Antonio Momoc
– Assoc. Professor Habil., University of Bucharest, Romania
Bios:
Antonio Momoc is Associate Professor Habil. at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, University of Bucharest, where he served as Dean from 2020 to 2024. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Bucharest and completed post-doctoral research at LUISS Guido Carli in Rome. In 2022 he was a Fulbright Visiting Professor and Researcher at the E. W. Scripps College of Communication, Ohio University. His research addresses political communication, digital populism, disinformation, media education and the social implications of Artificial Intelligence. He is the author of Political Communication and the Internet. Populism and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy (Tritonic, 2023) and of Digital Communication. New Media, Participation and Populism (Ed. Revistei Timpul, 2024), and co-editor of Media and Artificial Intelligence (Tritonic, 2024). His work has been published in Communication Today, Media and Communication and Representation, as well as in edited volumes issued by Routledge (Digital Communication and Social Media Strategies of Political Actors in Romania) and Peter Lang (Populist Candidates and Social Media Marketing during the 2009 Romanian Presidential Campaign). He is a member of ECREA, ESA, EMMA, EUPRERA and STS Italia.
Presentation Title:
From Prohibition to Critical Use: Romanian Teachers on Media Literacy and Artificial Intelligence in Schools
Keynote presentation (abstract):
The debate on digital technology in schools and universities is still framed as a choice between permitting and banning devices and generative AI tools. Following David Buckingham, this keynote treats media literacy less as a protective fix for information disorder — a myth that individualises what are political and economic problems — and more as media education: the formative work of building a critical understanding of how media, and now AI systems, produce and circulate knowledge. Critical thinking, on this account, is not a reflex against fake news but a capacity that has to be taught, and therefore a curricular question. Original survey research conducted with Anamaria Croitoru among Romanian pre-university teachers (N=101, February–May 2026) shows what that question meets in practice. Respondents broadly support media literacy in schools, yet prefer cross-curricular integration (49.5%) to an optional (22.8%) or a mandatory subject (14.9%); 76.3% expect a positive impact on students’ relationship with online political information, and 68.3% read its absence as high vulnerability to disinformation. Attitudes towards AI are pragmatic: 61.4% expect efficiency gains, yet 72.2% demand training in the critical evaluation of AI-generated content.
- Keywords: Media Education; Information Literacy; Artificial Intelligence; Teachers’ Perceptions; Disinformation; Democratic Resilience
Bruno Costa
– Assoc. ProfessoAssociate Professor, University of Beira Interior, Jean Monnet Chair in Political Systems, Political Participation and Media in the EU, Portugal
Vice rector – Internationalization and Institutional Communication
Bios:
Bruno Ferreira Costa is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Letters, University of Beira Interior, since 2016. He is currently Vice-rector for Internationalization and Institutional Communication and Global Manager of the Europe Direct Beira Interior. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Lisbon and he is Researcher at Praxis – Centre of Philosophy, Politics and Culture (UBI) and Labcom. He holds a Jean Monnet Chair with the project “POLMEDIA_EU – Political systems, political participation and media in the EU). His research addresses political systems, political participation, political communication and social media. He is the author and editor of several books and author of several articles and book chapters related to these topics, with special emphasis on the impact of social media use on the spread of misinformation and the reshaping of election campaigns with the advent of new media.
Presentation Title:
The Impact and Relevance of Social Media in the Reconfiguration of Democracy
Keynote presentation (abstract):
The growing use and presence of social media in everyday life have transformed not only political communication but also the ways in which citizens understand and participate in democracy. This presentation examines the role of social media in the reconfiguration of democracy, focusing on the challenging relationship between citizens, political institutions, information, and power. Drawing on perspectives from digital democracy, it explores how social media has created new opportunities for political expression, participation, mobilization, and direct interaction, in a way that reshapes the conditions under which citizens encounter and interpret political information. The presentation also considers the human consequences of this transformation, including the experience of political polarization, exposure to disinformation, the fragmentation of shared public spaces, and the increasing influence of algorithms over visibility and attention. The analysis approaches this new environment as an inevitable social and political environment that is increasingly embedded in everyday democratic experience. Ultimately, it asks how these transformations are changing democratic institutions and the ways in which citizens understand their own role within democracy.
- Keywords: Social Media; Democracy; Political Communication; Populism; Disinformation; Fake News
Chen Schnechter
– Full Professor PhD, MOFET National Institute for Research and Development in Education and Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Bios:
Chen Schechter, Full Professor, Leadership, Organizational Development and Policy in Education. Aiming to integrate theory with empirical evidence and practice, his research areas include educational leadership, reform implementation, educational change, organizational learning, collaborative learning, leadership development, crisis leadership, systems thinking for school leaders, and school leadership for social integration and mobility. He currently serves as the President of the MOFET National Institute for Research and Development in Education, a globally unique research and development academic institution with the goal of leading change and improving education systems. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Educational Administration (JEA), the oldest and most respected leading international journal in the field of educational leadership and management. Several of his books: Human Capital Leadership: Putting Educators First in School Systems (Cambridge University Press, 2026); Leadership for Society: Leading Education for Social Mobility and Integration (Bloomsbury, 2025); Resilient Leadership: School Leaders Thriving in Adversity and Crisis (Emerald, 2023); The Collective Wisdom of Practice (Corwin, 2019). Leading Holistically: How Schools, Districts, and States Improve Systemically (Routledge, 2018).
Presentation Title:
Developing Organizational Learning and System Thinking in a Complex Education Reality
Keynote presentation (abstract):
Can the long linear and top-down tradition of schoolwork and policy designs transform into a more systemic and holistic one in order to address the acute problems of educational systems, especially in times of technological innovations and global crises? Can we infuse listening, collective learning and action that can ripple outward to reshape schools and communities? In this presentation we will reflect on the traditional top—down linear school leadership and change that still encompasses many education systems in an age of accountability. As the world has encountered unprecedented crises, we will envision system thinking, professional learning communities, collective learning from success, networks and simulations as possible avenues for learning and flourishing schools.
- Keywords: System thinking, Complexity, Organizational Learning, Professional communities.
Angela Repanovici
– Full Professor PhD, Transilvania University of Brașov, Romania
Bios:
Angela Repanovici is a Professor at Transilvania University of Brașov, PhD supervisor in the field of Engineering and Management. She has combined engineering expertise with that of information science, contributing to the development of education, research and management of academic information. She has coordinated numerous international Erasmus+ and academic cooperation projects, such as DECIDE, DIGITOOLS, INRS and NSIS, contributing to the development of information and digital skills in Europe and Asia.
She is editor-in-chief of the Romanian Journal of Library and Information Science, ARACIS evaluator and member of the CNADTCU Expert Group. Author and co-author of numerous internationally indexed books and scientific articles.
Research Area: her scientific activity is focused on information culture, scientometrics, visibility of scientific production, digital repositories and evaluation of information resources.
Presentation Title:
Beyond AI Adoption: Rethinking Information Literacy, Trust, and Critical Thinking in Higher Education
Keynote presentation (abstract):
Generative artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging technology in higher education; it is becoming part of the everyday infrastructure through which students search, learn, write, solve problems, and engage with knowledge. This rapid normalisation, however, exposes a critical tension: the ability to use AI does not necessarily imply the ability to critically evaluate, verify, or responsibly act upon the information it generates. The challenge for higher education is therefore shifting from enabling AI adoption to developing meaningful AI literacy.
This keynote explores this transition through empirical evidence from a cross-disciplinary study of approximately 370 university students enrolled in Law and Engineering programmes. Using a cross-sectional mixed-methods survey design, the research investigates patterns of generative AI use, perceived educational benefits and risks, information-verification confidence, perceptions of critical thinking and academic integrity, and expectations regarding institutional approaches to AI. The comparison between Law and Engineering provides an opportunity to examine how different disciplinary and epistemic contexts shape students’ relationships with AI-mediated information.
Moving beyond the descriptive findings, the keynote proposes AI literacy as a critical information competence, articulated through a four-dimensional framework: Use–Understand–Verify–Act Responsibly. This perspective challenges approaches that equate AI literacy with technical proficiency or effective prompting and instead places critical judgement, verification, source awareness, and ethical responsibility at its core.
The keynote ultimately asks a broader question: What competencies do students need when access to information is abundant, but its reliability can no longer be taken for granted? It argues that universities, educators, and academic libraries must move from facilitating access to AI towards cultivating information resilience, enabling students not merely to use AI, but to question it, verify it, and exercise informed human judgement in increasingly AI-mediated knowledge environments.
- Keywords: Generative Artificial Intelligence; AI Literacy; Media and Information Literacy; Information Verification; Critical Thinking; Higher Education; Information Resilience.