{"id":13000,"date":"2025-04-30T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=13000"},"modified":"2025-04-17T11:07:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T10:07:36","slug":"a-cmalt-journey-insights-from-emily-armstrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2025\/04\/a-cmalt-journey-insights-from-emily-armstrong\/","title":{"rendered":"A CMALT Journey: Insights from Emily Armstrong\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXcQ0CPEhv8p7wQBdQG79aR4cNyN3IuyEP9V9x9fW6qYHzhKoIE9J7NRSm3SkFChP0dNuFAW5ziAX74BX0WEpbHI2xUMQaqyWOSnjTVIJoITah0Z62V37i9mOAPnIGEw_QHcHdQ9?key=tN6MlxxfGfbo_7Li6KuOeY9x\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>For this month&#8217;s blog profile, in celebration of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alt.ac.uk\/news\/all_news\/cmalt-week-2025-empower-your-professional-growth\">CMALT Week 2025<\/a>, we are excited to introduce Emily Armstrong, a passionate CMALT Assessor. We asked Emily a series of questions to gather her invaluable insights and experiences, aiming to provide guidance and inspiration for those embarking on their CMALT journey.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How has having a certified ALT membership impacted your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During my career, I\u2019ve moved from being a Chartered Librarian to a Learning Technologist as jobs in libraries became more scarce. CMALT and my MSc in Technology-Enhanced Learning enabled me to build my skills and knowledge so as to be able to make this move.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What do you find exciting about working with learning technology?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I love problem solving and being able to help find a solution or fix something &#8211; the helpdesk side is my favourite part of my role.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How did you first learn about CMALT?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I first learned about CMALT when my role at Hull College expanded to cover eLearning as well as libraries and I was looking for a way to accredit my skills in this area.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What made you decide to become a CMALT Assessor? Why might other individuals consider it too?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I first became a CMALT assessor when I worked in Further Education as I was aware there were only a few assessors with that background. However, I kept doing it because it is just really interesting! Anyone should consider doing a bit of assessing if they have the time as it is a fascinating way to see the different roles that make up the learning technologist community and to be inspired by the knowledge and ideas of a whole range of people.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What skills or attributes do you think are essential for success in learning technology today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I feel the skills I learned in libraries continue to serve me well as a Learning Technologist &#8211; friendliness, responsiveness, teamwork, listening and asking the right questions as well as, of course, the more technical skills of trying out new technologies and possibly most important of all, not being afraid to break something\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Who has been the most influential person in your professional journey?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is hard to pick a single person. A blog by James Gray from JISC made me realise that the issue with getting staff to try something new was not lack of time but lack of prioritisation. This later fed into my own MSc Research on digital competence vs digital confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of a person, my great friend Val Maybury at Hull College was probably the most influential as together I think we came up with the most influential tools I continue to use in my career &#8211; using a coaching approach to digital training, \u2018Small Change Big Difference\u2019 (bitesize drop-in training) and departmental digital champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What was the last thing you read or watched?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am currently watching \u2018Drive to Survive\u2019 in preparation for the new Formula One season and reading a book by Stuart Maconie about the welfare state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If you were on a deserted island, what is the one thing you would take?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Assuming I am not allowed to take my boyfriend (I think the rule is normally an inanimate object and he is not quite that!) &#8211; then I would go for my knitting needles as that is my favourite form of relaxation and a large quantity of wool (if I am lucky, it is a deserted Scottish island with sheep&#8230;).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>We hope you enjoyed hearing from one of our CMALT Assessors. If Emily Armstrong has inspired you to start your professional development journey, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alt.ac.uk\/cmalt\">explore registering as a CMALT candidate<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alt.ac.uk\/cmalt\/cmalt-assessors\">register your interest to be a CMALT Assessor<\/a>.&nbsp;Future profiles will feature colleagues involved with Special Interest and Members Groups, CMALT holders, ALT Members, Trustees, assessors, apprentices and ALT staff. 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 <a href=\"mailto:blog@alt.ac.uk\">blog@alt.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For this month&#8217;s blog profile, in celebration of CMALT Week 2025, we are excited to introduce Emily Armstrong, a passionate CMALT Assessor. We asked Emily a series of questions to gather her invaluable insights and experiences, aiming to provide guidance and inspiration for those embarking on their CMALT journey. How has having a certified ALT [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1584,1576,1959],"tags":[1258,1392,721,725,1994,2028,1466,1115,2006,1957],"class_list":["post-13000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-post","category-cmalt","category-profile-series","tag-altc-2","tag-cmalt-2","tag-alt","tag-altc","tag-cmalt-week","tag-emily-armstrong","tag-event","tag-professional-development","tag-profile","tag-profile-series"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/03\/CMALT-WEEK-blog-cover-profile-series.png?fit=1468%2C1100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13091,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2025\/05\/explore-the-voices-and-resources-of-cmalt-week-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":13000,"position":0},"title":"Explore the voices and resources of CMALT Week 2025\u00a0","author":"ALT","date":"6 May 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, we were pleased to host our first CMALT Week, from 28 April to 2 May 2025. A week packed with interactive sessions, webinars, and activities to help you along your CMALT journey. As we reflect on the week's events, we invite you to explore the voices and resources\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CMALT&quot;","block_context":{"text":"CMALT","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/cmalt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/05\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-1.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/05\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-1.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/05\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-1.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/05\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-1.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/05\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-1.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12807,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2025\/01\/kickstarting-2025-insights-from-fiona-jones-on-professional-development\/","url_meta":{"origin":13000,"position":1},"title":"Kickstarting 2025: Insights from Fiona Jones on Professional Development","author":"ALT","date":"23 January 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"As the new year begins, many of us are setting professional development goals for 2025. To give you some inspiration and ideas, we're excited to share our next profile series post, featuring Fiona Jones, ALT\u2019s Professional Development Manager. Fiona manages ALT\u2019s growing professional development services, which enhance professional recognition for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ALT Awards&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ALT Awards","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/alt-awards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/01\/Copy-of-altc-Blog-civi-2.png?fit=534%2C200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/01\/Copy-of-altc-Blog-civi-2.png?fit=534%2C200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/01\/Copy-of-altc-Blog-civi-2.png?fit=534%2C200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13424,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2025\/11\/supporting-our-community-my-role-as-a-trustee-for-alt\/","url_meta":{"origin":13000,"position":2},"title":"Supporting our community &#8211; my role as a trustee for ALT\u00a0","author":"ALT","date":"6 November 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Trustees\u2019 Week falls on 3-7 November this year. As part of the celebrations, ALT is recognising the invaluable work of our trustees. ALT\u2019s trustees set our direction and are responsible for ALT\u2019s strategy and the overall performance of the Association. During this week, we will be publishing articles by Keith\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/11\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-20.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/11\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-20.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/11\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-20.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/11\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-20.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5950,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2016\/09\/three-years-of-altc-and-cmalt\/","url_meta":{"origin":13000,"position":3},"title":"Three years of ALTc and CMALT","author":"Teresa MacKinnon","date":"22 September 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This post is written by David Hopkins. Teaching and Learning Consultant, University of Warwick Business School. David is a CMALT Assessor and member of CMALT Development Group. Whilst I may have joined ALT some 9 years ago it was only in 2014 that I first attended the annual conference. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Community&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Community","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"New CMALT badge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2016\/09\/CMALT-badge-778x438.jpg?fit=778%2C438&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2016\/09\/CMALT-badge-778x438.jpg?fit=778%2C438&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2016\/09\/CMALT-badge-778x438.jpg?fit=778%2C438&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2016\/09\/CMALT-badge-778x438.jpg?fit=778%2C438&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3386,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2014\/02\/new-opportunity-for-cmalt-holders-join-the-register-of-cmalt-consultants\/","url_meta":{"origin":13000,"position":4},"title":"New opportunity for CMALT Holders &#8211; join the Register of CMALT Consultants","author":"ALT","date":"19 February 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There is increasing demand for expertise in Learning Technology across a broad range of contexts for example assessment, VLEs, learning design, research, networks and tech support, change management and staff development. CMALT Holders who are interested in undertaking work for ALT on a consultancy basis now have the opportunity to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ALT news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ALT news","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/alt-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11941,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2024\/02\/ceo-report-to-members-february-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":13000,"position":5},"title":"CEO Report to Members, February 2024","author":"","date":"14 February 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Members, A very belated Happy New Year! We have a lot planned for 2024 and I've tried to highlight important news and events in this update for you all. Share your insights Our work across sectors, serving a growing community with diverse needs and priorities, depends on your input\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Chief Executive's Reports&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Chief Executive's Reports","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/reports\/chief-executives-reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kerry Pinny","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2024\/02\/Copy-of-Blog-Cover-700-%C3%97-216px-1.png?fit=700%2C216&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2024\/02\/Copy-of-Blog-Cover-700-%C3%97-216px-1.png?fit=700%2C216&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2024\/02\/Copy-of-Blog-Cover-700-%C3%97-216px-1.png?fit=700%2C216&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2024\/02\/Copy-of-Blog-Cover-700-%C3%97-216px-1.png?fit=700%2C216&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6CxU9-3nG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13003,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13000\/revisions\/13003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}