2026-2027 Conversation Series for Connection and Collective Learning
A year long professional learning experience for educators, community members, and other thought leaders in K-12 and higher education to connect, reflect, and grow alongside one another as we navigate a rapidly changing digital world.
WHAT IT IS
You are invited to join URI's Digital Learning Exchange for a free, year long conversation series flexibly designed to energize and celebrate educators, librarians, digital media professionals, youth, and their families. In a special kickoff session beginning on July 14, 2026, we will set the context by reframing current challenges, exploring your questions and concerns, and asking what support we need from one another to move forward with purpose and care.
Across a series of online and in-person gatherings (see the calendar below), the Exchange will provide space for deeper conversations around digital well-being, productive digital communities, agency and empowerment, relational approaches to education, and meaningful civic engagement in face-to-face and digital spaces. Through panels, collaborative dialogue, and shared examples from youth, educators, families, and members of the community, participants will move from reflection to action—considering not only what comes after generative AI, but also what practices help young people build digital agency and engaged citizenship.
Additional sessions may be added throughout the year as our reflective conversations spark new ideas and generate new questions. The year culminates in a celebration of learning and sustainability planning in Summer 2027, strengthening an ongoing community committed to shaping more human-centered, connected, and empowering digital futures. Together, across our different roles, we can build a more connected, creative, and just digital future. We can't wait to see you!
View our new DLE Google Site to follow our progress!
WHEN IT WILL HAPPEN
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
CONNECT & REFLECT
July 14, 2026 2:00-3:00 pm EST
(3:00-3:30 pm extra conversations)
Curating Curiosity for Connection and Joy!
In this kickoff session, we’ll explore curiosity as a catalyst to joyful thinking as we collectively question, research, construct, and share. Learning is social, and together we will build community through an exchange of ideas, interests, and wonderings. We hope you’ll join us!
Kristin Ziemke is a lifelong teacher and curious learner who has worked in service to young people for more than two decades. Recognized internationally for her expertise in literacy, inquiry, and technology, she partners with educators and organizations around the world to design learning experiences that redefine school.
GOOD NEWS! We are happy to announce that we are able to offer PLUs for the entire conversation series (1 PLU for each hour attended). We will keep track of the meetings you attend throughout the year and issue you a certificate for the number of PLUs you earned in June, 2027.
QUESTIONS? Email Kara Clayton at kara_clayton@uri.edu
FIVE REASONS WHY IT MATTERS
-
Connecting Through Community and Reflection
We all need sustained spaces to reconnect with one another, reflect on emerging challenges, and collectively make sense of living, teaching, and learning in a rapidly changing digital world. -
Cultivating Human-Centered Digital Well-Being
Healthy participation in digital spaces requires attention to balance, relationships, care, and the social and emotional dimensions of life online for both youth and adults. -
Building Agency, Empowerment, and Digital Citizenship
Young people thrive when educators and parents help them develop the confidence, critical capacities, and civic awareness needed to participate thoughtfully and responsibly in digital communities. -
Learning Through Dialogue, Collaboration, and Shared Inquiry
Meaningful professional learning grows from ongoing conversation, collaborative problem-solving, and the exchange of perspectives among educators, youth, families, and community members. -
Shaping Sustainable and Equitable Digital Futures. As technologies such as generative AI reshape our world, we must work together to design more connected, empowering, and sustainable approaches to teaching, learning, and civic engagement.
READY TO LEARN MORE?
Register for URI's Seminar in Digital Literacy by Sept. 1, 2026
Join our mailing list for updates
LET'S BUILD A MORE CONNECTED, CREATIVE
AND JUST DIGITAL FUTURE.
