The role of a Learning Technologist

I've been chatting about the The Really Useful Ed Tech Book with some learning technologists today. This is a great all round read for those working in TEL, those who want to understand what impacts on TEL and those who want to understand the role of a learning technologist and it's available to download for free! I thought I'd post my thoughts on the parts of the book that stuck out to me. I really liked Wayne Barry’s chapter "…And What Do You Do?" Can We Explain The Unexplainable? 

The prologue made me chuckle, we’ve all had those awkward moments when we get asked what we do haven’t we? My personal response tends to vary depending on the role of the person who has asked me the dreaded question 'soooooo, what is a Learning Technologist?'. My personal best (or worst) would have to be my graduation day. It was 2013 when I graduated with my MSc in Technology Enhanced Learning, Innovation & Change. I watched hundreds of students walk on stage to be greeted and presented with their award by Lord Robert Winston. I was up next! Now we all wonder if we’re going to be that student that gets asked a question mid hand shake, well that day I was that lucky student. And what should Lord Robert Winston ask me? That dreaded question…. “so what do you do?” Panic! Now anyone who knows me knows that I am not one of these learning technologists that shy away when posed with this question, never shall I brush my job role under the IT carpet or place it under the ‘e-learning’ catch all.

I had found myself up on stage at Sheffield City Hall with hundreds of people starring at me whilst I desperately tried to think of the quickest and clearest response to get me off that stage. I couldn’t do it, “I’m a Learning Technologist” I said proudly to Lord Bob, “Oh, what’s that?” he replied. I used my standard opening response in this situation as a first attempt “I work with academic staff to embed learning technology into the curriculum to enhance learning and teaching". Lord Bob gave me the nod and probed a little further. Luckily I managed to wrap the conversation up in what felt like hours but was actually minutes and merrily trotted off the stage without falling over. Phew!

So I wonder how other people view our roles? I think most of us learning technologists can certainly answer that question in our own contexts but why is it so difficult for others to understand? Is it because we all do so many different things?  Peter Reed refers to this variety of roles in his chapter The Structure And Roles Of Learning Technologists Within Higher Education Institutions. He talks about the variation of job role on a spectrum, spanning from IT Systems Architect right through to Educational Developer. He also looks at the factors that can influence the diversity of the role including the impact of organisational structure. I myself form part of a team of learning technologists within a faculty, but I'm the only faculty post whilst the others focus on departmental demands. In my previous post I highlighted some of the work I do as part of that role. Our faculty has a number of departmental learning technologists and technology professionals that sit at various stages of the spectrum Pete’s referring to. I'd place myself closer to the end of educational developer but in my time working in the field have moved along at different points starting from more of a content development role and quite often I find myself sliding up and down this spectrum depending on the project I'm working on. What I like about Pete's chapter is that it sets out the variety of aspects to the role and the influences and business demands that might go towards shaping the kind of learning technologist that you are.

In their chapter, Learning Technologist as a Digital Pedagogue Dr David Walker & Shelia MacNeill highlight that we might be in danger of compartmentalizing ourselves if we do tightly define our roles. I would tend to agree with this and there have been many times where I've seen quite specific job remits and responsibilities even right down to the specific software and technology that's required to be supported. This always baffles me (although I do understand the need for this in the case of certain posts) as we're dealing with technology that's constantly changing and a big part of what we do is to look beyond what we already have in place and look ahead to what's on the horizon, but more importantly we look to the teaching approach and learner needs that guide the technological solution. Equally, compartmentalising our roles too much could be detrimental to the professional development of the learning technologist as well as detrimental to the support, knowledge and guidance that can be gained from the learning technologist.

What defines each individual learning technologist seems to be their own personal interest and background. We all bring something different to the table and we all have our strengths and weaknesses.

I think the authors of this chapter sum things up quite nicely with this closing paragraph:

"...the ‘new professionals’ of 2015 are an emerging tribe of digital pedagogues with focus on learning enhancement and advocacy of innovative practices underpinned by research and scholarly activities. Among this overlapping community of professionals, we would argue that Learning Technologists - operating across academic disciplines, support services and more senior management positions - with their ability to engage in discussions with colleagues from multiple disciplines beyond simply the use of technology identifies them as our most rounded pedagogues..." (Walker & MacNeill pg 103)

So back to my question, how do others view our roles? Well when I first started here at the university I was keen to find out how academic colleagues in my faculty perceived our roles. So at different stages last year I took the opportunity to gather some comments from the academic staff for my own interest.  

I asked 14 members of staff to summarise in just a couple of sentences ‘What do you think is involved in the role of a learning technologist?  I've loosely themed the comments and here's what emerged.

With only 14 comments it's clearly not representative of the faculty in anyway but it's interesting to gather the thoughts of colleagues that attend the TEL sessions that I run. As you can see that staff development and support were regarded as the largest part of a learning technologists role. And interestingly, the application of teaching theory or pedagogy was not mentioned as much in comparison.  

This doesn’t come as a huge surprise, typically many people view the role of a learning technologist as quite techie and aren't necessarily aware that in order for us to be the bridge between teaching and technology we do need to have a sound pedagogic understanding and grounding. 


Staff development and support are at the top of the list and rightly so. We all tend to undertake an element of support or staff development be it in the form of formal workshops around TEL or one- to- one support.

Here’s a pick of a few comments: 

"Translating academic intentions into a technology context. Helping to uncover the possibilities of technology and then supporting the implementation. Not content writing."

"To advise and support on the delivery of teaching and learning via technology - any aspects of it i guess!"
 
"Establishing appropriate software for delivery of online distance learning mechanisms for support and feedback. Initiating and maintaining online community feel. Enabling both academic and personal support for students."


I have to say it was quite nice to hear these comments as many of them were pretty spot on which was a great relief! Nobody said fixing the printers... Yay! There were no great misunderstandings of our roles and I guess that's down to the variety of roles we have in the faculty. We have a number of roles within the faculty that support TEL from various angles including filming, content development, VLE management, writing systems right through to staff development, advice and guidance on TEL, project work, curriculum design to educational development. If you ever find yourself new to a faculty I'd recommended taking the opportunity to ask academic colleagues how they view your role as a learning technologist as it makes for an interesting discussion point around the how you can support developments in TEL, allows you to establish your role and other roles working in TEL and also gives you a better understanding of what potential challenges you might face in the future.

References

Barry, W. (2015). "…and what do you do?" Can we explain the unexplainable?. In: Hopkins, D., ed., The Really Useful #EdTechBook, 1st ed. David Hopkins, pp.23-34.

Reed, P. (2015). The structure and roles of Learning Technologists within Higher Education Institutions. In: Hopkins, D., ed., The Really Useful #EdTechBook, 1st ed. David Hopkins, pp.41-51.

Walker, D. and MacNeill, S (2015). Learning Technologist as Digital Pedagogue. In: Hopkins, D., ed., The Really Useful #EdTechBook, 1st ed. David Hopkins, pp.91-105.