Generously Sponsored by:
Due to generous sponsorship, the summit is complimentary to COABE members.
Learn TogEther
Summit Schedule & Descriptions
These sessions will be focused on helping adult education professionals move beyond simply understanding AI to responsibly and practically implementing it in instruction, administration, workforce preparation, and learner services.
10:00 - 11:00 AM EST
AI: The Thought Partner You Never Knew You Needed
AI: The Thought Partner You Never Knew You Needed offers a practical, human-centered approach to prompt engineering through an engaging, hands-on learning experience. In this session, teachers won’t just watch AI work—they’ll actively experiment with it, generating differentiated lesson plans, contextualized workforce activities, multilingual scaffolds, visual‑cue materials, and math‑infused financial literacy content. Participants will practice a flexible prompt framework that sharpens precision, speeds up planning, and expands accessibility for ABE, ESL, and workforce learners. A central element of the session is coaching learners: educators will practice how to help students use AI as an active thought partner, supporting their learning, decision‑making, and workforce preparation with greater independence. Attendees will walk away with adaptable workflows, classroom‑ready prompt templates, and strategies that strengthen learner confidence, agency, and digital fluency.
Presented by Jackie Aguilera
11:10 - 12:00 AM EST
Expanding Impact with AI in Adult Education
This session will share how adult education program teachers and administrators can use AI to reach a greater impact with limited time, staffing, and resources. Participants will learn how to identify the AI use cases most likely to improve learner and program outcomes, reduce rework by giving AI better context from the beginning, determine what information should and should not be provided to an AI system, and measure whether an AI-supported process is producing enough value to continue. Practical examples will include: ● Instruction and educator preparation ● Learner practice using institutionally approved AI tools ● Workforce and career preparation ● Program administration ● Finding and prioritizing funding opportunities ● Program planning and communication. Throughout the session, participants will use a common set of questions to evaluate each potential AI application.
Presented by Victoria Lansdown
12:10 - 1:00 PM EST
Prompting That Actually Works: The CRAFT Framework for Adult Education Professionals
Most prompt engineering training isn’t designed around the realities of adult education programs. This session introduces CRAFT — Context, Role, Aim, Format, and Tailoring — a practical five-part framework I use in generative AI professional development for adult education professionals.
Using real examples from both instruction and program operations, participants will learn to build stronger prompts for lesson planning, differentiation, ESOL materials, communications, administrative tasks, and other everyday needs. The session will also introduce easy and effective techniques for improving AI-generated results, as well as a more advanced approach for tackling complex tasks. Participants will practice using a simple worksheet and leave with a repeatable framework and practical strategies they can use right away.
Presented by Kristin Erhard
1:10 - 2:00 PM EST
A Complete Look and a Full Toolkit for Teaching AI Literacy to Adult Learners
To prepare adult learners for a future in which technology continuously evolves, as do workplace demands, we need a robust working knowledge of AI literacy, along with the practical resources we can bring straight to learners. A complete look at the concept, and a full toolkit to teach it, will help us take learners beyond navigating specific products and toward a more comprehensive sense of agency and adaptability. In this session, I'll pull together insights from various AI literacy frameworks, a repository of free curricular resources, and practical instructional strategies to equip you with the toolkit needed to help learners question, evaluate, and adapt AI tools for their own goals. You'll leave the session with free resources that you adapt and tailor for any adult ed classroom and, critically, new strategies to move ahead with confidence!
Presented by Rachel Riggs
2:10 - 3:00 PM EST
Just Because You Can: Teaching Adult Learners When to Use AI and When Not To
Adult Learners are already encountering AI in job applications, assessments, workplace workflows, and online learning platforms, but nobody's teaching them to ask the right question: not "What can AI do?" but "Should I use it here, and why?" Educators face the same gap.
This session moves beyond AI tool tours and to build judgment skills both you and your learners can apply in real time. We'll work through four essential questions every user should ask before prompting, practice identifying tasks where AI genuinely helps learning versus where it introduces risk or undermines skill-building, and explore how these conversations translate to workplace and postsecondary contexts. You'll leave with a simple decision framework your learners can use, two classroom-ready activities and language for talking about responsible AI with students, colleagues, and administration.
Presented by Vi Hawes
3:10 - 4:00 PM EST
The AI-Powered Adult Education Director: Save Time, Strengthen Programs, and Get More Done
Adult education administrators balance staff management, data analysis, reporting, grant development, partner communication, program marketing, workforce needs, and organizational leadership. This practical session will demonstrate how AI can reduce routine administrative work while strengthening program planning and communication. Examples will include improving reports, analyzing program information, developing marketing materials and presentations, researching funding opportunities, strengthening grant narratives, creating employer outreach, supporting staff development, and turning ideas into actionable plans.
Focused on practical application rather than theory, the session will explore what adult education administrators can accomplish with AI immediately. Participants will learn effective prompts and workflows for common administrative tasks while establishing appropriate guardrails for accuracy, privacy, ethical use, and professional responsibility. They will leave with practical examples and adaptable strategies to use within their own programs.
Presented by Dr. Jeff Arnott
4:10 - 5:00 PM EST
Building Custom Dashboards with AI and Google Sheets
This session explores how administrators can use AI to build simple, custom systems with familiar platforms such as Google Sheets and Google Forms. Participants will see examples that help staff coordinate services, monitor learner progress, identify follow-up needs, and make more informed decisions about scheduling, staffing, and program capacity. The session also examines where these approaches add value, their limitations, and what responsible implementation requires.
Presented by Joey Lehrman