BOOM! This month I am excited to share that I have completed the first draft of the book. It’s actually more like draft no. 3, but up to now I hadn’t ever written the conclusion, and now I have.
Now my 48,570 words or ~160 pages of work in progress have been shared with internal reviewers for comment and feedback until early May 2022. If you’d like to help review the book, please let me know and I’d be happy to share the complete draft with you.
There is still a lot of work to be done, but reaching a point at which I have a complete book feels like a great milestone.
Coaching update
In very exciting news I finished the first coach training course this month and thus I am a step closer to getting formally accredited as a coach. One of the things I am working on is a set of coaching style questions to help reflection on leading virtual teams… so watch this space for more updates soon.
Remote working radio… with special guest Lauren Hanks
I am very much looking forward to doing a special remote working radio show this month, with a special guest, in order to share current thinking in the run up to session we are hoping to run at the OER22 Conference in late April… join me and Lauren:
Wednesday, 13th April 2022 14:00 BST on DS106Radio
As this is a special episode, you can expect more conversation and fewer songs.. (and unfortunately no special requests).
Writing buddy update: Posey has helped me think through finishing the complete draft.
For many people who inspire me, counting what they read is a thing on a personal or professional basis. Just like the ‘read 100 books in a year’ challenge, many of my friends and colleagues track, share, catalogue and analyse what they read. And I enjoy their reflections. I often find inspiration in what others read, and I have bought many books on the recommendation of a friend who loved it.
I enjoy it when others share their reading habits, but I don’t track what I read and I’ve been wondering why. Here are my thoughts:
Like sleep, I don’t desire to track what I read. I don’t feel that there is anything I need to know that I don’t already know without quantifying what I read.
Since I started being able to track steps, I feel like untracked steps aren’t real. Given that I leave my phone at home a lot, my digital step count does not reflect reality at all, and thus all the ways in which my devices could be ‘helpful’ or ‘insightful’ doesn’t really work. I find it mildly annoying, but not enough to start tacking a device everywhere I go. I really don’t want reading to follow that pattern.
I read a lot, and counting how much wouldn’t act as encouragement to read more.
Across different media (print, audio and digital) and several different platforms I would need to track my reading manually, which seems tedious. I am sure there is an app that can help… but then I would have to keep that up to date.
Sharing headlines like ‘this week I’ve read six trashy romance novels!’ or ‘my bedside table is drowning in sci-fi’ would be of no interest to others.
I love books, I love reading, I always have. I always read for enjoyment first and foremost no matter what the subject matter. Somehow tracking it would make it feel like work to me. Like I need to have goals, or consider whether what I read reflects all the things I should care about. I would probably start to self-censor.
One of the greatest pleasures in my life is getting lost in a story for hours or even days at a time. Sometimes I walk around reading, because I can’t put the book down. Those times are precious to me and personal. I am not sure what I would want to share that would be meaningful to anyone else.
Enjoy your reading (and please keep sharing your recommendations so that I can read more).
This week I am chairing a discussion about ALT’s development of a framework for Ethical Learning Technology with a wonderful line up of speakers: ALT’s Chair, Professor Helen O’Sullivan, Javiera Atenas whose work helped shape the framework and our President, David White. Each will bring a different perspective to the conversation, helping us explore why taking an ethical approach to digital education is important for leaders, professional and academic staff and, first and foremost, students.
Since it’s initial launch in September last year, ALT’s Framework for Ethical Learning Technology (FELT) has continued to develop with input from Members and the wider community. The first part of the work is that we are collecting case studies and examples of policies from across sectors to help establish a baseline of practice and also of gaps in practice, of questions or problems to which we don’t have robust answers as yet. The second part of the work we have focused on is the development of resources that help individuals and teams translate the framework into practice. The first resources, our FELT Reflective Self-Assessment, launched at the end of 2021:
You can use this assessment tool to reflect on a particular project, a new tool or platform or you can use it to focus on a particular aspect of your work. We encourage all Learning Technology professionals to undertake this self-assessment to reflect on their professional practice in relation to FELT’s four core areas. Based on the outcome, you can then move on to complete individual sections focused on particular aspects of your practice. The self-assessment is mapped to the CMALT accreditation framework and this is indicated throughout the assessment.
These resources form the start of our efforts to put the framework into practice, and the session this week will enable us to share these more widely as well as exploring why it’s important in different contexts.
As many of us are emerging into some sort of post-pandemic way of working, we need to make some space for considering the ethical dimension of digital practices in our strategies and the FELT framework can offer a practical starting point for exactly those conversations for institutions, teams, with students and with industry.
… and returning to in person conferences
Like many, I am just about to make my first steps back to in person conferences. It feels like closing a loop, the “what I last did two years ago” loop. Part of my role as a CEO is to represent my organisation and share the work we do and the voice of our Members on the best possible platforms. For the past two years, that has been a lot harder than it used to be, and there is a whole dimension of networking and influencing that has been absent from much of my day to day work during the time of online only events.
Like many, I have mixed feelings about the return of travelling for work, partly because here in Wales we continue to have more restrictions in place than is the case in England. But mainly I am grateful to have the opportunity to represent my organisation again, to have the option of generating engagement (and income) through running events both in person and online and, most of all, to reconnect with colleagues who inspire me and who contribute to my enjoyment of my work.
Given how much of my professional practice is online, I know what really, really great virtual work looks like. I experience it every week. And I also know how much effort and time and resources it takes to make it happen, and that relatively few people have either the skills or the set up to make it work consistently.
So I am looking forward to returning to the comparatively ‘easier’ way of connecting in person. And, in just over a month, to dancing with penguins…
I like celebrating International Women’s Day. It reminds me each year that there is always more I can do. And each year, I try to do something along many of my professional colleagues and friends, to contribute to this overall effort.
This year, I am focusing my volunteer effort on the FemEdTech network as we are celebrating the launch of a special issue of the journal Learning, Media & Technology with the theme ‘Feminist perspectives on learning, media and educational technology’.
It’s a great publication from a group of insightful authors, and I encourage you to explore this rich set of papers whilst it remains freely available (fittingly so, during Open Education Week). Feminist + open = superpower.
Particularly in my context, in educational technology, these voices are now needed. We need them because our sector is growing faster, expanding and scaling up fuelled by the events of the past two years.
Gender equality is not often at the top of the agenda and this year it may feel like there are too many other crisis which take priority. Each year, this day reminds me that no matter what else is happening in the world, there are things I can do, as a CEO, as an employer, a leader, an author, a collaborator, a coach, a colleague, a friend, a partner, a daughter… that I can do as a woman, to make a difference.
And so I do. What I can.
Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.
Celebrate women’s achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality.
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.
We are now in Week 7 of the course and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I have learnt a lot in the first few weeks of the training, met some amazing people and started to develop a whole range of skills. It’s been a very motivating part of my practice and I find myself looking forward to each Saturday night’s session.
Whilst the training is very comprehensive, the hours required fit well around my existing commitments, and I have been listening to readings on walks in the evening and at weekends.
Along the way, I have set up a summary page about the work I am doing, and as my first pro-bono clients start coming on board, I have started to share coaching information and resources .
Adopting a new mindset
One of the things I have found the most interesting so far, is adopting a new mindset – a mindset that is focused very much on whomever I am working with. It’s fascinating to focus on not knowing the answers, but to be curious about what we might discover together.
Curiosity is something I value highly and it’s an element of coaching that I find suits me very well. I like asking questions, and I always try to keep an open mind about what might be at the end of a thought process or a conversation, and the coach training helps me develop a new way of doing that.
Initially I was expecting it to be challenging not to give advice or offer answers because that is often what my work requires of me day to day. But I haven’t found it to be a problem at all, quite the reverse. Focusing on my clients priorities has helped me adopt a new, a coaching mindset.
Walking and coaching (literally)
One idea I have had that is inspired by my previous experiences of walking line management meetings is to offer established clients I work with sessions that enable us to walk and talk. Here is what I have in mind:
Walk with your coach
Sometimes a video call is not the best environment to get us thinking, so for established clients I offer coaching sessions whilst we walk. Usually, this would be coaching via a phone call, but if you are based locally, we could also meet in person. Walking coaching sessions are particularly suited to think together about difficult situations or to reflect on a particular problem or idea.
