Assistant Professor Seungoh Paek of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Education was selected as a participant for the 2012 Early Career Symposium sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The symposium, which provides participants an opportunity to build networking communities with established researchers, is a faculty/student mentor program of the Association for Educational and Communications Technology (AECT).
A new faculty member in the college’s Department of Educational Technology and the Curriculum Research & Development Group, Paek was also invited to present her paper, “Suggestions for the Design of a Modern Virtual Manipulative” during the 2012 AECT International Convention. She discussed her work on how research in multimedia learning and technology can be applied to develop enhanced instructional tools such as virtual manipulatives.
The theme of this year’s AECT annual meeting was Learning in an Age of Globalization, and mentors for the symposium were among the leaders in this area. Sessions were designed to help collaborators imagine forward-looking and viable technology-oriented research agendas, identify the types of collaborators who complement their strengths, and identify the funding agencies and programs that might support their work.
“The Early Career Symposium was a truly wonderful experience that emphasized work-life balance and the importance of collaboration and teamwork,” Paek said. “I met knowledgeable mentors who shared strategies about establishing an ambitious yet achievable research agenda. We also discussed how junior faculty can use research to improve teaching and learning while simultaneously making the world a better place.”
AECT events support the mission of NSF to train more advanced professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
