The Vevox team have attended two key higher education conferences this year, hosted by The Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) and The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) to hear the latest updates and upcoming trends in the learning technology community. 

So what have we been hearing over the last year about what's upcoming and important for 2023?

1. The natural evolution of education now includes digital tools as part of the core teaching mix 

2. The future of education is in total value delivered 

3. Do Learning Technologists need to re-define their roles? 

A common question raised by learning technologists in the Vevox Q&A sessions at the ALT conference: ‘Do institutions need to be more strategic in their approach to learning technology?’ See some examples below… 

• "Is the role of the Learning Technologist still one of persuasion, encouragement, lobbying, selling the benefits of learning technologies? Do institutions need to be more strategic in their approach to learning technology?"

• "If those working within the learning technology sector don't clearly know what they do, how do we expect those we support to recognise what we do?"

• "We are seen as different things to different people resulting in being the 'go-to' person who anything and everything! Do we need to more clearly define who we are and what we do?"

• "How do we help our instituional leadership understand and better recognise learning technology professionals?"

It is without doubt that the pandemic permanently altered the way education is delivered. But with this, the role of the Learning Technologist became blurred too. Already a continually evolving and multi-faceted role, COVID bought a surge of new projects and challenges to LTs, to provide urgent processes and tools for lecturers to continue delivering education with minimal disruption. Learning Technologists need to find solutions to better define their role and responsibilities to effectively manage their workload.