{"id":4437,"date":"2019-09-20T11:18:41","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T10:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/digital-learning\/?p=4437"},"modified":"2019-10-14T12:13:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T11:13:42","slug":"alt-c-the-next-big-thing-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/digital-learning\/2019\/09\/20\/alt-c-the-next-big-thing-is\/","title":{"rendered":"ALT-C: The next big thing is…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Last week I (and my colleague Bobbi) attended the annual, national Association of Learning Technologists’ conference (ALT-C<\/a>) in Edinburgh. The conference itself ran for 3 days and was attended by over 450 delegates, with others attending remotely via live streaming and an active Twitter hashtag #altc. The venue for the opening and closing remarks, and the 3 keynotes was the impressive and recently refurbished McEwan Hall<\/a>. The conference Chairs welcomed the delegates and then invited us to look up to the roof of the hall. Written around the ceiling, beneath the stunning murals, is Proverb 4:7… <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We were there to deliver a presentation <\/a>and a workshop<\/a> about projects we have been working on, and to network with our equivalent teams from other universities around the UK. So, after looking up, we then looked around at our fellow delegates gathered together with the aim of getting understanding and wisdom. Finally, our attention was directed to the floor of Bristo Square outside. “The Next Big Thing…is a Series of Little Things” is a art commission recently created and installed by Susan Collis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keynotes and Vevox backchannel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Three very different styles of Keynotes were provided by Sue Beckingham<\/a>, Jesse Stommel<\/a>, and Ollie Bray<\/a>. I was also especially interested to see how Vevox <\/a>would fare as a backchannel for questions and audience commentary as this is now our university-wide student response system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I usually have Twitter open during large keynote talks, but I have mixed feelings about it. If I’m finding it hard to follow the speaker (or the content of the presentation) then the tweets of other audience members with additional context or their own perspective really helps me to understand. However, and this is not unique to ALT, there are a greater number of tweets that are fired off quickly; a rushed photo of a slide or hurried echo of a soundbite (without context) and this is very distracting. With the addition of the Vevox backchannel on my device I decided to close my Twitter feed for the Keynotes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first keynote was very detailed and a large number of slides – too many to cover within the timeframe. Although a great go-to resource post conference, this is exactly the kind of keynote where I rely on my Twitter feed and multiple perspectives of my peers to help make sense of the content. Unfortunately the Vevox backchannel was implemented without etiquette guidance or managing expectations – even a National Conference for Learning Technologists can make mistakes! I think managing expectations for participants are key in achieving a positive and engaging experience, whether at a conference or in a lecture theatre, so despite the hiccups it was a useful learning experience to bring back to Southampton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I usually describe my work as a Learning Designer as ‘helping to tell stories’, and I really enjoyed the style of the second keynote. Jesse Stommel started by sitting on the edge of the stage and telling a personal story about his young daughter and how small children experience learning. His later points about privacy, and how the companies behind widely used education tools and platforms are using learner data were food for thought. It made me hurry off in the break to go through the Ts & Cs of a couple of tools we use, and made me consider a few platforms in a different light. Companies producing software and platforms are in the process of ‘Getting wisdom..and understanding’ but the wisdom is created by learners themselves, with no recompense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Framing critical digital pedagogy as the question of how can we build platforms that support learning across age, race, gender, culture ability, geography and so on really helped me to understand this term. Jesse also cautioned against using tools with bad pedagogy ‘baked into them’, something that I hadn’t considered at such a fundamental level and which also made me reflect on what I currently use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final keynote was my favourite, with Ollie Bray tasking the entire audience to make ducks in 45 seconds with just 6 pieces of Lego each. A lot of fun and a simple but effective demonstration of rapid iterative development. Ollie also highlighted the distinction between creativity and imagination; it is important to be creative in context so outputs are useful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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