The LTExChange Network – what is the purpose of the network?
Intended primarily as an online community of practice, the new LTExChange Network will bring together education and service-based practitioners working across the University to inform, support, and share learning and teaching practice innovations and initiatives.
The Network is staff-focused, providing and supporting relevant and worthwhile opportunities for academic and professional service staff to share and discuss learning and teaching practices, projects, and initiatives, as well as the chance to co-host and co-facilitate LTExChange symposia.
How do I get involved?
If you haven’t already done so, please contact LTE@tees.ac.uk if you wish to register as a LTExChange Network member. Members can access symposia recordings and materials, as well as sign up to additional events and offerings throughout the academic year.
Looking back at the 2023-24 LTExChange Network Symposia Series
Last year’s symposia series focused on supporting and advancing “Inclusive Communities of Learning”. More specifically, the series comprised three themed online events:
LTExChange Symposium 1: Wednesday November 29th – “Entangled Pedagogy – collective, responsive and ethical practice” – Dr. Tim Fawns (Monash University).
LTExChange Symposium 2: Wednesday February 28th – “Connected Communities – Learner Relationships in Global Higher Education” – Professor Monika Foster (Northumbria University).
LTExChange Symposium 3: April 24th – “The Connected Student – The Value of Student-Staff Partnership Work in Preparing for a Globally Connected World” – Professor Alison Cook-Sather (Bryn Mawr College, US).
Focus for 2024-25 LTExChange Symposia Series: “Learning Futures”
As higher education providers continue to negotiate the complexities of a changing and uncertain policy landscape, it is recognised that considerations regarding learning futures and digital technology converge at the level of the system, the organisation, the community, the teacher, and the learner, with themes of automation, efficiency, flexibility, visibility, inclusivity, and equity the focus of intense attention and debate. Indeed, we might argue that universities are in the business of “future-making. As educators, we facilitate and enable students to think critically and creatively about their prospects, to begin to generate visions of future possibilities for learning and practice, and to initiate action in pursuit of these. Prospective learning futures will necessarily reflect the entangled relationships between people, technologies, and digital media. Innovations in digital media continue to change the way we communicate, source, and share, and engage with information. The now standard integration of mobile technologies and multi-purpose digital devices in higher education practice environments has blurred the boundaries between the physical and the virtual, ushering in a new orientation toward learning that is increasingly experiential, flexible, and connected.
Today, educators and the students they teach receive and work with different forms of information across a range of modes when socialising, engaging in education, or entering the workplace. Students also bring with them a diverse mix of experiences and expectations to higher education in terms of their academic skills, communication environments, as well as cultural and geographical backgrounds. This is why multimodal learning matters and is core to the focus of this year’s symposia series exploring “Learning Futures”. Universities must capitalise on the affordances of the multimodality of digital educational environments to realise a broader range of possibilities for teaching and learning practices. The annual LTExChange Symposia Series will bring together and engage key stakeholders to support new thinking and share practice innovations as we consider what it means to embrace a learning futures perspective. We will explore a range of future-making themes, exploring some of the specific ways ideas about digital futures in particular might be grasped and critically considered in practice. Through the series we take a look at some of the research and thinking that informs a ‘Learning Futures Perspective’ as a site for critical engagement, professional learning and pedagogic development. The series will be of interest to any Teesside colleagues with an interest in and/or responsibility for supporting and delivering an inclusive and future-facing student learning experience.
Building on the participatory model deployed in previous years, the 2024-25 Symposium series aims to provide designated space and scope for interrogating a range of theoretical and applied interpretations and perspectives and generating collaborative, reflexive discussions, and debate.
2024-25 LTExChange Symposia Series
The first LTExChange Symposium takes place on Wednesday November 27th exploring the theme of ‘Harnessing (Gen)AI to Promote Student Learning”.
Our keynote will Dr. Martin Compton (Kings College, London) who will be discussing how we can leverage Generative AI for a transformed teaching and assessment future.
The Symposium will be taking place on Wednesday 27th November 9am – 11am on Microsoft Teams and can be booked through the Microsoft Bookings link on our CPD Professional Development landing page
For further information and to book your place on the Symposium please click here