ALT – the Association of Learning Technologists have a regional meet-up every three months or so usually somewhere in London. It’s a friendly, open and welcoming bunch of folk and there’s usually something of interest on the agenda.
So on Wednesday I made my way from Tooting up to QML and the People’s Palace for a pleasant lunch and afternoon of talks and activities. You can get a feel for the event from Leo’s storify here: https://storify.com/leohavemann/m25-learning-technology-group-spring-2016-literaci
It was a packed afternoon and I demonstrated my inability to remember names on a regular basis, but here are just a couple of things that I particularly liked.
Digital literacies and capabilities have been on the agenda for some time and we still don’t seem to have got very far with them as David Andrew reflected – interesting to see if the new JISC framework helps at all.
There was an interesting exercise with cardboard boxes, pens and stickers – based on an event UCL ran to get students to think creatively about their digital journey / dream learning environment and experiences.
I drew this as my digital dream:
My reason for creating a cassette recorder (apart from owning several) is that old-school analogue cassette recorders were so easy to use that there was almost no barrier to using them. Ok, the tapes chewed sometimes and the heads needed cleaning, but almost anyone could use them. (Pedants may wish to know that the eject button is round the side).
Am I saying digital technology is harder to use? Well, often it seems it is with confusing interfaces or technical glitches that get between the user and the learning.
It was good to hear (and meet) Richard Treves who spoke about getting staff and students to create their own screencasts . At the end of it I was convinced I should look at using Office mix to create simple screencasts. More here: http://www.richardtreves.com/recording-a-presentation-using-powerpoint-mix/
Unfortunately it doesn’t work on a Mac, thank you Microsoft. I’ll have to stick to Camtasia for now.
There was naturally a trip to a very nice pub where the chat was just as interesting: The Victoria
Many thanks to the organisers.
St George's Learning Technology Services 