{"id":49,"date":"2012-01-07T21:33:49","date_gmt":"2012-01-07T21:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.byuipt.net\/pidt\/?page_id=49"},"modified":"2018-02-14T02:12:57","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T02:12:57","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.byuipt.net\/pidt\/history\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rick West summarized the history and purpose behind PIDT in his pressbooks chapter, PIDT, The important unconference for academics.\u00a0https:\/\/lidtfoundations.pressbooks.com\/chapter\/pidt-the-unconference<\/a>\/<\/p>\n

PIDT is an annual meeting that has become a favorite for many faculty to discuss issues related to curriculum, doctoral student advising and teaching, research, professional service, and emerging theories and technologies. By design a small conference, focused on networking, discussion, informality, and professional growth, but still a conference from which a large number of initiatives and defining publications have emerged. The following is a brief history of this unique and important conference in our field.<\/p>\n

PIDT HISTORY<\/h1>\n

In 2004, Wineburg poetically lamented the state of presentations at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference.\u00a0He described his first AERA conference in 1985, and his excitement to attend a session where four \u201cluminaries\u201d in his field would be presenting. Enthusiastically, he squeezed into the packed room, only to hear one esteemed professor read her notes verbatim.\u00a0The second speaker did have visuals, but after \u201cfiring slides like an Uzi fires rounds,\u201d Wineburg realized few were actually paying attention or learning from the presentation.\u00a0He asked, \u201cMust it be this way?\u201d (p. 13).<\/p>\n

That same year, 1985, a group of instructional systems technology professors quietly answered, \u201cNo!\u201d and formed a unique, new conference, which was really more of a professional meeting than a conference.\u00a0This \u201cunconference\u201d emphasized everything traditional conferences were not, including a priority on discussion, interaction, networking, mentoring, and action.\u00a0\u201cThe main focus was primarily social and professional interaction on an individual\/small group basis.\u00a0The remote, rural settings provided opportunities for much more conversation and interaction than would be available at larger, more structured conferences,\u201d Mike Moore of Virginia Tech said. A focus on balancing structure with informal conversations is a tradition that lives on in the PIDT meetings, which have been held annually except for 1997.\u00a0The group originally called themselves Professors of Instructional Systems Technology, which reflected the direction of the field at the time, but which formed an awkward acronym that only persisted for a few years before becoming PIDT.\u00a0Sleeping in cabins that for the first few years did not have indoor plumbing or heating, and meeting at a rustic retreat at Shawnee Bluffs in Indiana, on the banks of Lake Monroe, the original group (led by Dr. Thomas Schwen of Indiana University) met to discuss curriculum, research, and the emerging directions of the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a new enough field that maybe people wanted to share information,\u201d Rhonda Robinson, of Northern Illinois, said.\u00a0Robinson added that PIDT especially provided a way for female professors, who were fewer at the time, to associate and mentor each other.<\/p>\n

The meeting was so successful that they continued meeting annually in Indiana. Eventually, the conference was moved to a rotation system, typically held at either Estes Park, Colorado, or Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, while occasionally being held at other locations.\u00a0Wherever the meeting is held, the emphasis has always been on locations where recreation merges with business, allowing participants to begin conversations in classrooms and continue them on a hike or in a canoe.<\/p>\n

After a few years, the group decided to expand and allow faculty attendees to bring one advanced doctoral student each, as a way to introduce the students to additional faculty mentors.\u00a0\u201cMany of us were graduating and did not know how to get into the professoriate. I had three courses and no ideas what to do!\u201d Sharon Smaldino of Northern Illinois said. \u201cWe were finding that a lot of the newbies were getting lost.\u00a0They weren\u2019t understanding the big picture. . . . We tried to make a way to ensure their success.\u00a0That\u2019s something unique about this meeting.\u00a0It\u2019s very nurturing.\u201d Eventually attending PIDT became an honor for many graduate students lucky enough to be chosen to attend with their adviser.<\/p>\n

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT<\/h1>\n

Despite an emphasis on informality and recreation, PIDT has a tradition of providing key opportunities for professional development where participants can explore new technologies, develop new theories and ideas, receive feedback on new initiatives, and collaborate on new publishing opportunities.\u00a0Many PIDT attendees remember learning about emerging technologies for the first time at PIDT, such as Twitter, Second Life, Nvivo, and even the World Wide Web when it was still a radically new innovation. \u201cI get to listen to what the doc students are talking about these days and check what I\u2019m teaching,\u201d Robert Branch, of the University of Georgia, said. \u201cI first heard about Twitter here, and OER (Open Educational Resources).\u00a0Things that I could not \u2018not know.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to strands about new technologies, PIDT typically has a curriculum strand, where participants bring syllabi and teaching materials to share.\u00a0In years past this has included sessions on classes common to most departments (such as a pre-service educational technology course) to new courses being developed (such as a course on ethics and instructional technology) to other, larger proposed changes within academic departments.\u00a0\u201cThe established faculty have a forum if they need it. When we moved to LDT (Learning, Design, and Technology as a new name for their academic program), it was here we tried it out,\u201d Branch said.<\/p>\n

Other topics commonly discussed at PIDT include the following:<\/p>\n