Review
New Frontiers in CALL: Negotiating Diversity
Reviewed by Jonathan J. Harrison
Nihon University, College of Science and Technology

The annual JALT CALL SIG conference was held from May 30 toJune 1 at Nagoya University of Commerce & Business, a secluded,
immaculately landscaped modern campus on the outskirts of Nagoya,Japan. Mostly sunny skies welcomed the presenters and participants tothe lush, green campus.
On Saturday, registration began early at 9:00. Those who were notquite awake visited the basement of the Foyer Language Centre, which
overlooked a pond, for coffee, tea, and a tranquil view. In this area,materials were on display from the conference sponsors, including The
English Company, Macmillan, Pearson Longman, Cengage Learning,
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Seibido,
Perceptia Press, IATEFL Learning Tech, and the Extensive Reading SIG.
For educators wishing to use Moodle, Manabu 3 was there to offer
various Moodle-related services. The opening ceremony started justafter 10 a.m. with workshops and presentations beginning at 10:40.
With eleven sessions running concurrently until 4:30, there were sometouchy choices to be made.
The Saturday morning speakers included John Paul Loucky, who
presented New Frontiers in Maximizing Online Vocabulary Learning.
He stressed the importance of intentional study of vocabulary andcompared a few online reading comprehension and vocabulary245

Harrisondevelopment programs and tests. His comparison introduced anumber of Web sites, and he suggested integrating Web sites with 10
major learning phases to systematically teach and track vocabularydevelopment online. Participants were able to try some of the Web
sites and discuss their use of online vocabulary sites and their teaching
philosophies.
Just after lunch, Thomas Pals presented Simple Solutions: Creating
Interactive Websites with Drag and Drop Wizzywigs. Recognizing thedifficulty many teachers encounter with technology, Pals described
how to use WizzyWigs such as iWeb 08 and BlueVoda. The click anddrop widgets make the creation of personal Web pages easy without
writing any code. Pals mentioned that trends in higher education may
leave part-time professors with limited resources and time. Creationof a personal Web site which can combine blogs, forums, and more
recently, news clips, Google Maps, YouTube videos, and other widgets
may offer a solution, especially as advertisements on the site could
help with setup and hosting costs. His relaxed demeanor allowed theaudience to ask questions about his Web pages, his program, and how
to create pages to suit their individual needs. One of the great aspectsof this conference was the availability of the presenters. A numberof participants stayed after sessions, such as this one, to ask furtherquestions.
Another Saturday afternoon presentation was Anytime-Anywhere:
Mobile Phone Applications for Modern Foreign Language Instruction byGeorge MacLean and James Elwood. MacLean and Elwood discussed
using mobile phones and other technologies that students possess andhave working knowledge of to engage students in English projects.
One of these projects included requiring students to take pictures with
their mobile phones and then import them into Word or PowerPoint.
Students then made presentations to their note taking peers. Theirpeers evaluated the presentations using “clickers” which are wirelesshandheld devices that send a signal to a laptop computer allowing
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Jalt CALL 2008, OnCUE Journal, 2(3), pages 245-249

every student to answer every question at the same time. One othertask included having students record readings of a text and send theaudio files to their teachers. Another was mobile phone video skits. To
conclude, MacLean and Elwood described mostly positive results froma survey of student perceptions on the use of technology. This was
one of various presentations that dealt with creative usage of mobile
technology to motivate and educate students.
The final workshop I attended on Saturday was by Jason LaGreca.
LaGreca began Moodle and LAMS: Making e-learning Simpler ina Hands-on Workshop by slapping traditional methods in the face,saying that Moodle is not an online textbook and it should not be used
like one. His workshop focused on the use of LAMS, a learning activity
management system, which allows for sequences of learning activities
to be organized visually. On their computer screens, students see adiagram of activities which they, at their own pace, must work throughindividually and collaboratively to complete the lesson. Workshop
participants were able to experience LAMS as students working througha sequence of a forum, some Internet research, and a discussion. Thenparticipants were given a chance to be teachers and build a LAMS
sequence of activities quite quickly using the drag and drop interface.
For those new to Moodle, this was a great crash course. For thoseunfamiliar with LAMS, this was an impressive introduction.
Saturday’s academic activities concluded with a keynote address
by Dr. Phil Hubbard, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and Director ofthe English for Foreign Students Program at the Stanford University
Language Center. He spoke on Developing CALL Theory: A New
Frontier. To summarize, CALL practice and research have been evolving
rapidly over the last twenty years, while CALL theory has not. Theory
is often borrowed, usually from SLA. He ended stating that CALL isa discipline only when those outside the field are convinced it is so.
Now it is a practiced based field, and as the address title suggests,
theory needs to be further developed.
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After the keynote address, there was a change of venue as people
filed out of the conference hall and into the evening’s buffet hall.
Plenty of salads, sandwiches, and sushi awaited the attendees. Glasses
were filled before a few words and after a quick toast spirits mingled,
and there was more networking before heading back into the heart ofNagoya.
Sunday workshops included Daniel Beck’s workshop Using
Enhanced Podcasts to Extend Language Instruction. Beginners attending
this workshop were shown the ABCs of podcasting from setup toupload. Once the basics were on the table, participants were shown anenhanced podcast, from <gtbcast.com>, and how to use Garageband
to add audio, video, pictures, and documents to a podcast. Teachersof all levels benefited; novices gained some practical know-how, andveteran podcasters were able to discuss equipment and various otheraspects of podcasting.
In another Sunday presentation, Steve McCarty presented Curtain
Call: Online Performances for Integrative Motivation. McCarty
described the content-based curriculum at his college and the contests
and other performance events, including podcasting, YouTube video,
and a narrated slide show. The presentation focused on authentic
performances with an expanded online audience and internationalrecognition or feedback. Feedback obtained from interviews withstudents was discussed, and McCarty stated that a research topic yet tobe explored is motivation and online performances.
After lunch on Sunday, Gavin Dudeney, Director for ConsultantsE, gave the plenary address, Brave New World, Web3D, Teaching,and Training. With plenty of wit, Dudeney described Moodle andBlackboard as traditional before moving on to Web3D as both cuttingedge and the future. Second Life® (SL), as the leading player in Web3D,
was introduced as possibly the tool for second language teachers now
and in the near future. Second Life Educators (SLED) has over 130
participating universities, and SLanguages 2007 is an SL language248

Jalt CALL 2008, OnCUE Journal, 2(3), pages 245-249

conference. Although stating he was not working for or selling SL,
Dudeney presented how SL is currently used by educators in fields
ranging from architecture to political science. Engaging the audience
with statistics and stories, Dudeney painted an impressive picture of SL
as a tool, with merits and demerits, to promote collaboration, creativity,engagement, and authenticity.
The final Sunday presentation I attended was Using Librarything.com
to Promote Extensive Reading by Dale Brown. Brown demonstrated
how his students used this commercial website to record what graded
readers they had read and to write reviews of the books. He discussed
both positive and negative student feedback. His results impliedthat when his students were given autonomy, they read on averageapproximately double the number of graded readers he could cover if
he used a more teacher-centered approach.
JALTCALL 2008 was a fantastic experience. The picturesque locationand facilities gave the conference a resort-like ambiance. The numberof informative presentations and workshops and the variety of topics
covered were mentally stimulating. The presenters and participants
were all in good humor, and I felt a sense of teamwork as we were all
working toward contributing to the education of our students and theirunderstanding of technology and language. At the same time, we wereenjoying the exploration and adaptation of technologies ourselves. Theconference was a great place to network, as well as obtain fresh ideas,
deeper knowledge, and new skills. If you would like more information,please contact the JALTCALL SIG at <http://jaltcall.org> or myself at<harrison@penta.ge.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp>. Looking forward to JALTCALL
2009!
Jonathan Harrison has worked as an educator in Japan for roughly
10 years, mainly at the high school and university levels. He is in his
first year as a full-time Assistant Professor at Nihon University, Collegeof Science and Technology.
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