Learn more about the Opening and Closing Keynote Presentations at the 2025 Ball State University Teaching and Technology Summit.

Join us for the 2025 Ball State University Teaching and Technology Summit. With two virtual half days of presentations, the summit provides a space for discussion and collaboration between colleagues on the evolving landscape of teaching and technology. 

In this blog post, we share a preview of the opening and closing keynote presentations. 

Opening Keynote: Jon Ippolito

Jon Ippolito is an artist, writer, and curator who teaches New Media and Digital Curation at the University of Maine. Winner of Tiffany, Lannan, American Foundation, and Thoma awards, Ippolito is co-founder of the Variable Media Network for preserving new media art, UMaine’s Digital Curation and Just-in-Time Learning programs, and Learning With AI, a toolkit for educators and students that makes it easy to filter for AI assignments and resources by discipline or purpose. Ippolito has given over 200 presentations, co-authored the books At the Edge of Art and Re-collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory, and published 80 chapters and articles in periodicals from Artforum to the Washington Post. His AI focus is creators—writers, programmers, and media makers—and how the technical, aesthetic, and legal ramifications of generative AI empower and frustrate them. 

“Thinking or Shrinking? AI and Post-Citation Scholarship” 

Citing sources has been fundamental to information literacy long before the Internet existed. But what happens to scholarly attribution if the wellspring of knowledge production shifts from the archive to AI? Ippolito’s talk looks at generative AI as a compression format for the Internet, forecasting how scholarship and creative activity could change for faculty and their students if generation replaces discovery. To understand this potential shift, it helps to forego animistic metaphors like a growing child or parrot in favor of mechanistic analogues like a compression algorithm (like JPEG) and thermodynamic system (like a cup of coffee). 
 
Ippolito explains how mathematical properties that large language models share with these stochastic systems seek an equilibrium that fills in gaps in missing data, enabling LLMs to summarize and even find new correlations in existing knowledge. But compression comes at a cost. When we turn to AI for facts and photos instead of the world at large, we smooth away outliers, noise, or surprises in the name of efficiency. The talk concludes with implications for integrating this compression algorithm for human knowledge into our classrooms, syllabi, and lives.  

Closing Keynote: Dr. Chin-Sook Pak 

For 25 years, Dr. Chin-Sook Pak has integrated community-based learning into Spanish language, content, and interdisciplinary honors colloquium courses. This work has led to numerous publications, workshops, and collaborations that promote language learning, diversity, intercultural humility, and advocacy for Latinx access to higher education. She is the recipient of the Ball State University Immersive Learning Outstanding Faculty Award (2024), BSU Outstanding Diversity Advocate Award (2023), BSU Outstanding Teaching Award (2005), the Brian Douglas Hiltunen Faculty Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Scholarship of Engagement (Indiana Campus Compact), and the 2022 AATSP (American Association for Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese) Outstanding Scholarship Publication Award for her article on the long-term effects of service-learning for students of Spanish. 

“The Power of Community-Centered Learning: Building Relationships that Matter” 

As educators, we find joy when our students engage, thrive, and grow. While many strategies foster engagement and active learning, Pak’s presentation highlights the power of relationship-building and community-centered learning. In his Parting Prescription for America, former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy argues that rebuilding community through relationships, service, and purpose is key to cultivating health, happiness, and fulfillment in society. Drawing on over 25 years of collaborative projects with students, instructors, and community partners both on and off-campus, Pak will share reflections from former students and insights from her learning community—showing the impact building a sense of community has on learning, teaching, productivity, and well-being. 

Register for the Summit 

To see these keynotes and the other presentations at the 2025 Teaching and Technology Summit, make sure to register! The summit will be held via Zoom with mock-live presentations. This means that presentations will be pre-recorded and presenters will be available to answer questions via chat and during each session’s Q&A portion. Chat and Q&A will not be recorded. Recordings will be available to registrants for 90 days after the summit’s conclusion, so even if you aren’t sure if you can attend, register today!