Maren Deepwell

Author: Maren Deepwell

  • Botanical adventures, analogue escape.

    Botanical adventures, analogue escape.

    This summer has come with lots of time outdoors, gardening, looking after plants and going to visit some nearby gardens, like the one featured in this blog post at Dyffryn gardens.

    I have been craving time away from the screen, and spending time outdoors, walking through the woods with the dogs and pottering about in the garden has been just what the doctor’s ordered. Somehow the louder the clamour of digital productivity becomes, the less I want to participate in this race to save time.

    Thanks to working across a whole range of institutions, each with their own infrastructure, I get A LOT of notifications from platforms, tools and services and I feel the tone of these interactions is becoming less helpful. From trying to adjust email notifications on LinkedIn (not fun), to worrying needlessly about important security alerts from my workspace account which turned out to be advertising, I am less than impressed with the current generation of digital tools. It doesn’t make me feel more productive, just requires more effort for me to sift through the mass of communication that comes my way in order to do what I need to accomplish.

    I’ve blogged before about moving through times of change at the pace of plants and of finding your own cadence, and I return again and again to this idea of pace and intentionality. To have space and time to think about why I am doing things, not just how to do them more quickly.

    Green house explore

    I feel like I’d like a badge that says “not prone to overwork” or something like “I’m quite productive enough”. Audrey Watters had a great bit about toxic productivity in a recent edition of her Second Breakfast newsletters (Measure for Measure, 18th August 2025), which I would urge you to read (and subscribe to, if you haven’t already).

    This summer my pace has adjusted, the cadence of my thoughts has shifted, and I’ve sat with the uncomfortable-ness of change and re-invention that comes with periods of change and transitions.

    Enjoyed this post? Get my free monthly newsletter directly to your inbox.

  • Podcast gems

    Podcast gems

    The first half of the year has been so busy that it’s taken until now for me to revisit podcast interviews, and I’ve found some real gems along the way.

    One of my favourite interviews to record was this conversation with Marcela and Igor:

    I loved learning more about a co-leadership model they use to run their organisation and how they approach open leadership. It was especially interesting to hear about sharing documents and folders, as an example of very practical ways of embedding openness in their operations. This seemingly small gesture is transformative and symbolises the way they set an example as leaders.

    If you are starting there, I would next listen to the episode in which I interviewed Amanda:

    Another gem of this year’s podcasts and a similarly illuminating glimpse into the inner workings of open leadership. I’ve been reflecting on how much of ourselves we need to share in our professional lives to be authentic and this conversation got at the heart of it for me.

    Holistic approaches to being a leader, not simply in the executive sense, but in every way, prompted me to re-listen to this interview with Lou:

    I was so inspired by our conversation about constellations and agency, all in the aid of empowering leadership and change-making.

    Join me as a Special Guest

    If you’d like to join me as a Special Guest on the podcast in the next few months, get in touch hello[@]marendeepwell.com and let me know what you’d like to talk about.

  • Digital Productivity, Revisited.

    Digital Productivity, Revisited.

    As part of a Masterclass webinar hosted by the Digital Learning Institute, I am returning to my work on digital productivity. Specifically, digital productivity for leaders in the AI-enabled workplace.

    It’s an interesting time to think about this topic. The conversation about AI tools and platforms is all about increasing productivity, doing more, faster… with less. But from a leadership perspective, I feel its less about practical productivity hacks and more about exercising judgment. Knowing when to encourage the use of digital tools, and when to step away from screens and focus on the conversation in the room. Or what information it’s OK to share and what needs to remain confidential. Emerging leaders who feel under pressure to perform are particularly at risk of inadvertently sharing private and confidential information in order to find help for writing reports, manage an HR situation or give a presentation.

    Part of my research for the book I am writing on is about identifying how leaders develop that kind of judgement, and the requisite critical digital and AI literacies to apply it effectively. Thus the first part of the talk is all about revisiting digital literacy, for leaders, and for staff and for students in the Higher Education context.

    Hybrid working has introduced an interesting variable into the workplace for many early career professionals as they experience onboarding and training largely online. Often, there’s no one around to ask questions, so who else do they turn to when they don’t know the answer but AI?

    The second part of the talk zooms in on one specific area of digital literacies, namely those skills that relate to digital wellbeing. I am talking about a whole range of skills, capabilities and habits here, from practical strategies for avoiding screen fatigue and digital overwhelm, to building longer term habits that support mental and social health.

    From a leadership perspective, these are difficult skills to model, as most managers and leaders are under great pressure to perform. In their effort to meet expectations, modelling a sustainable work/life balance or giving importance to social interaction with colleagues falls away. So despite that fact that many organisations have clear policies for health and wellbeing, the gap between policy and practice widens thanks to the rapid pace of digital productivity.

    I have included many free resources for participants to explore and take away, one of which, the Data Detox Kit, is especially helpful in the context of AI and our wellbeing, as well as caring for the planet. Managing resources sustainably is another task leaders have to approach in a wider context, and given how resource intense AI platforms are in contrast to standard digital technologies this will become a bigger concern in the next few years.

    The final part of the talk is all about finding inspiration, to work smart instead of harder, and to look beyond technology for solutions. This is probably the part of the talk which is a departure from the wider discourse at the moment. The dominating narrative is all about using AI more, and adopting it more widely, to imagine a better future with AI. My talk offers starting points for alternative futures, and showcases the work of pioneers who are doing just that.

    I suppose the reality will be somewhere in the middle, a mix of old and new, and I am excited to add some different perspectives into the mix.

  • Conferencing at the cutting edge

    Conferencing at the cutting edge

    Organising conferences is my guilty professional pleasure… . I fell into doing it at various times throughout my career and I thoroughly enjoy it. I like the preparations, the run up and the excitement of delivering an event, whether it’s for several hundred people in a hushed auditorium or a buzzy online crowd with run-away chatter and endless DMs.

    Last year I had an absolute blast working on the DS106 Summer Camp with Jim Groom and his team at Reclaim, and we had the MOST fun delivering a radio based conference. So when this year’s plans for Reclaim Open came along, I jumped at the chance to work together again to re-invent the conference yet again.

    What’s in store

    Reclaim Open’s theme this year, brought to life by the one and only Bryan Mathers is Rewilding the Network – Making New Connections and the conference will take place fully online, so there’s no travel required 🙂

    The event covers three days, from 4-6th November, and registration is now open. Register to attend before September 1, 2025 and get a 33% ‘early bird’ discount, making the conference fee a very affordable $99.

    Make a submission and get involved

    For Reclaim Open, every proposal is also a blog post. We will publish all accepted submissions on the conference blog which will also be the conference schedule. Submissions are now open for the following session streams:

    Your Voice: how do educators and students find and amplify their voices on the open web? How do we make ourselves heard and what are the risks and opportunities in Higher Ed and beyond?

    Your World: Maybe it’s a blog or a domain of one’s own that is your home in the digital realm. Whether it’s all business or rather  hobbies, pets, creative projects, parenting or sports. Share what you care about  on the open web.

    The Tech: the technology that makes it all possible, from open source platforms like WordPress and Ghost, to open infrastructure hosted on ReclaimEDU, this theme is for sharing tech know-how and geeky pursuits.

    The Connections: What brings us together in a world of fragmented social networks and how do you stay connected and find new connections? From self-hosted socials to federated networks, we want to hear about how you make connections.

    The Wildcard: Share your inspiration and creativity. Wild is wonderful.

    There will be radio!

    One of the things I am most looking forward to is the Reclaim Open Blog-A-Thon, a wild mix of radio and blogging fun on the first day of the event. If you are curious what this is all about, read on:

    How it all began

    It all started at the beginning of this year when a few brave souls got together to found Bloggers Anonymous, Reclaim’s Community of Practice for Bloggers in Higher Ed. It started small, with a dedicated channel on Discord, and a monthly meeting. A few of us got to together to talk about blogging, and blog about blogging… and before we knew it the RSS feed that folk were adding their blogs to was pinging with the sound of fresh blog posts, hot off the press. If you’d like to find out more about this Community of Practice, check out the story so far over on the Reclaim Blog.

    So what’s the Blog-A-Thon?

    Now, the Blog-A-Thon is on November 4th, the first day of the conference, and the idea is that we’re going to take to our blogs to read, respond and connect. You’ll be able to find  and navigate between the posts via the conference schedule, and post your comments

    We’re also planning for some good old-fashioned radio coming to you live with bloggers chatting about blogging and playing the soundtrack to their stories.

    If that’s made you curious, head over to the conference site to learn more, and make your submission!

  • Prolific pen pal

    Prolific pen pal

    Being a pen pal was something I got into as a child. In my family it was usual to send postcards from our camping holidays in Greece or Spain to family and friends in Germany. I made friends on these holidays, often from other countries, and as we exchanged tearful goodbyes at the end of each summer, addresses were swapped and letter writing commenced. I had a good pen pal in Luxembourg for a long time, and even went to visit her and her family. My first ever teenage crush and I wrote ardent letters from southern Germany, where I lived, to norther France, where he was from. And once I moved to the UK my mother became my most frequent correspondent, sending letters and parcels to my London student digs, whilst I sent my own reports from university back home.

    Over the years I have made quite a number of friends with whom I continue to send letters back and forth. Sometimes our postal conversations are sporadic, other times we write regularly. I have an actual address book in which I keep track of who lives where, and my collection of stationary, card, envelopes and stamps is thankfully always in need of restocking as I send letters almost every week.

    The picture at the top of this post shows the actual letters I wrote first thing this morning.

    I must admit that I also love the UK tradition of sending Christmas cards, and come December our hallway is full of cards and letters arriving daily.

    Of course, I also DM, email, video call and so forth with friends and family, but I’ve never lost my love for being a pen pal. The cadence of the conversation is different, the time it takes to handwrite a letter offering me time to think. Sometimes I don’t know what to say, or how to best offer love and comfort in difficult times. Loss of a parent, or a bad illness. Or a magical joyful moment like the arrival of a new baby.

    Choosing the card and envelope, or the postcard, and drawing something or scribbling in the margins… that’s all part of what makes being a pen pal so fun.

    Then there is the joy of receiving post in return. Of getting an unexpected envelope in the mail, in which there is a little glimpse of real connection. My friend sat at their kitchen table writing this with their hand, spelling out my address, thinking of me.

    Just as I think of them. As I write and send letters. Here’s to being a prolific pen pal #4life.

  • Wake up and smell the roses

    Wake up and smell the roses

    Last night I dreamt about AI and roses, and in my dream I was blogging, so here I am, trying to capture the thoughts I had during the night. Thanks to Joe Murphy and Tom Witherspoon, whose inspiring chat at yesterday’s Blogging Community of Practice meeting truly inspired me, I am here pressing publish on a draft, saving the world one half baked idea at a time.

    What’s happening in the title of this blog post are mixed metaphors: there is one idiom “Stop and smell the roses” that means “to relax; to take time out of one’s busy schedule to enjoy or appreciate the beauty of life”, and one that says “wake up and smell the coffee” (or the bacon, at least here in the UK), which means “to become aware of the reality of a situation, especially when it’s different from what one believes or expects”. My title means something like… become more aware of the reality of the situation and appreciate the beauty of life. The reality of the situation being the proliferation of AI powered platforms and tools in parts of life where they are completely unnecessary – and the fact that AI can’t smell, or touch or feel and indeed has no senses at all as a disembodied tool.

    I recently read a fantastic book, The Power of Not Thinking by Simon Roberts, which very elegantly made the case for embodied knowledge, and how ethnographic approaches can be applied in the workplace. It’s a great read that I really enjoyed, and it reminded me of the research that informed my PhD in Anthropology nearly 20 years ago. One of the things that the book made clear is that the industries, and the companies, that lead innovation, are very interested indeed in embodied knowledge and see the value of such approaches whilst selling tools and services that promote the opposite (just as proponents of EdTech are known to send their own children to tech-free schools where mobile phones are banned and interacting with nature is encouraged instead). I am simplifying here, but I hope you get my meaning.

    Yet, this model of embodied thinking feels inspiring to me, as it helps me imagine ways in which to articulate alternatives to the dominant narrative I come across in many workplaces and in education, which feels like it’s moving in the opposite direction. A direction into a future with AI that I feel un-keen and un-curious about. I don’t wish for my day to day to be dominated by tools that speed up productivity or replace human activities (and more advanced applications in sciences or medical research are beyond my direct experience). Because, on some level, it feels like “it is everywhere and everyone is using it”, and everyone is “cheating” with it. Sigh.

    Focusing on embodied knowledge, embodied experiences of the world, helps me avoid a dichotomy that doesn’t serve me, with AI on one side and what I want to do on the other. It helps me articulate how and why there is value in things like being there, seeing the world from someone else’s point of view, from being present and embodied. In the case studies featured in the book the value is directly related to the business objectives of the clients the author and his colleagues work with, and he articulates this in a very practical way, rather than in academic jargon (which is hard to do when it comes to talking about things like phenomenology).

    Which brings us back to roses. Specifically the roses which are pictured at the top of this post. I am not a huge fan of roses, or indeed pink flowers in general, but I fell in love with these when I was walking through my local garden centre recently and I smelled their strong, fruity, summery scent.

    I stopped in my tracks and came closer to drink it in, and immediately decided that this would be the plant for me. They smell like summer, like desserts, like the best sunny day. They have a beautiful colour, from pink to apricot, and their petals are smooth and strong, keeping in all that delicious smell and sheltering the bees that come to visit.

    And so, most mornings, in the corner of the garden, I sit mid morning with tea or coffee, and I drink in the smell, and enjoy the beauty of these beautiful blooms. Literally waking up to smell the roses 😉