Keynote Speakers
Mitchel Resnick
MIT Media Lab
Cultivating Human Agency in the Age of AI Agents
As AI technologies proliferate, it is more important than ever for young people to develop the most human of their abilities. In this presentation, I will discuss strategies for supporting young people in developing their agency as creative, curious, caring, and collaborative learners, drawing on examples from my research group’s work on Scratch, OctoStudio, and other constructionist technologies.
Short Bio
Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab, develops new technologies and activities to engage young people from diverse backgrounds in project-based, interest-driven learning experiences, helping them develop as creative, curious, caring, and collaborative learners
His Lifelong Kindergarten research group developed the Scratch programming software and online community, used by more than 150 million young people around the world to create their own interactive stories, games, and animations. More recently, the group developed OctoStudio, a free coding app that enables young people to express themselves creatively with mobile devices. The group has also collaborated with the LEGO Company on the development of new educational ideas and products, including the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kits. Resnick co-founded the Computer Clubhouse project, an international network of more than 100 after-school learning centers where youth from low-income communities learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies.
Resnick earned a BA in physics at Princeton University (1978) and MS and PhD degrees in computer science at MIT (1988, 1992). He worked as a science-technology journalist from 1978 to 1983.
Resnick is author of the book Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating Creativity through Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play, which won the PROSE award for Education Practice in 2018. He is also author of Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams (1994), co-editor of Constructionism in Practice (1996), and co-author of Adventures in Modeling (2001) and The Official ScratchJr Book (2015). He was awarded the McGraw Prize in Education (2011), the AACE EdMedia Pioneer Award (2013), the ISTE Making IT Happen Award (2018), the LEGO Prize (2021), and the SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education (2025).
Andri Ioannou
Cyprus University of Technology
Designing for Learning in the Age of AI: Thinking, Making, and Creating Together
Digital transformation is reshaping how and where we learn, and generative AI is speeding up that shift. As AI becomes part of everyday educational practice, how can we design technology-rich environments that keep learners thinking, making, and creating together, rather than merely consuming?
Drawing on more than a decade of design-based research in real classrooms, from educational robotics to STEAM-through-Making, this keynote shows what a design-for-learning stance offers as AI moves from novelty to everyday practice. It looks at how design choices shape learners’ opportunities to explore ideas, build meaningful artefacts, and construct understanding collaboratively, and what this means for positioning learners as active creators and critical thinkers alongside AI.
The talk argues that meaningful change comes not from the next innovative tool or technology, but from sustained, incremental, evidence-informed design that humanizes learning and protects the creative, social, and reflective processes through which learning happens.
Short Bio
Dr. Andri Ioannou is Professor of Learning Design and Technology in the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT). She leads the Research Group in Educational Technologies (EdMedia) at the CYENS Centre of Excellence, an extension of CUT’s Cyprus Interaction Lab.
Her research focuses on designing and evaluating technology-enhanced learning environments, with particular attention to how learners think, create, and learn collaboratively. Her work spans educational robotics, STEAM-through-Making, 21st-century skills, and technology integration across all levels of education, and more recently, digital transformation and generative AI in education. She has published widely in leading educational technology journals and contributes to numerous European research projects, bringing classroom-based evidence to questions of how technology can support meaningful learning.