AI Café with Dr Hazel Farrell, Ken McCarthy & Professor Mike Sharples

Join us for a special AI Café session introducing the Manifesto for Generative AI in Higher Education – a living reflection on how we teach, learn, and lead in an age of abundance.

Co-authored by Dr Hazel Farrell and Ken McCarthy as part of the GenAI:N3 initiative at South East Technological University, the Manifesto invites educators to think differently about the opportunities and responsibilities emerging in a world reshaped by generative AI. Comprising 30 statements across three themes:

– Rethinking Teaching and Learning
– Responsibility, Ethics and Power
– Imagination, Humanity and the Future

it challenges us to respond not with fear, but with imagination and integrity. The event will feature a fireside chat with Professor Mike Sharples (Open University, UK), exploring the Manifesto’s context and its implications for higher education. Reflections will also be shared by Sue Beckingham (Sheffield Hallam University) and Dr Tom Farrelly (Munster Technological University), who served as early reviewers of the text.

Hazel and Ken will guide participants through the story behind the Manifesto, how it evolved through dialogue, collaboration, and reflection, and introduce an open call for essays and chapters responding to each of the 30 statements. Educators, researchers, and practitioners will be invited to contribute short written pieces that expand, challenge, or reimagine its ideas.

This 60-minute hybrid event (Zoom webinar and hosted local group in the Library Learning Lab) marks both a launch and an invitation – to pause, question, and shape the next chapter of AI in education together.

The full manifesto is available at the following link: https://genain3.ie/files/manifesto/