ALT Strategy, NLS visit and Blipfoto focus #altc #nls #blipfoto

Despite the fact that it was a dull and drizzly day in February, today turned out to be quite interesting. 

Three exciting things happened:

Firstly, and most importantly, the Association for Learning Technology's new strategy has been launched. This is the result of a process that has taken place over the last year to consult with the ALT membership and the learning technology community to inform a document that is useful and representative. There has been an opportunity for ALT members, trustees and staff to collaborate in order to produce a strategy that is meaningful now, that is 'of its time' in 2014. The strategy promotes and shares the aims and values of ALT to the global educational and learning technology sector. 

I would recommend it as essential reading for all. 

https://www.alt.ac.uk/news/all_news/alt-launches-new-three-year-strategy

Secondly, this afternoon I went to the National Library of Scotland for a visit to the Conservation Workshop. It was a visit arranged through ELISA and was great. It was absolutely fascinating to see the work that they do and how skilled the people are who work there. We had the opportunity to see various people at work and see examples of the work that they do with books, papers and maps and the materials that they use to preserve documents. 

http://www.nls.uk

This evening I went to another event which was a Blipfoto Focus Group. It was organised by Eve Forrest and Hazel Hall from Napier University and held at inspace. 

There were nine blippers there all together and it was a very interesting and engaging discussion. It was one of those situations where you are taking interactions and situations from social media online contexts and putting them into real life. There was lots of talking about Blipfoto and what it means to the participants, about the motivation for doing it - taking a photo everyday and posting it with accompanying text. The routines involved and the practices and obsessions. The appeal for most people I think is that it is a journal and a way of creating a historical account of what happens. For me it is a way of recording my every day life and being able to see other peoples records of their lives. 

http://www.blipfoto.com