Professor Michael Menchaca of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, United States, will serve as both a Respondent for The Forum session titled ‘AI in Academia: Ethics, Challenges, and Solutions’ and as Moderator on the panel ‘Education, Culture, and the Environment in an AI-Driven Era’ at The 11th IAFOR International Conference on Education in Hawaii (IICE2026) and The 6th IAFOR International Conference on Arts & Humanities in Hawaii (IICAH2026).
As a Respondent for The Forum, Professor Menchaca will assist with and participate alongside delegates in the session’s guided discussion format. Visit the website to learn more about The Forum session in Hawaii and how delegates can participate.
Professor Menchaca will be joined by Professor Jun Arima of The University of Tokyo & IAFOR, Japan; Dr LJ Rayphand of the Caroline College and Pastoral Institute, Federated States of Micronesia; and Dr Peter J Mataira of Hawai'i Pacific University, United States, who have also been selected for the panel discussion.
The panel ‘Education, Culture, and the Environment in an AI-Driven Era’ will be held both onsite in Hawaii and online via live-stream. To participate in IICE/IICAH2026 as an audience member, please register for the conference via the conference website.
The panel presentation will also be available for IAFOR Members to view online as part of their membership benefits. To find out more, please visit the IAFOR Membership page.
Speaker Biography
Professor Michael Menchaca
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, United States
Michael Menchaca is a professor at the Department of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, United States. He specialises in distance education, and has designed, implemented, and coordinated online and hybrid programs for over 20 years. He serves as editor for the IAFOR Journal of Education: Technology in Education Edition. He was an IT specialist for many years in the public and private sector. As an educator, he teaches and conducts research in the areas of online learning, technology integration, and social justice with technology.
Abstract
Education, Culture, and the Environment in an AI-Driven Era
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been presented to us as a technological tool that helps advance knowledge, delivering innovations and solutions to our many challenges in a much more productive and efficient way than ever before. While AI continues to evolve rapidly and open new doors, this progress also comes with a price. AI helps analyse complex data, yet has immense environmental impacts. It can empower learners, yet it can be culturally biased. AI has already significantly changed how students engage in research, yet what they gather comes from models indexed mostly from specific cultural sources of knowledge rather than a diverse range.
This panel will look at the promise of AI and the pitfalls we should be aware of in areas such as education, culture, and the environment. Panellists will discuss what our growing daily reliance on AI means for the future and how we might harness its benefits while minimising costs and risks to society.
The Forum at IICE/IICAH2026
AI in Academia: Ethics, Challenges, and Solutions
With regards to Academic Research, AI provides promise while simultaneously causing concern. AI might be used in research to assist with the writing process, organise literature searches, analyse data, generate graphs and figures, and even consider solutions. Overall, AI’s potential for strengthening research and dissemination is great. However, stories of plagiarism, a lack of critical thinking, and intellectual dishonesty also highlight significant pitfalls in its use in academia. Discussions surrounding ethics and how they might guide AI usage would prove useful in identifying potential solutions.
This forum session will focus on introducing ethics currently identified in specific cases and highlighting select AI usages for academic research. Participants are invited to share their insights on AI ethics, uses, challenges, and solutions. If AI use in academic research is here to stay, how can we positively approach its inevitable integration? What do we value most? How do we promote the ethics we identify in this session? How do we model use at all levels of academic research? In short, how can we begin to control the AI narrative?
