Last week I did my first public presentation on the professional development course I'm designing for virtual school teachers with special educational needs students. The response to it was encouraging and I made some connections with other researchers interested in the implications for online learning and SEN students. It was heartening to find someone else who, for once, wasn't focused on accessibility issues or instructional design models and UDL but rather what really happens in virtual classrooms with SEN students.
That same day I received notice that this same topic was accepted for SLOAN-C this coming October in Orlando. While I have been scrabbling and scraping to move on to new realms of research, it seems that my work in virtual schooling and distance education as it could apply to special ed is at least contributing to the knowledge base and opening up a little-researched area of the field. I know I'm a little "special ed-ed out" but the connections and conversations of last week reassure me that the work has value which is always the goal. (Not that a little virtual underwater basketweaving isn't called for every now and then!)
So, for now, I'm still plugging away and anticipating a pilot study this fall which will hopefully lead to some good publications, some even better results for students, and then maybe a little break for me to pursue my other interests (like underwater basketweaving).
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