A presentatation about the INTENT project and telecollaboration made at the Santander Group of Universities meeting at the University of León, Spain in October 2012.

1. INTENT Project - Integrating Telecollaborative Networks into
Foreign Language Higher Education
• robert.odowd@unileon.es
• www.uni-collaboration.eu
• http://intent-project.eu/

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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)

5. Telecollaboration:
Virtual mobility in the classroom
• Telecollaboration involves online intercultural collaborative
projects between students in geographically distant locations

6. 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
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.

7. 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.

9. Task 1

10. Task 2: Discussion forums

11. Task 3: Making short videos for their partners…

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

13. 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.

14. Interested?
Join UNICollaboration,
the home of online intercultural exchange for university classrooms

15. 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…

16. 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...

17. 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…

18. 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…

19. 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…

20. 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…

21. 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’)

22. 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…

23. Want to discuss issues related to telecollaboration with colleagues?
Click on ‘community’ in the top menu bar and participate in our
moderated discussion forums…

24. 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.)

25. 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…

26. 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…

27. And then?
Go to the ‘partners’ tab again. Check in the ‘institutions’ section if your
university is already listed in the databank….

28. 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…

29. 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)

30. Thank you!