{"id":11776,"date":"2023-12-15T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=11776"},"modified":"2023-12-15T10:00:46","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T10:00:46","slug":"how-i-transformed-from-cmalt-to-senior-cmalt-in-less-than-2-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2023\/12\/how-i-transformed-from-cmalt-to-senior-cmalt-in-less-than-2-years\/","title":{"rendered":"How I transformed from CMALT to Senior CMALT in less than 2 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Puiyin Wong, Trustee of ALT, PhD candidate at Lancaster University and Digital Learning Producer, CSM at University of Arts London<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hello, I am Puiyin and my first day working in learning technology was Monday 19 August 2019. The significance of this date isn\u2019t the date itself, but how recent it is. That\u2019s right, I have only been working in this field for a little over 4 years and this month I have achieved my Senior CMALT. The purpose of this blog post is to reflect on my journey from gaining my CMALT in February 2022 to less than 2 years later, achieving my Senior CMALT. I hope this can inspire you to feel that if I could do it, so can you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First things first, what is the difference between a CMALT and a Senior CMALT? To put it simply, a CMALT is about your own learning technology practice, your understanding and commitments to various aspects in this field. It\u2019s about you as a learning technology professional. Senior CMALT expects you to showcase the same elements of your practice, but via the impact from your institutional and\/or sectoral leadership. So, it\u2019s still about you, but it\u2019s about how you have inspired, supported, encouraged and led other people in learning technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first had the idea of doing the CMALT in early 2021 when I was working on my Senior Fellowship (SFHEA) with Advance HE. My reason for doing my SFHEA was simple; I wanted to reflect on my almost 20 years worth of experience working in HE. As I was writing my SHFEA application, I realised a lot of what I have been doing, even before I became a learning technology professional, was around digital learning and digital spaces. This gave me confidence, despite still being a baby in learning technology, I had more than enough for a decent CMALT portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feedback from my CMALT assessors was very complimentary and that was what gave me the idea to dream big. Maybe I could start thinking about what\u2019s next! I was a learning technologist at the Royal College of Art when I first decided I wanted to try for Senior CMALT. I nervously went to my boss Emma Bayne and asked if I could have some money to apply for Senior CMALT. I fully expected to have to explain to her in great detail why I wanted to do it or worse be told I wasn\u2019t ready for it. Emma only asked me one question – \u201cWill it benefit you?\u201d, to which I said hesitantly, \u201cI think so?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went for it without knowing exactly what my leadership impact is, but as I started collecting evidence and writing my reflection, I began to see a lot of the little things I have done in the last 2 – 3 years are impactful leadership. For example, the occasional well attended conference presentations, the #EdTechOutlaws community of practice I co-founded with Abbi Shaw from UCL, my #TELresearchers webinars series originated from Lancaster University where I co-host with John Brindle. Let\u2019s not forget my everyday, mundane business as usual projects that range from curriculum development to leading a Moodle audit to writing a business case for a new platform. As I started reflecting on what I have done, why I have done them, how I have done them and who benefited from my work, I soon realised I am a leader in the sector. It is worth saying, if you are a senior manager, it might be easier for you to achieve Senior CMALT, but it\u2019s not a given. Being a leader and being a manager are two very different things; a good manager is often also a good leader, but a good leader doesn\u2019t have to be a manager of any kind. The key is to critically and sometimes forensically examine what you have done to date. Below are some of the questions I have asked myself when putting together my Senior CMALT portfolio:<\/p>\n\n\n\n