Leading the Future: Insights from an Honorary Life Member
In anticipation of the ALT Winter Summit, our next profile series post delves into ‘Future Leadership in Learning Technology’ through an interview with an Honorary Life Member of the Association.
Dr. Julie Voce (PFHEA SCMALT) was awarded Honorary Life Membership at the ALT Annual Conference in Manchester on 4 September 2024, in recognition of her leadership and contributions to the sector. With over 20 years of experience, she has become a highly respected leader with a reputation for advancing learning technology.
Join us in the latest edition of the #altc blog profile series as we explore Julie’s journey, and gather her insights and advice for future leaders in the learning technology sector.
What aspects of your career do you think contributed to you being awarded Honorary Life Membership of ALT?
I have been in the sector for over 20 years now, which makes me sound very old, but it seems I have had an impact! I started as one of the two first Learning Technologists at UCL, and have worked at Imperial College London and City St George’s so I have a lot of experience across a range of areas and have worked with a lot of people during that time. I think a key aspect of the nomination was my contribution to the community, including ALT and other organisations such as UCISA, Heads of E-Learning Forum and the University of London Centre for Online and Distance Education. Being an active member of the community has enabled me to develop a core network of peers, many of whom I would count as good friends, and I have taken on leadership roles that have enabled me to positively influence things both within my institution and beyond.
How has ALT been important to your career?
ALT has always been an important part of my career, providing connections with others through the mailing lists and events that have helped to shape my own work and experiences. I first became involved with ALT when I took on the role of Deputy Editor for the ALT newsletter and this opened up a range of experiences for me, leading to sitting on ALT committees, co-chairing the annual conference and becoming a CMALT assessor. ALT has enabled me to develop skills and experience that feed back into my day job and this has contributed to being successful in my applications for both Senior CMALT and Principal Fellow.
What do you find exciting about working with learning technology?
I like the variety of the work, the ability to try new things and to see the impact of what we do not only on the staff we support, but also the students. On a typical day, I could go from talking about digital accessibility to delivering a session on generative AI and then contributing to a paper on learning spaces. Having a broad remit keeps things interesting, but I do sometimes feel like a “jack of all trades”. What helps is having an amazing (and award-winning!) team whose knowledge, innovative ideas and passion help to keep the job interesting.
Can you share how emerging and established leaders will benefit from the Winter Summit?
I am looking forward to participating in this year’s Winter Summit and having conversations with others about leadership. The sessions will provide both emerging and established leaders the opportunity to reflect on their own leadership in terms of authenticity, building your personal brand and considering strategies for leading digital transformation. I’m particularly looking forward to the panel session that I am participating in, facilitated by Puiyin Wong (University of Birmingham and ALT Trustee), that is aimed at emerging leaders. It will help participants identify with being a leader and provide some useful tips on how to develop your leadership.
What advice would you give to leaders who aspire to make a significant impact in learning technology?
Anyone can be a leader. You don’t have to be in a senior or management role to make an impact, and impact doesn’t need to be on a large scale. For every person you train or support, you are leading them on a journey and making an impact; that impact is helping staff and students to succeed. It’s often tricky for us to see the real impact of what we do, so it’s important to try and gather evidence when you can, even if it’s informal feedback.
I would also recommend getting involved with the community through associations like ALT, as it can enable you to take on leadership roles that you might not have the opportunity to do within your own institution. This experience can then feedback into your day job and build that confidence to take on more leadership responsibility. ALT issues an annual call to get involved and they are always looking for people to write blog posts. Leadership takes many forms, so writing a blog post can have just as much impact as chairing a committee.
What trends in learning technology do you think will most influence future leadership roles?
With digital transformation beyond learning technology becoming a key focus, I think we will see more roles across educational institutions and other organisations with a more direct remit for digital transformation, for example the new Director of Digital Transformation role at City St George’s who will be leading a new Digital Innovation and Transformation Office.
Generative AI, and AI more broadly, will of course have a role to play in influencing future leadership roles and leaders will need to understand how to take advantage of these tools to support the core activities of their organisation. At City St George’s we are realising the importance of having key academic staff in Schools with digital leadership as part of their portfolio, for example an Associate Dean (Digital) within our Law School, and this has really helped to support the awareness-raising and roll out of guidance around AI within our institution.
I think we will also see more roles focussed on digital accessibility and digital literacies as core areas that underpin digital transformation. At City St George’s we introduced a new Principal Educational Technologist role leading on digital accessibility and we are seeing similar Head of Digital Accessibility roles in other institutions. Likewise we introduced a Digital Skills Co-ordinator role to focus on supporting student digital skills. With both of these areas, it has taken time to build up, but we are now having real impact across the institution.
What was the last thing you read or watched?
I am mid-way through two epic journeys. For the past couple of years I have been working my way through the Agatha Christie novels in order, and this year alone I have listened to around 30 Agatha Christie audiobooks. I’m currently on the Hercule Poirot story ‘After the Funeral’.
In parallel, since October last year, my family have been working our way through the Star Trek series in release order. We started with Star Trek: the original series and are currently approaching the end of Voyager, which was always one of my favourite series. In some respects, working in learning technology is a little like Star Trek. We regularly have to make first contact with alien species (new academics), we explore new technologies (including holograms!), we often have to push technology further or fix things when they go wrong (“the VLE cannae take it, Captain!”), collaboration is core to what we do, and there’s always an ethical conundrum to resolve (how can students use AI in assessment?). Now, how do I convince my institution we need a holodeck and some transporters?
If you were on a deserted island, what is the one thing you would take?
It would depend on the island and why I was there! If I’m stranded on an island in an equatorial region, then probably suncream as I’m a redhead and burn very easily, but having a fully charged mobile phone with signal would also be handy so I can call for rescue.
If I have chosen a trip to a deserted island then probably a good book. I’m still to read the latest Richard Osman novel.
We hope you enjoyed hearing from one of our Honorary Life Members. If Julie has inspired you to take your leadership journey to the next level, come along to the ALT Winter Summit and be part of the conversation shaping future leadership in learning technology.
If you are a current member of ALT and would be interested in featuring in an upcoming post or want to recommend someone members would be interested in hearing from, please contact us at blog@alt.ac.uk.