Welcome to the Technology as an Agent of Change in Teaching and Learning (TACTL) Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). I am honored to serve as SIG Chair and to welcome you to a scholarly community focused on understanding and advancing the role of technology as a driver of change in teaching and learning across educational contexts.

TACTL is grounded in the dissemination of both theoretical and practical understandings of technology as an agent of change in teaching and learning. We conceptualize change agents as entities that transform and enrich education across classroom, organizational, and societal contexts. Our SIG is constituted to support two complementary purposes: preparing educators to serve as agents of change in a technology-driven world through teacher education and professional development in formal and informal settings, and examining how educators and technology shape learners and learning processes from diverse research perspectives.

Throughout the year, we maintain regular connections through bi-monthly newsletters that highlight member scholarship, share emerging research, and communicate SIG activities. We are also developing new programming designed to expand opportunities for collaboration and to elevate the work of our members, with a focus on strengthening scholarly networks and extending research into practice. Watch for these initiatives!

These efforts culminate in our engagement at the AERA Annual Meeting, and we look forward to seeing you in Toronto in 2027. As always, we will share ongoing research, facilitate communication across perspectives, and extend collective knowledge into future programs of practice. Across all activities, the SIG works to capture research findings and translate them into meaningful contributions for both scholarship and practice. For those of you who joined us in L.A., you know how meaningful the ongoing work of TACTL can be, especially the community of colleagues we’ve created.

I invite you to engage with the community, contribute your work, and participate in shaping the ongoing direction of TACTL. I look forward to serving you this year, and hope to hear from you on the direction of TACTL. Be well.

Matthew L. Wilson, Ph.D. | Kennesaw State University
Chair, AERA SIG-TACTL
mwils268@kennesaw.edu

Your SIG-TACTL leadership team, serving through the 2027 AERA Annual Meeting:

• Chair: Matthew Wilson, Kennesaw State University
• Chair-Elect: Jiyoon Jung, Valdosta State University
• Past-Chair: Bret Staudt Willet, Florida State University
• Program Chair: Lauren Bagdy, University of Georgia
• Program Chair-Elect: Zilong Pan, Lehigh University
• Secretary/Treasurer: Lauren Weisberg, University of Texas at Arlington
• Graduate Student Representative: Nazanin Adhami, University of Florida

• Prepare educators to be agents of change in a technology-driven world through teacher education and professional development in formal and informal learning settings
• Examine how educators and technology impact learners and their learning processes from diverse research perspectives.

• Facilitate communication and increase the shared professional knowledge necessary to reach the purposes;
• Capture research findings from these projects and extend them into future programs of practice.

• July 24, 2026: Proposals due
• August 8-28, 2026: Proposal review period
• November 6, 2026: Official notification of acceptance or rejection sent to proposal submitters
• April 14-18, 2027: AERA Annual Meeting in Toronto

Below are the TACTL By-Laws approved in 2025.

TACTL Bylaws 2025