Reflecting on the move online

In our hearts we know the world will never be quite the way it was. We talk about a “pivot online” and we are looking for a “new normal”. It has been hard for teachers and students; health and the economy. The Covid-19 crisis has been described as “existential”. It is becoming epistemological, too. How do we know what is “true” any more? And moral: how do we know what is right and good?

But, can we ever go back? No. On a human scale time does not work that way. We only go forward. This year the Brooke's Learning and Teaching conference, like much that we do, is going online. Who knows where it will go next? Part of this conference will be providing space for reflecting on this move

We will host a parallel stream to the main stream of presentations. We are calling this a “Parallel World Cafe”. It feels like we are in a parallel world. Or, maybe better, an orthogonal world: a world that has taken off at a tangent from where we used to be so few weeks ago. Where were we then? Where are we now? And where will we be in a future that is now and forever emerging?

A world cafe is a structured conversation. The purpose is sharing knowledge. What we want to share today is your knowledge, experience and feelings of how it's been for you to teach - indeed, to live - at least in part in an online environment at Oxford Brookes University.

Conferences always have choices: which session to attend, who to talk with informally, what special interest group to join. You will have a choice in each of the three presentation sessions to join the discussion with the presenters, or to join the Parallel World Cafe.