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Maren Deepwell Posts

#EdTech blogging ice breaker… or how to blog my way through a crisis

I love blogging. Over the past few months I have been finding it hard to find the words. I don’t just want to blog for work, I also want to blog for fun. I want to allow myself to be curious… . I want to give myself permission to just think about things without my voice being dominated by news headlines, risk registers or fear. And that is when I came across this post: The…

How we survived a pandemic: Part 5 – Virtual team meeting ice breakers from the ALT Staff Team

This is a conversational blog post (cross-posted here) between Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) and Maren Deepwell (@marendeepwell). We are using this approach to create some space to think together in ‘unprecedented times’.  This month’s post is a bit different from the usual, as we celebrate a team effort of inventing ice breakers for our weekly team meetings, which take place for an hour every Wednesday morning. We’ve got everything from “share your four-legged friends” to “lockdown…

Home-worker… care-work… self-care.

Last year I wrote a post about how working from home can lead to doing a lot of housework. I reflected on how working from home made me feel like I had been landed with all the domestic and care work and I explored ways in which I reclaimed a better balance. A year on, and several big life changes later, seemingly everyone is now working from home and finding any kind of balance is…

My CEO Report, September 2020

Read my new CEO Report to @A_L_T Members #altc https://t.co/5uk8WlPmi8 pic.twitter.com/NcAtcTIWhY — Dr Maren Deepwell (@MarenDeepwell) September 11, 2020 Dear Members Since my last report to you in June, much has happened in our community and the Association. From senior leaders to new recruits, everyone in Learning Technology has been working flat out to prepare for the start of the new academic year and continuing to cope with the impact of the pandemic.  Whilst it…

How we survived a pandemic: Part 4 – Virtual pizza nights and other distributed team social activities

This is a conversational blog post (cross-posted here) between Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) and Maren Deepwell (@marendeepwell). We are using this approach to create some space to think together in ‘unprecedented times’.  For regular readers this is a slight departure from our regular ‘Virtual Teams’ posts (you can read those on our Virtual Teams summary page) taking a broader view of work whilst midst global pandemic.  In this month’s post we share our reflections on socialising…

Summit week (with heart) #altc #altcSummit

It’s been a busy week at ALT HQ as we have been busy with the ALT Summer Summit and this weekend, a much-needed long weekend, has seen me mostly offline, but there is a radio show to do on a Sunday, and that’s led me to blog, too. Today’s Sunday Special on #ds106radio we are picking songs from my dad’s old vinyl collection @ammienoot and @tanbob are braving the archives with me 📻 pic.twitter.com/cVIKklUrjo —…

Virtual hugs and no conference chicken… #altc #altcSummit

Next week is ALT’s first summer summit and the first time since 2009 that I don’t spend this weekend packing up clothes, shoes and EVERY cable and charger in my study and make a 5 day trip to Edinuburgh, Manchester, Nottingham or this year London. But just because I am not packing my suitcase doesn’t mean I am not preparing for what is promising to be a crazy and fun week! Shoes Virtual… #altc #altcSummit…

Equitable home-working: things I wish I had known 3 years ago

In 2017 I spent nearly a year putting together a plan for transitioning ALT, the organisation I lead, from being office based (since 1993) to operating as a geographically distributed team. Executing the plan took another year… . Along the way to becoming not only a virtual team but also the employer of a (small) workforce that would be permanently home-based, I found out the answers to questions such as… why do you need a…

How we survived a pandemic: Part 3 – Ups and Downs (and sideways) of life as a virtual team

This is a conversational blog post (cross-posted here) between Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) and Maren Deepwell (@marendeepwell). We are using this approach to create some space to think together in ‘unprecedented times’.  For regular readers this is a slight departure from our regular ‘Virtual Teams’ posts (you can read those on our Virtual Teams summary page) taking a broader view of work whilst midst global pandemic.  In this month’s post we share some thoughts prompted by…

Still broadcasting on #ds106radio

It’s the middle of July… and ever since March every Sunday evening three of us, Tannis, Anne-Marie & me, have been meeting up on Radio DS106 http://ds106rad.io/listen/ . This little online radio venture started as a crisis support for each other and our listeners. We met up once a week to share lock down tales and even though the immediate crisis has started to relax somewhat in our day to day lives I value the…