Collaborating on an AECT Presentation Across Time and Space

This will be the first of a series of blogposts that I will be writing to document and reflect on my collaboration with a virtual friend from Sweden. We will be meeting in person for the first time at the 2019 AECT International Convention. This convention will also be my first trip back to an AECT conference since graduate school. So many firsts! I’m as thrilled as a puppy getting his favorite treat!

Tanya O’Reilly (@TenaciousTan) and I have known each other since late 2014 or early 2015 (we both couldn’t recall!) via Twitter chats and tweets. Knowing is a subjective term, some may say, because the process of virtual knowing is different from an in-person or blended knowing process. Our knowing is fostered by our mutual follows on each other’s Twitter, Instagram (mine is a private account) and LinkedIn accounts. We share similar interests and experiences. We were both previously English teachers and share a research interest in assessment design, just to name a few.

In November 2018, I wrote a blogpost after binge-watching my first season of GBBO.

Tanya read my blog post and commented on it.

Shared some thoughts on your blog while the baby napped :-)

— Tanya O’Reilly (@TenaciousTan) November 17, 2018

We wrote back and forth a few times and decided to create a presentation with our shared thoughts (i.e. collaborative creativity). We submitted it to AECT and voila, it was accepted. I wasn’t sure whether I could make it without professional development funding and didn’t expect Tanya to travel to the USA. But this lady is tenacious alright. She is coming!

We have worked on our poster abstract and a seed of a journal article since late November 2018. I’ve continued to watch GBBO to get more “data.” Tanya has introduced me to more theories in assessment design and we have used one of the frameworks for our poster. I shan’t write more about our poster now. But I can share the title of our poster:

Our work reflects a modern form of collaboration, not necessarily an easy or convenient form. Tanya is six hours ahead of me and our schedules are often so packed, it is a challenge to find a meeting time. We communicate a lot via Twitter and share insights of our personal lives via Instagram. I’m looking forward to chatting with her in person. More news is forthcoming!