It’s January, it’s early and I’m feeling inspired. Time to reflect on my career transition three months in. As I type this I have to pause frequently as it’s morning and each dog needs their cuddles. We’re arranged all together on the sofa, so I alternate the hand with which I type. The dogs are an important part of my life, and this new chapter. They are the best work life balance motivation and constant…
Category: open practice
I love being online, and I love the communities I am part of online. As someone who relies largely on the internet to sustain long distance relationships with family and friends as well as collaborating with work colleagues on a daily basis, I am very invested in my corners of the web. It takes a lot of effort however to keep those spaces good spaces to be in, on platforms like Discord and Mastodon, as…
It’s a miserable day today in Cardiff. Grey, dark and rainy. Typical November weather. I am sitting at my desk with the light on although it’s only midday. Inside my head however, the sun is shining, at least figuratively, because my first OER24 submission is in! OER24, in case you are new to the conference, is: the 15th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy will be organised by ALT, the Association for…
… and come walk with me. How about a day along the windswept West Wales Coastal Path? The title image for this post is taken at the tip of the St David’s peninsula around this time of year. Let’s have a day buffeted by autumn winds surrounded by colourful heather, looking out to the endless horizon. I would love to have a day like that today. In reality, although that part of the Coastal Path…
Today is an exciting day. It’s the first Monday of the first week in which I am full-time in my new business. Maren Deepwell Coaching & Consultancy is now fully underway. Woohooo! It’s been a long time coming, and I didn’t really know what to expect from today. It feels a little strange not to return to the familiar busy inbox and long-time colleagues after returning from a two week holiday. Instead I sit at…
In this week’s podcast I share some of my personal history and how I came to be so interested in all things hybrid and virtual working. From Germany to London in my art school years, and from Athens to Oxford as my work moved from Art to Anthropology and then Education, this episode sets out what I think is interesting about hybrid and virtual working, why it’s important and why now is the time to…
This morning’s Memex 1.1, John Naughton’s Substack newsletter, including this quote by Dave Winer: “There’s nothing more permanent than a temporary hack.” and it feels like a great theme for my day today, which I am spending sorting through my own temporary hacks from the past 15 years. It’s my day to clean out my archive of files and emails at ALT, the last steps in a long handover process. Documents I filed away in…
Yep, this is another post about houseplants… or rather things we can learn from plants. I’ve previously published leadership lessons from office plants and in the same spirit this post is all about houseplant inspired tips for managing a period of change or transition. It’s inspired by my own experience of moving between jobs this month and my adventures in caring for a growing collecting of plants in my home and home office. It’s the…
Next week, the OER Conference comes to Inverness, and I am very much looking forward to it! There’s a packed programme, lots of ways to engage and the anticipation has been building for months, as these guest posts show. OER23 has a super Conference Committee of nearly 100 volunteers who have worked together for months to peer review papers, organise social activities, help plan conference delivery both in person and online and spread the word…