Maren Deepwell

Category: stories

  • Analogue v digital. Non-fiction reading for April

    Analogue v digital. Non-fiction reading for April

    My favourite read for this month has to be The Revenge of Analogue by David Sax. Although this book was published nearly ten years ago, and some of the research it is based on would have been changed by the pandemic, I found it a really inspiring read. I love all things analogue from stationary and paper notebooks, to sending actual letters in the post and listening to vinyl records, and I have read a LOT of books about these (if you have never come across the fabulous Adventures in Stationary by James Ward, I thorough recommend it. There is a whole history of post-it notes and paperclips to be discovered!). What I found fascinating about The Revenge of the Analogue was the business perspective: examples of how industries were revived not for nostalgic reasons, but because of profit.

    Standing in line on Record Store Day, patiently waiting with hundreds of other enthusiasts, it made me so happy not to be the only woman who was waiting to buy a record. The independent record store industry here in Cardiff seems to be thriving, reaching new audiences beyond the stereotypical collectors. There were families, young adults and teenagers (at 7am!) and… plenty of women – all waiting to get their hands on the newest releases whilst sipping coffee in the early morning sunshine and watching the recycling being picked up by lorries from the nearby bars and restaurents. Quite a different story to a few years ago, when I was definitely part of a small minority of new enthusiasts. Yay for the popularity of analogue (even if it results in hipster style queuing at ungodly hours).

    On my radar for this month

    A brand new read arrived by post yesterday, thanks to a kind friend, who sent me Mary Oliver’s Devotions. I love a bit of poetry, and I am looking forward to exploring this volume. Reading the description, I was won over by the promise of ‘exuberant dog poems’.

    Non-fiction reading 2024

    Creativity and culture

    • Art Matters by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell
    • Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

    Hybrid working and leadership

    Coaching and reflective inquiry

    • The Big Book of Beautiful Questions by Warren Berger
    • Coach the Person not the Problem by Marcia Reynolds
  • Reclaiming #Edtech4life in Open Education (at OER24)

    Reclaiming #Edtech4life in Open Education (at OER24)

    In a month today, I’ll be at the OER Conference in Cork, and I am really looking forward to it! I am huge fan of this event, and encourage you to have a look at the programme and register if you haven’t yet done so and are planning to come.

    This year I am co-presenting two short sessions, starting with Reclaiming #Edtech4life in Open Education which is a joint venture with Meredith (Fierro) Huffman and Jim Groom. Here’s what we are planning to speak about:

    How do you make innovation work when the day job as an (edtech) educator gets ever busier? Where do you find not only solutions to practical problems but someone who speaks your language? When your day job is largely edtech focused and your focus is in practice, not policy or research, it can be challenging to find communities of practice that advocate for open – open in the sense of software and licensing, but also open in the sense that the community is welcoming, open to new ideas, and open to change. 

    Over the past 10 years our organisation has built a growing community of practice on the back of our day to day business activities. Yes, we are a small commercial company, but we bring a lot of expertise of working in Higher Ed to the table and we walk the walk of open education. 

    In this presentation we’ll share practical approaches inspired by communities like Equity Unbound and the ALT Open Education Special Interest Group  to connect with educators and edtechs from across the US and internationally sharing practice via community chats, micro courses, live streams and radio shows. We’ll share lessons learnt from running a hub for professional development every day of the year, a place in which open educators can engage in anything from trouble-shooting wordpress installations to tinkering with next generation tools. We offer a safe space to explore with peers, to play, to fail and make new connections along the way.   

    Resources and references

    Road to OER24

    Last week Meredith and I did a community stream all about our prep for the conference as well as sharing lots of the love we have for the event, memories from previous years and giving a bit of a preview of what we hope to speak about.

    You can watch the recording below, and join us on the road to OER24! See you there 🙂

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  • River Taff Meditations… and the joy of working radio

    River Taff Meditations… and the joy of working radio

    At the start of the year, I shared my intention to find more joy in music and radio. Music is a great way to brighten up busy days, especially at this time of year. The days are long and grey, the sun is only slowly making a return to early mornings and evening after work. I don’t know about you, but I can use every bright spot I can find just now.

    Now, plenty of us listen to the radio or to music as we work, so I don’t think you’ll be surprised to hear that I, too, love a few tunes to cheer up my Monday mornings. In my case, I have a couple of different ways to enjoy music at my desk:

    There’s background beats and meditation music to start with. Whether I listen to Lou Reed’s Hudson River Meditations, the sounds of rain against a window or lo-fi background beats, a calm soundtrack is usually part of my daily routine. My dog Posey settles down in her basket next to my desk as soon as she hears the low music start to flow through my office. She knows that this is the signal that I am going to be lost in spreadsheets or working on a new course design for a few hours.

    Then there’s listening to albums and playlists. I usually prefer to listen to vinyl on my record player, which is about 4 feet from my seat. There’re some practical advantages to listen to records rather than digital music: I need to get up every so often to flip the record, which is good for my body. Also, the play time of the record is limited, rather than endless as it would be on a digital platform, prompting a break from work to decide what next to play. I might walk downstairs to get another record and make some tea. It’s a healthy disruption.

    I do also listen to digital music, usually playlists, and that can be an excellent way to find the right soundtrack for a particular time of the week. Fridays for example I often listen to beach/holiday themed playlists.

    Commercial radio is rarely my choice of listening, mostly because I find the disruptions of talking annoying, but I do love indie internet radio.

    Talking of radio, I am a big fan of working radio, playing and sharing tunes with colleagues, and I am very lucky that the folk I work with at Reclaim are into this, too. Cue a lot of afternoons of random tunes on our in-house radio station. To me, it’s a fabulous way to connect with folk across timezones. Especially if you are all distributed across the globe, radio can be a powerful way to connect.

    For this blog post there is a special podcast with tunes that you can listen to on Spotify. Alternatively, I have listed the songs in the show notes for the episode so that you can listen along on the platform of your choice. Enjoy!

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  • Sunrise blogging – career transition 3 months in

    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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  • Festive Karaoke. Reclaiming online fun…

    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!

  • Reclaiming Halloween Radio

    Reclaiming Halloween Radio

    Earlier this week I got to join the folk from Reclaim Hosting for a spooky radio extravaganza! Across a couple of different timezones and radio stations, Reclaim Radio and DS106Radio, we ROCKED the airwaves.

    I love radio as a medium to have fun for virtual teams. It’s super engaging, not screen based, it’s synchronous and at the same time gives everyone space to do other stuff whilst listening. It’s also, when you have a team as capable as this, a pretty easy thing to do 🙂

    When we started planning for this, we offered different ways to get involved:

    • Share your favourite halloween tunes and we’ll play your tunes
    • Get on the radio with other Reclaim folk, chat about what you are working on, share scary stories.. And have fun!
    • Get on the radio as a host, spin up the tunes and invite special guests to chat with on air. 

    Not everyone wants to hear their own voice on air after all, and the whole point of doing something like this is that everyone can join in and have a bit of fun without feeling that they need to commit to a whole hour.

    Here is the programme we ended up with as a result:

    • 8:00am ET – Halloween Tunes with Meredith
    • 9:00am ET – Scary Special: Jim & Maren
    • 10:00am ET – Pumpkin Hour with Maren & Meredith
    • 11:00am ET – Halloween Tunes from the team
    • 12:00pm ET – Old Time Radio Hour: the Scary Stories of Suspense
    • 1:00pm ET – Radio Roundup with Amanda & Pilot
    • 2:00pm ET – Halloween Tunes with Jason
    • 3:00pm ET – Scary Tech (and Non-Tech) Stories with Amanda & Jason
    • 4:00pm ET – Halloween Tunes with Taylor
    • 5:00pm ET – Fright Night: Tunes from the Infrastructure Team

    The weird and the wonderful

    What I loved about the radio day was the variety of things that happened: from Italian horror movie soundtracks and The Cure to low-fi listening tunes, and from vintage story telling to news about what’s happening across the community, it was simply awesome!

    Folk joined in as they started to listen to the programme, saying hi on Mastodon and Discord, and sharing pics and stories along the way.

    I loved the radio shows on DS106 radio during the dark days of 2020 and 2021. Obviously my personal favourite was the Sunday Special that I was part of with Anne-Marie Scott and Tannis Morgan, but although a lot of fun was had, and at the time fun was a very scarce ingredient in life, it was very much radio of its time. Pandemic times.

    I remember hearing Jim and his family broadcasting from Italy, and us listening here in Wales, feeling like we were able to connect despite the long periods of lockdown.

    Our spooky Halloween radio show this week helped me reflect that whilst we still need to connect, and share and be present with each other, it is a huge relief to be doing so in context less dominated by the pandemic. We’ve learnt to value opportunities to have fun and be together more, I think, than we did before 2020.

    Just like the excellent GIF game that makes the Reclaim Roundup a must read each month, the radio brought together all the weird and wonderful scary tech (and non-tech) stories and tunes for a day to remember.

    What you didn’t see

    Part of my work with Reclaim as I see it, is about finding pockets of space and time in which this team of people who work so hard and who practice such heartfelt care about all they do, from answering support tickets to developing new products, get to have a moment to take a breath and revel in their achievements.

    Reflecting on success, feeling proud…, those things can be a lot harder to do than moving on to the next task, or pick up the next ticket. Just like in every other organisation I have ever worked with, here, too, is a never ending list of things to do. There is always pressure, always more that could be done, and new, exciting ideas on the horizon. I love seeing those glinting in the distance.

    What I have also learnt, however, is that there is ALWAYS something glinting on that horizon, and ALWAYS a long list of tasks and that it’s up to us to make the time and hold the space to say “YAY! WE ROCK!” every once in a while.

    I missed some of the Halloween fun (because timezones), but the next day I spent some time looking at the chat behind the scenes, the chat you didn’t see, and I was thrilled to see folk sharing photos of their front doors, ready for trick or treating, the chat, the banter and the GIFs. Those moments are what makes a team thrive, and they are what makes the memories that we will still recall long after the routine of weekly meetings is forgotten.

    It was a privilege and an awful lot of fun to be part of our Halloween Radio programme, so you won’t be surprised to hear that there might just be some more in store come the end of the year. Maybe there will be an opportunity to make a song request, or send in edtech holiday greetings… whatever we decide to do – I hope to see you on the airwaves.

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