Marta Halaczkiewicz, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA

Dear CALL ISers,

The Electronic Village and Technology Showcase (EV) event is back in-person this year at the TESOL Convention in Portland, OR. The CALL-IS Team has prepared a three-day lineup of innovative and exciting sessions you all have grown to expect and love.

Here’s what you can expect:

• Tinkering with Tech Workshops: Live 60 or 90-minute workshops that include hands-on activities with presenter support and may utilize small-group work (BYOD).
• Innovate and Implement: Practical Tech-Supported Instruction Mini-Sessions: Short, practical tech tips and demonstrations from innovative ELT professionals (BYOD).
• CALL Questions Bar: A place with CALL and educational technology experts where you can come to find new ideas and get your technology questions answered.
• Hot topics: A panel session addressing current and up-and-coming topics in the field of language teaching and technology.
• Technology for Teaching Language: Graduate Student Forum: Short sessions featuring graduate ELT students’ experiences with CALL.

You can access and browse all of the above sessions in the Electronic Village and Technology Showcase Program. The EV sessions are also included in the TESOL 2023 Convention App.

Our Co-Chair-Elects, Judy Wong and Nellie Deutsch have worked tirelessly to organize three exciting CALL-IS sessions:

• CALL-IS Academic Session, Friday @ 9am, in Portland Ballroom 253 (OCC), titled “Working in the Metaverses: Teaching in 3D spaces”
• CALL-IS & IC-IS Intersections, Thursday @ 11am in room A107/108/109 (OCC), titled “Teaching Intercultural Competence in the New Global Techno World”
• SPL-IS & CALL-IS Intersections, Wednesday @ 10am, in Deschutes Ballroom C (Hyatt), titled "Using Technology to Teach, Learn, and Assess L2 Speaking."

The EV will also feature a session In Memoriam for Vance Stevens – a reflective gathering to commemorate one of our founding members whom we lost last year. In addition, the CALL-IS chairs and Electronic Village Online lead coordinators have worked together with TESOL in setting up a fundraiser on Facebook. The purpose of this fundraiser for TESOL International Association is to create a TESOL Award in memory of Vance Stevens in gratitude for his lifetime contribution to the global TESOL community. Thank you for considering a donation in Vance’s memory. Facebook takes care of the donation processing with no fees. If you would prefer to bypass Facebook, please use this link . The link goes directly to the general TESOL Fund. You do not have to be a TESOL member to donate, but if you do not have a TESOL account, please create one with a username and password to donate. Follow up the donation with an email to TESOL saying that it's for the Vance fundraiser. TESOL email: awards@tesol.org.

The CALL-IS Team is excited to have the Open Meeting in person again on Thursday, March 23 from 5:30-7:00 pm (Room TBD). You can learn about all the CALL-IS initiatives and its going-ons there. We will also announce the results of the leadership elections.

The meeting will be immediately followed by the CALL-IS dinner for all interested CALL-IS members. The location and the RSVP will be coming soon, so watch the myTESOL boards closely for those details.

CALL-IS is looking for members to join us. We are looking for Nominations for CALL-IS Leadership positions. Read about the details in this document and submit a nomination here.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Portland, OR, March 22 – March 24, 2023!

Marta