It’s not everyday that you get such an honour, to become an Honorary Life Member of the professional body you’ve belonged to for most of your career. It’s a huge privilege to join this illustrious group, to join peers whose work I admire and respect so much: Lorna Campbell and Josie Fraser, Frances Bell and Teresa MacKinnon, Julie Voce and Chris Jones, Linda Creanor and Seb Schmoller, Diana Laurillard and David Hawkridge.
ALT, the Association for Learning Technology, has been my professional home since I finished my PhD in 2008, and supports and empowers the community and networks I actively work with and in. Whilst working for ALT and serving as CEO, I maintained my own membership and successfully gained first Certified Membership (CMALT) and later Senior CMALT. I continue to act as an assessor for the scheme, and appreciate the opportunity to learn from peers going through the accreditation process.
Like many fellow leaders in Learning Technology, I have brought a grounding in other disciplines to my work in Learning Technology and Open Education. That is one of the things I enjoy the most about working in this sector, as it makes for a rich theoretical context and practice, too. I arrived in the sector at a time of great change and economic crisis, and ever since then big waves of innovation, political and social change have continued to rock institutions and practitioners alike. Learning Technologists have thrived through it all, and have a lot of expertise and insight to share with other sectors, I feel.
From serving on the FELTAG Ministerial Action Group, convened by the then Minister of State for Skills and Enterprise, Matthew Hancock and working with Diana Laurillard and Neil Morris on the hugely impactful Blended Learning Essentials courses; to laying the foundations for the AmplifyFE community of practice with Emma Procter-Legg and working on new pathways to accreditation and apprenticeships, my work in Learning Technology has been firmly anchored across sectors. FE, the sector in which I already felt welcome in at age 17, has always been a big focus for me, and ultimately led to my current work as a teacher, trainer and coach working with emerging and established leaders in education.
My work with ALT Member organisations both for ALT and on a free-lance basis, including many Higher Education providers, expanded beyond the UK, and one of my fondest memories from the past decade is working with colleagues at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University under the BOLT project, and awarding CMALT certificates to a whole cohort of their staff in 2018/19.
If there is one thing I have learnt by being part of this community it’s how much we have in common, across sectors and across international borders. In my work now in the UK, and with the team at Reclaim Hosting and Canadian and Irish colleagues in Open Education, I come across the same issues that ALT explored over the years. The technologies may change, and the context shifts, but at the heart of the work it’s still about empowering learners and educators in their use of technology, to be more ethical, equitable and sustainable.
So thank you, fellow ALT Members, for this nomination and the honour to be recognised by the peers that mean the most to me. I look forward to continuing to contribute to the important work we do and support ALT and our community.
Thank you.
