As I am writing this, I am on a delayed train with wet feet, hoping to still make at least some of the meetings that I got up in the dark for this morning. Working from home permanently does have downsides, but on days like this it’s hard to feel that wading through flooded roads to the train station before 7am is worth it.
The folk around me on this train are frantically trying to get work done despite the poor internet connection and the poor person across from me is slowly being bored into a stupor by an over-eager and oblivious co-worker who has her cornered in the window seat. We are all waiting for lines to be cleared of flood water that has accumulated over night before we can continue our journeys North.
I am picking up snatches of conversation, passengers reflecting on how long it’s been since they last travelled, commuted or sat in an office. Most of the conversations are on mobile phones, updating colleagues about ETAs, delays and rescheduling meetings that were meant to take place in person, and are now maybe happening via a patchy WIFI connection.
Ever since the concept of ‘returning to normal’ started to be talked about, I have disliked it. After such a long period of crisis things have moved on, not back. We are moving forward all the time, every day, and of course things are different.
I spent many years travelling a lot by train, then years not travelling much at all, and now I am back to travelling regularly. It’s both by my own choice and also thanks to folk being more ready to embrace meeting virtually that I am no longer spending as much time typing cramped in train seats.
But I am still excited to do it some days. It makes my job much easier and enables me to better represent the organisation I lead. It helps connect and build relationships, and it reminds me that, yes, I can do this!
Standing on a stage giving a keynote, delivering a talk in front of an audience, delivering a report in a meeting, all these things are part of the work I do. Being comfortable and confident in all kinds of different contexts and with a broad range of stakeholders is a key skill that requires practice. If I stay at home I feel that I loose those skills gradually.
It’s important for me to be able to run late or be uncomfortable and still have a productive day. Travelling is a very effective way for me to keep those skills sharp. Small journeys make the longer ones easier to prepare for.
When travelling first resumed, I was so excited to meet with colleagues once again and a lot of our focus in those early days was all about travel, wearing masks on trains, getting dressed for work, keeping safe and well, managing the stress of it all and so on. We were adjusting to going out of our homes once again and to be in public spaces in a work context.
I found it hard initially. Harder than I had expected. I felt it was hard to leave home, the safety and comfort I enjoyed daily, and swap it for the dubious benefits of travel and seeing people in person. But now I don’t want to give up the ground I have gained, the familiarity I have regained. I don’t want to loose the skills that are coming back to me as I work through my inbox on route, saving frequently in case my connection drops.
The world is bigger than the small desk, surrounded by plants and accompanied by a dog bed, that I spent so much of my time at. And it is filled with people whom I want to connect, chat and collaborate with. People I will hug, eat and laugh with.
So I have wrung out my socks and trouser ends, opened a new document and started blogging, making myself at home for the journey. Happy and safe travels to you. I’ll see you out there 🙂
Today is my first day back at work since 22nd December, and in between I had a complete break. It took quite some doing, but I actually managed to step back from all responsibilities in that period, including those outside my role as CEO, those related to family and friends, volunteering, CPD, goals I set myself and so forth.
Prior to the end of December, I had over-extended my energy. Usually, I am very good at judging my capacity to do things, both at work and in my life in general. My capacity to get things done is considerable, and I have a lot of experience of pushing through tiredness, managing overload and finding ways to maintain balance even when things are extremely stressful. But at the end of last year, I felt that I had come to the limit of my capacity to stretch, and I pushed myself far outside of my comfort for extended periods.
Looking back at that now, from the comfort that weeks of winding down and good sleep, I am glad that I took action to step back from things, delegated, shared, stopped and switched off.
It isn’t always easy to get the right kind of break when you find work stimulating, when you have a lot of interests, when you are high achieving, love your job and enjoy juggling a lot of things on a daily basis. Thriving on busy-ness and finding inspiration when a deadline looms can feel great. But – the past couple of years have been challenging enough to tip the balance.
For me, taking a break required switching off from all work-related communication channels completely, to log off and close down apps and to clear my schedule.
It took over a week for me to actually wind down properly, and I spent the week being as busy or as lazy as I wanted to be, doing festive things with family and friends, going on long walks with the dogs, reading and playing a lot of Pokémon.
After a week or so, I started to relax.
I slept a lot, rested more, found energy to do some exercise, head to the coast… and find joy in things. Energy started to return, as did my sense of compassion, fun and interest in engaging with people once again.
It feels great to return to work knowing that I did really get a break, and not whilst keeping half an eye on things. Sometimes, you really need to take a step back.
It’s been over a decade since I became a CEO in 2012, and one of the things I have learnt is how important it is to prioritise your own wellbeing at times, particularly as there will always be something else that demands attention.
So here’s to having a break, the break I really needed, and to returning to work with energy and a renewed commitment not to push to hard.
… and we are off. The first, shiny new blog post of the year is here!
I hope you had a restful end to 2022 and are looking forward to what 2023 may bring. I am still on holiday, having taken some overdue leave and I am enjoying the extra rest. It’s giving me time to catch up with my thoughts, do some exercise and celebrate my partner’s birthday with a trip to the coast.
Back to blogging. Literally. I am kicking off my year of blogging by writing about blogging: for the first time in a few years, I have set up a new space for me to write in. A counterpart to this one, my primary domain, which offers me a private space for articulating my thoughts.
Two spaces?
It’s actually more than two spaces to write in, as I like to write a lot. I have paper based and digital journals, in which I write with blue and black ink and I like the speed of writing with a fountain pen as well as the sound it makes. A noise I had forgotten for a while.
I also have plenty of digital spaces to write in, mostly work-related, from social media, others’ platforms and this site, my own space.
It’s useful for me to have more than one space, as it helps me write about the different things I am interested in, and with different readers in mind.
Most people know me online through my day job, and they may not necessarily want to read about lots of unrelated things. I have tried in the past to bring everything I do together, but over time I have found that having separate spaces works better for me.
Why private?
This is a topic I have written about before, as I have always had different degrees of openness in my practice. It helps me to have a private space: it makes me feel safe to be completely honest, to write things down that I am still puzzling out, and to have a space to work through doubts or worries. It also gives me a space to revel in being me.
Most importantly, I find it fun to set up a new space for myself. It gives me a wonderful sense of turning over a new leaf. It’s the start of something.
As often as I can, I dedicate some time to doing something fun. For example, I enjoy making a web page and publishing it. Or making an image for something. Or reading/writing something. It doesn’t really matter what it is, it’s about completing it and getting a sense of achievement from it. A quick win. A lot of what I work on is a) long term, b) invisible or c) collaborative and so in order to balance these with feeling that I have accomplished something I often do ‘something fun’ and see it completed. It reminds me of how good I am at making things happen and often helps me see bigger, more complex things through to completion with a greater sense of confidence.
Setting up a new space to write ticks all those boxes. It’s a quick win. It’s fun. It gives me a sense to have achieved something and it’s only the 3rd January…
It’s Winter Solstice today and over the past few years this has become the date on which I write my review of the year. For me, these reflections are a helpful way to wind down from work and move to focus on things away from screens, to get outdoors, walk the dogs and enjoy the luxury of not having a schedule.
Posey, who is asleep in her basket next to me, has been my work companion for much of this year, adjusting to days spent in a room filled with exciting things that *could* be chewed, but that, thanks to the wisdom and patience that being nearly two brings with it, are still mostly intact.
Attentive and highly intelligent, she has learnt our schedule off by heart, and knows exactly when video calls end, when we go and make tea (and go outside while we wait for the kettle to boil), and when, best of all, it’s time to head out for our big daily walk in the woods, along the canal or at the river.
When I look back at what I wrote this time last year, I can’t quite grasp how much has changed and how much has been achieved in the past twelve months. It’s mind boggling. In a good way.
At the same time, it’s been a mixed year for me personally. Great happiness and joy at home were overshadowed by a serious injury that required trips to the hospital for me, as well as much family upheaval and emergencies.
This is why it is especially important to me not to move on from this year without making space to celebrate the milestones of the past year, and to express my gratitude for inspiring and supportive colleagues, collaborators and friends.
No. 1 ALT is thriving at (nearly) 30
This is the first time since 2019, that we look back at a year during which we accomplished what we set out to do! Having spent much of the intervening period in crisis response mode, it’s a huge achievement for our Association to meet the strategic and operational goals we set for the year and, importantly, make real progress on the road to financial recovery post-pandemic.
This year was a year of firsts for us, from the first new hybrid format conferences to the first comprehensive governance review, new partnerships and projects, a new events programme and CMALT course development. I am hugely proud of all we have achieved this year (and the Impact Report that shares our highlights), and especially thankful for all the hard work our staff have contributed, led by our COO, Kerry.
We have also started long-term projects to overhaul some of our infrastructure, policies and practices, making them fit for the needs of a growing and diverse community as we prepare to celebrate our 30th anniversary. ALT was founded in February 1993, and it continues to be my absolute privilege to be part of the work we do as CEO.
No. 2 Leading Virtual Teams
When we closed our office doors in February 2018, we embarked on a new chapter in the organisation’s history, establishing new ways of working. We wanted to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk and… achieve more of our strategic aims with a distributed workforce and lower overheads.
I have led the organisation throughout this journey, weathering the ups and downs of operational transformation, and managing the crisis that hit us along the way. It’s been a huge learning curve for all of us, and we have shared what we learnt along the way in blog posts and webinars.
In this spirit of sharing knowledge, we came together earlier this month to celebrate the book launch of Leading Virtual Teams, with ALT’s Chair, Prof Helen O’Sullivan. You can now access the recording of us in conversation, sharing insights into ALT’s journey to becoming a virtual organisation and the story of how this book came to be and download your free digital copy.
Writing a book has long been a dream of mine, and I am thrilled with the kind comments and feedback I received. Thank you!
No. 3 A year of #femEdTech curation
Since February, each month for me started with #FemEdTech, first stepping back into the role of curator myself and also working together with other volunteers to set up a sustainable workflow that would enable others to get involved once again.
It was amazing to see individuals giving time and energy once more, to reinvigorate our corner of a social media platform which turned increasingly toxic as the year progressed. Maybe, in future our conversations may move elsewhere, but for this year, our network came back together around the #FemEdTech hashtag. And what a year we had.
Much of the focus of my work is in Higher Education, but this year, FE, Further Education, took centre stage. Working in partnership with Ufi VocTech Trust, ALT established AmplifyFE. Amplify is a ‘network of networks’ which launched in October 2020 and already connects over 2000 professionals in Further Education and Vocational Education, providing a strong networking community for them to share, collaborate and learn.
I love working in this space, and salute the inspiring colleagues that are part of our efforts. In my first year as CEO I was invited to join the Ministerial working group that published the influential FELTAG report, through which I met many long time colleagues and friends (including Bryan Mathers! A story which I re-told in The True Story of how a Westminster meeting led to… penguins, True Stories of Openness).
Many of us who are passionate about FE share a sense of frustration as unhelpful policy changes and drastic funding cuts continue to threaten this important sector. What happens to professional practice when these changes occur doesn’t often make the headlines, and part of the work we do as AmplifyFE is to chart exactly that: The 2022 community of practice audit covers over 260 communities of practice and provides a full new dataset and key findings, charting important changes to the sector landscape, including which communities have stopped or started their activities. When we launched the AmplifyFE Communities of Practice Sector Audit at the Week of VocTech, hosted by Ufi VocTech Trust, on the 14 November 2022, we had a fantastic response and this project continues to create insightful (and openly available) data that can be used by providers and policy makers as well as individual practitioners.
Thanks to support from our partners, we were able to share our work on a bigger, international stage: Levelling up Learning by Connecting Communities in Vocation Education and Training, a session I presented together with Emma Procter-Legg, at the OEB Global Conference in, Berlin, Germany, on 24 November was a huge milestone for us!
No. 5 The return of travel
That brings us to the return of travel.. or ‘meetings with legs’ and the singular pleasure of connecting with colleagues in person once again. I appreciated meeting my staff again for the first time after too long, to see Trustees and volunteers in person and, most importantly for ALT, to celebrate the return of hybrid events. OER22 was Co-Chaired by the Global OER Graduate Network, and was the first hybrid edition of this much-loved event and a stellar moment of community for us. A highlight for me was a special talk by Dr María Soledad Ramírez Montoya, UNESCO-ICDE Chair and part of the Open Educational Movement for Latin America, Tecnologico de Monterrey. Maria shared the work of the R4C-IRG Interdisciplinary Research Group: Scaling Complex Thinking for All at the Institute for the Future of Education.
My first trip of the year that involved an actual plane (for the first time since 2019) was an inspiring Assessment Hackathon, hosted at the Dublin City University on 25 May. This was closely followed by the run up to ALT’s Annual Conference in Manchester. It was a pleasure to see the conference convene successfully in a hybrid format for the first time. The event ended just minutes before the UK’s national period of mourning was announced, which meant that our community wasn’t able to share output from the event as widely. That doesn’t mean however that there isn’t a wealth of inspiration and resources to share, and I encourage you to explore the recordings from the conference sessions and the voices of the conference we have collated.
No. 6 Looking beyond COVID-19
The return of travel and the experience of hybrid events, reconnecting in person, gave me a sense of hope and looking beyond the pandemic even when the impact of the past few years could still be felt. The publication of Digital Learning in Higher Education – COVID-19 and beyond; which we celebrated with a launch webinar was a milestone on this journey.
I am grateful that I had the opportunity to co-author a chapter (Further non-teaching perspectives on aspects of the higher education sector impacted by COVID-19) with Matt Smith, Interim Head of Primary Education, University of Wolverhampton. It’s been inspiring to see this kind of initiative up close, and to be able to contribute some of the findings from ALT’s Annual Survey to this volume and also in this report on how the profession is changing.
No. 7 Open Voices
It’s been a year that prompted a lot of thinking about openness for me. Early on I was invited to contribute to OEG Voices 028: Looking into 2022 a wonderful podcast hosted by Alan Levine, which came out in February. Alan is a wonderful inspiration for so much of the work in open education, and I always value our conversations and the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from the OE Global community. Both OER22 and then later MYFest, the “Mid-Year Festival” (MYFest) which offered a “recharge and renewal experience” organised by Equity Unbound, offered opportunities to learn and listen which I valued very much. One practice I learnt more about is Intentionally Equitable Hospitality, and it prompted me to reflect more on the spaces with which we engage and how we can critically reflect and act in this context.
Towards the later part of the year I took part in OERCamp22 – zugehOERt 092 auf dem OERcamp: From Open Learning to Open Working, a conference podcast hosted by the one and only Chahira Nouira. Although we tried hard to make it happen, Chahira and I didn’t quite get to quite meet in person this year yet the warmth of the conversation made up for it!
No. 8 Hybrid working adventures
Since the start of the year I had DS106 in my life. As well as more impromptu radio jams with friends, I completed the first season of Remote Working Radio, monthly on DS106Radio. The radio show has since moved to become a podcast, but throughout the year the radio has been a place of joy and collaboration, story telling and listening.
A related project, with the amazing folk at Reclaim EdTech, was to work with Lauren Hanks on Hacks for Hybrid Working, a 4 week flex course in November. It was interesting to learn more about the format of flex courses, which are run regularly each month in the Reclaim EdTech community (check out the events calendar). I have experience of different formats of courses, but I hadn’t come across one yet that uses this format, combination of Discord, blog posts, videos and interactive sessions. With a blend of synchronous and asynchronous element, I love that these course fit around busy schedules, and are available to offer expertise and support when needed.
A highlight of the four weeks was definitely a hybrid working radio show on DS106 radio, for which we were joined by Jim Groom. Chatting hybrid working hacks for an hour was definitely too short! It was also stimulating for me to step into a different role professionally, and getting to focus on the design and delivery of a course. It’s been a few years since I last did that and it was useful to flex those muscles once again.
I also joined the ds106.social server and you can connect with me @marendeepwell[@]social.ds106.us. I do not post the same things across different platforms, so at the moment it’s a mix of reflections/comments on blog posts, pictures and re-sharing what I come across in the fediverse.
No. 9 Becoming a accredited coach
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. With a year of training and practice under my belt, I have started to develop my approach designed for professionals working in the third sector, education and learning technology, with a focus on leadership and career development, managing change and creative problem solving.
Being a CEO is a very rewarding role, which takes up a lot of my focus day to day. Over time, I have learnt that I am more effective in my role if it’s not my only priority. I like to keep learning and keep some hands on practice alongside my executive role. So for most of the past ten years, I have worked as on a free-lance basis alongside my role as a CEO, devoting a day a week to other projects.
I do some coaching with organisations and teams as part of my work for ALT, specifically supporting digital transformation and strategic development. Training to become a certified coach has given me the opportunity to offer some 1-to-1 coaching alongside my day job.
I am looking forward to completing the next part of my formal training in 2023 and become an ICF Associate Certified Coach.
No. 10 A thank you to blogging
My blog has a regular readership in the hundreds, so not particularly huge, and I mostly blog for myself. Sometimes to curate resources to refer to, sometimes to share practical tips, but largely it’s a space for me to think about what I am interested in and share parts of that.
In 2020 I really struggled for what to say. Work kept going, but my professional practice was so dominated by the crisis response, that I found it hard to articulate anything. Since then, I have published a lot on different platforms, but most of it is very much directed at the work I do, focused on projects like my book or specific events.
More recently, with the Twitter/Mastodon conversation in full swing, I came to the conclusion that I need to blog more. To hear my own voice represented here. I started blogging more than 20 years ago and I am grateful that I can continue that practice here, on my own domain.
So my intention for 2023 is to blog more, continue to reflect, learn and listen… .
This blog post is a signpost.. one of many “I am leaving this platform… follow me on here” messages that folk are sharing at the moment in the wake of the continued [insert your own word here] on Twitter. So if you’d like to connect professionally, follow my updates or learn more about my work, here’s where to find me:
Read, listen, subscribe
Monthly newsletter I send out a monthly email newsletter with updates about my work, posts and resources. It’s a handy way to have everything on one place. It’s currently hosted on Mailchimp and you can subscribe/unsubscribe anytime.
Podcast: Leading Virtual Teams Available on a range of platforms and RSS feed, my weekly podcast about home/hybrid working, leading teams online and finding life/work balance with special guests and resources baked in for extra goodness.
LinkedIn: Maren Deepwell Look out for posts about the work we do in Learning Technology, projects, new reports and also recruitment. I also share news about upcoming talks, articles I have written and other #edtech news on here.
Mastodon: @marendeepwell@ds106.social.us I joined the ds106.social server and you can connect with me @marendeepwell[@]social.ds106.us. I do not post the same things across different platforms, so at the moment it’s a mix of reflections/comments on blog posts, pictures and re-sharing what I came across in the fediverse.
Instagram: @marendeepwell I take a lot of photos and enjoy sharing the visual aspects of my work. Expect posts about plants and snapshots about hybrid/home office life alongside work projects and coaching resources.
Twitter @marendeepwell For the time being, I’ll continue to share professional updates and posts #altc . Follow @A_L_T for news from the Association for Learning Technology.
Since the summer I have a deckchair in my office. And I love it.
It’s a space saving and relatively cheap piece of furniture that offers an alternative place to sit, relax and read. It’s strange that I never thought of having one before. Once I put it up in my office, I was immediately convinced.
Of course, not everyone has a home office and not everyone has the space for an additional piece of furniture, but if you do, then I could strongly recommend a deckchair. Even the dog has taken to sleeping in it (currently with it covered in warm woolly blankets of course) and I am a frequent user, particularly if I am fortunate enough to have a video-less meeting.
More importantly, it enables me to find much needed balance and cheer on days that are tough for whatever reason. Those days when you don’t want to get out of bed, much less go to work.
In my job being self-motivated enough to lead an organisation day in day out is essential. And of course, like every other CEO out there, I have days on which I find it easy and a pleasure, and days when the opposite is true. Enter the deckchair.
Whether in real or metaphorical terms, it really helps get me through those days with a little more fun, a bit more relaxed and a lot more convinced of making the rights calls.
Lastly, having a deckchair in my office is a daily reminder of the wonderful work of a person I much admire. If you haven’t come across her ‘Music for Deckchairs‘ then head over there now. Kate, you are an inspiration 🙂
