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.
