#EdMedia2014 — The Finnish Perspective

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend and present at #EdMedia2014 in Tampere, Finland. I was thrilled to visit Finland because I had heard so much about their exceptional educational system and I wanted to know how it translated to their educational technology practice. Also, I wanted to learn more about the Finnish culture. When I was working on my undergraduate degree I had several Finnish friends that had come to Emporia State University for a one semester exchange program. It was very neat to hear them speak Finnish and to learn about their country. One last factor that made me excited to attend the EdMedia2014 conference was the international nature of the meeting. I attended EdMedia in 2010 when it was hosted in Toronto, Canada and I enjoyed meeting colleagues from so many different countries.

The conference this year was hosted at the University of Tampere in the city of Tampere which is about 2 hours northwest of Helsinki. It is a beautiful city with very friendly people. That same kind of friendly environment was shown by our host at the University of Tampere. When I arrived at the registration desk I was greeted by the “minions.” The conference minions were students from the University of Tampere who were volunteering in registration and providing directions to all conference participants.

My presentation was on the first day of the conference so immediately after registration I proceeded to look for the room where I would have my presentation so I was not rushing before my session. After finding the room for my presentation I decided to have some lunch. The cafeteria of the university was in the building where the conference was held so it was a popular place for lunch. I was fortunate to sit in a table with a colleague from Japan and another one from South Africa. We started sharing information about our research interest. We already knew it but our conversation reminded us that educational technology issues have no geographical boundaries.

After lunch, it was time for my session. The session was very well attended, which is important because you want to know that others are interested on your research topic. The titled of my presentation was: Measuring Cognition in CBI using an EEG: A Review of the Literature. If you click the link it will take you to the Prezi of the presentation (you can also visit my “publications” page if you would like access to a full version of the paper). After the session, during the Q&A part of the presentation, I received several interesting questions and some session participants shared very useful information on the topic (conferences, journal articles, etc.). I sat through various sessions that afternoon including presentations related to self-publishing, student portfolios, social media, etc. That evening the EdMedia organizers had prepared a nice event for all conference attendees. The event was a reception in the Old City Hall. It was a beautiful building. There was food, wine, and music.

The second day of the conference started early. There was a keynote presentation. The topic of the keynote was learning analytics. After the keynoted there was a post presentation discussion for those interested on the topic. It was nice to have that informal conversation with the presenter — we should have this type of discussions in other conferences. I made sure to mention to a few of our attendees that there was a recorded webinar that my colleague Min Kyu Kim and myself had facilitated as part of the AECT RTD Division Webinar Series (wooohoo!). The rest of the day included several presentations related to design-based research and other topics of personal interest as well as a poster session with range of educational technology topics. Again, it was very interesting to see the research related to educational technology on a global scale.

Some time during the conference, I stopped by the table were the University of Tampere was showcasing their research projects. Some of their projects included workshop for technology integration and mobile learning. However, the majority of their research related to open education resources and accessibility to research data (I guess you could call it “open research”). It was nice to see this type of initiative and to learn about their application of open educational resources. I also had the opportunity to learn about a their efforts to design and develop physical environments that promote informal learning and social interaction flow. As a tour, some of the attendees visited the Oasis Room, which is a room open to all students and staff. As I mentioned it is a space in which informal learning should occur. I also think that it uses some play-based approach because in the room there are lots of fun activities the students can use during play time.

I truly enjoyed presenting and attending EdMedia2014. I met colleagues from different regions of the world that are doing great research. Also, there is good and important research happening in Finland. We will definitely see more in the literature coming from this and other Scandinavian countries.

I survived my first semester as a faculty member!

Hard to believe it is already December!

Before starting the Fall 2013 semester I was told by many colleagues that the semester would go by so fast, it was going to feel like a blur at the end of the semester. I was a bit reluctant! But now that is all said and done, I have to say that it went by faster than expected.

One of the things that was a bit harder to do in this new academic environment was the adjustment to teaching night-time classes. In all honesty, I am all about cooking dinner with my significant other, decompressing at the dinner table, a nice evening walk and then some work. I have managed to figure it out. I combined working from home, working from the office, teaching a few classes in a hybrid format and teaching other classes completely face to face. I figured that if most of my students were able to do a 8 hour job and then make it to a 6 to 9 pm class, then I could do it too. It does make the days I have nights off and weekends even more special.

Another adjustment this past semester was the amount of email that I had to manage and all the work that comes with it. While I was in the doctoral program, I received a moderate amount of email related mostly to my dissertation. I also received email related to service at my professional organization. But between the students, the department, the college, the university, professional organizations, and every one else that decided to email me at some point in time, email was at times a major consumption of productivity. I am starting to think it should be part of self evaluations (how much time did you spend replying to emails during the semester?). I guess I have improved my emailing skills and management of emails.

Of course, the biggest adjustment is finding the balance between research, teaching, and service. I am not going to claim that I found it because I would be lying. I had, as recommended by several colleagues, designated a writing day for the week. However, I was not able to keep up with it. I still managed to get conferences proposals written and a few manuscript to a decent level. But I really wish I could immerse myself in writing a bit more. It is still “work in progress.”

A few other things to keep in mind if you are going into your first semester as a faculty member are:

Meetings take a chunk of your time: Days in which I had meetings (that were longer than an hour) were the most challenging. I tried hard to prepare in advance but I always was catching up after the meetings right until the 6 pm class. This had mainly to do with my personal and class schedule. Since most meeting started around 11:30 am , I would have to cut short work time in the morning and catch up with work in the afternoons. Although, I am glad that the meetings are mainly around 11am since I have stay around campus for 6pm classes.
Be prepare to explain your grading criteria and assigned grades: We need to create a culture of “constructive feedback” in the classroom. I know that grades and points are important but what I really like is a focus on creativity, higher order thinking skills and problem solving. I like to see assignments in two ways: what was done correctly and what can be improved. I remember that when I was working on my dissertation I would asked my significant other to just criticize my work as if I was his worst enemy. But I know that sometimes it difficult to received that constructive feedback. After all, that student just spent a few sleepless nights working on it. I do have to say that once I explain my grading criteria students see it with a very different mindset.

Overall, reflecting on my first semester, I am still learning how the academic systems works. But, I am happy to be part of the UT family and to be a Floridian (the sunshine state!). One of the nicest comments I received at the end of the semester on a one on one meetings was when I student said “Dr. Romero-Hall you are a great addition to the UT IDT program, I want to take the rest of the classes with you! I really appreciate your honest feedback.” So, I guess I must be doing something right 🙂

Starting a new chapter at The University of Tampa

I am now in the other side of the classroom… I accepted an Assistant Professor position at The University of Tampa. I knew from the moment I started my doctoral studies that I wanted to pursue a career in academia. I always wanted to teach others about instructional design and I have a passion for research.

It was very exciting when I got the offer but I am even more excited now that I am in Tampa and ready to start the academic year. The position is tenured track position, I am planning to stay focus on my teaching, research and service. I will be teaching mainly in the Instructional Design & Technology graduate program but I am also teaching a graduate level course in the teacher education master program. During the first academic year, I plan to work on a teaching and writing routine that works for me. I hope I can find a decent balance between the two of them.

I have to say that the move to Tampa was good but we had to make some adjustments . We (my significant other and myself) are still in the East Coast so we did not have a time change but we did have to get use to the Tampa weather. It consist of hot summer days and then the late afternoon thunderstorm. We also had to adjust the “sunshine” levels in Florida, now I know why the state of Florida is nicknamed the “sunshine state!” …we now wear sunglasses. Overall, it has been an interesting adventure and experience.

Greetings from UTampa!