Talking to camera

I seem to be doing a lot of interviews lately, many of which are on video. No-one ever warned me that I would be doing video interviews when I first became a teacher. No-one came up to me and offered me media presentation training like they do for politicians. I have never been briefed on what to do when standing (or sitting) in front of a camera. I have had to learn all about it by trial and error. Error more than trial actually. I can now tell you what a noddy is (no, it's not a Toytown character) and what a cut-away does (best not to ask, really). It has very much been informal training on the job, and I'm sure I've screwed up now and then. Yet my most recent video interviews seem to be watchable, and I appear to be reasonably coherent and not talking too much gibberish. I'm now at the point where I don't care anymore if someone comes up to me and asks for a video interview. I'll do a talk to camera at the drop of a hat. That actually helps when people suddenly walk up to me and shove a mobile phone into my face and ask for an impromptu interview. Talking to camera doesn't make me sweat or tremble like it used to when back in 1992 I did my first ever TV studio interview. Back then, I remember feeling physically sick, and spending a lot of time prior to broadcast in the toilet (yes, the TV interview was a live broadcast and there was no room for error .... scary).

My time spent later working for the RATIO telematics project from 1996-1998 gave me plenty of opportunities to sit on the other side of the microphone, and I suppose was a kind of on the fly media training. I had to learn fast. I even had my own Training Hour show once each week, which went out live by satellite to the whole of Europe. It helped me to think on my feet and cope with most situations (dead air with guests clamming up and not speaking, technical problems such as failed phone-ins, mouse droppings on the carpet, etc....)



When James Clay invited me at the recent ALT-C event in Leeds to sit in as an interviewer, and converse with guests for the live webstreaming ALT-C Live Beta TV programme, it all came back to me. I would have no more than a minute or two to find out a little about them and formulate a few questions and then it was straight in with the live streaming interview. It felt quite natural to do the intro direct to camera, and then turn to the guest and try to get some interesting snippets of insight from them. John Traxler was probably the best to interview because I only had to ask him one or two questions and then he was off, talking twenty to the dozen until we eventually hauled him out of the studio kicking and screaming (OK, I exaggerate, but John did most of the work for me). Above is a brief, unscripted one minute elevator pitch interview I did for my own university, about some of the research I'm currently engaged in. And below is an on the spot interview I did while over in Dublin at the EDEN Conference in June. There are several more in the pipeline that will appear on the web in the next week or so that were recorded in Lisbon and Cologne recently. I'm getting to be an old pro at this video lark now. I even managed to video myself smashing a can of baked beans down onto my finger to make a point for a student group. Look, don't ask - just click on the video link and watch it for yourself. That's the kind of stuff I get up to in the classroom when there's a camera to perform in front of.




Talking to camera by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Food for thought

Gather round everyone, it's Day 2 of the ALT-C 2011 Conference in Leeds. I'm meeting lots of folk today and doing a number of interviews, while trying to fit in as many of the paper and panel sessions as possible without keeling over. Sadly, my laptop Keith and I are on our own now. My faithful iPod Iggy passed away last night, and is now in a much better place (at the bottom of my case).


Yesterday was also a busy day, with plenty of food for thought, including two (yes two) sessions featuring the ubiquitous Richard Hall. The first session was a panel presentation where Frances Bell, Josie Fraser, Helen Keegan (both wearing bright red dresses), and Richard (sadly not in a red dress but wearing instead the obligatory learning technologist check shirt) held forth on the paradox of openness, covering issues of authenticity, misappropriation and identity in digital environments. It was cut and thrust all the way, and the packed room responded with questions, comments and ... er, more questions about what we should really be doing and saying online.


The second session was an interesting rehash of the infamous VLE is Dead symposium we conducted a couple of years ago at ALT-C 2009 in Manchester. This time, Richard and his colleagues discussed whether the VLE should be rebirthed. Again, as is usually the case when institutional tools are discussed, the audience was polarised and a healthy discussion ensued. It was all food for thought indeed.


Food for thought by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Broadband is a human right

The 2011 ALT-C Conference is being held at the University of Leeds on a campus that is as convoluted as the maze of arguments and discussions we are enjoying. This year's event is co-chaired by John Cook and Sugata Mitra, and the programme and as always, is packed with far too many choices, you are bound to miss something you would really like to see. Too much choice is not the only problem we have to face. Just trying to navigate your way around the Leeds campus to find the rooms can be difficult, and there is a lot of walking around outside, up and down many steps and slopes.  The intermittent rain showers don't help either, but as they keep telling me - it's grim up north. Finding your choice of sessions then, certainly requires stamina and tenacity. And we will need these in equal measure throughout the conference, because all of the sessions I have attended so far have sought to go beyond the run-of-the-mill conference papers of old, to challenge preconceptions, problematise old knowledge and generally rattle a few cages along the way.... of which more in later posts from ALT-C 2011.

Miguel Brechner's keynote this morning focused on the CEIBAL one-laptop-per-child project in the schools of Uruguay. Uruguay is only a small South American country, about the size of Wales, and with a small population, and in the past it has not been particularly well known for its educational achievements. But today the spotlight was well and truly on Uruguay. In a gently humourous style, and laced with football analogies (he delighted in reminded his audience that Uruguay had once beaten Brazil to win the Soccer World Cup), Miguel Brechner demonstrated how giving a free laptop to each child has liberated them to learn in their own way and in their own time. Children now really want to go to school he said, and are upset if they miss even a day. He showed how the education landscape has been changed in Uruguay, and how social equality is being achieved among the youth of his country. Clearly very passionate about his cause, Brechner argued that not only is access to broadband absolutely essential for education, in today's connected world, it should also be considered a human right. While many of us had heard these mantras before, given that Negroponte's vision has been in existence for well over a decade, we were all nevertheless impressed by the manner in which this project had been implemented, in humility, with a great sense of purpose and with an eye on the future for Uruguay's youth. 


In some ways, OLPC could be said to run counter to the ideals of Sugata Mitra's Hole in the Wall Project. OLPC is very focused on solo learning, where each child uses his laptop in his own way, and is more or less autonomous, against the Hole in the Wall project where learners work together around a social space which involves a single computer. The minimally invasive education of Mitra's work, when measured against the individualised and personalised learning approach of OLPC leaves a lot of questions open. What is the best way for children to learn? With a communal technology that forces social contact, or with individual technologies where social contact is optional? This has indeed been the subject of discussion throughout the day during the breaks. It would be good to get Sugata Mitra (who is here on Thursday) and Miguel Brechner together to debate this, to hear their respective arguments.


Broadband is a human right by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Locked and loaded

Next week is the annual bash for learning technologists here in the UK. ALT-C 2010 looms, and Nottingham beckons once again for a gathering of the clans. The last time we all went to the University of Nottingham campus for ALT-C, I met several people for the first time, including James Clay (who had his car broken into), Graham Attwell (who didn't have a car), Sam Easterby-Smith, Josie Fraser and Cristina Costa. I have worked with many of these on a regular basis since, and count them among my most valuable colleagues, as well as great friends. ALT-C (you see) is not just about attending to hear about the latest trends in technology supported learning, or watching cool demonstrations of the latests gadgets and gizmos, nor is it about listening to great (and sometimes not so great) keynotes. It's also about making new friends, forging alliances and extending your personal learning network. And coffee. Here's the ALT-C Crowdvine site delegates are using to connect before the event even starts.

So I'm locked and loaded and ready to drive up the autobahn to Nottingham next week, and here in the picture, is what I'm taking with me: 12 essentials I will be using to keep me out of mischief while I'm at the conference. 1) A four gang mains extension cable. The more sockets you have, the more friends you make. 2) The all important Acer Netbook. Small, but perfectly formed, and powerful when in the hands of the right blogger. 3) Sony Cybershot camera. Small, compact, and very versatile. 4) My trusty Nintendo DS, for use when the keynote speeches get deathly boring. (Look, Sugata, Donald - I'm joking OK?). 5) Power supply for said DS. 6) Power supply and cable for netbook. 7) Camera/netbook cable. I'm not that sophisticated yet. 8) Ethernet cable in case my guesthouse doesn't have wifi. Yes, guesthouse. I am not staying in student accommodation again. Ever. 9) Power supply for iPhone, iPod Touch and other Jobby things. 10) Wireless presenter and laser pointer. For keeping the audience in check. 11) iPhone. 12) iPod Touch. My iPhone is not enabled for internet. Don't ask, it's a long story, involving O2, a bowl of custard and a nun. 13) There is no 13. If there was it would have been my memory stick, but I forgot to put it in the photo.

So there you have it. My travelling companions for ALT-C. What are you bringing? Oh, and I lied about the nun.


Locked and loaded by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

YouTube culture

Most of us have watched Michael Wesch's YouTube video The machine is (us)ing us, which by now has secured iconic status - it was a defining moment in our collective understanding of Web 2.0 and participative media. Well, the man recently gave a keynote presentation for the Personal Democracy Forum 2009, entitled: The Machine is (Changing) Us. Mike's presentation centres on YouTube Culture and the 'Politics of Authenticity' (including an analysis of the changes in meaning of the word 'whatever' over the years), features a number of popular cultural landmarks such as the Simpsons and 'Charlie bit me', and is packed full of references to media philosophers such as Neil Postman and Marshall McLuhan.

Drawing also upon a cultural study conducted by a group of his own undergraduate students, it is a thought provoking, challenging and truly uplifting speech. Watch the entire half hour and I promise .... you will be inspired.

Note: Mike Wesch is one of our keynote speakers for this year's ALT-C conference in Manchester.

Image source

2008 Conferences Retro

I spoke at a number of high profile e-learning conferences over the year, and took part in some stimulating discussions and excellent workshops. Half of the joy of attending such events is the possibility of networking with like minded individuals, intelligent people with great ideas, and the chance to engage with them in sharing ideas and collaborating together beyond the event. Here are my top ten learning technology conferences of 2008 (look, I know it's eleven really, but whose blog is this anyway?):

10 = I was invited to keynote the Polish Virtual Universities conference in June and was flown out to Warsaw for a few days. It's a beautiful city, but there are parts of Warsaw, including the accommodation I stayed in, which left a little to be desired. The conference was all in Polish, except for the three keynotes, so I didn't get much from the event. Albert Sangra's presentation (Open University of Catalonia, Spain) was excellent, and we have since become great friends.

10 = I was also invited to keynote the one-day event held in Southampton University in January. The conference, focusing on e-learning for language teaching, was also keynoted by Jon Dron (Athabasca University) and I enjoyed his presentation and learnt a lot.

9 - As with last year, the ICL conference held in Villach, Austria was again an interesting one. Met old friends and made some new ones, and participated in several workshops and paper presentations. I gave a 3 hour pre-conference Web 2.0 workshop which almost 50 people attended. Conversation was lively and long lived. Web 2.0 is obviously still a hot topic amongst the education community. And the social event - a day trip to Venice - was an incredible experience. The 2009 ICL event will again be held in Villach on 23-25 September.

8 - My home conference, the 3rd Plymouth e-Learning Conference, held in April, was only a one day event, but was one not to miss. An excellent keynote by Mark Stiles was followed by many high quality papers from delegates from 20 UK universities, and a stirling demonstration of the Wii hack from our own team of Learning Technologists. And the Devon cream tea was also well received by all! Next year's Plymouth e-Learning Conference is a two day event, and is already shaping up to be bigger and better than 2008's, with as of today, more than 100 delegates already registered from 15 countries.

7 - The EduMedia conference, in the peaceful and majestic Alpine surroundings of St Virgil, Salzburg was a wonderful experience. I met some new friends and made some useful contacts, many of which will be pursued over the coming months. Even found time to make a short trip across the border to Germany for an excellent meal with friends. Next year's event Edumedia 2009 takes place in Salzburg between 2-3 June.

6 - In November, I left the damp and drizzly weather of the UK for a few days in Barecelona for the Open EduTech summit, hosted by the Open University of Catalonia. Not really a conference, more a meeting of minds, I was one of an invited group of 40 e-learning and open learning specialists who were brought together to discuss the future of open learning. A very stimulating event, tapas and drinks with new friends and old, and some great walks around the gothic quarter of Barcelona and up Las Ramblas were highlights of this event.

4 = At 4th equal - Online Educa Berlin is always a great experience. Always held in the crisp and cold pre-Christmas German capital, and is always massive. The presence of the edublogger community was stimulating, and our many informal meetings outside the confines of the main conference were memorable and fruitful. OEB 2009 will be held in December 2-4.

4 = In equal 4th place was the IFIP conference - ICT and Learning for the Net Generation - which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July (pictured above). In the extreme heat and humidity more than 120 delegates from around the globe came together to discuss a variety of digital learning contexts and e-learning methods. Social trips out and about were enjoyed by all, and the silubrious surroundings of the Saujana Hotel were unrivalled - one highlight was a moonlit dinner at the hotel poolside. An unscheduled stopover at a beach hotel in Sri Lanka on the way home capped the experience for me.

2 = The EDEN 2008 conference was held at the Belem Cultural Centre in beautiful Lisbon in June. I toured the city on the first day and was impressed by its beauty and majesty. The conference was also stimulating and enjoyable, and several of us introduced live blogging as a mainstream activity at EDEN for the first time. EDEN 2009 will be held in Gdansk, Poland for the first time, on 10-13 June. EDEN is an excellent conference for networking amongst distance education and e-learning professionals. It is fairly non-commercial (no vendors or exhibition to speak of), eclectic and fast moving.

2 = ALT-C 2008 which took place at the University of Leeds in September has my vote for joint second place. Although the accommodation was basic, the venue was great, and there were some memorable papers and workshops, including an inspirational keynote speech by Hans Rosling. Most memorable event was the Web 2.0 Slam workshop where James Clay, Joss Winn and I created a comic YouTube video about gender and the digital divide. Best outcome of the event was the inception of the Fringe (F-ALT) organised by some of the edublogger community. Long may it continue at all future events! ALT-C 2009 will be held in Manchester, 8-10 September.

1 - My number 1! The best conference by a country mile in 2008 was Handheld Learning, which took place in London in October. I attended Handheld as a non-speaking delegate. Doesn't mean I didn't talk to anyone, because there were many very useful conversations. No, I went along with no pressure, because I had no paper to present. The event had something for everyone, including Nintendo Wii games to play, superb staging and lighting, excellent organisation, great catering, friendly crew, a specturm of papers and workshops which ranged from entirely practical to challengingly academic and above all, an extremely eclectic mix of delegates drawn from every single sector of educational practice, and a great venue - The Brewery in the East End of London. Congratulations go to Graham Brown-Martin and his team for organising such a memorable event - I definitely intend returning for Handheld Learning in 2009 (5-7 October).

Going for the hat trick

This year I'm going for the hat trick - speaking at the three most prestigious e-learning conferences in Europe (in my opinion at least, so don't go writing in). It will be the first time I have submitted and had papers accepted for EDEN (Lisbon), ALT-C (Leeds) and Online Educa (Berlin) all in the same year, so I'm quite pleased.

To celebrate this, I am posting my PowerPoint presentations from these conferences and others up on Slideshare just in case anyone wants to view them again. The EDEN presentation, on blogging as a teacher mentoring tool, and the ALT-C presentation, on my 5 stage wiki activities model are both up already. The Online Educa (Berlin) conference presentation will be posted nearer the date (mainly because I haven't created it yet). Also up are presentations I did in Salzburg for Edumedia, and my Edupunk presentation for F-ALT, which has already posted 200 views (That's me in the picture above, at F-ALT - a great action picture taken by Josie Fraser).

I hope my ramblings and jottings are useful to somebody out there.

Unleash the anarchy

There has been fallout from my fringe presentation at ALT-C on Edupunk, and it's all very positive. Word has got out that Edupunk - the idea that self-organised learning is possible using digital tools that aren't sold by big companies such as BlackBoard - is relevant to the world of education, no matter how you package it. The assistant editor of Campus Wide Information Systems, one Simon Shurville (an old mate of mine) has got wind of the growing interest in this idea, and has invited me to guest edit a special issue for the journal on Edupunk. The journal's editorial advisory board boasts a number of other people I have rubbed shoulders with lately including Asher Rospigliosi (it was he who let the cat out of the bag - he attended my F-ALT rant, and told Simon), Steven Furnell, Mark Stiles, Scott Wilson, Rob Koper and Ken Fernstrom. Quite a galaxy, eh?

So there you have it. No going back now. I'm going to do it, but I need help from those who are interested in arguing for this thing we call Edupunk, or providing a searing counter-commentary against the idea that we can go outside the walled garden to unleash the anarchy of the web, and still remain this side of piracy.

So here is the call for papers - send your proposals and 300 word abstracts into me in the next couple of months. Don't pull any punches. No quarter given - say your piece. This is edupunk we're talking about! Summon up the blood.... and let slip the dogs of war!

ALT-C 1921 Gala Dinner and Dance

Success has gone to James F. Clay's head, I am sorry to have to report. On the back of his hugely popular and now world famous Hood 2.0 workshop (well, 60.5 people attended), he has decided to throw his hat into the world of cinematography by directing his first feature film. (What next, a line in perfumery??)

The Gala Dinner and Dance for the first ever ALT-C conference, which took place at the University of Bognor Regis in 1921 has been recreated by his illustrious camera, and is shown here in glorious monochrome, complete with virtuoso piano playing by Mrs Mills. Watch out for the Learning Technologist of the Year award ceremony (won by Josie Fraser's Grandmother, the Hon. Josephine Montague-Fraser, DBE), the disgrunted Vulcan diner, the chocolate postal order for 12 shillings and 6 pence ha'penny, and of course, the cold coffee... Oh, and by the way, the picture above is of a formation ball-handling team known as the 'Slam-Dunk Virgins', who won team prize for best research paper at ALT-C 1921.



That's it. I've had enough. I'm going to sleep this off now....

Slamming about again

At ALT-C 2008 next week there will be several workshops, but one of those I will not miss is the one entitled 'Learning about the Digital Divide', run by Frances Bell, Josie Fraser, Helen Keegan (remember them doing the illustrious Web 2.0 slam at ALT-C Nottingham last year?) joined this year by Cristina Costa (the pocket dynamo of Web 2.0) and Frank Theissen. Out of last year's workshop came a number of interesting artefacts including the cult website Hood 2.0 - which incidently has a workshop in its own right this year! Last year was not only great fun, but also innovative and challenging. I chaired the session, and it was one of the most enjoyable workshops I have every presided over.

This year they have gone one step further and have created a Digital Divide wiki using Wetpaint in which they are inviting everyone and anyone to submit a 'Digital Divide' slam. I have sent one in already - it's a poem entitled 'Hooked' - about the digital divide between immigrants and natives. Check out the site and contribute if you have something you want to get off your chest.... oh, and see you there, I hope.

It's your F-ALT

The preparations for ALT-C are nearly complete and we will all gather once again for our annual edu-knees-up in Leeds in a few weeks time. But running parallel with ALT-C this year is the Fringe ALT (or F-ALT). F-ALT will be serious fun, that is, fun with a serious undercurrent. We have been allocated space just off the main venue at the University of Leeds to conduct a number of events including WTF sessions on Microblogging, Second Life, Learning Objects, shoes, beer and all the other pressing concerns that reside in the tortured mind of the contemporary learning technologist. I hope to pitch my hat into the ring with an outrageous rant on the merits of EduPunk. (Well, Jim Groom is following me on Twitter, so I think I have something to say...)

F-ALT will also feature its own awards (The F-ALTies) where prizes will be awarded in a number of areas of activity, including: an award for the worst acronym for an e-learning project, the 'Not a Learning Object' prize and an award for the most pretentious blog post of the year (I am in the running for this one I think).

It will be a gathering of the clans for those learning technologists and academics who can stand the pace, and who don't mind laughing at themselves and poking fun at the establishment. I hope to see you there...

A chair on its last legs

Yep. It's conference season again.

I have spent most of the day (and all of yesterday and the weekend) reviewing papers for a variety of conferences, and it's beginning to take it's toll. I will probably wake up in the middle of the night tonight, and reach out into space, to try to click the send button on my umpteenth e-mail. I'm fed up telling someone that their paper has been rejected, and I'm sorry and all that, but there it is. Or that it has been accepted, but can they ammend it so that it has Harvard referencing, double line spacing and finer detail about the research method that was used .... oh ..... and there's a punctuation mark missing. Each conference has its own particular online submission and reviewing systems are set up differently, and each password and username pairing is different and has to be remembered. My head is swimming. To be honest, I'm knackered.

I'm taking time out to write this blog post so I don't go completely stir crazy - it's a brief moment of respite. The conferences in question are the Plymouth e-Learning Conference 'Digital Learning: Repurposing Education' (for which I am the chair - one with only two legs, and these are my last by the way), the Joint Open and Working IFIP conference 'ICT and Learning for the Net Generation' (for which I am an editor) and the AICT Conference on Advanced Telecommunications (for which I am merely a skivvy).

<<Phew>>.

Once I have put these to bed, another lot will come along. Next I will be looking forward to reviewing a shed load of papers for ALT-C 2008: 'Rethinking the Digital Divide' when the doors shut on submissions later this month. And then there's ICICTE 2008 with it's deadlines also fast approaching.....

I probably won't sign up for any more conference committees for a while. Is there a tall building around here anywhere....?

Reporting research

Last year I was asked to convene a research network for the Faculty of Education here at the University of Plymouth. I was given a small amount of money to promote a culture of research within the field of e-learning. Tomorrow I will be reporting on progress to the 'top brass' during our Faculty research day, and will tell them that we now have 30 members (mainly academics and researchers from education, but also from 3 other faculties, and several learning technologists and computer professionals). We are planning our e-learning conference for April next year, and I have booked Professor Mark Stiles (Staffordshire University) as our keynote speaker, after we met up at ALT-C 2007. The group has produced an impressive output of papers, book chapters, journal articles and a book, and I have arranged a series of research seminars featuring internationally recognised speakers including Mike Sharples, John Traxler, Steven Warburton, Avril Loveless, Palitha Edirisignha, Jane Seale and Steven Furnell.

I'm also going to talk about the six research projects we have started since the group formed, including our Second Life project for which we recently received a free one year land grant. The details of all of these activities and outputs can be found on the group's wiki space. This coming year is going to be very busy (but I guess it keeps me off the streets...)

Well blogger me...

It's a strange world. The entire ALT-C conference it seems is filled with bloggers. Not only are they blogging about the conference, they are blogging about blogging. The bloggers are even blogging about being blogged about, and blogging about bloggers blogging. Here am I, like an absolute idiot, blogging about the bloggers blogging about bloggers blogging about each other.

Classic example of this is David Bryson's blog, in which he actually carries a slide show with pictures of all the bloggers at ALT-C. I am very relieved to see I am not in any of the pictures. ALT-C 2007 will soon be over, and they are already advertising ALT-C 2008 in Leeds. Only the keynote left to go... I'm about to escape before I go completely blogging mad.

Just Wiliam

Dylan Wiliam nailed it for most of us at the conference this morning. His keynote (the second at ALT-C this year) dealt with how technology will help to change the way our learners are assessed. Building his case expertly (liberally dosed with dry humour) Professor Wiliam showed how formative forms of assessment are key to the success of learning that actually 'sticks'. Teaching is complex and chaotic, he said. Your don't need to know about 'learning styles' either, he said. What you need to know about is differnt styles of teaching, which will tap into and challenge all kinds of learner styles and approaches. Technology can help us to do this he said. He said a lot of things actually, too numerous to mention in this short blog, but interestingly (as with all the Keynotes at ALT-C 2007) his talk is available on Elluminate as a video on demand. Dylan Wiliam's conclusion, convincingly argued for many of the delegates, I sensed, was that automated aggregative technologies will provide the solution where teachers need to know excatly where the group stands in terms of the knowledge and understanding they have just acquired. Straw polls taken through classroom clickers, discourse software (where student responses can be projected onto a screen for the whole group to discuss) or even simple handheld voting,will all indicate to the teacher that students need more explanation, or are ready to move on.

Well, move on we did - because many of the delegates have been talking about this keynote over lunch. The bottom line is: we need to realise it is more important to improve pedagogy than to improve subject knowledge. Wiliam believes that aggregative technologies will do this.

The tension grows...

It's been a morning of tension. Several of the speakers were visibly nervous as they approached the daunting task of encapsulating the conference for a group of worldly wise tech savvy academics and practitioners. I for one was glad to be sat in the audience (I had Mark Stiles and Helen Keegan for company and camouflage...)

Michelle Selinger's keynote this morning set the scene for the ALT-C 2007 conference. The 'corporate backpacker' (Mike Sharples' description not mine) took a global perspective on e-learning, giving us all a break-neck world tour of e-learning initiatives. She talked about the tensions between informal vs formal learning, north vs south, schools vs higher education and cultures vs economies. There followed an insightful presentation covering the problems, solutions and caveats of implementing digital technologies in education. Perhaps Michelle's most memorable comment related to the imposition of technology expectations upon cultures that would not or could not countenance them. She named it 'technology dissonance' - and cited the example of university campuses in the Far East that would find videoconferencing unworkable when they only have 1 Mb of data coming into the campus.

The themes for ALT-C were also introduced, each with their own 'tensions'. Each can I think be summed up in a dichotomy... Designing learning spaces = formal vs informal; Large scale implementation = simplicity vs complexity; Internationalism = imperialism vs multiculturalism; and finally, the Social network generation = user-control vs institutional control.

The tension(s) will not ease... this conference will reveal them all, and leave us with more questions than answers I think....

The big T's

Well, I have managed to arrive in Nottingham in one piece and the drive up was absolutely fine. I also found the East Midlands Conference Centre without trouble, although it took me 45 minutes to walk up to the venue from my 'B & B' in Beeston. They seem to be short of letter T's here in Nottingham because the sign above the entrance actually reads 'Eas Midlands Conference Cen re'. Could this be an ominous portent - The 'T' in ALT stands for 'technology' - might this also be dropped (and with it all the shiny new technology)? I don' hink so...

Even with the dropped T's this year's ALT-C conference venue looks good, and although there are only a few people milling around at the moment, the place looks ideal for a successful conference. I can imagine it tomorrow buzzing with delegates. The exhibitors stands (all but JISC, who's stand is so large in the foyer that it's actually difficult to see) are all placed nicely around the outer edge of the 'Banqueting Hall' where it looks as though we will be enjoying most of our meals. Overall, good first impressions, and there are even some free access networked computers near the poster displays (I'm using one now). If I bump into you at ALT-C this year, say hi. Oh - and enjoy the free icecream on offer when you visit the ALT stand in the entrance hall!

Top 7 topics at this year's ALT-C

In preparation for the forthcoming ALT-C 2007 conference, I glanced over the content of papers, posters, workshops and symposia on offer. It interested me to see that some key topics have emerged as the front runners for discussion. A quick trawl of titles and keywords revealed these top 7 favourite topics:

e-Learning 31
Web 2.0 Social Software 25
VLEs 24
Blogs 20
Mobile learning 19
Social networking 18
Wikis 16

No surprises really.... There are also a number of other papers dealing with accessibility, e-assessment, student perceptions, and various learning applications use such as VOIP, videoconferencing 3-D virtual worlds, podcasting, mini-games, e-portfolios, and of course ‘learning objects’ (whatever they are…) Even GPS and Interactive Whiteboards have a small presence. I was also interested to note that there are only 6 papers featuring the term ‘distance learning’ (although several more imply it) – but ..... could this be a sign of the decline of this old term? Has distance education now been overhauled in the glittering world of learning technology? We shall see….

ALT! .... I go there

I’m preparing to travel up to the ALT-C 2007 conference next week – it’s the Association for Learning Technology annual bash, held this year in the East Midlands Conference Centre, at the University of Nottingham. I’m editor of the Research Proceedings again this year, so all my hard work has already been put in – now all I have to do is attend, chair a few sessions, and hold a meeting for delegates in which I and my co-editors will discuss what makes a good conference paper (what does? Send your answers in please!). Oh, and there is of course the small issue of driving for 6 hours to get there - easy. The rest of the time I will be dropping in on the papers, demonstrations, workshops and lurking around the exhibitor stalls, trying to pick up new ideas, interesting tips and free pens. I’ll be meeting up again with old colleagues and friends (I am not prepared here to go into the difference), and also talk to some new colleagues and make new friends. I’m particularly interested in listening to the head of Google Research, Dr Peter Norvig, who will be providing the closing keynote address. I intend to blog from the event to keep apace of what is being said and done.

Me old mate Michelle Selinger will also be giving a keynote on the first day, and I have been asked by the Executive Programme Committee to act as her ‘minder’ for the conference – whatever that involves. Once thing anyone who knows Michelle will tell you, is that the last thing she needs is a ‘minder’. She’s quite capable of taking care of herself, but I guess I at least have to offer to play the role I have been given, until she tells me to sling my hook (probably within about 4.5 seconds). I will report back from the conference as time allows, and probably link into all the other ALT-C blogs that will no doubt pop up….

Calling an ALT to it

Such a relief... it's 01.30 in the morning and I have just finished writing the editorial of the Research Proceedings for ALT-C 2007 - the Association for Learning Technologies annual conference. I've been working closely with Nicola Whitton (Manchester Metropolitan University) who is my co-editor, to complete this in time for it to go to press in time for the conference. We have 18 very interesting and thought provoking papers this year, and putting it all together has been time consuming but very rewarding. It's no co-incidence that today is Independence DAY! Yeehaw!

ALT-C is the premier UK e-learning event and promises to be yet another success this September. This year we meet in Nottingham, at the East Midlands Conference Centre, and as of yesterday, over 380 delegates had already registered for the event. Keynote speakers include an old friend of mine, Michelle Selinger from Cisco, and Peter Norvig, who is the head of research at Google. There's still time for you to book your place, but be quick... Spaces are filling up fast - see you at ALT-C in September!