About the Event
This session invites educators to reframe play as a powerful, culturally responsive practice: one that fosters identity building, learner voice, and belonging across diverse learning environments. Participants will explore practical strategies for embedding culturally responsive play, loose-parts play, and identity-affirming play pedagogy.
This session is designed for educators, facilitators, instructional designers, and professional development leaders working across education, post-secondary settings, and community-based learning environments.
Participants will:
- Identify how a culturally responsive pedagogy of play can amplify learner voice
- Foster identity-building and strengthen relationships with diverse families and children
- Explore the role of loose-parts play and identity-affirming play as culturally sustaining, inclusive teaching tools
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This notice is to inform you that this session may be recorded, archived, and shared after the event.
About the Facilitator
Kamini Kamdar (she/her) is a PhD candidate whose research focuses on culturally responsive pedagogy, newcomer families, and children in early childhood settings, educational policy, and family engagement. She brings experience as an early childhood educator and researcher with a passion for bridging theory and practice to create inclusive and meaningful learning spaces. Her intention is for participants to reflect on how culturally responsive approaches to play can deepen belonging and representation in educational contexts.
About the Session
Join us for an exciting Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) session about a news literacy framework for educators and students. In these information-challenged times, this workshop will introduce the concept and benefits of including news literacy (e.g. Ashley, 2020) as a crucial element in the post-secondary teaching and learning environment. We will explore the news literacy framework, discuss why it is essential to 21st-century post-secondary learning and teaching, and provide an orientation to a new open education resource, a news literacy toolkit.
The session will be of interest to professors, librarians, and other educators who support student learning. It aims to give participants the knowledge and skills to better understand and engage with today’s complex media environment. By the end of the workshop, participants will:
- Be able to define and explain the concept of news literacy and its importance in the current media landscape
- Understand how the presence of bias in news reporting affects the representation of events
- Learn strategies to curate a diverse and balanced news diet, avoiding echo chambers and ensuring exposure to multiple perspectives.
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This session may be recorded, archived, and shared after the event.
About the Facilitator
Justin Harrison has over 20 years’ professional experience as an academic research librarian and holds the position of Engagement & Learning Librarian at the University of Victoria Libraries. He is also a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria, focusing on media literacy, news literacy, and their intersections with civic engagement and political polarization.
About the Session
This session explores how generative AI can support more inclusive teaching through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Through live demonstrations, practical activities, and collaborative discussion, you’ll experiment with AI tools to redesign lessons, activities, or resources that reflect UDL principles.
This workshop is not an introduction to GenAI or UDL, but an opportunity to explore how generative AI can help you design flexible, accessible, and learner-centered learning experiences. You’ll leave with a draft product tailored to your own context, and new strategies for using AI to reduce barriers and support diverse learners.
Registration Coming Soon
This notice is to inform you that this session may be recorded, archived, and shared after the event.
About the Facilitator
Kelly Fyke is a Teaching and Learning Specialist at College of the Rockies with 20 years’ experience spanning K–12 teaching, international education, and post-secondary educational development. Her work focuses on generative AI in education, Universal Design for Learning, and inclusive teaching. Kelly is passionate about empowering educators, creating equitable learning spaces, and supporting innovation that helps students thrive. Connect with Kelly on LinkedIn.