I never thought I would be reminiscing about the covid lockdown. But getting to attend so many OEW events was amazing. One thing I’ve found I miss is the intimacy of getting to hear about other people’s experiences with instruction and adoption of OERs while they are at home. Now that I’ve typed it out it sounds like there is high creep potential- but what I mean is that during that period, getting glimpses of professors in their homes from different continents and countries- it just made the “global” part of this feel especially real, while at the same time making things feel more relatable. It’s small, but I suppose it relates to why people have different backgrounds they choose for their video calls. Anyways, that is one little tidbit that I particularly enjoyed during that specific OEWeek. There are always things that stand out though. Does anyone else have takeaways that they weren’t expecting?
Hi Robin,
That’s not so weird of creepy to value seeing people in their place, if they choose to show. I would never ever make that a requirement. I agree the connective potential whether it is their home or their office, is a chance to see what someone places in their personal space.
I almost never use virtual backgrounds. You will see me with a kitchen behind me or if I am in the other room, real bookshelves.
If I am on a video call with someone, I usually try to notice and ask about the surroundings-- what kinds of books are on the shelves? Tell me about the painting behind you? Why is there a banjo on your wall? What kind of tree is outside your window? This are all openers for human conversation.
In a similar way, I start most of my OEGlobal Voices podcast by asking the guests to share their location (like for a map, city country) but also to describe their surroundings. It’s the same thing.
It’s a thing I have called asking people to share The View From Where I Sit, which they can do as a photo without it being putting themselves on display.
I have to credit this way back to a brilliant early online teacher (when it was all text based) from Paradise Valley Community College who did this in online forums for her students- where they have to use words to share a picture of their space. The Internet Archive has a record of this activity I learned from my friend Donna.
I’m more than willing to run it again for OEWeek 2025.
I have to think about the format of unstructured open conversations that we set up the last years as open education week (see OE Week Live 2023 and OE Week Live 2024. I typically can line up 2-5 guests, and actually without much of agenda, we have amazing conversations that often draw from people who have never spoken to each other before.
I am starting to set them up for 2025, so look out I will be asking folks to join the live show. The best part for guests is – no preparation needed, no slides, so scripts, just show up.
I hope there is another on-going post (maybe here, or as an open asynchronous project for OEWeek) that is a “the view from where I sit”! That is awesome and pretty much exactly what I was thinking of. I am excited for the live shows- I fully plan on attending as many things as I possibly can this year!
You can count on it!
Here it is!