March has been full of adventure and as we near the end of the month lockdown rules here in Wales have been relaxed and I look forward to slightly more options to venture away from home… safely. Cause of (cautious) celebration. So this is my March in ten tweets:
FemEdTech Curation and International Women’s Day 2021
It was my privilege to reflect on my fourth year of volunteering as a guest curator for 2 weeks for @FemEdTech. If you haven’t come across it before, I encourage you to:
- check out @FemEdTech on Twitter and to follow the #FemEdTech hashtag;
- visit the FemEdTech Open Space to find our about current projects and what’s happened in recent years.
The last time I curated the account was just over a year ago, in February 2020. In this post, I wrote about my experience, and the humanity I found in our hashtag, our network. Things had changed enormously since May 2018 when I first volunteered, and also March 2019, my second time as a guest curator.
Each year, I used my time as a guest curator to reflect on how much our community had developed and grown and it is no different this year – and yet everything is different.
Hi everyone – I’m Maren @MarenDeepwell and I’ll be the #femEdTech guest curator for the next 2 weeks. In my day job I’m the #CEO of @A_L_T so you’ll see lots of tweets around #OpenEd week and #IWD2021 pic.twitter.com/4eDgkVzcKN
— FemEdTech – shared account for FemEdTech network (@femedtech) February 28, 2021
My curation slot also coincided with this year’s International Women’s Day and it was fantastic to connect with so many of the colleagues in the network.
Wishing all who celebrate it a good #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2021 today! Really proud of the continued work we are doing to address inequalities across sectors #edTech #altc #femEdTech #CMALT pic.twitter.com/G3oxvyCBNS
— Dr Maren Deepwell (@MarenDeepwell) March 8, 2021
Dog Days of a different kind
At the start of the month this young lady arrived in my life and this is my first experience of bringing up a puppy. That’s been a completely different kind of adventure, and a welcome one for sure (although not sleeping much to begin with didn’t make work or any other part of life any easier!). Thankfully, she’d settled in beautifully and with the help of a very good dog trainer we are making a LOT of progress (#CEOdogInTheMaking).
There’s a new #ds106radio puppy! Meet Posey who is helping at today’s Sunday Special with @ammienoot @tanbob and me 🐾 pic.twitter.com/sTzzKhyCkE
— Dr Maren Deepwell (@MarenDeepwell) March 7, 2021
Podcasts and articles published this month
It’s been a super busy month recording podcasts and writing articles, and I had a lot of really interesting conversations which I am grateful for!
Thrilled to be releasing this edition of #FEresearchpodcast on #IWD21
— Jo Fletcher-Saxon FE and HE #AdultConversations (@JFletcherSaxon) March 8, 2021
A conversation with @MarenDeepwell about @AmplifyFE
(You can listen on most podcast platforms).
@EmmaProcterLegg https://t.co/cAKDWLybaH
NEW on Wonkhe: With insights from ALT’s annual survey, Maren Deepwell and Helen O’Sullivan make sense of the changing status of learning technology through the pandemic. @MarenDeepwell @osullihelen @A_L_T https://t.co/52PxVpUzKy pic.twitter.com/zngTYYdVMY
— Wonkhe (@Wonkhe) March 16, 2021
#FutureofEdTech2021 launches today, distributed inside the @guardian and online at https://t.co/z7Kv04A9GK featuring @MarenDeepwell with @A_L_T pic.twitter.com/4ZFjvDIEJ7
— Mediaplanet UK (@MediaplanetUK) March 23, 2021
so grateful that @MarenDeepwell has the courage and the ethical commitment to open education and @covid_education that has supported the continuation of @A_L_T ‘s work in open. Sustainability has required striking a balance, a tricky line to walk but @OERConf does it perfectly pic.twitter.com/jlQsBxSMsv
— Teresa MacKinnon (@WarwickLanguage) March 19, 2021
End the week by tuning into the latest Copyright Waffle podcast with the amazing @MarenDeepwell from @A_L_T https://t.co/FkbCLquSK7
— Dr Jane Secker (@jsecker) March 26, 2021
New beginnings… and an anniversary
I have been blogging more about leading a virtual team this month:
What’s best?
Getting ‘back to the office’?
Staying with working from home?
Who decides and what should we base this decision on?
Having led my team from being office based to working from home with in person elements to working entirely from home for 12+ months with no in person contact, I’ve had a lot of experience with the different options.
https://marendeepwell.com/?p=2947
It’s been timely to reflect more on our team, as we have been welcoming new colleagues this month, including another PhD researcher, which means that more than half of the team I lead is currently undertaking research. I am really proud to have such an actively learning organisation!
Excited to be working with @McallisterE to support #altc Member Groups and events on #Wordpress – now over 50% my @A_L_T colleagues are currently #PhD researchers. Proud to be leading a properly #learning organisation #kudos @debbaff Emma-Jane pic.twitter.com/dhKeHOff8k
— Dr Maren Deepwell (@MarenDeepwell) March 25, 2021
The last weekend of this year brought a very special moment as Anne-Marie and Tannis and I marked one year of broadcasting our Sunday Specials on ds106radio. It’s been quite a year… !
Marking 1 year of Sunday Specials on #ds106radio with @ammienoot and @tanbob #JustLikeRadioHeaven #PlayItLoud pic.twitter.com/AO0HebtWir
— Dr Maren Deepwell (@MarenDeepwell) March 28, 2021
Quick links
- Copyright Waffle podcast with Dr Maren Deepwell, CEO of ALT – podcast and blogpost, 26 March 2021;
- Setting standards for ethical professional practice in edtech, in The Future of Educational Technology, 23 March 2021;
- What were learning technologists’ experiences of 2020? with Helen O’Sullivan, Wonkhe, 16 March 2021;
- FEresearch podcast episode episode 24 talking about the FE Community of Practice sector audit and AmplifyFE, hosted by Jo Fletcher-Saxon, 8 March 2021;