 Learning technology is important in our society because we face challenges in making education more accessible to a wider range of people on a more equitable basis, at lower costs wherever possible, and technology can make that happen. Hi, my name is Martin Hoxie, I'm a Learning Technology Advisor at CETIS. The biggest benefit I get as a member of ALT is access to this community of like-minded individuals. They provide a focus for the community, so it's a shared discussion, so we're actually able to learn from each other, we're able to ask each other questions about what works, what doesn't work. You've got this ability to tap into this huge knowledge base. We've really enabled practitioners, researchers, policymakers, senior leaders to come together to share and exchange ideas. We've brought together people from across different sectors, from schools, colleges, universities, from industry, because we believe that if something works and you have a good idea in one context, it can be very useful to colleagues in another. Tax Explorer was born a year or so ago. A lot of members of ALT use Twitter as another form of communication, and it was really hard to get a sense of who was in that community, who were the most active in terms of the conversation. So I wanted to explore a way that would actually visualize that conversation in such a way that anyone could explore what was going on within that community. With Tax Explorer, one of the big things is it actually integrates back into Twitter so you can discover someone within that community and you can then click through back into Twitter so you can start making those friendships, making those connections. It's really an integration with what's already there within Twitter but with what I think is a more useful interface. Because we're working in very niche areas, to have that immediacy of being able to contact someone around the globe in 24-7 and get their response, get their feedback on something you're doing is very powerful. ALT have really helped me get recognized more. To have an organization willing to take a risk sometimes on some of those ideas and promote them I think is very beneficial. There's a long list of people that I could give you where I've never been even aware of what they were doing if it wasn't for the alt-conference. ALT offers openness, new ideas, credit and recognition. It's a really powerful seeding ground for the sorts of ideas and developments that we've achieved with our MOOC. It's about having access to the conference and the network of people that attend that conference. They come from all over the world. Joining couldn't be easier. You can do it online. Membership fees start from £10 a year. If you don't join ALT, you're missing out on a very important opportunity within your career to actually start connecting with a very useful community of people, a very knowledgeable community of people, a community that can actually really help you with what you're doing. You've got a network there that is personal to you that enables you to develop yourself and your contacts. I'd say it's completely changed the direction of my career. ALT is about people. It's about the network. It's about the community. Being able to talk to them or even learn from them about what works and what doesn't work is really valuable and important. I can't even emphasise how important it is to feel part of the community because I know that if I run into any difficulty of if I have questions, it's a very cooperative community. It's part of a very lively, alert, intelligent community that mixes learning technologies with teachers and researchers. The thing that's great to benefit is things like the ALT members' discussion list where I can get information when I need it really easy. I can pose a question there and I will get lots of really informative and helpful responses. Enjoyable is human and is unlimited. Accessibility and participation across different communities is a big part of what technology can achieve. Technology really has the potential to change education across the globe and it's incredibly exciting.