INtegrating TElecollaborative NeTworks into

Foreign Language Higher EducationForeign Language Higher Education

Francesca Helm, University of Padova, Italy

Seminar “European Co-Laboratory for the Integration of Virtual Mobility in Higher

Education Innovation and Modernization Strategies”

Padova, 27 March 2014,

Agenda

• The INTENT project

• The Unicollaboration Platform

• Position Paper• Position Paper

• Important developments on local and international levels

• Future plans

INTENT• Integrating Telecollaborative Networks into Foreign Language

Higher Education

• Financed By The European Commission - Lifelong LearningProgramme

• Co-ordinated by Robert O’Dowd at the Universidad de Leon, Spain

• 8 European partners (PH Heidelberg, Grenoble III, Padova, Czestochowa, Groningen, UA Barcelona, Open University UK)

• October 2011-March 2014

Study of Telecollaboration in European Universities

� Online surveys from December 2011 - February 2012

� Language versions: English, German, French and Italian

� Three surveys with responses from 24 European countries:

� Experienced teacher telecollaborators (102 complete responses)

� Inexperienced teacher telecollaborators (108 complete responses)

� Experienced student telecollaborators (131 complete responses)

� Qualitative Case studies:

� 7 representative examples of telecollaboration around Europe

� Aims:

� Identify types of telecollaborative practices undertaken by European

university educators

� Explore the barriers to telecollaboration and the strategies used to

overcome these barriers

Principal Findings

� Languages used in exchanges:

� Despite predominance of English, French, German, Spanish were common and there are

examples from many ‘lesser taught’ languages as well.

� Intended outcomes of exchanges:

� Predominance of improving intercultural competence but also linguistic competency,

digital literacy and learner autonomy.digital literacy and learner autonomy.

� Consequences:

� Greater interest in physical mobility.

� Students become more open to others, accepting and understanding of difference and

to realise that their own points of view are not necessarily “the best or only ones”.

� Long term friendships with their telecollaboration peers, keeping in touch once

exchanges are over and some even visiting one another.

� Students want more: “Our University should organise more exchanges”, “more than one

term”, “more time to speak”, “more Skype sessions”, etc.

Barriers

Despite positive outcomes and the fact that

� “Telecollaborative exchanges are recognised by many universities as valuable activities

for internationalisation and for the development of student mobility.”

� “Telecollaboration not only benefits students’ learning but can also contribute to

educators’ academic careers, by establishing connections to new academic networks and

engaging in staff mobility visits with other universities etc.”engaging in staff mobility visits with other universities etc.”

Telecollaboration remains the domain of individual teachers, who invest

massive amounts of time in this activity

There remains across Europe a lack of institutional support in terms of

� Incentives for teachers to do this (eg. course release for pedagogical innovation)

� professional development training for teachers,

� credits for students,

� integration into study programmes,

� engagement with institutions in the developing world, in particular sub-Saharan Africa.

Read our Report on

Telecollaboration in Europe:

www.intent-project.euwww.intent-project.eu

UniCollaboration Platform• Interactive platform for telecollaboration/online intercultural

exchanges in HE

• Information resource for teachers, mobility coordinators, administrators, students: – Sample Projects

– Tasks, Task sequences

– Practitioners, Institutions, Classes– Practitioners, Institutions, Classes

– Training and ‘how to’ materials

• Tools for practitioners: – Create tasks, classes, compile ePortfolio

– Search for partners

– Plan and prepare collaborations

• Social functions: forum, messaging, blogs

• Announcements and site activities on home page

Usage• Currently:

– About 600 registered users, ca. 155 logged in

during past 4 months

– More than 35 countries– More than 35 countries

– Each continent

– Many languages, especially English and other

major languages, but also minority languages

INTENT - Integrating Telecollaborative

Networks into University Foreign Language

Education

ePortfolio

Designed to help teachers assess long-

term development of intercultural and

telecollaborative skills.

Short introduction to some of the

principles behind evaluating student

work along with a walk-through

technical guide for using the portfolio

platform.platform.

The INTENT group have held workshops in

partner countries and across Europe as part of

local events and international conferences.

Workshops have been conducted in different

languages to familiarise participants with the

practice of telecollaboration and use of the

platform through hands on experience

INTENT - Integrating Telecollaborative

Networks into University Foreign Language

Education

INTENT - Integrating Telecollaborative

Networks into University Foreign Language

Education

Recent additions• Collaborations

– Link classes and exchange information

• Integration social media

– Share new classes, tasks and announcements on – Share new classes, tasks and announcements on

Facebook and Twitter

• Translations (in progress)

– Translations in project languages

• Position paper

– Why? To support us in dialogue with stakeholders

on the role of telecollaboration in higher

educationeducation

The position paper is on the UNICollaboration

website and we are collecting individual and

institutional endorsements.

INTENT - Integrating Telecollaborative

Networks into University Foreign Language

Education

Important developments on an

international levelFebruary 2013

The U.S. Department of Education and Cultural Affairs Bureau (the world’s largest

funder of exchanges) established a Virtual Exchange Unit.

May 2013

The European Union’s Executive External Action Service (the EU foreign policy The European Union’s Executive External Action Service (the EU foreign policy

bureau) organized briefings by Virtual Exchange program implementers, funders, and

researchers with senior EU policy-advisors and funding bureaus.

May 2013

At the Foreign Service Institute Overseas Security Seminar, U.S. Secretary of State

John Kerry announced the Obama Administration’s plan to launch the J. Christopher

Stevens Virtual Exchange Initiative. This initiative will fuel the scaled expansion of the

Virtual Exchange field and contribute substantially to enabling all youth to have a

meaningful cross-cultural experience as part of their education.

Future plans

• Link up with other organizations doing similar work

(Exchange 2.0 coalition)

• Engage with decision-makers, lobbying activity,

promote policy change – as in the USpromote policy change – as in the US

• Prepare follow-up EC-funded projects

• Carry out more research,

also using MIT’s tools for

measuring impact

Important developments

on a local level

• Virtual exchanges are appearing in course curricula as

optional credit-bearing courses

• Students are doing virtual placements, eg. Facilitating

in the Soliya Connect Program, Sharing Perspectives

• Language Centre has plans to set up a Virtual

Exchange Unit, to offer students more opportunities

and to support university professors in setting up

virtual exchanges

Thank you!

francesca.helm@unipd.it

Online Intercultural Exchange in Higher Education

Intercultural Horizons, Siena, 7-9 October 2013

http://www.scoop.it/t/intent-project-news

www.uni-collaboration.eu