All My Sketchnotes from the Learning Technologies Conference 2024 UK

 Rachel Burnham writes: This work the Learning Technologies Exhibition and Conference #LT24UK has been taking place on 17 & 18 April at ExCel in London.  I was attending the conference as part of the social media team and contributing to the social media coverage for the event by Sketchnoting sessions.   I will include in this blog all my Sketchnotes for the sessions I participated in over the two days.

 

With a keynote address on each day and up to 5 streams of sessions for the two days, a lot of different topics and takes on those topics have been explored over the two days.  Each participant will have chosen to participate in a mix of sessions, with differing formats and will have come with a range of experience and from varying contexts, so each person will have their own view about what the conference covered and how valuable it was.  My experience was that all the sessions I participated in were thoughtful, interesting and of value.  Of course, there are some points made by speakers that I disagreed with, some things that weren’t new to me but familiar territory and also lots and lots that challenged, inspired and intrigued me.  

Here are my Sketchnotes from across the two days.  I have included both the titles of the sessions and the hashtags based on the session numbers so that you can look at other social media coverage on these sessions if you wish:

Opening Address Wednesday – A world in flux: AI and the forces transforming work, and what we can – and should – do about it

Daniel Susskind was looking at how AI is disrupting not just blue collar jobs, but also professional roles. He identified that this happening at the task level for a wide range of professions, rather than replacing the job as a whole. He also identified that AI tackles tasks differently compared to the way a human does, but may still be able to do specific tasks more effectively than a person does.  It was a pity that he seemed unaware of the way that modern L&D works and the range of ways in which effective learning can be supported.

 

#T3S1 The Case for Rethinking Organizational Learning

Here is my Sketchnote from the interactive session led by Dr. Nigel Paine and Dr. Celine Mullins on rethinking Organizational Learning.

The point that resonated with me particularly was about focusing not on knowledge but on knowing. With Sketchnoting I find the value is in 'the doing' and the insight this gives rather than in the Sketchnote produced.

 

#T4S3 Instructional Design in the Real World

Andrew Jacobs chaired a fully interactive session with a fabulous panel made up of Jane Bozarth, Julie Dirksen and Cammy Bean. The session was exploring designing learning for the way people learn and work and addressed questions from session participants - by doing this it modelled one of the points made in the session that relevance leads to engagement.

It was fascinating that so many questions related to managing relationships in order to be able to design effectively eg with SMEs or other stakeholders. Lots of practical approaches for doing this were shared by the panel.

 

Opening Address Thursday – What on earth will people do next? Understanding human behaviour now and in the future?

Lively, informative and helpful keynote from Thimon De Jong at the start of the second day of the Learning Technologies Conference. He focused on the implications for learning of two key areas - mental health and our response to the introduction of new technology.  I loved his use of metaphors – being stranded on a sandbar and the elevator – a gift for a Sketchnoter!

 

#L2S1 L&D and Sustainability

I was very glad that I was able to take part in the lunchtime session yesterday on 'L&D and Sustainability' hashtag#L2S1 with Rob Hubbard, Bryan Hopkins, Natalie Ainsworth and Jodie Pritchard. There is a lot we can be doing in L&D to be contributing to sustainability in our organisations - we need to put our hands up, find out what is already going on in our organisations, talk about it and remember that we have useful skills in changing human behaviour which is so important to this work.

 

#T1S5 VR in Learning

Lots of practical advice and experience shared from two very different organisations about when, how and when not to use VR for effective learning.

Really liked the DICE mnemonic for situations in which VR can be a good option shared by Charles Neuner and the practical examples for when to use the real thing, video or VR from Matt Day. The session was chaired by Stella Collins who kept the questions flowing.

 

#T4S6 Al Literacy for L&D

This session at yesterday's Learning Technologies Conference by Jon Fletcher of the The LPI (Learning and Performance Institute) was informative, challenging and got behind the hype about AI and into sufficient detail to be practically helpful. It focused on what knowledge and skills L&D professionals need to be developing in the next months/year to be able to both use AI effectively in our own work and also to be able to support our organisation/clients at they adopt AI technologies. In addition, he helpfully identified existing skills of L&D folk which will be useful in working with AI.

There is a lot for us to be learning, but Jon set out a map of what that looks like at present and by doing so gave us a great starting point.

 

Rachel Burnham

19 April 2024

I help individuals and organisations to use visuals to think, learn and work more effectively, particularly though using Sketchnoting and drawing.