I love writing these end of year posts and I have been doing it for quite a few years: 2024 focused on gratitude, 2023 on my (then new) business venture, 2022 I looked back at 10 milestones, 2021 – the year of the PUPPY – had a lot packed into it and 2020, well, you will remember your own 2020. I wrote two posts in December that year: 2020 #altc – the year forged in…
Category: open practice
It’s the season for office parties, and I am in a festive mood. In this holiday-themed post (and on the podcast, too), I want to share a few of the ways in which I reflect on, celebrate and end the year. If you are a fellow freelancer or small business owner, you might find inspiration for your own celebration here. Like you, I’ve been to a lot of office parties and work do’s, and most…
This month marks the anniversary of my business, and there is much to celebrate, and to be grateful for! Patterns new and old Once of the things I’ve noticed a lot this year is different patterns: first in terms of how I work, and how my activity is distributed across the year, and also in terms of what I like to do and how my curiosity shapes the work I do. One of the ongoing…
It’s Monday, it’s October 6th, and I am turning over a new leaf. Today is my first proper day back at my desk after a few weeks focusing on happy wedding celebrations with family and friends and a lovely honeymoon trip to Crete. The photo featured at the top of this post shows one of my favourite places we visited, the Minoan Palace at Malia. So today is the start of a new chapter in…
Last night I dreamt about AI and roses, and in my dream I was blogging, so here I am, trying to capture the thoughts I had during the night. Thanks to Joe Murphy and Tom Witherspoon, whose inspiring chat at yesterday’s Blogging Community of Practice meeting truly inspired me, I am here pressing publish on a draft, saving the world one half baked idea at a time. What’s happening in the title of this blog…
In sweltering heat the sun shone through the longest day of the year, and I used the mid year point of the year to reflect on the past six months. Here on my blog the posts and podcasts have been stacking up, whilst over on my work domain coaching, consultancy and courses have been in full swing. This post brings it all together, gathering all the gold dust ready for summer and the next six…
This year, sadly, is the first time in a long time that I’ll be missing out on the OER Conference. I have blogged (a lot) about this very special event before, including a literal love letter to the conference in 2023, and a postcard from OER24 in Cork last year. The line up for OER25 looks fabulous, headed up by two wonderful Co-Chairs, Louise Drumm and Sheila MacNeill, and tantalising keynotes Helen Beetham and Joe…
Listen to OEG Voices 082: Amanda Coolidge, Marcela Morales, and Maren Deepwell on “The Small Things”
Listen to OEG Voices 082: Amanda Coolidge, Marcela Morales, and Maren Deepwell on “The Small Things”
I was super excited to be part of this podcast conversation during Open Education Week and this post is an invitation for you to tune in and explore this rich dialogue. Thanks to Alan Levine and the wonderful team at OE Global, the page where the podcast is available features a thoughtful mix of commentary and context alongside resources and ways to get involved. So make sure to check out the complete podcast post with…
When I came across Kin Lane’s post Having a Career I felt inspired. His post prompted me to think about whether it’s worth having a career, and what that means, and if it matters. These words in particular chimed with me: However, now I see having a career is about me. It is about owning my own professional narrative as much as I possibly can. I consider a career adjacent to entrepreneurship or running your…
New ideas have to start somewhere, and for me that’s always a messy process. Sometimes it goes nowhere and sometimes there’s a nugget of inspiration that can be spun into something extraordinary. This is why I have set myself up a new space, my percolator, which opens up somewhere for me to think out loud, and create ideas in the open. Some of these ideas will never go further, and some may be terrible, but…