A lot of presentation slides just slide on by. They just keep flowing. Next slide. Next presentation. Next gushing about AI solving… oops, not this post.
Yet, every other once in a while, you hear a talk, indeed the kind that a person speaks, not just reads, that well shatters your status quo.
That was my day as a virtual attendee of the 2024 Open Education Conference where I understand some 500 are gathered in Providence and another 1000 of us are online. I was a bit dismayed when I saw a talk from Robin DeRosa was in person only with a cryptically titled talk Against Hope.
But there, in loud ALL CAPS was a note:
COMPLETE SLIDE DECK AND VIDEO RECORDING OF SESSION WILL BE POSTED ON MY BLOG AT ROBINDEROSA.NET SOON AFTER THE SESSION. Everyone can have access, whether you attend the conference in person, attend virtually, or don’t attend at all.
Against Hope OpenEd24 presentation by Robin DeRosa
Can you feel some attitude? Yep. I’m a big fan of @actualham, always been. Her talk was not video recorded nor streamed, but in her blog post, Robin had published her doing the talk as a practice run (looks hotel room-ish in the background).
I’ll leave it to you to click over and take it in.
I’ll wait patiently here.
If you came back having watched Robin’s talk, I can guess how you feel. I would strongly suggest taking a walk outside, taking in a sunset, and ideally, as I did, hang out with your dog (or cat or chinchilla or….).
I am not going to offer any commentary, because she said it all. I brought it up during one of the online group discussions (I love this feature for a hybrid conference) that was a great gathering for the open folks from Canada. I was curious to hear from the onsite participants what it was like in the room.
Yeah, same impact. Bringing it up did put a bit of a chill on the conversation, but in a few minutes it picked up with conversations of typical OER stuff. Back to normal.
I get that. I had to do some more work, then make dinner then do other normal home stuff.
But this is sitting heavy. There is no answer, and Robin is clear on that she is not implying she has one.
I did flash back to that memory when after reading the book I watched the film version of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Of course it’s dark and dystopic well no Barbie flick
“He lay listening to the water drip in the woods. Bedrock, this. The cold and the silence. The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from its shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief.”
The Road
I’m not sure if anyone ever agrees with my take, but I actually saw beyond the obvious painting of a present-post apocalypse tale, that to me, it’s really a love story, the love between The Man and his son.
I don’t know what to do except to thank Robin for being this brave to do more than a talk or a presentation, but to drive a marker into the now and declare the cold hard truth. I can’t urge you (the collective 10 people who maybe read my blog) to not only listen to her talk, but ask someone else about it.
It seems almost like a faded postcard to look back at a fun photo from OpenEd16 in Richmond, when Robin was one of the few people willing to take on my challenge to come to a conference in costume.
Wither hope, at least we knew it once. I hope. And there it lies now.
Featured Image: T’is mine. How is it I do not need to reach for generative AI for my images? Is something wrong with me?
Me! I’m one of the ten people who read, and I’m glad you shared this. I’d picked up on Robin’s post in my RSS but missed OpenEd this year, so I’m grateful to have your observations here, too. Shared on the blogwall for my ten readers.