{"id":1350,"date":"2016-09-20T08:34:37","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T08:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/learning-technology\/?p=1350"},"modified":"2022-04-13T15:46:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T15:46:55","slug":"altc-write-up-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/altc-write-up-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"ALTc Write-up (Day 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Dewi Parry<\/a><\/p>\n

Ok, where do I start! Let\u2019s go back to the beginning.<\/span><\/p>\n

The annual ALT (Association for Learning Technology<\/a>) conference – #ALTc is the UK\u2019s main learning technology conference, and is held every September. Many colleagues from Cardiff have attended over the years (and have taken a lot from it), and I was really grateful I was given the green light to attend this year. The conference, held on the University of Warwick Campus this year, was themed around \u201cConnect, Collaborate, Create\u201d, and took place over 3 days (it\u2019s a lot to take in!).\u00a0For the full programme, please visit the ALTc website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Caveat: I\u2019ve not written about learning analytics, as this topic is covered in an earlier post by Geraint Evans<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Day 1…<\/span><\/h4>\n
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In the Valley of the Trolls<\/b><\/p>\n

The first keynote was delivered by Josie Fraser<\/a> \u201cIn the Valley of the Trolls<\/a>\u201d. Fraser\u00a0talked about specific contexts of open practice – social and political, and \u201cdigital environmental factors that shape, restrict and enable collaboration and collection\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

Within the talk, Fraser referred to open educational practice, and how it means sharing with people who don\u2019t agree with you, which can be uncomfortable. This fear is also one of the first things mentioned when we discuss using twitter for teaching for example. Often, for staff, the fear is greater than the benefit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our own experience of delivering MOOCs over the past couple of years have opened our eyes to the real issues of trolling within open educational settings, and therefore we can sympathise with the concerns around moving practice out to the open, however the benefits of open practice are vast, and talks like this go a long way to alleviate initial fears, and there are many educators here that have embraced open education and whose students have benefitted from this shift in practice. <\/span><\/p>\n

One of the\u00a0messages was that we need to work together and need broader, more effective solutions to tackle trolling. The practical advice was to <\/span>ignore, block, and report <\/b>troll activity that makes you feel uncomfortable or is offensive. I\u2019ve embedded the talk for you, and a few references for this topic, including a blog post by Jodie Fraser on the talk are available below.<\/span><\/p>\n