#UTampa Travel Course Alert: Belgium

TRAVEL COURSE ALERT! Prof. Merrie Tankersley will be leading a group of students to study abroad in Belgium next May 2019. Dr. Enilda Romero-Hall will participate as a assistant coordinator. This program is open to ALL UT students. The program includes potential side trips Ghent (Belgium) & Amsterdam (Netherlands)! For info on dates and cost, please see flyer. Also, feel free to email us. Never too early to start planning for next year 🇧🇪 ✈️

Self-Care: Barre Workout

Last year during Summer, I started taking barre workout classes. It was painful but I felt good after every class. I did this as part of a Groupon for a month-membership so after the promotion was done, I stopped the classes. All Fall and Spring, I really missed the bar method classes. So I decided to take classes (in a different studio) this Summer. Pretty much every week (except for two weeks in which I was on travel or recovering from travel) I have taken at least two classes.

This is a major accomplishment for me. I have issues committing to any kind of workout and I feel proud of the fact that I was able to workout at least twice weekly all summer. This is also a major form of self-care. I can honestly start work at 8am and stay connected to my laptop thinking that I must get “whatever I am working on” done. I become very sedentary and that is not good. Prioritizing my group exercise class has become a part of my daily routine (I normally do a mid-day class). I am not sure how this will transition into my routine during the academic year but I hoping for the best.

Editorial: “The (Re)adaptability of Research Methodologies in the InstructionalDesign & Technology Field”

This editorial was recently published (online first). It will be available on print in the next issue of TechTrends introducing the articles that showcase “innovation in research methodology in the instructional design & technology field.”

View this document on Scribd

#Podcast Interview: “How the Future of Learning is Online”

Earlier this summer, I was invited to share my thoughts on online education in an interview hosted by Dr. Will Deyamport, III as part of his podcast series [The Dr. Will Show Podcast]. It was a really neat experience. Some of the questions and topics address include:

Where does online learning come into play (when looking at different models, school missions, and varying ways to delivery instruction)?
How does teaching and learning change when the classroom can be accessed via any device connected to the internet?
What is the learning curve for teachers in learning how to design and deliver instruction via a Learning Management System?
What are some of the skills needed to be an effective instructional designer of online learning?
Where do you see online education going within the next 5 to 10 years?
What do you say to those educators or individuals who believe online education is a fad or doesn’t deliver on providing the same quality of education as face-to-face instruction?

Here is a link to audio podcast:

https://thedrwillshowpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/dr-enilda-romero-hall-how-the-future-of-5365e68d

#HKAECT18: New Media for Educational Change

I feel like I have neglected my blog a bit this summer but I have to be honest it has been a busy summer (just like every summer — this is starting be a trend in my life). Anywho, this post in going to be nice, sweet, and short post because its going live today (enough of neglecting my blog).

I attended the Hong Kong AECT conference a few weeks ago. It was amazing! I mean this very honestly. I like learning from others and connecting with different people. I know for a fact that I will experience this (learning from others and connecting with colleagues) at the conferences that I attend regularly, AERA and AECT (this is why I go back to those conferences every year). But I also like to put myself in uncomfortable situations that force me to talk and meet people who I have never connected with in the past. So I made a promise to myself that I would aim to attend a conference that I have never attended before because: a) I want to know what others, who are outside my network, are researching and b) because I think it will expose me to topics that are new to me.

With this in mind, last year I attended the Social Media and Society conference in Toronto which by the way was an absolutely fantastic experience (if I had the budget, the time, and the energy, I would have gone to Copenhagen this year — where the conference was held — and then to Hong Kong to attend HKAECT). This year, I decided to attend HKAECT18 conference. I saw that a friend and colleague attended last year (Dr. Ana Paula Correia) so I reached out to her to ask about her experience. I also saw that the theme of the conference which aligned well with my research interested so I submitted a conference proposal. It was accepted and a few months later I was on a plane to Hong Kong.

I wish I could put into this blog everything that I experienced and the topics we discussed but since I have other things I should be writing, I am instead going to share the link to conference program: http://www.hkaect.org/hkaect2018/programme.html (some

A few things I do want to mention:

All sessions were well attended and we had some really good discussions about the topics presented
Presenters were prepared, addressed questions, and engaged with the audience
There were several social aspects to the conference that allowed us to continue conversations outside the presentation rooms in a more informal manner (coffee breaks, lunch, and dinner)

I saw that the call for proposals for HKAECT19 was posted today: https://www.aect.org/docs/HKAECT2019-Call_for_Papers.pdf. If you are considering attending and have questions, please feel free to reach out.