#altc2010
ALT-C 2010 is my first ALT conference. I've always wanted to go, but having worked in schools in this academic year, there's been no way I've been allowed out in the first couple of weeks of term!
Pre-conference
I was delighted that there was a pre-conference session at ALT-C about Digital Literacies. Based on JISC-funded work, it was a great opportunity for me to meet not only like-minded people, but people with different views than my own who are running related initiatives within their institutions.
My intention was to sit quietly at the back, but I ended up sharing my views and opinions. No change there then.
Day 1 (Tuesday)
Donald Clark's keynote kicked off the conference with his title being Don't Lecture Me. If his (and the aim of the conference organisers) was to provoke and stir up the audience, it was certainly successful. The Twitter backchannel was abuzz with, at times, vitriol against his swingeing criticisms of everything from lecturers to the digital divide.
Whilst I've been a big fan of some of Donald's work in the past, I felt his keynote was misjudged. Not only did it appear to contradict itself in places (for example, railing against YouTube Edu, and then using it as example of future learning) but no alternatives were provided. Indeed, in the Q&A session afterwards, he was asked on two separate occasions to provide a model than a lecture format (which, after all, he was guilty of himself). Avoiding the question, he said that these were 'obvious'. Unfortunately not.
Following the keynote, I attended the mobile learning demonstrations, being especially interested in Geoff Stead's (@geoffstead) presentation. He's an extremely interesting guy, with his heart firmly in the right place. His enthusiasm just shone through both in the presentation and in the Skype interview I did with him recently for the JISC Mobile and Wireless Technologies Review I'm currently undertaking.
After lunch, at which I caught up with people who I've only previously known online, I attended the Mobile Paradigms session at which three papers were presented. Hilariously, the technical staff saw my MacBook Pro power lead as a trip hazard, but my sitting in the gangway wasn't. Bizarre.
I was very impressed with Helen Keegan's (@heloukee) presentation (discussed here). She's been doing some wonderful work with her media students who have been shooting videos on mobile phones.Theory, practice, creativity and real-world learning. Awesome.
Frank McLoughlin was very interesting in terms of the journey he's been on with Islington College over the last few years, using educational technology to raise the status and success rates. Martin Hall, VC of University of Salford made some useful responses to Donald Clark.
I presented on behalf of JISC Advance. Slight technology fail with the voting devices, but on the whole positive. I also helped out with James Clay's symposium on ebooks before getting very tired, eating my dinner and going to bed...
Day 2 (Wednesday)
The first session I attended was New bottles, old wine? which featured many people I follow on Twitter. It seemed that those who I follow who weren't on the stage I was sitting next to! (@emmadw, @grahamattwell, @cristinacost, @josiefraser, @heloukee & @jamesclay). Some great points on ethics in a digital world - gaming, teaching and learning, etc.
Opting to stay in the Main Auditorium all day (and I'm glad I did!) next up was Guerilla Narratives of Media, a wonderful hands-on session where we did some group work and created some digital artefacts. Our group focused on @daveowhite's idea of 'eventness' - the feeling of being at an event that you don't usually get watching the live stream, etc. We produced an Audioboo & YouTube video.
This was followed by the presentation of the conference by Dave White from Oxford University (@daveowhite) who talked, ostensibly, about online distance education but delivered an engaging wide-ranging critique of some of the current state of play. Definitely one to go back to in the ALT Archives! Unfortunately, the second half of the session was distinctly poor with a German Professor reading from his slides. Shame.
After lunch (chicken with chorizo, if you must know) there was standing-room only for Prof. Sugata Mitra's talk on 'Hole in the Wall' computing. Whilst the research he's doing is definitely valuable, I've a sneaking suspicion that (a) we like celebrities (he's done a couple of TED Talks) and, (b) like Prensky's 'Digital Natives' hypothesis in 2001, we all kind of want it to be true. Interestinly, for me at least, he moved from talking about computers to 'self-organizing systems'. Blog post on this definitely forthcoming!
The final session I attended was Josie Taylor's on Digital Literacies. I say that, but by the end of the session I was none the wiser what she meant by the term. She did cite a whole raft of important people though, including Charles Sanders Peirce (who features heavily in my thesis). So that's OK. Apparently. I didn't have the stamina for the speaker who followed her or, indeed, for the next session and so returned to the hotel in preparation for the Gala Dinner.
Sitting next to Richard Hall (@hallymk1) and Paul Lowe (@paullowe) guaranteed me an enjoyable, slightly raucous evening with catering provided by Sheffield College students!
Day 3 (Thursday)
Surfacing a bit tired and with a headache after the gala dinner, I headed to the Mobile Devices session hearing about a future for SCORM, Twitter in Higher education, and other interesting stuff. Following that I went to the future of Open Educational Resources session. Everyone was just a little bit jaded, was my take.
Skipping lunch, some of my JISC infoNet colleagues and I caught the train home to Newcastle, via Sheffield.
Tired. }-\
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