An invited lecture at the UNiversity of Coventry

1. TELECOLLABORATION:
PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE?
Robert O'Dowd,
Universidad de León,
Spain

2. Plan for this afternoon
•
Identify some of the current challenges to foreign languages (FL)
educators in Europe
•
Outline what me mean by ‘telecollaboration’ or ‘online intercultural
exchange’
•
Explore some examples from formal and informal learning contexts and
different educational levels
•
Discuss how you might get your learners involved in such exchanges
2

3. Current trends in FL education
•
1. A significant increase in access to online technologies in educational and training contexts
around Europe
– In 2006 67% of schools reported having broadband connections in their schools
(Commission of the European Communities, 2008: 23–34).
•
2. The emergence of Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and podcasts as an essential part of
foreign language education
•
3. The acceptance of the importance of cultural awareness in foreign language education (See, for
example, the importance of intercultural competence in Council of Europe’s European Language
Portfolio and the Autobiography of intercultural encounters.
•
4. The paradigm of language learning as a sociocultural process which is best facilitated through
semi-authentic, purposeful communicative events (Dooly & O’Dowd, 2012)
•
5. The merger of foreign language competence and e-literacies as integral components of the
new skills required in global workplace: Instead of using technologies simply to learn foreign
languages, learners need to learn how to combine both foreign language skills and e-skills to be
able to work and collaborate in new contexts
3

4. Exploit the
availability
of ICT and
Web 2.0
tools
Need to provide
authentic
communicative
opportunities for
learners
Challenges
for FL
Educators
Need to develop
cultural awareness
and intercultural
competence
Develop the skills
of 21st century
workplace
4

5. Student mobility in Europe
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)
But what happens to the remaining 80%?
http://ec.europa.eu/education/doc/2008/mobilityreport_en.pdf

6. Telecollaboration: International Online Learning from
the classroom
• In Language Learning & Technology (2003) Belz defines
the main characteristics of FL telecollaboration:
• ‘institutionalized, electronically mediated, intercultural
communication under the guidance of a languacultural
expert (i.e., teacher) for the purposes of foreign
language learning and the development of intercultural
competence’ (2003: 2).
6

7. How does Telecollaboration contribute to Foreign Language
Education?
Research studies show its value for development of:
•Learner autonomy (O’Rourke, 2007)
•Linguistic competence (Belz and Kinginger, 2003, Ware and O’Dowd, 2008)
•Intercultural competence (Mueller-Hartmann, 2000; O’Dowd, 2003; Ware,
2005)
•Online literacy skills (Guth and Helm, 2010; Hauck, 2007).
Success at primary and secondary levels through networks such as
etwinning and ePals.
Let’s see how it works: Two examples of Spanish-American
telecollaborative exchanges
Example 1 comes from Pre-primary education
Example 2 comes from university education

8. Example 1: Pre-Primary Exchange through Epals
www.epals.com

9. A reply to Noelia from the USA
•
•
•
Hello Ms. Iglesias,
We are a class of 23 students ages 5-6 years old in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, United States. My students will finish their first year of school in
just a few weeks and they are eager to share some of their favorite
memories and experiences from this year.
In addition to sharing their favorite kindergarten memories, we will be
taking a field trip to the zoo next week. I'm sure my students will want to
write about it and send pictures.
Even though we will only be able to communicate a few times before
the end of our school year, I think it would be a valuable experience for
both sets of students.
Please let me know if you are interested and have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Emily Tomkins

11. • HI EMILY!
My pupils are very happy. I told them about the new friends in Dakota and
they feel very excited.We were looking in the map where South Dakota is.
They want to know something about all of you and your school. We were
negotiating the questions in order they can improve their English. Besides
this, they want to "teach" you some Spanish words.
I wrote all the questions on the whiteboard and now you will see all of them
below:
What are your names?
What is the name of your school?
What colour is your classroom?
What´s the weather like in Dakota?
How old is your school?
Good bye, kisses
Oscar, Sofia C, Sofia V, Alvaro, Loreto, Fernando, CArmen y Lucía.
Teacher: Noelia
SPANISH WORDS THEY WANT TO TEACH YOU:
HOLA (Hello)
ADIÓS (Good bye)
BESOS (Kisses)

12. •
Hello Noelia!
My students were so excited to read your letter last Friday! We loved all
of the good questions your students thought of. My students are going
to have to do some research to find out how old our school is. It was
interesting for them to try to develop a plan for how to find that
information. Some of them are going to ask their parents to help them
find the answer on the computer and others have decided to interview
different staff members at our school.
They loved learning new words. That was a great idea! My kiddos
thought it was very interesting that your students were learning English
in school. They are excited to learn a new language too.
•
We put a sticker on top of Leon on our world map in the class room as
well as a sticker on top of Sioux Falls. They were amazed to see how
far away you live.
…
Have a wonderful weekend and adios! Emily

14. •
•
•
Reflections by Noelia in Spain:
•
Anyway, we could exchange some information and my children could realize
the main purpose of learning English: communicate with people from
other cultures. Learning this language let the children know more about other
children, just like them, who live in other countries and who love to have new
friends and have fun.
•
I was surprised how my students were thinking about the questions to ask them
in order to get some information from them, from their school and from their
classroom. The brain storming first and the negotiation next, let me feel so
proud about them because they were doing a very good cognitive
process…...speaking English for a real purpose!!!
•
My students were very involved in this experience. Everyday they asked me:
“Teacher, ¿Nos han escrito los amigos de Dakota?”. I girl told me she had told
her mum about the new experience and she did not relieve her.
I could never imagine it was going to be so excited, easy, quick, attractive
and useful . My students and me could be in touch with another culture,
another country, another school, another classroom with twenty three children
and a very kind teacher with out living our school!!
•
This has been a wonderful experience for me as a teacher, and for my
students.

15. Example 2: University-level exchange
• Future ‘Primary school teachers’ in ULE (B1 level) work with Students of
Spanish in Missouri, USA:
• Task 1: Upload and discuss 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: 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 4: Write an essay (300 words) on what you have learned from the
exchange.

16. www.ning.com
16

17. Task 1: Upload and discuss a photo…
17

18. Task 2: Discussion forums
18

19. Making short videos for their partners…
19

20. Writing and designing blogs about their local
culture for a foreign audience
20

21. Two students’ reactions…
1. 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…
2. 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.
21

22. Potential for informal learning?
Some examples of Telecollaboration 2.0
•
•
•
•
Thorne et al. ( 2009 ): online fan communities, where learners can establish
relationships with like-minded fans of music groups or authors and can even use
Web 2.0 technologies to remix and create new artistic creations based on existing
books, films and music.
Hanna and de Nooy ( 2009 ): Learners use their FL skills and hone their
intercultural communicative competence through participating in online public
discussion forums of French newspapers and magazines
Pasfi eld-Neofi tou ( 2011 ): analyses blogs, emails, chat conversations, game profi
les and mobile phone communications between 12 Australian learners of Japanese
with Japanese partners they had contacted outside of their formal learning
environment.
Stickler, U., & Emke, M. (2011): The Literalia project involves institutions in four
countries in a multinational and multicultural network of learners to further
intercultural maturity. All participants were adults learning voluntarily in nonformal and informal settings.
22

23. “Intercultural Learning in the wild”
• This type of telecollaboration may be ‘situated in arenas
of social activity that are less controllable than
classroom or organized online intercultural exchanges
might be, but which present interesting, and perhaps
even compelling, opportunities for intercultural
exchange…and meaning making’ (Thorne, 2010 , p.
144).
23

24. The Challenges of Informal
Telecollaborative Learning
• How can learners receive ‘credit’ or recognition for their
informal telecollaborative work? – badges?
• How can learners establish regular and dependable virtual
partnerships?
• How can learners with relatively low levels of electronic
literacy engage in telecollaboration 2.0 activities involving the
remixing of multimedia objects and participation in publicaccess ‘fan sites’ and public internet discussion forums?
24

25. Support and Networking for Primary
and Secondary Educators
25

26. Attending to the needs of University Practitioners
INTENT (Integrating Telecollaborative Networks Into Foreign
Language Higher Education )
Financed By The European Commission - Lifelong Learning
Programme
 Objectives:
 Carry out a survey of
telecollaboration in European
universities
 Develop a platform and set of
tools to overcome barriers
and facilitate
telecollaboration in
universities
 Develop a set of workable
solutions to address the lack
of academic integration in
Europe
26

27. www.uni-collaboration.eu
27

28. 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

29. How does Telecollaboration contribute to Foreign Language
Education?
Research studies show its value for development of:
•
Learner autonomy (O’Rourke, 2007)
•
Linguistic competence (Belz and Kinginger, 2003; Ware and O’Dowd, 2008)
•
Intercultural competence (Mueller-Hartmann, 2000; O’Dowd, 2003; Ware,
2005)
•
Online literacy skills (Guth and Helm, 2010; Hauck, 2007)
• Independent and informal learning - online fan communities
(Thorne et al., 2009), SpeakApps tools
(http://www.speakapps.org/)

30. What impact is Telecollaboration making in European
universities?
 Guth, Helm & O’Dowd (2012):
 http://intentproject.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

31. What students learn from Telecollaboration

32. Students’ voices…
•
•
•
•
•
•
I've been practising a lot of English. I know how an email conversation is like in
English. I realized I should be less influenced by cultural stereotypes.
Cross-cultural dialogue skills -negotiation and facilitation skills
My English skills, both speaking and comprehension and some language teaching
techniques.
I have developed the ability to work in a group .
That the cultural values of a country/region/family/person are not necessarily the
"best or only" ones, and that we can indeed explore and appreciate other views
and experiences.
We are so different and no one could ever guess how this difference will show up…

33. Internationalisation…
• Report of the High Level Expert Forum on mobility :
• “Virtual mobility is widely available, quick and cheap.
Nevertheless, physical mobility provides a more intensive
and deeper experience and is, therefore, irreplaceable.
Developing the synergies between virtual and physical
mobility is a central art of a new way of life’ (2008: 11)”.

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

35. An example of ‘blended mobility’ - 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

36. Spanish-American Cultura
Combining 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….

37. 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’

38. 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

39. Different set-ups which telecollaboration can take
1. A class of EFL learners in France carry out collaborative tasks online
with a class of learners in Ireland – using French and English
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.
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.
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.

40. Why isn’t everyone doing it?
 In our survey, we asked European telecollaborating teachers what
were the reasons why telecollaborative exchange was 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)

41. 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)

42. Teachers’ voices…
• “... institutions are not aware of its potential and needs. Those teachers
carrying out innovative teaching practice are not in a position of power
and cannot make decisions which impact on their institution”.
• “… 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. The student's motivation won't last long if 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 satisfies
needs, levels and interests of both classes.”

43. 7 Case Studies of European University
Telecollaboration

44. Key to integration 1 – Build-up reliable and
steady partnerships
• Trinity College in Ireland - the Irish teachers ensured that they
developed a good-working relationship not only with the
telecollaborative partner-teachers in Germany, but also with the
director of the German department
• Many Tcers establish partnerships through the use of personal
networks as opposed to using more formal institutional contacts
with other universities
• The V-PAL project in Manchester, UK: Tcer ensured the
development of steady partnerships with her colleagues in Italy
by signing contract agreements with them which outlined the
basic structure of the course and ensured the commitment of
the collaborating partner-teachers to maintain the exchange until
its conclusion

45. Key to integration 2 – Raise awareness and
prestige of the exchange
• the SpEakWise exchange at Trinity College, Ireland, applied for
and was awarded The European Language Label, an EU-funded
award which recognises innovative ways to improve the quality
of language teaching and learning
• Warwick University, UK, the Clavier project requested an
announcement in the local press about the launch of the project
and also ensured that the project was known about in
administrative circles of their home institution
• In Sweden, the SW-US exchange between engineering students
and students of English is mentioned in division assessment
procedures and it is cited in department activity plans under the
context of ‘continued international collaboration’

46. Key to integration 3 – Use telecollaboration
creatively to adapt to local institutions’ needs
• Padova: Telecollaboration served as a substitute for student
work placements. Students in large-sized language classes in
were offered 3 ECTS for telecollaboration as an alternative to
work placements.
• In the SW-US exchange - “All engineering programmes have an
MTS (Man, Technology, and Society) requirement. The blog
exchange gives students first a real authentic audience with
which to interact in interpreting society… Their encountering
students from the humanities tends to serve as powerful insights
into MTS and that their technologically infused perspective is
fruitfully combined with other perspectives.”

47. Key to integration 4 – Achieve credit or recognition for the
students’ telecollaborative work
• V-PAL project at Manchester - optional courses which are offered along
with the core language courses. Each course lasts one semester and is
worth 10 UK credits.
• University of Latvia: a fully recognised course (6 ECTS) which is entirely
based around her students’ online interaction with the partner class of
trainee French teachers in Grenoble, France
• The TransAtlantic network ensures that students receive a percentage
of the total course credit for their work
• Tcer at Manchester University: “To be honest, unless it becomes a
credit-bearing module, staff will have to do it above their day-to-day
workload, which could become unfeasible (and it did exactly that for
me, which is why – partly – I wanted to get formal recognition for
them).”

48. Key to integration 5 – Link telecollaboration to broader
international activity
Telecollaboration can be more effectively integrated into a university if it is
linked in some ways to the local institutions’ other international activities:
• Senior management at Manchester: “...this kind of project can play a part
in raising the institution’s international profile. It is conceivable, for
instance, that links established via V-PAL could develop into full-blown
ERASMUS exchange agreements...”.
• The universities of Riga and Grenoble - a ‘Memorandum of
Understanding’ for staff and student mobility thanks to their
telecollaborative partnerships.
• Chalmers University in Sweden: their exchange with Clemson University,
South Carolina had served to enhance academic links between educators
at their two institutions. For example, they had received several visits
from these partner faculties in the USA .

49. Reliable and
steady
partnerships
Adapty exchange
to the needs and
international
activitiees of the
institution
Keys to
Integration
Provide teachers
and students with
credit for their
work on exchange
Prestige and
Recognition of
exchanges at
institutional level

50. Read more…
• http://unileon.academia.edu/RobertODowd
• O'Dowd, R., Telecollaborative networks in
university higher education: Overcoming
barriers to integration, Internet and
• Higher Education (2013),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2013.02.
001