This year the AECT International Convention was another great success! I was scheduled to attend the Early Career Symposium on Tuesday and Wednesday but due to Hurricane Sandy I attended the symposium on Tuesday via a Google+ hangout. I did make a late (really late) flight into Louisville Tuesday night and was “in person” for the Wednesday morning session. I was very happy with my AECT/ICEM Graduate Student Panel in Emerging Technologies presentation and was very impressed by the projects of my colleagues. I will definitely follow up with them in the future. I was double booked for the Thursday morning session so I was unable to present the concurrent session on “design heuristics for instructional simulations” but my co-author (Dr. Ginger Watson) was kind enough to present the proposal. My last session, a poster presentation on the FaceReader, was also well received my the AECT members. I had several professors from the ESU ID&T program asked me about my work with the FaceReader. There were also a few students from other universities that seemed very interested in developing or using a similar tool.
I think for the most part I focused my attention on sessions that focus on advice for early career and the job hunt. Since this is were I am now in my professional life. I also sat in a wonderful session on “physiological measures in instructional design research” organized by the Research & Theory division. The presenters were Dr. Roger Acevedo and Dr. Ginger Watson. I know it might sound bias since this is a topic that I suggested for the session but it was really one of the best sessions. Not only was the topic interesting but the presenters were tremendously knowledgeable, there was a really good discussion and good questions.
Overall, the conference was great! I had the opportunity to interact with my colleagues and to catch up with good friends. I’m very much looking forward to the AECT 2013 International Convention.