Press release: International collaboration and leadership focus on day 1 of the ALT Annual Conference 2014
Opening with a keynote speech from Jeff Haywood (Vice-Principal Knowledge Management, CIO and Librarian at the University of Edinburgh), the 21st annual conference of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) takes place from 1-3 September 2014 at the University of Warwick. This year the conference theme is ‘Riding Giants: How to innovate and educate ahead of the wave’.
The opening conference day (1 September 2014) is supported by sponsor D2L (Desire2Learn) and has a focus on international collaboration and leadership. Welcoming addresses will be given by Conference Co-Chairs (Sarah Cornelius, Linda Creanor and Joe Wilson) and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Teaching and Learning, at the University of Warwick (Christina Hughes). The opening keynote from Jeff Haywood is going to ask participants to consider what sort of future for education we are seeking.
Also in the day’s programme are two sessions by invited speakers Fiona Harvey, lead for Digital Literacies in the Centre for Innovation in Technologies & Education at the University of Southampton and Bryan Mathers, learning technologist at City & Guilds. Fiona, who is also the Chair of ALT’s MOOC Special Interest Group (SIG), is going to focus on recent developments in MOOCs and other open courses, while Bryan will focus on innovation and examine how important it is to nurture a culture of innovation in your organisation, and if so, what you can do to grow it.
The first day will also feature a session led by participants from the national Changing the Learning Landscape programme, supported by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education and an international panel session about emerging leadership in learning technology across the globe. The day’s formal programme will close with the launch of the ALT Wales SIG.
“It’s clear that technology is disrupting traditional education. Online and blended learning is no longer an option – it has become a necessity for schools, universities, and now companies all over the world. Many of our clients now see 100% of their growth coming from their online offerings,” said John Baker, CEO of D2L. “At the same time, this disruption empowers educators to make learning more personalised, perceptive, and pervasive and to embrace adaptive learning, learning analytics, mobility, and cloud-based learning. This disruption also holds the single biggest opportunity to tackle the toughest challenges in education – from improving student satisfaction, personalising learning experiences and helping learners reach their full potential to drastically improving productivity and helping more students achieve higher degree attainment.”
ALT’s annual conference is the UK’s leading event focusing on learning technology and typically attracts over 450 participants from across the UK and all over the world, including experienced practitioners, suppliers, funders, policy makers, researchers, writers, presenters from other fields with many more engaging with the conference online.
The conference will feature a variety of sessions, keynote and invited speakers, an exhibition including technology providers, discussions of policy and development, and an active social programme with plenty of opportunities for networking.
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Further information and contact
For further information, contact allison.stevens@alt.ac.uk , or visit: https://www.alt.ac.uk/alt-conference/altc2014
Notes for Editors
ALT (the Association for Learning Technology) is a professional and scholarly association which brings together those with an interest in the use of learning technology. As the UK’s leading membership organisation in the learning technology field, we work to improve practice, promote research, and influence policy.
About 1200 individuals belong to ALT, as do about 230 organisational and sponsoring members across education sectors in the UK and internationally.
If you are writing about, blogging or sharing images and videos about the Annual Conference using tools that support tagging, please use the tag ‘altc’ – without the quotes. On Twitter, please use the ‘#altc’ hashtag – again, without the quotes. Thank you.
Association for Learning Technology, Gipsy Lane, Headington, Oxford, OX3 0BP Tel: +44 (0)1865 484 125 Fax: +44 (0)1865 484 165 URL: http://www.alt.ac.uk/
ALT is a Registered Charity in the UK, number: 1063519
About D2L
A global leader in EdTech, D2L is the creator of Brightspace, the world’s first integrated learning platform. The company partners with thought-leading organizations to improve learning through data-driven technology that helps deliver a personalized experience to every learner, regardless of geography or ability. D2L’s open and extensible platform is used by more than 1,100 clients and almost 15 million individual learners in higher education, K–12, healthcare, government, and the enterprise sector—including Fortune 1000 companies. The company has operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Singapore.www.brightspace.com | www.D2L.com
Brightspace is a trademark of Desire2Learn Incorporated, registered in the U.S. and other countries.