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This is a pretty big week for a lot of folk. For many in Canada Tuesday is when folk go back to school both in K-12 land and in HigherEd space. For still many others, like folk in Quebec, this back to school happened middle of this week. A lot of the conversations around back to school time usually start with the question, "how was your summer?" and what I have been hearing a lot in return is "what summer?" Many folk have felt like this was not the summer they needed or wanted; that it was not a break from anything as folk tried to frame what new technologies and policies would mean for their pedagogical design and areas of expertise.

I am also part of those many. I had a little over a week off a few weeks ago, as the only extended break I had this summer and it was not exactly a break or a vacation because it was spent doing the emotional and physical labour that one who has reached this age of life, with parents who have also reached as certain age of life have to do. And then I came back to a milestone birthday that I spent alone and didn't celebrate at all, and then back quickly into pedagogical support as the term approaches. So like others, I am very tired and what this also means is that the many larger community support things (like a new episode of the podcast) are not quite ready yet because I need another week, which is also a refrain I have heard a lot this week "can I have another week?"

I think it is really important to be honest about where we are at and to give ourselves some grace about what our bodyminds and energy levels are doing as the semester begins. I say this because the students will also be starting the semester with varying energy levels. And though orientation type things tend to be hype fests meant to echo the kind of high energy the systems want folk to start a school year with, I am here to say that it is also super okay for that to not be your vibe right now, especially this year.

This is where I get to the title of the blog this week. It is inspired by all the hype I have been seeing on LinkedIn and in other spaces online about resources being produced by teaching and learning centres (TLCs) about GenAi, about accessibility, and then clicking on a link and being asked for institutional credentials of the school that created the resource. More and more we are seeing TLCs keep resources behind institutional logins and it really has me thinking about what this does in relation to how we think about TLC work and TLCs as community connector spaces.

I can completely understand why a lot of TLCs are putting their resources on insider status only lock down. Data scraping means that the work put into creating that resource can be readily lifted and reused and maybe re-appropriated in improper context, in ways that don't really speak to the spirit of Creative Commons Licenses (CC), if TLCs do put CC licenses on their work. Also at a time where folk are going through websites looking for "the woke," having things openly on websites can open more scrutiny especially if your institution is in a place where legislation says certain words are banned, or the leadership of your institution talks a big game about inclusion, but in practice runs in the direction of sameness, good vibes only, when the hard choices need to happen.

But putting these resources behind institution only passwords does another kind of thing which is it further excludes the folk who may be in institutions where they are one of the only folk who want to approach technology use and policies from a truly inclusion space and critique the choices being made without larger communication or insight. The folk who tab through tools to see keyboard use, the folk who will screen reader new embedded apps in Learning Management Systems for the "error blank page" voice. These folk will not find allyship in their own spaces because they are surrounded by folk who just go with decisions being made by others for whatever reason, lack of holistic inclusive awareness, inability or lack desire to bring up critique, or lack of ethical fortitude even if positionality would give them space to say a thing. So often, for those people, resources at other institutions become a space where they will see themselves and their beliefs and values echoed and enacted in real practice. 

With more please enter your password culture, when it comes to teaching and learning resources, those folk are losing thought community and needed affirmation that they are in fact not alone in being worried about inclusion, or the only one reminding others that maybe some things shouldn't scale, or that no one is thinking about how tech bans in classrooms, for example, can create real health harms for some disabled folk.

So I know that this is the time of the year where everyone is looking for a it's going to be okay type post or guidance. And I wish I could be that human to give you that right now. But I think the folk who do read this space on a regular basis know me enough to know that I am not going to lie or fake or pretend just because the time of year requires it, my ethics and morals would not allow me to do that. So I don't have any real pedagogical 1, 2, 3 guidance to give you for fall 2025, mainly because things are changing so quickly that this semester is going to be one where iteration is going to be a real tool in your teaching and learning toolbox this year. The more comfort you can possibly have with iterating with the discussions and contexts you see in your classes this term, I feel the more rewarding those discussions will be.

But ultimately I do have one piece of guidance for fall 2025, which is be yourself. No matter what ebbs and flows come the one thing that policies, technologies, or contexts can't change is your authenticity. And the more authentic you are with yourself, who you are as a teacher, and who you want to be for the students you are interacting with, the more authentic that learning experience will be for everyone. Have a good semester and a good long weekend folks, more information and resources coming from me soon after I can give myself a bit more bodymind rest and thank you for your patience with me as I get those together. Remember what Robin Williams said, (gif description is on the page) and not some hollow caricature of what the systems want you to be.