Professional Organizations and Networking
Being a member of a professional association and attending conferences can be a unique opportunity to learn from experts, collaborate with peers, and share ideas with a wider audience. The associations and conferences listed below represent some of the more popular choices for students in Instructional Psychology and Technology, though there may be other conferences of interest that can be discovered by consulting department faculty.
Faculty, students, and colleagues at AECT 2012. From left to right: Bruce Gabbitas (BYU, MS), Buck Harrison (BYU, MS), Professor Peter Rich (faculty), unknown, Geri Clements (BYU, MS), Darin Oviatt (BYU, PhD), Heather Leary (colleague from Utah State University and future BYU faculty), Bryan Tanner (BYU, PhD), Wendy Porter (BYU, PhD), Jered Borup (BYU, PhD), Professor Rick West (faculty), Craig Shepherd (colleague from Wyoming), Jay Bostwick (BYU, MS), and Andy Gibbons (retired faculty).
AECT: Association for Educational Communications and Technology
“The Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is a professional association of thousands of educators and others whose activities are directed toward improving instruction through technology. . . . AECT members carry out a wide range of responsibilities in the study, planning, application, and production of communications media for instruction. The Association has become a major organization for those actively involved in the designing of instruction and a systematic approach to learning. . . . The association produces two bimonthly journals, Educational Technology Research and Development and TechTrends.” (AECT website)
AEA: American Evaluation Association
“The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association of evaluators devoted to the application and exploration of program evaluation, personnel evaluation, technology, and many other forms of evaluation. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness. AEA has approximately 7,000 members representing all 50 states in the United States as well as over 60 foreign countries.” (AEA website)
AERA: American Educational Research Association
“The American Educational Research Association (AERA), founded in 1916, is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and evaluation and by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results. AERA’s more than 25,000 members are faculty, researchers, graduate students, and other distinguished professionals with rich and diverse expertise in education research.” (AERA website)
AACE: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education
“The Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), founded in 1981, is an international, not-for-profit, educational organization with the mission of advancing Information Technology in Education and E-Learning research, development, learning, and its practical application.” (AACE website)
ISLS: International Society of the Learning Sciences
“The International Society of the Learning Sciences is a professional society dedicated to the interdisciplinary empirical investigation of learning as it exists in real-world settings and to how learning may be facilitated both with and without technology.” (ISLS website)
OLC: Online Learning Consortium
“OLC is the leading professional organization devoted to advancing quality online learning by providing professional development, instruction, best practice publications and guidance to educators, online learning professionals, and organizations around the world.” (OLC website)
OpenEd: The Open Education Conference
OpenEd is not an organization, but an annual conference organized originally by former BYU faculty member David Wiley. This conference presents designs and research in the area of Open Educational Resources (OER). (OpenEd website)
Additional Organizations
Association for Talent Development (ATD). ATD is the leading resource on workplace learning and performance issues, providing information, research, analysis and practical information derived from the knowledge and experience of its members, its conferences and publications, and the coalitions and partnerships it has built through research and policy work. ATD's mission is to provide leadership to individuals, organizations, and society to achieve work-related competence, performance, and fulfillment.
American Statistical Association (ASA). Founded in 1839 to foster excellence in the use and application of statistics to the biological, physical, social and economic sciences, ASA is a leader in promoting statistical practice, applications, and research; publishing statistical journals; improving statistical education; and advancing the statistics profession.
Association for Applied Interactive Multimedia (AAIM). AAIM was created to support professionals who use and develop interactive multimedia. This diversified organization has an international membership with backgrounds in K–12 education, higher education, business, industry, medicine and government.
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The ACM is an international scientific and educational organization dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences, and applications of information technology. With a world-wide membership of 80,000, ACM functions as a locus for computing professionals and students working in the various fields of Information Technology.
Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI). The scope of SIGCHI includes the study of the human-computer interaction process and includes research and development efforts leading to the design and evaluation of user interfaces. The focus of the SIG is on how people communicate and interact with computer systems. SIGCHI serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas among computer scientists, human factors scientists, psychologists, social scientists, systems designers, and end users. SIGCHI offers its members the "Member Plus" package and co-sponsors a number of conferences and workshops each year, including the annual CHI conference. The SIGCHI Bulletin is published quarterly.
Association for Telecommunication Professionals in Higher Education (ACUTA). ACUTA is a member-driven organization dedicated to the enhancement of teaching, learning, research, and public (community) service by providing leadership in the application of telecommunications technology for higher education.
EDUCAUSE. The mission of EDUCAUSE is to enable the transformational changes occurring in higher education through the introduction, use, access to, and management of information resources and technologies in teaching, learning, scholarship, research, and institutional management.
International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). Founded in 1962, the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) is the leading international association dedicated to improving productivity and performance in the workplace. ISPI's mission is to improve the performance of individuals and organizations through application of human performance technology.
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). ISTE promotes appropriate uses of technology to support and improve teaching and learning. Representing more than 40,000 educators, ISTE provides curriculum for learning about technology and integrating it into the classroom, research results and project reports, and leadership for policy affecting educational technology.
National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME). NCME is a professional organization of about 2,300 members. Many members are involved in either the construction and uses of educational tests or the development and evaluation of measurement models and methods. NCME members are committed to the continual improvement of testing and measurement practiced in education.
Northern Rocky Mountain Educational Research Association (NRMERA). NRMERA is an educational organization with the purpose of encouraging quality educational research and promoting application of the results of such research in schools. It provides a responsive forum that promotes a trusting atmosphere in which graduate students and public school personnel have opportunities to conduct and disseminate research. The organization facilitates an effective communication network among the regional member states for the purpose of sharing educational research.
Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT). Founded in 1972, the Society is oriented to professionals whose work requires knowledge and communication in the field of instructional technology. This professional group is designed for individual membership participation, with classes of membership keyed to the interests and experience of the individual. The Society provides a means for its members to enhance their knowledge and job performance by participating in Society-sponsored meetings and through receiving Society-sponsored publications. Membership enables one to achieve knowledge for work in the field of applied learning technology by associating with other professionals in Society conferences.
The Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE). The Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education is an international association of individual teacher educators and affiliated organizations of teacher educators in all disciplines who are interested in creating and disseminating knowledge concerning the use of information technology in teacher education.
Teaching, Learning, and Technology Group (TLT). The TLT Group is an affiliate of AAHE. Its mission is to provide materials and services that motivate and enable institutions to improve teaching and learning with technology, while helping them cope with continual change.