 Welcome, please be seated, as we'll be about to get underway. Well, a very warm welcome to you all, whether you're joining us here in Manchester in person or online. I am so privileged to be the first to get to welcome you to our 2022 annual conference. And for those of you who've seen me last three years ago, it's been a while and I can't wait to catch up with you. We are very privileged to have a co-chair team of 10 this year to get this very special conference underway. And I hope you still remember how to give a warm welcome. So please put your hands together and welcome our co-chair team. And for those of you who've seen me last three years ago, it's been a while. A co-chair team of 10 this year to get this very special conference underway. And I hope you still remember how to give a warm welcome. So please put your hands together and welcome our co-chair team. All conference can pass it to someone who can be here in person. Thank you, Snag. Thanks to our co-chair. And I'm also being a friend and teacher at the University of Ireland's Nylans. I'll be cheering part two of the opening of January for today. I'll ask my fellow members. And I hope you still remember how to give a warm welcome. So please put your hands together and welcome our co-chair team. All conference can pass it to someone who can be here in person. Eich llwyl wedi bod yn yn ôl, iawn i'n dda, yma i'n raddniadon y tiynau. Mae'r raiachtrach yn ei taeth, mae'r ffordd hwn yn rhanoedd ei gaorthodd. Mae'r ffordd hwn yn yn iawn i'n rhan o'i bwysigol. Mae'r raiachtrach yn ei ffordd hwn yn ei wneud, mae'r raiachtrach yn ei wneud. Mae'r grannig yn ychydig i gaeloshindeiru. Mae'r raiachtrach yn eu hunol i'a chyrwstef coin. Mae'r raiachtrach yn y glithaf dyn nhw i gydigio ar y cael uchydig emerging leadership for a new strategic vision. We felt this was particularly important. Colleagues who are learning technologists or who have responsibilities for the use of technology in learning and teaching have really come to the fore over the last two to three years. And those colleagues have shown really strong creative innovative leadership in how institutions respond to the crisis that we've been going through. And what we've began to see in this context is many colleagues becoming leaders essentially without authority and that's a really kind of big issue that we need to start grappling with within our sector so we can harness that expertise, that experience and the leadership that's emerged over the last couple of years. Developing digital fluency, again many sessions covering different dimensions of this and amplifying further education. And we're particularly pleased to see such good representation in speakers and delegates from our colleagues in the FE part of the sector. A couple of facts and figures. We have 450 delegates taking part in this year's conference. 300 in hybrid mode, several obviously of you here today and lots of colleagues joining exclusively online and from the UK and more than 20 other countries. So it really does start to feel like we're kind of coming back together in different ways for different purposes coming out of the last couple of years. So it's really exciting to have such a really good and strong representation of a community within the all conference this year. We mentioned our sponsors and gave thanks to our sponsors at the opening part of the plenary this morning. This is part two of that plenary. But we want to note and thank all our exhibitors and partners. Please take time to go and visit them, hear what they've been working on, speak to them about the potential things you could work with them on in your own contexts. And we are particularly grateful to Vivox who we'll hear from in a few minutes time. We've mentioned our colleagues from the FE part of the sector. We've also got many colleagues participating from the school sector as well. And I think this really goes down the line, the nature of using technology effectively in learning and teaching. It's not the reserve of HE or FE or schools, even community education, it's a joint project and it's something we have to engage in collaboratively to take forward. We are also very pleased to have a number of scholars, all scholars this year's conference, around about 25 scholars who are here with us and being supported and engaged in the conference. So wherever you are, welcome, very warm welcome. We probably don't need to say too much about this. We have mentioned that we're in kind of still strange and changed times. So just be mindful and respectful of each other's kind of spaces. We're in a big auditorium. If you feel that you want a bit of space to sit on your own, feel free to do that. Just follow the guidance that's being provided within the venue around sanitation and also just looking after yourselves and one another. So please just keep that in mind. And now, without any further delay, we're going to welcome Joe from VVox, who's going to take us through some of the audience participation that we'll be facilitating for this part of the plenary. And then we'll hear from our speakers. So Joe, over to you. Cool. Yeah, thank you very much. And yeah, thank you very much for having us here. And it's such a privilege to be a sponsor and to join you this year. It's so nice to see people face to face. We haven't seen you guys for a couple of years now when we haven't been able to do these things face to face. So it's brilliant. When I was given an opportunity to come and speak for five, ten minutes in this passing session, I started to think about what to talk about. I was looking back over some of our previous times with you guys. And I realised actually, it was about five years ago that we first partnered with you. So yeah, I wanted to reflect on that a little bit. And then, as Keith said, I want to introduce VVox as a piece of technology. We're going to be using it as part of the conference today. I'm hoping to have a little bit of fun with that. So, as I say, we're down in the exhibition space. We're on stand 12, so do come along and say hello. We'd love to see you guys again as it's been a while. So yeah, as I say, I was looking back to when we first sponsored and first worked with ALT. And when I look back at what the VVox product was back then, it was a student response system used for live polling and Q&A. And it's super simple, easy to use, engagement app by students. We had a really small but loyal support of customer base based in the UK at that time. And one of the things that we decided on really quickly is that we wanted to offer fair pricing that was based on active users. That's what we wanted to base that on. We had a real focus on our customer success team. And that was us in 2017, and we also had a different name. So yeah, we've also gone for a rebrand since then. So where's VVox now? Well, we're still leading with our customer success and that fair, honest pricing that's based on active users. But we're now working with over 50 UK and Irish universities. And when I think back to where we were then, that seems incredible. The product continues to evolve. We work in partnership with all of our customers to continually evolve and improve that. And I'm really proud that we're one of the, well, we are the top rated audience engagement app on Trustpilot, G2 and Caterrow. So it's lovely when we get that, when we get that affirmation and feedback. So what does the future look like? What are we looking to do as we continue to move past this year? Well, we're looking to continue to build the best in class student engagement app with features designed for you and by you. We want to support and expand all of our existing integrations with VVox. And we want to start seeing our customers face to face again. Like today, like going out and seeing our customers when we provide training and support. That's something we really miss and we're looking forward to doing more of this year. So, as I said, this session, well, the whole event is interactive and you are able to use VVox as part of this, as part of ALT-C, primarily for Q&A but also for polling. And I wanted to do some word cloud polls of you guys now. So there's some joining instructions on the screen now. We've got them on the side windows as well. There's also some joining instructions that I think have been laid out for you. So if you just open up a web browser, go to VVox.app. You can enter in the session ID there, which is 113812368. Alternatively, you can scan the QR code and that will take you straight into the session. So I'll give you guys a second just to do that. But the joining instructions will stay on the side there. And I can see some Q&A messages have already come in. So at least some of you are getting in. OK, so let's launch the first poll then please. So the first question I wanted to ask is, what is something that you have achieved for the first time since we last met face to face? That was back in 2019. Is there something that you've done or achieved for the very first time? And you can enter in multiple answers. You can enter in short sentences. A few of those coming in now. So we'll leave that open and let's see them coming in. New job, very big. A couple more than one person at least has got a new job since we last met. A few I can see first time is quite large. We've got some people here for the very first time, which is brilliant. Actually a few of our team are here for the first time as well. New job, first time. That's still the biggest ones. Definitely need to get an eye test to see if any of the other ones over there. Okay, that's amazing. Let's close that one now. Sorry if you haven't had a chance to enter into that. We've got one more though that I want to run. That's okay. So this one, what do you think is the main difference to the teaching experience from 2019 to now? What do you think is the main difference please? Then hopefully we'll be able to see those results coming in in real time. There we go. Hybrid, more online. Uncertainty is quite big. I think that's reflective of some of the conversations that I'm having with our customers. Still a little bit uncertain. Hybrid's really big. Flexibility. Zoom up there. Accessibility. Nice and big. Okay, awesome. Okay, let's close that now. Thank you very much for sharing those. That's really nice visual to see. Cool, okay. So another thing that I just wanted to share with you guys is you will have noticed up on your seats we put some joining instructions for joining the VBOT session, but on the back of that you will find an ALT crossword. So opportunity for you guys to complete that over the course of the day or quicker if you want. Just a little bit of fun, but we are running a little bit of a competition. So if you want to bring that completed crossword, either to our stand in person, or if you're joining us online, you can complete it and send us a picture. So yeah, either bring your completed crossword to our stand, collect a prize, or if you are joining us online, take a photo of your completed crossword, emaileducationatvvots.com. And if you want us to send you a prize, great to have a suitable address that we can just post your prize to. And yeah, if you want to share that on social media, a couple of hashtags there that you can use. So just to get you started, just wanted to give you a clue for one of the crossword answers. So the clue that I'm going to give you is for free down, and the clue is that this actor has starred in the title role in Doctor Strange. So there you go to get me started. Excellent, and that's it. So I'm going to hand back over to Keith. It's really lovely to see you guys again. Please do come and chat to us on our stand. And yeah, have a great conference. Thanks, Joe. So yeah, Joe, thank you very much. Good to see how that works in practice. I'm wondering how many colleagues were used to Twitter where finding those 20 characters just that bit too constraining, I'm not sure. But thank you very much indeed. And thank you to all of the audience and to all of the companies and colleagues over the next couple of days. So, well, now I move on to the main part of part two of Replenary. Earlier today you heard from Elizabeth, Bella, and Peter sharing some of their views and experiences. We want to go a little bit further and kind of drill down into other perspectives and views that will hopefully set the scene ydych chi'n gweithio ar y dyfodol. Mae'r ffocus yma yn ymddangos ar y cyfnodau, i wneud y gallu bod yn ymdweithio. Felly mae'n gweithio'n gweithio ar y Natoli i'r Llywodraeth, a'r Purun Wong i gweithio'r prifysgol. Mae'n cael ei gweithio ar gyfer y pethau. Mae'n cael ei gweithio ar 5 gweithio ar gyfer y cyfnodau. Mae'n cael ei gweithio ar gyfer y cyfnodau, ac mae'n gweithio'n gweithio ar y cyfnodau ac yn cyddingo i'r rydwun i ddechrau i ddim yn ddiddordeb y chahanolau. Rhaid i chi wedi'w gweld, naethau chi'n cael ei wneud, ac mae gennychodd llwyddiol ar ôl. Ddod am gyfaint. Felly roi'r cymdeithas chefio. Mae'r rhobeith eu bod yn cydweithio. mae'r ddaen i'r gondol yn ymdredig yn oed dod o'r cyflodio. Mae'n nadw'r gael ei bobl yn i ddim yn ymdredig. Rydyn ni'n ddifo dda'i fod yn y bwysig a'i gallu'n meddwl i ddech chi'n rhai syfwng cydbalanced. Rydym chi'n i ddod yn gweithio hynny'r bwysig, a'r adferio ati sydd wedi'u panfith, na'r ffordd bydderwydiau, sy'ngym Allahuch yn ddod yn ei weld, a drwy adroddiadol i'r meddwl i'r meddwl i'r meddwl. Rydyn ni'n ddade du bod yn ddod yn rhan o'vod yn ddau'r perdd dechrau'r rydyn ni'n amlwyno gweld ar y fourfront yw'r cyfrifiad brys ymddangos i ymddiwyr ymddangos ymddangos ymddiwyr? Dwi'n credu ffordd i hynny'n rhoi ar gyfer ynglyn â ddysgu, ond rydw i ddau cyfrifiad bryd i'n credu ffordd i hynny'n rhoi'r cyfrifiad. Felly, mae'r cyfrifiadau wedi'u gydag y byddwn yn ysgolwyddiad o hynny o'r team ar y Dundee, mae'n ymddangos i gydag i'r hofion i ddweud o'r cyfrifiad i ddweud hon i i gydag yma. that things going through my head is that strangler song, no more heroes anymore. Because I think what I'm saying is that we've had a voice, we've put all hands to the pump, we did some great fantastic work and now there's a sense in which there's a fear that we're kind of retreating back to that practice pre-COVID, and I think that was picked up this morning by Peter and Elizabeth and Bella as well. Yn ystod, mae'n mynd i'r ddweud bod y byddai cywethaf a Peta wedi bod yn ddweud yr ysgol ymddangos yn yw'r erbyn yn y bwrdd yng Nghymru, a'r hyn yn amlwg o'r ddiweddau ym mhobl a'r ddweud. Yn ymddangos, mae'n cyfrifio'r ddefnyddol, mae'n meddwl â'r ddweud, ac yn mynd i'n ddigwelio'n gallu ddwyliadau, ac yn mynd i ddweud, ac mae'n meddwl â'r ddweud, ond mae'n meddwl â'r ddweud, Felly, fel cyforydwyr Cymru gwylq wedi'i gyddon nhw unrhyw ffordd, ac mae gyddo'n cael eu bod yna'n agmar Spinol. A wna daeth y cyfeirio, mae ddim yn gwneud bod y cerddurau gyda un yma, gyda'r cyfrifledd ar gyfer gwahoddd, ac mae'n gyddon ni'n cerddurio i'r cyfrifledd ac mae'n gweithio ar y cerddurio i chi. A oedd i'n cyfrifledd ar gael gwahoddd, ac mae'r cyfrifledd ar gyfer gwahodd i chi'ch gwneud fel roi'r cyfrifleddau byddai gyrddgau. I'm really conscious about the sort of this idea about leadership, many of us have been thrust into more leadership roles and were involved in various things but also there's a sense in which some of that's also been taken away from us. So how do we collectively, as a community, actually shape that leadership moving forward? How do we become a collective voice that shapes the future? And I think it's also quite interesting that we work in different contexts and Bella was mentioning this morning how some institutions have got increased funding and increased resource. The reality for many of us that in our organisations actually we've got less resource. So we talk about digital poverty with our students but there's a kind of disparity and maybe even a digital poverty in some of our institutions. And these are challenges, this is the landscape that we're working in. So I do think there is a kind of opportunity for us as we sort of think and reflect through the conference and beyond and keep those conversations going. How will we shape the future? How will we inform that narrative? And I think part of that is actually being confident in our own narrative. So what is our role? We're kind of increasingly sort of working in this third space, the intersection between the academic space and the professional services which again Elizabeth really stressed this morning. So how do we establish that further and how do we really consolidate that and those relationships that we've developed with academics? So I guess what I'm really saying is that I'm just delighted that we can be here really at this conference particularly in person because it's those conversations in between the sessions where I think there's often the real value and the nuggets of gold that we can follow up that we can then take back to our own practice and shape the future whether that's in a university, whether it's in higher education or in the school sector. I think increasingly what I'm seeing is so many of our colleagues are moving to the commercial sector. So there's also I think another space that's kind of being inhabited by many of old members. So looking forward to those conversations and seeing how we shape that narrative to take us forward and shape the future of learning and teaching. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Natalie. Some key messages around space to engage, consolidating what we've learned from the last couple of years and also how we can continue to influence things going forward particularly around that leadership dimension that's emerged. So some key points there, thank you very much Natalie. Can I ask you now to welcome Puree and Walg? Hello everyone. Can you hear me? Okay, good. So I think reflecting on my own journey and my friend's journeys as well I think the biggest achievement for us over the last couple of years has been people finally know who we are and what we do. If you cast your mind back to say three or four years ago and you told your colleagues I'm a learning technologist, I'm a learning designer people probably wouldn't know what you do but now people have a much better understanding of what we do, what we're capable of and I think our expertise goes far beyond just fixing Moodle and uploading something on to Penochtol. We are experts in education, we understand how to use technology in learning, to make learning engaging, to make learning accessible, to make learning fun and I think there's been a big transformation and I think this is something that we need to absolutely keep doing. I've been there to mention about hero mode. Now we can deactivate it now because we're not fighting fire anymore but I would argue slightly that we have to send it to the hero's status because we can't go back to how it was where we're just fixing Moodle and telling people how to use Penochtol and how to tell people I don't know how to send an email or set up an outlook appointment. Like I said earlier, we are expert in education and we need to keep getting a message across to the wider community of education, in education and I think a lot of institution, a lot of senior management are getting the message because one of the things I've witnessed in the last couple of years I mean I got a promotion myself so that's good of the back of the pandemic and I think a lot of institutions are investing into the people investing into the structure of learning technology people to paraphrase something my friends Laurie, I'm trying to think if he's here because I did make it a mission to embarrass him in front of people so Laurie Mages and my friend Donna, they have said it many many times digital transformation is not just about the technology it's about the people, it's about the culture, it's about the resources and I think a lot of institutions have finally got the message that investing into people is what we need and you guys are our heroes, right? So we need to keep that going let's not go back to how it was, let people remember what we've done in partnership with our teaching colleagues to make learning fun to make learning that people, students want to learn and one more thing I wanted to say is I had a recent conversation with Maureen about making the community more expanding I suppose welcoming more researchers, tell researchers into the community because tell research and tell practice they're not too set for things they are the same thing, they complement each other and I'm just looking in the room I can see a lot of researchers, doctors, PhD students so let's just get our research out there, let's just keep sharing the knowledge let's just keep sharing the love and just keep all the good work I suppose and please don't go back to, just wanted to say something I was kind of debating this morning should I say it or not so I'm going to do it, I have been caught many many times I'm a noodle tech, a colleague used to work with he is frequently referred to as a noodle man please, please just remind our colleagues we are not just noodle techs it's the integral part of our jobs but it's a small part we understand pedagogies, we understand education we understand how to use technology in education and I think it's one more thing as well there's a talk about new normal going back on campus online education might be a thing of the past, most institutions that's okay if that's what we want but let's keep reminding people digital education is not the same as online education online education is one part of digital education if you want to teach in person in a classroom that's absolutely fine, there's still a valid place for learning technology to be there so online education is just one small part of learning technology and I think the last couple of years might have given people the wrong impression so let's correct it, let's just keep doing what we do let's just keep sharing the love it's not understatement to say three or four years ago I aspire to be one of you guys it's not a secret that I'm only three years into my learning technology journey so I am here because of you guys so I think you all deserve a round of applause for you guys not for me, thank you very much thank you very much, period I think there are some real strong messages there around the richness of digital education and the different dimensions of digital education practice the role of learning technologies is educational experts and experts actually sit in the middle weaving together learning design, assessment, the use of technology, accessibility and universal design and some things I suspect we might come back to at tomorrow morning's panel session so thank you very much indeed last but certainly not least, Lorna Campbell Thanks very much, Keith I'm tempted to just say I agree with everything Queen on Natalie said but for those of you who know me you probably won't be surprised to hear that I think that openness is going to continue to be key going forward I know that some of you will be aware of the crisis in ebook pricing but that is exercising many of our librarians at this point in time and it's quite interesting I think that a number of institutions have gone down the road of launching open textbook presses for the first time and I have been hearing some quite interesting narratives about how the library sector in the UK hasn't really engaged with open education resources before but of course our expertise around open education resources lies with us with learning technologies so I hope that our expertise in this area will be drawn on and we will be able to work closely with our library colleagues in order to address this crisis because as Prian said access to knowledge, open knowledge and sharing our knowledge and sharing our expertise is critical now like it's never been at any time in the future also important going forward I think is going to be the whole issue of ethics in learning technology and I think all framework for ethical learning technology is going to be absolutely key it's increasingly important that we have informed approaches to the implementation and also to our interactions with technology and that's true right across the academy both ourselves as learning technologies for academic colleagues and particularly for our students and my colleagues Melissa Highton and Stuart Nicol will be talking tomorrow afternoon about fables, fairy tales and the complex worlds of learning technology ethics so please do go along to that presentation and of course one of the aspects of ethics is care and I think pedagogies of care again are going to be critical for us all going forward because there has been this real rush to get back to normal but I think there is no back to normal what is normal now is not what was normal before and we are living in increasingly uncertain times and that is going to have a significant impact on our colleagues and our students going forward so I believe that it's really important that care in the institution is supported at the institutional level because all too often that burden of care does fall to those who are already marginalised and overworked within our academy and I'm sure again you are all will be very very aware of this we've already heard about how suddenly everyone relied on turn to their learning technologies to really save them at the height of the pandemic and we worked with some very stressed people and there was a caring element to that and that needs to be recognised and supported by our institutions and one manifestation of that ethics of care is the Femmed Tech quilt some of you might be aware of this project it was initially launched to coincide with the OER 2020 conference and it was a craft activism project that was brought together by the Femmed Tech Network which is an informal network of people working and learning around education and technology and I know there are quite a few members of the Femmed Tech community here so if you've been involved with Femmed Tech in any way shape or form can put your hands up and give us a wave just so you can see who you are see there's quite a few of us here so the quilt project invited people to submit a square which would be quilted together by Francis Bell to create a quilt of care and social justice and the idea was to exhibit this quilt at the OER conference but of course that never happened because the pandemic overtook us all but thankfully Francis has brought the quilt here to the conference and we're actually going to be able to see it in all its material glory for the first time tomorrow so please don't miss out on that we will be exhibiting it and you will also have an opportunity to contribute to the quilt there will be an opportunity for anyone to add to some new squares that we hope to add to the quilt so please do come along this afternoon Francis and I will be there on an awful day with the quilt so I think it just remains for me to say enjoy the conference and I hope we can continue these conversations throughout Thank you very much indeed Lorna and yeah bring it to the forefront issues around care and democratising access to resources providing equitable experiences and making this meaningful for all our learners so yeah really important and I'm guessing there's information in the programme about where we can see the quilt great thank you so just a couple of headlines on things that are coming up and then we'll move in to the parallel sessions later on today after the end of the sessions we will have the alt awards Dave did you understand anything about this very briefly take a minute or two Right the alt awards for those that you probably all know what the alt awards are do you? I can't ask a room full of 250 people an open question like that it's pointless this way we need the technology anyway 5pm am I right Maren? great love working with Maren 5pm back in here yes Maren yeah excellent absolutely know what I'm doing 5pm back in here this evening the alt awards very excited to be doing the awards face to face it's always a fun thing and we've got many new types of awards this evening as well so you can take a look at those and there'll be plenty going on we get to find out exactly who won and what for and in what way and then drinks afterwards drinks afterwards so if that isn't an invitation I don't know what is so back in here at 5 everyone I expect to see you here I know what you all look like now I thought Dave knew all about the awards but luckily Dave knew that Maren knew all about the awards so that's absolutely fine another thing to flag Alt AGM tomorrow to which all are welcome Maren in here quarter past one quarter past one in here and I think that's what we're wanting to cover isn't it is it back to you now Maren that's finished now for this session I wasn't sure if you were coming back up it's almost like we never rehearsed it thank you very much indeed colleagues I agree to take a little bit of extra time to make your way to your parallel sessions and we'll see as many of you as possible back in here for the awards later on this evening thank you