IST Conference

IST 2023 Conference

March 3, 2023

Learning for Progress, Teaching for the Future, and Designing for Diverse Contexts

On behalf of the Graduates in Instructional Systems Technology (GIST) conference planning team, you are invited to attend the 23rd Annual IST Conference to showcase your research, get inspired, and make new professional connections. This year’s conference theme is Learning for Progress, Teaching for the Future, and Designing for Diverse Contexts. Topics covered at the conference include learning technologies, instructional design, training, human performance, adult education, and other related learning topics.

The conference is a free, student-run event that offers graduate students a supportive venue to gain experience presenting, organizing, and attending professional conferences. Residential and distance students, alumni, and faculty of the IU IST department, IST practitioners, as well as IST students from other universities and students from various IU departments, are invited to attend.

Registration

This hybrid conference is free and open to all.

Conference Program Book

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Michael K. Thomas

University of Illinois Chicago
Associate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology

"Culturally Grounded Design"
8:45-9:45 a.m.

Dr. Michael Thomas is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on the cultural dimensions of technology implementation in learning contexts and what this means for the design of technology-rich innovations for learning. Three key questions with respect to this are (a) What are the central concerns of teachers, trainers, and other stakeholders regarding the implementation of technology in learning contexts? (b) What do they do to continually resolve these concerns? and (c) In what ways does culture play a role in the design and implementation of technology-rich innovations? He is particularly interested in video games and gamification in learning environments. He has expertise in qualitative research in general and grounded theory in particular. Before joining UNCC, he taught instructional technology and research methodology at the University of Oklahoma, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He has also been an ESL/EFL teacher in New York City Public Schools and has taught overseas.

Dr. Sonny E. Kirkley

Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Adjunct professor, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering

"Designing and Developing for High-stakes Environments"
3:00-3:50 p.m.

Dr. Sonny Kirkley is an innovator, entrepreneur, designer and co-founder of seven technologies companies, including IU’s first two spin-out companies — Information in Place Inc. and WisdomTools Inc. — where he served as CEO for each a combined 16 years. He is president of two startups in the public safety sector with connections to IU — Zenext (voice AI) and iMixedReality (augmented reality) — and has served as mentor to numerous company founders. Kirkley has published and presented extensively in the areas of human-computer interaction design, augmented and mixed reality, advanced technologies for performance support and instruction, serious games, and education and training across industry sectors. Much of his career has been focused on learning technologies implementing programs in diverse settings, including Fortune 100 Companies and K-12 schools. He holds a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in instructional systems technology from IU Bloomington and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. He is an adjunct assistant professor of human-computer interaction in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering at IUPUI.