Author: eromerohall

XR Symposium at ORETTC (Y-12)

Today I had the opportunity to participate in a panel presentation at the 2nd Annual XR Symposium organized by the Oak Ridge Enhanced Technology and Training Center (ORETTC). The specific panel that I was invited to join was focus on Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion specifically on Inclusive Technologies related to XR research & development.

The panel addressed the following questions:

  1. What are some new advancements you have seen in regards to diversity and inclusion in XR?
  2. What are some obstacles within XR technologies? What are the long-term consequences if we ignore D&I?
  3. What would you say is the most difficult part of implementing D&I especially in a world that persistently changes?
  4. In order to encourage accessible and inclusive practices within our workplace and everyday lives; how can we authentically address these topics?
  5. Can you share some valuable resources that we should all be aware of?

It was a great conversation! I am specially gratefully for my fellow panelist and the insights shared:

Huge thanks to Mary Lin, Ed.D. (Senior Manager, Knowledge Acquisition and Performance Studies ) and Austin Arnwine (Instructional Technology Lead, Knowledge Acquisition and Performance Studies) for the invite to participate in the panel.

Crowd at the symposium and the panelist in front of the big screen

AERA SIG Instructional Technology Newsletter

“Hi everyone,

First and foremost, it has been a pleasure serving as the AERA SIG Instructional Technology Program Chair. Huge thanks to everyone who submitted proposals to our SIG. It was very exciting to see the range of topics covered in the proposals submitted. I was also deeply impressed with the quality of the proposal submitted, which made for a difficult peer review process for our reviewers. Speaking of reviewers! I am profoundly grateful for our 94 reviewers who took on the very meaningful tasks of providing feedback and recommending proposals for our SIG Instructional Technology program. Huge thanks to all that have volunteered as Session Chairs, you are a critical component for a smooth conference session! Gratitude!

I can humbly say that we have an amazing AERA 2024 program for the SIG! Each session was carefully designed to ideally create a cohesive line up of presentations. I look forward to meeting you in Philadelphia and to your presentations! I am excited for all of us to engage in academic discourse, professional development, and informal social conversations. See you soon! Go Vols!

Enilda Romero-Hall, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Tennessee Knoxville

These quote is a section of the AERA Special Interest Group Instructional Technology Spring 2024 Newsletter recently shared with our members. Below is a copy of the complete AERA Special Interest Group Instructional Technology Spring 2024 Newsletter compiled, formatted, & organized by the 2023-2024 board members of the SIG Instructional Technology:

24-spring-aera-sig-it-newsletterDownload

The FPTO Editors First In-Person Meeting!

Last year, I received an invitation from my colleague, Clare Daniel, to present in a panel to discuss the Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online digital guide and other scholarly efforts related to the digital guide in person at Tulane University. The invitation to travel to New Orleans was extended to Niya Bond and myself (Clare, Jacque, and Liv live in New Orleans). The goal was for all the five editors of the digital guide to join in the panel.

Fast forward to February 2024, Niya and I travelled to New Orleans for the in-person panel. Meeting my colleagues in-person for the very first time was a joyous occasion. I have been personally interacting and collaborating with the FTPO editors for the last 3 years and we had only met through Zoom. It was so nice to fully interact outside the Zoom software and engage in informal convos that allowed us to learn more about each other personally and professionally.

“We want to acknowledge that this panel discussion is part of a lecture series dedicated to Adele Ramos Salzer (NC ’40). Her interest in academic programs focusing on women’s experiences led to the establishment of the Salzer lecture series. Her donation endowing the series has been generously strengthened through gifts in her memory from her family, friends, and classmates.”

Clare Daniel

During our visit to Tulane, we all got to have an short meeting to discuss panel, have dinner to talk about every under the sun (also, celebrate Clare’s new promotion at Tulane University), and have the panel at the Tulane University’s Newcomb Institute for students, faculty, and staff.

The editors of the FPTO digital guide
The editors of the FPTO digital guide
The editors of the FPTO after the panel presentation
The editors of the FPTO after the panel presentation

During the panel we:

  • Provided a brief explanation of the origins of the digital guide and the idea for the forthcoming book
  • Shared why and how we expanded our team of editors
  • Shared a brief description of the forthcoming book
  • Discussed how and why we expanded the guide to include annotated assignments
  • Shared an explanation of the blog and the collaborative editing process
  • Allowed for Q & A

It was really nice to have such a strong presence of students during the panel session. The students were very curious about of opinions on online learning, now past the COVID-19 pandemic. We also had some good questions and conversations with faculty who attended the event. I am very thankful for the invite to participate in this panel. I am also grateful for the opportunity to meet my colleagues in-person for the first-time. Online environments, synchronous and asynchronous, have allowed is the opportunity to genuinely connect and communicate. However, it is always nice to further engage in-person to deeper our understanding of each other (personally & professionally), converse about the future of the digital guide, and discuss upcoming projects.

Living & Loving

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.

Y’all I have been living & loving! 🧡

Run Club

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!

Porch Swing

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.

Learning Designers in Context: Examining Practices Across the Global South [Book in Progress]

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.

More on this coming soonish 😊

Culturally-Competent Design Mini Course

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:

10 Years!

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.

Doctoral advisor and a scholar who recently received her Ph.D. In their academic regalia.
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!

Working Out

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 😊