To the three people who read this blog: How you doing?
The last six months (since my last blog post) I have been:
taking care of myself
eating healthier
running
teaching
writing
doing research
outdoors
enjoying time with my family
meeting people in Knoxville
driving to soccer practice and games
reading with my son, practicing for the spelling test, and doing math
cooking and baking
To be honest, more than anything I have been sharing my energy in very intentional ways.
Over the last few months I have been really focused on my physical & mental well-being. Seen family members struggle with health issues has really made think about how I need to take care of my own health.
I have also spend part of the last few months reflecting political conflicts, religion, and humanity.
I have been working on being disciplined and committed in my professional and personal life to my goals.
I have a little note in my phone in which I have personal goals. One of my goals was to get into a regular workout routine. Another goal in my list was to meet more people in Knoxville. I really want to connect more to my local community. This may sound crazy but even thought I lived in Tampa for 9 years, I really did not feel connected to my local community until the last two years.
In early May, I came across a post on social media about a run club in Knoxville. I had recently started going to the gym (Working Out) but was really excited about meeting people in Knoxville and running together. So I reached out to the contact person for the Run Club and after giving it some thought decided to sign up.
We had a Run Club get together the first day to go over the training plan(s) and the goal at the end was to run in a race with 5K and 10K options. That first meeting felt like the first day of class. Some of the runners already knew each other and some were completely new to group like me. After the initial meeting, I felt pretty good. Our run coach was super encouraging about each of us doing our running journey and that made me feel good. I am definitely not a fast runner and I did not want to be in an environment in which I felt like I had to compete with others.
So this is the way it worked out:
We chose the plan that we wanted to do during the 8 weeks of run club. The plan included a run schedule during the week for each of the 8 weeks. For example: Week 1 would include 3 runs during the week with a specific numbers of miles or length of time. In some cases, for me (in the most basic plan), it included intervals of walking and running.
Our run club has an online community and we have fun activities to help us share our progress. Eventually, the use of the online social community turn into us just simply sharing out selfies or fun stories just cus! The online community is also were our coach would communicate with us. I did have to rejoin a social media platform that I had left last year in order to be part of Run Club. I was not thrilled about it, but turns out that I am literally just using that platform for that specific purpose so it not that bad.
On Saturdays, we got together for a group run. We were all running at a different pace so we were not really on a pack but we would all be on the same trail. We would stretch together before our runs and stretch together at the very end once we were all back to home base. Some Saturdays we also did breakfast afterwards!
At the end of the 8 weeks, we were scheduled to run a race together. Unfortunately, I could not make the race because I arrive back from a trip super late the night before the race. It just was not meant to be. I did do the 5K on my own a few days later and felt super proud to do it despite missing the “official” race.
What I have learned in this process is that I am so happy I had an “running action plan” to take on this goal. I have taken on running in the past and I experienced a great deal of pain due to chin splints (pushing myself way too hard). Doing running intervals really help me pace myself and avoid pain. Of course, I was going from zero running to running intervals to running distances so there was still some aches and pains, but more due to the use of muscles that had not been used in a while.
Also, I learner that there are lots of hills in my neighborhood! So I started doing some running in my neighborhood and some running at the gym on the treadmill. Last, but not least, music matters. I need a good playlist!
I love the way paint can transform a piece of furniture or other objects. But I have to be honest, this was my partner’s idea. I wanted to get the porch swing but initially just wanted to leave it in its original wood tone. But, searching in Google for colorful swings, we settle in an idea that we agreed on. After we moved into the house, he assembled the porch swing and I made the trip to Home Depot for the paint. Over the last four weeks, we slowly painted three layers of primer all around and at least two layers of each color section. This has been a fun family activity. Today we finally have a final product. Here are some photos I took documenting the porch swing journey.
I guess it is time for me to write a blogs post about my forthcoming book 😊
It has been a while since I first announced that I was working on my next book and sadly due to various reasons I had to rescheduled my submission of the book to the publisher twice! But over the last two months I have moved full steam ahead with this book project.
I love how it is taking shape and that I get to work on it. Today, I was working on chapter 12 (in a coffee shop) and I was just smiling thinking that someone else would get to read this work.
This is not a book in which I tell someone else’s stories or tell you how to be a learning designer. The book is about learning designers telling their stories. It is about conversations, experiences, and journeys.
Super excited to connect with a second cohort of school librarians this summer as part of the Online Ready project led by my colleague Dr. Lucy Green and funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
As part of the project, I am teaching an online asynchronous mini-course on Culturally-Competent Design. Here is an overview of the mini-course: tiny.utk.edu/MiniCourse_CCD
Also, here is a short video I made for one of the modules:
You know when you go to an interview and the hiring committee ask you to predict the future! The typical question: Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years? Honestly, can we even answer this question? Don’t get me wrong I have asked this question and I have answered this question. We’re my predictions accurate? I don’t remember 😊
Today I was trying to make my way through my to-do list when I got a notification on my phone. It was one of those were you see a photo “on this days” years ago. I looked at it and it show me that:
10 years ago today I was hooded by my doctoral advisor, Dr. Ginger Watson and I celebrated my earning my doctoral degree (I actually had a bunch of revisions and didn’t really graduate until the end of summer but who cares I still partied like a rockstar!). I remember my mom and my brother came to celebrate with me and that was pretty awesome.
Drs. Ginger Watson and Enilda Romero-Hall
5 years ago I was in Zurich, Switzerland leading a study abroad program with primarily undergraduate students and an alumni of the Instructional Design and Technology program from The University of Tampa. My co-coordinator Merrie was honestly the best! I don’t know how I would have finished this trip without Merrie! 💖
Switzerland study abroad program
Reflection on this post:
So I am now, 10 year later from getting hooded, wrapping up my first year as a faculty member at The University of Tennessee Knoxville. I am working on a research plan with my first doctoral student. I am conducting research with two additional graduate students. I am the graduate coordinator of the learning, design, and technology doctoral program and we are in the process of welcoming a nice group of doctoral students this fall (very exciting!). I am also working on other research and writing projects.
If you had asked me 10 years ago or even 5 years ago, where I was planning to be in ____ number of years, I do not know if I would have even been to come up with my current life. As we say in Panama: la vida es loca y a cualquiera le toca!
It has been a few weeks since I finally restarted a workout routine. I found a place nearby that has what I need and provides access at times that work for me. It has felt so good. Last summer and at the beginning of the fall term I tried to start a morning workout routine and that just went to shit 💩 really quickly. Then, I just gave up. But by March this year I felt like I had to figured it out. So, I did. Anywho, I am trying a new schedule, a new location, and hopefully a new routine 😊
This past Monday, March 20, was the official beginning of the Spring. This post has been in my draft folder for a few weeks. Yikes! This means I have survived my first Winter in Tennessee. So I am here to share some of the sunny day outings from the last two and half months of Winter.
So I am a little bit in my feelings. Tonight as I wrapped up AERA 2023 and was posting about it on LinkedIn. I realize that this year marks my 10th anniversary of attending this annual meeting of educational researchers.
I do not know why I feel it is special, the 10th anniversary. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that 10 years ago, I just embarked in this adventure (on my own – without my advisor – self-funded) without any clear idea of what I was doing but I just did it.
I remember a few months before AERA 2013 my advisor was talking to me about conferences and she told me: “AERA is where Sweller goes to present about Cognitive Load Theory. It is a hard to get accepted. But if you are doing education research, that is where you want to go.” I do not know why but my immediate thought was: “well that is exactly were I am going to go.” I went home and I told my partner: “I want to go to AERA, I need to invest on my professional development.” Without hesitation, he just said: Sounds like a plan!
BTW, in my post from 2013 I wrote this “The AERA program was massive! Thankfully, I had browsed through the online program and downloaded my schedule to the mobile app before my arrival to San Francisco.” Dear AERA can we go back to whatever app we used in 2013? The App this year was awful!
Here are other blogs posts I have written about AERA throughout the years:
On December 2015, I gave birth to my son. I was not initially planning to attend AERA 2016 but a dear friend and colleague asked me to moderate a panel and so I made my way to Washington DC (It was the first time I travel after having my son): The “Quick Update” Post
I guess I did not blog for AERA 2017 (San Antonio), AERA 2018 (New York), and AERA 2019 (Toronto). But I was there lol
AERA 2020 was cancelled. I was really looking forward to San Francisco but glad that the conference was cancelled.
During AERA 2015, I participated in the Division C – Early Career Mentoring Program. I met some pretty awesome scholars as part of the program. Here is a blog post about it: New Faculty Mentoring Program: 2015 Cohort [Research, Teaching, Collaboration, & Support] #AERA15 #AERADivC. This year during AERA 2023, I had the opportunity to connect with colleague Bodong Chen, who in addition to his amazing scholarly work, is genuinely a wonderful person. The first thing he said to me when saw each other was: “Remember we met here in Chicago 8 years ago in the mentoring program!”
This has been a journey. Somehow in the massive sea of people that is AERA, I have created my own community and network.
Some highlights of AERA 2023:
The first three nights in Chicago for the conference, I had dinners in which we (me and other who were with me) just spoke Spanish and that was pretty freaking awesome!
Meeting colleagues from Universidad de Sevilla (Thanks to Jeff Carpenter): Paula Marcelo-Martinez, Carlos Marcelo, and Paulino Murillo. In one dinner outing we enjoyed some Chicago style pizza together, It was pretty awesome to do the Chicago style pizza with colleagues from Spain. Paula and Carlos are doing some research on Edu Influencers in Spain: Here are slides from their presentation titled “Don’t call me an influencer: New digital artisans in education.”
Definitely getting to catch up with Bodong in person for the first time in a long time.
Presenting two awards at the SIG Instructional Technology business meeting and starting in my role as program chair (please submit to SIG IT and sign up to review!)
Presenting work that colleague Maria Luna-Thomas and I already published on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Digital Praxis: tiny.utk.edu/CRP_AERA23
Attending the University of Canterbury breakfast on Sunday morning and experiencing a Māori start of the day, Karakia. Thank you for the invite Cheryl Brown!
Catching up with doctoral students from Old Dominion University (Go Monarchs)!
Presenting a paper session on some part of the work that I started with Dr. Lina Gomez-Vasquez and our teams of graduate and undergraduate researchers on the use of digital networks by academics in higher education.
Getting to see so many friends, colleagues, and connections.
Two resources that I want to add to this blog post because I can come back to them later:
This past week I attend the Open Education Conference! Going to a conference you have never attended before and in a different continent is actually very intimidating. But, I made the travel arrangements and (despite some frustrations with airlines) made the journey to Inverness, Scotland to attend #OER23.
First, a shoutout to my co-authors: Josh Rosenberg and George Veletsianos. Our team has been working on a project related to self-archiving practices amongst scholars in higher education. This work has been inspired by similar work that both Josh (see blog post) and George have done in the past. The purpose of my travel to #OER23 was in part to present some of our initial findings and to get the conversation started on this topic. Here are the slides from the presentation: tiny.utk.edu/OER23
Back to the conference experience! Arriving at the conference venue (The UHI Inverness Campus so serene, accessible, and full with natural beauty) I did not know what to expect from from the conference. But I was immediately welcomed. A colleague sitting next to me an at the opening keynote introduce herself and she, just like me, was attending for the first time and had made her way to Inverness from Sri Lanka. I quickly realized that the #OER23 conference was an event with a global representation.
The second day of the conference was full of inspiration:
I learned about an upcoming book edited by Catherine Croning and Laura Czerniewicz. Very much looking forward to reading this book: bit.ly/HE4Good_updates
There are many other sessions that I could mention. I am still gathering links and resources from the conference. Thankful for all the presenters who shared their slides via Discord and other online platforms. I love that I got to meet so many online connections that I have in one way or another linked with in the past (likely in the bird app). Also, grateful for the opportunity to met colleagues who I did not know before and who share a passion for openness! It was also great to learn more about OER practices and policies in Scotland. Looking forward to future OER conferences!
I almost forgot! How could I forget? The OER GASTA was epic (also just in case you are wondering what is a GASTA?)! I do not have links to all of the GASTA presentations but here is the one presented by Eamon “Beyond the pedagogies of perpetual panic“. All of them were pretty epic!
Design Goodiness 
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