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Maren Deepwell Posts

Time without buildings: leadership reflections

Recently I have led a number of leadership development sessions, which was a lot of work as well as a lot of fun. I enjoy working with established and emerging leaders who work in education and the Edtech industry and help them find new approaches to digital transformation. In the sessions I focused on providing creative ways to get participants thinking and reflecting, using open tools to remix images (thank you, Bryan Mathers, for your…

September ’21: a late update

My post looking back at what I have been up to this month is a bit later than usual, as my month ended with some well deserved holidays. Once I got back there was a lot to do and catch up on, but September had so many highlights that it feels good to look back now: Annual Conference I very much enjoyed this year’s event. Lots of resources and videos from the conference are now…

Virtual Teams Book: Setting out as a Virtual Team… extract from Chapter 1

Progress since the last post Since my last post, I have been working on Chapter 1 which is all about setting out as a Virtual Team. It’s been very rewarding to work on this chapter as it include a first hand account of the key milestones I experienced leading a team from the office to working remotely and I enjoyed re-reading some of the posts one month, six months and a year into the process.…

Open Badge news: CMALT Assessor Badge

I have been a peer assessor for the CMALT accreditation scheme for many years and I really enjoy undertaking assessments. It’s a great way to keep in touch with how professional practice is developing across the sector. Since the introduction of Senior CMALT accreditation, I mostly assess portfolios of peers in leadership roles and that is particularly rewarding. Recognition as an Assessor I was really pleased to receive my first Open Badge from ALT for…

Job satisfaction for virtual teams

At the moment I am writing on Chapter 1 of the Leading Virtual Teams Book, and this chapter covers recruitment and selection as well as starting out as a virtual team and making the move from office-based to virtual. One of the things I have been thinking about as I am writing, is what makes it rewarding to work in a virtual team and how those of us who are permanently home-based measure success. View…

Digital Detox – part 2

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about embarking on a digital detox, and as in previous years, I put a new (to me) process to the test. Here is what happened this year, what worked for me and what didn’t: Screen free day… kind of The plan I followed culminated in having a screen/device free day at the end of the week, and I did more or less do that. For me, that’s not…

Digital detox – wellbeing week.

A couple of weeks of spending long days online and working hard have prompted me to embark on this year’s digital detox. The last one I did was in November 2020 and focused on the Data Detox Kit. Since I tried out the kit, there has been a new addition, HOW MANY TREES DOES IT TAKE TO POWER THE INTERNET? which definitely looks worth checking out. In 2018 my digital detox focused on my digital…

Looking forward to my 12th ALT Annual Conference – completely online

My first ALT Annual Conference was in 2009 in Manchester (I missed the first year I was working for ALT because I was submitting my PhD that September). Umbrellas, badges, fire alarms.. looking back In 2019 we were in Manchester, in the magnificent (and at times chilly) McEwan Hall. 2018 was in Manchester to celebrate 25 years of ALT with custom pin badges and a special gala dinner! in 2017 we took the conference to…

Virtual Teams Book: Building a virtual team spirit… extract from Chapter 2

Progress since the last post Since my last post, I have been working on Chapter 2. It was great to work in this chapter as it includes a lot of practical strategies and case studies, which were fun to revisit. Next, I will be working on Chapter 1, Setting out as a virtual team. I have completed drafts for three of the six chapters now, and I am a total of 29,000 words into the…

August ’21: I’ve been busy! (and I made a terrarium)

This past month has been BUSY. I am good under pressure, but it took a lot of energy and effort to keep things in some sort of resemblance of balance this month. ALT is always busy in August, because we run our biggest event of the year in September, and it has keep us all working hard. It’ll be worth it when we see it coming together in just over two weeks. If you haven’t…