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utting-edge information from a mind-boggling array of sessions and the happy, productive, often

international babble of collegial net-working were hallmarks of the 2012 AECT International Convention. The gathering was set in Louisville’s twin-towered Galt House, that grand dame on the Ohio River, complete with a classic riverboat moored out the back door. There was a new feature this year. When colleagues met, they didn’t have to exchange paper busi-ness cards. Every attendee received a free Poken device, a kind of electronic business card. Just touch Pokens and the information exchange was made. (Novice Poken users—including me —could learn about this cool new tool at www.poken.com.)

Highlighting the many and varied sessions described in the convention program—nearly 200 pages long—were three keynotes, one each day on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the convention. Additionally, there were 18 presidential sessions scattered across these same three days. What follows is an attempt to capture the flavor of these two strands.

KeynotesOn Wednesday Yong Zhao chose

“World Class Learners: Educating Cre-ative and Entrepreneurial Students” as his topic, based on his 2012 book

the College of Education at Michigan State University. He also is Executive Director of the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University. Confucius Institutes, which have proliferated since 2004, are nonprofit public insti-tutions dedicated to promoting Chi-nese language and culture.

On Thursday Malcolm Brown pre-sented “The Changing Landscape of Higher Education.” Echoing Zhao to some extent, Brown, who holds a Ph.D. in German Studies from Stanford Uni-versity, noted that higher education has been embracing change in signifi-cant ways over the past decade, and an evolving departure from “one-size-fits-all” teaching is still in flux. Brown urged convention attendees to join him in “thinking outside our reflexes.”

Brown has been Director of the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative since 2009, following a period of time as Director of Academic Computing at Dartmouth College. His keynote ad-dress followed the EDUCAUSE theme of “uncommon thinking for the com-mon good.” In the current era when state funding for education is declin-ing, student debt for higher education exceeds credit card debt nationally, and a college degree appears to be slipping beyond the means of many young people, Brown sees a conflu-ence of forces that will shape how col-leges and universities use technology

by the same title. Zhao, who holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, believes that technology has transformed a key educational question, from “How do we facili-tate learning?” to “Are we going to the right place?” Education in former times was about preparing students to live in a future that could be reason-ably predicted. However, the pace of change, which is tied to the relentless advance of technology, has rendered the future less predictable. Conse-quently, according to Zhao, education needs to change from a focus on de-livering a set of prescribed knowledge and skills to one of using technology to encourage creativity.

Specifically, Zhao believes that as students look toward future careers, it will be necessary for them to be entre-preneurial: to create a job, not merely find a job. In a global environment schools must rely less on established curricula and, instead, work toward teaching that engenders creative, en-trepreneurial learning if students are to succeed.

Zhao exemplifies the educational viewpoint he espouses. He currently is Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education in the Col-lege of Education at the University of Oregon, following a five-year stint as University Distinguished Professor in

Guest Column

Keynotes and Presidential Sessions Highlight AECT International ConventionBy Donovan R. Walling

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to support learning and access to edu-cation in coming years.

For those unfamiliar with EDU-CAUSE, it is a nonprofit association of IT leaders and professionals dedicated to advancing higher education (see www.educause.edu). The association is composed primarily of more than 1,800 colleges and universities and some 300 corporations serving higher education IT.

On Friday Daniel T. Willingham spoke on “The Mind, the Brain, and Quality Control in Educational Tech-nology.” Willingham holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Harvard University and is a psychologist and professor at the University of Virginia. Willingham debunked much of the negative hype about “technology is changing children’s brains” as well as the overly optimistic touting of “brain-based learning strategies.” He noted that technology has some effect on the brain but probably not a dramatic ef-fect. He approaches the relationship between neuroscience and technology with an eye to sound evidence.

Willingham believes that AECT could play a major role in bringing greater clarity to the national conver-sation regarding neuroscience and technology, suggesting that AECT might take a proactive stance in iden-tifying methods and goals relating to instruction that is based on sound neuroscientific principals and evi-dence of effectiveness. AECT might, according to Willingham, help iden-tify “problems we can address and problems we can’t address” through technology. He even suggested tweak-ing the language in the AECT mis-sion statement to include a couple of words: “improvement of instruction through technology.”

Willingham’s analysis of AECT’s potential to function as a quality-control mechanism for the profes-sion was thought-provoking. Just as the American Medical Association is the go-to organization on matters to do with medical research, he sug-gested that AECT could, with the collective effort of the membership, emerge as the go-to association for information about the confluence of learning and technology.

Presidential SessionsThe presidential sessions offered

a range of topics particularly germane to AECT. It would be impossible to do justice to all 18 sessions in the space remaining, so here are just a few highlights.

Who Are We and Do We Make a Difference? AECT and the Marketing of Instructional Designers and Educa-tional Technologists or Whatever We’re Called. AECT Immediate Past Presi-dent Ana Donaldson led a panel and the session participants in a discus-sion about how instructional design-ers define themselves—and are viewed by others. The term learning designer seems, according to some participants, to be gaining traction. (Interestingly, this term could be heard in other ses-sions, including the keynotes.) One participant also suggested that enabling could be a keyword and concept, par-ticularly in identifying an “interna-tional community of practice.” Seem-ing prescient two days before Willing-ham’s keynote, the question was raised about AECT taking a lead in develop-ing an online instructional design skills lab and possibly self-paced courses in learning design.

Leading Globalized, Interdisci-plinary Organizations: A Close Look at Specialization, Interdisciplinary and Chances for Transformation in Our Field. Eugene Kowch, from the University of Calgary, suggested that leading global organizations, such as AECT, need to know more about transforming from inflexible to flex-ible, balancing specialization and re-dundancy. He pointed out that diver-sity is the key to organizational change. Organizations that are inflexible or too specialized are at risk.

Handbook of Research on Edu-cational Communications and Tech-nology (4th edition). Handbook co-editor and retired Utah State Uni-versity professor M. David Merrill chaired a panel that featured several chapter authors, who discussed their contributions to the forthcoming new edition of this well-regarded and well-used handbook. The fourth edi-tion—if it isn’t already in print as of press time for this article, it soon will

be—boasts more than 70 chapters and, for the first time, will be printed in two volumes.

The New AECT Certificate Pro-gram Endorsement (CPE). AECT Executive Director Phillip Harris and Ana Donaldson led a panel that pro-vided information about this new pro-gram to recognize and validate certifi-cate programs at institutions of higher learning. The panel also presented the first CPE to the University of Hawaii-Manoa, which was accepted by El-len Hoffman, who led the application process. The panel also included two application reviewers, who provided insights into the review process and tips for successful applications. (More information about the CPE initiative can be found on the AECT website.)

The New AECT Standards and Endorsement Plan for Educational Technology Graduate Programs. El-len Hoffman, mentioned above, who also chairs the Standards Committee and is a member of the AECT Board of Directors, reviewed the develop-ment of the AECT Standards follow-ing the association’s decision to break with NCATE in 2011. The AECT Standards were adopted in July 2012, and a plan is in the works to recognize graduate programs that are aligned with the new standards. The planned award program, called RAECT, can be reviewed in a draft at tinyurl.com/raect-faq.

How Did We Get Where We Are? Beliefs, Values, and Practices Influ-encing the Evolution of Two Pioneer Academic Programs. A distinguished panel of faculty members from Flori-da State University and Indiana Uni-versity described the theories, beliefs, and practices that formed two early and influential graduate programs in instructional technology. Members of the panel were involved at various points in the history and provided viewpoints that spanned from the his-torical to the contemporary and from the macro to the micro.

One-to-One Laptop Implementa-tion in El Salvador. Peter Fadde, from Southern Illinois University, described the 1:1 laptop initiative designed to focus on communities affected by

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and neglected following the civil war that ravaged El Salvador from 1979 to 1992. William Mejia, at the Ministry of Education in El Salvador, joined the session by Skype video and responded to participants’ questions. While Mejia noted that test score progress was hard to discern, anecdotal evidence suggest-ed a strong social component. Students have become interested in computers and future computer careers, a sub-stantial change from past aspirations.

Leadership and Success: A Candid Conversation with Previous ECT In-terns and Their Experiences as Leaders in the Field. Several past Educational Communications and Technology interns from different generations de-scribed their intern experiences and the boost that being an intern had given their various careers. Panelists spoke of bonding with other interns, networking, and direct contact with leaders in the educational technol-ogy field. From the earliest period, the intern program set the stage for what has now become the Graduate Stu-dent Assembly. Interns are chosen for

their potential, and all of the panelists felt that such recognition helped spur them to accomplish more than they otherwise might have done.

Intellectual Property in the Age of Globalization. Attorney Leonard D. DuBoff and his wife Mary Ann of-fered insights into the ever-changing character of copyright, specifically as applied to intellectual property in online education. This was a particu-larly cutting-edge session because a Supreme Court decision important to the field had just been announced on Monday prior to this Friday morning panel. Participants gained informa-tion about fair use, trademark, and related issues as such issues apply to digital environments.

Collaborative Overview of the TPACK-Centered Teacher Education Initiative (TEI). AECT Past President J. Michael Spector, past TechTrends editor Abbie Brown, AECT Presi-dent Marcus Childress, CITE Journal editor Glen Bull, and David Gibson of simSchool served as panelists to dis-cuss K-12 online teaching and learn-

ing. Topics ranged from the prepara-tion needed to teach effectively online to the needs of incarcerated students.

Publish, Don’t Perish: Tips for Writing Research Articles and Get-ting Them Published. A large panel of experienced editors provided tips about writing competent and compel-ling research articles for leading jour-nals in the field.

This sampling of 11 of the 18 presidential sessions gives a sense of the scope of topics and the high level of expertise among presenters and panelists. It would have been impos-sible to attend all of the presidential sessions because multiple sessions were scheduled in the same time slots. But whichever sessions participants chose, they were amply rewarded for their time.

AECT International Convention attendees who took in only the key-notes and some of the presidential sessions—and ignored the 400 regular sessions—would still have scheduled themselves full, busy, productive, re-warding, and invigorating days.