TEFLIN for Kalimantan Timur Chapter have successfully conducted the first ever international seminar called The 1st Mahakam International Seminar in ELT under the theme “The Future of AI in ELT: Opportunities and Challenges”.
This international seminar was initiated by the coordinator of Kalimantan Timur Chapter, Sudarman, M.Ed., who invited five English Education Programs from five different universities in the province to collaborate in this fruitful event. The universities invloved in this seminar were Universitas Muhammadiyah Kalimantan Timur as the main host, Universitas Mulawarman, UIN Sultan Aji Muhammad Idris Samarinda, Universitas Kutai Kartanegara, dan Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Tarbiyah Muhammadiyah Tanjung Redeb Berau. This was the first collaboration ever among those universities in conducting international seminar. The event lasted for two days on 6 and 7 December 2023 from 08:00 AM to 11:30 AM in local time and was conducted online via Zoom Meeting.
The seminar was attended by more than 500 participants around the globe, and among thoses people were rectors and deans from partner universities. The event itself was officially opened by the TEFLIN President, Prof. Utami Widiati. During her opening remarks, she expected that MISELT would be the academic icon for English teachers and lecturers in Kalimantan Timur; therefore, this event should be continually conducted every year.
On the first day of the seminar, the organizing committee presented Prof. Greg Kessler from Ohio University as the keynote speaker. Prof. Kessler presented his materials entitled “Artificial Intelligence in Education: Striving for Ethical Sustainability and Diversity”. After the presentation, the agenda continued to the parrallel sessions in which 10 speakers from partner universities took part in five breakoutrooms. The pararrel sessions lasted for more than 90 minutes.
Another keynote speaker was presented on the second day of the seminar. It was Mr. Albert Bonion Urbano from The Phillipines who is currently working as an English teacher at Ratchaburi Demonstration School in Thailand. Mr. Urbano presented materials on “Empowering Language Education: Navigating the AI Frontier in ELT”. The keynote speakers’ presentation files are available for download through the following link, while the recording videos will be uploaded in the official channel of TEFLIN Kalimantan Timur. After the presentation of the keynote speaker, the agenda once again continued to the parrallel sessions. There were six presenters who were divided into two breakoutrooms in that session. All presenters were pre-service English teachers from the partner universities. For most of them, this was their first experience ever to participate in an international academic forum as speakers.
