June 2026 National Conference on Generative Artificial Intelligence in Education

Michael Callaghan

Reader, Ulster University

Michael Callaghan is a Reader in Games and Multimedia at Ulster University. He is a world-leading and award winning academic in the emerging field of serious games and remote/virtual laboratories. He has published widely in the fields of serious games for engineering education, Virtual and Augmented Reality and remote and virtual laboratories with over 70+ peer-reviewed publications in these areas.

He has been principal investigator/co-investigator on funded projects from the AHRC, DETI, INVESTNI, INTERREG, JISC and the Higher Education Academy and carries out regular consultancy and academic enterprise activities in serious games and virtual worlds. He won the best paper award in 2008 and 2014 at the REV series of international conferences for his work in engineering education and was part of a team that won best short paper at @immersiveLRN, the 6th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network in 2020.

In 2016, he led a team of staff and students who were the overall winners of the 4th International Educational Games Competition held at the 10th European Conference on Games Based Learning in Paisley, Scotland. In 2021 he was part of a team that won best paper award at the IEEE TALE 2021 conference for the paper Serious Game for Medical Imaging in Fully Immersive Virtual Reality.

Talk title: State of the Art in Generative AI

Michael Callaghan on LinkedIn

Dr Hazel Farrell

South East Technological University

Hazel Farrell has been immersed in the AI narrative since 2023 both through practice-based research and the development of guidelines, frameworks, tools, and training to support educators and learners throughout the HE sector. She led the national N-TUTORR GenAI:N3 project which was included in the EDUCAUSE 2025 Horizon Report as an exemplar of good practice. She is the SETU Academic Lead for GenAI and Chair of the university’s GenAI Steering Committee. The practical application of GenAI provides a strong foundation for her research, with student engagement initiatives for creative disciplines at the forefront of her work. Hazel recently won DEC24 Digital Educator Award for her GenAI contributions to the HE sector. She has presented extensively on a variety of GenAI related topics and has several publications in this space.

Talk title: AI Has Not Broken Assessment: Designing for Learning in the Age of Generative AI

As Generative AI continues to evolve, including the emergence of agentic systems capable of managing complex cognitive tasks, traditional approaches to assessment are being fundamentally challenged. Detection-based responses are proving unreliable, inequitable, and unsustainable. The question is no longer how to catch misuse, but how to design assessment where learning is visible, meaningful, and defensible.

This presentation introduces the Assessment Redesign Framework (2026), developed through the GenAI:N3 national network, and explores how educators and institutions can move from policing to pedagogy, from product to process, and from compliance to capability. It outlines practical, scalable strategies for redesign, including staged assessments, reflective elements, and authentic, discipline-aligned tasks, while positioning AI literacy as a core graduate attribute. Through this framework, assessment redesign is positioned not as a defensive response to technological disruption, but as an opportunity to strengthen learning, uphold academic standards, and prepare students for an increasingly complex, AI-influenced world.

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Joanne McGovern

St Patricks Academy

Ken McCarthy

South East Technological University

Ken McCarthy is Head of the Centre for Academic Practice at South East Technological University (SETU), where he leads strategic initiatives in teaching, learning, assessment, and digital education. He is vice-president of ILTA (Irish Learning Technology Association) and he is a member of the national GenAI:N3 project and co-author of the Manifesto for Generative AI in Higher Education.

Ken’s work focuses on helping educators navigate the opportunities and tensions created by generative AI through practical, values-informed approaches to teaching and learning. He regularly speaks nationally and internationally on AI in education, assessment redesign, digital transformation, and the future of higher education.

Talk title: The Future Is Still Ours to Shape: Introducing the Manifesto for Generative AI in Higher Education”

The rapid emergence of generative AI has prompted higher education institutions to confront difficult questions around assessment, academic integrity, authorship, creativity, ethics, and the future purpose of the university itself. While many institutional responses have focused on policy, regulation, or detection, there is an increasing need for spaces that encourage reflection, dialogue, and imagination. This presentation introduces the Manifesto for Generative AI in Higher Education, developed through the GenAI:N3 network across the Irish technological university sector. Rather than offering prescriptive solutions, the manifesto presents a series of short, provocative statements designed to stimulate conversation about teaching, learning, responsibility, and human creativity in an age of AI. Structured across three themes: Rethinking Teaching and Learning; Responsibility, Ethics, and Power; and Imagination, Humanity, and the Future; the manifesto invites educators to move beyond fear-driven narratives and to consider how higher education might respond with courage, criticality, and care. In a short 10–15 minute session, participants will be introduced to the ideas behind the manifesto, its collaborative development, and how it has been used to spark discussion across institutions, disciplines, and professional communities. At its heart is a simple but important proposition: while GenAI may reshape education, the future of learning remains ours to shape. This is not a session about predicting the future of higher education, but about reclaiming agency within it.

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Professor Stephen Farry

Ulster University

Stephen Farry is a Professor of Strategic Policy in Practice at Ulster University. He was educated at the Queen’s University of Belfast and holds a PhD in International Relations. He was a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, 2005-06.

Professor Farry has served as an elected representative in various levels between 1993 and 2024, including holding office as local government councillor, Mayor, member of the Northern Ireland Assembly and a Member of Parliament.

Between 2011 and 2016, he was the Minister for Employment and Learning on the Northern Ireland power-sharing Executive.

He has co-authored a policy report with Prof. Jodie Carson entitled “AI for NI: A Strategic Overview for the Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Northern Ireland”, and also conducted the first comprehensive opinion survey in NI on public attitudes towards AI.

Talk title: AI Productivity and Perceptions

This discussion looks at some of the recent development in public policy regarding AI, both in NI and in other jurisdictions. Some particular focus will fall on productivity potential in the public sector, including education, plus the results of the first comprehensive opinion survey in NI on public attitudes regarding AI.

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Professor Danny Liu

University of Sydney

Biologist by training, faculty developer by day, programmer by night, and educator at heart. Working at the confluence of educational technology, student engagement, artificial intelligence and learning analytics, pedagogical research, organisational leadership, and professional development.

Talk title: Centring Humans and Learning in an AI World

• The core – what are the roles of teachers? Who are the professionals of the future? How does learning happen?
• The now – the need to take cognitive and metacognitive agency, and practical examples e.g. teachers in the drivers seat of AI; assessment that recentres on human capabilities
• The future – the need to shift the conversation from assessment to valued human capabilities, and align across sectors.

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Tiarnán Ó Faircheallaigh

ICT Coordinator, Gaelscoil Ghleann Darach

Tiarnán Ó Faircheallaigh is a class teacher and the ICT Coordinator at Gaelscoil Ghleann Darach, where he merges a passion for the Irish language with digital innovation. A long-term collaborator on the C2K Gemini for Education Project, Tiarnán utilizes Gemini AI to create bespoke Irish-medium resources and streamline lesson preparation.

In the classroom, he focuses on equipping pupils with high-level digital skills and fostering responsible digital citizenship. Tiarnán is dedicated to ensuring that Irish-medium education remains at the cutting edge of technology, empowering the next generation of Gaeilgeoirí to lead in a digital world.

Talk title: Accessible Design for Learning with Gemini

Join C2k/EdIS and a panel of pioneering educators for an insightful session exploring how Gemini is being used to dismantle barriers to learning. From providing access for all students through personalised supports, creating options for engagement, and generating real-time engagement tools for study prep, discover how GenAI is helping to foster a truly universal classroom.

Conchúr Keenan

EdIS C2k eLearning Consultant

Join C2k/EdIS and a panel of pioneering educators for an insightful session exploring how Gemini is being used to dismantle barriers to learning. From providing access for all students through personalised supports, creating options for engagement, and generating real-time engagement tools for study prep, discover how GenAI is helping to foster a truly universal classroom.

Talk title: Accessible Design for Learning with Gemini

Join C2k/EdIS and a panel of pioneering educators for an insightful session exploring how Gemini is being used to dismantle barriers to learning. From providing access for all students through personalised supports, creating options for engagement, and generating real-time engagement tools for study prep, discover how GenAI is helping to foster a truly universal classroom.

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Professor Cornelia Connolly

University of Galway

Cornelia Connolly is a Professor at the University of Galway, where her teaching and research draws from the related disciplines of computing and education.

Talk title: AI with and about teacher education: a critical but positive lens

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Dr Tony McGinn

Ulster University

Tony McGinn is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work and the founder of HiEd.ai, a platform that lets lecturers build conversational AI tutors for their students, and makes individual oral assessments possible with large cohorts. Tony works with universities across the UK and Ireland to embed voice-based AI into teaching and assessment. He writes and speaks regularly on practitioner-led AI adoption in higher education.

Talk title: The Assessment Crisis & The Answer

My journey, as an educator, to dumping student assignments that can be completed by AI, to using conversation as a teaching and assessment method; and how AI made it possible. Introducing HiEd - a platform that allows anyone to do the same.

Sue Beckingham

Sheffield Hallam University

Joe Rayfus

Mullingar Community College

Michael McCann

Belfast High School

Michael is a Senior Teacher at Belfast High School, where he leads on Teaching and Learning. With 20 years of experience in Post Primary schools in London and Belfast, Michael still loves the classroom and remains deeply curious about the most effective pedagogical strategies. He continues to learn from his colleagues and students about what works best, and is highly motivated to share these insights across the wider profession. Currently, Michael has a particular interest in the potential for AI to support teachers and, more importantly, to help students learn.

Talk title: Accessible Design for Learning with Gemini

Join C2k and a panel of pioneering educators for an insightful session exploring how Gemini is being used to dismantle barriers to learning. From providing access for all students through personalised supports, creating options for engagement, and generating real-time engagement tools for study prep, discover how GenAI is helping to foster a truly universal classroom.

Peter Kilcoyne

Managing Director, TeacherMatic

Peter is MD and founder of Innovative Learning Technologies LTD the company behind TeacherMatic. Prior to that Peter worked for over 35 years, as a Teacher, Manager and Leader in a number of Further and Higher Education providers.

Talk title: Delivering a hybrid model of AI Assessment and Feedback

TeacherMatic has been working with Jisc and 15 Universities and Colleges since September on a pilot on the use of AI in assessment and feedback. The session will give an overview of lessons learnt through this on the challenges and benefits of using AI to support assessment and feedback. There will also be a demonstration the tools TeacherMatic has built to support human in the loop AI facilitated hybrid assessment and feedback.