• robert.odowd@unileon.es

• www.uni-collaboration.eu

• http://intent-project.eu/

INTENT Project - Integrating Telecollaborative Networks into Foreign Language Higher Education

Why might this project be of interest to you?

• INTENT: www.intent-project.eu • Integrating Telecollaborative Networks into Foreign Language Higher Education• Financed by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Comission

258,000€ (Oct. 2011- March 2014). • 8 European partners in 7 countries

• Interesting for Mobility Coordinators:• Get your students into contact with students in the country of destination before

they leave on Erasmus etc.• Language practise and learning more about the country of destination

• Interesting for lecturers:• Organise projects between your students and students in partner universities • Develop language and intercultural communication skills and the ability to work

in multicultural groups

Student mobility in Europe

Mobility is important for personal development and employability, it fosters respect for diversity and a capacity to deal with other cultures. It encourages linguistic pluralism, thus underpinning the multilingual tradition of the European Higher Education Area and it increases cooperation and competition between higher education institutions

In 2020, at least 20% of those graduating in the European Higher Education Area should have had a study or training period abroad.

Communiqué of the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education,

Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve, 28-29 April 2009

What happens to the remaining 80%?

Virtual mobility, i.e. the use of the internet and other electronic forms of information and communication, is often a catalyst for embarking on a period of physical mobility. Although not a substitute for physical mobility, it does enable young people to prepare a stay abroad and can create conditions for future physical mobility by facilitating friendships, contacts and social networking etc….

It can also provide an international dimension to those learners who, for different reasons, are not able or willing to go abroad. In that context, ICT can be used for “electronic twinning” …etc.

Commission of the European Communities:

Green paper: promoting the learning mobility of young people (2009)

Telecollaboration: Virtual mobility in the classroom

• Telecollaboration involves online intercultural collaborative projects between students in geographically distant locations

Different set-ups which telecollaboration can take

1. A Class of learners in Germany carry out collaborative tasks online with a class of learners in Ireland – using German and English

4. Students on Erasmus mobility contribute to a blog where they discuss their experiences abroad. This blog includes quetions and

comments by ‘pre-mobility’ students at the home university.

3. Before leaving on mobility programmes to the UK, students from Italy are ‘matched’ and interact online with British students

planning to travel to Italy.

2. A class of students in Spain collaborate online with a class in USA. This is combined with week-long study visits by both groups to partner

universities.

An example of a University-based Telecollaborative Project

Future Primary-School teachers in Uni León (B1 level) work with Students of Spanish in Missouri, USA:

Task 1: Upload a photo or video which tells the other group something about your home culture

Task 2: Participate in two discussion forums – one in English and one in Spanish.

Task 3: Make a short video teaching your partners some expressions in your language

Task 4: In groups of four, create a blog with images, text and links about an aspect of life in Spain/USA. Post your reactions and some language corrections to your American partners’ blogs.

Task 5: Write an essay reflecting on what you have learned from the exchange.

Task 1

Task 2: Discussion forums

Task 3: Making short videos for their partners…

Writing and designing blogs about their local culture for a foreign audience

Two students’ reactions…• My opinion about this Exchange is very positive; it has made me consider to

use it in my future English classes with my students. These months sharing opinions have given us a very different view of the United States, which we had idealized, and that, from this we have taken note that are not so different to our countries and that American films us had deceived with respect to reality. The most important thing I've learned in this Exchange has been not to judge a society without first speak with one of its citizens…

• I really enjoyed meeting new people and talk with them. I think it was a good experience. I also think that learning English with this online exchange is fun for people who don’t like English and it is an alternative way of learning English.

Interested?Join UNICollaboration,

the home of online intercultural exchange for university classrooms

To start exploring, click on the ‘partners’ tab in the top menu bar. 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...

When you see a class that you would like to connect to your own class, simply click on ‘Contact the author’ to get into contact and discuss a

possible exchange…

Can’t find a class which suits your students? Then simply click on ‘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…

In the task databank you can search or browse for tasks to suit your online exchange.

You can also ‘create a new task’ to share with others…

Want 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 (‘Case studies’) and information on how to set up

and run an exchange (‘Training modules’)

When you choose a case study, click on the different tabs to read about the project, the tasks it used and how educators and students

evaluated the project…

Want to discuss issues related to telecollaboration with colleagues? Click on ‘community’ in the top menu bar and participate in our

moderated discussion forums…

The uni-collaboration platform depends on its members sharing and contributing experiences and materials. Click on ‘create’ in the top

menu bar to add new case studies, classes, tasks and more…(All submissions are moderated before being published.)

Want to keep track of all the information, tasks, classes which you have added to the platform? Click on ‘my account’ to see all your

information brought together…

What should you do first? Click on ‘partners’ in the main menu bar. Then choose ‘practitioners’.

Then, choose ‘add more detail to your own practitioner profile’. This will encourage other practitioners to contact you and your classes…

And then?Go to the ‘partners’ tab again. Check in the ‘institutions’ section if your

university is already listed in the databank….

If your institution is not already listed, then go to ‘create’ in the top menu bar, click on ‘institutions’ and add information about your

university or college…

Get involved!

• More information:• intentproject@gmail.com

• Read more about the project:• INTENT: www.intent-project.eu

• See this presentation again:• http://www.slideshare.net/Intent_eu/newsfeed

• Look for partners for your online exchanges:

• www.uni-collaboration.eu (launches Winter 2012)

Thank you!