Wildcard entry #JuneEdTechChallenge

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So, we’ve been given a wildcard entry for Day 15 of the JuneEdTechChallenge. Halfway through, and we can choose what to tweet/write. I choose ‘the most overused word at the moment?’

In case you haven’t noticed things have been a bit ‘wonky’ over the last 14-15 months, this thing called Covid-19 has impacted nearly everyone in the planet and, in some small way, me too. I’ve written a bit about my lockdown experiences using the ‘lockdown’ tag on this blog, and a fair few tweets and LinkedIn updates have related to lockdown, remote/working-from-home/working-at-home, or return to office working.

The most annoying word I hear in the news, on Twitter, through emails, and in conversation is ‘normal’, and the drive to somehow return to it. It’s as though we’ve somehow forgotten that pre-lockdown we used to complain about workload volume, email burnout, meeting overload, and general tiredness and the possible impact our working loves were having on our personal lives, relationships, and wellbeing.

Here we are, fast-forward to June 2021 and we are in no better position – some are out of work and struggling to find/keep jobs. For others the focus on online learning and the need to support schools and colleges in the rapid shift to delivering ALL lessons and assessments online has resulted in a massive shift (ie lots more work) and focus on them and their work. In other words, LOTS MORE WORK. Where we had tiredness or email overload, too many meetings, or not enough appropriate meetings, we now have Zoom/Teams overload and too many unnecessary calls/meetings, as well as supporting our normal workload the need and shift has resulted in more courses or faculties needing support and guidance to delivery in fully or partially online.

The topic of mental health is now very firmly an open conversation we can (and should) be having with family, friends, and co-workers. Yet somehow there is talk of the need to ‘return’ to the way of working we were used to where wellbeing and mental health were somehow ‘dirty’ words and not to be talked about openly. I’m sure that’s not right? We must listen and learn from the last 15 months of working in order to realise the strength within each of us has found, and use it to drive a better, more inclusive and more appropriate future.

  • This is Day 15 of the 30-day JuneEdTechChallenge. Follow the challenge on my JuneEdTechChallengeblog tag and on Twitter using the #JuneEdTechChallenge hashtag. And write your own entries too. The list of challenges is as follows:

Photo credit: clement127