I have learnt several valuable lessons during my three years leading the Language and Study Skills module, which I hope will be of use to me in the future. A concise, but by no means exhaustive list is:
do not be afraid to try new ideas and technologies;
whether as a teacher or course writer, pay close attention to key documents such as module specifications and handbooks to know what you can and can't do;
use your experience and knowledge of your students and context to decide what technologies will have a positive impact;
don't worry if something doesn't work as expected. This can be as valuable, if not more so, than an idea that works first time.
In the coming term I start a new role as programme leader for the Pre-Master's pathway, which will change my relationship with learning technologies. I will be less directly involved with teaching and writing my own course, and spend more time overseeing the writing process by other module leaders. However, I very much believe that teaching in higher education must use learning technology to its advantage in order to stay relevant. The days of chalk and talk style teaching may be numbered, and learning technology will have to mean more than using a VLE site as a repository for lecture slides. At the same time, the past eighteen months have also shown that students value interactive and in-person teaching, and that technology is no substitute for engaging material which allows students to jointly construct knowledge and apply it to the real world. With this in mind, I hope that in this new role I will be able to work closely with the University's Programme Development and Learning Technology team to combine principles of good teaching with up-to-date technologies, and to help those on my team to make the most of new platforms that become available to genuinely enhance the learning process for students. I do not anticipate this being a simple task, as another lesson I've learnt has been that many practitioners do not see technology as being relevant to their teaching, and can view time spent learning to use new platforms such as Xerte as being time better spent on more fundamental preparation. I hope to change some minds about this, and some initial steps that I hope will help me to achieve this are:
to become more involved in organising CPD within the department, focusing primarily on technology and how it can help achieve course learning outcomes;
to encourage training on and uptake of Xerte within the wider department and particularly on the Pre-Master's programme;
to use both personal development reviews and programme reviews to discuss new learning technologies with teachers.