The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) is a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

professional body A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) usually seeks to further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that profession, and the ...

and

learned society A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an discipline (academia), academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and s ...

. Founded in 1993 as a Registered Charity, ALT brings together people and organisations with an interest in the use of

learning technology Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

Membership

ALT has over 170 organisational and sponsoring members, and over 2,290 individual members as reported in the 2016/17 accounts. Organisational members include the majority of the UK's universities. Sponsoring members include public sector agencies such as the

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and the

Higher Education Academy Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) is a British charity and professional membership scheme promoting excellence in higher education. It advocates evidence-based teaching methods and awards fellowships as professional recogniti ...

, and companies such as

Blackboard A blackboard (also known as a chalkboard) is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of ...

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

and

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...

. There are three categories of individual member: Associate Member, Ordinary Member, and, under a scheme which has operated since 2005, Certified Member (CMALT).

Activities

ALT's activities include the following: * ALT-C, which is the UK's main conference for learning technologists. Past keynote speakers at ALT-C have included Martin G. Bean, David Cavallo,

Wendy Hall Dame Wendy Hall (born 25 October 1952) is a British computer scientist. She is Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton. Early life and education Wendy Hall was born in west London and educated at Ealing Grammar ...

Eric Mazur Eric Mazur (born November 14, 1954) is a physicist and educator at Harvard University, and an entrepreneur in technology start-ups for the educational and technology markets. Mazur's research is in experimental ultrafast optics, condensed matter p ...

, Natasa Milic-Frayling,

Sugata Mitra Sugata Mitra (born 12 February 1952) is an Indian computer scientist and educational theorist. He is best known for his "Hole in the Wall" experiment, and widely cited in works on literacy and education. He is Professor Emeritus at NIIT Univers ...

Peter Norvig Peter Norvig (born December 14, 1956) is an American computer scientist and Distinguished Education Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. He previously served as a director of research and search quality at Google. Norvig is t ...

, Richard Noss,

Hans Rosling Hans Rosling (; 27 July 1948 – 7 February 2017) was a Swedish physician, academic and public speaker. He was a professor of international health at Karolinska Institute and was the co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation, which deve ...

, Carol Twigg,

Michael Wesch Michael Lee Wesch (born June 22, 1975) is Professor of Cultural Anthropology and a University Distinguished Teaching Scholar at Kansas State University. Wesch's work also includes media ecology and the emerging field of digital ethnography, whe ...

, Dylan Wiliam. * Responding to consultations relating to learning technology and e-learning. Some of these responses are referenced in Government publications. * Workshops and occasional smaller conferences. * Certification of members under the CMALT scheme, see http://www.alt.ac.uk/cmalt/. * Working in partnership with other organisations, such as the

Association of Colleges The Association of Colleges (AoC) is a not-for-profit membership organisation in England set up by colleges to act as their collective voice, representing further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and ...

Jisc Jisc is a United Kingdom not-for-profit company that provides network and IT services and digital resources in support of further and higher education institutions and research as well as not-for-profits and the public sector. History T ...

LSIS The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) was a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and registered charity formed in 2008 to support and improve achievement in the Further Education and Skills sector in England. The LSIS had a go ...

NIACE The NIACE (National Institute of Adult Continuing Education) was an educational charity in England and Wales, with headquarters in Leicester and Cardiff plus a subsidiary office in London. The organization, founded in 1921 as the ''British Inst ...

, and th
TEL Programme

Aims

ALT aims to: # Increase the impact of Learning Technology for public benefit # Provide stronger recognition of and representation for Learning Technology professionals on a national level # Lead the professionalisation of research and practice in Learning Technology

Publications

Research in Learning Technology ''Research in Learning Technology'' (''RLT'') is an open access peer-reviewed academic journal covering research in learning technology. The journal is currently known as ''Research in Learning Technology'' (since 2011), formerly known as ''ALT-J ...

, an international peer-reviewed

Open Access journal Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

which aims to ''raise the profile of research in learning technology, encouraging research that informs good practice and contributes to the development of policy''; * a public wiki with resources of interest to the learning technology community; * a members' digest, which is sent fortnightly to nearly 2000 subscribers; * a quarterly printed and web-based Newsletter available at http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/.

External links

Association for Learning Technology (ALT) website

Research in Learning Technology - The Journal of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT)

Certified Membership (CMALT)

References

{{reflist Educational technology academic and professional associations Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom

Learning Technology Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...