Y’all, I’m so excited. I wrote a thing and it just got published — open access — in Learning, Media and Technology!
This article is partly fiction. As in, I wrote it for a special issue (not released yet) on education fiction and its potential as a mode of inquiry. So there’s a story in it.
The story is about the adult lives of a group of university graduates who have realised the promises of university marketing campaigns in a technology-mediated future. It’s a happy story.
No — really.
I draw on Peter Elbow’s “believing game” in order to put aside critiques and imagine their inverse: a future in which the promises made by university marketing teams can be, and have been, fulfilled. This game required me to accept the premises of my source material and use them “as a hypothesis to climb higher and higher to a point from which more can be seen and understood” (Elbow 1998, 163).
This was an experiment… a challenge, to myself, to side with hope, when contemplating a future that sometimes feels bleak. I hope you also enjoy the chance to play at believing.
I’ve written before about the late Peter Elbow and his believing game, which I’ve found a powerful tool for evaluating ideas as I assess student work. For those who struggle with cynicism while marking, I hope you’ll take a moment to explore my original post about it.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to many scholars who have been building foundations for fictional speculation in educational inquiry for years, including Eamon Costello and Prajakta Girme, Felicitas Macgilchrist, Stefan Hrastinski and Jen Ross, each of whose work gave me the itch to write this — no matter what came of it.
Help me plant seeds of hope
As promised/threatened, whenever I publish something this year, I’m going to invite you to help me raise funds for Riley Orton Foundation, a community organisation in rural Kisumu, Kenya, where access to quality education is a privilege few can afford.
I don’t earn a cent from academic publishing, but I do have the privilege of a platform. And I hope you’ll stand with me.
Why? For many young Kenyan women in impoverished families, finishing primary school or starting to menstruate can be all the reason their families need to pull them out of education and into housework — or directly into marriage.
The ROF team works tirelessly to support thousands of girls and partner with schools across Kisumu. They grant high school scholarships, provide co-curricular STEM programming, install sustainable infrastructure, distribute quality school supplies, and so much more on a tiny budget.
How to contribute
I’m in Australia
Donate through The Sunflower Foundation. We are a registered charity in Australia and we have a multi-year partnership exclusively to support ROF. We’re fully volunteer-run, so our only overheads are to cover the post box and the web hosting. You can choose PayPal or direct debit via your bank.
(If you file a tax return in Australia, your donation will be tax deductible.)
I’m in the US
Donate on the Riley Orton Foundation website. You can donate with credit card, PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay and several other options.
(If you file a tax return in the United States, your donation will be tax deductible.)
I’m in the UK
Donate through Prospero World, making sure to name ‘Riley Orton Foundation’ as the partner you wish to support. This platform accepts various credit cards.
(If you file a tax return in the United Kingdom, your donation will be tax deductible.)
I’m somewhere else, but I want to help
There’s not currently a tax-deductible option for other countries, but you can use any of the methods above to contribute to expanding educational opportunities through Riley Orton. We will be so grateful for anything you can share.
The Mind File 
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