realms in the education space. She is known for utilizing her leadership in extraordinary ways to help institutions build capacity to launch and expand online programming through effective faculty development, instructional design and pedagogical practices.

Dr. Ford holds a PhD in Educational Leadership from the University of Missouri-Columbia and undergraduate and graduate degrees in the field of Psychology from Hampton University and University of Baltimore, respectively.

Dr. Bettyjo Bouchey

Chief Officer, Professional and Continuing Education (PACE), University of Vermont

Dr. Bettyjo Bouchey

Chief Officer, Professional and Continuing Education (PACE), University of Vermont

Dr. Bettyjo Bouchey is an Associate Professor and Vice Provost of Digital Strategy & Operations at National Louis University. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University at Albany, an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Micromasters in Instructional Design & Technology from University of Maryland Global Campus, and a Doctorate in Education from Northeastern University.

Dr. Bouchey is a co-founder of the CORAL Research collaborative focused on online leadership and scholarship; her personal research interests include the nature and future of organizational structures of online units in institutions of higher education, as well as inventive and high-impact pedagogical practice in online teaching. Dr. Bouchey writes and is widely quoted in the academic and popular press and you can find out more about her and her work on her website.

Dr. Gloria Niles

Chief Academic Technology Innovation Officer (CATIO), University of Hawai’i System

Dr. Gloria Niles

Chief Academic Technology Innovation Officer (CATIO), University of Hawai’i System

Dr. Gloria Y. Niles is the Chief Online Learning Officer for the University of Hawaiʻi System. She developed the Cognitive Synergy Framework, a neuroscience-informed approach designed to augment both human and AI intelligence. Her framework offers practical strategies for educators and students to integrate technology, enhancing creativity, problem-solving, and reflective thinking. Dr. Niles’s work focuses on neuroscience, digital learning, and inclusive digital learning policy, with a commitment to guiding educators in thoughtfully integrating AI to strengthen human creativity and connection.

About This Webinar

Most conversations about AI in education start with the tools. This one starts with the people using them. What happens when educators stop asking “how do I use this?” and start asking “what am I building, and is it building something good?” That shift changes everything, and this session is where it begins.

What You’ll Learn

Why Knowing How AI Works Changes What You Can Do With It

You don’t need to be a developer, but you do need to understand enough about how AI tools are built to make real choices about what you create with them. This session explores what it means to move from using AI to constructing with it, and why that shift matters for every educator, designer, and leader in the room.

Criticality as Illumination, Not Just Interrogation

The instinct to ask “what is AI getting wrong?” is a good one. But critical AI literacies go further. They ask what AI is making possible, what it is leaving out, and who gets to decide. This session reframes critical practice as the ability to hold both challenges and opportunities in view at the same time, because the educators doing the most interesting work right now are doing exactly that.

Two Dimensions, One Conversation

These two dimensions of AI literacies were the first ones the research team saw working in tandem, and they remain the ones most people encounter first. Building with AI demands critical judgment. Asking critical questions becomes most powerful when you are building something real. This session explores what opens up when both are in play.

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