State of the Art in Hi-Tech ESL at Hiroshima Conference
JALTCALL 2002 Acclaimed as Most Successful Ever
Hiroshima Jogakuin University on May 18-19 was the site of JALTCALL
2002: Local Decisions, Global Effects; the 7th annual International
conference of the Japan Association
for Language Teaching Computer Assisted Language Learning Special
Interest Group. Over the course of three days, around 180 teachers came
to participate in a lively pre-conference workshop at Hiroshima
University and participate in just over 80 presentations and workshops.
Clear blue skies accompanied the start of the conference. Conference
chair Timothy Gutierrez welcomed the 150 first day participants to
JALTCALL 2002. The highlight of Saturday was the keynote address given
by Mike Levy of Griffith University entitled, "CALL Integration: The
Goals, the Options and the Learners," which addressed the question of
how CALL can be integrated into a language learning curriculum. Also,
over 40 presentations, workshops and poster sessions, including a
PAN-SIG panel discussion of how the the special interests of Global
Issues, Other Language Educators, and Pragmatics are integrating
computer's and internet technology in the classroom.
Sunday's schedule was a bit less dense, with just under 40
presentations, workshops, and poster sessions. It was certainly just as
vibrant with a featured speaker presentation by Chubu University
Professor Yoshimasa Awaji, demonstrating the use of Wiki Clones in the
language classroom, entitled "Wanna Wiki Wiki? An Introduction and
Comparison of Wiki Clones." The conference was closed off by a final
panel discussing the future of CALL hosted by Past-Chair, Paul Lewis
which brought to the stage featured speaker Mike Levy along with Kip
Cates and Brian Teaman of the Global Issues SIG, and Dyned Japan
President, Bill Gatton.
JALTCALL was widely acclaimed as the most successful JALTCALL conference
to date.
Reported by Timothy Gutierrez, Kure City Board of Education
2002 ESL MiniConference Online
The JALTCALL 2002 Logo (above) was designed by Malcolm Swanson <www.pukeko.ws>.
See the report on Hot Potatoes, also from JALTCALL 2002, by Chris Elvin, presenter.
Timothy Gutierrez is actively involved with both the CALL SIG and JALT national by holding
officer positions in both the CALL SIG (SIG Chair) and Hiroshima Chapter (Membership Chair). He has played
an active role in the last two JALTCALL conferences and served as chair of the
JALTCALL 2002 conference committee. He submitted this exclusive report on the event for
the ESL MiniConference Online.
The pre-conference workshop consisted of two hands-on workshops and
pre-conference lunch and dinner. There were just over 15 participants in
both the streaming video workshop given by Hiroshima University
professor Brian Teaman and the software evaluation workshop given by
Hiroshima University Professor, Joe Lauer. Highlights from the streaming
video workshops can be seen at
<http://home.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~teaman/workshop/>.
timothy@gutierrez94580.com / www.gutierrez94580.com.
JALTCALL 2002 Conference Chair
Hiroshima, Japan