2012 Official Conference Opening

I have never walked into a conference quite like the WE LEARN 8th (Net)Working Gathering and Conference on Women and Literacy. Sure, when I walked into the room, there were the normal things you've come to expect--the sign-in desk, a friendly person handing out name tags and bags with programs, pens, books, and other goodies, attendees enjoying coffee and pasteries at several round neatly tableclothed tables. But what struck me right away was the diversity of this mainly female crowd. The conferences I frequent tends to be quite homogenous—well-groomed, well-heeled academics presenting papers written during coursework, or for journal publications, or for dissertations. But at WE LEARN, I found myself talking to everyone from established PhDs who had flown in from around the United States and Canada to present their work over these next two days, to inner-city young ladies who, perhaps this being their first time at a conference, kept looking around the room with wide eyes, seemingly delightfully overwhelmed by all the energy and conversations.

Despite the wide disparity of education levels, socio-economic classes, and ages of the participants, every audience member clearly shared one passion: to help create social justice by empowering women. If the conversations I had with attendees during the light breakfast weren’t enough to convince me, those who spoke during the Official Conference Opening cemented the impression.  First, the founding member and backbone of the organization, Mev Miller, opened with an inspiring, inspired message about hope, progress, and community building.

Mev was followed by a five-woman panel titled “Women in Literacy: Access Technology, Build Connections, Create Networks. The first speaker was Shellie Walters, an Adult Learner Leader and member of the WE LEARN board of directors. Shellie told the story of her own progress as an adult learner: Before she became an Adult Learner, she couldn’t read above the fourth-grade level and couldn’t get a job because she had no computer skills. But she is now growing her confidence (and computer skills) so that she can expand her bookkeeping business. Speaker Two was Heather Lash, who is an instructor in upgrading/access programs at George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. Heather gave a well-observed talk on the negative impact that violence has on learning. She points out that we have to be concerned not with bullying in schools, but also how loneliness itself can be debilitating. As well, technology has the ability to interrupt and mediate students. How do we teach and learn in the aftermath of violence, she asks. The third speaker was Kathryn Ssedoga, a First Nations Learner from Canada. Kathryn admits she is a people rather than a tech person, since she is interested in social/restorative justice, and sees interacting with people a good way to support this interest. Still, she has become something of a legend on Twitter. While she does not subscribe to any other social media, through Twitter she reaches out to followers all over the world. As she proudly announced, “I’m getting famous 140 characters at a time!” The fourth speaker was Karisa Tasijian of the Providence Public Library. Karisa, who is involved with the Rhode Island Family Literacy Initiative, discussed how society today is so steeped in technology that more than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies require applicants to submit online job applications. Because of this, it is vital for adults to have computer skills. This is not always an easy task because digital immigrants (versus digital natives) must hurdle a steep learning curve. Speaker five, Kathleen P. King Ed.D. (a.k.a. “Geek Goddess”), is a professor of higher education at University of South Florida, Tampa. Kathleen argued that, to be empowered, we must create our own opportunities. She enthusiastically called that Adult Learners “should no longer be spectators [but] participants.” We should “rush the field” by putting our own opinions into blogs. In other words, “take it by the hairy horns and drive it.”
 
It was a pleasure to attend this session of the 2012 conference, and I look forward to WE LEARN 2014.
 
Sincerely,
 
Wendy L. Grosskopf
Ph.D. candidate (ABD) University of Rhode Island
Department of Writing and Rhetoric