Getting 2021 underway: EuroCALL AGM paves the way for this year's conference.

 

EuroCALL AGM in zoom January 22nd 2021

The invitation to attend our Annual General Meeting:

It was unusually joyful as formal meetings go, especially given we are still in the throes of a global pandemic! You can find all the documentation for the AGM on the EuroCALL website by logging in to the Member's Area.

 

Despite our regrets about missing our physical visit to Copenhagen, we reflected on the fellowship we had enjoyed at the Gathering in the summer where circumstances had led to many new experiences. Our first ever visualisation of our community on our Gathering map and our first ever You Tube channel. Our Treasurer delighted all with his media rich presentation which included a soundtrack and a reminder that EuroCALL has to be prepared whatever the weather:

And so, with this in mind we continue our preparations for the future. The Eurocall 2021 conference website is up and plans are quite advanced despite the many uncertainties. You can follow updates on twitter too. This year we will have a blended conference with some in person possibilities. See the website for details. 

As ever, there will be a rich, research-informed programme, many opportunities to network and learn from this wonderful community. Our Special Interest Groups will host workshops or symposia on the second day and these will be open to all comers online. The conference committee wish us to continue to build upon the wonderful fellowship we all enjoyed at the Gathering and we need your help to help ensure the future of this organisation through expanding our membership. 

Please spread the word, encourage friends and colleagues to join EuroCALL and we can all support each other in overcoming the challenge that is teaching and learning in a global pandemic. 

Message from the LMOOC SIG

 

The LMOOC SIG is trying to build a database of good practice to help us understand the profile of LMOOC practitioners: Who are we? What languages are the most popular ones for LMOOCs? How do we organise the course design? What is our main focus? It is part of the ongoing work developed by this SIG, in the endeavour of spreading quality LMOOC practice and research.

 

If you are or have been involved with LMOOCs (as a course designer, tutor, facilitator, researcher, etc.) we would love to hear from you. Please complete this survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScyWT3KZncl6pUB2wZu1FXoUOPBevCKnAJsR9teIiL-Sysnpg/viewform  It will only take you 5 minutes and will help us understand the landscape of LMOOC practice and research.

Elena Martín Monje, LMOOC SIG chair

Kate Borthwick, LMOOC SIG secretary

 

Recognition for #eurocallgathering participation.

 

Many of us at EuroCALL breathed a huge sigh of relief as we reached the end of the #euorcallgathering event last week. Not just because this was soon followed by a Zoom outage around the world shortly afterwards, but also because this was a new endeavour for us and we had no way of knowing how it would go. 

We are grateful to all of you for the fact that it went so well.

I am delighted to say that all went pretty much to plan and we all enjoyed fellowship - albeit virtual fellowship - with our community. Consequently our batteries were recharged by all the fabulous interactions we enjoyed. If you haven't yet had a chance to investigate the event, take a good look around our #eurocallgathering site. 

To those who contributed to this event, providing recorded presentations of their accepted papers, organising symposia and workshops online we want to acknowledge that work through digital badges. 

We do have a precedent for this, as those who came to Louvain La Neuve will remember. Badges will be issued to the email addresses of those who had accepted presentations, posters etc. We advise you to add these to your own Open Badge Passport account (it is free) and follow this tutorial in order to share your badge on your online accounts. If you would like to print off a paper certificate, follow the instructions here. 

Those of you who participated in the #eurocallgathering can also expect a badge to come your way. If you registered on the site we will issue your badge directly. However, if you engaged with the event and didn't register we are also providing a route for you to claim a Participant badge by providing some evidence of your engagement. 

These badges are issued through email and unfortunately they may be filtered by your email service so please check your spam/junk folders in the coming days to ensure that your contribution to #eurocallgathering is recognised by these portable, digital micro-credentials. 

We will be looking out for signs of these badges around the world. 

Thank you for playing an active role in our EuroCALL community. 

#eurocallgathering kicks off

 

Prior to the Graham Davies keynote (see recording above) this morning Mirjam welcomed us all with these words:

Good morning, good day, good evening, and welcome everybody wherever you are in the world! 

The saying “Life is what’s happening while you are busy making other plans” which is attributed to John Lennon – although he was not the one who coined it – probably captures best what has happened to all of us in 2020 so far. 

We, the EUROCALL community were not spared the impact of Covid-19, and while the  Copenhagen team – Karen-Margrete, Sane and Patrick - were getting ready to host us on their campus and in their city, it became increasingly clear that an on-site event was not an option this year. 

Life took over in the shape of a pandemic and I know that this has brought hardship to some of you. An especially warm welcome to you to the Gathering of our – of your - CALL community. 

What has moved me most over the past weeks and months is the spirit and enthusiasm with which everybody has risen to the challenge (against all odds!), my colleagues on the executive committee, first and foremost. 

The solution for Plan B was clear: we’d be using technology for what it should be used: to bring us together, to first prepare and now share what we feel passionate about, that is our work as CALL scholars. 

I would like to say, “Thank you!” to Teresa, Kate, and Toni in particular who have picked up the baton from the Copenhagen team and have created – with your input – this event. 

It is with immense gratitude to all of you that I declare the EUROCALL Gathering 2020 open. 

 

Before I hand over to my colleagues, I would like to invite you all to tomorrow evening’s social. Bring a glass of your favourite drink and a song, poem, tongue twister, any object with an associated story in any language or anything else that lends itself to online entertainment of a language-related nature. 

and so it began...

and we ask you tell us of your experiences of the #eurocallgathering event using flipgrid, a video sharing platform. To contribute you will need to sign on with either a microsoft or a google mail account. 

The topic is here or you can scan this QR code:

Launching the #eurocallgathering and widening participation.

 

We are nearing lift off! 

The theme for this year's Eurocall conference and of course the Gathering is 

CALL for widening participation

Sadly, the pandemic prevents us from having a face to face event on this theme but it also presented us with an opportunity to reach further than we have been able to in the past by connecting and running our Gathering online. An opportunity to have more open conversations relevant to our discipline, to connect to those who perhaps would not otherwise be able to participate in those discussions. We hope that you will encourage your colleagues and students to join us, to watch the peer reviewed conference papers, take part in the workshops and symposia, view submitted posters. 

The EuroCALL Gathering website will be our hub for the event which opens on the 20th August. The live event details can be read before you register for the ones you wish to join. We will then email you with access details. 

The recordings of presentations which would have been given in Copenhagen are hosted on our You Tube channel going live on August 18th to give you time to find your way around.

A soundtrack to the Gathering. 

Thanks to @ohashilou for this wonderful suggestion:

A silent disco maybe? Headphones ready!! #eurocallgathering is all about community @EurocallLang

— Teresa MacKinnon (@WarwickLanguage) August 9, 2020

To contribute your choice of track to our playlist you can either:

Follow this link to become a You Tube collaborator and add the track directly to our channel

or

Tweet your choice of You Tube track using the #eurocallgathering and we will add it on your behalf. 

Noticeboard.

Of course every physical conference has a noticeboard - a place where you can leave notes for each other, offer lifts home or ask for help finding a lost mobile phone. A virtual conference also needs such a facility. you can post directly to this jamboard 

#eurocallgathering Connecting in cyberspace.

August is here!

The countdown to our Gathering event is underway. Click on the rocket here to see it. 

Thanks to all those who have provided their presentations and those who are contributing posters to our padlet boards. We are so delighted to see all the hard work coming together. It is of course great to have content but now we really need to start to connect with our community ready for the launch of the Gathering. 

If we had been able to meet face to face in Copenhagen then we would have been busy planning our journey, choosing our hotel, arranging our social events...here's how we are hoping to recreate the community spirit of such activities in cyberspace. 

Our community map. 

We are asking Gathering participants to add themselves to our community map by filling in this short form.  You can put in as much or as little detail as you like and we will create a pin on our map which is then visible to others in the community. 

Why not get creative and include a photo or an avatar to represent yourself? You never know, you may discover others near you who are also part of our community and you had never met. 

Our #eurocallgathering hashtag

As you will have seen mentioned in the video shared above, we are using this hashtag to bring together what you share about the Gathering event. It would be lovely to start this will some of your Eurocall memories. Do you have favourite moments from conferences gone by? Photos of the places you have travelled to to be with us? If so share them on Instagram or Twitter using the #eurocallgathering hashtag and we will add them to our wakelet on the Gathering site for all to enjoy. During the event we will continue to look out for your social sharing to celebrate shared history and help us all make new connections. 

Be a Eurocall champion!

The covid19 crisis has impacted enormously on us all. As an organisation we can only continue with your help. Please join us on social media and within your networks to encourage membership at our reduced 65 Euro rate this year. Conference income is vital to our survival and we are working hard to make sure that we can weather this storm. Your participation is vital to this effort, we know you will help us find the silver lining in very dark clouds. 

Stronger together. EuroCALL signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the Association for Learning Technology (ALT).

       

       

Pictured: EUROCALL President (Dr Mirjam Hauck (President) and ALT Chief Executive (Dr Maren Deepwell) 

The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the European Association of Computer Assisted Language Learning (EUROCALL) on 4 March 2020.

ALT’s Chief Executive, Dr Maren Deepwell, said “in these difficult times collaboration between scholarly bodies remains key to our Members. We are delighted to formally announce this new relationship which we are looking forward to developing in the coming years. Learning Technology plays an important role in language learning and the work that EUROCALL are doing is closely aligned to our strategic aims and values.”

EUROCALL’s President, Dr Mirjam Hauck, said “We look forward to a fruitful and inspiring collaboration between the two organisations. We feel we are already benefiting from ALT’s expertise in online events which gave us impetus to put together the EuroCALL online Gathering event on 20th/21st August. We are grateful to ALT for sharing their knowledge and experience so openly."

ALT and EUROCALL are both organisations working to enhance the understanding and application of learning technology in education.

EUROCALL brings together international researchers, practitioners and developers both new and experienced who feel passionate about the use of technology for the learning and teaching of languages and cultures.

The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) is the leading professional body for Learning Technology in the UK.  Representing individual and organisational Members from all sectors including Further and Higher Education and industry. ALT provides recognition and accreditation through the CMALT Accreditation Framework  for all with a professional interest in Learning Technology.

There is a lot of scope for collaboration and networking between ALT and EUROCALL with both organisations working to provide a supportive environment for individuals and researchers. 

Some of these activities include academic publishing and community events ( ALT: Research in Learning Technology; ALT: altc and ONLINE SUMMER SUMMIT 2020 Eurocall RECALL: RECALL Journal; EUROCALL review; EUROCALL CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS;  EUROCALL ONLINE GATHERING 2020 )

ALT looks forward to collaborating with EUROCALL (subject to agreement of the two bodies) through :

• influencing and helping shape policy on the government’s learning technology agenda

• enhancing  relationships on issues on which the two associations have common interests

• sharing information on technology for learning

• offering reciprocal organisational or sponsoring membership to one another

• running joint events on areas of shared interest

• collaborating on joint projects

Follow on Twitter:

@A_L_T / #altc

@EurocallLang / #eurocall

This announcement is also available on the ALT website. 

 

Supporting professional development for EuroCALL -ers

Last summer we surveyed our community to find out what sort of professional recognition was available to those who work with technology in the field of language. We shared details of ALT's Certified membership known as CMALT, a peer assessed e-portfolio approach to professional recognition. The survey showed that this was of interest to our members:

Therefore this is one of the areas we will investigate further with ALT. 

Wonderful Copenhagen, we wish we could have been there.

Video from Copenhagen University Faculty of Humanities Facebook page.


Our plans for EuroCALL 2020 were rudely interrupted by Covid 19 but a great deal of work had of course already taken place. The EuroCALL Executive team would like to open our posts for this year's online Gathering with a tribute to the Copenhagen team and all their hard work to put a great conference in place. We are delighted to know that they will be joining our forthcoming Gathering. 

This from the organising team:

"The Copenhagen team had been looking forward to hosting EUROCALL 2020 for quite some time. In all modesty it was shaping up to be a very attractive conference with a strong academic programme, a social programme with beautiful venues and an event with plenty of chances to get a taste of what Danish hygge is all about. Unfortunately, a huge 2020 conference in Copenhagen was not to be. All our aspirations to provide the best possible framework for the EUROCALL community to meet in 2020 were trumped by a global crisis that is still ongoing. The EUROCALL community will have to take a raincheck on the little mermaid, the Carlsberg museum, Nyhavn, Copenhagen city centre and not least our beautiful South Campus.

In the meantime we are excited to take part in the EUROCALL 2020 Online Gathering. The EUROCALL organization has acted quickly and professionally to ensure a high quality online event for the EUROCALL members to take part in. In times like these we are all aware of how much effort and planning a successful online event requires. With the support of the community the Online Gathering will be a success. We will see you online 20 and 21 August – and hopefully in Copenhagen at some point in the future.  "

  

Karen-Margrete, Sanne and Patrick from the Copenhagen Team. 

While abstracts are still being submitted for this year’s #EUROCALL conference, the local organising committee is exited to announce that the reception at #EUROCALL2020 will take place at the Carlsberg Museum & Business Centre. #Copenhagen#Carlsberg@VisitCarlsberg pic.twitter.com/zWOOXbxV4B

— Eurocall (@EurocallLang) January 27, 2020

@EurocallLang My Home Office, now with flowers 🌞 pic.twitter.com/HZix4wbfBw

— Karen-Margrete Frederiksen (@MargreteKaren) April 22, 2020

Mutual support in difficult times: a message from EuroCALL

A message from the EuroCALL executive:

Dear EUROCALL Community,
We hope this message finds you and yours well in these uncertain times.

What we are doing

The EUROCALL Executive and the Copenhagen Team have been working together on a Plan B for August. It is clear that we cannot hold our usual conference at Copenhagen in the current circumstances. Instead we intend to organise on online ‘gathering’ this year (around the same time as the Copenhagen conference would have taken place) and not the full conference. The gathering will consist of workshops and SIG symposia only. Details of this online event will be sent shortly. Regarding our current accepted submissions - our intention is to carry over this year’s successful submissions to next year. The exact details of the process will be announced once the Executive finalises details with the Copenhagen team.

What we hope you can do

At this difficult time, and in order to support the ongoing work of our EUROCALL family, we would encourage you to please renew your annual membership as normal. You can renew via the EUROCALL website. Given the circumstances, we have decided to offer the 65€ online membership to everyone. This reduced rate will be available to all until 31st August 2020. The fee for participating in the August ‘gathering’ (for those who are not already members) will be 65€ and will also entitle attendees to EUROCALL annual membership. Please visit our website to join. 

What we hope to do next year

After a pause of one year, it is hoped that our Danish colleagues will be in a position to host at EUROCALL2021. The team are still in discussions about this with their University. We will confirm what is happening regarding 2021 at the end of May. Our colleagues in Paris have confirmed that they will be making preparations to host EUROCALL2022.

We are deeply grateful to all our Members for your continued loyalty. Your support is helping us to sustain our association through a time of great uncertainty. Thank you for making this possible.
I look forward to updating you further at the end of May when I will also confirm the details of the ‘gathering’.

Until then: stay safe and be well!

Mirjam (on behalf of the EUROCALL executive committee)