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EmailHappy new year! I hope that 2019 is filled with engaging teaching and learning opportunities for everyone. I hope readers try out some of the things suggested in this blog and experiment with different ways of using technology in their teaching. I encourage you all to think of ways that you can utilize technology to address various needs that you have in your individual teaching contexts.
I look forward to sharing some thoughts and suggestions throughout the year to support this endeavor. I anticipate writing about a number of different topics throughout the year. Some of these will focus on specific language teaching goals while others will address certain kinds of technology. I am particularly excited about the current and emerging opportunities around the use of automation, artificial intelligence, and data aggregating to create more meaningful and engaging learning experiences. There will definitely be a number of blog entries constructed around these concepts. I will address topics including:
- Augmented reality
- Virtual reality
- Automated speech functions
- Bots
- Automated writing practice
- Automated evaluation
- Data-driven learning
- Smart speakers
- Adaptive learning
- Participatory culture
- Collaborative learning
- Co-construction of knowledge
- Virtual immersion
To get the year started, I want to share information about numerous opportunities for all of us to engage in professional development experiences throughout the year. I hope to meet readers at some of these events.
North America
- The TESOL 2019 Convention will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, from 12–15 March. TESOL is such an enormous conference that it can be overwhelming for many attendees. While there are many sessions at TESOL focused on technology, there are even more such sessions hosted in the Electronic Village (EV). Because of the scale of TESOL, some attendees may not realize just how much is happening in the EV. It is essentially an entire computer-assisted language learning (CALL) conference within the TESOL conference. The EV is run by the CALL Interest Section and includes a variety of sessions designed to guide teachers in their technology integration. Information about the EV can be found here on its website.
- The CALL IS also offers the Electronic Village Online, which takes place from 13 January–17 February. These free online sessions provide an opportunity for those who are unable to attend these conferences in person. Though it may be too late to register for this year, please keep this in mind for 2020!
- The Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) conference will take place from 21–25 May at the Delta Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. CALICO includes sessions related to many languages, and there are numerous sessions addressing the teaching of English.
- The International Association of Language Learning Technology (IALLT) conference will take place at the University of Oregon from 19–22 June. Like CALICO, IALLT includes teachers of any language and attendees can benefit from hearing about what is happening in other language contexts. You can read an interview with Jeff Magoto, one of the conference organizers, about the conference here.
- The Arizona CALL (AZCALL) Conference will take place on 19 October at Arizona State University, Tempe Campus.
- The 1-day, free Ohio University CALL Conference that I will host for the 11th year will take place on 26 April on the Campus of Ohio University. Our keynote speaker will be Deborah Healey, current TESOL International Association president-elect.
Europe
- The EuroCALL conference will take place from 28–31 August in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Asia
- The 20th International CALL Research Conference will be held at the Education University of Hong Kong from 10–12 July.
- The Global CALL (GLoCALL) Conference will take place from 8–10 August at the University of Danang, Vietnam.
- The Pan-Pacific Technology Enhanced Language Learning (PPTELL) Conference will take place at National Taiwan Normal University from 3–5 July.
- The Japan Association for Language Teaching will host the JALTCALL conference at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo from 31 May–2 June.
I am also very happy to promote another TESOL Blog that has just begun this month. My friend, colleague, and former student, Jeff Kuhn, began his blog on the use of games and gamification in language learning earlier this month. You can follow his blog here. I look forward to learning by following what he has to share and I hope you will as well.
If you happen to know of other related events that I have overlooked, please share in the comments.
