On the afternoon of Wednesday, October 9th, I presented a f2f session at the 2024 Open Education conference in Providence, Rhode Island. I understand that for various reasons, many folks couldn’t be in the room for my session. Here is the full slide deck for the presentation (which you are free to share or reuse), and the notes section of the deck has links to all of the source material. Here is the description of the session:
I’ve been involved with open education for years, and the work for me has always been about hope—hope that we could build a more equitable, humane, diverse, and sustainable ecosystem for learning and for the sharing of knowledge. This year I begin my 30th year working in US higher education, and I’m dismayed that my daily work seems to take me farther and farther away from a hopeful horizon. In this presentation, I’ll take a page from climate activist Greta Thunberg, who often eschews a rhetoric of hope in favor of a rhetoric of panic and action. What are the forces that not only threaten our hopes, but violently twist our work until it loses potency? What is the meaning of “open” in a world where words like “access,” “inclusion,” and “diversity” are routinely co-opted for profit? What culpability do we bear if we (continue to) do our good work in contexts that minimize, appropriate, poison, or exploit that work? Feeling good about where we are headed? This is not the session for you.
Here is a practice recording of the talk that I made for those who were not in the room for the live version:
My 25-minute session did not allow for Q&A, which was somewhat intentional. I am not sure what 5-10 minutes of dialogue would be worth. I intend this more of a provocation. I appreciate your thinking about this, and welcome your comments on this post; and I hope you discuss this with others in the spaces that suit you.
I am sad and angry to watch as our labor, our care, our work, our schools, our communities, our planet are exploited to benefit a small and greedy plutocracy.
I am sending you this message from tomorrow. It’s a tomorrow with huge cost savings from OER, and so many educators doing amazing pedagogical work for and with their students. But everything around you is rubble and you and the people you care for are about to be buried.
For some of us, it is already tomorrow.
Words are failing but I respect your honest, doom tinged tomorrow voice. You had me at the opening from that Keep America Beautiful commercial. It was cemented into my memory, and now, it was a false implementation, we were and are being manipulated.
Consider yourself heard. This should have been a keynote, no the entire conference theme. Thank you for your voice even casting a future clinging to our precious OERs amongst the rubble. Cuddle that dog (and rest of the family) when you get home.
And c’mom you were not an unread blogger at OpenEd15, I remember meeting you there (did we do dinner), but indeed, those times of optimism feel antiquated looking back. Thanks again for this brave act, and giving me lots to immerse my head in.
Thank you thank you thank you, Robin.
oh my dear friend. i have learned so much from you over the years, but two things stand out today: 1) don’t be afraid to hack around, and 2) everything is good with a dog. Both have been central to my survival in this work.
Is the phrase fit– “Systemic Neoliberalism”