I have been struggling to write any of my usual ‘year in review’ posts. I couldn’t find the words. But this evening I feel inspired and that is thanks to the community I work with, and whom I have shared much of this week at ALT’s Online Winter Conference.
It’s been a year like no other in Learning Technology and one throughout which the professionals I work with and that ALT represents have moved right into the heart of keeping education going… when family tech support moved up to a whole new level and a year in which we have all faced our own Everests.
No matter who you are or what your context is, wherever you may be, this year has forced us to face difficult moments and I find that rather than share my thoughts on the keynotes I have given and listened to or the research published, I want to focus on the compassion and care I have met with.
From sharing resources during the early days of the pandemic to supporting each other in practical ways such as weekly webinars, everyone has done their best to get through the year and make the most of the opportunities we have had. From changing policy with initiatives like the Open COVID Pledge for Education to developing new practice in teaching and assessment, it’s been a year of firsts.
To me, it’s been so important not to compromise on the values and professional principles we share even if in terms of practical execution ‘good enough’ has had to suffice.
I have huge admiration for all the Learning Technology professionals who have helped moved everyone online in the great online pivot… and then worked even more to make a new academic year possible… and then worked some more to ensure that the direction we are heading in is shaped by the expertise and know-how they bring to the table.
Kudos to you all. Those of you who are still standing, those of you who are having a well earned break and those of you who have prioritised caring for your families and loved ones and taken a step back from work.
It was a very special privilege for me to join ALT’s President Dave White in presenting a symbolic community award to all and every Learning Technologist today… and that includes you! Congratulations!
This year’s community award goes to…all of you! Congratulations to all Learning Technologists in the #altc community! pic.twitter.com/ThfIb7byKX
We at ALT work day in day out to champion professional recognition and advancement for those who have contributed so much to this year.
There is a lot more work ahead, and I am looking forward to getting stuck in to new ethical frameworks, assessment practices, CDP and more in 2021.
For now, there is a need to pause and reflect and be proud of what’s been achieved and I hope that today and this special community award contributes to that much needed moment of reflection and celebration.
Fittingly, the award being forged in the fire of 2020, it will become an enduring testament to what’s been accomplished by us all this year across sectors here in the UK and beyond.
To you all, I wish all the very best for what I hope will be a peaceful end to the year.
Here’s to a better 2021… and I am looking forward to seeing Learning Technologists go from strength to strength at the heart of learning, teaching and assessment.
In the meantime, I am going to avoid video calls, put wellies on and head into the great outdoors to walk the dog 🙂
Leading Virtual Teams? Homeworking? Is there something you'd like us to discuss? After 3 years of blogging #virtualTeams, 35+ posts & podcasts… 320 comments… 65,000 words, @mhawksey and I are preparing a very special podcast – the final instalment of our series! pic.twitter.com/34EQ0gnU0d
What is it like to lead a virtual team? What are the high points? What are the challenges?
For the past three years we have been chronicling our experiences in a series of monthly blog posts and podcasts and collecting them on our blogs.
Martin will be leaving ALT in January 2021 to move onto new adventures and if you would like to contribute to Martin’s virtual leaving card (read: spreadsheet), please contribute them via this Google form . We are also planning a farewell karaoke special for the end of January, so get ready to practice your #TunesForHawksey.
I am excited about our last podcast and looking forward to a conversation with Martin talking about working from home, virtual teams and what we learnt in the process 🙂
I feel this is a great opportunity to reflect not only on our approach to leading virtual teams, but also the process of conversational blogging itself. Blogging about blogging 😉
There is a lot of inspiration for blogging just now, things that I’d like to blog about such as… our awesome Sunday Specials on ds106 radio:
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’.
In this month’s post we reflect on wellbeing as homeworkers, particularly under the pressures and strains of current times. As part of this we look at ways individuals and teams can check-in on how they are doing using resources from the What Works Centre for Wellbeing and Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England. We also discuss ways that we have used to find a better balance such as using the Digital Data Detox Kit and even removing ‘work’ from our phones.
October
Maren: Two years (or what feels like a lifetime ago) we wrote a post on ‘the serious upsides of working in pyjamas’. I really enjoyed revisiting this post, in which we discuss some of the advantages of working from home and also reflect on different aspects of wellbeing as a home-worker. Since then, throughout this year, working from home has become a necessity rather than a choice for many. In our case, our choice to work from home has turned into working from home under very different circumstances. Recently, as I have gained a better idea of what the next 6 months will look like at work, I have started to make a concerted effort to reframe my own thinking, focusing on working from home as a positive choice again. For example, one of the things I mentioned two years ago is how liberating it was for me no longer to have to have a daily commute and this is a huge bonus for me still. I don’t miss the day to day train journeys for meetings. I know many people are discovering this just now and I love having time to do more exercise or meditation instead of leaving the house when it’s dark to catch a train to London. At this time of the year especially I find it a huge bonus that I can go outside (lockdown permitting) when there’s daylight most days. Something new for us this year is that we have made a much bigger effort to build wellbeing activities into our routine operations. Last month’s post shared examples and one of my favourite is inventing new scales to describe how we are. We already talked about this two years ago, but now that I can convey my wellbeing in unicorns and pumpkin scales, I feel we have stepped up our game. Looking back, is there anything that really resonates with you?
Martin: I find myself revisiting that “as winter draws in these are curtailed and I find myself already trying to mentally prepare myself for the long grey winter days” with the extra dimension of doing this with COVID-19 being a factor. Recently working on the ALT Annual Survey questions I was looking at the ‘Workplace wellbeing question bank’ published by the What Works Centre for Wellbeing. The question bank “is a collection of validated questions, which have been developed and used by various organisations to measure different aspects of wellbeing” and “includes questions that cover all relevant aspects of wellbeing derived from existing frameworks of wellbeing and work”. As part of this there are some validated questions from other sources including the 5-item World Health Organization Index (WHO-5), which is described as “a reliable and valid instrument to capture mental health problems such as depression and anxiety”.
If folks would like to play along at home in the last 2 weeks indicate the closest you’ve been feeling for the following statements where 0 = At no time, 1 = Some of the time, 2 = Less than half of the time, 3 = More than half of the time, 4 = Most of the time, 5 = All of the time
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I have felt cheerful and in good spirits
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I have felt calm and relaxed
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I have felt active and vigorous
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I woke up feeling fresh and rested
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My daily life has been filled with things that interest me
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If you add up your score for each statement “a value of 0 represents the least healthy mental state and high risk of depression. A value of 25 represents the healthiest possible psychological state”. Adding up my ‘?’ on this I’m 13, which isn’t as bad as I expected. I don’t expect you to share your score Maren, but any thoughts on the WHO-5?
Maren: Oh, that is useful. I tried out the question for myself and this week’s score is 18, after a day of rest yesterday, which probably has a lot to do with it. I recently explored a popular mindfulness app called Calm, which I find helpful. It includes daily check-ins with yourself, letting you choose emoji to indicate how you are and also includes prompts to reflect on things, such as “What inspired you today?”, Where in your surroundings have you felt calm recently?” and “What made you smile or laugh today?”.
I find tools like these really helpful and for many years I have kept both a professional and a personal journal as part of my self care routine. That said, times like these call for more active measures in my case, and I find the app makes it easier for me to engage – easier than sitting down and looking at a blank page may be. I came across the Mental Health First Aider programmes, such as this https://mhfaengland.org/organisations/workplace/, and I found this an interesting idea. Whilst we have staff trained in First Aid, we haven’t previously considered this kind of programme. As an employer, we have offered support for individuals throughout the year, and I was inspired by this offering. Particularly during the current crisis, and as it extends over many months, I feel it’s very useful to refresh my own knowledge about and approach to how to talk about mental health and wellbeing in a work context. Has this year changed your perspective?
Martin: I’m not sure if the year has changed my work perspective that much but I’m perhaps more aware of making sure when permitted I get out for some air. Your link to Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole reading their community blog contributions. As mentioned recommendations like “getting outside each day even if it’s to stand on your doorstep or back garden if you can. If not, have a window open just to allow in some fresh air” [ref] really resonates with me. In another MHFA post they highlight the importance of providing space for teams to unplug and recharge, using screen breaks and annual leave to relax and recuperate. I’m relatively good at screen breaks, but I’m sure as many are finding personal life is somewhat both upside down and inside out right now. Something that has helped in this area is when setting up my new phone I separated my personal and work accounts. This means at a toggle of a switch I can completely turn off all work related notifications including all of our organisations social media accounts. This proved very effective during my last annual leave break allowing me to completely drop off the work grid.
Maren: That sounds like an excellent approach. I have been doing a similar clean up, inspired by the Digital Data Detox Kit, and I have moved some apps off my phone altogether, so that platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn, which I primarily use for work, are now on my browser only. I was expecting to miss the apps, but as it happens, that wasn’t really the case. Most of my social interactions nowadays are happening in messaging apps in any case. Despite my phone taking a step back from work-related social media, I probably value my peers and networks more now than ever before. For inspiration, support and knowledge sharing, I am more dependent on my online activities and I find them very rewarding. It’s about balance for me – just as you suggest in what you have written – to find ways to be connected in a way that has a positive impact on my professional and personal life.
If you have any of your own wellbeing tips and resources please feel free to share them with us.
Like everyone else I have been spending a LOT more time online this year out of necessity. The more time I spend online, the stronger my desire to control and limit the data I produce, at least for personal interactions…
My first task is to rename my phone… i.e to change the device name. Done!
Next up, CLEAR YOUR LOCATION FOOTPRINTS… I already have all the recommended settings enabled and don’t allow any apps on my phone to access location services without asking, so that’s an easy step for me.
Now, reviewing apps I never use. “Getting rid of those random apps on your phone that you never use can be a powerful way to detox your digital self.”
Let’s see… the first app I delete is for train tickets and timetables. I haven’t used it since March. Also, Skype for Business can go. I am not sure that still exists. That’s it – I am not a heavy app user. There is an “app cleanse” option for those who are.
First, I try out some of the suggestions to get a sense of how much my social media knows about me. I head to Instagram first:
The results are not surprising for me: I like tights, running leggings, beds!… When I explore my Ad Topic Preferences, I can pick to see more or fewer adds related to… alcohol, parenting and pets. Err… .
Profile pics. OK. The guidance explains:
Do you use the same profile picture across various accounts online? Reverse image searches like TinEye or Google Image Search (1) can help people easily connect the dots about the services you use.
https://datadetoxkit.org/en/privacy/profile/
I used to have the same profile pic for everything. Recently I moved to the same pic for work related accounts (Twitter, LinkedIn, Work email) and different pics for everything else (Facebook, Instagram, messenger apps).
One suggestion that resonates with me is “get off the app and onto the browser”.
That is a good idea. I no longer have Twitter or LinkedIn on my phone. Instead I use a browser on my computer mostly during work hours.
I still use facebook via an app however, and I am considering that at the moment. I head to the suggested ad settings and check what’s happening with my data.
I already have wholly private accounts and only share information with Friends, but even that group can seem too large at times.
So… with that in mind, I do a bit of a clean up.
Step 3: Personal social media clean up
In order to do any of that, I need to reset my facebook password. Useful to be reminded how I haven’t done that in a while.
I delete an old Twitter account, which is easy enough.
Deleting Instagram accounts proves much harder! There is useful guidance but I don’t find it straight forward to follow. In the end, I delete all of my Instagram accounts. Making a fresh start might be a good idea. Separate accounts for separate things. No more joined up-ness.
One last thing I do is the clear my browser history and website data on my phone’s browser (the work one is usually pretty clear as I do a monthly clean up of that).
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 Ed Tech Metaphor Generator and I had a play generating my own metaphor challenges in the search for blogging inspiration.
This is the first topic contender:
http://metaphor.edtechie.net/
The next one I generated was: “What does gardening tell us about lecture capture?”, which got me thinking, and then I clicked the button again and…
Use the development of New York graffiti styles as a metaphor for blogging
…this heading was born. I am going with that one!
First up, because it gives me an excuse to urge you to read The City We Became! If you aren’t familiar with the work of N.K. Jemisin then you should definitely have a look and immerse yourself in the worlds she has built in her books. I was a big fan of the THE BROKEN EARTH series and I am about to start reading the The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms series, but The City We Became was the first book I bought when the lockdown started and I couldn’t put it down even though it was far from cheering:
Every great city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She’s got six.
But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs in the halls of power, threatening to destroy the city and her six newborn avatars unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.
http://nkjemisin.com/
But graffiti is all about the fabric of a city and this book certainly captures that. It’s also about the life of a city, its stories, and that way we loop back to blogging.
I also came across this article recently: Graffiti Is Back in Virus-Worn New York which makes for an interesting read (and beautiful photos of new graffiti in New York which are definitely worth a look).
From the South Bronx to East New York, a new generation of graffiti writers has emerged, many of whom have never hit a trainyard or the inside of a subway car. But like early taggers who grew up in a city beset by crime, grime and empty coffers, today’s generation is dealing with its own intense fears over the devastating effects of the coronavirus on communities and the economy.
“Does art dictate the times or do the times dictate art?” said John Matos, 58, a graffiti writer known as Crash who started out in the 1970s. “Before now, the streets were sanitized, with pieces that were cool and nice, and done with permission. Now, we’re back to the roots.”
A bit like the EdTech Emergency Radio which has been filling the airwaves #ds106radio as a response to dealing with fear and isolation, emergency blog posts fill social media with helpful tips, practical advice and accounts of what happens when you face such odds as everyone is this year.
Yet beyond that there is more coming out of the posts, sometimes anger, sometimes hope. A reflection of our times.
Maybe the circumstances which enable a new generation of graffiti writers to find their voice on the streets of New York will also give space to a new generation of blog posts and conversations. I for one am grateful to have found a pocket of time and inspiration to ponder something different for a while. Thank you, EdTech Metaphor maker 🙂
Next time… “Use quantum physics as a metaphor for blogging.”
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 recipe swap” to “pandemic playlist” to “humble brag” to “Pictionary Jam” and more.
Thank you to our colleagues Jane, Fiona, Debbie and Emma-Jane, for giving us permission to share these ideas in the post for this month.
September!
Maren: Since the start of July we have been rotating chairing our weekly team meetings. We have a shared document that we use as an agenda and each week we ask someone to volunteer to chair next week’s meeting. I have been delighted by how much everyone has contributed to our weekly meetings, bringing their own personality and style to the proceedings and I feel this new way of chairing the meetings has been an excellent addition to the way we work. One of the things we have started doing is ice-breaker activities to start the meeting, and I look forward to them each week. In this post, we are going to share examples of these starting with animal corner: For this activity we were asked to “share your four-legged friends here if you have one, or any animal that makes you smile!” . Another favourite of mine was to ask everyone: “What has been your favourite recipe discovered during lockdown?” through which is discovered Freezer Vegan Breakfast Burritos and Ottolenghi – Feta and oregano fries!
Martin: Rotating the chairing has been a lot of fun, particularly seeing how others bring their personality to proceedings. My favourite activity has to be “Musical Mayhem” where we shared a link to “whatever song or piece of music that makes you feel alive !”. This ended up with a very eclectic mix of songs and also gave a sense of what made our team tick, covering tracks from the Bee Gees to N-trance. As well as pets, food and music the ice breakers are also nice ways to catch up with how everyone is generally doing. As the second wave of the pandemic comes crashing down on us, whilst increased measures don’t impact my homelife as much as they do for others, the knowledge that while I rarely have friends over to see us, knowing that currently we can’t feels a little suffocating. Making the start of team meetings more variable I think has ultimately created some very rich and fun social engagement. Have you got any other favourite ice-breakers and what do you think the impact has been?
Maren: It’s been interesting to see how little tech is needed for a very effective activity. In many cases a verbal prompt or question such as sharing box set or movie recommendations or finding out which Hogwarts House you belong to (our team includes someone from every house…) has stimulated rich conversations for everyone in the team. One aspect of our shared activities, comparing plans for an upcoming Bank Holiday weekend in August, for example, is that we learn more about each other’s local contexts. That might be a simple thing like sharing what the weather is like or indeed whether there is a local lockdown where we live or something a bit more personal, like what the kids are up to, which parent is having a birthday and what treats someone is planning on baking. I found out about a new kind of pizza oven as well as learning more about how two of our colleagues who are doing PhD are getting on with that. Each weekly activity has helped us combat cabin fever and the fact that we all miss each other. Since we become a virtual team in 2018 this is the longest period any of us have had without seeing someone they work with every day and that is a big deal! Talking of big deals… you provided a prompt for a team meeting in August that sparked some really great conversations – do you remember?
Martin: Ah yes the “Humble Brag” activity where I invited our team to share “a thought or memory that you go to for virtual air punches?”. There were a very interesting range of responses to this, which like “Hogwarts House” stimulated some nice conversations. Afterwards I did however feel that this was also a bit of a tricky activity as it perhaps forced people to reflect back on a time when the world was in a very different state, particularly given examples included things like flights and organised running events. Perhaps reminiscing isn’t such a bad thing … I don’t know, thoughts? Whilst tech hasn’t been the focus of these activities where it has been used has been a lot of fun. One of more recent activities was “Pictionary Jam” where we had a round of pictionary each drawing on a Jamboard (an interactive whiteboard app available in G Suite). I’ve only used Jamboard a couple of times in the past so the activity was also a fun bit of CPD to learn about this tool together. Plenty of other whiteboard tools for others to try this out and if a Pictionary game isn’t handy there is a website for that at http://wordrawapp.com/online_generator.html. With our colleagues showing off such great chairship and ability to find fun and interesting activities I feel increased pressure when it is my turn to find something for the start of our meetings … or is that just me?
Maren: For me it’s the other way round. I hadn’t realised how much work and thought I had to put in chairing the meeting week in week out and now I feel less pressure as we are jointly working on making each meeting work. I also think everyone is gaining more insight into why it’s important to prepare and actively take part. It’s up to us as a team to make our team meetings work and I have been delighted by the result of rotating who leads the meeting. I hope that it will help everyone realise how much each individual is achieving as well as how much progress we are making as a team, and that is especially important just now, with things being so uncertain. As you say, it’s not always a wholly positive thing to compare the here and now to previous experiences, and this new way of running team meetings feels like a positive addition to this year instead of being a slightly less fun version of a face to face meeting we may have had before. But now that the pressure is on… and I think it’s your turn to chair next week’s meeting… what have you got in mind to wow everyone 😉
Martin: Well for our weekly family video calls (pre-covid they were voice only) lately we’ve been having a quiz. As part of this the winner is quizmaster the following week. As I aced the Scottish trivia quiz last week it’s my turn to come up with the questions. I’m feeling a little reuse coming on, my call with my parents being an opportunity to test drive a set of questions for the team. Whilst our team icebreakers have also been mostly low tech inspired by our ‘Pictionary Jam’ I thought it would be nice to try out one of our partner organisation tools, particularly if it is something we want to use at the ALT Online Winter Conference. To that end having looked at the Vevox quiz tool and the recent leaderboard feature I think it might be interesting to dip back into the competitive streak within our team … what can go wrong.
