 Hello and welcome to this special showcase of digital transformation, a program from the Association for Learning Technology and ITM Business. During the pandemic, technology rapidly transformed education. Now in this new era of learning, education systems are moving to a more flexible and blended approach. In this program, we'll discuss the perceptions around learning technology, the importance of upskilling staff and what the future looks like. I'm joined now by Professor Helen O'Sullivan, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost of the University of Chester and Chair of Alt-Helen, welcome to the program. Now the pandemic saw a huge shift in the adoption of technology. How are institutions taking the positive of this to provide a new direction of learning? So a lot of universities were already thinking a lot about how they use digital technology in learning and teaching long before the pandemic. But of course, when the pandemic hits, we had to completely change the way we teach students. And we used a lot of emergency remote learning technology, which is great because it meant we could carry on teaching and assessing students. But since that time has passed, we're starting now to think about what were the positives from that and how can we take those forward? One of the things that the pandemic really brought to life was how we can use technology to support students who might have additional needs. So accessibility has been a fantastic development in the last couple of years. And I think that we really need to investigate how we've supported students who might have a disability or an additional need and really keep a lot of that going. Having difficulty reading can profoundly impact a person's life, especially that of children and young people. Innovations in technology have empowered students with learning challenges to grow their confidence in literacy. All Can Learn, a brand new AI-based technology, helps students to learn to read more effectively and efficiently, making literacy barriers easier to overcome for generations to come. The All Come Learn is the world's first learning body. It can capture entire pages of text at the click of a button. And that's both printed and digital text. The Reading Pal feature encourages the student to read to the device. The device is listening to them read and straight away, once that student finishes that passage of text, we provide initial feedback straight away for the student. What we are also able to do from that is pull an analytical, more in-depth report, which can be sent to the tutor and it very much becomes a learning companion. What I see appear on the page in front of me is four corners of a laser frame. Now the frame will pick up anything inside the four corners. We're happy with the position of the frame. Simply release the trigger button. Welcome to the Learning Evolution. Read with it, talk with it, learn with it. Whether that's using wide headphones or Bluetooth earphones, it allows the student to understand the context of the words on the page. Before you had Orcam, how did you feel about reading? I felt it was quite hard and difficult. Austin is really enjoying his reading, now that he has the Orcam Learn to help him make sense of long words. He's using the Orcam Reading Pal feature, which listens to him read, tells him how he did, then follows up with a report. Until she got to her point, then she stopped and barked. Proud of you. You succeeded reading 19 words in a row without a mistake. One specific quote that I heard from a student once, which was, it's like having a teacher in my pocket. It is because a teacher is there to support you and support your learning adventure, and that's exactly what the Orcam Learn does as well. The pandemic brought a number of new challenges for parents who had to become teachers to their children through lockdown. White Rose Maths is a provider of teaching and training resources that's bridging the gap between how Maths is taught at school and at home. We went to find out how. Jenny and her children, Flynn and Esther, are learning Maths. How many hundreds have you got? Eight. And then one ten. And now, so what's that? So 163 times five is? 850. Well done, Flynn, that's brilliant, well done. It's made fun and easy by White Rose Maths, which provides education support for children, parents and teachers. When COVID-19 closed schools, they produced free online lessons and videos with worksheets for reception to year 10. And I felt like we both had a teacher there on the laptop, so it was an extra person guiding, and we actually had a really nice time. Really saw the teachers struggle during that first initial lockdown and subsequent ones in terms of having resources that they could trust and use. Kat knows how to capture the imagination of children. A reception teacher, she was in charge of developing White Rose Maths' early years online program during lockdown. Completely aware that in school, you've got an early years classroom, you've got sand, you've got water, you've got everything like that. At home, you've got a kitchen, you've got your front room, so what could you use? So came up with lots of very bizarre ideas sometimes, you know, we're creepy crawly cans and counting. We had collections outside, we had a Spider-Man theme at one stage, we had soup potato, all sorts of things going on that really would inspire. And then it was brilliant because we got a massive social media following, there was loads of children doing things at home. The COVID videos helped to develop a program for reception in line with the new early years curriculum. It pushes for a deeper understanding of maths. In the past, people that have been successful in maths may be the ones with good memories, so they can remember the procedures and they just get it. And even those students, we find really benefit from using diagrams and manipulatives because they can understand what they're doing more. Five, well done, high five! Everyone can do maths, they just need to be taught the right way. Professional accreditation provides staff with both knowledge and recognition. For learning technologist, ALT's peer-assessed C-Malt framework enables practitioners to develop skills further. Tell me more about this C-Malt accreditation. So C-Malt is certified membership of the Association for Learning Technology. It's been running for over a decade and a growing number of C-Malt holders have come into being over the last 10 years or so. The association has provided a framework whereby anyone who works with learning technology to support learning, teaching and assessment can work towards the accreditation, puts together a portfolio to evidence and describe work that they have done and reflect on that work. My journey with C-Malt has been a totally brilliant and surprising one to me as well because I didn't realise I would learn so much and I would grow so much in personal development. You know, C-Malt for me was not just learning skills in learning technologies, it was career development and it was personal development. So by getting your C-Malt accreditation, you have demonstrated, you have reached a standard, you have thought about it and you're ready with goals for the future and what you want to do next. Thank you for watching Digital Transformation. We hope you enjoyed this programme. Now, all of our reports are available to view on the ALT website. The details are on screen now. From me and the team here, thank you for watching and goodbye.