CFP: TechTrends #AECTRTD Special Issue [Proposals due: September 15]

TechTrends Special Issue
Research and Theory Division (RTD)

The Research and Theory Division of AECT is sponsoring a special issue of TechTrends related to current innovative research methodology in the instructional design and technology field. We welcome proposals in which researchers are rigorously using innovative methods of data collection and analysis as part of an investigation that helps further advance knowledge on the field.

Special Issue Co ‐ Editors

Enilda Romero-Hall, Ph.D.
University of Tampa
eromerohall@ut.edu

E-ling Hsiao, Ph.D.
Valdosta State University
ehsiao@valdosta.edu

Fei Gao, Ph.D.
Bowling Green State University
gaof@bgsu.edu

Submissions should align with the RTD mission to promote the development and advancement of theory; promotes, presents, and disseminates research and scholarship that encompasses multiple perspectives; advocates the study of social and cultural issues in the field; supports, fosters, and mentors emerging scholars. The division provides a professional community for AECT members with an interest in research and theory. The following is a non-exhaustive list of possible innovative methods of data collection and analysis:

Educational data mining
Learning analytics
Social network analysis
Advanced statistical modeling
Network anthropology
Eye tracking
EEG
fMRI
Other physiological measures
Integrative approaches to ‘mixing’ qualitative research
Netnography
Person-centered analyses
Interactional ethnography
Rhizoanalysis
Photovoice
Art-based data analyses
Appreciative inquiry
Concept mapping research
Visual analysis
And other innovative research methodologies

Expected publication date: September 2018

Submission Information

Articles should follow the writing style guidelines for Tech Trends. Submissions should be 4000-‐5000 words in length (10 ‐15 pages) and abstracts should not exceed 150 words. Use APA formatting throughout.

Please upload a PDF file with your name, institution, and email address as well as a brief overview (approx. 500 words) of the proposed article using the following link: http://tiny.cc/TechTrendsRTDSpecialIssue for initial review. If accepted for review, you will be directed to a Tech Trends portal for this special issue where you will submit your full article per the schedule below.

We kindly ask authors to also serve as reviewers for the submissions. Reviewers will also be requested from the overall AECT RTD membership. Thank you.

Important Dates

August 7, 2017 ‐ Call for Proposals posted
September 15, 2017 ‐ Proposals due: http://tiny.cc/RTDSpecialIssue_Dropbox
October 16, 2017 ‐ Notify accepted proposals
January 29, 2018 – Full submissions due AND start peer review process
March 16, 2018 – Reviews due
April 27, 2018 – Notify authors of review decisions
June 1, 2018 – Final and reviewed papers due

#AECT2017 Early Career Symposium: Now Accepting Applicants

AECT’s Research and Theory Division will be hosting the 2017 Early Career Symposium this year sponsored by AECT. The symposium will be held as a half day online conference October 28th and at the annual AECT International Convention on Tuesday, November 7 (half day 1-6 PM starting with lunch) and Wednesday, November 8 (half day, 7:30AM – noon, ending with lunch together with the AECT Board), 2017, in Jacksonville, Florida. The symposium will thus engage participants in a day and a half of focused career mentoring and networking.

The symposium will reimburse Early Career faculty and Advanced Graduate Students with the conference fee ($395 for Early Career Faculty and $240 for Advanced Graduate Students). Reimbursements are pending submission of receipts after the symposium.

http://www.aect.org/events/mentor/CareerSymposium.asp

Faculty Led Experiential Education Abroad Program Approved [Destination: Switzerland]

Last week, I received notification that the faculty led short term experiential education abroad program I proposed to the UTampa Office of International Program was approved. So, who is coming with me to Switzerland? The name of the program is “Teaching and Learning in Switzerland.” The study abroad advisor from the Office of International Programs mentioned that alumni can join as “non-degree seeking students.”

Save the dates: May 6 – 15, 2018

More info coming soon!

[Chapter] #SocialMedia in HigherEd: Enriching Grad Students’ Prof Growth Outside the Classroom

Received notification today that the book chapter I wrote for the book “Digital Tools for Seamless Learning” published by IGI Global is now available. The title of the book chapter is: Social Media in Higher Education: Enriching Graduate Students’ Professional Growth Outside the Classroom. Here is a copy of the abstract:

“This chapter discusses the current use of social media for professional growth, focusing on a case study that uses social media to increase instructional design graduate students’ awareness and participation in professional growth opportunities. Social media metrics were analyzed from three social networking tools (Facebook Page, Twitter account, and/or Google+ community) that are used to communicate with the students in the program. Additional data was collected using an electronic questionnaire with open and closed-ended questions. The results show that graduate students’ participation in the social media initiatives for professional growth provided awareness of self-directed, voluntary, and informal learning opportunities; engaged students in conversations with their peers and the instructors; and allowed the learners to expand their learning experience outside the traditional classroom format.”

If you are interested in reading the rest of the book chapter, please feel free to contact me. I will gladly share it privately so that I do not break any “copyright” rules. Here is my email: eromerohall@ut.edu

IDT (or related field) Departments/Programs Social Media Spreadsheet

We (George Veletsianos, Royce Kimmons, and I) would like to compile a list of PUBLIC social media outlets that instructional design (or related fields) departments/programs use to interact with their graduate students. Please help us by entering the information about the social media outlets used by your program, in this spreadsheet [Thank you]:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19aNLroDOo9cx8sIZnnDOUO8s7WTSmPUqt7lovrbaiQE/edit#gid=0

Learning from Las Vegas #AECT16 [Recap]

It has been a year of conference planning and work in preparation for #AECT16. I am happy with the outcome of the Research & Theory Division (RTD) division sessions and I am confident on the quality of the presentations. Since I had several president-elect commitments I was not able to attend many of the sessions but I received good feedback from those who attended the sessions. Thanks to all that helped and supported the Research and Theory Division before and during the conference.

The preparations for #AECT17 started already. RTD PD Professional Coordinators are already working on the grant preparation for the Early Career Symposium. Our RTD conference planner & research and theory coordinator had their first Convention Planning Committee meeting. Also, during the RTD membership meeting several topics related to research methodology and theoretical perspectives were mentioned as recommendations for the professional development coordinator-elect to consider. The RTD board, specifically our past president, has already started looking for potential nominees to serve in our division during the 2017-2018 service year. We are also preparing to launch several initiatives that will serve to connect graduate students and faculty members.

On a personal note, I am so grateful to be part of the AECT family and all my other sub-families (ESU IDT, ODU IDT, and UT IDT). I am very grateful that I was able to attend the AECT conference this year (since I was not able to attend #AECT15). I made new connections with first timers or individuals who I’ve never had the opportunity meet in the past. As usual, it was great to see and talk to those who I consider not only colleagues but also my friends. Hope to see everyone next year in Jacksonville!

For quick access to the #AECT16 hashtag tweets click here: #AECT16 Tweets

International Scholar, Hanspeter Erni, from @PHLuzern visits @UofTampa @UT_IDT

This week the UT Department of Education and UT Instructional Design & Technology Program hosted, Mr. Hanspeter Erni. Mr. Erni is the Director for the Center of Teaching and Learning and the Head of Computer Science and Media Education at PH Luzern. I met Hanspeter during my visit to PH Luzern last year.

During his visit to The University of Tampa, Hanspeter, did a presentation for the UT College of Social Science, Mathematics, and Education (CSSME) faculty, staff members, and current UT IDT students and alumni. It was a great presentation on the importance of informatics and computer science. He also discussed the project “Mini-Beaver.”

Music Room, Plant Hall [University of Tampa]

In addition to the presentation, I was lucky to have Hanspeter join one of the UT IDT classes. Other activities included: visits to local schools, meeting with the UT CTL Director, and meeting the UT Ed Tech department.

We are collaborating on a special project that will help internationalize the educational experience of UT graduate and undergraduate students. This includes the addition of a travel component (optional) in the curriculum for education graduate and undergraduate students (and potentially UT students with others major who find the topic interesting. More information on this coming soon!

#UTampa Honors Program Symposia [Presentation]

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of presenting to the UT Honors Programs students and faculty as well other UTampa colleagues and staff members. I presented on the topic: “Use of Social Media by Graduate Students and Programs.” This is a research area that I am currently exploring and I was able to share some preliminary results. Click on the image below to access the link to the complete Prezi presentation:

Sneak Preview: #AECT16 Research & Theory Division Highlights

Yesterday, I purchased my plane ticket to Las Vegas (to attend the AECT 2016 International Convention later this year). This reminded me that I wanted to share a sneak preview of the AECT Research & Theory Division (RTD) sessions. As you know (if you read my blog posts regularly), I have the pleasure of serving as the AECT RTD Convention Planner as well as the Featured Research (FR) Sessions planner. The peer review process for all the sessions was earlier this year (it was not an easy process). The AECT RTD had a large number of good submissions and, at the same time, it had a limited number of allotted presentation hours (plus we had very rigorous reviewers). Now that the review process is completed and all accepted authors have been notified, all planners put together division highlights for the conference printed program. Below are the sneak preview or “highlights” for the AECT RTD and Featured Research Sessions. The full AECT16 schedule will be available in a few months.

Featured Research Sessions: https://cloudup.com/cZomjap6oqL

Research and Theory Highlights: https://cloudup.com/cs6T_t6JAID

For more info about the conference, visit the AECT 2016 website: http://www.aect.org/events/convhotel/

Academic Momma Traveling with an Infant

Recently travelled abroad for a professional development seminar and took my 6-month old with me. The trip was overseas (Miami to Spain with a layover in Lisbon on the way there and back. The layover on the way back involved an overnight stay in Lisbon). I want to share some advice and things to consider when engaging in this type of travel adventures. I know there are many academic mommas that have to travel to conference and other engagements. Hope these bits of information and advice help make your travel journey a bit less stressful. One more thing, this advice relates to all mommas traveling with an infant (academic or not).

Call the airline in advance. Let them know you are traveling with an infant. They can arrange a decent seat for you and your child, perhaps with close access to a bathroom (in case you need to change your child). I called the airline three weeks in advance my travel dates and they arranged to seat us in the first row of economy class. We were fairly close to the bathroom with the changing table and had a bit of extra room in front of us because we were in the first row. Also, the airline that we used (TPA Portugal) provided us with a small, detachable bassinet so that baby could sleep in it during the flight.
Let the hotel know that you are traveling with a baby. If you let them know in advance, they can arrange to give you a quiet room or put a crib in your room. Most hotels will do this for free. I have not come across a hotel that charges for a crib.
Make sure you carry enough diapers and wipes with you in your diaper bag. I did not see any stores selling diapers in the airport. I initially thought I had packed enough diapers for the entire trip and was in a bit of panic mode when I realized I could run out of diapers.
When you are in the airport, check for queue lines that are assigned for parents with children. In particular for security, passport control, or other lines. It will save you time and energy. I did not see queue lines for “parents with children” in the U.S. airport (Miami) but I did see and used them in Europe (Spain and Portugal).
Strongly recommend traveling with another adult to help you with the process. This person can be your spouse, parents, or a friend. It is doable for you to travel on your own with your infant but it will be a bit stressful. Having someone else to share the responsibility will ease the stress of dealing with paperwork, timelines, luggage, changing diapers, feeding, and everything else that comes with traveling with an infant.
Do not leave packing until the last minute. If you can find someone to watch baby while you pack, it will be very helpful. I recommend making a list of the things you must take with you (clothes, toys, food) and the things that you could buy at your destination.
Take time to think about traveling with your baby and proceed as desired. For some reason other people will feel the need to tell you their opinion on whether you should or should not travel with your infant. The reality is that you know yourself and your infant better than anyone else. If you feel that you and your infant are ready, do it.
Make sure you have a pacifier or bottle with food ready during the changes in altitude. During a flight, give you infant the pacifier or bottle as the plane takes off or lands to avoid pain in his/her ears: http://www.entnet.org/content/ears-and-altitude

So far, this is the initial list I have. I know I will remember other suggestions and advice in the future. I will just update this post as I remember them.