On the train on the way to Edinburgh to the OER16: Open Culture conference I was past York and heading North when the sun came out. A while later the train tracks approached the coast and I looked out at the sea for the first time in months. A wide blue sea under an open sky. In the distance LEGO-brick like shapes of container ships appeared as we neared the shipping lanes and in the brilliant sunshine we…
Maren Deepwell Posts
One project I am currently involved in is a course on FutureLearn called Blended Learning Essentials. In this short blog post I want to think about how this course, or others like it, can be used as tools for change. A bit about the course This is an open course about using blended learning for vocational education and it runs for a total of 8 weeks in two parts. The first part covers the ‘essentials’…
It’s been nearly a year since I wrote my first post on leadership as an open practice, inspired by the 2015 OER conference. So in this post I want to reflect on how my experiment is going, what progress I have made and what’s next. Where it all began… In April last year, I wrote : “I’d like to try and adopt open practice in my role and connect with others who do the same.…
It’s #OpenEducationWk and I’ve been inspired by activities and blog posts from across the community, including a special edition of the #LTHEchat (helpful intro here) and a number of webinars organised by the ALT Open Education Special Interest Group (including a preview today of the OER16 Open Culture conference coming up in April). Seeing so much commitment to and enthusiasm for scaling up open practice and resources has been a joy – but it’s also…
Recently I was accredited as a Certified Member of ALT (find out more here) and the key component of the scheme is a peer-reviewed portfolio. You can build your portfolio in almost any format provided that it is accessible to assessors and follows the required structure. I chose to build mine using Google Apps for Education (GAFE) and here I’d like to reflect briefly on the experience: Why use GAFE? My main reasons were that…
This is the time of year for reviewing personal and professional development, for reflecting on achievements and set goals for the following year. In short, it’s time for my annual appraisal process. This will be my fourth in a leadership position and each year the process has evolved depending on the needs of the organisation and myself. What we have found works consistently: 360 degree feedback: that includes everyone who reports to me, those whom…
As part of finishing my #CMALT portfolio I have been working on completing a section on communication. The example I am using is leading a small team in delivering an online conference, in this case ALT’s first wholly online winter conference in December last year. Some of the things I have been reflecting on re communication are: delivering live events when you are not all in the same place and using online communication methods to…
Thanks to stimulating plenary sessions, a useful exhibition, plenty of networking and the opportunity to contribute a presentation I got a lot out of participating #OEB15 from 2-4 Dec in Berlin. Now that I’m back, here are my personal reflections on the experience. If you are interested in more information I suggest you look for the videos, storify streams, blog posts and varied other content that the conference organisers make available – definitely worth a…
Snapshots from my presentation as part of a panel at OEB15, 3 December 2015 in Berlin. You can also download the entire presentation (CC-BY) OEB15_MarenDeepwell_2015 (1).