JALTCALL 2010 – What’s your Motivation?
The Japan Association of Language Teaching is over thirty years old now, and currently numbers around three-thousand members. One of it’s larger special interest groups is the CALL sig with an internationally peer-reviewed journal, and last weekend I attended it’s annual conference. Paul Lewis, one of the co-chairs and someone with a longstanding involvement with the sig, details the history of the conference here.
What is the JALTCALL Conference? from darren elliott on Vimeo.
As well as making two presentations of my own, I did a few interviews, went to plenty of great presentations and plenaries, and met a lot of very nice people. Like most conferences, this one had a theme, and I thought it would be interesting to reflect on it as I walked around the campus. The question is “What’s your motivation?”, and like most conference themes it is open to interpretation.
jaltcall 2010 – what’s your motivation? from darren elliott on Vimeo.
So, what is your motivation?
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I like your style Darren. Never seen a conference video shot with a Haru-Nezumi whatsit before. Good stuff.
Unfortunately I seem to be completely allergic to conferences and break out in a horrible sweat – even start twitching sometimes – whenever I even think of attending one.
Doesn’t matter if it’s EFL, Photography… I did manage to attend an Oxford Publishing/David English House conference in Nagoya a few years ago. But it’s a complete blur now. However, I do remember running for the door in relief at lunch time and finding a quiet park by myself to eat lunch. So I’m glad you are out there for people like me
By the way, was that an Aphex Twin track on the 2nd video? It sounds like it should be but I’m guessing it isn’t.
Actually, the music is me too…. or rather, it’s a couple of loops in garageband I chucked together. I would have used a ‘real’ song, but as this video was commissioned I thought I should watch the copyright and do things on the up and up. The second video is a mixture of digital harinezumi and flip video, with edirol v09 audio added later.
I like the jaltcall conference – there were about 200 there, including participants from Asia, N. America and the Middle East. The networking reception adds to the feel of a group coming together. A lot of the people involved have been involved for a long time, but I don’t think it is exclusive. I also appreciate the chance to get away and be alone during a conference though!