Keynote Speakers
Dr. Ruben Puentedura, Thursday, November 6, 2026
Keynote, Thursday November 5
The New Renaissance: Weaving the Humanities, STEM, and AI into the Future of Learning
Dr. Ruben Puentedura invites us to look beyond the “how-to” of technology and instead ask: What if we put the humanities at the core of future learning, in full partnership with STEM?
Dr. Ruben Puentedura is the Founder and President of Hippasus, a consulting practice focusing on transformative applications of information technologies to education. He has implemented these approaches for over thirty years at a range of K-20 institutions, health and arts organizations. He is the creator of the SAMR model for selecting, using, and evaluating technology in education, which guides the work of multiple projects worldwide. He is also the author of the EdTech Quintet, a categorization of the core technology toolset required for education. His current work explores new directions in antifragile design and emergent applications of AI tools in learning.,/div.
We need to get a deep understanding about AI; we have a responsibility to engage with the community as an evolving entity of what AI is and how to move forward.
Amanda Jones, Friday, November 6, 2026
Keynote, Friday November 6
That Librarian: Preparing, Protecting, and Being Proactive In Standing Up for Intellectual Freedom
Libraries are seeing an unprecedented number of book challenges and librarians have become the new punching bags for extremists. Learn about my journey from being the target of a harassment campaign to taking back my life. Learn about online resources, apps, and websites to help strengthen your library policies, prepare yourself for the mental and physical toll of standing up for intellectual freedom, and learn how to better inform the community through coalition building.
Amanda Jones is currently the school librarian at the same school she attended as a child, where she has worked for the past twenty-three years. Amanda made national headlines in 2022 when she was targeted by extremists in her town for speaking out at a public library board meeting. She decided to fight back and took her harassers to court, while continuing to speak out at both the local and national level against the pro-censorship movement. Amanda chronicles what it is like being the target of white Christian nationalists and the importance of standing up for intellectual freedom, in her book That Librarian: Fighting Book Banners in Today’s America.
Amanda was the 2021 School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year, a 2021 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and the 2020 Louisiana Librarian of the Year. She enjoys presenting at the national and international level on the importance of certified school librarians, book joy, and why every child deserves to see themselves reflected in the books on library shelves. Amanda has received numerous intellectual freedom awards from the American Library Association, American Association of School Librarians, and Louisiana Library Association for her dedication to eradicating censorship and promoting libraries in Louisiana.
Being a librarian and educator is what I was born to do. I will never stop fighting for the rights of all students to see themselves reflected in the books on our shelves. My silence to the pro-censorship movement would be my compliance, and I will not be complicit in the marginalization of any group in our society.
She is the Executive Director of the Livingston Parish Library Alliance, a group comprised of citizens in her town dedicated to the importance of preserving the freedom of the library to provide services to all patrons no matter their ethnicity, religion, gender identity, education status, political affiliation, socioeconomic status or any other diversity of life and thought. She is also a co-founding member of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, a grassroots organization fighting censorship in the bayou state. Amanda currently resides in Louisiana with her teenage daughter, husband she’s known since first grade, and their cat, Juno Mars.
When not presenting and fighting the good fight, Amanda enjoys reading, obsessively watching Tiktok, and a good Louisiana crawfish boil.