Dan Bowen, K12 CTO, Microsoft

Curiosity in the age of AI

In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, curiosity remains our most powerful human trait. This keynote explores how curiosity fuels innovation, drives ethical decision-making, and empowers lifelong learning in an AI-driven era.

Dan will unpack the evolving relationship between human curiosity and machine intelligence—highlighting how educators, leaders, and technologists can harness AI not just as a tool, but as a catalyst for deeper inquiry, creativity, and transformation. From classrooms to boardrooms, this session will challenge conventional thinking, showcase real-world examples, and offer actionable insights on how to cultivate curiosity in systems, pedagogy, and leadership.

Whether you're navigating AI in education, policy, or enterprise, this keynote will inspire you to lead with questions, embrace uncertainty, and design futures where curiosity and technology co-evolve for the greater good.

Victoria Spicer-Stuart, Head of Teaching & Learning; Adoption Lead

Being Human in the World of GenAi

This workshop will explore some of the ethical considerations of AI use, with a focus on the human impacts. The workshop will explore elements such as bias, intellectual property, labour displacement and the hidden human workforce behind Generative AI. The interactive session encourages educators to reflect on which teaching tasks can be delegated to AI and which should remain human-led, with the aim of prompting critical discussion and personal reflection on AI’s role in education and society as a whole during the workshop.

Matthew Esterman, Founder, The Next Word

Cyborgs in schools - where to next?

Classrooms are no longer just human spaces. From lesson planning to student support, AI is slipping into the daily rhythms of teaching and learning. But are schools ready for this “cyborg moment,” where human expertise and machine intelligence fuse? This session explores what’s possible, what’s risky, and what’s next. Expect provocations, practical examples, and a peek into the near-future of education where teachers, students, and AI learn to co-evolve.

Brodie McGee, Digital Transformation Leader, Salesian College

Personalised Learning at Scale: Building Custom AI Chatbots for Every Student

At Salesian College Sunbury, we wanted to go beyond simply using off-the-shelf AI tools in the classroom. Our goal was to give every student a personalised tutor for each subject they study, grounded entirely in their actual coursework.

This session will demonstrate how our Digital Learning & Innovation team built an internal platform that lets teachers upload their subject content, assessment instructions, and resources, then automatically generates a dedicated AI chatbot for each student in each class. These chatbots can answer questions, explain content in different ways, and guide students step-by-step through their tasks — all while staying aligned with teacher expectations. Built using AI APIs within our College's Generative AI Framework, this system has transformed student engagement and reduced the time teachers spend on repetitive clarification. Attendees will see how we designed the workflows, guardrails, and safety systems that make this possible within a school context.

Participants will leave with a clear blueprint for creating their own custom learning support tools using generative AI.

Travis Burroughs, Director, Yarra Ranges Tech School

AI in Action: Empowering the Next Generation of Innovators

Is AI a threat to education or its greatest new tool? Join the Yarra Ranges Tech School for a look at how we are harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence to foster student agency and supercharge STEM learning. This presentation moves beyond fear and explores how to thoughtfully integrate AI into the classroom to help students and teachers thrive.

We will explore our hands-on programs that introduce students to the fundamentals of AI through engaging activities in programming, robotics, design, and home automation. Discover how we provide clear instructions and expectations that empower students to use AI platforms as a powerful tool to accelerate their own learning and creativity. In this session, we will dive into practical examples, including:

• A case study on how we developed our home automation program and how students use AI to design and automate their own homes.

• Strategies for using AI to drive student entrepreneurship and innovation.

• An overview of how our teachers leverage AI to rapidly develop new learning experiences and enhance their own practice.

James Jenkins, Head of AI and Digital Transformation, Canterbury College

Using AI to create digital interactives for your classroom

This workshop shows teachers how to harness AI tools to create custom HTML-based interactive activities that address their unique classroom requirements. Using hands-on examples, participants will discover an accessible process requiring zero programming knowledge - AI manages the HTML coding while educators concentrate on learning design. Discover how this method facilitates developing curriculum-specific, device-responsive materials that are simple to adapt and distribute, enabling teachers to construct precisely what benefits their learners most.

Miriam Tanti, Deputy Dean, Professor in Education, La Trobe University

The meaningful integration of GenAI in teaching and learning

Generative AI is transforming not just what students learn, but how the brain engages with knowledge itself. In this session, we’ll explore the Science of Successful Learning through the lens of GenAI—examining how tools like ChatGPT can both amplify and disrupt human cognition.

Drawing on the simple model of memory, cognitive load theory, schema building, and cognitive offloading, we’ll consider how GenAI alters attention, working memory, and long-term understanding. Is AI helping students think more deeply—or think less? How can teachers ensure that cognitive effort remains productive, not outsourced?

Through practical, classroom-based examples, participants will learn to design lessons and tasks that use GenAI intentionally reducing cognitive load where appropriate, strengthening schema formation, and enhancing critical and creative thinking. You’ll leave with a research-informed toolkit of pedagogical strategies to lead AI-integrated learning that keeps human intelligence at the centre.

Elijah Bajao, Teacher, Monash College

Interactive Notebooks for Future-Ready Classrooms: AI, Creativity, and Student Agency

Digital interactive notebooks reimagine classroom learning by blending creativity, collaboration, and AI-enhanced design. This session highlights how tools such as Google Slides, Canva, and generative AI can be used to create scaffolded, engaging, and highly adaptable learning experiences.

Participants will explore classroom-tested strategies that foster student agency, experimentation, and critical thinking, while also building transferable digital and creative skills for AI-integrated futures. Through collaborative discussion and demonstration, the session showcases how interactive notebooks can promote inclusivity and innovation in diverse learning contexts.

Attendees will leave with a toolkit of resources and design models to help them confidently implement AI-driven notebooks in their own classrooms and empower students to thrive in a future shaped by intelligent technologies.

Maria Mertzanakis, Deputy Head of Senior School- Teaching and Learning, Oran Park Anglican College

Smarter, Not Harder: Reducing Teacher Workload While Elevating Pedagogy

This session explores how schools can redesign assessment to embrace AI’s potential while safeguarding academic integrity. Participants will examine practical strategies such as authentic, real-world tasks, oral defences, process-based assessment, and adaptive feedback. The focus is on ensuring assessment remains rigorous, fair, and future-focused; measuring not just what students know, but how they think, create, and apply their learning in an AI-rich world.

Dr Roy Rozario, Research Scholar (Deakin Uni), Editor (Warwick Uni)

A framework for integrating evolving technologies using multiple pedagogies in classroom context.

In an evolving world of multi-modal technologies and artificial intelligence teachers need a framework that embraces expansive learning to successfully integrate digital learning. Expansive learning framework has evolved over three generations (over 100 years) and provides several models on how to unpack 21st century technologies to be integrated into classroom practice to attain lesson goals. The session will unpack how a case study of best teacher practices in digital technologies in Melbourne schools adopted multiple pedagogies, such as, ubiquitous, mobile, collaborative, differentiated, context relevant and expansive learning to enable deep learning using these models. Participants will be able to apply these models in their own context to support curriculum and lesson planning using evolving technologies to enable implementation of multiple pedagogies, and opportunities for collaborative learning and professional development.

Helen Velikans, Learning Resource Support Librarian, Catholic College Wodonga

Creative Practices and AI for Teaching and Learning

Explore how creative storytelling and ethical AI integration can empower students to thrive—emotionally, socially, and intellectually—in today’s classrooms. Discover hands-on strategies that foster wellbeing, inclusion, and digital integrity through imaginative, student-centred learning.

Experience how creative storytelling techniques—enhanced by ethical AI integration—can help students thrive emotionally, socially, and intellectually. This interactive workshop invites participants to engage in hands-on activities that promote wellbeing, inclusion, and technological integrity in the classroom.

Kistina Wu, Head of Faculty – Technology, Rangi Ruru Girls' School in Christchurch NZ

Teaching Fundamental AI literacy

The session will focus on what my team of technology teachers and I do to design and deliver a teaching unit on AI literacy for Year 10 students. It will include a comprehensive overview of the framework that underpins our teaching, a range of classroom activities, tools we use, pedagogical approaches we consider, and feedback from both students and teachers. It will be a complete teaching unit that others can take and implement directly in their classes.