AECT 2024 Conference Activity
Presentation: Social Media’s Impact on Instruction: Beginning Teachers’ Self-Directed Professional Learning (10/20/24)
Bret Staudt Willet, Jeff Carpenter, & Hunhui Na
Purpose
#Edchat, short for “education chat,” was one of the first education-related X/Twitter hashtags, serving as an affinity space for teachers. In this paper, we retrospectively explored #Edchat by analyzing nearly 15 years and 17 million tweets in terms of changes in volume and content. We focus our discussion on the ever-changing nature of social media platforms and renew a call for more longitudinal research in the future.
Slides
Presentation: Understanding Curricular Knowledge Through Terminology in Graduate Computing Course Titles at Minority-Serving Institutions (10/21/24)
Bret Staudt Willet, Annie Wofford, Lara Perez-Felkner, & Chantra Nhien
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the terminology used in graduate computing-related programs and course titles at minority-serving institutions (MSIs), as a way of understanding curricular knowledge. We collected 5,776 courses titles associated with 173 computing-related graduate programs at 79 MSIs. We analyzed the most common terms appearing in program and course titles and used topic modeling to assess how terminology in course titles varies by degree level and institution type.
Slides
Panel: Presidential Session - Ecocritical and Ethical Concerns with Emerging Technologies: Conversations We Need to Be Having (10/22/24)
Nate Turcotte, Bret Staudt Willet, Jaclyn Dudek, & Tutalenia Asino
Purpose
This panel session will critically explore the ethical dimensions of emerging technology. In particular, this panel will focus on the need for ecocritical and techno-skeptical perspectives in the field of Educational Technology, especially as concerns about Climate Change and systemic racism persist. Grounded by these critical perspectives, this panel will question and reflect on the threats, especially those that are hidden or indirect, that GenAI and similar technologies pose if left untouched and not disrupted.