It’s International Women’s Day this week, and this has coincided with the closure of the original femedtech account on Twitter. Looking back at my engagement over a number of years made me pause and reflect on how I can now continue championing equality and how this shows up in my work.
Leadership
One of the things I gained during my years as a CEO was a bigger perspective, and a focus on the systems and structures that shape the way we work as individuals and organisations. I focused on promoting equity and equality not just in my own organisation, but in the sector I worked in, and used my voice to amplify issues such as the gender pay gap, lack of career progression opportunities and awareness of diversity, inclusion and equity in a wider context.
All those things continue to inform my work, and if anything I am now more able to be part of grass roots activities that focus on positive change as social and political shifts increase pressure.
I have hope, I have my voice and I continue to work away in my sphere of influence to affect the change I want to see. Although the world in general, and my small world specifically, have moved on a lot since the beginning of the #femedtech activities, the values that are at the heart of the project, for me at least, remain true. To me, it continues to be a powerful reminder, equality matters for everyone.
Ethical and open practice
One of the things I became very interested in over the past fifteen years is how to have an ethical, open approach to practice in leadership roles. I used this topic as a focus when I gained my Senior CMALT accreditation, and I continue to focus on this in my professional development as a coach.
Working with leaders from across different sectors has helped me realise how much we all have in common when it comes to the struggles of being an open leader and as a coach I help my clients see those shifts in perspective that enable them to move forward with their work in an authentic and meaningful way.
Pro bono work and volunteering
Even though I now run my own micro business instead of having a more dependable “day job” I continue to do work on a pro bono basis, offering for example free coaching packages and places on my courses, and I continue to volunteer as for example a mentor for school students and emerging leaders at the start of their career.
To celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th, and I am busy writing letters to celebrate and thank all the inspirational women in my life!
This year’s theme is Accelerate Action, and I am offering three pro bono coaching packages to contribute something to this effort. So if you are looking to progress an action, take a decision or make change happen, then get in touch if you’d like to work with me.
As I am reading this I am wondering if such comparatively small actions can make a difference. I worry about whether I do enough and how I could do more. No, offering some free coaching to charity leaders or Higher Ed researchers won’t change the world, but it does make a difference. All of us do, in innumerable small ways. There’s hope in these small acts and for me that is the legacy of my femedtech years. Hope is a practice. And I am doing it.
Looking back at my #FemEdTech Years
For nearly a decade the #femedtech community has been a big part of my professional world. For many years I was one of the volunteers who curated the social media feed for a month a year, and helped with some of the work behind the scenes. It takes a lot of work to sustain a community and I deeply appreciate having had the opportunity to be an active part of this particular network, bringing together so many of my interests and value.
The connections I made during those years sustained much of the momentum during years of global crisis in 2020 and 2021, and all that has happened since then. In many ways this community was a frontrunner of the distributed, federated conversations we are now trying to sustain across networks. It showed just how much care it takes to weave together a (literal and figurative) quilt, to bring together voices that speak for equity and social justice and to amplify those values across the open web.
Thank you to each and every one who took part in all the inspiring and empowering #femedtech activities since 2016. It’s been a privilege to be part of the community.
As I write this, I am preparing to step down as CEO of ALT. The handover to ALT’s new CEO, Billy Smith, will formally conclude at the AGM during our Annual Conference on 6th September, and I hope to see many Members on the day in Warwick, and also online. Guests are most welcome, and if you’d like to watch the AGM, you can register now.
I am very grateful to have had a month of handover to Billy, and I am glad indeed to leave ALT in such good hands! Follow Billy on social media and find out more about the transition on Billy’s blog!
We are expecting the biggest in person audience for the conference in this post-pandemic era, and I am mindful that with so much happening at the event I won’t be able to connect with everyone who has been part of my journey since I first joined ALT in 2008.
This blog post, my last as CEO, is my goodbye and my thanks to you all for what has been an incredible chapter.
Vision became reality
When I applied for the role in 2012, I had big dreams of what we could achieved as an Association, and looking at our Impact Report I am so very proud of all we do, punching far above our weight as a small charity. It’s been a privilege, a hugely inspiring privilege, to serve our Members and work with our community from across sectors here in the UK and internationally.
My vision in 2012 focused on our work in Learning Technology, championing professional recognition, promoting research and sharing practice. I always saw ALT as being at the forefront of what a professional body can be (in what is often quite a conservative field) and we continue on that journey as we evolve as an Association.
What wasn’t on my roadmap, following the financial crisis in 2008/9, was ALT becoming an employer and closing its offices, the UK leaving Europe through Brexit or indeed the global Coronavirus pandemic and its wide sweeping and continued impact.
To say that my time as CEO has not been boring would be an understatement. I worked closely with our Board, staff team and membership to navigate these challenges. As a result of all our efforts, our organisation has thrived as a virtual team and employer in its own right; continued to work closely with international partners in Europe and further afield, and found a way back from the hardships of the pandemic to financial and operational stability.
We are not only still standing, we are celebrating 30 years of ALT this year. Indeed, our mission as the leading professional body for Learning Technology has never been more critical. The history of our discipline, to which we have contributed since 1993, continues to be fundamental to the ethical, equitable and fair use of technology in learning, teaching and assessment.
Maren & Margaret in conversation, November 2016 (photo by Sarah Caroline Photography) Josie Fraser receives her Honorary Life Membership of ALT (with Martin Weller and myself)Celebrating the Learning Technologist of the Year Awards 2017Newly minted CMALT Holders at the University of EdinburghPhoto of Lisa Taner, Lucy-Crompton-Reid & Maren Deepwell at a Virtually Connection session at OER17 taken by Martin WellerPhoto credit : Chris Bull CC-BY-NC-SA ALT
My very long list of thank you’s
One of the greatest joys of my time at ALT has been collaboration. I have had opportunities to work with inspiring and fun communities, groups and individuals across all sectors of education, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. Along the way, I have learnt a huge amount, and discovered news ways of working in the open and online.
There are far too many names to mention, so I’d like to say one big thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way, shared inspiration, support and practical help. I have received so much care and kindness, so many nods of encouragement and hugs, that I count myself lucky indeed.
To each and every one – thank you. You know who you are.
Special thanks to all Trustees I have been fortunate enough to work with during my tenure and in particular the current Board whose insightfulness and commitment to ALT always inspire me.
To our staff team, there are no words that can adequately cover my sentiments. Hugs all round will have to do.
Looking forward to new adventures!
It’s been fantastic to work for the Association and I will certainly continue to be active in ALT in future. I am very much looking forward to continuing my role as Strategic Lead for the amazing AmplifyFE project, as part of the partnership between ALT and Ufi VocTech Trust.
Once my handover is complete after the conference, I am looking forward to taking a few weeks off for a well deserved holiday before getting back to my desk. Come October, the next chapter of my working life will commence in earnest. I’ll be focusing full-time on my work as a consultant and coach for education and non-profit organisations. I’ll be working with lots of different people and projects, supporting emerging leaders and helping institutions find ways to make hybrid and blended ways of working really deliver for staff, and for students preparing to enter the workplace.
If you’d like to keep in touch, subscribe to my podcast and monthly newsletter . I’ll be posting regular updates and resources on my blog, on LinkedIn and Instagram. If you’d like to explore coaching with me or discuss a project, get in touch with maren[@]marendeepwell.com or via my website.
For the past ten years, I have focused on celebrating International Women’s Day in a professional context, and I am lucky indeed to be part of networks and groups that help me grow and learn about equality and equity in education and the non-profit sector. Ever since my student days I have found so much inspiration and strength in the people I work with and I am grateful indeed to all the amazing colleagues, collaborators and co-conspirators I have know. I salute you!
This year, as I am in the middle of a career transition and a bit overloaded with online activity just now, I want to take a more personal approach, and use this International Women’s Day for a moment of personal gratitude: gratitude for the women in my life whom I don’t often talk about on this blog: my friends and family, my personal network.
Growing and learning and contributing is never done in isolation, and I am grateful indeed for the inspiration, support and appreciation that keep me going no matter what the day may bring.
It’s Winter Solstice today and over the past few years this has become the date on which I write my review of the year. For me, these reflections are a helpful way to wind down from work and move to focus on things away from screens, to get outdoors, walk the dogs and enjoy the luxury of not having a schedule.
Posey, who is asleep in her basket next to me, has been my work companion for much of this year, adjusting to days spent in a room filled with exciting things that *could* be chewed, but that, thanks to the wisdom and patience that being nearly two brings with it, are still mostly intact.
Attentive and highly intelligent, she has learnt our schedule off by heart, and knows exactly when video calls end, when we go and make tea (and go outside while we wait for the kettle to boil), and when, best of all, it’s time to head out for our big daily walk in the woods, along the canal or at the river.
When I look back at what I wrote this time last year, I can’t quite grasp how much has changed and how much has been achieved in the past twelve months. It’s mind boggling. In a good way.
At the same time, it’s been a mixed year for me personally. Great happiness and joy at home were overshadowed by a serious injury that required trips to the hospital for me, as well as much family upheaval and emergencies.
This is why it is especially important to me not to move on from this year without making space to celebrate the milestones of the past year, and to express my gratitude for inspiring and supportive colleagues, collaborators and friends.
No. 1 ALT is thriving at (nearly) 30
This is the first time since 2019, that we look back at a year during which we accomplished what we set out to do! Having spent much of the intervening period in crisis response mode, it’s a huge achievement for our Association to meet the strategic and operational goals we set for the year and, importantly, make real progress on the road to financial recovery post-pandemic.
This year was a year of firsts for us, from the first new hybrid format conferences to the first comprehensive governance review, new partnerships and projects, a new events programme and CMALT course development. I am hugely proud of all we have achieved this year (and the Impact Report that shares our highlights), and especially thankful for all the hard work our staff have contributed, led by our COO, Kerry.
We have also started long-term projects to overhaul some of our infrastructure, policies and practices, making them fit for the needs of a growing and diverse community as we prepare to celebrate our 30th anniversary. ALT was founded in February 1993, and it continues to be my absolute privilege to be part of the work we do as CEO.
No. 2 Leading Virtual Teams
When we closed our office doors in February 2018, we embarked on a new chapter in the organisation’s history, establishing new ways of working. We wanted to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk and… achieve more of our strategic aims with a distributed workforce and lower overheads.
I have led the organisation throughout this journey, weathering the ups and downs of operational transformation, and managing the crisis that hit us along the way. It’s been a huge learning curve for all of us, and we have shared what we learnt along the way in blog posts and webinars.
In this spirit of sharing knowledge, we came together earlier this month to celebrate the book launch of Leading Virtual Teams, with ALT’s Chair, Prof Helen O’Sullivan. You can now access the recording of us in conversation, sharing insights into ALT’s journey to becoming a virtual organisation and the story of how this book came to be and download your free digital copy.
Writing a book has long been a dream of mine, and I am thrilled with the kind comments and feedback I received. Thank you!
No. 3 A year of #femEdTech curation
Since February, each month for me started with #FemEdTech, first stepping back into the role of curator myself and also working together with other volunteers to set up a sustainable workflow that would enable others to get involved once again.
It was amazing to see individuals giving time and energy once more, to reinvigorate our corner of a social media platform which turned increasingly toxic as the year progressed. Maybe, in future our conversations may move elsewhere, but for this year, our network came back together around the #FemEdTech hashtag. And what a year we had.
Much of the focus of my work is in Higher Education, but this year, FE, Further Education, took centre stage. Working in partnership with Ufi VocTech Trust, ALT established AmplifyFE. Amplify is a ‘network of networks’ which launched in October 2020 and already connects over 2000 professionals in Further Education and Vocational Education, providing a strong networking community for them to share, collaborate and learn.
I love working in this space, and salute the inspiring colleagues that are part of our efforts. In my first year as CEO I was invited to join the Ministerial working group that published the influential FELTAG report, through which I met many long time colleagues and friends (including Bryan Mathers! A story which I re-told in The True Story of how a Westminster meeting led to… penguins, True Stories of Openness).
Many of us who are passionate about FE share a sense of frustration as unhelpful policy changes and drastic funding cuts continue to threaten this important sector. What happens to professional practice when these changes occur doesn’t often make the headlines, and part of the work we do as AmplifyFE is to chart exactly that: The 2022 community of practice audit covers over 260 communities of practice and provides a full new dataset and key findings, charting important changes to the sector landscape, including which communities have stopped or started their activities. When we launched the AmplifyFE Communities of Practice Sector Audit at the Week of VocTech, hosted by Ufi VocTech Trust, on the 14 November 2022, we had a fantastic response and this project continues to create insightful (and openly available) data that can be used by providers and policy makers as well as individual practitioners.
Thanks to support from our partners, we were able to share our work on a bigger, international stage: Levelling up Learning by Connecting Communities in Vocation Education and Training, a session I presented together with Emma Procter-Legg, at the OEB Global Conference in, Berlin, Germany, on 24 November was a huge milestone for us!
No. 5 The return of travel
That brings us to the return of travel.. or ‘meetings with legs’ and the singular pleasure of connecting with colleagues in person once again. I appreciated meeting my staff again for the first time after too long, to see Trustees and volunteers in person and, most importantly for ALT, to celebrate the return of hybrid events. OER22 was Co-Chaired by the Global OER Graduate Network, and was the first hybrid edition of this much-loved event and a stellar moment of community for us. A highlight for me was a special talk by Dr María Soledad Ramírez Montoya, UNESCO-ICDE Chair and part of the Open Educational Movement for Latin America, Tecnologico de Monterrey. Maria shared the work of the R4C-IRG Interdisciplinary Research Group: Scaling Complex Thinking for All at the Institute for the Future of Education.
My first trip of the year that involved an actual plane (for the first time since 2019) was an inspiring Assessment Hackathon, hosted at the Dublin City University on 25 May. This was closely followed by the run up to ALT’s Annual Conference in Manchester. It was a pleasure to see the conference convene successfully in a hybrid format for the first time. The event ended just minutes before the UK’s national period of mourning was announced, which meant that our community wasn’t able to share output from the event as widely. That doesn’t mean however that there isn’t a wealth of inspiration and resources to share, and I encourage you to explore the recordings from the conference sessions and the voices of the conference we have collated.
No. 6 Looking beyond COVID-19
The return of travel and the experience of hybrid events, reconnecting in person, gave me a sense of hope and looking beyond the pandemic even when the impact of the past few years could still be felt. The publication of Digital Learning in Higher Education – COVID-19 and beyond; which we celebrated with a launch webinar was a milestone on this journey.
I am grateful that I had the opportunity to co-author a chapter (Further non-teaching perspectives on aspects of the higher education sector impacted by COVID-19) with Matt Smith, Interim Head of Primary Education, University of Wolverhampton. It’s been inspiring to see this kind of initiative up close, and to be able to contribute some of the findings from ALT’s Annual Survey to this volume and also in this report on how the profession is changing.
No. 7 Open Voices
It’s been a year that prompted a lot of thinking about openness for me. Early on I was invited to contribute to OEG Voices 028: Looking into 2022 a wonderful podcast hosted by Alan Levine, which came out in February. Alan is a wonderful inspiration for so much of the work in open education, and I always value our conversations and the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from the OE Global community. Both OER22 and then later MYFest, the “Mid-Year Festival” (MYFest) which offered a “recharge and renewal experience” organised by Equity Unbound, offered opportunities to learn and listen which I valued very much. One practice I learnt more about is Intentionally Equitable Hospitality, and it prompted me to reflect more on the spaces with which we engage and how we can critically reflect and act in this context.
Towards the later part of the year I took part in OERCamp22 – zugehOERt 092 auf dem OERcamp: From Open Learning to Open Working, a conference podcast hosted by the one and only Chahira Nouira. Although we tried hard to make it happen, Chahira and I didn’t quite get to quite meet in person this year yet the warmth of the conversation made up for it!
No. 8 Hybrid working adventures
Since the start of the year I had DS106 in my life. As well as more impromptu radio jams with friends, I completed the first season of Remote Working Radio, monthly on DS106Radio. The radio show has since moved to become a podcast, but throughout the year the radio has been a place of joy and collaboration, story telling and listening.
A related project, with the amazing folk at Reclaim EdTech, was to work with Lauren Hanks on Hacks for Hybrid Working, a 4 week flex course in November. It was interesting to learn more about the format of flex courses, which are run regularly each month in the Reclaim EdTech community (check out the events calendar). I have experience of different formats of courses, but I hadn’t come across one yet that uses this format, combination of Discord, blog posts, videos and interactive sessions. With a blend of synchronous and asynchronous element, I love that these course fit around busy schedules, and are available to offer expertise and support when needed.
A highlight of the four weeks was definitely a hybrid working radio show on DS106 radio, for which we were joined by Jim Groom. Chatting hybrid working hacks for an hour was definitely too short! It was also stimulating for me to step into a different role professionally, and getting to focus on the design and delivery of a course. It’s been a few years since I last did that and it was useful to flex those muscles once again.
I also joined the ds106.social server and you can connect with me @marendeepwell[@]social.ds106.us. I do not post the same things across different platforms, so at the moment it’s a mix of reflections/comments on blog posts, pictures and re-sharing what I come across in the fediverse.
No. 9 Becoming a accredited coach
In January I officially started my coach training in order to become an accredited coach, an ICF Associate Certified Coach, via Katie Linder’s Higher Ed Coach Training. With a year of training and practice under my belt, I have started to develop my approach designed for professionals working in the third sector, education and learning technology, with a focus on leadership and career development, managing change and creative problem solving.
Being a CEO is a very rewarding role, which takes up a lot of my focus day to day. Over time, I have learnt that I am more effective in my role if it’s not my only priority. I like to keep learning and keep some hands on practice alongside my executive role. So for most of the past ten years, I have worked as on a free-lance basis alongside my role as a CEO, devoting a day a week to other projects.
I do some coaching with organisations and teams as part of my work for ALT, specifically supporting digital transformation and strategic development. Training to become a certified coach has given me the opportunity to offer some 1-to-1 coaching alongside my day job.
I am looking forward to completing the next part of my formal training in 2023 and become an ICF Associate Certified Coach.
No. 10 A thank you to blogging
My blog has a regular readership in the hundreds, so not particularly huge, and I mostly blog for myself. Sometimes to curate resources to refer to, sometimes to share practical tips, but largely it’s a space for me to think about what I am interested in and share parts of that.
In 2020 I really struggled for what to say. Work kept going, but my professional practice was so dominated by the crisis response, that I found it hard to articulate anything. Since then, I have published a lot on different platforms, but most of it is very much directed at the work I do, focused on projects like my book or specific events.
More recently, with the Twitter/Mastodon conversation in full swing, I came to the conclusion that I need to blog more. To hear my own voice represented here. I started blogging more than 20 years ago and I am grateful that I can continue that practice here, on my own domain.
So my intention for 2023 is to blog more, continue to reflect, learn and listen… .
This month a few of the long standing volunteers of our network are getting together to try and re-energise some elements of our community activities. Whilst much has happened over the past few years, activities like the curation of our twitter account and amplifying the posts tagged with the #femEdTech hashtag have been difficult to sustain.
Since February then, each month for me started with #FemEdTech, first stepping back into the role of curator myself and also working together with other volunteers to set up a sustainable workflow that would enable others to get involved once again.
During the course of the year, we updated the information to get involved and the form to sign up, which, if you haven’t yet come across it, is available on the FemEdTech Open Space.
in April, our first official ‘guest’ curator took the the helm (thank you, Anne-Marie, for being our trailblazer this year) and from then on all months except for June, when I was back in the curator slot, were led by members of the community: Giulia, Clare, Sarah, Catherine, Leigh and Dani, handing over to Lorna just yesterday.
It was amazing to see individuals giving time and energy once more, to reinvigorate our corner of a social media platform which turned increasingly toxic as the year progressed. Maybe, in future our conversation may move elsewhere, but for this year, our network came back together around the #FemEdTech hashtag. And what a year we had.
It was a wonderful day which infused me with hope and gratitude and joy, and reminded me of the power of this community and the #femEdTech network and why I contribute.
Handing over lead curation
Since January, I have enjoyed acting as lead curator, and now I am grateful to hand over this role to Lorna, who will be at the helm of supporting guest curators for the next period. It’s fantastic to see that after the unavoidable hiatus in 2020/21, the conversation has been re-energised and continues to connect and amplify voices.
I am already looking forward to signing up for a curation slot in 2023, and to see where our conversations lead us next year, on Twitter #femEdTech and maybe elsewhere, too.
I like celebrating International Women’s Day. It reminds me each year that there is always more I can do. And each year, I try to do something along many of my professional colleagues and friends, to contribute to this overall effort.
This year, I am focusing my volunteer effort on the FemEdTech network as we are celebrating the launch of a special issue of the journal Learning, Media & Technology with the theme ‘Feminist perspectives on learning, media and educational technology’.
It’s a great publication from a group of insightful authors, and I encourage you to explore this rich set of papers whilst it remains freely available (fittingly so, during Open Education Week). Feminist + open = superpower.
Particularly in my context, in educational technology, these voices are now needed. We need them because our sector is growing faster, expanding and scaling up fuelled by the events of the past two years.
Gender equality is not often at the top of the agenda and this year it may feel like there are too many other crisis which take priority. Each year, this day reminds me that no matter what else is happening in the world, there are things I can do, as a CEO, as an employer, a leader, an author, a collaborator, a coach, a colleague, a friend, a partner, a daughter… that I can do as a woman, to make a difference.
And so I do. What I can.
Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.
Celebrate women’s achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality.
