The Art of Communication - CMALT

OK, I'm not actually going to write a guide on the art of communication, but I did want to talk about the importance of 'effective' communication within our roles. Last week I was asked to join the Faculty of Social Sciences at one of their regular CMALT sessions to discuss my 'journey' as a learning technologists and the factors that led me complete my CMALT. The Faculty of Social Sciences have around 12 members of staff that are currently in the midst of compiling their CMALT portfolio. Organised by their faculty learning technologist, Ros Walker they have been coming together regularly looking at each aspect of the CMALT portfolio with an invited speaker for each session. An approach that I think has worked very well!

The last session looked at 'communication'. I shared my own experiences interfacing between many different colleagues as this hybrid technological and pedagogical communicator. This got me thinking about the various teams I've been alined to as a learning technologist. In my time as an LT I've sat within:

• a multimedia team within technical services (Business School at Sheffield Hallam)
• a Unit for Enhancement in Learning and Teaching as part of curriculum development team (UeLT at University of Kent)
• a Centre for Learning and Teaching (CeLT at Manchester Metropolitan University)
• a strand of Learning and Research Technologies (LRT) called Learning Innovation (Manchester Metropolitan University)
• and now a Faculty role withing The University of Sheffield's Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health

During my time I've worked on a varying scale of projects including small scale innovations through to large institutional change through out all of which I've been required to adapt my communication skills to the appropriate audience. It really is incredible when you think about the different kinds of roles that a learning technologist has to communicate with, last week alone I met with/or had contact with fellow learning technologists, central IT, faculty IT, administrators, academics, students, members of senior exec and learning and teaching services. Some of those interactions involved an informal coffee, attending and feeding back at an event, a presentation and using social media!

Working in such a dynamic field requires the skill to adapt communications methods and techniques to the right setting and colleague. As communicators of sometimes seemingly complex technological ideas to teaching problems it's really important that we can do so in a way that is clear to our audience. It's also really important that we listen, sounds obvious right? I'll draw upon an example from a couple of weeks ago when I was asked to attend a programme committee to talk about e-learning. Now, I can chew the e-learning fat till the cows come home but what we see time and time again are colleagues jumping on top of learning technology as an answer to their prayers. After some questioning and listening it became obvious there was no issue for me to address as such so a different approach on my part was needed in this case but it's sometimes this kind of dialogue and the approach that is important with colleagues when being asked to address certain problems.

We are exposed to many different situations which require a variety of communicative skills, this can range from written reports, presentations, staff development sessions, presenting at conferences, reporting to strategic groups, communicating institutionally, dealing with students and primarily being the connection between technology and pedagogy.

Quite often we can find ourselves in the firing line as the 'bringers of change' when it comes to implementation of new new learning technologies and approaches. This can always be tricky and the wrong approach here can lead to upset and frustrated staff and really set things back. In this case I always flip things the other way and start with the pedagogy, the students and the approach and leave the technology to one side. But it's very hard sometimes to control the way in which colleagues perceive our roles which of course will impact on the way in which they choose to communicate back.... or not communicate back! This means we have to be adaptable, confident and above all think on our feet.

What I've also found in my time is that in many situations we seem to be the missing connection between many streams of broken communication between various pockets of the institution. I think this comes down to the wide spanning nature of our roles and quite often I find myself informing colleagues such as academics, IT and professional services of the latest goings on. I guess this comes down to the nature of our role being plugged into so many areas of the systems, the student cycle and teaching and learning.

Although Ros had asked me to share my own journey at this particular session, I have been attending some of them already as an exisiting CMALT holder, a great opportunity to hear from other LT professionals and share experiences. Looking forward to the next!