Some random thoughts

[Derek Chirnside]

1.  OpenEd.  Visited one place where there were a lot of poor.  On the streets, in the parks.  Had quite a few chats with local from Vancouver as well as visitors.  All the more interesting as a 'problem' in view of the coming Olympics.  We were also chatting later about the lack of non-white people at the conference.  One comment - "Maybe we should invite them to give us advice about what we could do with the "problem of the poor" "

2.  Met a person who had had quite an interesting trajectory: little or no formal education.  Yet she has moved from job to job, in a range of roles, picking up skills along the way.  Is there hope for informal education?

3.  I'm not sure I feel the angst that so many posts have expressed about the lack of non-white faces @OpenEd.  It's far from a simple equation.  Not that I even know the answer to the equation is.  But as my experience has been in the last year with five workshops and courses in Christchurch, there is quite a hegemony around getting together with participants from radically different cultures.  Positive spill over from the OpenEd conference could still happen.  I wonder if there were any people from other cultures dropping in via the video streaming?

4.   Final thought: how much do I feel about the American influence?  As has been pointed out, there are tons of local repositories: NZ, England, BCCampus, TAFEs, Africa - and a few 'global' ones, all pretty well based in the US.

We are on our last day at the farm  (http://potluckfarm.wordpress.com/) A lot of remarkable conversations. I'm really a little unsure about exactly what to say, hence this bitsy post.  Where is the reality located somewhere between the global and the local, the present physically here and the online presence of friends and acquaintances [which I feel quite strongly, regularly].  As well as others, like my mother. 

Today: coffee, walk with the goats, local salads, picking noxious weeds by hand, conversations, maybe a swim, berry picking, travel to Seattle.

-Derek

[Nancy White]

I like these "bookmarkers" so I can come back in when my brain has a bit of space... Thanks, Derek.

A theme that emerged for Derek and I at lunch was the tension around just playing and focused time to  coherently weave together threads for both ourselves and to share out with our wider network. Or even just capturing and articulating the questions.

Still chewing...