Who? The ALT are ‘a professional and scholarly association which seeks to bring together all those with an interest in the use of learning technology.’ So that’s me, you (you are reading this post after all) and the colleagues we engage with.
Seb Schmoller: A technology colleague whom I respect. One of the first professional blogs I followed when working in post 16 education. The first person / body to give me the opportunity to share my passion for technology with an audience. The power of wikis – The BlendEd project was presented at the ALT/QIA ‘Making e-learning work conference back in October 2007.
Morag Munro: Head of Learning Innovation at Dublin City University and the editor of the ALT Newsletter.
What? A ‘mini series’ considering the use of technology in schools. Short posts about the #successes and #failures of this endeavour. The focus has yet to be defined, but I expect the mini posts will include series such as…
- Teaching with technology to smiling faces. How the use of technology changes when the students are facing you for a change.
- The interface of technology and teaching – teachnology.
- How IT Services impacts on Technology uptake.
- Moving from bruised to enthused (hopefully) – developing the use of technology from within an English Department .
- The truth first hand: Technology from the trenches.
- The budget (whether we like or not, it will be a topic).
Why? The ALT have a quarterly Newsletter (and of course @A_L_T) through which they share all manner of papers, conferences, articles and events. The newsletter was looking for new content. Why Kristianstill? You would have to ask the editor.
When? Now. Today and for the forthcoming academic Year.
Each year, for the past 3 years, I have record my academic and career aspirations. The teaching and IT projects and products I intend to investigate and experiment with. The courses, books and events I wish to attend and all things education. Through the year I review the progress I / we make (some aspiration require the support of the teams I work with) and typically sum up in the summer. Today is the day.
This academic year I aim to do the same, but with a more open style, here on the blog under the ALT category. That way you can just subscribe to just that element of the blog (if you wish) with Morag will hopefully digesting and selecting any posts worthy of being published in the Newsletter. I am realistic, it may in fact be an audience of very few, but it may just be interesting for ALT members and ICT or Technology specialists to ‘piggy-back’ someone else’s journey into the trenches. In fact, it may be a relief that it is in fact, just someone else.