The document outlines the agenda and discussion topics for a meeting of a learning technologists group. The agenda includes introductions, breakout discussions on communication, challenges, and collaboration, as well as a sharing session on ideas and projects. Some key discussion points included setting up a central hub for communication, challenges around isolation and proving value, and benefits of the group like networking, mentoring and achieving a collective voice. Suggestions for future meetings incorporated both online and face-to-face elements to balance networking and content sharing.

1. Image source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10217810@N05/4344939688

2. Agenda
13:00 Introductions and background
13:20 Knowledge Café
‘How should we communicate as a group?
‘What challenges do we face as learning technologists?
‘How might the group help us all?
‘What could we achieve together?’
14:30 Refreshments and networking
15:00 TEL idea sharing
15:30 What do we want from meetings?
Next steps?
16:00 Close
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46652337@N06/8154892547

3. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36644893@N05/8151268699

4. Where is our voice??
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5. Don’t we want to share?
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47691521@N07/4371000846

6. Image source: http://xkcd.com/1238/
How should we
communicate?

7. What challenges do
we face?
Image source: http://xkcd.com/1238/

8. Image source: http://xkcd.com/1238/
How might the group
help us all?

9. Image source: http://xkcd.com/1238/
What could we
achieve together?

10. http://bitly.com/bundles/o_u60lqmj55/1
Knowledge Café
Collaborative documents here

11. • Blog
• Mixed model with central hub
• Make it effective
• Central place
• Google hangouts
• Central place
• All of the above – allow people to select to
suit
• Face to face is important
How should we communicate?

12. • Isolation
• How do we prove ourselves – working with the intangible
• Getting management buy in
• Keeping the momentum going after initial excitement
• How we communicate our purpose, managing expectations
• ‘mmm yeah’ *sigh*
• Helping people understand what it is we do
• Appreciating the behind-the-scenes stuff
• Tension between learning, teaching and research on staff
engagement
What challenges do we face?

13. • Career opportunities
• Break down language barriers between sectors
• It’s not what you know but who you know – sharing
and network
• Knowledge (and skills) base and sharing what we know
with others
• Mentoring/ buddying
• A shoulder to cry on (awwww)
• Sharing of resources (practical – tools etc)
• Opportunities for staff development – bring in
externals to the group
How might the group help us all?

14. • Working together – producing papers / getting
published / awards etc with ALT (other organisations?)
• Co-authoring papers / collaborating
• Pulling together project teams from people we know
• Learning from others’ experiences
• Collaboration / collaborating on learning materials
(sharing between organisations / individuals)
• Find connections with similar organisations /
potentially sharing workshops as part of the group
• Achieve a collective voice
• Create a community of good practice
What could we achieve together?

15. THE IDEA
SHARING
BIT
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38126668@N02/6213367077

16. The ideas showcase…
• Co-tutor – Loughborough University (Melanie King)
• Digital literacy – Leicester City Council (Lucy Atkins)
• iPad project – Loughborough University (Charles
Shields)
• UCISA – case studies on mobile learning (Elaine Swift)
• Assessment scheduler – logging coursework
electronically – CASPA (Coursework assessment
scheduler for programme administration) –
Loughborough University (Caroline Lowery)
• WOOC, Loughborough University (Rich Goodman)
• Xerte bootstrap learning object creation
(Mitchellmedia.co.uk) (Ron Mitchell)

17. Resources shared / shown
• http://mitchellmedia.co.uk/xot/play_36#resume=2
• http://mitchellmedia.co.uk/488
• http://blog.lboro.ac.uk/elearning/
• http://celt.our.dmu.ac.uk/effective-practice/elt-case-
studies/#mobile
• http://www.digilitleic.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/06/DigiLit-Leicester-report-
130624-FINAL.pdf
• http://www.digilitleic.com/?page_id=261
• http://co-tutor.lboro.ac.uk/about.php
• http://bitly.com/bundles/o_u60lqmj55/1

18. Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36644893@N05/8151268699

19. What do our meetings look like?
• Some face-to-face and online too
• Face-to-face for networking and collaboration
• Online presence good but not fluffy
• Face-to-face
• Sharing in between meetings – development of WordPress for research areas etc
• Face-to-face for ad hoc conversations and sharing of ‘real life’ learning tech
• Face-to-face for a significant amount of time because of the amount of travel involved, so needs to be
focused (and possible pre-preparation needed)
• External presenters or a theme at face-to-face meetings
• Lunchtime webinars for 45 mins on a specific topic
• Make sure we’re at different locations too
• Sub-meetings / niche groups for follow-up and to feed back to wider group
• Pecha Kucha presentations as part of webinar from specialist groups
• Buffet with desserts – have your cake and eat it!!
• Frequency? One general meeting per year and a number of symposiums / webinar?
• Inclusive – every organisation (and consultancies) represented where possible
• Make sure that it represents full scope of learning tech, every sector represented
• Take advantage of ‘local’ for face-to-face, it has real value
• Small groups to help generate items for next meeting / workshops etc
• Face-to-face – not just looking at projects but also looking at themes or common issues