🚀 go-pugleaf

Having also been a member of the recent Convention Planning Committee in Anahei
m, I can attest to the concerns raised by Gary Morrison.  One part of me, (if I
 were of a mind to need to present for promotion) knows full well, the implied
value of having been a presenter at a national conference.  And then, at one
meeting after another I continued to see folks rushing this way and that to
present their jewels to the masses, frequently three, four or five presenta-
tions on approsimately the same topic at each one.  I saw as well, that while
their ideas might have merit, they scattered means used to present them were,
at best, also scattered, hurried, near-breathless, and the results then dis-
persed in effect because of it.  Surely we must have forums other than the
annual AECT meeting at which some of these stars can illuminate?  What might
they be?  We have distinguised research journals wihin our organization, and
Gary et al play a major role in insuring that they continue to exist.  Is it
not in these avenues that many of our serious scholars should aim their major
salvos, saving the annual meeting for, perhaps, one good thunk which says it
all?  I have found myself being one of the rushed, primarily because I was also
involved in governance, and have finally learned that, whatever I feel an
urgency to share I can, in a few well-placed minutes, to a key portion of the
overall AECT audience that I choose, because it is with those people with whom
I share the most kinship. I would hope that others might share this notion as
well.
Then there is a large chunk of folks within AECT who come, not to hear the
latest research findings but, rather, how to make sense of them in the midst of
 their rapidly changing worlds.  These people do not need refereed proposals or
 blind reviewed papers to deal with - they just want to get their paws dirty
doing what needs to be done so that, upon their return home, they can say to
their boss, yes, here is the latest gizmo or program or idea that applies to
our problem and, because I went to AECT, I learned some ways as to how to solve
it. (Reminds me of my first DAVI convention in '62, sans innerstate highways,
when we drove all night long between Syracuse and Kansas City obn Routes 5 and
20, just to say to our professor, Don Ely, that we had been there, we had done,
 we conquered....and at that time, it WAS to get the latest research ideas...
because Jim Finn and Bob DeKeifer et al would skin us alive if we came back
empty-handed!).  So there you have it, alternative ideas as to why Gary sees a
need to have rigor involved in how we select our presenters, and others who
have to contend with increasingly articulate presenters other than or in
addition to all the folks who need to report on findings of note.  I think we
need both, the question is how do we package in so short a time, so many really
worthwhile ideas?  We can't so we have to compromise and sometimes, compromise
is not comfortable.
I hope my reply adds, not detracts from the viewpoints which need raising, and
they do.
And many happy returns of July 4th to all.
           Dick Cornell
                       cornell@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu