Originally published at: OEG Voices 082: Amanda Coolidge, Marcela Morales, and Maren Deepwell on “The Small Things” – OE Global Voices
Our newest episode features the voices of three experienced leaders of open education organizations who also do most of this work online. In a session recorded live during Open Education Week 2025, Amanda Coolidge, Marcela Morales, and Maren Deepwell reflect on now, more than even before, the importance of finding small things of joy in our practice. How this came about is an example of small things in action. After listening to one of Maren Deepwell’s podcasts with OE Global’s Alan Levine, Amanda did a small act of gratitude by sending them both an email of appreciation. Hi Maren and…
Just being part of this episode, plus listening again while editing the audio, was a “big” act of joy. I hope you like it as well.
With this episode, I am inserting a new part of ther podcasts that going forward will be recorded at the end of the session.
I call it the “Aftercast” - I will ask our guests to suggest a question or a prompt or maybe a call to action that listeners can respond to here, in social media, or just put in the world.
Feel free to mention or include our guests who do have accounts here @acoolidge @mdeepwell @marcela
For this episode I put into the Aftercast prompt machine (which does not generate anything, that’s between you and the reply button)
- What are some of the small things that you find effective to get outta the focus on productivity and time crunches?
- What are the ways your colleagues achieve more relationship building through actions like the BC Campus Health and Safety Committee videos that Amanda shared, the reflective walks that Maren describes or the life outside work sharing that Marcela talked about carving time out for in our OE Global staff meetings?
- What other approaches do you find are helpful work working and collaborating with colleagues who you work with online?
And if you want a vehicle doing sharing a small act or appreciation to another person you work with or are inspired by, make use of the Remixer Machine’s hat tip, created for us by @VisualThinkery following our earlier podcast with Bryan.
Here’s how:
- Start at our Hat Tip as Gratitude & Micro-recognition
- Change the colors of the background, hat, hand, text, switch the hat style, and most importantly, type your message.
- Publish this as a new remix.
- Copy the link and send it to the person you want to thank- by message, email, strapped to the leg of a pigeon (just kidding, seeing if anyone is reading).
- Ask them to do the same thing, remix and hat tip it forward
Can you see what we are doing?
We are now Aftercasting!
To which @toddconaway replies