The annual SITE conference is less than a month away! When we gather in Las Vegas during the first week of March 2015 we will be bringing together over 1000 people from nearly 60 countries all interested in information technology and teacher education. SITE provides a unique opportunity to interact and learn from educators with different perspectives from across the world and across disciplines.
I encourage your to prepare for the conference using our online social network, Academic Experts http://academicexperts.org/conf/site/2015/. When you visit Academic Experts, the first thing you should do is create or update your profile, including a picture. Then take advantage of the amazing scheduling feature for the conference. You can go through the conference day by day and see all the sessions that are available. By clicking on a session you can read the abstract, download the paper, and even leave a comment! You can also add any session to your own schedule. Each session that you add will be saved in your planner, giving you your own personal schedule for the week!
SITE has many social opportunities for members to network. If this is your first SITE conference, there is a Newcomer Welcome session from 9:45 – 10:15 each day after the Keynote address. The annual Welcome Reception for all attendees is scheduled for Tuesday at 5:30. The poster session on Wednesday night is also a great time to meet new people. Lastly, there is a SITE closing and invitation to next year’s conference in Savannah Georgia on Friday afternoon. All of these events can be added to your schedule in Academic Experts as well as found here: https://site.aace.org/conf/overview.htm.
Part of joining the SITE community is becoming active in a Special Interest Group or SIG. SITE offers a wide variety of SIG’s in both Information Technology and Teacher Education. If you are interested in joining the vibrant SITE leadership team, each of these SIG’s will be holding an election during the SITE conference for an Associate Chair. The Associate Chair position is a two year term. The primary responsibilities include helping the Chair of the SIG with conference proposal reviews and decisions as well as attending the SITE conference and helping to lead the SIG meeting. You can learn more about the SITE SIG’s on the SITE website at https://site.aace.org/sigs/ as well as on Academic Experts at http://academicexperts.org/sigs/
The Information Technology SIG’s include:
- Computational Thinking
- Digital Fabrication
- Digital Storytelling/Media
- Distance/Flexible Education
- Equity & Social Justice
- Games & Simulations
- Graduate Education and Faculty Development
- International Education
- Mobile Learning
- New Possibilities with Information Technology (NPI)
- Research & Evaluation
- Technology Leadership
- Virtual Schooling
- Wearable Technologies in Education
- Workforce Education
The Teacher Education SIG’s include:
- African Perspective
- Arts & Interdisciplinary Education
- Assessment/E-Folios
- Assistive Technologies
- Creativity
- Early Childhood Education
- Engineering Education
- English Education
- Geospatial Education
- Information Technology Education
- Information Literacy Education (Library & Media Science)
- Mathematics Education
- Science Education
- Social Studies Education
- Special Education
- Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge (TPACK)
I know part of the allure of the conference this year can be the nearly limitless attractions in Las Vegas. I am sure, however, that you won’t let this distract you from the purpose of your travel, to learn more about technology and teacher education! I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the SITE conference. If you see me, please say hello. Don’t forget to tweet about your SITE preparations and experiences at the conference using #siteconf (and you can follow me at @phdslyk). See you in Vegas!
David Slykhuis
SITE President
James Madison University