A meeting of the Minds of Ed Tech Editors

Episode #229: A Meeting of the Minds of Educational Technology Editors, 5 pm Eastern, 4/5/2025

In Episode #229 of Silver Lining for Learning (SLL), we will explore the topic of editing journals in the field of learning, design, and technology. In this hour, we will hear from three distinguished editors:

• Dr. Peter Shea from the University of Albany, current editor of the Online Learning Journal (OLJ). In fact, he was the Founding Editor as OLJ emerged from the ashes of the Journal of Synchronous Learning Networks (JALN).
• Dr. Som Naidu from Melbourne, Australia, who until recently served as the editor of Distance Education (DE) for the past quarter century. In fact, he too was the Founding Editor.
• Dr. Vanessa Dennen from Florida State University has served the field in several editorial capacities, including a decade as co-Editor in Chief of The Internet and Higher Education (2014-2024), and 3 years as an Associate Editor for Educational Researcher. She is presently an Associate Editor for Computers in Human Behavior Reports and has edited special issues for Educational Technology Research & Development, Online Learning, Distance Education, The Internet and Higher Education, and Technology, Instruction, Cognition & Learning.

More about the topics we hope to cover and our guests below the video

https://youtu.be/2rK38Af5bnc

Among the topics we'll discuss:

• How the rankings of educational technology journals have skyrocketed since COVID.
• Recent trends in the educational technology field.
• Recent and upcoming special issue topics in their journals.
• Significant challenges they face as editors.
• Present journal goals.
• Trends for the future that SLL might consider.

As always, we will ask our guests to recommend future guests for SLL.

About Our Guests

Dr. Vanessa Dennen

Dr. Vanessa Dennen is the Tyner Distinguished Professor of Instructional Systems & Learning Technologies in the Department of Educational Psychology & Learning Systems, Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health and Human Sciences at Florida State University. She joined the faculty at FSU in 2003. In 2024 she was named a Fellow of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. She has a PhD in Instructional Systems Technology and MS in Educational Psychology from Indiana University and an MS in Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation from Syracuse University.

Vanessa's research focuses on pedagogical, social, and ethical aspects of learning and interacting in online environments. She began her academic career studying student discussion and engagement in online classes. She has expanded this work to now focus more broadly on networked knowledge activities in professional development settings, the use of emerging online technologies (including artificial intelligence) to support formal and informal learning, and the development of identity and community in online environments. She leads two research groups at FSU, Mediated Environments for Meaningful Education (MEME) Research Group and the Students, Social Media & Schools Research Group.

Vanessa has authored more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. Additionally, she has co-edited four books: Virtual Professional Development and Informal Learning in Online Environments (2012), Social Presence and Identity in Online Learning (2019), Reshaping International Teaching and Learning: Universities in the Information Age (2021), and Global Perspectives on Educational Innovations for Emergency Situations (2022). She was a section editor for the 2023 Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education.

As a practitioner, Vanessa has worked as an instructional designer and evaluator in corporate, government and higher education settings. Projects have included developing and teaching a MOOC, evaluating online learning programs, designing standards-compliant Web-based training programs, and developing online community supports. She is also a trained leadership and performance coach, working with graduate students, faculty, and institutions to promote personal growth, professional development, and help people reach their individual and organizational goals.

Vanessa delivers keynote speeches, professional development workshops, and webinars internationally for instructors and instructional designers on topics such as fostering online presence, online learning communities and networks, open educational resources, and instructional design for active learning. During the pandemic, she became known for her, “People First, Content Second, Technology Third” humanist approach to online teaching.

Find her homepages at: https://annescollege.fsu.edu/vanessa-dennen or https://vanessadennen.com/

Som Naidu, PhD; D. Litt., PFHEA

Dr. Som Naidu, PhD; D. Litt., PFHEA

Professor Som Naidu is former Pro Vice-Chancellor (Flexible Learning), and Director of the Centre for Flexible Learning at the University of the South Pacific, and currently Principal Associate of Technology, Education and Design Associates—a Melbourne based educational technology consultancy service.

Dr. Naidu has spent most of his professional life in the higher education sector in a variety of roles to do with enhancing learning and teaching in open, flexible, distance, online learning and distributed learning, and education more generally in a variety of jurisdictions. He possesses undergraduate qualifications in Education from the University of Waikato in New Zealand and graduate qualifications in Educational Technology from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. A former president of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia, Som has served as Executive Editor of the journal Distance Education (https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cdie20/current) for over 30 years.

In May 2014 the Open University of Sri Lanka awarded Dr. Naidu a D.Litt. (Honoris Causa), in recognition of his extensive contribution to the field of open, flexible, distance and e-learning both regionally and internationally. And in July 2020, Advance Higher Education, UK, admitted Dr. Naidu as Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy for his commitment, contribution and strategic leadership in the scholarship of learning and teaching globally.

• ORCiD: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7480-8120
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/som-naidu-phd-d-litt-346a7199/
• Email: sommnaidu@gmail.com
• Twitter: @sommnaidu
• Profile, Legends of online learning: https://onlinelearninglegends.com/podcast/050-professor-som-naidu/ and https://www.acode.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=4039

Dr. Peter Shea

Dr. Shea is a Professor in the department of Educational Theory and Practice with a joint appointment with the Department of Informatics in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. His research focuses on technology-mediated teaching and learning in higher education. He is the author of numerous articles and several book chapters on the topic of online learning and co-author of The Successful Distance Learning Student. He is a co-recipient of several national awards including the EDUCAUSE Award for Systemic Progress in Teaching and Learning for the State University of New York, and Sloan Consortium Awards for Excellence in Faculty Development and Asynchronous Learning Networks Programs, and was named a Sloan-C Fellow in 2011.

Dr. Shea has also been the recipient of significant external funding for his recent work. This includes three grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to research faculty and student experiences in complete online learning environments and support for the development of hybrid learning environments at the University at Albany. He was also principal investigator on a US Department of Education grant to research and develop an online system to support the teaching of Chinese to children in K-12 public schools.

Previously, Dr. Shea was Associate Provost for Online Learning at UAlbany, providing leadership and strategy for online teaching and learning in collaboration with academic, administrative, and support units across the University. He was also Director of the SUNY Learning Network, the online education system for the 64 colleges of the State University of New York.

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