MYFest Schedule: All Years

As generative AI increasingly summarizes, reproduces, and even rewrites the web, what happens to shared knowledge and cultural memory? Drawing on an interactive artwork that shows how AI can rewrite the same website according to different biases, this session explores how algorithmic personalization could fragment public discourse while inviting participants to discuss possible responses and alternatives.

This is a kick-off session to support participants who plan to take the free, online, self-paced AI Literacies Unlocked course.

This session will examine a few purpose built online tools designed to bring some liberatory practice(s) to life. Including a demo of a "troika" tool that can be used asynchronously, the session will explore the different ways we can build community and include liberatory practices when we might not be all together at the same time. There will be ample chances to have a play, have a think and come together and consider what it feels like to learn in community both at the same time and across different ones.

Do you feel truly seen and valued in your work, and are you helping others feel that way too? Join us for a six-session book circle exploring "Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose" by Jennifer Breheny Wallace hosted by Theresa Destrebecq.

During this session, we'll reflect collectively on our learning in the past month, whether through MYFest or elsewhere, and see what emerges as new needs or interests for the next few weeks. We will also experiment with creative approaches to community reflection that you might want to try in your own courses or practice.

In the middle of busy days, even a few moments of stillness can make a big difference. This recurring 10 minute guided meditation offers a space to pause, breathe, be mindful and gently reconnect with yourself. Whether you are new to meditation, looking to build a steady practice or long-time meditator, you’ll be guided through a calming experience designed to reduce stress and help enhance your presence. Come as you are – no prior experience needed, just a willingness to slow down and be.

Have you ever considered how students could actively shape the design and decision-making processes of virtual exchanges? In this co-creation session, we’ll crowdsource ideas for student involvement and hold space for networking with potential exchange partners. We encourage you to bring students to the session—their voices are essential to this conversation.

Have you met someone in an Equity Unbound space whom you wished you could get to know better? If so, you might like to sign up for a Curious Coffee. If you would like to have a Curious Coffee, sign up here by June 30th at the latest. Note: This is an asynchronous event, not a session. After being paired, participants find their own time to meet virtually. We’ll do one round of pairings at the beginning of July. The next round will take place in September.

Join us for an hour of supporting each other’s writing… quietly… where we will kick off with 5 minutes of inspiration, give everyone about 50 minutes to work on what is important to them right now, and have 5 minutes to celebrate what we’ve accomplished today. This group is dedicated to anyone who is working on a writing project of any kind: you can work on a peer-reviewed paper, grant application, syllabus, even a really tricky email, even your creative work, a poem you want to capture, lyrics for your next song 🙂

What if every voice and every view were treated as the wisdom it is? Join this online session to explore key methods from Lewis Deep Democracy (LDD), a methodology that arise in post Apartheid South Africa.

Across higher education, conversations about AI have largely centered on policy, risk, and academic integrity, often overlooking the conditions faculty and students were already navigating before AI emerged. This interactive session starts from a different premise: AI may be less a disruption itself and more a signal of existing learning environments, asking participants to explore the question: What issues has AI served as an accelerant for, and why? Through facilitated dialogue and structured reflection, faculty will examine how institutional conditions shape help-seeking, participation, trust, and AI use, while identifying pathways for addressing those conditions in their own contexts.

This workshop explores Pressing Prompts (https://pressingprompts.org/), an open collection of activities, resources, and pedagogical guidance for higher education instructors bringing AI ethics into their classrooms. Participants will access Pressing Prompts' topics, activities, and resources, and will then build custom "playlists" that can be exported, shared, and incorporated into courses across disciplines and modalities.

Can a musical background and the simple awareness of being "together" transform a solitary work session into a shared, embodied, pedagogically meaningful experience — even through screens? This experiential workshop invites participants to bring their own real task, work for 45 minutes with curated sound environments, and reflect together on what emerged.

Join me for a short calming and reflective journaling session designed to help you reconnect and recharge. Through thoughtfully written prompts and individual quiet reflection time, we’ll journal about gratitude, self-love, loving-kindness and wellbeing. Whether you’re a long-tome journaler or just getting started, this space invites you to slow down, tune in and leave feeling lighter, clearer and more connected. Bring a notebook, an open heart and come just as you are.

Join us for an hour of supporting each other’s writing… quietly… where we will kick off with 5 minutes of inspiration, give everyone about 50 minutes to work on what is important to them right now, and have 5 minutes to celebrate what we’ve accomplished today. This group is dedicated to anyone who is working on a writing project of any kind: you can work on a peer-reviewed paper, grant application, syllabus, even a really tricky email, even your creative work, a poem you want to capture, lyrics for your next song 🙂

What does it take to connect with students from the very start of a course? This interactive session explores three tensions in teaching: designing for imagined learners while meeting real students; helping students feel they matter without prescribing how they should belong; and balancing care with capacity. We’ll share ideas and examples, and build a live Padlet together to gather practical approaches from across contexts.

In this session, we share our process for co-creating AI guidelines with students in two AUC courses (one engineering, one liberal arts). We share survey results done early in the semester and the guidelines students came up with as well as our reflections. Then we invite participants themselves to develop additional scenarios for future co-creation and their reflections on the process.

Do you feel truly seen and valued in your work, and are you helping others feel that way too? Join us for a six-session book circle exploring "Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose" by Jennifer Breheny Wallace hosted by Theresa Destrebecq.

Put aside 15-20 minutes when you chose for no stakes creative challenge that is pure fun. Since January 8, 2012 the Daily Create (https://daily.ds106.us/) published each day a media creation challenge meant as playful thing to do and also to explore online creative tools. For MYFest 2026, this is an ongoing activity in July and August. You can find the newest one each day added to our Discord channel where participants share and cheer on each other's responses. Or join us for our drop in Create Together sessions where we can brainstorm ideas, and create/share together.

In this session, participants will have the opportunity to think collectively about biases and cultural assumptions that underpin the genAI products that are so ubiquitous. We will explore deeper understanding of biases, literacies, and fluencies; talk about the importance of culturally-centred AI; understand the cultural assumptions that underpin these AI products; and begin to imagine strategies for broaching these topics in our communities.