ALT-C 2013 Tuesday
The Association for Learning Technology conference took
place in Nottingham at the East Midlands Conference Centre 10th - 12th
September. It was an excellent conference, as it always is, and I would
recommend it to anyone involved in education and invaluable to those involved
in educational technologies.
This blog post is not a comprehensive account of the
conference sessions as these can be found online via the ALT website and via
the ALT YouTube channel, but is a brief summary of events and of my experience
of the conference.
As usual, I never have time to prepare for my attendance
at the conference as I'm always working right up to the day before and this is
problematic. I would like to study in advance the sessions that I'm going to
attend and contact the people I would like to meet but instead it's straight
into the hurly burly.
Firstly the venue - I very much like the venue - easy to
get to by car, car park right outside, conference sessions all in one building,
no trekking across a campus to other buildings. Facilities good, main theatre
suitable, breakout rooms ok, tea and biscuits available, places to sit, places
to chat in corridors, modern decor and easy to find toilets. Wifi coverage good
although I expect most people use eduroam rather than the conference wifi. Food
good - lunches queue up and get served but tables to sit at thankfully none of
that wandering around the exhibition space trying to balance a plate and drink
etc.
The conference chairs, Malcolm Ryan and Hadyn Blackey
were excellent from start to finish providing a knowledgeable and entertaining
interface and appeal to all the delegates. It was a perfect balance between
looking back at 20 years of ALT conferences and providing relevance to current
developments.
The opening keynotes consisted of a number of speakers.
There was a video from Matthew Hancock MP who talked about FELTAG and then
MOOCs and the impact that MOOCs can have as they mature. He questioned what
changes are needed in order to use technology for the improvement of education.
Next up was Alan Ford, Pro-Vice Chancellor Teaching and
Learning University of Nottingham. He talked about blended learning, not
distance learning and the importance of supporting face to face teaching with
learning technologies.
Then Rachel Whenstone talked about partnerships and how
educators can build cultures of partnerships with students. Rachel is Vice-President (Higher Education)
of the National Union of Students and explained that students should have
opportunities to shape their learning and be empowered to determine what the
learning environment looks like. Students want a change from feedback to a two
way conversation about the process of change. Universities need to offer a new
way for students to engage not a consumerist model, new practice not just
rhetoric. It was a very interesting keynote and it was great to have the
student voice and perspective but I felt she was berating us for not doing
anything as far as collaborating with students is concerned. In fact lots of us
are working really hard at improving the student experience and involved in
lots of initiatives, projects and day to day activities to engage and empower
students. I agreed with everything she said but we're already travelling down
that road with good intentions.
Next I went to a session about iPads in distance learning
and using a bespoke app. The people
involved were working in a peace keeping role in warzones and often did not
have access to wifi. The session was
focused on digital literacy skills.
The next session was the FELTAG Open Consultation meeting
which involved feedback on the FELTAG workstreams. FELTAG is the Further Education Learning
Technology Action Group which was set up by Skills Minister Matthew Hancock to
find out how the FE sector could embrace different learning technologies. It
aims to focus on the practicalities of working with students and
employers. There was an opportunity for
people in the audience to make suggestions about the areas that the work should
focus on - these included capturing innovation, examples of best practice,
guided learning hours, funding (SFA), transforming and digitising the enrolment
system.
There is a review of the session and the conference which
can be downloaded from
The evening involved the reception for new ALT members
which was well attended and is very valuable.
I think that there was more new attendees at the conference than
previous years and hopefully they were also new ALT members. It is important to provide a networking
opportunity for new people as well as current members and to ensure that the
conference is a positive experience for all delegates.
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