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The College of Education’s Torrey Trust and Robert W. Maloy co-delivered the keynote address to more than 250 educators at the 2026 Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference, held at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge Massachusetts on March 13. 

In their opening presentation, “Teaching, Learning, and Leading in the Age of AI: A Call to Action for Social Studies Educators," Trust and Maloy addressed the challenges facing social studies, history and civics teachers brought on by the emergence of Generative AI technologies across the K-12 grade levels. 

Trust, professor of learning technology, and Maloy, senior lecturer of teacher education and school improvement, incorporated ideas and strategies from their most recent book, “AI and Civic Engagement: 75+ Cross-Curricular Activities to Empower Your Students,” which was published in November by ISTE. They also presented two smaller group workshops as part of the day-long conference, focusing on ways to effectively integrate AI into classroom teaching and learning while building academic integrity and civic responsibility through classroom-ready AI use policies.