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. 

Making your work visible

An essential part of any academic community is the act of sharing our work through publications and personal connections. We are pleased to share good news about how our Gathering can support these activities.  

All those who have had a poster or paper accepted will be able to make it available online for the Gathering. And we are delighted to say that, thanks to the efforts of Research Publishing, we will be publishing an on-line volume of Short Papers later in the year. The papers accepted for EUROCALL this year are of high quality, so we look forward to having the opportunity to hear them in August and see them in print later in the autumn. Make sure you take advantage of this opportunity to share your work!

Thank you to all those who have already subscribed to EUROCALL. Please, if you have not yet done so, take out your EUROCALL membership and attend the Gathering event in August. Instructions on how to do so at the reduced 65 euro rate can be found below:

-Please visit the EUROCALL website to subscribe. You will find the membership join page here: https://www.eurocall-languages.org/site/subscribe_form.php

-Simply select the retired option at 65 euro. Complete the registration form and put an X in any of the boxes that are not applicable to you. The 65 euro button states that it is for ‘retired’ members but for the EUROCALL Gathering event in August we are opening this rate to all those who wish to subscribe. Please note - There is not a separate button to select for the Gathering rate.

-Follow the process through to payment.

Lastly, if you are joining us for the event in August we would like you to complete this form to show your whereabouts in the world. This will give us all a more visual picture of the location of our EUROCALL community.  

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