Association for Educational Communications and Technology.html |
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The Association for Educational Communications and Technology is an academic and professional association dedicated to the effective use of technology in education. Members provide leadership in the field by promoting scholarship and best practices in instructional technology. AECT's headquarters is in Bloomington, IN, moved from Washington, DC in 1996 for financial reasons as well as to locate closer to Indiana University's department of Instructional Systems Technology.
AECT publishes three journals: TechTrends (a bimonthly for "leaders in technology and education"), Educational Technology Research and Development (a quarterly academic journal) and The Quarterly Review of Distance Education (a quarterly academic journal). AECT sponsors the International Student Media Festival (ISMF).
AECT's membership has dropped considerably, from over 5000 in the mid-1980s, to about 2000 today. Like many nonprofit academic and professional associations, AECT's membership rolls have suffered through tough economic times and competition from newer organizations and technology conferences. This financial hardship was seen in 2006 when presenters to the annual conference were required to pre-pay for the conference before their presentation proposals were officially accepted. Its web site, [www.aect.org http://www.aect.org, contains a copyright statement from 2001.
The organization has its origins in traditional audio visual design and development. AECT and its related academic fields place the emphasis on theory rather than on physical technology. This was symbolized with the removal of the production division of AECT in the 1990's, the division previously home to anyone who would produce or develop the actual technology used in application of theory. (The organization has re-instated this division recently)
AECT is also home to one of the last organized efforts to write a 'definition' an academic field, namely Instructional Technology. Most recently, ACM abandoned the 'definition' effort in computer science.