Dear CALL-IS Members and Friends,

Phew, what a year! And yet, I am in awe of how resilient our CALL community members are. Among the neck-breaking pivoting from supporting our students in the time of crisis to providing professional support to each other, you have proven to be the inspiration that brought me to this interest section. In CALL-IS, we strive to assist you in your educational and professional journeys as best as possible. Below, you’ll find a recap of what has been happening in the IS this year as well as a preview of what lies ahead.

First of all, allow me to thank our leadership team members who have rotated off since the TESOL 2021 conference. To our excellent co-chairs, Maria Tomeho-Palermino and Jennifer François, who have bravely led the interest section since 2018, we are grateful for your leadership and guidance. To Georgios Kormpas, Taira Nieves, and Johanna Paraiso, who have each spent a two- or three-year term on the Steering Committee, thank you for your service. We appreciate all that you did for the CALL-IS community and what we have learned from you.

However, “goodbyes” are just the new beginnings, and the CALL-IS has begun this new cycle (since our last newsletter in March 2021) with a bang. Beginning with the TESOL 2021 Virtual Convention, the CALL-IS team created an innovative professional development experience for TESOL members and convention attendees from around the world. Besides the CALL-IS Academic session and three Intersection Sessions (all available to view on our YouTube channel), the participants enjoyed a re-imagined Electronic Village. In response to the need, our Electronic Village events were fully virtual and absolutely free. The event formats included both synchronous and asynchronous events and all are still available on the EV website right here (the live session recordings are also available on the CALL-IS YouTube channel in this playlist). Your CALL-IS volunteers and Steering Committee members worked around the clock (and around the globe) for several weeks to make these events engaging and educational.

Before this year’s convention, CALL-IS has partnered with several TESOL members to launch a series of webinars about Open Educational Resources (OER). The two that happened since the convention included a session about OER Movement for Social Justice and ELT and another one about using Wikieducator to Create OER. Those webinars were made possible in large part by Mary Allegra, the CALL-IS Steering Committee member and webinar coordinator. Our intrepid coordinator has also executed an exciting webinar program that ran from September 2021 until last month. You can access all of the webinars in this series in the CALL-IS YouTube channel.

The rest of the CALL-IS team is also hard at work this preparing a variety of convention and pre-convention events for you. Our Electronic Village Online (EVO) Team has successfully completed the cycle of EVO sessions, which were offered from January 10 – February 13, 2022. Those sessions offer excellent (and free!) multi-week professional learning opportunities that are developed, moderated, and delivered by TESOL experts. The recordings of Best of EVOs (a recap of EVO sessions from 2022), will be featured as one of the Electronic Village events. You can also get EVO updates and meet the fearless EVO team. We are grateful to have such a  professional team of experts leading the TESOL community in the most effective use of technology in ELT.

The CALL IS is also planning exciting Academic and Intersection panels during the TESOL 2022 convention. The Academic Session will focus on digital game-based teaching and learning. In partnership with the International Teaching Assistant Interest Section, our IS is also organizing a session on practical approaches to collaborative online learning. You can look forward to a panel developed in collaboration with the Reading and Vocabulary Interest Section about online resources for reading fluency and vocabulary building, too. For the Academic and Intersection sessions from last year’s convention, go to this CALL-IS YouTube channel playlist.

Last, but not least, your CALL-IS team is working hard to organize the next Electronic Village experience. With so much positive feedback from last year, we are planning to engage our members and friends in another experience that will be accessible, educational, and perhaps a bit entertaining. For a complete lineup of events read the article in this issue by Heather Benucci, our Past-chair and Electronic Village coordinator. If you or someone you know is eager to contribute to this lively interest section, please go to our volunteer form and let us know how you would like to get involved.

As a final note, I would like to thank all of you for your relentless work to support our students and to keep this CALL community lively and interesting. I continue growing as an ELT and CALL professional thanks to your amazing efforts and friendships. I look forward to engaging with you in the upcoming months. Until the next newsletter, just keep those creative juices flowing and draw on your resilience as you continue to support your students and each other!

Warm wishes,

Marta Halaczkiewicz

CALL-IS Chair, 2021-2022

Marta Halaczkiewicz holds an M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and in Educational Technology. She has also recently successfully defended her doctoral dissertation in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences. Marta has taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at a university level for 14 years and is currently serving as the director of Intensive English Language Institute at Utah State University. She has experience in and enjoys teaching all levels and skills of English. She also enjoys mentoring in-service ESL teachers. Her research interests include using games and gamifying language instruction, writing peer-review in ELS instruction, and collaborative online spaces. Marta has been involved in the CALL-IS as a volunteer and Steering Committee member for 10 years and is now serving her three-year term as the interest section chair. Marta enjoys traveling, trying out local cuisine, cooking, hiking, and skiing.