Hope has many shapes
Given to each as a precious stone.
Wendy Taleo, 2021

The Connected Learning MOOC is an ongoing experiential opportunity for educators to connect and learn together. It began as a type of MOOC, as the name suggests but, in order to emphasise the participatory nature of the activities, the final “C” in the acronym stands for “collaboration” rather than “course”. Across social platforms we gather, creating and making together.

At the end of an epic 2020, there was a need felt for a project that was creative, not too serious and that would connect the CLMOOC community in a positive way. A calendar was chosen as a format to highlight contributions from the community. The theme of ‘Hope’ was chosen and little other guidance was given to participants. As an open global project, special care was given to the contributions and a design that could be accessible and downloadable for local printing anywhere.

In this presentation we will provide a viewing of the calendar augmented with a narrative of stories behind the creators. As an extension of this type of collaboration we have designed an activity for the length of the conference. An open People’s Choice zine will be created with conference participants’ submissions.

What we learnt from this project is that hope comes in many shapes and colours and is both universal and personal. This project keeps on giving joy as each month passes and a fresh view is revealed as a reminder of the ongoing nature of hope.

Zine Link https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SpRT1N0rKwLegh1GvIX-QHqBDmRm3Md_57mFrsPP8w0/edit?usp=sharing

We would like to give participants a flavour of what it is like to collaborate in participatory learning experiences by offering an optional activity which is open to all. Here’s how it will work. The theme ‘People’s Choice’ is given to all conference delegates. They are asked to pick their highlights of the conference and present these visually. They can either:

* Submit some text and/or an image to a Google Slide pack which the presenters will set up beforehand or

* Use a template to create their own zine and share a picture in the Google slide pack of the completed zine

Award: The presentation/session that gets mentioned the most throughout the zine project (optional)

For participants choosing a), the facilitators will use the media to create zines that will be publicly available after the conference for download/printing.