On 13-14 September 2019, Lodz University of Technology Language Centre was the organizer of the 2nd edition of the international conference for teachers and methodologists of foreign language teaching THE USE OF E-LEARNING AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN LANGUAGE TEACHING under the honorary patronage of the Rector of the Lodz University of Technology, the Lodz University of Technology E-Learning Centre and the SERMO Association.
During this two-day event, Lodz University of Technology Language Centre hosted almost 140 participants. We organized 6 plenary sessions and 30 workshop sessions, where the speakers were eminent experts, methodologists and experienced teachers with passion. The conference was officially opened by the Director of the Language Centre, Magdalena Nowacka, Ph.D. After her speech, the floor was taken by the representatives of the University - the Vice-Rector for Science, Prof. Ireneusz Zbiciński, Ph.D. and Jacek Kucharski, Prof. of Lodz, the Rector's Representative for Quality of Education.
On the first day, we had the opportunity to listen to 3 plenary lectures conducted by Mr Thom Kiddle (NILE), Mr Rafał Grzybowski, PhD (PŁ) and Mr Adrian Chróstowski (NGL). The second day of the conference started with a plenary lecture by Ms Anna Popławska (EduNation), followed by presentations by Mr Piotr Banasiak (ETS) and Mr Radosław Krzyżanowski (OUP).
Both on Friday and Saturday, after the plenary lectures the participants could choose between three parallel workshop sessions, which were led by 35 speakers from all over Poland and abroad. Among them, of course, there were representatives of our Centre. Ms. Krystyna Breszka-Jędrzejewska, Ms. Ewa Muszczynko, Ms. Justyna Jaworska, Ms. Marta Dziubińska, Ms. Danuta Król-Stogidis, Ms. Joanna Miłosz-Bartczak, Ms. Elżbieta Krawczyk, Ms. Magdalena Gałaj, as well as Mr. John Speller, Mr. Szymon Pędziwiatr, and Mr. Łukasz Wodarczyk delivered their speeches.
During the coffee breaks and lunch breaks the conference participants had at their disposal stands of partners and sponsors of the conference - OUP, NGL, Preston Publishing, Egis, ETS, PCG Academia, Vocabite Business Cards, British Council, where they could learn about the latest news on the language education market.
During the closing ceremony of the conference we handed out gift packs from the sponsors to the participants who shared with us their valuable comments and observations on the organization of the event. The feedback on the conference will serve us to improve the event in the next edition.
Special thanks are due to the ladies of the Lektor High-Tech 2019 Organizing Committee in the persons of Dr. Magdalena Nowacka, Dominika Biernat, Wioleta Fabijańska, Barbara Rosicka-Koczur, Anna Ruszczyńska-Bujnowicz, and Agnieszka Wajs, who made every effort to ensure that the event met the requirements of the participants and invited guests. Also actively involved in the preparation of the conference were Mr. John Speller (Lektor High-Tech 2019 website) and Magdalena Galaj (Lektor High-Tech fanpage on FB), who also took care of the graphic design of the conference. Not to forget the fact that during the conference itself the organizing committee was strongly supported by the rest of the staff of CJ PŁ, both teaching and administrative, all in order to ensure the quality and highest standard of the event.
We would also like to thank the management of the Centre for Information Technology (CTI), which hosted us during the plenary sessions, and the management of the Sports Bay, which gave us access to the conference rooms for workshop sessions and took care of the relaxation and well-being of our guests by offering the possibility to use the swimming pool.
We would like to thank both participants, guests and business partners for such a keen interest and numerous arrival to this year's conference and we hope that we will meet in the next edition.
We invite you to watch a short photo-report from the event.
