I figure since we are a group that ponders open ed practices, I should write a bit about my experiences during last week. Seems right, right?
On Monday, I attended the keynote from the 2025 Vancouver Community College Teaching, Learning and Research Symposium. The theme of the conference was “Teaching and Learning with Heads, Hands, and Hearts.” Really, is there anything better than that. The keynote was given by Awneet Sivia, Associate Vice President, Teaching and Learning, University of the Fraser Valley up there in Canada. She focused on some of what we have been calling “humanizing learning.” I also noted how many of the first touch ideas were similar to what Marie McQuade and I wrote about for our First Five Minutes. The session was done in the “webinar” mode in Zoom so there was no chat. I was sad about that. I can’t seem to find a recording of the talk. I’ll send it out if I do.
Sadly, that was the only event I attended over the two days of the conference. One reason was that later that day I got to talk with some heroes of mine. I spent an hour with Alan Levine, Ken Bauer, Verena Roberts, and Gardner Campbell. I had thought it was just going to be Alan and me and we could talk about how much we miss Arizona sunshine. But there were others there and we talked about community and other stuff.
I learned that Gardner has a VR headset too, so we played some mini golf. On Mount Olympus. It was the highlight of the week.
The last time I saw Gardner was sitting outside at the Connected Learning Conference in 2018. I was there with Jane and Sarita. If you don’t know, Gardner has a wonderful history in teaching. He has been the Vice Provost for Learning Innovation and Student Success, the Director for the Academy for Teaching and Learning, and Director for Teaching, Learning and Technology for a few universities, and for like 20+ years. And I got to play mini golf with him. We have actually played twice and have more planned.
I also chatted for an hour with Alan, Ron Lawson, and a long time hero Karen Cangialosi on Thursday. Interestingly, she worked with our very own Mike Caulfield at Keene University. One role she had at Keene was the Open Education Faculty Fellow. Damn, we need one of those 🙂 You can see all of the recording that were part of OE Live here.
Related to our upcoming guest for our March Epiphany, I found this from the good Rajiv Jhangiani, who happens to be our next guests boss.
I just discovered this morning that MYFest is already ramping up. You may recall MyFest from last summer? Well, Maha, Mia, and Alan are at it again. Already thinking ahead for next summer. But before that they have an Open Ed Reflection session on Open Education Week Activities with Equity Unbound. Upcoming Session Reminder: We are hosting a post-OE Week reflection session, with Alan Levine, next Monday 17 March at 9 pm Cairo | 7 pm UTC | 12 pm PST. You can register here.