What It's Like to Be an Intern at the AECT National Convention

Reported by Nada Dabbagh, Penn State University

ll, for starters, here is a sam- le itinerary of a typical day

in the life of an intern: 6AM Wake up

7~x~ Eat breakfast with distinguished persons of the field

8AM Help out at the convention center until 9 a.m.

9~'~ Attend a governance meeting with a board member of your choice (this concept is known as shadowing).

10AM Squeeze in a concurrent session

11AM Attend a division or committee meeting

NOON Have lunch with a distinguished professor in the field and your co-interns

]PM Squeeze in another concurrent session and/or presidential session

2PM Attend and help out at the general assembly until 4pm

4PM Attend a division membership meeting

4:45 Attend and help out at the general session

6PM Attend a division or university reception

8PM Attend the ECT Foundation Gala

As you can see there was not a mo- ment of relief but it was time well spent. At times it was very frustrat- ing to choose among events happen- ing concurrently when all sounded equally attractive, so I tried to fol- low the advice of "window shop- ping" (entering the room and stand- ing in the back to get the feel of the session), and ended up walking aim- lessly in the vast hallways of the ho- tel because it was too late to mental- ly engage in any of the sessions.

Wearing the big round medal- lion that hung from a bright red rib-

bon around my neck for five days definitely had its advantages. It was a ticket to any governance or committee meeting, and a way to start a con- versation with anyone that you've been wanting to meet and discuss per- tinent issues with. Some of the more interesting meetings that I attended as a privileged intern were those of the AECT Board, AECT officers and division officers, and the Past Presidents' library committee. I got a sense of the structure and func- tion of the organization as well as the framework within which each individual participates. It's worth- while to note that in one day I wit- nessed three generations of AECT members actively involved in mak- ing and initiating decisions that will affect the state of the association in the future. As a first-time observer at those meetings, I formed strong impressions of some of the partici- pating members and pursued fur- ther communications accordingly.

Even though members of the AECT board of directors are pio- neers in the field of instructional technology, the convention was not the place for them to share their in- tellect from an academic perspec- tive. It was a time for organization and management. Members of the association who came to the con- vention to present a concurrent ses- sion or workshop were more engag- ing in discussions concerning current issues in Instructional Tech- nology. As an intern I was fortunate to meet personally with some of the

The author # r righ8 with fellow interns 8~ to right) Ja,ette Hill, Laurie Miller Nelson, and Mary Shoffner.

leading members over breakfast and lunch, and was able to discuss relevant topics. I was hoping to make more contacts at the round- up reception but was already too tired to make sense other than a casual, "Hello, I have heard a lot about you and read your article... I am interested in. . ." , the reaction was usually, "Where are you study- ing? . . . Who is your advisor?. . ." One of the interns got so accus- tomed to having to say her name, where she is studying, and who was her advisor that she ended up sub- stituting her advisor's name for her major on more than one occasion.

The culmination was the Wrap-Up ball on Saturday night where all the interns (there were eight altogether) bonded on the dance floor and created quite an event!

Looking back, it was a unique experience: overwhelming but grat- ifying. I returned with a good feel- ing about the people in the field and an appreciation for the founda- tion and board members of the as- sociation. I discovered "home base" for IT with a leading edge.

42 TECHTRENDS SEPTEMBER 1995