When we meet for the OLC Community College Summit next week there will be significant information sharing, stimulation of ideas, and critiques of processes to review.  In grand fashion, we will engage, submerge, rejuvenate, and emerge, renewed, and ready. We will bring back our collective nuggets of good tricks; we will be motivated to lead and encourage change within our organizations. Or will we? 

Try to juxtapose the image of those being deliberate in the context of innovating education against those who do not have access to high-speed internet or those who have limited access to real learning even in a face to face environment. What is our real responsibility? 

We have given birth to digital natives, who live and thrive in a digital age; and as this generation lays down its marker of connectivity and information (overload?), there are still those left on the periphery: those left on the sidelines who are disenfranchised, disillusioned and disgusted.  They cannot see themselves in the greater social fabric of our society, but only in the lonely single threads of their community.  They are not regarded as potential thinkers, shakers, and makers but feared as future thugs and leeches.  We are seeing in real-time, the very earth beneath us being rocked by images of blatant racism and disregard. We are hearing calls for justice and we cannot be inoculated in a cocoon of indifference.  If we are serious about our craft, if we are personally committed to the use of digital touch as a medium of uplift and a means to share knowledge, then we will use this conference to fill our toolboxes, and use our tools in these boxes to build bridges. 

The Community College Summit is part of the OLC Innovate Virtual conference – Building Bridges in Digital, Blended, and Online Learning. Join us next week and be part of the change – and part of the building of bridges!

Registration for the virtual conference includes live-stream and on-demand recordings of nearly 300 sessions, including keynotes, featured sessions, education sessions, and industry showcases. The program also includes four targeted summits – HBCU, Research, Community College and the Leadership Network. There will also be opportunities to connect with peers through virtual social and networking activities including happy hours, game socials, guided meditation sessions, and networking coffee breaks.

Registration for OLC Innovate 2020 Virtual is now open. Learn more and make plans to attend today!

Sheila Bouie, Southwest Tennessee Community College – Community College Summit Co-Chair

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