After a decade in which we survived cancer, Brexit and a global pandemic, my family is preparing for a seismic shift: my parents are returning to the shores of Europe to be near my sister, and I will remain in the UK, where my home has been since I immigrated in 1997. The demands of age, which increase year on year, will be more easily met in their new home on the banks of the…
Maren Deepwell Posts
Adapted from the original report on the #altc blog. This is my quarterly update as CEO of ALT on our progress as we move further into the year. We now provide access to expertise to a much wider community of digital practitioners. We work hard to champion professional recognition for a growing range of Learning Technology roles and we inform and support institution leaders engaging with digital education. Our strategy needs to reflect this growing…
Book news Work on the book is making good progress at the moment. I am focusing on working through edits and responding to feedback from reviewers. Meanwhile I am also working with the publisher on the format, layout and cover. As Leading Virtual Teams will be published online under an open licence, we want to make it as accessible as possible. This month I am also planning ahead for the summer, setting out deadlines for…
I like revisiting or exploring different frameworks to think with, not necessarily to adopt them whole, but because they usually offer me small nuggets of inspiration. Here are some examples of what I explored and what I found out along the way: Ways to explore your traits, motivations or fears Enneagram Core Motivations: This is a tool which combines modern psychology with an ancient personality system, and it helps you identify one of nine core…
As I have been working on my book Leading Virtual Teams, I have been talking about working remotely on DS106 Radio on the Remote Working Radio Show. What has started out as a lot of music and a bit of chat from me and sharing updated on the book has grown into an hour of chat with special guests, exploring how we work from home, what challenges we encounter and tips for developing your own…
I was curious to explore this particular framework, especially as I sometimes listen to the Gretchen Rubin podcasts. Four Tendencies described There is a dedicated book that makes for interesting reading, however to get started, here is how Gretchen Rubin explore the concept: By asking the one simple question, “How do I respond to expectations?” we gain exciting insight into ourselves. And when we know how other people respond to expectations, we understand them far more effectively,…
Book news After finishing a complete draft of the book in April, my reviewer group has been busy working through each chapter. I have ~20 volunteer reviewers who provide feedback and I am really grateful for all the work they have been doing. This week, by 6th May, the review period comes to a close and at that point it will be my job to work through the comments and feedback and get the next draft…
Wow. It’s really happening. This time, we are hitting not only the virtual but also the physical road again in order to journey to the OER Conference. OER22 here we come! The last time the OER Conference took place as planned as in Galway in 2019, and since that time, three years ago, no edition of this very special event has gone to plan. In 2020, OER20 pivoted online with less than two weeks to…
As part of my work on the Leading Virtual Teams book, I have been careful to define what is meant by terms describing different ways of working. It’s taken me a while to bring the various terms together, and to reflect on their meaning not just now, but also before the advent of digital technologies and more widely available, reliable, high speed internet connections. In my childhood days for example, selling Tupperware from your garage…
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. Having completed the first part of the course, I am about to start the next one, which will focus on coaching fundamentals in a deeper way. The notebook pictured above is my celebration, a gift to myself for taking this next step along the path to getting formally credentialed.…