On Wednesday 30th August at 8pm LTHEchat will host a summer special chat led by #altc23 Conference Chairs Santanu Vasant and Lawrie Phipps. Dual hashtags will be used #altc23 and #LTHEchat.

This special summer special takes a look back at 30 years of educational technology as the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) celebrates 30 years, as do Jisc, and the Staff and Educational Developers Association (SEDA). 

Educational or Learning Technologies have shaped higher education, especially in recent years during the pandemic, but the history of educational technology goes way back. 

In this LTHEchat, we ask you to remember your first experiences of learning technology in a work setting, what learning technology might be, if we had unlimited financial resources, what new ‘next big things’ didn’t take off and what do you remember from previous ALT Conferences?

If this is making you nostalgic, then don’t forget to register for the 30th Anniversary ALT Conference – 5 – 7 September at the University of Warwick. We have a great programme including 2 great keynotes for anyone interested in educational / learning technology! 

Register Today

Santanu Vasant is the Head of Educational Development and Digital Education at London Metropolitan University with over 16 years of experience in higher education including 4 years in senior management roles. He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a trained Agile Project Management Practitioner. Santanu is also the driving force behind the “Talking HE podcast” providing insights from a range of roles across the higher education sector. @santanuvasant

Lawrie Phipps is the Senior Research Lead at Jisc and a Professor of Digital Education and Leadership at Keele university. His portfolio includes research into institutional digital practices, digital leadership, and issues impacting digital experiences in education and digital transformation. Lawrie is a qualified executive coach who has worked with various individuals and teams to support change initiatives in universities for over 25 years. @lawrie

About the conference

The ALT Annual Conference is back and it’s bigger and better than ever! Join us and over 500 learning technologists for our first fully-fledged Annual Conference since 2019. This year, our Annual Conference will be held from 5-7 September 2023 at the University of Warwick.

The ALT Annual Conference is the UK’s foremost conference for Learning Technologists and one of the largest conferences of its kind, attracting around 500 participants each year. This year, we are celebrating three decades since ALT was established in 1993 with our 30th annual conference.

This year’s conference theme, “Looking through the digital lens: 30 years of Leading People, Digital and Culture”, will celebrate our 30th anniversary and the phenomenal changes in the sector over this time.

The conference will critically examine the organisations and practices we work in through a digital lens, fostering a community of future leaders and innovators in the digital space, who come together to exchange ideas, collaborate, and drive change.

Community in this context also means thinking about what expertise is needed – well beyond the educational technology and technical expertise: organisational change leadership and management, business analysis, and the student voice.

This year’s conference themes:

• Leading People in a time of complexity: How have individuals and teams driven change to solve complex and difficult problems?  How have individuals and teams been rewarded and recognised in their institutions for being experts and leaders in digital learning?
• Diversity and Inclusion: How are the most precarious and disadvantaged people being supported and empowered through technology? What future exclusions must we fight? 
• Sustainability and Social Justice: How green is your educational technology? How will we model green and sustainable practices in the field of educational technology and what does it mean for institutions? How do you make decisions about tech that proactively care for the most vulnerable people among us?  How should we model practices that account more for the health and well-being of people than that of businesses trying to sell technology to the education sector?  
• Emerging technologies and behaviours: How are emerging technologies, or new uses for existing technologies changing behaviours and practices? What do emerging technologies mean for learning, teaching and assessment? How do we prepare students and staff to critically face the hype cycles around tools such as Machine Learning, and teach them to sift through what companies are claiming, to find the truth?

You can meet the full 2023 Conference Committee here