Procrastadabbler

I’m back home from AERA and happy to be so. As I indicated in the previous post, I was made crazy by the noise of the city. I also came to the conclusion that the chaos of the city is worse when you are alone. When I was with other people, it didn’t bother me. But, when I was alone in my hotel room trying to write, it was misery.

The conference was ok. My first presentation went well. The content was well received and everyone was quite supportive of what I was trying to do. My second presentation was terrible. It was on Friday at 12. I was the last one up. And my computer went nutty. I got discombobulated as I was getting to my analysis part because of computer snarls. I went longer than I had planned, etc. etc. I was disappointed in myself. In general, I don’t think my presentation really got at what I was trying to get to. But, that’s part of why I do these things – to discover where I need further development.

The sessions I went to were good. I didn’t go to a lot. My first year at AERA oh so long ago, I ran and ran and ran and went to every session I could. By now I’ve learned to be selective. So, as I said, the sessions I went to were good, but I still am finding that not a lot of new thinking is going on. We’re all somewhat continuing to have the same conversations that were being held in 2000 when I started going. The difference is that now I understand a little more and am able to contribute a little more.

The most interesting sessions was New Media Literacies: Methodological Approaches and Theoretical Perspectives with Michele Knobel, Kevin Leander, Gail Boldt, Mimi Ito (being channeled by Dan Perkel), Brigid Barron, and Jolene Zywica. I particularly appreciated Knobel’s exploration of what the new literacies mean, and her description of how her research of Anime Music Video represents one of those new literacies. Leander and Boldt also gave a interesting talk that critiqued the New London Group’s pedagogy of new literacies. I’ll have to revisit my notes on that one. I hope they publish something on this soon. Barron’s discussion of her work was also particularly interesting, given that I just recently discovered her work and found it to be helpful in my research. She also developed some useful methodological tools for handling large data sets and is using survey data  quite meaningfully.

In general, the conference itself was good on an intellectual level, good for my career development in that I’m building networks with people and building my body of work. Not so good on the personal level – I’m still trying to figure out how to approach AERA and remain healthy both physically and emotionally.

I have noticed that when there are senior scholars in the room, they’re the ones who get to speak. Or up and coming junior faculty who are trying to make a mark. It’s a really interesting power dance that goes on in these sessions. How rare it is that we turn our analytic lens upon our own behaviors.