© 2014 TILA 1

S. Melchor-Couto (University of Roehampton)

K. Jauregi (Utrecht University & Fontys University of Applied Sciences)

Integrating Telecollaboration Practices in

Secondary Education: Lessons Learnt in the

European Project TILA

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Background

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Telecollaboration is becoming increasingly popular in education as a way to enhance:

Meaningful language acquisition (Canto et al., 2013; Chapelle, 2001; Lamy & Goodfellow, 2010; Warschauer & Kern, 2000),

Intercultural Communicative Competence (Belz & Thorne,

2006; Byram, 2014; Canto et al. 2014; Guth & Helm, 2010; O’Dowd, 2007; Liauw, 2006).

Motivation (Jauregi et al. 2012)

But most experiences and research results reported so far on telecollaboration refer to tertiary language education (Pol, 2013).

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TILA 2013-2015

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Telecollaboration

Intercultural

Language

Acquisition

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(1) to innovate, enrich and make FLT more

meaningful by integrating telecollaboration

activities in secondary schools across Europe;

(2) to empower teachers and assist them in

developing ICT literacy skills as well as

organisational, pedagogical and intercultural

competences to guarantee adequate integration of

telecollaboration practices; and

(3) to study the added value of telecollaboration

Project goals

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(A)synchronous communication in TILA

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Forum Blog

Wiki

Moodle

PrivacySafe

environmentUnder-age

Chat

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TILA activities

Analysis of teachers’ needs

Teacher training sessions

Interaction task design

Design instruments for research

Telecollaboration pilots:

o First pilots in target languages (Sp, En, Fr, Ger, Cat)

212 learners, 20 teachers, 8 schools

Most pilots: synchronous communication (BBB &

OpenSim)

o November – January 2014 Follow-up 6

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Voorbeeld TILA

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Recordings

Example

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Challenges

Supportive institutions

allow time for innovation

Robust school networks

Successful synchronous collaborations

Promote independent learning

Telecollaboration from home

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Sound was good (if applicable) 2,75

I like to communicate and interact in this tool environment 4,11

I like to meet students from other countries in this tool environment 4,3

I like to learn in this tool environment 4,12

I like to be visible in a video 3,68

I like to see the others in a video 4,06

II like to be an avatar 3,53

I like to speak with an avatar 3,53

I felt comfortable in the interaction 3,77

I felt satisfied with the way I communicated 3,53

I felt the tool environment affected my communication positively 3,58

I enjoyed communicating with students from another country 4,30

I found it motivating to communicate with students from another country 4,18

It was important for me to be understood 4,17

It was important for me to understand the other student(s) 4,23

It was important for me to learn about the other students’ life and culture 3,91

It was important for me to get to know students from another country 4,07

I was able to learn something about the other students’ life and culture 3,76

I enjoyed the online task 4,08

I found the online task interesting for interaction with peers of other countries

4,15

I found the online task useful for my language learning 3,99

The online task helped me discover new things about the other culture 3,81

I would like to use online tasks with students from other countries more

often

4,15

77 respondents (20 OpenSim)

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studyinthestates.dhs.gov

Conclusions

A long way to go for synchronoustelecollaboration in secondary education to be implemented technologically, logistically and pedagogically successfully

Powerful environment for authentic communication if preconditions are met sufficiently,

Need for research studies ((a)synchronous collaboration, interaction, tasks, motivation)

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