Watching Windows Go Dark
Tonight's soundtrack: The Jim Hall Trio featuring Kenny Barron and Dave Holland, 2009
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In the first session we each drew a
patchwork/tile. |
Tonight I participated with a team of facilitators for a conference presentation for the Community Economies Liviana Conference held over Zoom. My co-presenters were from England, New Zealand, and Argentina. We had attendees from Italy, Australia, Canada, Peru (I think), and the United States. It was marvelous to participate in something so wonderfully global in attendance.
One of the things we did tonight, the second of a two part series, was to use text all the attendees and facilitators generated in the "application" to the session to create an exquisite corpse (cadáver exquisito) poem on Google Docs. All of us worked simultaneously cutting and copying passages from one document that held all our text, and pasting, cutting, altering, and playing with the words in the poem document. People changed font size, made wonderful line breaks, played with color, and created rhythmic refrains. There were enough of us that the entire poem seemed to come alive in a constantly changing and undulating form under your cursor. I thought I had an idea to build on and started looking for passages to cut and splice together, and by the time I went back for my third slice of text and returned, someone else had transformed my little stub of an idea into something completely else. It was marvelous.
It is so interesting how the Zoom medium can be so impersonal and subject to distraction in one moment, and then in another instance, it can be riveting, and playful, and a wonderfully engaging medium that allows one to cross every timezone on this Earth. It was fascinating to watch the Australians preparing to start their day (tomorrow), as I was wrapping up my own and the light in the window faded to darkness.
I hope you all get to do something so wonderful in your days... the collaborative, improvisational creativity that only emerges with human interaction.
Take care and enjoy,
Leo
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| The office is starting to be cleared out and now sounds echo when I speak loudly. |
From Our Friends:
From Mass Humanities:
Rhonda Anderson is Commissioner on Indian Affairs for western Mass., and a founding member of Ohketeau Cultural Council, a non-profit based in Ashfield that recently received a Mass Humanities 2020 Support Grant. In recent months, Ohketeau has convened a series of conversations with indigenous community members, leaders, and scholars on Native identity, health, and rights and the issues faced by Native communities today. She talks about her work with Mass Humanities Executive Director Brian Boyles. Click here to learn more about Ohketeau. The event is free but RSVP is required. Questions? Email Ashley Ayala at aayala@masshumanities.org. |
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From the AAC&U:
Free Webinar - Register Today!
In the midst of a tumultuous election year, another season of mounting racial and social injustices, and growing health disparities based on race, there continues to be a tremendous need for racial healing and transparent dialogues on campuses and in communities across our nation. As part of this year’s AAC&U Giving Tuesday Campaign titled “Unite for Truth!”, this webinar will highlight how TRHT Campus Centers across the country are leading efforts to dismantle the false belief in the hierarchy of human value inherent in our systems, structures, and policies to build equitable and just communities where all people have the opportunity to thrive.
There will be time for Q&A during the webinar. Please send all webinar inquires to webinars@aacu.org. The webinar will be recorded, and the recording will be available online.
Today's Online Teaching Tips:
From NEASC:
A Model for High Quality, Equitable Distance Learning9:00-10:00 a.m. ET
NEASC Virtual Global Forum webinar
Presented in collaboration with the
Center for Public Research and Leadership, Columbia University
The Connecticut State Department of Education, the Columbia University Center for Public Research and Leadership, and the Connecticut Educational Partners collaborated to create guidance for schools and district for the development of high quality distance learning to respond to the COVID pandemic. This webinar will feature representatives from Columbia to explain the model and the methods used to create it. They will also share the resources developed to support the model. The forum will also feature several school superintendents from Connecticut who are using the model in the districts. They will discuss the successes and the challenges they have faced during the implementation of the recommendations.
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From Teaching Tolerance:
Polarizing political rhetoric didn’t end with the election, and as recounts and lawsuits continue, it remains critical that educators work to maintain strong, inclusive communities in their classrooms. We hope these resources will help.
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