Monday, August 26, 2024

The Graham Davies Legacy: EUROCALL 2024



Raindrops in a puddle metaphor
Image by sandid from Pixabay


EUROCALL 2024 conference is taking place this week in Tranva, Slovakia and on Tuesday it will feature our Graham Davies lecture which will be delivered by Phil Hubbard. Phil's title, "CALL: We make the world better" could not be more in tune with the aims of the EUROCALL founders as described in the History of EUROCALL on our website. The founders of this organisation wanted to support the language community as they dealt with the challenges and frustrations of implementing Computer Assisted Language Learning. They did so by listening without judgement to the human experiences of both educators and students, creating a caring community which continues to grow. 

My  personal journey with EUROCALL centred on the generosity of Graham Davies as I related in this post on my own blog. His willingness to speak through Second Life to my colleagues at Warwick even though he was by that point in his life battling his cancer diagnosis was exemplary. He provided inspiration and encouragement to explore the practical resources he made available online. The ripples spread and nurtured new practitioners. 




Even after his death his web presence remains to help us navigate the wilds of the internet. Of course the web has continued to change and arguably we now face the biggest challenges in our personal and professional lives as our technologies will increasingly be dominated by the use of Large Language Models and Artificial Intelligence. 


Graham's work unpicked what was really happening when we browsed and posted online, he was committed to increasing understanding of the environment and tools so that we could use them with our eyes open to the "magic" behind the code. He understood that the superficial adoption of technology to fix a problem was not enough. That mission is still central to our EUROCALL conferences today, sharing understanding and experiences, looking to improve and enhance our teaching and surface the dangers that can lurk beneath the technologies we use. 

Recent years are showing us the importance of critical evaluation of our tools and methods, awareness of ownership and openness online, the need for greater understanding of how our data is mined and used, the importance of accessibility and equity in global contexts.  

Graham was a caring, professional practitioner and his care and humanity must continue to inform EUROCALL's values and activity. Our President Mirjam Hauck has picked up this challenge through our collaboration with US sister oranisation CALICO on the EDIA agenda (Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility) this is how we can ensure that we, as CALL practitioners, make the world better. 








Saturday, July 01, 2023

EUROCALL and proud!

Are you conference ready?

The EUROCALL executive committee are offering a new way to show your true EUROCALL colours this year. 

We now have a little online shop where you can select and customise your own conference clothing or choose from our range of high quality merchandise.

Tried and tested by members of our executive committee we are pleased to say that the ordering process is straightforward, products are of a high quality and you can even customise each one, picking your preferred colours, even adding your own images and text to turn your purchase into something unique. We will be looking out for the most creative customised versions at this year's conference in Iceland, why not show yours off on the Whova app?  

We have put together a little guide to using the shop which you can download here. 

Some more great news:
  • There will be a 20% promotional discount applied to all purchases made between 8th - 12th July 
  • In supporting our shop you are supporting the future of EUROCALL. 





Monday, January 30, 2023

Calling all CALLers!

 

Screenshot of the EuroCALL 2023 website

At last we are able to prepare for the return of the face to face EuroCALL conference. How exciting! We are sure you can't wait to get together for the most wonderful in-person intercultural fellowship at the amazing University of Iceland. 

The call for papers has been launched, you can find it here on the conference website, along with all the details of the themes, organisers and venue. Please get the dates in your diary and join us in person this year. 

As ever we are starting the social activity immediately. The conference has an Instagram account  where you can start to explore the sights of this amazing setting and a Facebook page where you can meet each other. EuroCALL's usual social media accounts will also use the hashtag #eurocall2023 to aggregate and curate interactions as we go through the year. 

Conference presenters and participants will be issued with our EuroCALL digital badges and, coming soon - there will be further exciting news of EuroCALL must have items! 

Our exec team and conference organisers are working hard to ensure that this conference will be memorable for all, reviving past traditions and creating new ones together. 

We are calling all CALL-ers for our most inclusive conference yet.