Category: HE

Jolly Holidays on the Open Web

It’s the time of year again… and as someone who works remotely with clients across different timezones, most of my ‘festive’ moments at work are unceremonious video calls that end abruptly as everyone rushes off to their next meeting. Meanwhile, across the various social media spaces I take part in, corporate messages of (apparent) goodwill mix uneasily with cheery commercial overload, making it hard to find the actual updates from actual people I care about. Jolly Holidays on the interwebs this isn’t!

Fortunately we can breathe a little easier, as there is still real fun to be head online for those of us working in education and edtech, in the form of Reclaim’s Rewind 2024 series of free and open events on the radio, tv and social activities! I am really excited to be part of this, and to have a group of wonderful people to share the run up to the holidays with.

It’s precious to me to take some time to celebrate community and have the opportunity to connect with colleagues, reflecting together on the highs (and lows!) of the year that’s been, and gather our strength and find some renewed inspiration before the new year starts.

Kicking off the whole series was a team outing on Reclaim TV, sharing some of the best bits of 2024, the drama that shook the (edtech) world (hello, WordPress bros) and how the team have come out fighting the “good fight for indie edtech” on the other side.

Next up was what we called a “Case Study Bonanza”, featuring special guests from a number of schools that work closely with the team and the one and only Bryan Mathers:

But… the best is yet to come! This week, there are the two biggest events coming up and I hope that you will join us, so here are all the details:

Community Chat: Rewind 2024

December 18th
For this final community chat of the year we are inviting ALL our special guests from 2024 to come together. You will hear updates of the exciting work happening across our community and have a chance to share your own highs and lows of 2024. This is our time to come together to say thank you and acknowledge and appreciate everyone who works in open edtech in Higher Education.
Event info

Reclaim Rewind 2024: Live on DS106 Radio. It’s the HOLIDAY SPECIAL

December 20th
We are inviting you to join us for the one and only edtech radio holiday special, featuring guests from the legendary DS106 Radio Summer Camp. There is going to be story telling, holiday tunes and, if you are very lucky, even a bit of festive KaraOERke. The elves are working hard on that one. So listen in and play along as we ROCK the airwaves and ring in the holidays.
Event info

There are also a couple of DS106 Radio hosts, myself included, who will be jumping on the airwaves to play music and chat, so follow the #ds106radio on Mastadon to find out what’s on, and tune in to DS106 Radio.

It’s such a joy to be able to have some actual time together with folk without the clock ticking on yet another meeting, and to be able to dip in and out of the festive fun as I sit at my desk finishing off my work for the year.

During the pandemic edtech folk became an educational emergency service, and everyone suddenly wanted to learn about how to use technology at scale, fast. Those days are fortunately behind us, and these days hype headlines about AI are more likely to pull focus. But for me, it’s definitely the human beings (not the technology) that made this year, and it’s all the unsung (edtech) heroes, grinding away at keeping the open web a possibility for future generations of students and educators, that I’ll be celebrating with this year!

Wishing you, and yours, Jolly Holidays on the Open Web!

17/12/2024
Behind the scenes of Digital Leadership
‘Digital Skills for Emerging Leaders’ is a new micro-credential course from the Digital Learning Institute that I am working on together with the amazing Lynne Taylerson. It’s a super project to be involved in, and it’s extra special for me as I get a change to collaborate with Lynne outside of our other favourite project: AmplifyFE.

Usually we work on this kind of project at a distance, using the kind of digital skills we talk about in the course to collaborate and communicate. That said, there are also some precious hours of working together in person in the mix and so Lynne and I recently spent a day together recording videos and fine-tuning the course:

It was so fun to be able to do this together, a rarity for this kind of project, at least in my experience, and I am sure that will be reflected in the quality of the final product as well.

Join us for a masterclass webinar

As part of the project we are running a masterclass webinar: Digital Leadership Skills for the New Era in Education. It’s free to attend and open to all, on 16 April 2024 at midday (GMT).

What to expect:
- Explore digital skills for emerging and established leaders working in education and training
- How is leadership changing in hybrid institutions or on a virtual campus?
- Ideas to take away: ask our experts for top tips and answers to your questions.
- Learn about authentic leadership in digital education
Look out for further updates on the micro-credential, which should be launching soon.

Keep in touch with what I am up to and subscribe to my monthly newsletter:
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12/04/2024
Summer coaching inspiration
I’ve put together three ideas to try out whether you are having a busy summer or taking a break. So if you are looking for some inspiration and ideas to recharge for the next academic year, have a go:

Tips for a week of complete rest

It’s taken me a long time to be able to step away from all types of work all together, and for me, having a complete week off is a big achievement.. as well as a reflection of how busy I have recently been. I took some practical steps to ensure that I had a complete break, and I wanted to share some tips that worked for me:
- I completed a holiday handover, with my amazing colleagues and deputy, and then logged off all work systems completely on my last day at work;
- No laptops came on holiday, and all computers at home where switched off when work ended;
- I deleted all work-related apps from my phone or switched notifications off completely, included direct messaging, emails, and task management apps;
- I logged out of/deleted all social media apps, like Twitter and LinkedIn, that I only use in a professional context;
- calendar notifications were switched off or paused
- A simply note to make a list of anything that I thought of, which were work related and which I wanted to pick up upon my return;
- I intentionally packed books, audiobooks and other entertainment that would help me focus on things other than work.
>> Longer read

How to make a milestone map

Many of my clients are looking to make progress in their work or personal lives: to make a change, develop their career path or build personal habits. Many of us have goals like ‘progress in my career’ or ‘be happier’… but it can be hard to break down exactly what to do in order to achieve our aims and define what ‘success’ means to us. In this post I share practical steps to help you put your goals on paper and break them down into achievable chunks, including:
- How to choose a format that works for you
- How to pick your goal(s)
- How to turn goals into milestones
- How to check your map
>> Learn more

List of 100 Dreams

I am always on the look out for new tools or resources for coaching, and I want to share this one I came across in a blog post by Laura Vanderkam: It’s called a ‘List of 100 Dreams’. If this is a new concept, then head over to Laura’s blog to read more about the original exercise from Career coach Caroline Ceniza-Levine and how Laura has used this exercise as part of her work on productivity and time management. The ‘List of 100 Dreams’ is exactly that: a long list of things you wish to do, have or devote time to. In essence, it’s a very long bucket list.

I felt this was a lot of fun to try out, so if you are curious to learn more and try this for yourself, here’s how to get started.

>> Get Started

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21/07/2023
Looking back at delivering an online conference
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 help bridge the gaps;
- how online events compare with face to face events when it comes to communication and leading the delivery team;
- how to communicate when, yes, the network you and participants depend on goes down the day before the event…;
- using group communication as a way to manage and problem solve.
I will share what I have come up with and my reflections as part of my CMALT portfolio in due course. Sharing one example already, you can watch Martin Hawksey and me welcoming participants to day 1 of the conference in the video below:
10/01/2016
Reports as chief executive of ALT

In my role as chief executive of the Association for Learning Technology, I write regular reports on the work we do with and for our members. You can read all of the recent reports in ALT’s online newsletter.

In my most recent report I mentioned ALT’s new Annual Survey, findings from which have been published at the end of February 2015. The report and the related data are now openly accessible via ALT’s Open Access Repository. You can download both here. The findings provide interesting insights into the priorities of ALT members for the year ahead, including a marked rise in learning analytics and related use of data. I am really interested to see how these trends will change in the next twelve months.

01/03/2015