Jennifer Brown
Old Dominion University

I am currently the Youth and Family Services Manager for Suffolk Public Libraries and am a doctoral candidate in the Instructional Design and Technology program at Old Dominion University. I completed my undergraduate work in History and Interdisciplinary Studies at Old Dominion University where I discovered a passion for access to technology and information, at which point decided to pursue my Master’s in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University.

I currently serve on Suffolk Public Library’s Executive Team and Early Childhood Development Commission. Over the past three years,  primary work focus has been in building relationships with educational institutions, including public and private schools to provide access to both informational and technological resources these institutions may not have access to, and to provide programming both within the public library as well as in an outreach capacity that supports and supplements the school’s curriculum.

My research interest includes cognitive apprenticeships, informal learning, learning spaces, the systematic development of maker or creation spaces, open educational resources, and working toward aligning library science curriculum with the practical needs of the professional field.

As a member of AECT and specifically the School Media and Technology Division, I have benefited from the professional relationships I have developed over the last couple of years from something as simple as bouncing ideas off other professionals, to collaborating on projects. In order to enhance the board’s relationship with SMT members, I will conduct a needs assessment to determine the needs of our members and gaps that can be filled, such as determining what our members are looking for professionally, and then strategically developing an action plan for how we can fill those gaps and communicate these opportunities through several sources of communication.

As SMT caters to the practical aspect of K-12 education and technology use, the development of best practices and access to said best practices is key to supporting our community. In order to develop a resource repository and Policy Briefs on applicable aspects of the practical field, it is essential to collaborate with other professionals and professional organizations, such as those working in higher education, K-12 practitioners, Library Media Specialists, Technology teachers, and non-traditional educators such as public libraries, other AECT divisions such as TED, and state media and K-12 organizations, who use technology on a regular basis to reach their students. By building relationships with these communities, we will be able to determine gaps, best practices, and opportunities to determine need, work with other organizations that have the same mission in an effort to standardize best practices, and then to work toward disseminating the products of our work as a division to practitioners.

I look forward to the opportunity to lead and continue to serve the School Media and Technology Division of AECT.