AECT 2013: Research, Networking & Professional Development

This year, like all previous years, I was looking forward to the AECT conference. I look forward to meeting with my Emporia State University IDT family and the Old Dominion University IDT group. I also get to interact with friends and colleagues that I have made over the years at AECT. It is always the anticipation of knowing that you will get to see each other face-to-face rather than having a conference call or a virtual conversation via videochat. This year as usual it was great to see everyone! The plane ride to Anaheim, California was long but worth it.

I attended meetings for the Research & Theory Division. We have new leadership that will be taking over and we all want the transition to be a smooth one. Also, there are new ideas and members that are interested in joining the conversation. Elections will start in February so we are hoping to recruit members for several positions. I just finished my term as secretary of the division but will continue to work as Professional Development Facilitator focused on the webinar series. I was able to catch up with my co-facilitator during the conference and we are in the initial planning stages of our second webinar (which we hope to have in December).

My participation at AECT 2013 also consisted of two presentations. The first one was the Design & Development Showcase, which was a very busy time! It was a lot of fun and I was able to meet people that were very interested on the topic of the simulation that I helped design for my dissertation research. It was a great way to showcase the work that had happened for the last two years of my life. The second presentation was a concurrent session focused on the validation study that I conducted while pilot testing the animations that were used for the final simulation.

This year I also attended several keynote sessions and I have to say I really enjoyed the keynote presentations. They were current, lively and very informative! AECT was broadcasting the sessions live and will also have a link of the recordings in the few weeks (for those that missed it!). Overall, my experience was just fantastic. I love connecting with new colleagues and re-connecting with old ones. I also took sometime to provide advise to current doctoral students and just let them know that “it will be okay at the end… just keep at it and never, never give up.”

I am already looking forward to AECT 2014 because it will be in Jacksonville! Welcome to Florida AECT! But for now it is time to email new connections and to look/read at all the resources/information that I gained at the conference.

AERA 2013: First Impressions

This past weekend I attended my first AERA Annual Meeting. I had some background knowledge about the conference from my adviser and other professors that attended in previous years but nothing could prepare me for the experience. First, I have to say that having the conference in San Francisco was a big plus. I had never visited San Francisco so I was also excited about the location.

My AERA experience started with a 6 hour flight from Washington DC to San Francisco. I was a little jetlag but not enough to keep me from starting my AERA experience. Saturday morning I pick up my registration package. 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. It was good that I had an idea of my schedule in advance. That afternoon I was chairing a roundtable session. I was glad to share the table with other instructional design and technology colleagues. I really enjoyed the experience.

Sunday was a fairly busy day with poster sessions and paper presentations. One thing I noticed in the poster session was how well attended the session was compared to poster sessions that I attended in other conferences. The level of interaction between the presenters and the audience was fantastic. I also gather some ideas for future poster presentations (i.e., created handouts, have business cards, etc.). Sunday was also a good networking day. I met faculty and graduate students from all over the world, who are doing research on emotion in education. I also met education research with other types of research interest.

Monday was a meetings day. I met with a graduate student who is doing research on Afro-Latin American women. She wanted to talk about my experiences in higher education and the academic world. I also met with my AECT colleagues to discuss the Research & Theory Division webinar series. I think the conversation served to brainstorm and to create a plan of action. On Monday, I visited the exhibit hall. I was very curious to look at books that I could use in the courses that I am teaching this Fall. Let’s just say I found what I was looking for and more!

Another great experience at AERA 2013 was my hostel experience. I stayed at Hostelling International Downtown San Francisco and it was great. The price for a private room with a bathroom and breakfast included every morning (a nice surprise!) was amazing. I did not have high expectations but I was impress with the hostel. I would recommended it to others. It was also good that other guests were also attending AERA. Every day for breakfast the conversation was about education and it helped me meet other education researchers.

I feel like I lost a few pounds walking between the hotels (between sessions) in the hills of San Francisco but it was worth it. If you are an graduate student in the field of education, AERA is a conference you should plan to attend. There are so many topics and ideas. I hope to return to AERA next year!

The AECT 2012 International Convention

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.