Comments on: Reflections on AERA

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:30:11 +0000

Chris, as a long-time veteran of AERA, a few thoughts…

1. FYI, your attendance figure probably is low. Likely closer to 15,000 – 18,000 attendees at AERA.

2. You said, ‘it is darned hard to figure out which sessions are going to be actually interesting. Most arenâ€™t.’ You hit the nail on the head with this one!

3. I swear that sometime in the near future I’m going to submit a proposal to my next academic conference called ‘Really Bad Academic PowerPoint!’ Almost invariably it’s painful to watch my academic colleagues present. All the major sins: reading from slides, too much text on slide (40 lines, anyone?), monotone delivery, rushing at the end because they didn’t plan, etc. Ouch.

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » Excerpted - 3/31/08

dy/dan » Blog Archive » Excerpted - 3/31/08 — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:57:56 +0000

[...] Craft, defining “session glut.” [Crucial Thought] So in looking at session selection policy, is it any wonder that this method leads to homogenous, [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:10:58 +0000

@cathyjo: I use “ours” because there were four names on the poster session. The doc student who did the implementing of the study, me who did the lit review portion, another doc student who did statistical analysis, and a professor’s name who supervised the study.

By: Cathy Nelson

Cathy Nelson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:47:08 +0000

Well thanks for humoring me! “Ours”? You mention “ours” when you referred to your preso. Did you do this poster session with someone else, or maybe a group?? Just curious. I too find myself critiquing every preso I see. I have decided to never do bullets again. Never read to my audience again either. Glad you had a good time in NYC, and “rubbing shoulders” with te likes of Resnick had to make the trip well worth the effort and suffering thru dry presos! Thanks for taking care of my missing sleeping aid after my conference in Cola, and safely storing it until could pick it up today. And thanks to for offering to Yugma/Skype coach me thru setting p m site. I will be in touch SOON regarding that.

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:14:23 +0000

I have to admit since I have joined twitter and seen many presentations live online, I have rethought how I do presentations. Now when I see others, I feel like I’m always analyzing how they can do it better and I get so annoyed when they read their slides. I am amazed how much I have grown by developing an PLN. I guess it proves that networking really can improve professionalism. Maybe the presenters need to join twitter! lol

By: Mark Wagner

Mark Wagner — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:53:29 +0000

Thanks for sharing your reflections, Chris. I had another colleague (in the ed tech doctoral program at Pepperdine University) go this year and also express how overwhelming it was. I’m stoked you got to see Squire, Steinkuehler, and Barab (and Resnick of course). Squire and Steinkuehler were all over my lit review, and Barab is actually making it happen. I’m looking forward to the possibility of going next year when it’s right in my own backyard in San Diego… I imagine it will be the same conference center NECC used two years ago, which is a very nice (and expansive) facility.

By: Jennifer Maddrell

Jennifer Maddrell — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:17:56 +0000

Sounds like our perceptions are similar. I met a lot of past, current, and future profs., but saw a lot of BAD presentations … yikes!