Category: open practice

The outlook is… meticulously informal

The recent launch of ReclaimEDU has got me blogging… always a good sign.

Now, working with the team at Reclaim has many perks, one of which was to learn more about this new offering before it was even launched. Jim talked us through it in the way only he can, and although I am learning more about the technology that makes this all possible what really did grab my attention immediately was the artwork.

I love the work Bryan has created with Reclaim Hosting for nearly ten years now and this ReclaimEDU launch is a great example of why it is so powerful. You don’t really need the words to get the idea. ReclaimEDU feels like a long way down the road from the origins of Hippie Hosting more than a decade ago… but many things remain constant. And one of those is that it continues to be is meticulously informal. That’s the bit I am particularly interested in.

Meticulous informality is a phrase that Martin Weller coined in 2019, in relation to the ALT Annual Conference. In the years since, and as our professional relationship turned into a personal one, we have often come back to the concept in our conversations and found it helpful in describing something we both value about a certain way of working, particularly since a lot of our interactions are happening online nowadays.

So what does it mean to be meticulously informal, and why do I think it matters? Let me try to explain what it means to me:

In the context of event planning, for example, I would describe it as a result of planning ahead so well that on the day you can lean back and enjoy it, knowing that you have most eventualities covered and can deal with any impromptu things that come up. It also means treating the individuals whom you work with not as generic actors in the event (the keynote, a panel speaker) but take into account their context: someone coming from far away who’s not been in the country before, someone who’s never given a keynote before, someone who’s nervous… and so on. It’s also about being present. Walking the walk. And that takes a lot of emotional energy.

I’ve been lucky enough to be at some events that really encapsulated that balance perfectly (yes, I am looking at you, wonderful OER Conference) and yet events aren’t the only place where meticulous informality matters.

When it comes to hybrid working, it really makes a difference, and it’s not something you can fake. When it comes to meticulous informality, people can tell whether you are going through the motions or truly making an effort. Effort is the operative word here as a meticulously informal workplace takes a lot of it. It’s no accident that one of the flex courses Reclaim’s Edtech team ran was all about hybrid working. I came on board to work on this course because we were interested in exploring all the different ways in which we can foster those interactions and habits that create a sense of meticulous informality in a team.

Which brings us back to Reclaim Hosting itself, where this kind of thing is not only valued but also shaping force that is reflected in everything the company does. After all, how many hosting companies do you know who get their team to sit around a drawing pad with Bryan Mathers as a first step to launching a new service (a service, incidentally, that as far as I can tell is needed because clients want to put more and more high level sites onto infrastructure they trust working with people who get it – people who are meticulously informal not only when they answer support tickets or chat about blogging on Discord, but also when it comes to designing new flagship services).

We get it! More artwork from the ReclaimEDU page.

Incidentally, Visual Thinkery, where the process is in many ways more important than the eventual (amazing!) output, is another example of meticulous informality at work. What makes it work in both cases is a mixture of incredibly hard work (and a good measure of genius), as well as that all important understanding of why the informal bit matters. When I saw the ‘We get it!’ image above that Bryan created with the team, I immediately thought ‘Yes! They do get it!’. Yes, they are really good at what they do and they work very, very hard to constantly improve the infrastructure and support, and they also treat you like a human being, they care, they get it. (And, as an afterthought, they are human beings, too, which nowadays probably isn’t a given when it comes to supporting you with your hosting.)

It matters to me that I get to work with people who share that sense of what I think of as meticulous informality. It matters because I am more than a metric. Being more than a metric, more than a data point was the focus of my keynote for the ETUG Conference in Kamloops, Canada, in 2019 and it’s been a theme I have come back to again and again since. I see meticulous informality as a way to create that all important space needed to relate to each other as human beings, be that at events or at work or hosting your domain, and not give in to technologically determined transactional behaviours.

20/01/2024
Sunrise blogging – career transition 3 months in
It’s January, it’s early and I’m feeling inspired. Time to reflect on my career transition three months in.

As I type this I have to pause frequently as it’s morning and each dog needs their cuddles. We’re arranged all together on the sofa, so I alternate the hand with which I type. The dogs are an important part of my life, and this new chapter. They are the best work life balance motivation and constant companions for this home worker.

Back to business.

I’ve read two books recently that have inspired me to think about this period of transition in new ways. First, Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career by Herminia Ibarra and now Chasing the Sun by Linda Geddes.

I loved Working Identity and learnt a lot from it. The things that resonated most with me: the importance of making a transition through practice, the reflective prompts included in the book and the overall affirmation that transitions need time and it’s important to give yourself permission to need time and to allow yourself some grace while you go through it.

This last one is particularly important to me just now, as I often get asked what I am doing, if it was worth it leaving my previous employment and if I have my next chapter figured out. My answers to those questions are: not quite sure; definitely and no, not at all. I am in fact trying out a number of things, and I don’t know the shape of things and it feels like a huge win. In a practical way I make enough money to pay my bills, I work 4-5 days a week and I do worry about precariousness but this transition is living up to and exceeding my expectations. It feels scary in the best way.

The reflective prompts in the book are a really useful starting point for taking stock and I especially like the way they are phrased. My favourite ones at the moment are:
- Moments of increased clarity about what you no longer want in your career?
- Physical symptoms that clarify pros and cons of options you are considering?
- Saying no to something you know is the wrong choice.
What these prompts help me understand is that I can’t plan or think my way through this period and onto the next chapter. Instead I need to give myself time and opportunities for practice. It reminds me a lot of my years in art school. I found art works in the same way. It’s a process, a practice that can turn ideas into reality. It feels good to have a narrative to share when you leave a long term job, and over time you re-tell the story again and again and each time it changes a little until you have new narrative that makes sense in the new context.

This emphasis on practice links nicely to the things I have made more time for in recent months: yoga; meditation, walking the dogs, being outside. The being outside bit is what prompted me to read the other book, Chasing the Sun.

Reading a book about the sun in the darkest time of year is no coincidence. I am seeking inspiration. And in this book I feel like I found plenty. It’s been useful to learn more about the science of sunlight, its importance to health and well-being, particularly mental health. There is a lot of research into the link between sunlight and depression and SAD that I found interesting. Getting outside during daylight hours already felt important to me before reading the book, but I had no idea how many different aspects of my life and my body could be impacted by it. Thankfully dog walks make it necessary for me to spend at least an hour outside each day and I average around 4-5 miles of movement a day. I even found that my watch can now estimate the time in daylight I spent each day. Not sure its figures are particularly accurate, but it’s an interesting idea.

Overall, my efforts to improve my mental health are definitely paying off. It’s anxiety rather than depression that’s been an acute struggle for me in the past, and even though this had already improved in recent years, in the past three months things have really changed for the better. What was once a constant noise in my life has receded into the background and only alerts me occasionally not to ignore my feelings. All the things I am doing, and more importantly how I am doing them, work together to make a shift in the right direction. Result!

Finally, I sat down in early January to review my plans and strategy. Here is what I found: My business plan for 2023 had four goals, relating to generating income, establishing a working business, and to find and enjoy a better work life balance. I managed to hit all the major goals, with only one timeline shifting a bit beyond my plans, which I am very happy with. The plan for 2024 has a few more goals, but also less detail. At least for now.

Life has started to take on a new rhythm. While each week or month looks different from the last and there are a lot of new things to learn, my days have started to take on a more uniform feel, with more calm and more outdoor time and exercise. Here’s to seeing more sunrises in 2024.

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10/01/2024
Festive Karaoke. Reclaiming online fun…

I love being online, and I love the communities I am part of online. As someone who relies largely on the internet to sustain long distance relationships with family and friends as well as collaborating with work colleagues on a daily basis, I am very invested in my corners of the web.

It takes a lot of effort however to keep those spaces good spaces to be in, on platforms like Discord and Mastodon, as well as this blog – my own domain for the past twenty years. In one of my favourite blog posts of the year, my partner Martin Weller reflected on the fragmentation of social media landscape to the tune of 70s disco tracks.

For me, the ‘secret sauce’ that keeps the network I am in truly fun, inspiring and genuine is the work happening in and around open education. From the OER Conference to working across various Open Education initiatives and group publications like this one from earlier in the year (Openness in Education as a Praxis: From Individual Testimonials to Collective Voices). For me, for the past 10+ years that usually involves the folk from Reclaim Hosting, the people who help you (and your students) get – and keep – a domain of one’s own. Incidentally, I have been digging into the archives and came across this gem of a post, from 2014, in which Jim Groom recounts how:

…we are still hoping to team up with Audrey Watters and Kin Lane to start realizing the vision behind “Reclaim Your Domain” as an extension of the Reclaim Hosting environment. Not just commodity hosting, but a space to synch, archive, and own your social presence around the web, while at the same time developing crucial web literacy skills.
Over 1000 Reclaims

Domains have been reclaimed, and ten years into the making there is no sign of letting up – Reclaim is thriving through technology as well as community. The community bit is the part I am especially excited about, and getting to work with the team that makes a packed calendar of events happen is a privilege as well as a lot of fun.

So this month, as we near the end of 2023, there is a whole host of activities to get involved in, as well as a very special session of festive karaoke, which is happening on December 22nd!

You’ll be able to watch the show on Reclaim.TV or listen in on Reclaim Radio… and if you let us know that you’d like to join us, then you can sing your festive favourites to your hearts content.

Me, I live in fear of karaoke, and unfortunately there’s a lot of evidence of how true those feelings are on YouTube. However, there must be a song by The Cure that I can co-opt as “festive”, and I am really looking forward to joining in, and reclaiming a bit of online fun before I head off into the holidays.

See you there!

05/12/2023
OER24 – Here we come
It’s a miserable day today in Cardiff. Grey, dark and rainy. Typical November weather. I am sitting at my desk with the light on although it’s only midday. Inside my head however, the sun is shining, at least figuratively, because my first OER24 submission is in!

OER24, in case you are new to the conference, is:

the 15th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy will be organised by ALT, the Association for Learning Technology, in partnership with Munster Technological University (MTU).

MTU offers an excellent space for all members of the open education community to collaborate, learn and share in an inclusive environment. We are excited to welcome OER participants from the UK and across the world to the MTU Bishopstown Campus in Cork, Ireland.

Dates: Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 March, with the GO-GN workshop on Tuesday 26

OER24 will bring together the strong Irish Open Education movement and international participants to leverage our shared expertise for change in policy and practice.

The Call for Proposals is open until Sunday 12 November 23:59 (anywhere in the world).
https://www.oer2024.co.uk/

Now, I have blogged quite a lot about the OER Conference over the past few years, culminating in one very long post (love letter) to the event last year… as OER23 was my final event as CEO of ALT and an unforgettable conference.

The start of a new chapter

This year however, I get to return as a delegate for the first time, and hopefully as a presenter, too. Thanks to the great work of all involved, the Call for Proposals was out earlier than usual, giving me extra impetus to get my thoughts in order and draft my first ever ‘external’ submission to the event.

I love the themes the Chairs and Committee have picked this year:
The conference will put the spotlight on Open Education practices through five themes:
- Open Education Landscape and Transformation: This theme explores Open Education and its transformative potential, with a particular emphasis on key initiatives and developments in the Irish education and training context.
- Equity and Inclusion in OER: This theme delves into the role of Open Educational Resources (OER) in serving marginalised groups and in promoting inclusivity, diversity and equity in open education.
- Open Source and Scholarly Engagement: This theme focuses on the connection between Open Education, Open Data, the Open-Source movement, and digital scholarship/librarianship, showcasing the collaboration of researchers across these areas.
- Ethical Dimensions of Generative AI and OER Creation: This theme highlights the ethical considerations surrounding the use of generative AI for content creation and its potential in making educational content more accessible.
- Innovative Pedagogies and Creative Education: This theme explores the intersection of Open Education with instructional design and learning design, examining creative practices and innovative pedagogies that enhance the learning experience.
https://www.oer2024.co.uk/
And I picked the theme around innovative pedagogies and creative education for my submission. My hope is that if everything works out as planned, I’ll be there with my partner and his colleagues from the Open University as well as my colleagues from Reclaim Hosting, and of course I can’t wait for an opportunity to see at least some of my former team at ALT in person, too. Hugs will most certainly happen.

Get your proposals submitted!

If you are thinking of making a submission, I would really encourage you to put one in. You only need between 250 – 500 words and there are a lot of fun formats to choose from, ranging from workshops to presentations and, of course, the one and only GASTA format, which promises to be 5 minutes of unforgettable fun.

This is a conference where you will not only be welcome, but which will recharge those batteries of enthusiasm and hope for the whole year… (just look at the keynote line up!).

Fingers crossed, I’ll be seeing you in Cork in March!

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09/11/2023
Step away from you screen…

… and come walk with me. How about a day along the windswept West Wales Coastal Path? The title image for this post is taken at the tip of the St David’s peninsula around this time of year. Let’s have a day buffeted by autumn winds surrounded by colourful heather, looking out to the endless horizon. I would love to have a day like that today.

In reality, although that part of the Coastal Path is only just over two hours from my desk, I am much more likely to take a walk along the Taff Trail with the dogs today. Not quite as dramatic when it comes to scenery, but my daily miles are a wonderful daily escape, a practice for my body and mind that benefits my wellbeing as well as my productivity.

Walking is a big part of my life. It’s a necessity when you have two big dogs that want to cover 3-5 miles a day. It’s a hobby, as I walk, jog and run my way to greater physical fitness. It’s also where I like to think, reflect and have important conversations. Over the past ten years, it’s definitely become a kind of superpower that gets me through tough days.

I like walking on my own, with the dogs, with someone else, sometimes with headphones in, sometimes in my head, alone with my thoughts. During my postgrad years I developed an academic interest in walking, and some of my PhD thesis was based on ethnographic walking and a phenomenological exploration of place and landscape, so it’s fair to say that I’ve read quite a lot a about walking as a practice, as a method of enquiry, as a way of life.

It’s always inspiring to read of great explorations or long walks, spanning a whole country for example. My own walking has stayed at a much more quotidian scale. I don’t really care whether I’m taking turns in my local park, walking through bustling city streets or trudging along the Coastal Path. What is important to me, and what makes it work, is that I get to reflect and process whatever is on my mind that day. If I have the company of a coach or a friend (or most commonly my partner), I have the added benefit of someone else’s perspective and the principle remains the same.

When I worked with my mentor Margaret we used to meet up every few months for a longer session, and we always tried to make it a walk. Between these meetings all our work happened online, via email or a phone call, but whenever I really needed to think something through, figure out a new vision for the next three years or confront a difficult situation in my role as CEO, we would walk together and talk it through.

Parenting books often suggest that the best way to have conversations with teenagers is not to sit around a table, facing each other, but to create a less confrontational atmosphere when you are side by side, driving in a car or walking somewhere for example.

In a work context, particularly if you work virtually, there’re many situations in which you face each other, or a whole screen or room full of people. You face each other, stare at your own reflection, at someone’s bad hair day and so forth. It’s not often conducive to focusing on thinking and reflecting. Screens are distracting.

Stepping away from the screen can feel hard. Technology is sticky, capturing our attention, and removing yourself from its constant nudges is a key reason why taking a walk is helpful. Walking is an embodied experience, you are moving through the world, experiencing it with your senses. All of which is helpful for getting a fresh perspective and to gain clarity.

Of course, it’s not often possible to head out for a whole day on the Coastal Path. More often, a walk around the local area has to suffice, and in my experience it works just as effectively. With a bit of forethought you can even gain some of the benefits of a walk indoors. Whenever I don’t have the time to actually go outdoors, and I have a call I really need to focus on, I put my headphones in, put the screen to sleep and pace up and down in my office. Sometimes with my eyes closed, sometimes looking down at the floor or nowhere in particular. I am still moving, focusing, and not distracted by screens. It does take some practice and discipline to make this work, and it’s much easier to give yourself the benefit of actually going for a walk, but on days when you have 10 back to back meetings it may be the only option.

I am really looking forward to exploring how to step away from the screen in my upcoming course on hybrid working. I am not sure if many people realise that walking can be a hybrid working superpower… but we’ll have fun finding out. Incidentally, I designed the course to be podcast based, focusing on audio rather than video content, so that folk who would like to walk along with me could do so as they work through the course. It’s free, so why not register 🙂

Some of my coaching clients, for whom I also offer walking sessions, really enjoy having a session talking on the phone whilst exploring their local park and pathways. And sometimes, when we are able to meet in person, we get to walk and talk together. Those are always the most exciting days for me.

I haven’t done any coaching on the Coastal Path as yet, but I have had many, many excellent conversations whilst exploring that beautiful part of the world. So.. if you are ever in South Wales or if you have a path near you that would make for a good place to think, get in touch.

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17/10/2023
The start of a whole new chapter: Day 1

Today is an exciting day. It’s the first Monday of the first week in which I am full-time in my new business. Maren Deepwell Coaching & Consultancy is now fully underway. Woohooo!

It’s been a long time coming, and I didn’t really know what to expect from today. It feels a little strange not to return to the familiar busy inbox and long-time colleagues after returning from a two week holiday. Instead I sit at the same desk, in the same room, but in the unfamiliar virtual HQ of my new venture. It does feel strange and also thrilling.

As I have had months to wait, plan and prepare for this day, I have intentionally made a schedule for my first day and my first week on the job. The purpose is to provide a structure within which I can start to establish my new workflows, processes and routines.

Of course, the structure I put in place needs to flex in response to the demands of the new projects and clients I get to work with, that was clear to me from the outset. That said, one of the reasons why I set out to work on a free-lance basis is that I get to have a lot more control over what my days look like.

Monday mornings are not my favourite time of the week, and used to be taken up with a lot of catching up with emails, staffing matters, meetings and so forth. When I sat down to decide what my ‘ideal’ start to the week would look like I had to pause and think. After decades of not having much choice, suddenly having all options open felt a little daunting. Quickly I realised that what I really want to start the week with is time to think. To use the energy, focus and creativity I have early in the day to work on things that require some vision and some uninterrupted time to think.

Thus, my schedule for first thing Monday morning now reads: thinking time. And it feels awesome to have such a start to the week.

Today was my first morning of thinking about things, and I am quite pleased with how it went. I use Asana to plan and organise my work, and I set up a weekly task for Monday mornings, so I can keep a running list of anything that I need to work on or think about. Today’s list included writing a strategy document for the remainder of this year, to update my business plan for Q3, and to think about my financial strategy and reporting. Plus, blogging my first day.

Our day at home started early today, so I was at my desk first thing, with a blank screen in front of me, ready for ‘thinking time’. It’s a bit odd to change jobs as a home-worker, as you don’t have a lot of physical changes to help you make a transition like this: No new commute, new office, new desk or coffee with new colleagues.

Instead, I made efforts to change my digital set up and create a new workspace for myself: a new desktop, a new desktop organiser, new tools like a new email client, calendar and so forth, as well as nice filing structures etc.

Working with Canva and Asana, I made good progress on the strategic tasks for the day, updating various plans and actions, scheduling tasks and thinking through what I would need to do to achieve my objectives for the last few months of the year.

It really helps that I already have a couple of exciting projects lined up, working with the amazing team at Reclaim Hosting and also continuing with the wonderful AmplifyFE Project, as well as my coaching clients and upcoming hybrid working course. So this first week already feels quite buzzy.

It’s been a while since I started a new role, but what I am quite certain of is that time flies when you have a lot of new experiences, and so I want to chronicle some of my days via the blog (and some via my closed work journals). I love looking back at my entries from previous roles and projects, and reflect on how much things have developed since.

If you are interested in the hybrid working course. Join us from 20th October – register free now.

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09/10/2023