{"id":2479,"date":"2018-10-29T11:20:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T11:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/learning-technology\/?p=2479"},"modified":"2022-04-13T15:46:28","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T15:46:28","slug":"altc-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/altc-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"ALTc 2018 Conference Reflections \/ Myfyrdodau ynghylch Cynhadledd ALTc 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Karl Luke<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks to the UCISA 2018 bursary scheme<\/a>, I recently attended the Association of Learning Technology (ALT) Conference 2018<\/a> in Manchester.<\/p>\n

This post shares some themes and highlights from the conference, together with emerging ideas I am keen to take forward at Cardiff University.<\/p>\n

Technological change is\u2026 inevitable<\/strong><\/p>\n

A common topic throughout the 3 day conference concerned technological transformation and how change is managed by organisations, divisions and individuals. In the keynote address on Day Two, Amber Thomas (Head of Academic Technology, University of Warwick) fascinatingly reflected on her personal and professional experiences of using educational technologies over the past two decades. You can read a summary on her blog: Fragments of Amber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amber highlighted that throughout history there have been many examples of disruptive technologies and offered parallels to some initiatives involving education (use of virtual learning environments, lecture capture). However, as Amber stressed, change takes time and is not about the technology, but the people. This chimes with my experiences as Business Change Officer at Cardiff University and reinforces the importance that Learning Technologists, and others involved in implementing learning technologies, need to carefully prepare and manage the \u201cpeople side of change\u201d.<\/p>\n

Related to the topic of change management, Jessica Gramp<\/a> and Tim Neumann<\/a> offered a captivating insight into how UCL developed, implemented and reinforced an e-learning strategy. Their presentation is available here<\/a> and highlights some key areas that need to be considered for successful adoption of a change. In supporting a change, the presentation stresses the importance of communities of practice. Intriguingly, UCL have established a Teaching Administrator (TA) Network, whose membership include staff who make a significant contribution to the student experience. The presentation highlighted many helpful change management strategies and I have obtained lots of ideas which I am keen to explore at Cardiff University.<\/p>\n

Lecture recording is a popular topic<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the conference I presented on my experiences of working in partnership with students to research how lecture recordings are used by learners.\u00a0 I have previously written about this subject here<\/a> and my ALT-C presentation can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2066@Karl_luke<\/a>\u2069 opens an afternoon session to a packed room at #ALTC<\/a> to outline the value of #student<\/a> partnership in the provision of #lecturecapture<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/YsOSMmeri8<\/a><\/p>\n

— Dr John Couperthwaite (@johncoup) September 11, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n