The Work at the Hinge: A Conversation Before & After the Session

OEGlobal 2026 Session Conversations
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Hi everyone! I’m excited to have a conversation space for my session, The Work at the Hinge: Mini Structures and Human-Centered Open Education, happening Thursday October 8, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pmEDT - Online

I’m a teacher at heart, and I believe deeply in reflective and reflexive practice. So rather than using this space simply to describe what I’m going to talk about, I thought we might try a small experiment together.

At the center of my session is a sentence: A door is only open if someone can actually get through it.

Before the session, I’d love for you to sit with that for a moment.

Think about your own work in open education, open knowledge, or another space where we invite people to participate.

:red_question_mark: What do you think makes it possible for someone to actually walk through an “open” door?

Or, from the other direction:

:red_question_mark: Where have you seen something be technically open, available, or welcoming, but still difficult for people to enter or participate in?

That’s it. No need for a polished answer. An example, question, instinct, disagreement, or half-formed thought is welcome.

:man_running: :woman_running: If you’re willing, reply here before the session and leave yourself a little record of what you’re thinking right now.

Then come join me for the session.

I’ll share some experiences from my own open education practice, some very small things I began noticing in the design of programs and professional learning, and the much bigger questions those observations have started raising for me about openness, participation, relationship, care, and what happens at the space between access and participation.

Then come back.

After the session, return to your original reply and respond to yourself.

  • Did anything shift?
  • Did something become more complicated?
  • Did you notice something you hadn’t noticed before?
  • Are you less certain about something?
  • Did the session give you a new question?
  • Or did it strengthen something you already believed?

There’s no requirement that your thinking change. I’m interested in what happens when we make our thinking visible at one moment, encounter new ideas and one another, and then return to see what, if anything, has moved.

And of course, this thread can also stay open for questions, examples, connections, disagreements, and conversations that we don’t have time to finish during the session.

I’m looking forward to thinking with you.

:red_question_mark::high_voltage:Before we begin: What makes it possible for someone to actually walk through an open door?

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What a thoughtful, inviting way to introduce your session, Megan!

Some very quick thoughts:

  • A personally compelling reason, or a good sense as to what happens behind the door?
  • A sense of what is to be gained by crossing that threshold
  • That there is a person standing there to welcome you, that its safe
  • That its okay to peek first inside the door (?)
  • That others will be there with you
  • That there are many exits

Also for

I admit this community space I created can be overwhelming or confusing! I’m constantly trying to help people through the door, but often worry I am not effective.

I’m looking foward to your session (I am the facilitator for your online session).

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Thank you so much for engaging with this and sharing some of your thinking, Alan! I’m really enjoying seeing where this question takes people, and I’m excited to share more about where it’s been taking me during the session. And I’m especially excited that you’ll be facilitating!

Also, I have to respond to your comment about this community space because I completely understand what you mean. It’s incredibly robust and thoughtfully organized, which also tells me a LOT is happening behind the scenes to build and maintain it. It shows! Before this era of my work, I was an educational technology specialist in public schools, and designing online spaces where people can actually interact, find their way around, and engage is part science, part art, and probably at least a little bit of magic. :magic_wand: :sweat_smile:

I think the fact that you’re continually asking how to make an already-rich space more enterable is part of the work, too. I’m really enjoying the space and looking forward to thinking together on Thursday!