TELECOLLABORATION: INTEGRATING VIRTUAL AND PHYSICAL MOBILITY

IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Chair: Rafael de Paz, Universidad de Leon, Spain

Speakers: Melinda Dooly, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, SpainRobert O'Dowd, Universidad de León, Spain

EAIE September 2012 Dublin

Some questions for you:

How much student mobility in your institution?

What are the main barriers to student mobility in your institutions?

In your opinion, in what ways can online technologies support physical student mobility or provide a ‘second-best’ alternative to physical mobility?

PLAN FOR THIS MORNING• Explain what telecollaboration is and why it could be relevant to your

educational contexts

• Demonstrate how this type of activity can be used either as an alternative to physical mobility or as a preparatory tool for mobility programmes

• Outline some of the common barriers which exist at university level to setting up such virtual mobility exchanges

• Identify examples of online exchange projects which have overcome these barriers.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Example of set-up 2: Integrating mobility students into faculty’s study activities

• “The Spanish-American Cultura Exchange”

• University of León – Barnard College, University of Colombia, New York

• EFL students at León + Spanish students at Barnard

• Combining virtual and physical mobility

Spanish-American CulturaCombining On-line and Physical Contact Mobility

• January-March: On-line Exchange (1)– Project work – videos, essay etc.– Online interaction between both classes

• March: Group from New York visit León• April: Group from León visit New York• April: New Materials collected/created by students are

added to on-line platform• April-May: On-line Exchange (2). Analysis of new materials • Following year: Previous year’s materials available for new

groups of learners….

Exploiting Students’ Visits

One week study visit to partner university by 6 students. This includes:

•Home-stays with families•Visiting students attend various classes: Presentations in their native language / participation in class activities •Interviewing of local residents •Organised tours and visits with host class as ‘guides’

Feeding back to the on-line Platform – for next year’s participants

• Favourite photos and their commentaries

• Videos of presentations• Essays based on ethnographic

interviews

Collaboration began in 2004-2005

2 Teacher education classes (mostly exchange of products)

Expanded to collaboration between online groups

2012-2013: Co-written curriculum for methodology course

Example of set-up 2: Exchange between teacher education classes

Long term collaboration between Spain & USA

Main objectives•Collaborate on designing, implementing and evaluating a teaching sequence & 1 partnered educational activity•Role of online collaboration:•Support & critique teaching sequence design (1 per student)•Design together materials & teaching instructions for technology-enhanced activity (1 per group)

•Participate in cross-cultural teaching & learning experiences

Collaboration on Teaching Units•Introductory phase (get to know online partners)

•Working groups for brainstorming & feedback 1st draft

•Revision following Peer Input & Self Reflection

•Implementation

I’ve learnt to observe a lot which I think has enormous advantages.

Commenting our units’ draft on and on has been really useful as well as UIUC peers’ comments and advice. Getting feedback from many different people has made me read and rewrite my draft so many times and I think this is a good point […] without all this insightful feedback, I wouldn’t have realized my first unit draft was too ambiguous …

Learning to reflect on own teaching practice through telecollaboration

Partnered educational activity•Educational Podcasts & Related Teaching Activities

•Introductory phase•Students introduced to new virtual space for interaction (Second Life) with Scavenger Hunt

•Podcast Design•Students brainstorm, post preliminary ideas in Second Life•Peers give feedback on preliminary ideas

•Podcast Production•UIUC students create podcasts in class•UAB students write pre- during & post-activities. All students view final products and give feedback on them during ‘end of term’ SL party

Getting to know each other & SL

Brainstorming & feedback in SL

Podcast production, implementation & SL feedback session

Student Reflections

o Student Wikis: served as both ongoing collaborative tool and as final output (instead of final report with only audience of teacher)

o Reflection on entire process, learning outcomes, new teaching strategies, rationale of teaching paradigm, etc.

o Reflection on nexus between school internship activities, methodology courses and internship tutorials.

What impact is Telecollaboration making in European universities?

Guth, Helm & O’Dowd (2012): http://intent-project.eu/sites/default/files/Telecollaboration_report_Final.pdf

Online surveys from December 2011 - February 2012 in 4 languages Three surveys:

Experienced teacher telecollaborators (102 responses) Inexperienced teacher telecollaborators (108 responses) Experienced student telecollaborators (131 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

EXPERIENCED UNIVERSITY PRACTITIONERS GIVE THEIR FEEDBACK ON TELECOLLABORATION AND ITS LINK TO PHYSICAL MOBILITY

So why isn’t everyone doing it?

In your opinion, what are the reasons why telecollaborative exchange is not more popular in university education? __________________________________

(Mentioned by 49/ 98 practitioners) __________________________________

(Mentioned by 28 / 98 practitioners) __________________________________

(Mentioned by 20/ 98 practitioners) __________________________________

(Mentioned by 19 / 98 practitioners) __________________________________

(Mentioned by 9/ 98 practitioners)

So why isn’t everyone doing it? In your opinion, what are the reasons why telecollaborative exchange is not

more popular in university education?

Time necessary to set up and run exchanges (Mentioned 49/ 98 practitioners)

Difficulties in integration & assessment due to institutional requirements (Mentioned by 28 / 98 practitioners)

Lack of pedagogical knowledge about how to run and integrate exchanges (Mentioned by 20/ 98 practitioners)

Teachers lack e-literacies/ required technological knowledge (Mentioned by 19 / 98 practitioners)

Difficulty in finding appropriate partners (Mentioned by 9/ 98 practitioners)

PRACTITIONERS’ EXPLANATIONS FOR THE SLOW INTEGRATION OF TC IN HEI’S

• Because teachers are not trained and insitutions are not aware of the potential and needs and those teachers carrying out innovative teaching practice are not in a position of power and cannot make decisions which impact on their insitution.

• First, it is difficult to organize such exchanges at institutional level. Second, the idea sounds interesting, but the teachers involved need to dedicate much time and energy to the exchange, so finally they won't do it. Third, the student's motivation won't last long since it is not a credited course.

• It is essential to find a partner with similar aims, able to adapt programs to different institutional expectations (amount of homework done by students for example), willing to adapt to technical disturbances (network disturbances, computer crashes), and to some extent lose or share control of class dynamics. The partners must build a program that satifies needs, levels and interests of both classes.

Identifying Strategies for integrating TC into 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

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

www.uni-collaboration.eu

Look for teachers in other universities

Review the classes which are looking for partnerships

See examples of previous exchanges

Find tasks for your projects

Exchanges, ideas, questions and experiences with other practitioners

Announce your own class / group of students to the community

Get involved• Contact and suggestions

welcome:intentproject@gmail.com – Read our Report on

Telecollaboration in Europe: – www.intent-project.eu

• Upcoming platform for collaboration and networking: – www.uni-collaboration.eu

The INTENT project has been funded with support from the European Commission. The publications related to the project reflect the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.