 and welcome everybody to this session on the framework for ethical learning technology. Really delighted to see you all here at the Algmenta conference for what is gonna be a very exciting session. And in a moment, I'm just going to introduce our speakers for this session. So please do put your virtual hands together and wave hello in the chat to welcome Natalie and Sharon. Hello, how are you both today? Hi, Marren. Yeah, doing okay. Yeah. Well, for those of you who haven't met Sharon and Natalie before, I just wanted to say a big thank you because all both of you have been chairing the working group that's been involved in developing this framework from since last September to the September that's just passed. So it's been a really long-term project and AstraZivald, obviously. There's also a big strategic significance to this project for us as an association. So thank you again for coming and joining us here today at the Winter Conference to give everybody in the room a bit of an update on the framework, but also hopefully celebrate the launch of the resources. I'm gonna bring up the presentation now and be quiet and I think hand over to Natalie. So here you are. Thanks very much, Marren. And yes, hello, everyone. I hope everyone's well. And I think it's really excited today actually to share the updates on the framework and the launch of the resources. So some of you may know that we've been working on this for a little while. And I guess the critical thing is that I think we've all become aware really, particularly with the ramp up in the use of digital and just the importance of making sure that our practice really is ethical and rooted in an ethical perspective. And that's really why Alt really has taken on this piece of work and I think is leading really in the sector, the whole sector that we work in around developing this framework. And it's very much, at the heart of it, it's really being designed to really support learning technologies across all sectors, but it's also aimed at supporting vendors as well to help them to critically reflect about the projects they're developing, but also the organizations that we work for too. So the framework really is kind of multi-level really in terms of its application. And I think it's been great to see the journey that we've been across over the past 12 months. And I think again, a really special place for Alt to be, we have 3,500 members and we know this is very much a concern. So we're really delighted, I think, to just give you this update on how we've been developing the framework and also the resources that we're putting in place to support the application of that in practice. And also I think recognising that these ethical aspects do intersect with the different technologies we use, the policy, issues of equality as well. And I've been working with Sharon and also our colleague, Bella Abrams, who's from Sheffield, also another trustee with Alt, on this work. We started that work October 2020. It seems like a lifetime ago this year seems to have kind of flown by so much has happened. And in those early days, we worked together on thinking about how we would approach the work and really putting out the call to see whether there are individuals who'd like to work with us and form a special interest group. And we've had a great response to that. And then in January, we started to begin drafting the ethical principles. And it was quite interesting. We started off with a checklist, the delicate checklist. And I think it was Bella that brought to one of the meetings her local research ethics framework. And I think we very quickly realised actually we want more than a checklist. We want a framework. And we took those initial research ethics frameworks in our institutions and began to build on those. And again, lots of consultation through monthly meetings of the special interest group at the old assembly. And many of the assembly members also contributed to. And again, a good cross-section from different sectors of education from schools, higher education and also from vendors. And then we drafted up that framework and then that went out for consultation in May. So over May, June, we had that consultation open. And again, a fantastic response. 165 responses and international responses as well. So I think again, it's really helpful just to highlight that the responses and the contributions aren't just from the UK, but they're much broader. Again, I think we just highlights just the timeliness of this piece of work and just how much it's needed and how much it's also been welcomed, I think, by our membership and by the wider learning technology community. And then following those responses of some fantastic responses, people raised some really important points and we had some further kind of internal critical reflection. I know that Maron did some fantastic work there during people like John Traxler and others to then draft up the framework. And we shared the summary findings at the annual meeting, the old annual meeting. And then we were delighted to actually then launch the framework at the old annual conference. And maybe we can move now to look at the framework, Maron. So there are four kind of key cornerstones to this ethical framework. And the first really is around awareness. And I think we see more and more that this awareness issue is really critical. So many unintended consequences now emerging around the use of digital and learning technologies in our sphere of work. And so using this framework to help people to begin to understand the interests of the various stakeholders that might be engaged in actually end users of technology or those running the technologies, the intersections and again the kind of linkages with other systems, et cetera. Really important to understand the autonomy and interests of those different groups. And building in that sense of being mindful and reflective as we think about the application of technologies. That criticality, thinking critically, being critical practitioners as it were in our application of learning technology. And again that wider environment and the influence because often we just see things in our own little sphere. So again, I think that thing of opening up the conversation to others who might not normally be at the table around some of those discussions around our implementation of learning technology or development of policy, et cetera. And again, I think it's that thing of recognizing what our own limits are. And again, reaching out to others who we think might have expertise, who can help us. And again, being aware that we may have our own unconscious bias, which may affect our thinking. Then there's that whole thing of care and community. And I think this really does link into the awareness. So again, that need to be careful. And I think what's been interesting is we've had conversations locally about ethics around learning technology. The thing I keep hearing more and more, oh, it's okay, we do GDPR. And it's like, no, this is much broader than GDPR. It really is about caring for each other and that practice of care. Promoting collegiality and mutual understanding and really understanding how we can minimize the risks of harms for our stakeholders. And again, recognizing our responsibilities and where our influence can come into play. And again, it's that thing, I think, the wonderful thing about autism is that we are such a sharing community that we really do look after each other. And again, sharing and disseminating best practice and Sharon's going to talk a little bit more about that in a moment. And then there's the whole area of professionalism. So again, that level of accountability that we want to really develop our practice in an evidence-led way. And I think it's interesting again that I've just noticed over the past month or so, lots of research papers, opinion pieces, et cetera. Again, really highlighting this issue of professionalism and all the areas and things like the sort of problem that maybe some of the technologies are dehumanizing some of education, which again, I think links them with the professionalism that these other strands of the framework too. And we obviously want to comply with the relevant laws and institutional policies, but I think we do have a unique role in actually thinking a little bit beyond that and thinking how some of these policies internally could be further developed to become more ethical. And it is about being an advocate. We might not always be the person that can make the change, but we can advocate for some of that change and more consideration of some of these ethical issues. And then importantly, it's our values, isn't it? So it's supporting that agency and development of our learners. Again, I think standing up for them too, promoting that fair and equitable treatment. And I think we do see so many inequalities around the use of learning technology. So again, making sure that we really are inclusive. Developing learning environments that obviously are again inclusive and supportive, accessible. And again, I think celebrating that diversity is the root to innovation. Often we think we're limited, but actually some of the times when we're up against these issues of making things more accessible, it can open those doors to innovation. So again, using this framework to kind of foster that doorway into that innovative practice. Just again, designing services that are accessible and again, that accountability and transparency. So sharing what we're doing and allowing others to kind of give us feedback. So it's great that we've got the framework. This is just the start, it will evolve. And I'm delighted to hand over to Sharon, who's going to talk about development since the conference. Thank you so much, Natalie. Yes. So as Natalie said, we launched the framework in September and we've got a lot of really fantastic feedback on that, but it really is just a first step. But it's a foundational first step. So there've been lots of discussions since the launch of the framework and information and resources are being added to the website. So for example, you can now download the framework in various formats. So you can get the PDF format, you can get a word format, you can get it in colour, you can get it in black and white. So it makes it easier, I suppose, just for people to maybe print it off, take a look at it, use it to prompt discussions with your team, with your colleagues, et cetera, but also with vendors and within your institution. And that's really the first step. But we, as we said, the framework already builds on Alts Professional Accreditation Framework Seamult, which was expanded to include ethical considerations for professional practice and research in 2019. So work has begun on mapping this new framework for ethical learning technology to Seamult Accreditation in order to strengthen pathways to professional recognition. And one of the things we wanted to do was to provide support for how people can actually do that within their own professional practice. So it's all very well for me to say, just print it off and use it, but we wanted to try and provide some ways and some methods for you to be able to do that. The framework itself is aimed at, you know, a lot of different people. I suppose the purpose is to support a variety of groups, sort of ourselves as professionals, thinking about what we're doing with technology and also providing examples of what people have done in the past. So there's ourselves and then there's ourselves within our teams and that's what we're sort of looking at just at the moment. But then there's also, it aims to support whole institutions and also industry. But if we could move on, Marin, today we are really excited to launch two new resources to support the use of the framework. One is for individuals and one is for teams or for groups of people who are working together. And you can find both of these reflective self-assessment tools on the website and you can see the link there on the screen. But what I'd like to do is to go through these in a little bit more detail and while I'm talking, it would be really lovely if you could think a little bit about how you might make use of them within your own context and maybe think about whether the individual self-reflection is what you need just at the moment at this time or whether it would be helpful or useful to consider these as a group. And again, Marin, if we could go on. Both of these tools have been created to support reflection and self-assessment. They're not intended to be prescriptive. We didn't want to say, you know, this is how you must use them because really it's up to you to take these and to consider how they are going to support you in your work. So we are hoping to provoke critical reflection and very importantly, conversation. So we suggest that you use the tool, whichever one you decide to use, to reflect maybe within a particular context. It might be on a particular project, perhaps a new or an existing tool or platform or some sort of practice or a particular aspect of your work. And then what the tool does, it supports you to reflect on your professional practice in relation to the framework's four core areas, which Natalie was speaking about earlier. And if you're doing this as a team or a group, there are probably a lot of different approaches that you could take. And I would really encourage you to think about how this might work for you. So you might use the team template and maybe discuss each area in turn, perhaps through meetings or workshops. Or you might reflect individually and then come together to reflect on the results. That team might be a group of colleagues. That's a sort of a perpetual team. Or it might be a team that has been formed for a particular purpose. You could even take the template to maybe a committee or an implementation group, for example, again to provoke and support discussion. And again, Marin, if we could move on. So in a little bit more depth, the resource will first ask you to identify the scope of your reflection. So that's really to think about the context within which you are applying the framework. So whether it's an individual or as a team, think about is this discussion or this reflection that you are having, is it based around the introduction perhaps of a new tool or a new platform or perhaps a new VLE extension. You might be involved in developing or revising a policy, for example, for lecture capture or for remote assessment. Or maybe it's a new project that involves data analytics or it could be some other aspect of your work. Again, we're not being prescriptive. We're just asking you to think about how am I applying this in my particular context. And that will really inform the answers then that you give to the rest of the framework. And moving on again, Marin, thanks. So the self-assessment then is broken down into two parts. And part A will ask you to reflect on each of the four core areas in turn and to think about how your current practice reflects that area and also what aspects maybe you feel you need to develop. And as part of the tool, the four areas of the framework are all very clearly mapped to see more core areas. And then there's also some space after you've done that piece of reflection to reflect on maybe the barriers, the things that may not be under your control or perhaps the things that you can actually do to try and remove those barriers. And as you work through that part A, that reflective piece, you'll be doing some really simple scoring, which you then use in part B, which will allow you to focus on areas for professional development. And moving on. You can complete the self-assessment and you can use it to inform and develop your practice and you can leave it at that if you want. And that's the good use of the tool. Or you can complete the self-assessment online using an online form, which will be available quite soon, not immediately. And you can submit it to ALT to receive a microcredential, which recognizes your achievement and which can also be used as evidence, for example, in your C-mold portfolio. And as I mentioned, in the self-assessment tools, both tools, the four areas of the framework, are all very clearly mapped to the C-mold core areas. But I just want to be clear. Nobody is going to be assessing your self-assessment. Okay. You're not going to be graded or marked or given feedback or anything else like that. It's simply the fact that you have gone through the self-assessment piece and submitted it. That is enough for you to be awarded your microcredential. So the microcredential is awarded for completing it. And ALT will only collect summary data, so things like how many badges are issued, that sort of thing. You won't get marked and you won't get feedback. So that's essentially it on the two new self-reflective tools. As I say, please do take a look at them. Think about how you might use and what might make sense in your context. And of course, we are always looking for feedback on that. So just to finish off then, let me talk a little bit about what else is happening. And what are the plans for the next couple of years? Any of us who thought that the launch of the framework was the end of it, absolutely not, because there are lots of things in the plan. So the working group that Natalie mentioned, which was formed to develop the framework is complete, but there are still lots of ways to get involved. And the focus currently is to collect examples of case studies and policies from both individuals and from institutions and from vendors. So you'll see that we are looking for examples of policies and examples of case studies from a whole variety of projects and implementations and things that you are doing around the use of technology in teaching and learning. So things like lecture capture I mentioned already, online or remote assessment, maybe blended learning policies related to using technology for learning, teaching and assessment, anything that addresses or has implications for ethical considerations. And what we'd like to do is to collect these together to form a baseline of policies and practices for the framework. This was something that we heard a lot about people were looking for examples and case studies. And so it's really important that we collect authentic versions of those. And there is a contribution page already available on the alt website and we do hope that you will contribute. Then from September 2022, which is unbelievably fast approaching, 2021 has gone so fast. And I'm sure that September 22 is going to come around faster than any of us would like, but the focus will be on pathway to accreditation and you can see that's already started and also expanding the framework by mapping it to other standards. And we see that that has already started and we know we anticipate that the framework will begin popping up in C-multiportfolios and we will be looking also for good examples from accredited portfolios. There are also already some fantastic synergies which are very obvious with other professional or ethical frameworks and that's another area we hope that you can contribute to. And just to mention yesterday, I was hearing about the anti-racism toolkit for technology enhanced learning which is being developed by members of the anti-racism in learning technology community of practice and there are such obvious overlaps which will be developed for content developers and the alt framework for ethical learning technology. So it was great to see that framework referenced yesterday in their session. It really was. It was a great presentation and some really good points were being made as well. So just to say the launch in September was not the end of the journey. It's not a finished product. It's just a first step. And again, I'd just like to thank everybody who contributed and has supported us to get to this stage. Thanks. Thanks Sharon and thanks Natalie. I can see a few comments and questions in the chat already but I just wanted to add while we have a look at those that we've already had a few submissions for example institutional policies which has been really fantastic and we're working in the background to try and make the data that we collect and the resources that we collect accessible in a better format. So as you said, some of our online systems for the framework are being currently developed and I think that's really helpful. So there are already online submission forms for case studies. So if you are putting one of those templates to the test, please do consider maybe submitting a case study and helping us baseline the framework against practice. And I can see a comment here on the screen from Jen who's mentioned the context of learning analytics in particular and I think maybe if we just take that comment first in regards to learning analytics and Natalie maybe we can come to you first and then I think we have another comment there as well. So come over to you. Yeah, thank you Marin. And I think that's really right actually Jen and I think it's interesting isn't it because I know that the OU and Edinburgh both have quite robust policies around ethics and learning analytics and I think it's often an issue that's overlooked. So I think learning analytics and I think there's more and more interest in this with the rise of things like attendance monitoring and tracking in the VLE and tracking the use of recorded lectures etc. and different platforms that institutions I think are getting more and more taken with the whole idea of learning analytics. Maybe not always thinking about the wider implications about what actually rather than maybe looking at educational practice and actually our learning design and actually how different learning activities maybe give us an indication of the engagement of our learners and maybe where they're struggling. We maybe move to a slightly reductive view of how we use data and so I think this framework actually has lots of potential in that sphere and I think again it's partly because as I mentioned I think so many people just think if you tick the GDPR tick box that that's the ethical aspects dealt with but I think there are so many issues it's all that unintended consequences isn't it and I think there's a number of studies about the fact that we gain the data but then actually do we have the services and the support in place to actually respond and act on that data or does that data just sit there? What's our responsibility? I think to me again the sort of reflective tool I think helps us to maybe think about things more holistically that 360 degree view and I think again that's why again the framework itself is so important because it's about thinking about all the different stakeholders and actually the importance of bringing them in so this maybe is also where the reflective tool could be really used with a wider team and I can see it really working there actually Mara and thinking of some of the discussions we had a few years ago that actually we'd have this tool actually it would help us I think to frame an ethical policy because we'd have been able to reflect on the different elements even as we're talking now and as Jen's asked this question I'm just seeing more opportunities for its application. One of our other comments in the chat was around from Kirsty about could this be part of a process for new projects and Sharon I wonder also if you had any thoughts on this because I very much hope that the templates can be used in that way and that's also one of the reasons why they are openly licensed so that you know you can take them away and embed them in internal processes. Sharon did you want to come in there? Yeah I think that that is really an ideal way to use these and I was struck yesterday by the conversation around the anti-racist toolkit again just coming back to that it's so important that we don't provide these in a prescriptive way but rather to help people navigate the shades of grey I think it was Samantha who mentioned that and I think that that's so important but if it could be used in that way so that it is part of the process I think that it could be really really helpful and it's just those prompts to allow the discussion to happen and actually just following up on some of the things that Natalie said in response to Jen's comment the other thing that the other group that I think would be really really helpful to include in those discussions are your students and having them as part of the discussion and to allow them to unpick whatever project it is or you know whether it's a learning technology or whether it's a new policy but allowing your students to support you to unpick those ethical issues I think that that would be really fantastic so perhaps using it in combination with that strong student partnership which we've seen grow so much over the last 18 months I think it could really make a difference and allow us to think about and to reflect on you know those sort of consequences I always bring that I always think that students often bring that different lens to something and they do pick up on things that maybe we haven't considered or we haven't thought about so I would certainly support using that in that way yeah. Thank you Sharon. We hope that you find the resources are helpful I'll just put the link up again and we've got a few more comments in the chat that I just want to highlight before we finish and we've got a couple more minutes so Suzanne put a comment in around how the framework could also be useful to support communication and messaging for staff around digital technologies and approaches and so in a minute Sharon and Natalie I'm going to come to you for final responses and comments but I did want to highlight this lovely comment from Coco as well who's mentioning and reminding us obviously that since very recently the community of practice were mentioned and the anti-racism and learning technology group is now a special interest group of ALT so we are preparing frantically behind the scenes for the formal launch of this group as a sake of our association and if you haven't discovered the group yet please do have a look around they've shared a lot of wonderful resources during this conference but now final question and for us as for the session today from Suzanne around communication and messaging for staff around digital technology Sharon we'll come to you first and then to Natalie for the last word thanks actually it's a really good point Suzanne so very often you know the staff we work with the teaching staff especially don't understand why things are implemented in the way that they are being done very often it's out of perhaps care for their students but I know that Suzanne gave a fantastic presentation this morning about digital well-being for staff and I think it's all tied up in this it's a way of I suppose maybe reassuring staff that things are being done in an ethical way and with the best interests of everybody students and staff at heart so I think you're onto something there it could actually be extremely useful for communication and messaging so thank you for bringing that up really important Natalie did you want to come in yeah thank you Marin I absolutely agree and we just kicked off a project yesterday and one of the things that came up was the fact that we're always told that technology is going to save us time it's going to create efficiency and the academics I was talking to we were just saying actually we don't know of any technology that's really done that that's been implemented and I think that's another thing isn't it because it's about workload and respect and our values and so I think again using it in our communication about why we're adopting different tools but also I think building into these projects as we maybe pilot new approaches I think would be really useful and just picking up on the point if I can that Sharon highlighted about students I know that we're looking at graduate attributes and one of those is about an ethical practice so I'm almost wondering whether this could actually be a tool that could be used in teaching to support development of these ethical outlooks of our students in terms of their own future practice and what they might be involved in so I think there's just so many opportunities here and I think as exactly as Sharon said there are so many different layers it's always like a crystal isn't it you can look at it in different ways and you'll see a different reflection of light so I'm really looking forward to seeing how everybody applies this and the ongoing conversation around the implementation of the framework. Thank you, Marin. Hi, pleasure. I can see there's lots of chat from colleagues here in the UK but also from across the world we've even seen Pete from Australia waving in the chat earlier so staying up really late to find out more about this ethical framework so fantastic to have you all with us. I'm afraid we're fast running out of time and I don't want to stop you all from having a bit of a lunch break and also joining the AllSea Winter Conference quiz so please do put your hands together to say thank you to our wonderful presenters who've helped us share these updates with you that are so important and from everyone here involved thank you again for joining our session we hope you find the resources really useful and we look forward to updating you as the framework develops so from everybody here thank you very much and enjoy the rest of the conference.