The “Remake Broadening” Theme
Learning technology researchers have long spoken of broader horizons, broader impacts, broad teamwork, broadening participation, and more. Our theme engaged with the importance of thinking critically and strategically about the meaning of “broad” as our field conducts future-oriented research on learning and teaching technologies. Our prior Cyberlearning 2019 convening revealed why broadening the diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts within our research projects is so essential. CIRCLS’21 provided multiple, highly interactive opportunities for attendees to work together on how the field can make stronger progress by examining and remaking “broad” and lead to greater impacts.
Process Summary
With more than eight hours of virtual meetings over two days, 300 attendees worked toward strategies to remake broadening. Two exceptional keynotes and discussions, illustrated below, anchored the proceedings.
The figure below illustrates the overall process of the meeting. After convening the community with welcoming remarks from CIRCLS and NSF leaders, attendees participated in a series of sessions to meet colleagues, share expertise, and envision future research together. Two keynotes framed the theme of remake broadening. After the second keynote, attendees worked together in 11 breakout sessions to articulate specific strategies for broadening. These were reported out in a town hall.
Next page: Overall Strategies
