Integrating Telecollaboration into Foreign Language Education: Exploring Models of Virtual Exchange for Language Educators in University Education

Integrating Telecollaboration into
Foreign Language Education:
Exploring Models of Virtual Exchange for
Language Educators in University Education
Robert O’Dowd
University of León, Spain
Publications: http://unileon.academia.edu/RobertODowd
Presentations: http://www.slideshare.net/dfmro
Twitter: Robodowd
Skype: robodowd
UNICollaboration: www.uni-collaboration.eu

Timetable
• 09.00-09.20: Introduction
– Why are you here? Some introductions.
– What is Telecollaboration? What are its potential benefits?
• 09.20- 11.00: Planning and setting up a telecollaborative
exchange in your educational context: Key issues and
challenges
• 11.00-11.30: Break
• 11.30 – 12.15: Using the UNICollaboration platform for your
exchanges (www.uni-collaboration.eu)
• 12.15-13.00: Exploring case studies of Telecollaboration

What is Telecollaboration?
• Telecollaboration is:
• the engagement of groups of students in online…
• intercultural interaction and collaboration with partner classes
from other cultural contexts or geographical locations…
• under the guidance of educators and/or expert facilitators

What are the origins of Telecollaboration?
• Célestin Freinet:
– Students carried out
research into areas of
personal interest
– Students published work
in school newspapers
– Correspondence and
exchange of newspapers
between students in
other French schools -
‘cultural packages’

Key Developments in Telecollaboration
The International Tandem Network -
1994
Virtual Connections: Online Activities &
Projects for Networking Language Learners
(1995) by Mark Warschauer

Key Developments in Telecollaboration
IECC- Intercultural Email Classroom
Connections (1992-2001: 28,000+
requests for e-mail partnerships)
Language Learning & Technology: 2003:
Vol 7(2) – Special Edition Editor Julie
Belz

Your thoughts…
What advantages could telecollaboration have for
a) your students?
b) you as an academic and teacher?
c) your institution?

Why integrate Telecollaboration into
your classrooms?
• Watch some
telecollaborative teachers
on UNICollaboration.eu
talking about the benefits of
online exchange:
• http://www.uni-collaboration.eu/?q=node/818
• What benefits do they
mention?

Why integrate telecollaboration into
your university classrooms?
For Students: Development of FL competence, intercultural
awareness, electronic literacies
For University Educators: Opening up of classroom /
Authentic communication and project work / Developing
international network of collaborators
For Mobility Officers: Preparation for physical mobility/
Alternative to physical mobility
For University Management: ‘Low cost’ internationalisation
strategy / Opening up new university partnerships

Your thoughts….
• What questions should a teacher think about when planning an
online exchange?
10

Issues when designing Online Exchange
• What sort of partner class should I look for?
• Where can I find partners?
• How to deal with language use and combine the L1
and L2 successfully?
• Which online communication tools to use?
• What tasks should the students carry out together?
• Should there be an explicit focus on form?
• What should be the role of the teacher?
• How should the exchange activity be assessed?

What makes a good telecollaborative partner?
Where can I find partner classes?

What makes a good partner-teacher for my online
exchange?
• Watch some
talking about this here:
• What do they mention?

Look for a possible partner-class for your context
• Explore UNICollaboration.eu
• http://unicollaboration.eu/ - Partners - classes

How to combine the L1 and L2?
The e-tandem Approach: “…this entails that each partner
should communicate as closely as possible to half in his/her
mother tongue and half in his/her target language. This grants
both learners the opportunity to practise speaking and writing
in their target language and listening to and reading text
written by their native speaking partner.”
[Pedagogical considerations for a web-based tandem language learning
environment - Appel & Mullen, 2000]
http://www.nc12z.com/uploadfile/cms/books/270/ts270059.pdf

Hey Pablo!
It was great to receive your letter. I was so happy to see that you responded to my
questions. Thank you. Your responses were very informative and definitely showed
me that family life in Spain was not all I'd expected it to be (I was surprised, for
example, that your family is not religious. I assumed that most families in Spain are,
and I'm sure you have many assumptions about life in America as well).
Your English is very good. There are only a few suggestions that I have to correct it.
Some of your sentences are too long, and would make more sense if you separated
them into two or three sentences instead. For example, "My parents are not
divorced in Spain there are very few cases of divorced" could be rewritten as "My
parents are not divorced. In Spain there are very few cases of divorce." Your letter
was great and made sense despite these things. Good work.
Las fiestas en the ciudad de Nueva York son muy locas y emocionantes. Voy a las
discotecas con mis amigas los jueves, los viernes, o los sabados. Vamos a los bars
tambien. Nosotros volvemos a nos salons de dormitorio a las cuatro de la manana.
Queremos bailar a las discotecas. Necesita tener veintiuno anos por beber el alcohol
pero la mayoria de estudiantes en las universidades tenen los "fake IDs" y ellos
beben el alcohol. …
No sabo mucho de Espana. Sabo que hay un museo de Guggenheim en Bilbao y sabo
que hay muchos castillos bonitos. Que sabes de los Estados Unidos? Como es la
fiesta en Espana? Elena

The Cultura Option
“To have students write in the forums in their "native"
language was also a deliberate choice. We wanted to make
sure that students were able to express their thoughts in all
their complexity as fully and as naturally as possible…
what students may "lose", by not writing in the target
language, is largely offset by the gains they make by getting
access to a rich, dynamic and totally authentic language.”
• http://cultura.mit.edu/

Integrating Telecollaboration into Foreign Language Education: Exploring Models of Virtual Exchange for Language Educators in University Education

Other possible Approaches? Spanish-American Cultura
• Students alternate writing in BOTH LANGUAGES in the online interaction.
In English-language forums both groups communicate in English and in
Spanish-language forums they do so in Spanish.
• Students read responses in both languages
• Students always use target language in classroom discussion and analysis
Rationale:
• Pedagogic demands of the institution
• Better use of class time for students
• Practises both writing and reading in target language

http://cultura2.wikispaces.com/
robert.odowd@unileon.es
cultura

Your thoughts….
• What online communication tools would you consider using in
an online exchange?
• What factors should we consider when choosing a certain tool?
21

Which Online Communication Tools to use?
• Asynchronous text-based
tools? e-mail,
forums, wikis,
google docs
• Synchronous text-based
tools? –
Chat, whatsApp,
etc.
• Synchronous oral
communication? –
skype, google
hangouts…
• Web 2.0 – content
& communication –
blogs, tumblr etc.

Factors to consider when choosing the right Tool(s)
• “Successful implementation of CMC…depends on having clear
pedagogical objectives in mind, knowledge of the technical
options and an awareness of the needs, goals, and skills of the
learners (Levy and Stockwell, 2006: 107)”
• Objectives of the exchange – culture/language? Oral/written?
• Affordances of the different tools – use of multimedia?
• Students current online practices in their social and working lives
(“cultures of use”) – Using WhatsApp in university education?
• ‘Fit’ of the technology into both socio-institutional contexts:
• Availability
• Reliability
• Location

• What was the added value of the videoconference over other communication
tools?
• Nadine: … it was great to see our partners and so to get a better view on the
people we are writing at. Furthermore, it gave the chance to get more spontaneous
reactions than one can get in emails.
• Jessica: … they had to answer intuitively and you were able to see on their faces
what they were really thinking.
• What were the advantages of e-mail communication over the videoconferences?
• Nicole: time to think about answers and questions (choice of words)/ greater
variety of vocabulary/ opportunity to look up new words and put them directly into
context/
• Sandra: A written exchange gives you the chance to think about what you could
write to represent a certain topic.
• Iolanda: Topics can be discussed in a more extensive and detailed way. Gives us
time to think about what we are going to write and gives us time to search for
information.

Understanding Technology in Context
• Spanish student feedback
comparing oral and written
discussion boards:
• “I prefer the written one
because you don’t get so
nervous and you have more
time to think about what you
want to say. Also I did not like
to speak in the computer lab
with my classmates listening to
what I was saying.”
• “It’s easier to understand them
in the written forum because
it’s very difficult to speak with
someone that you don’t see.”

Telecollaborators searching for the right tool
• Alberto: …I am not sure where we could do all this [the exchange], because I am
convinced that enclosed sites like Moodle or Blackboard are so little interactive that
they hinder communication and engagement.
• Alberto: [After recommendations from others]: I have created an account on Canvas
and it seems ok to me for the discussion boards. Students would need to register, but
it should take them 2 minutes (we can do that in class).
• Robert: Alberto, this puts us back in the 'formal learning tools' though, doesn't it?
What about using google docs? Students could write their comments and add photos
etc. to google doc pages. Another option would be a free wiki such as PBWiki.
• Alberto: Hi Robert, I must agree with you!!! Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard are exactly
what we were tying to avoid. Google + is less of a formal learning tool, but it will be
probably complicated to use with so many people. I have checked PBWiki, a new
tool for me, and it seems that their free wikis are limited to 15 people.
• Alberto: Hi Robert, What about Google Groups? I have created and account, set up a
group, and sent you an invitation so you can check it. I think that it is exactly what we
needed: a discussion board tool without a LMS environment.

Google Groups: León-Princeton

What limitations does Google Groups have for telecollaborative
interaction?

Other options –
NING.com – 22€ / month – 1000 members

https://languagetwin.com/

https://languagetwin.com/#aboutUsPage

Your thoughts….
What types of tasks should students carry out together?
Who should choose the tasks?
36

What makes a good task for my online exchange?
• Watch some
talking about this here:
• What do they mention?

• “Most teachers who have used the Internet have
started out with some kind of simple key pal
(computer pen pal) exchanges. And most teachers
who have used these exchanges have felt something
lacking. Simply put, there is no more reason to
except a significant educational outcome from simply
creating a pen pal connection than there is from
simply bringing two students into a room and asking
them to talk.”
• Mark Warschauer & P. Fawn Whittaker (1997)
• http://iteslj.org/Articles/Warschauer-Internet.html

• Telecollaborative Tasks (Type 1): Information
Exchange Tasks:
– Provide partners with information about their
personal biographies, local schools or towns or
aspects of their home cultures.
– Function as an introductory activity for two groups
of learners who are not yet familiar with each
other
– Generally ‘monologic’ in nature as there is usually
little negotiation of meaning (neither cultural nor
linguistic). Exception: ethnographic interviews-require
intercultural skills of discovery and
interaction.

• 1. Introductions. In these first two weeks
of the English part of the exchange:
Students from University X and University
Y write an introductory text on
themselves and their home town/ culture
focusing on aspects of their lives which
may surprise people from the other
culture.
• 2. Tourist Shops. Students have to visit
the tourist shops in their home town and
report back on what they find there. Are
the objects for sale really representative
of their culture? Or are they simply
stereotypical images of the home culture
which do not correspond to the reality?
Discuss together and ask each other
questions about the two cultures.

• Telecollaborative Tasks (Type 2): Comparison
and Analysis Tasks:
– More demanding than T1. Require learners to go a
step further and carry out comparisons or critical
analyses of cultural products from both cultures (e.g.
books, surveys, films, newspaper articles).
– These can have a cultural focus and/or a linguistic
focus.
– Require learners to provide explanations of the
linguistic meaning or cultural significance of cultural
products or practices and then to establish
similarities or differences between the two cultures
through dialogue.

http://web.mit.edu/french/culturaNEH

• Telecollaborative Tasks (Type 3): Collaborative Tasks:
– Require learners to work together to produce a joint
product or conclusion (e.g. an essay or presentation,
a linguistic translation or cultural adaptation of a
text).
– Usually involve great deal of coordination and
planning.
– Also bring about substantial amounts of negotiation
(both on linguistic and cultural levels) as learners
strive to reach agreement on their final product.

• Advertisement Adaptation:
The students from Spain and America
will be shown a Spanish advertisement
and will be asked to write an adaptation
for the American market.
You should change the content as well as
the language style, so that the ad is
appropriate for the other culture. The
American partners should also comment
on the language, style, and cultural
appropriateness of the new version and
suggest changes. Agree on a final version
of the adaptation which is agreeable to
all group members.

Issues when Designing Tasks:
Should tasks be chosen by
the instructors an/or by
the students themselves?
What level of autonomy
should students be
allowed to have when
completing tasks?

E-mail from Alex (tutor in Spain) writes to Susan (tutor
in USA)
• “…Another worry is the first Spanish activity -
students are being very general and vague about
what task to complete together and according to
our timetable we have only one week left before
moving on to task two. What can we expect
students to do this week? Who should make the
final decision as to what film/ad/ song they should
discuss together? How much time will they have to
then carry out this discussion? Do you share my
worry about this? Or maybe I am being overly-teacherly
about this and should just sit back and
let the students work out all this for themselves.
I'd like to hear your takes on this please...”

Reply from Susan to Alex
• “…if they are indeed vague and general, in all honesty - that’s their
problem. They know how telecollaboration functions and what impact it has
on their grade. If they don’t intend to take it seriously on their own, their
grade will suffer. Although they might not learn a lot of Spanish from that,
it’ll be a valuable lesson in other senses: namely, I always tell my students
that part of their academic experience is not only to learn about the
subject matter, but also to learn responsibility, (self)discipline, time-management,
collective awareness as well as many other concepts and
principles on which the adult world operates. So, if my students don't grasp
the subjunctive fully, but I manage to teach them some of the afore-mentioned
principles - that satisfies me as a teacher as well. Ideally, I'd
want to have them grasp both aspects, but that's not always possible.
In the same vein, in reference to who will have a final decision as to what
film/ad/ song they should discuss together, I think I mentioned on a couple
of occasions that the students will be the ones to decide (preferably
American students). If they drag their feet in making this decision and as a
result of that they don’t have enough time to complete the first activity so
be it. I’ll take a couple of points off and I can bet you that for the second
activity they won’t commit the same mistake. That would be my take on
things.”

Student Reactions to Self-selected or
Instructor-Assigned Tasks
• Students from Spain:
• “I prefer instructor-assigned tasks
because I consider we wasted a lot of
time deciding on what task to do in
Spanish”
• “The disadvantage of self-selected
tasks is to find something relevant
and interesting for both me and my
partner…”
• “I prefer instructor-assigned tasks
because you don’t always know what
your partner is going to like or dislike
about the task you choose, so it is
easier a mandatory task”
• Students from USA:
• “I prefer self-selected tasks because I
choose what I was interested in. The
other tasks were boring…”
• “Self-selected because they gave me
more freedom. The assigned tasks
were uninteresting.”
• “I liked instructor-assigned tasks
because it was easier to manage and
not as open-ended.”
• “I like self-selected tasks because I
could work on what I wanted to and
that was motivating…”

Your thoughts….
How can we focus on form in telecollaborative projects?
51

Types of Focus on Form
• In Tandem learning:
• Error-correction by their partners
• Repair sequences (“Negotiation of meaning”)
• Working backward from their partners’ mistakes in the
L1 (Appel and Mullen, 2000)
• Refer to structures and vocab used earlier in the L2 by
their partner (“noticing”) – pedagogical interventions

The benefits of peer-correction and mentoring
• "In class you write down notes about grammar and
vocabulary and it stays in your notebook. With an exchange
partner she corrects and the information stays with you ....
• You learn more from mistakes in the forums than from
reading rules from the blackboard …. Maybe it's more
interesting by the net. You are chatting so you are enjoying. If
the teacher gives me a corrected essay, I just read it and that's
all.”
[Interview extracts from a León-Dallas exchange. More info:
http://llt.msu.edu/vol12num1/wareodowd/default.html]

Problems with focussing on form
• Students don’t know how to correct their partners’
mistakes- How many English natives could explain the
difference between ‘practice’ and ‘practise’ to a non-native
Spanish speaker?
• [A Spanish student after her exchange with an American
partner] “It’s ok but I think there is a bad point. That is
that they are not teachers. They can make mistakes too.
In the correction she sent me of ‘firstly’ she didn’t
realise you can say this in British English.”

Some more Problems…
• Difficulties correcting your partner
“I thought, I would seem arrogant if I tried to correct
their grammar and their spelling in a casual conversation
about the topics. When you’re speaking to somebody,
you don’t expect them to correct you and it could
actually insult them”. [Dana from the USA speaking about
her Spanish partner]
• Schwienhorst (2000): even though students were
explicitly encouraged to correct their partners’ grammar
errors, very little evidence of error correction appeared
in the transcripts. Perception by students that tandem
was primarily a communicative activity?

Your thoughts….
What should be the role of the teacher?
57

What should be the Role of the Teacher?
• [A teacher writes to partner teacher] “Do you think there is
any need to monitor the discussions or just exchange e-mail
addresses and let the students handle the rest? (E-mail to
author, 2001)”
• [Another teacher writes to partner teacher] “On-line
exchanges should be integrated into the regular classes in the
way which the teacher finds most effective. When students
are left to themselves they lose interest in the process fairly
soon. As any other teaching/learning process, this should be
well-planned, organized and controlled – then it brings
results.”

Should students`e-mails be read and shared in
class?
• Q: Do you find it useful and interesting when we talk about the
exchange in class?
• A: I think it might be necessary, just to keep it going. But on the
other hand it seems uncomfortable to me that I would actually
like to discuss (up to a certain degree) rather “private”, or non-superficial
subjects, but my e-mails have to be forwarded to at
least two people. And the content might be topic of our next
meeting...
• But: „Zensur und Internet wollen nicht zueinander passen, aber
E-mail Projekte sind keine Privatangelegenheit von Schülern,
sondern Teil schulischer Arbeit (Donath, 1997:264).“

Dealing with intercultural communication episodes in
the classroom
• Exploring cultural ‘rich
points’ in class:
• Belz (2002: 76): “…the clash
of cultural fault lines in
telecollaborative learning
communities …should not
be smoothed over or
avoided…; indeed, they
should be encouraged”.

Your thoughts….
Read the extracts from various telecollaborative
exchanges
How should they be dealt with in the classroom?
61

What are the main challenges for novice telecollaborators?
Are there certain competences harder to develop than
others?
• Qualitative interviews via
email with 4 novice
telecollaborators (10 per
informant)
• Informants teaching
languages at universities in
Argentina, USA and Italy (*2)
• Identified in the
unicollaboration.eu database
of practitioners

Main problems experienced by Novice
Telecollaborators
• Barbara: that “…[telecollaboration] can be difficult if the teacher
is not completely familiar with the culture/educational system of
the partner country. …it was very helpful for me to know the
French educational system and the fact, for example, that
French students and teachers take their weekends and vacation
time seriously, and don’t work 24/7 like the Americans.”
[organisational competence A10]
• Francesca: [difficulty of] “…finding partner institutions in English
speaking countries that have classes of Italian as a Foreign
Language. Then, once the partner institution is found, it is not
always easy to find time slots which fit the timetables of both
institutions.” [A1] and [A4]]

Main problems experienced by Novice
Telecollaborators (2)
• Marta: “My questions and doubts have to do with
technology at this point. I am still debating what platform is
best for the asynchronous exchange. I am not familiar with
blogs so I am nervous about using it.” [C2]
• Melina: “The other difficulty for me is to keep track of the
synchronous communication since there is no log. My
students get an oral participation grade for this part of the
exchange and I am still trying to figure out how to do that.
[A13 and C2]

Organisational
Competences
Model of
Telecollaborative
Competence for
Teachers
Pedagogical
Competences
Attitudes /Socio-affective
Electronic
Literacies
65
O’Dowd, R. (2013). The Competences of the Telecollaborative Teacher. The Language Learning
Journal, DOI: 10.1080/ 09571736.2013.853374.

The Telecollaborative Teacher…
• …can integrate appropriate
assessment procedures and
rubrics which accurately reflect
the activities which students
carried out during their exchange.
• …can choose the appropriate
online communication tools (e.g.
email, blogs, wikis, skype) to fit
both the everyday online
practices of the students as well
as the project’s aims.
• …can use online networks and
his/her own professional contacts
to locate possible partner-teachers
in distant locations.
• …can apply his/her knowledge of
the educational context in which
the partner class is working in
order to structure the exchange
and avoid problems.

What Approach will you take?
• Who decides on the content
of the tasks and
interaction?
• How often will the online
interaction be discussed in
class?
• Do students need guidance
in writing and analysing
correspondence?
• Should the teachers
intervene/participate in the
online interaction?

Your thoughts….
How should we assess telecollaborative projects?
68

How should the exchange activity be assessed?
• What do we want to assess?
– Participation?
– Development in the L2?
– Electronic Literacies?
– Intercultural Competence (skills, attitudes, cultural
awareness)?
• How should it be assessed?
– Proof of participation
– Products of interaction (essays, blogs, websites)
– Reflection on learning (portfolios, diaries)

• “Some authors suggest that instead of grading
learners on the number of posts, more self-evaluating
procedures should be used, as well as
peer evaluations… These forms of evaluation become
even more important when considering the question
of assessing the general outcome of CMC in TBLT,
intercultural communicative competence (Muller-
Hartmann, A and Schocker v.-Ditfurth, M. 2008).”

Evaluating Intercultural Competence
• An interview with Michael Byram:
• “Although I have written about assessment for the
reasons that we all know, i.e. that what isn’t tested
isn’t taught, nonetheless there are problematic
aspects of assessment and we can’t be sure what the
answers are. Particularly about attitude. Assessing
skills is OK, assessing knowledge is OK, assessing the
ability to evaluate is OK, but not assessing values or
attitudes. That’s where there are problems of a
moral nature, as well as a technical nature.”
• http://elt.britcoun.org.pl/elt/forum/byrint.htm

An Exchange Portfolio
• What should your exchange portfolio contain?
• Your portfolio should show proof that you have developed as a learner of English
during your online exchange and that you have reflected on your learning process.
To do that, you should include some of the following things:
• 1. Your essay about the exchange.
• 2. An example of a post you wrote to your partner where you tried out new
vocabulary and/or grammatical structures or ones which you do not usually use.
Explain which are the new structures and vocabulary and how you felt about trying
out new language.
• 3. A dialogue which shows a post you wrote which has some mistakes you made in
English and then the answer from your partner where she corrects you. Explain
whether you think your partner corrected you in a useful way or not. What did you
learn from the corrections?
• 4. An example of a message from your partner where you learned new vocabulary
or where you noticed how a certain grammatical structure works.
• 5. An extract from your chat with your partner (if you had one). Explain your
opinion about using chats compared to using the message boards. Which
advantages and disadvantages do chats have? Can you show evidence for this in
your own chat?
• 6. Photocopies of pages from your notebook where you made notes about your
online exchange and what your partner taught you.

Now it’s your turn:
What Approach will you take?
• What sort of partner class should I look for?
• Where can I find partners?
• How to deal with language use and combine the L1
and L2 successfully?
• Which online communication tools to use?
• What tasks should the students carry out together?
• Should there be an explicit focus on form?
• What should be the role of the teacher?
• How should the exchange activity be assessed?

Using the UNICollaboration platform for your exchanges

INTENT :
Integrating Telecollaborative Networks Into Higher Education
LLP: 2011-2014

Start here to find databanks of classes, institutions and
practitioners who are interested in establishing contacts…

If you choose ‘classes’ then you’ll be able to search or browse a list of
classes which are interested in taking part in online exchange projects...

Create a new class and let other practitioners read about your group
and the type of exchange you’d like to have…

In the ‘Tasks’ tab in the top menu bar, you’ll find collections of tasks,
task sequences (i.e. collections of interconnected tasks) and
assessment tools to use in your online exchange projects…

To learn more about how online exchanges work:
Click on the ‘Training’ tab in the top menu bar. Here you’ll find accounts of
different exchanges (‘Sample projects’) and information on how to set up and
run an exchange (‘Training modules’)

When you choose a sample project, click on the different tabs to read
about the project, the tasks it used and how educators evaluated the
project…

To discuss issues related to telecollaboration with colleagues

As you explore www.unicollaboration.eu:
• See if you can find the following on the platform:
• …. a proposed exchange which you would like to take
part in.
• ….task which you would like to use in your
telecollaborative exchanges.
• …. a task sequence which you would like to try out.
• …. a sample project which appears interesting to you.

I
Our Last Task today:
Exploring case studies of Telecollaboration

The normalisation of Computer Assisted Language
Learning
[W]hen computers . . . are used
every day by language students and
teachers as an integral part of every
lesson, like a pen or a book . . .
without fear or inhibition, and
equally without an exaggerated
respect for what they can do. They
will not be the centre of any lesson,
but they will play a part in almost all
. . . They will go almost unnoticed.
(Stephen Bax, 2003: 23)

Identifying Strategies for ‘normalising’ TC in
university education
• What are practitioners doing to overcome these
barriers and to ensure successful, on-going exchanges
which involve recognition of teachers and students’
work?
• Case studies of practitioners in
– Trinity College, Dublin
– Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
– The University of Padua, Italy
– University of Manchester, UK
– Arhus Universitet, Denmark
– University of Riga, Latvia
– University of Warwick, UK

As you read your case study
• How was the exchange
structured? Tasks,
evaluation etc.
• What problems and
barriers did the organisers
encounter?
• What steps did they take
to achieve successful
integration of the
exchange in their
institutions?

Learning from the Case Studies
 Telecollaboration is not only for ‘pure’ language students – Engineering
students in Sweden, Business Studies students in Trinity, Dublin
 Senior Management – view OIE as a positive international activity but are
often unwilling to provide adequate staff and technical support
 OIE can contribute to educators’ academic careers – new academic
networks, staff mobility – e.g. Riga & Grenoble / Warwick & Clermont sign
‘Memorandum of Understanding’
 No ‘one size fits all’ -Different levels of integration are possible:
 Claivier at Warwick takes place independently of academic courses
 SpEakWise at Trinity is integrated into a course but does not carry credit
 Manchester and Latvia – course marks are based completely on OIE
activity

Strategies for Integrating Telecollaboration (1)
 Signing of written contracts between participating partner classes – provides security
to include exchanges in study guides etc.
 Ensure that students see relevance and value of exchanges – e.g. through providing
academic credit for OIE
 Functioning partnerships gather momentum – try to maintain steady partners
 Ensure awareness and support of department heads – coordinating staff can be
replaced if necessary
 Prestige and awareness raising through press releases and prize winning (e.g. Trinity
award)
 Ensure internal department collaboration and sharing of good practices (e.g. Padova
– tool sharing)

Strategies for Integrating Telecollaboration (2)
 ‘Loose networks’ of partners are gaining in popularity
 TransAtlantic Network (Translation students around Europe & technical writing
students in USA)
 Soliya – Connects students from 100 HEI’s in 27 countries in Western-Eastern
dialogue
 Cultura – bilingual bicultural exchanges through comparative task types
 AUSJAL DUAL IMMERSION PROJECT - 21 Jesuit universities from eight different
countries in North and South America
 Byram’s Intercultural Citizenship project – 25 practitioners looking for partners to
carry out a project on intercultural citizenship
Advantages:
 Common themes of interest
 Not obliged to work with same partner constantly - flexibility
 Activities, solutions and ideas are shared and developed

Read more about telecollaboration…
• Contact:
– robert.odowd@unileon.es
– Publications: http://unileon.academia.edu/RobertODowd
– See this presentation again: http://www.slideshare.net/dfmro
• Read our Report on Telecollaboration in Europe:
– http://www.scoop.it/t/intent-project-news
– INTENT Project news: http://www.scoop.it/t/intent-project-news

Integrating Telecollaboration into Foreign Language Education: Exploring Models of Virtual Exchange for Language Educators in University Education

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Integrating Telecollaboration into Foreign Language Education: Exploring Models of Virtual Exchange for Language Educators in University Education