MYFest 2026: Schedule

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.

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 🙂

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.

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.

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 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.

Curricular seeds are sessions where we invite participants to share what they do in their own teaching/workshops on a particular theme, and then we take time in small groups to reflect on how we all might apply, adapt or develop activities or resources based on what we discuss in the first half, and how we might support each other going forward via Equity Unbound.

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.

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.

Should we be using GenAI literature search tools or would it be more equitable to stick with traditional databases? If we do use them, how can we use them critically? Come along to find out and share your thoughts.

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.

The aim of this series of sessions is to create a safe space in community with one another to engage in healing conversations around topics of import to our individual and collective well-being. Topics are intended to address issues common to the human experience in these trying times. The hope is that these sessions invite introspection and dialogue to deepen connection and solidarity, and inspire hope, healing and transformation.
Topic 1: Building community through embracing diversity and connecting with the ‘other’
Topic 2: Centering joy in our lives during trying times
Topic 3: Embracing vulnerability for building connection and belonging

Have you ever wondered how you might use messaging apps to connect with a group of learners or participants? In this session, we’ll explore how educators are using apps like GroupMe, WhatsApp, and Zoom Workplace to support learning, share resources, and build community—then collaboratively brainstorm ways to use these tools in our teaching and facilitation contexts.

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.

Curricular seeds are sessions where we invite participants to share what they do in their own teaching/workshops on a particular theme, and then we take time in small groups to reflect on how we all might apply, adapt or develop activities or resources based on what we discuss in the first half, and how we might support each other going forward via Equity Unbound.