CALL-IS is always in the vanguard of using technology in language classrooms, and this year is no exception. We have fast-forward content in all the activities that our interest section is involved in, and this is very true of the panels we’re participating in.

To start, our Academic Panel pulls together several IS members and administrators from the U.S. Department of State to talk about gaming and language learning. These CALL-IS members made up a team that developed Trace Effects, a video game that the Department of State can use to teach English. The panelists will talk about gaming and language learning in general, using their own experience working on and developing Trace Effects as a starting point.

We’re also collaborating with other interest sections on other panels. We invited the Elementary Education IS to talk with us about "New Tools and Techniques in CALL." This set of panelists will describe innovations from mobile technology to webinars and explain how these new technologies are being used in our field.

A couple of interest sections have invited us to participate on panels, too. CALL-IS members will participate on a panel discussing New technology horizons for international teaching assistants, and we’ll participate in a panel with the English for Special Purposes IS called “Harmony in ESP Practice With Computers, Video, and Digital Media.” This ESP panel promises to be fast and furious.

And all these panels will be webcast live, so if you can’t make it to Dallas, you can still watch the panel presentations and follow the discussions.

We hope all CALL-IS members will all be able to benefit from these panels, whether in Dallas or anyplace around the globe.

Chris Sauer
Roger Drury
CALL-IS co-chairs-elect

Chris Sauer served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana, taught high school English in Dinetah, and has worked in IEP and international program settings for the past 20 years. Currently he is the associate provost of international education at MCPHS University in Boston. Two of his passions are bees and bicycles.

Roger Drury teaches in the IEP of Georgia Tech. He has also taught in France and Colombia, the latter as a Fulbright Scholar. He develops ESP courses with a CALL emphasis.