ALT chief executive Maren Deepwell said: "The more powerful technology becomes in our society, the more important it becomes to understand its applications and its potential. For over two decades ALT’s members from across education sectors, industry and government have worked in community to explore how best technology can enhance learning, teaching and assessment.
This year, we are asking: who has the power to shape the future of learning? Our Annual Conference presents our answer: we do, together.
With close to 500 delegates, 185 sessions over three days and strong support from our sponsors and exhibitors, our community is coming together to explore key questions around open education, learner engagement, the power of the crowd and collaboration."
Prof Steve Wheeler, Associate Professor of Learning Technologies at Plymouth University in collaboration with 2 students from the university, is opening our conference. On the following days participants will also hear keynotes from Laura Czerniewicz, Director of the Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CILT) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa and Jonathan Worth, Senior Research Associate at Newcastle University Open Lab. The closing keynote will be by Phil Long, Associate Vice Provost for Learning Sciences and Deputy Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Clinical Professor in Educational Psychology and in the School of Information, at the University of Texas, Austin.
While the conference programme reflects different learning contexts there is a particular strand focused on vocational education and skills on Wednesday 9 September, with industry-related sessions and others demonstrating working (and presenting) in partnership with learners.
Focusing on current policy, Bobbie McClelland, Deputy Director at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will talk about priorities in Further Education and will be followed by a short session led by Bob Harrison, Ambassador of ALT and Education Advisor at Toshiba. Other speakers include Ellie Russell, Student Engagement & Partnership Manager for The Student Engagement Partnership and Dr Rebecca Ferguson, lecturer in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University.
Celebrating outstanding achievement and excellence in Learning Technology are the Learning Technologist of the Year Awards. This year we feature an openly voted for community award. The winners of the Awards will be announced on Wednesday, 9 September.
Working in partnership with industry is a cornerstone of ALT’s work. We are an independent charity and the support of our exhibitors and in particular our sponsors is instrumental in making this conference grow. This year we thank our sponsors, OCR, Portal, Prowise and ULCC.
All conference information and live streams are available openly at https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015 .
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Press passes
If you would like a press pass to attend the conference, please contact Maren Deepwell, Chief Executive, maren.deepwell@alt.ac.uk .
Notes for Editors
1. 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.
2. About 1650 individuals belong to ALT, as do 200 organisations across education sectors in the UK and internationally.
3. 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.
4. For information about the Learning Technologist of the Year Awards go to https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015/2015-learning-technologist-of-the-year-awards/ and use #LTAwards on social media.
5. Our exhibitors are Blackboard, Canvas, Cengage Learning, Collabco, Exlibris campusM, Extron Electronics, Jisc, Kaltura, Mediasite, Pearson, Prowise, Refract, the Research and Education Space, The Scottish Qualifications Authority, Turning Technologies, URKUND and XtLearn.
6. More information about the conference: https://altc.alt.ac.uk/2015 *
7. Association for Learning Technology, Gipsy Lane, Headington, Oxford, OX3 0BP Tel: +44 (0)1865 484 125 URL: http://www.alt.ac.uk/
8. ALT is a Registered Charity in the UK, number: 1063519