Faculty member Crystal Machado and doctoral student Cheryl Harris, from the Professional Studies in Education Department at IUP, presented their peer-reviewed paper, “Empowering Writers: Ethical and Low-Cost Technologies for Academic Writing,” at the 2026 Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) Conference in Philadelphia.
Their paper addressed the growing need for accessible, research-supported tools that enhance academic writing while upholding ethical standards. Grounded in scholarly work on educational technology, academic integrity, and equitable learning design, Machado and Harris introduced low-cost and no-cost digital tools that assist writers with idea development, drafting, revision, collaboration, and citation management. They emphasized the importance of practicing responsible technology use—particularly in an era of rapidly evolving AI-supported writing systems.