Design Educators Summit | Capilano University Lonsdale
Cultural Experiences
As students and technology evolve, how is education changing to meet the needs of the new learner? What technologies or techniques will encourage learning? Where are the pain points for educators and learners? This Design Educators Summit seeks to explore the connections and disconnects of education with the goal to stimulate learning.
Schedule
9:00-9:30 AM: Registation open
9:30 AM-10:30 AM: Keynote
Teach Like No One Else Can
,
presented by
Meg! Lewis
Why teach like everyone else when you have something only
you
can offer? By digging into your perspective, personality, strengths and values, Meg helps you craft an education style so unique and impactful that it transforms more than just your students' experience, it reshapes the entire future of design education! When your teaching comes from an authentic place, you don’t just prepare students for what’s next, you inspire them to imagine it differently. The future of design is waiting, and it starts here, with you!
10:30 -10:45 AM: Break
10:45 AM- 11:45 PM: Workshops
Choose one of two:
1.
Developing Unicorn Assessments, presented by Diana Varma RGD
An exploratory workshop with the goal of ideating and sharing new assessment ideas with like-minded educators. ‘Unicorn assessments’ are magical, in that they are fun for the instructor to develop, valuable for students to engage in and (dare I say) enjoyable to grade. They typically involve one, two or all three of Daniel Pink’s motivational framework components of autonomy, mastery and purpose.
2.
Pairing is Caring, presented by Alanna Munro
Learn about the font matrix method for pairing typefaces. This method involves looking closer at the underlying structure of the typeface and pairing it with an appropriate companion font.
11:45-12:00 PM: Break
12:00-12:45 PM
: Keynote
The Future of Design Education is Human. p
resented by
Ana Rita Morais
The future of design education will not be written by algorithms or driven by the speed of technological disruption. It will be built—boldly and deliberately—by educators who champion curiosity, empathy, critical inquiry, ethical leadership, and deep human connection. In this talk, Ana Rita Morais challenges educators to rethink the learning environment, reimagine the role of the learner, redefine the responsibility of the instructor, and rebuild the curriculum through a human-centered lens. Through mentorship, peer connection, and radical empowerment, she calls for a new era of design education—one that values depth over speed, collaboration over competition, and humanity over optimization. The future isn’t about keeping pace with machines—it’s about setting a tempo only humans can create.
1:00-2:30 PM: Optional Networking Lunch (location TBD - pay your own way)
Information Source: RGD | eventbrite