2022 Year in Review
I've been dreading writing this blog. I knew it was coming. Last years' Bests and Worsts of 2021 was one of my more popular articles. But this year, I've been filled with dread.
I've literally done the trick where I cleaned the toilet RATHER than write and get this blog published.
But time left in 2022 is very short and regardless of the fact that I'm SURE I'm going to hurt some folks' feelings, it's time to leave the 2022 cards on the table and walk away from the year.
So as I write this, I feel like Rocky Balboa sitting in the corner after a punishing round. I'm bleeding. I'm panting. And I can't believe what just happened. But I know the next round is coming.
As per my tradition, I'm going to let a hell of lot more fly here on my blog than it the corresponding LinkedIn edition, if I do one there at all. [Editing note: I've decided NOT to post this to LinkedIn] But let's get into it.
2022 - The Year of Silencing Women
Dictionary.com selected "woman" as the word of the year based on the phenomena of the definition changing. I've got many problems with THAT but still, I agree that women, globally, took a beating in 2022.
The year started with me already 2 months into fighting to organize a live, first-of-its-kind panel for the TC-ILE organization. In November 2021, a bunch of charter members volunteered towards an event for Education Week in April 2022. But right after that volunteering, someone needed to take lead.
Not a single volunteer stepped forward to lead the event: organizing, pulling together what the panel would cover, social media assets (and later, writing up and publishing the video and summary).
So as the first 4 months of 2022 passed by, I had *reluctantly* stepped forward to volunteer to lead.
Why?
Well, first, despite what some falsely believe, there is such a thing as a "born leader", meaning someone who steps up to take a lead in a act of servant hood.
Second, I was familiar with nearly everyone on the panel.
But what I didn't expect (and I probably should have) was that I would go through a total of 6 months of agony with this panel with:
- unanswered emails
- refusals to give information
- constant "I'm holier than thou" attitudes about the entire event.
Yet, once the event was upon us, lo and behold! Suddenly, they are very happy and shooting out social media (that I created) like madmen.
But it never escaped me once---- and here I get to the core of the issue ---that by giving up my space on the panel as a speaker, I gave up my voice. Remember, no one else would become the moderator.
To be more specific, I FELT SILENCED.
May 2022
I was approached to serve on a panel for the WebXR Education Summit. Given how beat up I felt from the April event, I was relieved to think "Now, this time I'll get a chance to speak!" I was promised that instructional design would be part of the topic. Yay! That would be great, since the last Education Summit's instructional design session stank.
June 24, 2022
Roe v. Wade decision overturned by the Supreme Court. It rocked the planet. Regardless of anyone's feelings about abortion, the faith that the US had in our Supreme Court justices was rocked because several of them went back on their word. These are LEGAL EXPERTS, people. If we had trusted that the Supreme Court was where final consideration and justice live, no more.
But I nearly wanted to weep for the world that my grand niece will grow up into. A world where her body will not be her own to control.
I don't think we've yet lived out the consequences from this turning point.
Fast forward to July 2022.
Heather, we need to ask you to serve as the Moderator for your Education Summit session.
Here we go again. I FELT SILENCED.
I carried on and really did a good job since that moment during the day, the conference was sorta melting down behind the scenes and I just carried on as if conversations with professionals is something I do all the time. ('cause, I do.)
September 2022
An opportunity came up to talk about the metaverse at an entrepreneurial conference and I was available and local (both, relatively speaking. Actually renting a car and doing the drive for two days was a hassle, but I digress). I want to put the best face on this because I am a guest.
Now I did ask about the representation of women at this conference. I was told "with your yes, it will be 41%." Not too bad and being there, I can say that I saw plenty of women. Business women, but women.
But in the panel was I on, there were 2 men and 2 women. The other woman was asked to moderate.
So...she lost her voice.
I actually talked with her about how that made her feel and if there was anything she and I could do together to mitigate that. She fed me the standard line of "Oh but as Moderator, I can control what questions are asked."
Uh. OK. But truly, that's NOT the same as answering those questions. I mean, with answers, I can swing a crowd around in any direction, I have influence. Her answer was like claiming that being wait staff at a restaurant is as good as eating there as a guest. It's really not. It hurts me when I see women eating the shit they've been shoveled.
At least I'll claim that 3rd times a charm because I was not demoted myself to Moderator.
But after all was said and done, I noticed how LITTLE people with visible disabilities were at this conference. That means that those with invisible disabilities were keeping them invisible. I remarked about that and got some weird "let me wrap my arms around you in a hug" statements about how I had rose above my disability (that I only alluded to, I did not disclose) by going outside my shell to serve on the panel.
They didn't mean it poorly.
But I steamed in anger. STEAMED.
Blind people cannot just apply themselves harder to see.
Deaf people cannot just come out of their shell to hear.
Rinse and repeat: mobility and cognitive issues.
The blatant lack of respect for the population that needs accessible options is staggering.
Bests
OK, where are the bright spots, if there are any?
Working on launching a virtual campus for a tech-forward college was a very good exercise. I learned a great deal and my favorite part (hands-down!) was the students. We only had a few "groupie" students that stuck in with the beta test, but they gave me, personally, GREAT feedback as to what they wanted, liked, and enjoyed. Kudos to those students! I definitely have plans to use their feedback to make better future experiences.
The Mozilla Hubs community welcomed me as a semi-regular visitor. That was nice. Even though they are befuddled why I visit when I'm not a developer.
Also, warm regards for the panelists with me for the Education Summit. I truly believe that we worked well together, all had very valuable contributions to make, and it is a shame we only had 30 minutes to chat. All of them are fabulous in their respective careers. They get a big approval from me!
The IEEE 2nd International Conference on Intelligent Reality (ICIR 2022) turned out to be a small gem. I was a reviewer and attendee (thanks to the free admission for being a reviewer....THANK YOU!!). Sessions covered a nice wide variety of topics and yet it felt like the presenters were A. nice people and B. felt connected to the theme of "connecting XR to reality". After some bitterness with other conferences (ahem, yes, by now I'm starting to officially say that I am not associated nor do I support the iLRN organization or conference), it was nice to work with a small but heartfelt group of researchers. This would be a little conference to keep your eyes on.
Ending the year
I continue to fight the good fight against truly poor statements about how VR/XR can be used in learning.
My weeks of work on analyzing The Bible Project (oops, they are now known as BibleProject) courses has led to me being part of their UX test group. I get to see some early designs and give feedback. And that reminds me, I'm behind on 2 reviews that are due today.
Off to 2023!