Welcome to the Design and Technology Special Interest Group at AERA! As the Chair of the SIG, I am excited to continue our mission to advance design knowledge concerning technology, learning, and society. I have served as a leadership team member over the past two years. I have seen the passion and interdisciplinarity that our members bring that shapes our community. As interdisciplinary scholars, much of our research and work is “at the margins”—crossing fields such as educational psychology, instructional design, design theory, human-computer interaction, learning sciences, and more. I feel that the connections among design, technology, and learning unites these diverse disciplinary traditions, and I hope that our SIG serves as a supportive intellectual home that furthers your research efforts. I am very excited to begin my term (2021–2022) as Chair of our SIG and am honored to work with a committed group of SIG officers.
The COVID-19 crisis has brought about an unprecedented set of hardships and challenges worldwide in all aspects of life, including the unheld AERA annual meeting last year and the online one this year. Despite the difficulties, we have already begun planning for the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. We welcome proposals from our past and present SIG members, or anyone that is interested in the many intersections among design, technology, and learning. Our hope is that through our collective efforts, this SIG will continue to support scholars and researchers in exchanging ideas, building collaborations, and providing mentorship.
Until we meet (yes, meet in person) again in San Diego in April 2022, I welcome you to join us at the AERA SIG Design and Technology on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. If any of the SIG officers can be of help, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Best regards,Xinhao Xu, Ph.D.Assistant ProfessorSchool of Information Science & Learning TechnologiesUniversity of Missourixuxinhao@missouri.edu