Summary of Inaugural Meeting of #EMLT (Or what else you can do on a hot sunny day in July)

The sun was beating down. There were clear blue skies and ice creams to keep cool.

So, why did over 30 Learning Technologists from around the East Midlands head to the Design School at University of Loughborough?

Instagram Link:  http://instagram.com/p/b3c3oKn2na/

For the inaugural meeting of the East Midlands Learning Technologist Group, of course. And it was great to see so many colleagues from all different sectors coming together to discuss and share their challenges, projects and aspirations for the group.

The day was kindly hosted by Charles Shields and his team from University of Loughborough and after a lovely meet and greet buffet (these things are important) we put our collective thinking hats on to talk about the common challenges we face as learning technologists in our respective organisations; what the group could do to support individuals and what collectively as group we wanted to achieve.

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There were naturally some common themes that came out of the day such as

• a strong recognition for for face-to-face meetings preferably with particular themes
• that the time together needs to be used constructively – maybe via problem-solving sessions  (as well as an opportunity for sharing issues)
• possible future formats could take the form of  short presentations, lots of discussions, ‘Dragons Den’ for ideas  and finding critical friends or possible collaborations, sharing of case studies etc.
• this blog should be our virtual hub and home, with thanks to those who have volunteered the WordPress expertise in getting the site off the ground. If you’re interested in being an author, please contact anyone of the Steering Group

Finally we had an opportunity to share some of the projects that the various teams were currently involved with.  If you’d like to get a flavour of the group’s discussions and some of the projects shared then feel free to take a look at the slides from the day:

So where next for the group? Well we’ll putting terms of reference together for comment by the group…  and are looking for suggestions for themes for our future meetings.

In the meantime you can find us on JISCMail, Google+, LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter @eastmidslt and find us on the ALT website

And we’ll be meeting again at this years ALT-C Conference in Nottingham, at the East Midlands Conference Centre where else!.

If you’re really nosy about what went on you can find more details about the day via Storify and Slideshare