About the AATF Website

The AATF has been present on the Internet since fall 1994, when it opened a gopher on a server at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The first AATF homepage on the World Wide Web opened in September 1995 as a joint project of the AATF Telematics Commission and the Department of French at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Catherine Dhaussy was responsible for the original conception and hosting of the site. The main AATF website eventually moved to be hosted by the Division of Modern Languages and Literatures at UTSA and co-managed by Townsend Bowling, former Chair of the AATF Telematics and New Technologies Commission, and Jayne Abrate, then- Executive Director of the AATF.

Management and hosting of sections of the AATF site was shared among several individuals and institutions. In May 1997, Joel Mayer, San Antonio, Texas, joined the site management team as creator and administrator of the Grand Concours site and, later, of the Babillard des membres. In fall 1998, Lisa Narug, now Director of the Grand Concours, assumed duties as administrator of the Grand Concours site. Betty Clough became editor of the Babillard des membres in January 2001 until it was discontinued. In Fall 1998, the late Christopher Pinet, Editor-in-Chief of the French Review, opened on a server at Montana State Univeristy a new French Review site. This site is now part of the AATF website and managed by current Editor-in-Chief Edward Ousselin.  In August 2002, the entire AATF website, with the exception of the French Review site, moved to www.frenchteachers.org.

The first AATF online store was launched in the fall of 2007.

In January 2010, the AATF launched social media sites on Facebook (AATFrench) and Twitter (AATF French). Since 2010, Catherine Ousselin, Chair of the AATF Commission on Technology, manages the technology section of the Web site and our social media accounts. The AATF continues to increase its presence on social media.

In 2016 the Grand Concours went online in a hybrid version where teachers could choose the paper or the electronic format.  By 2020 it was entirely online.

In 2020, Catherine Ousselin was named Director of AATF Social Media Integration and Curated Resources.