One last job…

Next week I head to Cork for OER24. While I may get invited to conferences once I leave the OU, this could well be my last one, and will definitely be my final one as GO-GN director and OU employee. That’s right, before I head off into the sunset, I’m going to do One Last Job, what could go wrong?

In the manner of all One Last Jobs, a crack team has been assembled to pull it off. We have the GO-GN squad, running a workshop the day before the conference for a small team of explosive experts OER Researchers. As I’ve probably mentioned before, working on the GO-GN project for the past 11 years has been a delight, and by far the most enjoyable and rewarding externally funded project I’ve been part of. So I’m pleased to go out with a final workshop.

Then there are the getaway drivers, I mean, co-chairs Tom Farrelly and Gearóid Ó Súilleabháin, and the location of Cork. A fine pairing to ensure the meticulous informality I like so much in conferences. What a place to pull off the heist of the century. And of all the conferences I attend on a semi-regular basis, I have to say the the OER one is my favourite. I have attended every year since 2014, and I think it has really grown and developed over that time in terms of the critical and thoughtful lens it brings to open education in general, but also in establishing its identity and own way of doing things. If I had to choose the venue for One Last Job, it would definitely be the OER conference.

At the conference I will be cracking the safe with Maren Deepwell as we talk about podcasting and internet radio as open practice (you can hear us discuss this in the podcast), undertaking crowd control with a talk on 30 Years of Ed Tech and the curious life of an open access book (along the lines of this), and blowing the joint with a GO-GN session on 10 years of the network.

And then I’m outta there! Maren has also arranged for some drinks on the Thursday at a pub (this just means we’ll be there, we haven’t laid anything on, no free booze I’m afraid. I repeat, no free booze).

Because we all know how One Last Jobs end, you don’t have to wait until I’m dead to say nice things about me – Maren has kindly set up a Kudoboard where you can share embarrassing selfies of us gurning at the camera.

One Last Job, that’s all I need…

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