REGIONAL CONFERENCE - IRCITE 2026: International Research Conference on Information Technology Education - Ideation, Utilization, & Adoption: Strengthening the Research-to-Practice Cycle in IT Education
written by: AGASA, HERSHELLE HANNAH
This regional conference that I attended alongside the rest of my batchmates was entitled “International Research Conference on Information Technology Education - Ideation, Utilization, & Adoption: Strengthening the Research-to-Practice Cycle in IT Education”. Also known as IRCITE, this event was hosted not only be the Philippine Society of Information Technology Educators, but also by Gordon College as well. The event lasted from 8:00 am – 6:00 pm, conducted on March 19, 2026, at Bulacan State University, City of Malolos, Bulacan. The conference had plenary speakers discussing the following topics:
Beyond Revolution: How GenAI is Redefining Knowledge Work and IT Education - by Dr. Slandana Cabrilo [Professor, I-shou University, Taiwan]
Demystifying the AI World - by Dr. Ace Lagman
AWS in GenAI - by John Roger A. Obja-an, Ph.D.
The AI Takeover: Threat or Opportunity - by Engr. Gerald Saldi
Why Most IT Projects Fail and How to Design Them Properly - by Mr. Lorenz Yvan Apostol
The annual event also had a variety of competitions, such as the following:
Microsoft Office Specialist
AI Image & AI Video Content Creation
Technical Writing
T-Shirt Design
Cosplay Competition
IT Marketing Challenge
Short Animation Creation
Singing Competition (Quintuplet)
Action Figure Toy
Call of Duty Mobile (Deathmatch and Battle Royale)
Similarly to last year, all the topics discussed revolved around the use of AI, specifically discussed by different professionals in various fields and professions. While they promoted about using AI to make things easier and task more time-efficient, they added in how we shouldn't think negatively about AI because it will render humans unimportant to do some jobs in favor for AI doing them instead. According to the speakers, besides dreading on the bad ending of humanity, "we should embrace AI as an assistant by our side to assist our needs". I put this in quotations because of the fact that I do not acknowledge this to my ideology, because on paper to me it sounds ridiculous and sounds like any other tech bro trend that will soon fall flat once the masses realize how harmful this is in general because of how it contributes to the spread of misinformation.
My stand like from last year and ever since the rise of this technology, remains the same. Despite the constant patronizing of using AI in human jobs with making them "easier to do", I refuse to ride along with them. As someone who's about to graduate from the BSEMC department, specializing in digital animation technology, I have to do my part and make sure that people wouldn't fall to misinformation. One day I hope AI won't be dangerous and harmful to the poor people in the creative industry, because while AI itself isn't at fault, it's how some people use it for their malicious gains and greed. Well, here's to hope the future would be brighter for the future generations.
