Maren Deepwell

Tag: #altc

  • Digital Detox – part 2

    Digital Detox – part 2

    A couple of weeks ago I blogged about embarking on a digital detox, and as in previous years, I put a new (to me) process to the test. Here is what happened this year, what worked for me and what didn’t:

    Screen free day… kind of

    The plan I followed culminated in having a screen/device free day at the end of the week, and I did more or less do that. For me, that’s not as big a change as it may be for some, and I was on holiday, which helped. Still, I use my phone to listen to audio books and take pictures, and I missed those things.

    So instead of having a completely screen/device free day, I have set my phone to only enable access to specific apps on Sundays, excluding all social media apps. I have chosen photos, camera, maps, a meditation app, maps, books and audio books as well as music to remain. All else is off limits on Sundays.

    It’s proven a great way to really get away from screens during the weekend and having the phone limitations switched on has given me a much greater awareness of how much I do check in with various channels. I feel I have more choice as a result and choose not to engage most of the time.

    Evenings and meal times

    I have used a similar approach for evenings from 20.30 and at mealtimes. This had an unintended consequence, as a lovely chat with a friend was suddenly cut off as it was 20.31… I called right back and explained. Following the steps of the detox programme made me reflect on how much I actually did use my phone in the evenings or during dinner.

    There was a real difference between what I *think* I do and what I actually do. That alone has made the process worthwhile for me.

    What I learnt

    I think of myself as digitally literate and informed when it comes to using my devices and social media. Previously, a lot of my efforts have gone into using tools and platforms safely, being aware of what data I generate and how this may be used (against me, for profit etc). With a distributed network of family and friends keeping in touch online has been a lifeline long before the pandemic introduced me to a whole new level of communicating using online tools.

    That said, I have spent less time observing how being online for work and personal activities impacts on my wellbeing, both physical and mental. This year’s detox process has helped me focus on those aspects of working and living using digital technologies.

    That’s something that I will write more about in the next post, inspired in part by this visual:

  • Virtual Teams Book: Building a virtual team spirit… extract from Chapter 2

    Virtual Teams Book: Building a virtual team spirit… extract from Chapter 2

    Progress since the last post

    Since my last post, I have been working on Chapter 2. It was great to work in this chapter as it includes a lot of practical strategies and case studies, which were fun to revisit.

    Next, I will be working on Chapter 1, Setting out as a virtual team.

    I have completed drafts for three of the six chapters now, and I am a total of 29,000 words into the process, which means I am halfway to a complete draft.

    As planned, I will be sharing extracts from work in progress (read this month’s extract below) and invite you to read along, reflect and share your thoughts. As part of the book writing process, I will also organise virtual drop in sessions which are open to all and free to attend and there is a regular newsletter with updates about the book and upcoming events or get in touch with me directly.

    Chapter overview: Building a virtual team spirit

    This chapter focuses on ways to engage a virtual staff, managing people who may never meet in person and finding ways to create a proper team spirit. Some of the examples in this chapter include show & tell sessions, team days and activities as well as physical items such as team merchandise, treats and presents. 

    Before we look at practical approaches, let’s consider some of the key questions that determine what team building activities will be the most effective in your context: what shapes the way a virtual team works? How do you find the right balance between online and in person activities? What do you want your team to feel like on a day to day basis? 

    It can be liberating to consider these questions outside of practical constraints. The way your team works, how often you can meet or what sort of activities you can make happen may be determined by constraints outside of your control, such as internal policies for example. That said, it is still worth getting a feel for what you hope the culture of your team can be and then work with the practicalities involved.

    Draft Chapter extract

    Below is an extract of the draft chapter.

    Team Meeting Ice-breakers

    In this case study, every weekly team meeting starts with a short ice-breaker activity. The chairing of the meetings is rotated, so that every member of the team takes a turn chairing the meeting. It is the responsibility of the chair to include an ice-breaker activity on the agenda. 

    In a team of ten or less, rotating the meetings can be a great way for bringing their own personality and style to the proceedings. What follows are examples of the kind of ice breaker activities we designed as a team: 

    • Animal corner: For this activity the team was asked to share your four-legged friends if you have one, or any animal that makes you smile! . 
    • Favourite recipe: Here the team shared what has been your favourite recipe discovered during lockdown, through which we discovered Freezer Vegan Breakfast Burritos and Ottolenghi’s Feta and oregano fries! 
    • Musical Mayhem: share 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 the team tick, covering tracks from the Bee Gees to N-trance. 
    • Movie recommendations: sharing box set or movie recommendations including links to reviews, personal reviews and ideas for further watching. 
    • Hogwarts House: the team took a free online quiz to find out which house each of us belong to (our team includes someone from every house…). 
    • Emoji Weather check-in: sharing what the weather’s like in emoji works well during heat waves or cold snaps. The team compared who was in the coldest place.
    • Air punch: 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. 
    • Pictionary Jam: where we had a round of Pictionary each drawing on a Jamboard. Plenty of other whiteboard tools are available to try this out and if a Pictionary game isn’t handy there is a website for that.

    Whilst every individual brings their own ideas to these activities, they all only take 5-10 minutes to complete, are easy to do and are very casual. 

    Planning your own virtual ice breakers? Start with these questions:
    Do you have any practical limitations or requirements?
    What, if anything, do you want to avoid?
    What examples can you share with your team to get started?
    Is there a particular time limit? 

  • August ’21: I’ve been busy! (and I made a terrarium)

    August ’21: I’ve been busy! (and I made a terrarium)

    This past month has been BUSY. I am good under pressure, but it took a lot of energy and effort to keep things in some sort of resemblance of balance this month.

    ALT is always busy in August, because we run our biggest event of the year in September, and it has keep us all working hard. It’ll be worth it when we see it coming together in just over two weeks. If you haven’t already registered, I’d encourage you to join us (and applications for scholarship places remain open, too).

    I am looking forward to us convening as a community. Hundreds of participants and speakers, many of whom I know. It will be good to reconnect after what has been quite an isolated year.

    Here is a quick run down of what I’ve been up to other than conference prep:

    I made a terrarium

    Blasus Terrarium Workshop

    Thanks for a wonderful independent plant shop, I was able to join a “make your own” terrarium last week. It’s a succulent terrarium, my favourite kind of plant.

    It was a great way to do a local activity and go somewhere new – plus, there is now a beautiful new terrarium next to my desk.

    Blogging

    I blogged quite a bit this month (for me).

    • JOINING CONVERSATIONS FOR EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION & BELONGING: I recently joined the anti-racism & learning technology group. I am particularly interested in the mentoring and coaching area and also recruitment. I am currently in the process of recruiting for a member of staff and post no. 3 is very relevant to me, encouraging us to ‘disrupt the current procedures in place, and to ensure that we can action diversity rather than pay lip service to racism issues in the sector’.
    • WE ARE LOOKING FOR A COO… A LOOK BEHIND THE RECRUITMENT DOORS: We are currently recruiting for a Chief Operations Officer for ALT, and I couldn’t be more excited! Now we are planning ahead for post-pandemic times. Whilst we have an excellent track record delivering online activities and a lot of expertise in virtual events, we don’t just want to follow our old ways. Instead, we are starting to innovate and that has helped us redistribute our income streams and ensured that we are back to generating the charitable income we need to achieve our mission. Next, we are looking to develop blended ways of doing things and improving what we are already good at. In order to achieve that, we have created a new role and are looking to grow our staff team… .
    • MAKING TIME FOR CPD IN A LEARNING TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP ROLE: In the past year it’s been hard to make much time for professional development, or at least the kind of professional development you can plan.
      Like many in my position, I had a huge amount of professional development focused on keeping my organisation running in a crisis, emergency governance, financial crisis management and so forth. Things are STILL extremely busy, and look like they will continue to be for some time to come, but I am making time do actually plan some CPD beyond giving talks and attending (virtual) conferences.
    • POSEIDON, BIN COLLECTOR, JUDGE. WHAT I WANTED TO BE WHEN I WAS A KID: When things are busy, it can be tough to make time and space for YOU. So in order to make some space for ME on MY blog, this is a blog post all about… me ?. Reflecting on ‘career’ progress for want of a better word is an important part of charting your own development, and this is something I have been doing as part of reviewing and updating my Senior CMALT Portfolio. The time frame for updating the portfolio is the last 3 years… but what we I look back 30+ years instead?

    Book progress

    I have been working on Chapter 3. This includes some of the most interesting sections relating to Learning Technology and Open Education, in particular a section on open approaches to leadership.

    The chapter was harder to write because I had a lot of things I wanted to refer to which would be covered in other parts of the book, which don’t exist yet. On the plus side, I have managed to get into a good routine with my writing, and I found a regular writing (half) day, which helps a lot.

    Read an update and extract here.

    Upcoming talks and events

    I have updated my running list with new events I am taking part in or speaking at:

    • Talk at MuseumNext Digital Learning Summit, 18 – 20 October, 2021;
    • Discussion Panel: Higher Education Conference: Ignite HE – From Response to Revival, 7 of October 2021;
    • Keynote: Transforming Learning Conference, Sheffield Hallam University, 14 September 2021;

    #Pupdate

    Posey in the canal
  • Poseidon, bin collector, judge. What I wanted to be when I was a kid.

    Poseidon, bin collector, judge. What I wanted to be when I was a kid.

    When things are busy, it can be tough to make time and space for YOU. So in order to make some space for ME on MY blog, this is a blog post all about… me 🙂

    Reflecting on ‘career’ progress for want of a better word is an important part of charting your own development, and this is something I have been doing as part of reviewing and updating my Senior CMALT Portfolio. The time frame for updating the portfolio is the last 3 years… but what we I look back 30+ years instead?

    How has my path changed since I first decided on what I wanted to do in life? Well, it all started with.. ketchup.

    Hot dog vendor

    Yep, growing up in what was then West Germany in the 80s made me a child who had a fondness for both, sausages and ketchup. Hence, my first career plan involved (what seemed to me) an endless daily supply of both. Whilst I am glad that this particular plan didn’t work out for me, I am still absolutely a fan of sausage on a barbecue AND ketchup.

    Early school years

    Bin collector: Obviously because of jumping on and off a moving vehicle, which looked like a LOT of fun to me.

    Circus conductor: as you can see from the cover image of this post, a fancy dress party my parents organised for my sister’s 16th (?) birthday gave me the opportunity to try out what it would be like to be a circus conductor, and needless to say I enjoyed it very much. Animals. Travel. Being in charge… what’s not to like 😉

    Poseidon: my fancy dress costume of choice at pre-school, patiently produced by my talented mother from green fabric, green netting and plenty of home-made paper and foil fish as well as a cardboard trident, was Poseidon. I proudly climbed up into the school bus on the day, only to meet rather puzzled classmates, who weren’t quite sure why I was dressed in a green bedsheet covered in fish whilst they wore princess dresses or the armour of superheroes. Still, being of the sea has always attracted me, and I still smile when I think back to that particular outfit.

    Astronaut: in primary school I had an inspiring teacher, who taught us sciences with such enthusiasm, that we not only learnt about photosynthesis, but in my case also got inspired to go into space. Willy was a teacher who welcomed all questions and valued curiosity above all else.

    Later school years

    Horse breeder: I can’t remember anymore which books I read, but for some time during my early teenage years, I was into horses, big time. We had a neighbour with an elderly horse that needed care, and Blacky proved to be an ideal horse for me to spend time with. I was a bit too afraid of riding to really get into it, and not physically confident, but I enjoyed walking him around the paddock, looking after him and… reading books about horses. My fantasy of having a farm and breed horses (ideally somewhere in the Irish countryside) involved wearing wellies, and being outside with horses and dogs. That, minus the horses, is how I like to spend my free time now… only in the Welsh countryside.

    Judge: At some point during the turbulent years of teenage hood, I became very interested in ethics and the legal system. I read a lot as a teenager, mostly books that were far too serious (I still have a full set of Kafka in black paperback from that period) and the idea of being part of something that could help set things right in the world, at least in my young eyes, was appealing.

    College and university

    Once I started college in London, my seventeen year old self discovered a lot of new opportunities and careers. Through my mostly low paid bar and customer service jobs I met people who had interesting, creative careers: cinema projectionists, coffee roasters, art collectors, book shop owners, academics, artists, musicians and many, who were many years older and worked behind the same shop or bar counter as me.

    Artist: throughout my college and undergraduate years, my focus was on my creative practice. It was challenging and interesting and provided me with freedom that subjects like law or science wouldn’t have. I loved art school. I didn’t love selling the work I made. I didn’t end up pursuing a career in art, but the things I learnt, the ways of thinking and being curious, are still very much part of my daily practice.

    Anthropologist: when I returned from a scholarship at the Athens School of Fine Arts, I was looking to do a postgraduate degree, and one MA, in Material and Visual Culture, attracted me in particular. It was a great course that introduced me to a whole new discipline and opened up a world of new perspectives in my head. I was still working in a café and a bookshop during my first postgraduate year, so my time to engage with student life was limited. That changed during my research degree years, when I managed to get a scholarship, and study cemeteries for a few years. My thesis has an intensely practical focus: how to bury people in the 21st century whilst respecting the burial culture of the past. But even I never expected to have a career in cemeteries.

    Learning Technologist: When the opportunity came along to work on a new VLE, Moodle, being introduced in my department at university, I immediately applied for the summer job and spent happy months setting up dozens of modules. That was the start of my work in Learning Technology, and it has lead to me a field that I am still working in today.

    Now

    Every Myers-Briggs test I have ever done described me as someone who is good at making decisions, good at leading, and I enjoy the variety of being in a leadership position that brings new challenges with it every day. I guess it’s no surprise that I will be celebrating 10 years of being a CEO next year, and that is a milestone I am looking forward to reflecting on in my CMALT Portfolio update.

    I am not sure if what I do now would seem like a good thing to the me who wanted to be Poseidon or breed horses. What I am sure about is that younger me would love the dog, and be happy about me writing a book.

  • We are looking for a COO… a look behind the recruitment doors

    We are looking for a COO… a look behind the recruitment doors

    We are currently recruiting for a Chief Operations Officer for ALT, and I couldn’t be more excited!

    It’s always great when you get to grow your team, particularly when there are only seven of you and each individual makes a big impact.

    Why this role, why now?

    We are the leading professional body for Learning Technology in the UK – and we have been pretty busy in the past eighteen months! Learning Technology has never been more in demand and as a consequence the work we do to support our growing community has increased month on month.

    After a year of supporting our Members through the global crisis, we have re-grouped and set out a strategic plan for the year ahead. 2020 was a tough year for us an independent charity as we traditionally generate half of our annual turnover from two face to face events. Thanks to our prudent financial strategy in past years, we had reserves to help us through times of crisis.

    Now we are planning ahead for post-pandemic times. Whilst we have an excellent track record delivering online activities and a lot of expertise in virtual events, we don’t just want to follow our old ways. Instead, we are starting to innovate and that has helped us redistribute our income streams and ensured that we are back to generating the charitable income we need to achieve our mission. Next, we are looking to develop blended ways of doing things and improving what we are already good at.

    In order to achieve that, we have created a new role and are looking to grow our staff team:

    The Chief Operations Officer (COO) is responsible for day-to-day operation of ALT, including technical infrastructure and systems used to deliver ALT’s services to 3,500 Members.  The COO acts as the Deputy for the Chief Executive and represents and advocates for ALT with our key stakeholders across sectors. 

    This is an opportunity to see projects through from conception to completion and play a part in shaping how we work and what we do. You will be reporting directly to and working closely with ALT’s CEO and have opportunities to develop your own skills in running an organisation in an innovative and human way. 

    https://www.alt.ac.uk/about-alt/work-us

    If that sounds like the kind of work you would enjoy, read on.

    An overhead image of a table with laptops on it and other work paraphernalia with a diverse group of people sitting around the table.
    Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

    Who is the team?

    ALT is governed by the Board of Trustees. Working with the Trustees and the wider membership is a small staff team – that’s us!

    For the past few months it’s been all ladies working in the team, and we are making a real effort to recruit the best candidates for each job whilst increasing the diversity of our team, which is a big priority for us (all recruitment and selection is undertaken in line with ALT’s aims and values and in accordance with ALT’s policy on equality and diversity).

    As it stands, we are based in three of the four nations in the UK; three of our team, that is 42%, are currently completing a PhD (and one of us already has hers) and over 40% of the team are either Certified Members of ALT or currently working towards their accreditation.

    As far as I know we have 5 cats and 5 dogs between us, and come Friday plenty of unicorns, too (Fridays we usually celebrate ‘unicorn’ day, a tradition even those of us who are not generally into things that are pink and fluffy have come to appreciate).

    We have a real range of backgrounds and have a former chartered surveyor as well as an expert in Victorian cemeteries in the team. As many of us work part-time, mostly 3 and 4 days a week, it’s quite common for us to have other responsibilities to focus on, be that studies, kids or other interests.

    If you’d like to find out what it is like for us working as a virtual team, read our blog post from earlier this year, celebrating three years as home-workers. Find out what our highlights and lowlights of pandemic working have been and how we thrive as a virtual team.

    You can also read more about how we work via a series of blog posts and an upcoming book on leading virtual teams that I am currently working on.

    A personal note

    When I first started working for ALT, as an Assistant Administrator (Maternity Cover) in 2008, I was just finishing my PhD and I had no inkling that a career in Learning Technology was ahead of me. As it turns out, the field has proven so interesting and challenging that I find always something new to do and to learn.

    The senior team of a small organisation is an exciting place to be. I love the freedom it gives me to make things happen, to be able to respond to the changing needs of our community without having a complicated hierarchy to negotiate. We believe in robust and transparent governance, and we get things done.

    I am proud to be part of a journey that has seen the size of our membership double several times since 2008, and writing our Impact Report 2021 has reminded me of how much we achieve as an organisation and as a team. For me it’s an exciting place to be with a good dollop of life/work balance and a team culture we all benefit from.

    Working for an independent charity with a staff team of fewer than ten people is a very different value proposition than working for a large institution such as a university or a commercial organisation with thousands of employees. For me, it’s a rewarding leadership position that allows me to practice what I preach 🙂

    Maren standing on top of the Garth Hill in South Wales near Cardiff, looking out over summer landscape.
    Not a working day… looking out over Cardiff countryside

    Find out more

    If you are interested to find out more, head over to the ALT website or contact me for an informal conversation.

    Apply by sending us your covering letter and your CV by 17 September 2021.

    All candidates will be notified after the initial short-listing by the end of September and short-listed candidates will be invited to online interviews in October.

    Cover image: Photo by Uta Scholl on Unsplash

  • June & July ’21: A break, a book and back to running

    I was on a long awaited break at the end of June and I missed out blogging about what I did in June… and so you get double the monthly blogging goodness in one post 🙂

    First up… CEO updates

    Things were BUSY for me as a CEO in June, as I wrote in my report to Members of ALT. Not only did we hold our AGM, announced new Trustee appointments and a Board meeting all in the same week, but we also launched our Impact Report, which I am really proud of:

    A page from the ALT Impact Report 2021

    That was my week of the year to hit all the big annual milestones and I am glad to say that the feedback was excellent. After the year we and everyone in Learning Technology has had, it means a lot to me that I have contributed to turning things around for us. We are once again on an upward trajectory, and as an independent charity we have weathered the crisis, for now at least. That is a great achievement as a CEO and for my whole team.

    We also shared the consultation response to the draft ethical framework we are developing and this is a project very close to my heart. We conducted an open consultation from 7 May – 9 June 2021 and received 165 responses – thank you! The consultation asked for feedback and input about different elements of the framework:

    • Ethical principles for professional practice in Learning Technology
    • Putting principles into action – reflective practice, practical tools and a checklist

    Work is now underway to create the resources which will launch in September. Speaking of September…

    There is also a very exciting (and online first) ALT Annual Conference on the horizon…! Even after running a whopping 157 online events in the past year with over 5,000 participants in total, we prepare for the Annual Conference somewhat differently. It’s our biggest event, our flagship conference, with a lot of history, and meaning for our community.

    The kind of value we want to provide goes well beyond sharing solutions and disseminating findings. To me, and to many others, ALT’s Annual Conference is ‘not just another (online) conference’ but it is an opportunity to make plans, to connect to colleagues and to energise and mobilise your networks for the year ahead. That kind of energy and inspiration is much needed and precious. Here is a blog post sharing what I’m hoping for for #altc #altc21.

    Personal update, birthday and my break 🙂

    And now… books!

    I absolutely LOVED reading Where you are is not Who you are by Ursula Burns (thank you, Catherine, for the recommendation). It’s an awe inspiring and awesome read and really made me think about being a CEO in a new way. It was fantastic to read about the reflections of someone who has had a successful career as a principled leader.

    Image

    Another great read from this past month has been Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo. And all the while, I was listening to DS106 Radio of course, and took part in the 24 hour marathong that Jim Groom organised to celebrated it’s 10 year 6 month (106) anniversary. You can read my love letter to emergency broadcasting here.

    And… I have finally managed to reclaim my morning runs.

    But. Most excitingly I have started to finally write the Leading a Virtual Teams Book and I am now two chapters into what I hope will be a year long writing project. And of course, you can read along:

    This month, I am writing Chapter 3: Leading a virtual team:

    Is leading a virtual team very different from leading a team that is geographically co-located? This chapter explores what the reality of leading a virtual team is like for managers and leaders, reflecting on the ups and downs of leadership and sharing ideas for how to find your own virtual leadership style.

    Exciting times and hopefully some useful output for everyone who finds themselves leading a virtual team.

    Quick links

    • Key insights for 2021 – a presentation for Russel Group Universities IT Directors (RUGIT), 14 July 2021;
    • Developing ethical approaches to learning technology, a Fair Comment article, Common Wealth of Learning, July 2021; 
    • Learning And Teaching Reimagined: Understanding The Response To COVID-19 And Exploring The Future Of Digital Learning And Teaching @ The Future of Blended Learning in Higher Education 2021, keynote, 17 June 2021;
    • Pedagogy and Practice when Teaching Online, webinar, 10 June 2021;
    • Open Apereo 21 #ALT & #Apereo Screenside Chat: ‘Ethics & Learning Technology. Perspectives from the Pandemic’. With @bellaabramsIT, @drchuck, @14prinsp, @MarenDeepwell & @iandolphin24 – 8 June 2021;