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My professional journey has been one of continual learning and of course I will continue that but the big questions for me are how to encourage digital learning by focusing on the pedagogy and not the tools and how we as educators build a framework around which to usefully evaluate digital tools and delivery.

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I think one of the biggest issues with digital or digitally enhanced learning is being able to answer that question. I don’t think we have a framework yet which really allows us to answer that.

I would also argue the definition of effective. Is meeting a learning outcome the only measure? Or is a student accepting their sexuality but failing an exam still effective. I would argue yes in some cases but of course it depends on the student and their experiences and how they want to extend their own timeline into the future.

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I work in both the Faculty of Medicine and the National Heart and Lung Institute as a learning technologist and learning designer, focusing on the digital aspects of postgraduate courses and the implementation of digital tools through the curriculum review.

I will very soon be moving to a full-time role in the Faculty of Medicine as the Senior Learning Designer for the Attributes and Aspirations project, as well as being involved in two Excellence Fund for Teaching and Learning Innovation projects - IMPACTS and IMPLEMnT.

My background is in teaching English as a foreign language. I worked for a small independent language agency in Prague and fell into online content because of a need to reach a wider audience - this was in 2006, in the Czech Republic, on Windows 95. The tools I had then don't compare to what we all have available now.

I moved back to the UK in 2010 to complete my Diploma in Teaching in Lifelong Learning, hoping to move into adult education. Having qualified, I talked my way into a learning support role at the University of Brighton where I was given my first Blackboard course and I have not looked back since. In 2013, I was doing freelance work combining learning technology and English language when a learning technologist job came up at Imperial.

Of course, I didn't think I stood a chance. I was a less than exceptional university student struggling with my sexuality and mental health - I used to think: 'how could I possibly work at one of the best institutions in the world?' But someone saw potential in me, and here I am. I still wake up sometimes wondering how I got here, but I am extremely proud of the work I have done so far, and grateful to the amazing people I have worked with. I am excited about future challenges and I wish I could tell my younger self that it gets better. I wouldn't have believed me, but regardless of your history, you can achieve great things.

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Katie Stripe, Senior Learning Technologist, National Heart and Lung Institute - Imperial people

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I work in both the Faculty of Medicine and the National Heart and Lung Institute as a learning technologist and learning designer, focusing on the digital aspects of postgraduate courses and the implementation of digital tools through the curriculum review. I will very soon be moving to a full-time role in the Faculty of Medicine ...

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On a more personal note working at Imperial has also given me the opportunity to be a role model, however indirectly, for the LGBT community, and while I will always maintain that my sexuality is not one of my defining features if being open about that, and about suffering from depression, gives some support to a student then I have a responsibility to make any ‘classroom’ environment a safe space for those things and anything else to simply be accepted. The confidence I have gained has also allowed me to share my work and present to colleagues at Imperial and externally (with the occasional Mr Darcy reference), something 16-year-old me would NEVER have thought possible.

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Receiving excellence grant funding for IMPLEMnT was a huge confidence boots and that plus working on the Curriculum Review have given me real insights into how we need to build a digital learning environment which is a safe and comfortable space, not just for students, but our teaching staff as well. This makes my teaching role twofold. One to write, design and build digital content for students. But also, to work with staff to encourage and teach them how to work in a digitally enhanced environment.

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Innovation

IMPLEMnT aims to be a toolkit which will empower teachers to create original resources that support blended learning. Currently, no products on the market combine multiple approaches to support technology-enhanced learning (TEL) and incorporate underpinning pedagogy. This project aims to create a bank of resources by creating a peer driven community and then combine that with a technical space that will allow teachers to easily access information about technologies that can be used in their classrooms.

Culture change

By working with front line educators in a project supported by policy makers and managers we hope to be able to create a growing and diverse community that supports, promotes and values teaching innovation in such a way that it will affect change throughout our institution and the wider community.
We are community driven, you can join Implemnt by submitting your own examples:
Breaking down barriers

In creating IMPLEMEnT we hope addresses two of the main barriers in higher education to TEL development; time and technical expertise. The collaborative, peer driven site, will hopefully develop into an online interface that will allow teachers to generate learning resources quickly and independently.

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IMPLEMnT aims to be a toolkit which will empower teachers to create original resources that support blended learning. Currently, no products on the market combine multiple approaches to support technology-enhanced learning (TEL) and incorporate underpinning pedagogy.

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Somehow, I ended up with a job at Imperial College which was ultimately the catalyst to do something about the depression that had been lurking around being ignored for so long. That combined with the people I have worked with have given me the confidence to develop as an educator and while I still identify as a teacher I am more comfortable in what that encompasses and I no longer feel the need to explain how I can still be a teacher even though I don’t stand at the front of a room and tell people stuff.

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(my computing hero)

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Completion of my DTTLS was the first step in my coming home to the UK and teaching in the lifelong learning sector. Not that that went according to plan either. I taught for a bit as a volunteer and worked freelance building digital content and ended up as a language assistant at the University of Brighton which is where I was given my first Blackboard Learn course! During that time, I also completed me ‘Institute for Learning’ professional formation to get QTS. A reflective portfolio which I had to shape to fit around online delivery rather than face-to-face teaching. My FHEA was the same process and the more I do it the more I feel the need to push for online delivery as mainstream teaching.

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My professional journey has not been the most traditional. I have done my time as a face front classroom teacher but once the seed was planted I moved quite quickly towards the digital. My Diploma in Teaching in Lifelong Learning Sector - DTTLS was the first real step into digital. My final project was about the viability of online learning for a small school. That was in 2010, the year the iPad was launched, and there was no real viable option for small scale online delivery. I was also a distance student and to be honest I really liked it because I could work on my own time and I didn’t have to talk to people! In hindsight face-to-face teaching and badly managed (barely acknowledged) depression were a terrible combination.

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Critiquing a student is often necessary but very hard unless you know your students well and have an understanding of their history. Something you will only have if they choose to share it with you. I am not a teacher who talks a lot – this is learned from being a language teacher where students are the ones who need to practice their speaking not me! I am a very strong believer in the power of non-verbal communication and developed the nickname Gromit after a teaching observation in which I barely said a word but pulled a whole selection of faces from, ‘go on you can do it’ to ‘that isn’t quite right’ and ‘really!! You know better than that!’.

I have also learned that although a teacher expected to help that is rarely done by giving out the answers even if that is what students want. And, most importantly you cannot be a good helper if you are overworked. Having pushed myself past my own limits and paid the price I now respect my depression and have learned to listen to my body and my mind when it is telling me to stop (if you push yourself, or a lion, too hard you may end up in the first aid tent).

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My own characteristics as a teacher have been developed and defined by experience and not just teaching. Working with young people with special needs and coaching (and playing) a sport provides perspectives on life that are incredibly valuable in a classroom. You need to understand the limitations of yourself and those around you. For example, when playing hockey with a lion you must be aware that they have big feet and limited co-ordination and adjust accordingly! It is also important for me to have a life outside of work and do the things I enjoy be that sport, photography or volunteering because those things make me a better person. But they are also what students can relate to.

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What all this leads to is me as a gardener – perfect for higher/further education because students are generally learning on their own terms and I can approach them with a level of mutual respect and understanding for personal histories and provide them with an environment that has all the things they need with which to learn but also an understand that they have to do the work themselves.

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Teaching for exams is something I have done a lot of both in an English Language context and a lifelong learning context and generally speaking, as with all adult learners, the students are their because they want to be. However, to truly teach to an exam you must act as an enforcer because there are certain competencies that must be achieved. For me one of the hardest parts of this role was always teaching for a speaking exam because I had to force students to speak for a given length of time even though they perhaps did not want to. I had a range of strategies for making the comfortable etc learned from my own experiences of not communicating well but fundamentally if I were a student, I would have hated that situation which made it challenging for me to put my own students through it. While teaching exam preparation classes I started to write practice papers for my students which was probably a turning point for me as a really enjoyed that process as well as writing lesson plans and syllabi for all of the teachers in the school delivering the exam programmes.

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Working in Prague also introduced me to the sheepdog teacher and taught me a valuable life lesson – I never want to teach a classroom of children ever again! Having taught both in a grammar school with academically gifted children and a more challenging school both have aspects of crowd control which make the process of teaching very difficult. Largely because in both situations I had a skills gap so large that it was impossible to teach all students together. This really showed me that I want to teach people who want to learn and working in a school you are faced with those that don’t want to learn having a disruptive effect on those who do. I have huge admiration for teachers who work in that environment, but I quickly learned that it was not for me!

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As a teacher in a small private language school in Prague and the senior native English speaker I was tasked several times with going to new companies to teach a demo lesson to ‘sell’ the business. I was of course sent because I was good at it however, I rarely believed that and found the whole process overly stressful. The idea of a teacher as a salesperson is also challenging to an altruistic ‘learning for the love if it’ vision of education even though I understand that teaching is now, more than ever, a service industry.

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Throughout my teaching and instructional design career I have acted as all of these roles and I can say that my preferred role is probably that of gardener.

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Everyone in a classroom, be it a traditional, synchronous, face-to-face one, or any combination of digitally enhanced, blended or online delivery, has something to offer to the process of instruction. As a teacher my history and experiences define who I am and therefore how I approach my teaching. They also affect how my students identify with me and likewise the history and experiences of a student bring something to the classroom which other students and the teacher can learn from.

It is my belief that learning happens most effectively when an individual is pushed outside their comfort zone. To do that in a constructive way requires a safe and supportive environment and a facilitator that understands their own boundaries and knows what it is like to push them. To an extent they should also be able to share those experiences with others in a learning environment and accept the experiences of others should they choose to share them.

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Not only was I born in 1983 but so was the 'internet' and so much has happened in that space since!

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Who I am today is completely shaped by the experiences I have had over the last 36 years. Similarly, the tools we use in a digitally enhanced classroom are shaped by the developments and inventions that have occurred over the last 36 years since the invention of the modern internet.

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Who I am today is completely shaped by the experiences I have had over the last 36 years. Similarly, the tools we use in a digitally enhanced classroom are shaped by the developments and inventions that have occurred over the last 36 years since the invention of the modern internet.

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A (teacher, student and instructional designer) human being with a unique set of knowledge and experiences that enjoys designing content for online delivery more than standing up and delivering content face-to-face with a desire to increase my knowledge and experience in pedagogy, design and digital media. I have a particular interest in how we teach and learn in a digitally flooded environment with tools that are changing almost daily.

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A human being who chooses to apply their knowledge and experience to the design of an instructional outcome generally for delivery online and rarely delivered in person by the designer themselves.

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A human being with a unique set of knowledge and experiences and an (explicit) desire to increase their knowledge/experience in a certain direction.

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A human being with a unique set of knowledge and experiences. (definitions from Cambridge Dictionaries)