2006 AECT International Convention
"Strengthening Connections"
Dallas, Texas
Concurrent Sessions: Wednesday, Oct. 11 - Friday, Oct. 13, 2006
Workshops: Tuesday, Oct. 10 & Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006
You are invited to propose a presentation for the 2006 AECT International Convention in Dallas, Texas and to share your expertise and knowledge with your peers and those new to the field. AECT is an international professional organization dedicated to the improvement of learning through the use of the full range of media and instructional technology. Its purpose is to enhance the professional skills of its members and to support their explorations of innovative uses of educational technology.
The AECT International Convention brings together participants from across the nation and around the world, offering practical applications, cutting-edge research, hands-on workshops, and demonstrations of the newest technologies and teaching/learning techniques in the field.
This year's convention theme is Strengthening Connections. Supporting the main theme are four sub-themes related to making: (1) stronger connections between theory and practice, (2) stronger connections between new technologies and educational goals, (3) stronger connections among researchers around the globe; and (4) stronger connections among new professionals and more experienced colleagues. Thus, we encourage proposals that address these four connection-strengthening sub-themes.
AECT members represent a unique cross-section of professionals, educators, and students who work to improve teaching and learning in a variety of contexts through innovations that bring together theory and practice. Proposals for the AECT 2006 Dallas Convention should exhibit innovation in theory, research, and practice across a variety of educational, training, and performance settings.
Proposal Deadlines
Special Need International Proposals -- December 1, 2005
Regular Proposals -- January 15, 2006
Special Technology-enhanced Proposals -- January 15, 2006
Each deadline is discussed below. Other than international proposers (those residing outside the U.S at the time of submission) with special needs related to funding and travel, all proposals will be accepted on a standard date (January 15, 2006). Please note: This is two-weeks earlier than in previous years and there is only one round of submissions.
We have moved the submission date a little earlier for two reasons: First, we hope to reduce the crunch on reviewers, particularly given the March 1 acceptance date. Second, and more ambitiously, we hope to experiment with a session-preview system where members would be able to view the completed program of sessions in mid-to-late spring. This system would allow members to express their level of interest in attending an accepted session and to provide private suggestions to presenters on ways to make the presentation more appealing. Our goal here is to create a more participatory system and to see if we can use these expressions of member interest to help us schedule sessions more rationally (for example, to make room sizes match the number of likely attendees). As we note, this is quite ambitious and may present many challenges. Clearly the first of these is the earlier submission deadline. We appreciate your participation in this experiment as a way of making our annual convention stronger and more connected.
Special Need International Proposals -- December 1, 2005 Submission Deadline
Given a heightened focus on U.S. security, each year some of our international presenters find themselves having difficulty arranging to present at AECT. In an effort to accommodate the needs of international proposers who reside outside the United States at the time of submission, we have created a special proposal submission deadline and procedure. The intent is to assure that those who need to submit and receive official notification earlier can still participate. Only international presenters who need to use earlier submission should do so.
These special need international proposers will submit their convention proposals to the International Division (and only to the International Division) for review using electronic online submission (see How to Submit a Proposal Electronically below). The one key difference is that such proposers need to note in the proposal why they need to submit earlier and what the timeline for notification needs to be in order to allow them to attend. This is designed to help the Conventions Planners and reviewers respond appropriately to the special need.
The International Division has agreed to conduct this review process early, employing the common AECT peer review criteria (see Peer Review Process below). The Division has also agreed to see that special need international proposers receive notification in a timely fashion. The International Division will allocate convention presentation slots for these special proposers. This will not reduce the likelihood of acceptance for non-special need international proposers or any proposers who reside in the United States and use the submission deadline for regular proposals.
Special need international proposers will be notified of acceptance decisions as soon after January 1, 2006 as possible. If a proposer requires earlier notification, he or she should note when notification is needed (date) in the electronic submission. The review panel will then strive to meet that date. Accepted special need international presenters will receive a letter on AECT stationery notifying them they have been accepted, offering them a slot on the program, and asking for confirmation that they will attend and present. This letter will be signed by the appropriate International Division officer and the AECT President-Elect/Convention Program Planner.
International presenters who know they will be unable to travel to attend the convention in Dallas --but who wish to share their work and research in this rich forum-- should see the details of Present@Distance, a new electronic option described below under Special Technology-enhanced Proposals. This option facilitates strong presentations for presenters and audiences who are separated geographically.
Regular Proposals -- January 15, 2006 Submission Deadline
The vast majority of proposals are regular proposals. Such proposals must be submitted electronically (see How to Submit a Proposal Electronically below) to one primary AECT division or affiliated organization for consideration. That is, proposers must identify a division to which to submit and not submit the same proposal (or one that is largely the same) to any other division. Each division has a Convention Planner (usually the President-Elect). If this Convention Planner and/or the peer review panel for a division believe a proposal is not well suited to their division, they may recommend it for consideration by another division. This occurs without action by the proposer. In addition, a person may propose no more than two concurrent session presentations on which he or she is key presenter, although that individual may be a co-presenter on other proposals and may also have roundtables/poster presentations.
The intent of (1) not allowing submission of the same (or a very closely related) proposal to more than one division and (2) limiting the number of presentations on which a person may be the key presenter is the same: We wish to assure a diverse program, one in which many strong presentations are included and little duplication occurs. In addition, we want to respect the load on reviewers, all of whom volunteer their time.
If you are unsure of the suitability of your proposal to a particular division or affiliate organization, we encourage you to contact the Convention Planner for that division or affiliate organization. The list of Convention Planners can be found on the AECT Web site at www.aect.org.
Special Technology-enhanced Proposals -- January 15, 2006 Submission Deadline
Given that our theme is to strengthen connections, we are encouraging two new types of technology-enhanced proposals, each of which has its own submission procedure. Proposals for these special sessions do not go through the divisional review process. Instead, they are reviewed by special review panels created for the purpose. This means they are not submitted using the electronic procedures described later in this call (How to Submit Electronically). Descriptions of these two types of special technology-enhanced presentations follow:
Blog Tracks: Multiple "presenters" propose to create a focused discussion/exploration/investigation of a key issue related to one of the sub-themes above. They create a blog-site devoted to the issue and begin interaction on the issue a month before the convention. At the convention these presenters continue to blog, but try, among other things, to incorporate responses to presentations at the convention that address their issue. On a date later in the convention week, each accepted Blog Track has a 20-minute presentation session where they summarize the status of the blog and discuss key issues identified through the blog. These presentations are not intended to summarize all of what a blog has covered, nor to end the conversation. Instead, they are updates for existing and potential Blog Track participants.
Given that this is a new type of session, we anticipate accepting no more than 4 Blog Tracks for Dallas, although the quality of the proposals will be the deciding factor. If you are interested in proposing a Blog Track you should submit the following to Ward Cates ([email protected]) as an email attachment in plain text, Microsoft Word, html, or RTF file format:
1. A title for the Blog Track (maximum of 10 words)
2. The name of the bloggers involved and their institutional affiliations
3. A 50-150 word description of the key issue to be
discussed/explored/investigated, along with a statement of its logical
relationship to one of the four sub-themes (see above)
4. A 50-150 word description of prior blogging experience of the
proposers (in particular highlighting any use of non-textual components)
5. Evidence of blogging competence and insight (including URLs for blogs we may examine)
6. A 50-150 word description of why you think this Blog Track would appeal to members
7. A short (fewer than 75 words) description for the printed/electronic program (if accepted)
8. Contact information for all presenters and identification of the "blog leader"
Present@Distance: Presenters prepare video-based presentations of 20 minutes that address key issues in the field related to this one of the four sub-themes (see above) and these presentations are shown on-site at the convention in Dallas and archived for later viewing by those who might have missed them live. Proposers in this category must be technologically proficient. The content of the proposed session should lend itself to some kind of visual presentation, although this need not be principally video captured with a camcorder. Well-designed PowerPoint presentations with high quality voice-over and strong use of graphic images (such as screen shots, tables, charts, and the like) can be effective in the video format. While presenters may well appear somewhere in the videos they produce, a simple "talking head" production will not be accepted for the conference.
P@D presenters would be offsite, although they still must register for offsite registration (a special registration at a special rate) in order to be included in the program and have their session scheduled. AECT will provide a presentation room with a facilitator in Dallas and a computer connected to a data projector so attendees can view the P@D presentation on a large screen. Following the video presentation, the onsite facilitator will coordinate live questioning of the presenter over the Internet. Depending on bandwidth availability at both the convention site and presenter site, live questioning may be done using two-way video, two-way audio, email, or chat (such as IM).
If you are interested in proposing a P@D session, you may contact Trey Martindale at the email below after November 15, 2005 to request a handout on software for capturing presentations and tips on producing engaging video presentations.
If you are interested in proposing a P@D presentation you should submit the following as an email attachment to Trey Martindale ([email protected]) by the submission deadline in plain text, Microsoft Word, html, or RTF file format:
1. A title for the P@D presentation (maximum of 10 words)
2. Key presenter's name and institutional affiliation; list of all co-presenters
3. A 50-150 word description of the proposed presentation, along with a
statement of its logical relationship to one of the four sub-themes
(see above)
4. A short (fewer than 75 words) description for the printed/electronic program (if accepted)
5. A 50-150 word description of prior experience of the presenter(s) in
creating and using video-based multimedia or rich media presentations
6. Contact information for all presenters
The special review panel will examine your proposal and if they believe it has promise, you will be contacted to provide a video file or "screencast" that represents a sample of the content of your conference presentation. This sample should be three to five minutes long and should be in one of the following formats: QuickTime, Windows Media, Real, or Flash. This permits you to demonstrate your skill at creating an appealing P@D presentation. Those people accepted for P@D presentations will be notified no later than March 1, 2006. We anticipate accepting no more than 10 such presentations for Dallas, but once again, the quality of the proposals will be the deciding factor.
How to Submit a Proposal Electronically
To be considered, a complete proposal must be submitted electronically
no earlier than November 15, 2005, and no later than January 15, 2006.
A complete online proposal submission consists of:
1. Presentation title
2. A short (fewer than 75 words) description
3. A 750-1000 word anonymous abstract
4. Equipment request
5. List of presenters
Procedure:
1. Go to www.aect.org for guidelines and online submission form.
2. Read the guidelines for electronic submissions.
3. Complete the requested information in the online proposal form.
4. Complete the requested information in the online equipment request form (if you are requesting equipment).
5. Upload the 750-1000 word anonymous abstract, following the directions provided.
After you submit your proposal, you will receive electronic notification that it has been received. The peer review process begins shortly after the submission deadline. This process is discussed in the next section.
Peer Review Process
Each division has its own panel of peer reviewers. This panel makes
decisions on which proposals are accepted for the convention program.
They review proposals using the following criteria:
* Clarity of proposal (how well it is written)
* Relevance, timeliness, and general interest level of topic
* Suitability for division/organization mission and membership
* Quality of proposed session's content, organization and format
* Length and session type
* Match to the overall convention theme and other demands of the program.
To prepare a winning proposal, be sure to use concise language. Identify your target audience -- those attendees who will find your presentation relevant and timely. Pay attention also to how you format your proposal on the electronic page: Use paragraph breaks, use both lower and uppercase letters (not just capital letters). Proofread your narrative for typographical errors, misspellings, and inaccuracies. Recognize that poorly presented proposals stand little chance of making it to the convention program.
Notification of Review Outcome
As close to March 1 as possible, the Convention Planner for any
division/affiliate to which you proposed will notify you whether your
proposal has been accepted or rejected. If accepted, you will be
required to complete an Acceptance/Verification Form acknowledging
receipt of acceptance notification, verifying your commitment to make
the presentation at AECT 2006 in Dallas, and you will need to register
for the conference.
Recognizing that all convention attendees are part of a shared community of research, practice, and professional growth and that convention registrations enable us to provide a strong convention, accepted proposers who do not register will not be scheduled for presentation (and thus will never appear in any printed program or other document). Session scheduling begins in the summer and must be completed well before the convention. Thus, accepted proposers are expected to register no later than September 1, 2006.
It is the responsibility of the key presenter to notify all individuals involved in the presentation of the acceptance status of the proposal. It is also the responsibility of the key presenter to send confirmation and convention information to nonmembers participating in a session. If selected, the presentation must follow the original proposed topic and content as accepted by the National Convention Program Planning Committee.
All presenters must obtain written permission to use copyrighted photos, music, and the like in their sessions. In addition, all presenters are expected to follow the AECT Code of Ethics found on the AECT Web site (http://www.aect.org/intranet/publications/ethics/index.html).
Types of Sessions
Concurrent Sessions
These 30- or 60-minute sessions are primarily in presentation format
and comprise the majority of convention sessions. The focus of these
sessions is on sharing information, such as best practices and research
results. Proposals for 60-minute sessions may include more than one
presentation (as in symposia). In addition, concurrent presentations
may be "bundled" with others of related content to form one 60-minute
session.
Roundtables
Roundtables are designed for small group discussion of specialized
topics, with the presenter leading the discussion. This participatory
format allows for a highly interactive presentation lasting 60 minutes.
Typically, several Roundtable discussions are scheduled simultaneously
in one large room, with minimal audiovisual use.
Poster Sessions
Poster Sessions are designed to showcase a program, process, activity,
or the like in an informal setting. We provide a small table to support
a display board, a laptop, your handouts, and on the like. Posters may
be set up for much of the morning or afternoon, allowing attendees to
browse them. The presenter needs to be stationed at the poster to
answer questions throughout the scheduled time period.
Workshops
As half- or full-day sessions, workshops are intended to provide
intense professional development opportunities that result in
participants' acquiring new skills. Workshops are targeted at specific
interest groups and must generate enough interest among attendees if
they are to be offered. As noted above, workshops for the Dallas
convention take place on Tuesday and Saturday.
Special Technology-facilitated Sessions
See the descriptions above under Proposal Submission.
AECT Divisions
* Design & Development* Distance Learning* International* Management* School Media & Technology* Multimedia Production* Research & Theory* Systemic Change* Teacher Education* Training & Performance
AECT Affiliates
Association for Media and Technology in Education in Canada (AMTEC) * International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) * Korean Society for Educational Technology (KSET) * Minorities in Media (MIM) * New England Educational Media Association (NEEMA) * Society of International Chinese in Educational Technology (SICET)
Descriptions of AECT Divisions and Affiliates can be found on the AECT Web site at: http://www.aect.org
Funding
Presenters are required to assume responsibility for all costs
associated with the presentation, including convention registration,
travel, lodging, handout materials, and related expenses.
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