UMF presents Libra Scholar C. Edward Watson keynote on “Embracing AI”— Feb. 25

FARMINGTON, ME  (February 19, 2026)—The University of Maine at Farmington is pleased to announce that C. Edward Watson, a UMF Spring ’26 Libra Scholar, will be presenting a keynote address, “Embracing AI as Essential Learning: Preparing Students for Life Beyond College,” on Wednesday, Feb. 25, from 12:30-1:30 p.m., in Lincoln Auditorium, in the UMF Roberts Learning Center. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Watson is the vice president for Digital Innovation at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), a global membership organization dedicated to advancing the purposes of higher education.

In his keynote, he will discuss how generative AI tools have had an astonishingly quick impact on the ways we learn, work, think and create. While higher education’s initial response was to develop strategies to diminish AI’s influence in the classroom, it is now clear that AI competencies and literacies must be embraced as essential learning for most colleges and universities. These responses and realities create a challenging tension that higher education must work to resolve. 

According to UMF Associate Provost and Dean of Arts & Science Steven Quackenbush, the conversation around AI in college is shifting. It’s no longer just about, “can I use it for this assignment?”—it’s also about how you might use AI in your career after graduation. 

Drawing from his new book, “Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning “(second edition; Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025), Watson will detail the challenges and opportunities that have emerged for higher education, especially in terms of pedagogical practice and student learning. 

The core focus of this keynote will be on concrete approaches and strategies higher education can adopt, both within the classroom and across larger curricular structures, to best prepare students for the life that awaits them after graduation. It will also detail the pedagogical possibilities regarding how AI can have a positive impact on student learning. 

The Libra Professorship Program brings scholars of national and international prominence to University of Maine System campuses to provide students and community members with outstanding models of teaching, research, and public service.

Watson will also offer workshops for UMF faculty and staff members during the day exploring AI for teaching and learning.

More information on C. Edward Watson

In addition to his role as the Vice President for Digital Innovation at the (AAC&U), C. Edward Watson is also the  founding director of AAC&U’s Institute on AI, Pedagogy and the Curriculum. He also served as the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Georgia (UGA) where he led university efforts associated with faculty development, TA development, learning technologies and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

He continues to serve as a fellow in the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at UGA and recently stepped down after more than a decade as the executive editor of the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 

His most recent publications are Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024/2025), “Leading Through Disruption: Higher Education Executives Assess AI’s Impacts on Teaching and Learning” (AAC&U, 2025), and the “Student Guide to AI” (Elon University & AAC&U, 2025).

He has been quoted in the New York Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Campus Technology, EdSurge, Newsweek, U.S. News, EdTech, Consumer Reports, UK Financial Times and University Business Magazine and by the AP, CNN and NPR regarding current teaching and learning issues and trends in higher education.

More on University of Maine at Farmington

A nationally recognized regional public university, the University of Maine at Farmington is known for its commitment to teacher preparation, the creative arts, health and science, environmental studies, business and public service. Located in the heart of Maine’s four-season outdoor recreational region, UMF provides a challenging but welcoming academic community—here in Farmington and online—that prepares students for enriching professional careers, engaged citizenship and an enduring love of learning.

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EDITOR’S NOTE:

Image: https://farmington.edu/app/uploads/2026/02/RP256-024.webp
Photo Caption: C. Edward Watson
Photo Credit: Submitted Image