We introduced reflection papers this year at AECT. They were not as successful as I had hoped. This session type is modeled after the reflection paper presentations introduced at CELDA (Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age) 4 or 5 years ago.
I just returned from CELDA 2009 and the reflection paper session worked beautifully again there. There are some relevant differences. The sessions at CELDA were about 2 hours in length with 8 presenters in each session. The posters were put up in the room at the beginning of the session. Session attendees were given 15 minutes to take a quick look at the posters at the start of the session after reviewing how the session would proceed. Then, each presenter had 3 to 5 minutes to present the problem addressed – not an overview of the paper but the problem addressed in the paper, why the problem was significant, and the general approach taken to address the problem. There was no Q&A after the individual problem statements. Then, the presenters were seated as a panel at the front of the room and the facilitator (in this case it was one of the conference organizers – I did it twice this past week and Kinshuk did it twice – we had 4 such sessions) provided an overview of the main issues presented and proceeded to ask a few questions of the presenters to get things started. There followed a serious discussion among panelist-presenters and the audience that lasted for about an hour. All four of these sessions turned out be quite good and conversations continued after the session and throughout the conference. Some presenters were seasoned researchers and some were junior researchers.
I am hoping we can approach that kind of session at AECT – high quality, active mentoring involved, good discussion and interaction, and so on. The key difference, I think, is that the reflection paper presenters were given a chance to reflect on their problem and approach as panelists in a very collegial discussion atmosphere with many probing questions.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
News from the Nov 17th AECT Board Meeting
AECT leaders are hard at work improving the association, and we had an especially productive AECT Board meeting this afternoon. Here are a few examples of the outstanding work being done on behalf of AECT members from today’s meeting. Barbara Lockee has led a task force to identify and recommend a system to improve conference planning - from the initial call for papers, through the submissions and review process, to scheduling and then developing the conference program. The system that her task force recommended is All Academic, which is the system used by AERA. It is very easy to use with all of the functionality we require. In addition, it is affordable and will allow us to provide more meaningful feedback to submitters and receive improved papers from those whose proposals are accepted. The third biennial AECT Research Symposium, led by Les Moller, is moving forward with an extended call for papers. The plan is to hold the symposium just after the summer leadership development meeting in Bloomington July 22-23 (exact dates may change slightly). The Board voted to join the New Media Consortium (NMC – www.nmc.org) so as to make NMC activities and resources more available, accessible and affordable for AECT members. This move, along with our affiliation with the National Technology Leadership Coalition (NTLC; http://www.ntlcoalition.org/) should ensure AECT a continued presence at the national level with prominent educational technology organizations.
The Board is addressing financial issues in a very measured and responsible manner. A financial review of AECT 2009 indicates that the conference will end in the black (the current estimate is a net income of about $15K; not all of the expenses have been totaled). This is less than originally projected and less than we earned in Orlando, but not all that bad given the tough economic times. To keep the conference economically viable, the Board is eliminating one-day registrations and the super early bird registration while lowering the other conference rates for 2010.
AECT has sponsored the International Student Media Festival (http://ismf09.ipower.com/new/) since 1974. ISMF started to become quite popular with state student media festivals in the last five or six years. This year there were about 1200 student entries and a strong program in Louisville – not quite as large as the previous festival in Orlando. The Board’s goal is for sponsorship of ISMF to be revenue neutral, but this year’s expenses exceeded the revenue generated by registered participants and corporate sponsors by about $33K; most of the shortfall was due to the loss of corporate sponsors (tough economic times). The Board decided that ISMF has value, especially to several of our divisions and to our state affiliates, but we also want to avoid future losses, so expenses allowed for 2010 will be reduced by $20 in order to have revenues we can realistically expect to meet known expenses. Otto Benevides has invested a great deal of time and effort in making ISMF successful in terms of student participation and workshops for students. AECT would like to see the festival continue to be a success and is taking a position of continued sponsorship with a careful eye on expenditures to ensure that we do not have another significant loss on the books. I learned on a recent visit to the New Jersey Association for School Librarians (NJASL) annual meeting that New Jersey is planning to introduce the student media festival there. ISMF sponsorship helps to put AECT in a leadership position within the K-12 educational technology community, which is one of our constituencies.
Another issue involving AECT’s role in the educational technology community and our financial situation concerns NCATE (National Council of Accreditation of Teacher Education; see http://www.ncate.org/). We pay NCATE $20K every year and spend another $5K sending AECT representatives to NCATE meetings so that AECT can serve as a SPA (Specialty Program Area) accrediting group. In that role, AECT has accredited about 21 programs. This process requires a great deal of time and effort on the part of AECT volunteers in addition to the $20K we have to pay for the privilege of serving as an NCATE SPA. The Board thinks the funding model for NCATE is backwards and voted today to send a strong message to NCATE saying as much. We realize that many people have strong feelings with regard to NCATE affiliation, so we encourage you to give us your feedback, insights and experiences in the next few months while we wait to see if NCATE will take action to reverse the funding model. If there is no response from NCATE, then we will need to have a membership-wide discussion with regard to continued affiliation.
As I tried to convey at the General Membership Meeting in Louisville on October 30th, I believe that AECT is healthy financially and professionally. I think the quality of the conference continues to improve, although we can obviously do better – I am sure that Barbara Lockee will exceed all expectations and provide a stellar conference in Anaheim in October 2010. We have new university, state and international affiliates, and more likely to come. Our publications are doing exceptionally well – the impact factor for Educational Technology Research & Development doubled this year, which is a remarkable achievement – many thanks again to Steve Ross for his long service as the ETR&D Research Editor. You will soon see a new Website and some new features on that Website, including free access to publications not available elsewhere. Life in Second Life is proceeding on course. More webinars are planned that should be of interest. We are moving in positive directions given such indicators.
However, my view is biased. I want to hear more from you. The Board wants to hear more from you. What should we be doing that we are not doing or not doing well? What are we doing well that we should be sure to keep doing well? Let us know.
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
Mike Spector
The Board is addressing financial issues in a very measured and responsible manner. A financial review of AECT 2009 indicates that the conference will end in the black (the current estimate is a net income of about $15K; not all of the expenses have been totaled). This is less than originally projected and less than we earned in Orlando, but not all that bad given the tough economic times. To keep the conference economically viable, the Board is eliminating one-day registrations and the super early bird registration while lowering the other conference rates for 2010.
AECT has sponsored the International Student Media Festival (http://ismf09.ipower.com/new/) since 1974. ISMF started to become quite popular with state student media festivals in the last five or six years. This year there were about 1200 student entries and a strong program in Louisville – not quite as large as the previous festival in Orlando. The Board’s goal is for sponsorship of ISMF to be revenue neutral, but this year’s expenses exceeded the revenue generated by registered participants and corporate sponsors by about $33K; most of the shortfall was due to the loss of corporate sponsors (tough economic times). The Board decided that ISMF has value, especially to several of our divisions and to our state affiliates, but we also want to avoid future losses, so expenses allowed for 2010 will be reduced by $20 in order to have revenues we can realistically expect to meet known expenses. Otto Benevides has invested a great deal of time and effort in making ISMF successful in terms of student participation and workshops for students. AECT would like to see the festival continue to be a success and is taking a position of continued sponsorship with a careful eye on expenditures to ensure that we do not have another significant loss on the books. I learned on a recent visit to the New Jersey Association for School Librarians (NJASL) annual meeting that New Jersey is planning to introduce the student media festival there. ISMF sponsorship helps to put AECT in a leadership position within the K-12 educational technology community, which is one of our constituencies.
Another issue involving AECT’s role in the educational technology community and our financial situation concerns NCATE (National Council of Accreditation of Teacher Education; see http://www.ncate.org/). We pay NCATE $20K every year and spend another $5K sending AECT representatives to NCATE meetings so that AECT can serve as a SPA (Specialty Program Area) accrediting group. In that role, AECT has accredited about 21 programs. This process requires a great deal of time and effort on the part of AECT volunteers in addition to the $20K we have to pay for the privilege of serving as an NCATE SPA. The Board thinks the funding model for NCATE is backwards and voted today to send a strong message to NCATE saying as much. We realize that many people have strong feelings with regard to NCATE affiliation, so we encourage you to give us your feedback, insights and experiences in the next few months while we wait to see if NCATE will take action to reverse the funding model. If there is no response from NCATE, then we will need to have a membership-wide discussion with regard to continued affiliation.
As I tried to convey at the General Membership Meeting in Louisville on October 30th, I believe that AECT is healthy financially and professionally. I think the quality of the conference continues to improve, although we can obviously do better – I am sure that Barbara Lockee will exceed all expectations and provide a stellar conference in Anaheim in October 2010. We have new university, state and international affiliates, and more likely to come. Our publications are doing exceptionally well – the impact factor for Educational Technology Research & Development doubled this year, which is a remarkable achievement – many thanks again to Steve Ross for his long service as the ETR&D Research Editor. You will soon see a new Website and some new features on that Website, including free access to publications not available elsewhere. Life in Second Life is proceeding on course. More webinars are planned that should be of interest. We are moving in positive directions given such indicators.
However, my view is biased. I want to hear more from you. The Board wants to hear more from you. What should we be doing that we are not doing or not doing well? What are we doing well that we should be sure to keep doing well? Let us know.
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
Mike Spector
Monday, November 16, 2009
Selecting the Venue for the AECT Annual Convention
In my short time on the Executive Committee and the Board, I have heard many discussions about the venue, and the number one priority for the Board has been keeping the cost (both hotel and travel) to a minimum. When the city is considered, ticket prices purchased from multiple points are estimated. The maximum hotel room rate that AECT will consider is set to $160 before taxes, including free Internet. This restriction rules out a great many hotels that have the required facilities near airports in cities that have low cost airlines flying in and out. It was precisely the low cost of going to Anaheim that is taking us there again in 2010 and probably in 2013. We have been searching very seriously and diligently for other options in the West but as yet have not found any.
These decisions are not made in back alleys or behind closed doors. We do encourage and invite feedback - you can always send your ideas on conference venue and other matters to me directly or to your division president or both. The decision to go to Jacksonville in 2011 and 2014 was based on member feedback that Orlando was too expensive. We searched for and found a good replacement for Orlando in Jacksonville, which is very affordable. We are still looking for a suitable replacement for Anaheim. Please realize that we have to make the decisions several years in advance and most hotels will sign only when a return visit is part of the deal. Keeping the costs to a minimum while providing a suitable and inviting venue are our primary concerns.
Here are the already planned venues:
2010 - Anaheim
2011 - Jacksonville
2012 - Louisville
2013 - Anaheim
2014 - Jacksonville
This is typical of how far out venues are selected - in part due to the fact that hotels are usually booked two years in advance and also in part to the fact to get the rates we need, the hotels generally want to have two conference visits on the contract. We will continue to listen to and involve the membership in selecting conference venues, but we do need a lot of lead time. Let your voices be heard.
These decisions are not made in back alleys or behind closed doors. We do encourage and invite feedback - you can always send your ideas on conference venue and other matters to me directly or to your division president or both. The decision to go to Jacksonville in 2011 and 2014 was based on member feedback that Orlando was too expensive. We searched for and found a good replacement for Orlando in Jacksonville, which is very affordable. We are still looking for a suitable replacement for Anaheim. Please realize that we have to make the decisions several years in advance and most hotels will sign only when a return visit is part of the deal. Keeping the costs to a minimum while providing a suitable and inviting venue are our primary concerns.
Here are the already planned venues:
2010 - Anaheim
2011 - Jacksonville
2012 - Louisville
2013 - Anaheim
2014 - Jacksonville
This is typical of how far out venues are selected - in part due to the fact that hotels are usually booked two years in advance and also in part to the fact to get the rates we need, the hotels generally want to have two conference visits on the contract. We will continue to listen to and involve the membership in selecting conference venues, but we do need a lot of lead time. Let your voices be heard.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Responsible Behavior Statements for AECT Conventions
One presenter at AECT 2009 felt abused by one of the participants in the session. Apparently, the participant used very derogatory language in discrediting the perspective and ideas of the researcher. The presenter was unable to respond due to severe embarrassment. The person persisted with the harsh criticism; then, another participant said that the tone of the criticism was not appropriate. Because this incident has been brought to the attention of several persons, and I have now heard about it from several sources, all of whom basically reported the same thing, I feel obliged to suggest the following guidelines for responsible behavior at the convention:
AECT session presenters will:
1. include appropriate citations of sources and funding support in their presentations;
2. indicate Institutional Review Board approval when presenting research subject to IRB;
3. acknowledge all those who have contributed to the effort being presented;
4. allow time for questions and comments to the extent possible within time constraints;
5. stop immediately when the session facilitator indicates that time has expired; and,
6. avoid all use of denigrating language and treat all participants in the session with respect.
AECT session participants will:
1. be attentive during presentations;
2. turn off cell phone and not talk to others during presentations;
3. only interrupt with questions and comments when recognized by the presenter or the facilitator;
4. be respectful of the presenter even when making critical observations or asking very challenging questions;
5. avoid lengthy comments, keep questions short and focused, and stop when the session facilitator so indicates; and,
6. avoid all use of denigrating language and treat all participants and presenters in the session with respect.
AECT Session facilitators will:
1. introduce very briefly the session and session presenters;
2. distribute and collect session evaluation forms;
3. ensure that presenters do not exceed time limits set in advance;
4. ask any participant or presenter who is using inappropriate language or behaving inappropriately to cease and desist at once; and,
5. report any disruptive activities or inappropriate behavior to one of the conference planners.
AECT session presenters will:
1. include appropriate citations of sources and funding support in their presentations;
2. indicate Institutional Review Board approval when presenting research subject to IRB;
3. acknowledge all those who have contributed to the effort being presented;
4. allow time for questions and comments to the extent possible within time constraints;
5. stop immediately when the session facilitator indicates that time has expired; and,
6. avoid all use of denigrating language and treat all participants in the session with respect.
AECT session participants will:
1. be attentive during presentations;
2. turn off cell phone and not talk to others during presentations;
3. only interrupt with questions and comments when recognized by the presenter or the facilitator;
4. be respectful of the presenter even when making critical observations or asking very challenging questions;
5. avoid lengthy comments, keep questions short and focused, and stop when the session facilitator so indicates; and,
6. avoid all use of denigrating language and treat all participants and presenters in the session with respect.
AECT Session facilitators will:
1. introduce very briefly the session and session presenters;
2. distribute and collect session evaluation forms;
3. ensure that presenters do not exceed time limits set in advance;
4. ask any participant or presenter who is using inappropriate language or behaving inappropriately to cease and desist at once; and,
5. report any disruptive activities or inappropriate behavior to one of the conference planners.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Highlights of AECT 2009
Thanks to all those who made AECT 2009 so wonderful – especially to my co-planners, Barbara Lockee and Miriam Larson, the division/affiliate planners, and our highly experienced conference support personnel, Lois Freeland and Dalinda Bond. I estimate that the planners invested about 60 hours on planning calls and at least as many hours in planning activities between bi-weekly calls. Without their tireless efforts, AECT 2009 would not have been such a success.
We had about 740 registered participants – slightly fewer than the turnout in Orlando last year – but we had twice the number of one-day registrations as we have had in the past – 140. On Saturday, the AECT Board voted to discontinue one-day registrations since so many of the one-day registrants this year attended multiple days.
The Galt House venue was a hit with nearly everyone. Free Internet access in the rooms was appreciated as was the existence of inexpensive food and drinks within the hotel and nearby.
We had three outstanding keynote speakers: Peter Goodyear (University of Sydney), Daphne Rainey (National Science Foundation), and Andrei Podolskij (Moscow State University). Peter’s talk about learning through inquiry and teaching as design, resonated with many of those in attendance and sparked ongoing discussion throughout the conference. Daphne’s overview of NSF programs, and cyberlearning in particular, also generated many subsequent discussions, and was a very nice introduction to the theme for the 2010 conference. Andrei’s presentation on the developmental dimensions of instructional design was a strong and well-formulated reminder of the need to take into account human development when planning and implementing learning and instruction, and his closing example made the need to keep human developmental psychology linked to instructional planning quite clear. We also had many outstanding presidential sessions, integrative panels and concurrent sessions.
I have already received feedback that this year’s innovation of reflection papers could be strengthened by scheduling them so that the posters followed the short paper presentations immediately. I doubled the number of Presidential sessions in response to feedback from last year. These sessions included an interdisciplinary panel reporting on a technology integration effort in rural K-8 schools in the Southeast, another reporting on technology integration and professional development in a higher education setting that involved two remote presenters and two on-site presenters, a panel addressing the development of the scientific mind, a very stimulating session on cloudworks (see http://cloudworks.ac.uk/), and much more.
We plan to expand the present@distance sessions that were a success this year. Presenting at a distance was designed to allow those outside the USA, and others who simply could not afford to travel to the conference, to make a presentation and place a paper in the Proceedings at a significantly reduced rate. Because there are costs to AECT to support such sessions, and because we expect more of these in the future due to eliminating the one-day registration fee, we will need to revisit the registration costs for remote presenters.
The ECT Foundation sponsored a riverboat cruise Friday evening. We were originally scheduled to be on the Belle of Louisville, but it lost a battle with a barge and we ended up on the Spirit of Jefferson instead. “It was a rainy night in Louisville. The sky was ominous, as was the previous incident with the Belle of Louisville.” So began the saga of the ECT’s Cruising on the River adventure. The boat was filled to capacity, and, no thanks to the weather, everyone survived. Some imbibed. There was music, courtesy of Tom Atkinson and Greg Clinton. Some danced. One danced barefoot – one of those wild conference co-planners mentioned earlier. The music and the weather and the cruise up the Ohio River and back combined to make for a wonderful evening outing.
How about the future prospects of AECT? We are reaching out to new constituencies and reaching new groups of interested professionals. Mary Herring negotiated affiliations with the National Technology Leadership Consortium and the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education this past year. I am working on an agreement with the Indonesian Educational Technology Society (IPTPI) and the New Media Consortium. Future Minds is continuing to pursue its vision of transforming education. We have two new state chapters in Michigan and Kansas, and two new university affiliates - Boise State and Virginia Tech. We are committed to providing improved services to our members including: (a) a series of concept papers to be published through the Publications Committee led by Rhonda Robinson, (b) a new edition of the Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology to be available in 2012/2013 to members online, as are the 2nd and 3rd editions, (c) a new journal focusing on Design led by Elizabeth Boling, (d) joint grant proposals with AECT teaming with universities and other associations, (e) Webinar series sponsored by various divisions and available at no cost to AECT members, (f) virtual worlds space for all of the divisions in Second Life, (g) ongoing biennial summer research symposia resulting in edited volumes, and (h) new software support to make conference planning more effective and efficient.
We will seek to expand membership and reduce operating expenses so as to avoid any significant increases in membership dues or conference rates. Given access to so many high quality online publications, membership continues to be well worth the cost, in my obviously biased opinion. Our 2010 budget was projected to have a total income of $852,855 with total expenses of $773,9925 - with a net gain of $73,930. It is too early to know if we will hit that target. There was reduced corporate support for ISMF which resulted in AECT providing much more support than we have in the past resulting in a net loss rather than a net gain. There were many more one-day registrations than in the past which will put us a bit behind in our projected revenue from the conference. Still, we have very strong revenues coming in from our journals – about $356,000 this year, and membership is stable. While there are new things we need to support – finalizing the Website, an affiliation with the New Media Consortium, etc. – there are also some sizeable expenses that can be reduced (e.g., NCATE dues – my own opinion is that the funding model is exactly backwards in this case; NCATE should be paying AECT for our intellectual property and professional services).
We had about 740 registered participants – slightly fewer than the turnout in Orlando last year – but we had twice the number of one-day registrations as we have had in the past – 140. On Saturday, the AECT Board voted to discontinue one-day registrations since so many of the one-day registrants this year attended multiple days.
The Galt House venue was a hit with nearly everyone. Free Internet access in the rooms was appreciated as was the existence of inexpensive food and drinks within the hotel and nearby.
We had three outstanding keynote speakers: Peter Goodyear (University of Sydney), Daphne Rainey (National Science Foundation), and Andrei Podolskij (Moscow State University). Peter’s talk about learning through inquiry and teaching as design, resonated with many of those in attendance and sparked ongoing discussion throughout the conference. Daphne’s overview of NSF programs, and cyberlearning in particular, also generated many subsequent discussions, and was a very nice introduction to the theme for the 2010 conference. Andrei’s presentation on the developmental dimensions of instructional design was a strong and well-formulated reminder of the need to take into account human development when planning and implementing learning and instruction, and his closing example made the need to keep human developmental psychology linked to instructional planning quite clear. We also had many outstanding presidential sessions, integrative panels and concurrent sessions.
I have already received feedback that this year’s innovation of reflection papers could be strengthened by scheduling them so that the posters followed the short paper presentations immediately. I doubled the number of Presidential sessions in response to feedback from last year. These sessions included an interdisciplinary panel reporting on a technology integration effort in rural K-8 schools in the Southeast, another reporting on technology integration and professional development in a higher education setting that involved two remote presenters and two on-site presenters, a panel addressing the development of the scientific mind, a very stimulating session on cloudworks (see http://cloudworks.ac.uk/), and much more.
We plan to expand the present@distance sessions that were a success this year. Presenting at a distance was designed to allow those outside the USA, and others who simply could not afford to travel to the conference, to make a presentation and place a paper in the Proceedings at a significantly reduced rate. Because there are costs to AECT to support such sessions, and because we expect more of these in the future due to eliminating the one-day registration fee, we will need to revisit the registration costs for remote presenters.
The ECT Foundation sponsored a riverboat cruise Friday evening. We were originally scheduled to be on the Belle of Louisville, but it lost a battle with a barge and we ended up on the Spirit of Jefferson instead. “It was a rainy night in Louisville. The sky was ominous, as was the previous incident with the Belle of Louisville.” So began the saga of the ECT’s Cruising on the River adventure. The boat was filled to capacity, and, no thanks to the weather, everyone survived. Some imbibed. There was music, courtesy of Tom Atkinson and Greg Clinton. Some danced. One danced barefoot – one of those wild conference co-planners mentioned earlier. The music and the weather and the cruise up the Ohio River and back combined to make for a wonderful evening outing.
How about the future prospects of AECT? We are reaching out to new constituencies and reaching new groups of interested professionals. Mary Herring negotiated affiliations with the National Technology Leadership Consortium and the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education this past year. I am working on an agreement with the Indonesian Educational Technology Society (IPTPI) and the New Media Consortium. Future Minds is continuing to pursue its vision of transforming education. We have two new state chapters in Michigan and Kansas, and two new university affiliates - Boise State and Virginia Tech. We are committed to providing improved services to our members including: (a) a series of concept papers to be published through the Publications Committee led by Rhonda Robinson, (b) a new edition of the Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology to be available in 2012/2013 to members online, as are the 2nd and 3rd editions, (c) a new journal focusing on Design led by Elizabeth Boling, (d) joint grant proposals with AECT teaming with universities and other associations, (e) Webinar series sponsored by various divisions and available at no cost to AECT members, (f) virtual worlds space for all of the divisions in Second Life, (g) ongoing biennial summer research symposia resulting in edited volumes, and (h) new software support to make conference planning more effective and efficient.
We will seek to expand membership and reduce operating expenses so as to avoid any significant increases in membership dues or conference rates. Given access to so many high quality online publications, membership continues to be well worth the cost, in my obviously biased opinion. Our 2010 budget was projected to have a total income of $852,855 with total expenses of $773,9925 - with a net gain of $73,930. It is too early to know if we will hit that target. There was reduced corporate support for ISMF which resulted in AECT providing much more support than we have in the past resulting in a net loss rather than a net gain. There were many more one-day registrations than in the past which will put us a bit behind in our projected revenue from the conference. Still, we have very strong revenues coming in from our journals – about $356,000 this year, and membership is stable. While there are new things we need to support – finalizing the Website, an affiliation with the New Media Consortium, etc. – there are also some sizeable expenses that can be reduced (e.g., NCATE dues – my own opinion is that the funding model is exactly backwards in this case; NCATE should be paying AECT for our intellectual property and professional services).
Monday, November 2, 2009
Welcome to the AECT President's Blog
One thing I want to do as the AECT President for 2009-2010 is to share information about AECT and receive feedback with regard to AECT directions and activities. I encourage anyone interested in AECT to post comments (or send me an email at jmspector007@gmail.com) with suggestions of ways to improve our professional association.
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