The Annual Meeting of the Association for Education Communications and Technology (AECT) provides a forum for interchange of ideas around designing technological support for learning and training. Its Early Career Symposia provide an avenue for early career scholars to receive mentoring from established researchers.
This project supports travel for advanced graduate students and new faculty from U.S. universities to attend the Annual Meeting and Early Career Symposium. Sessions during the Symposium are designed to help collaborators imagine forward-looking and viable technology-oriented research agendas, identify the types of collaborators who complement their strengths, and identify the funding agencies and programs that might support their work. An important goal of the Symposium is to add to the community of researchers interested in ways that technology can transform teaching and learning.
This activity supports the mission of NSF to train more advanced professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. This conference is one among many that researchers in the cyberlearning community regularly attend. Mentors come from the AECT community as well as from the learning sciences community.
2013 NSF AECT Early Career Symposium Final Report Last year NSF provided funding for a highly successful Early Career Symposium at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education Communications and Technology. Due to the success of the previous three symposia, AECT continued this effort for another cadre' of scholars. This symposium provided an avenue for early career scholars to receive mentoring from established researchers. The NSF AECT Early Career Symposium took place at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Annual International Convention in Anaheim, California on October 29-30, 2013. The Early Career Symposium was built from our observation that synergistic collaborations are one of the fundamental elements for sparking innovative research endeavors. After all, good ideas are stimulated by conversations with others who share interests. The Early Career Symposium created these conversations in a way that was supportive across all stages of career growth. The intended outcomes of the Early Career Symposium included: mentoring of advanced doctoral students into the social/professional network as partners in idea-making supporting advanced doctoral students and early career faculty in developing viable technology-oriented research agendas providing specific feedback and guidance to advanced doctoral students and early career faculty about their research agendas and to help them design, develop, and give a presentation on a research proposal providing information to advanced doctoral students and early career faculty about building a research agenda, pursuing funding, and building collaborations developing a community of researchers interested in ways technology can transform teaching and learning Symposium Schedule Tuesday-Day One 8:30-9:00 Breakfast, Introductions & Getting Started 9:00-10:00 Poster Sessions 10:00 -11:00 Panel Discussion 1: Creating a Research Agenda 11:00-12:30 Follow-up Discussion with Mentor 12:30-2:00 Working Lunch w/Mentor 2:00-3:00 Participant Individual Work Time, Consultation time with Mentors 3:00-4:00 Panel Discussion 2: Securing Funding for your Work 4:00-5:00 Follow-up Discussion with Mentor Wednesday - Day Two 8:30-8:45 Breakfast 8:45-9:30 Advanced Doctoral Student Final Poster Sessions 9:30-10:30 Panel Discussion 3: General Strategies for Success 10:30-11:00 Small Group Discussion 11:00-11:45 Early Career Faculty Poster Presentations 11:45-Noon Closing Evaluation Six early career faculty and six advanced doctoral students were grouped with six mid-career or senior mentors. Participants were satisfied with the symposium and gained valuable information on how to construct a technology-oriented research agenda, how to apply for research project funding, as well as how to be productive as an academic professional. Mentoring themes resulting from the symposium included: Develop a Clear Research Agenda Conduct Research that has a Broader Impact on the World Network and Collaborate with Established Scholars Publicize Research Agenda and Ideas Design Interdisciplinary Research Projects Be Consistent about Writing. Set Priorities Find Balance
