Presentation about virtual mobility and the INTENT project in Rome at conference on language teaching in Political Science Faculties in Italy.

1. La mobilità virtuale per
l’internazionalizzazione e
l’apprendimento linguistico
• Francesca Helm
• Università degli Studi di Padova
Le lingue a Scienze Politiche
Università Roma Tre – 2-3 maggio 2012

2. The Bologna Process 2020
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

3. Mobilità in facoltà di Scienze
Politiche
90
80
70
60
50 media
Unipd
40
30
20
10
0
periodo di Erasmus Altra Esp. Iniziativa Nessun
studio personale periodo
all'estero

4. La ‘mobilità virtuale’ – per l’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 Communties: Green paper: promoting
the learning mobility of young people. COM(2009) 329final

5. Che cos’è la mobilità virtuale,
o ‘telecollaboration’?
• realizzazione di progetti di lavoro collaborativo tra
gruppi di studenti appartenenti a zone geografiche
distanti attraverso l’uso di strumenti informatici
comunemente disponibili, che consente lo sviluppo di
competenze linguistiche, comunicative, interculturali
e digitali.
Ci sono diversi modelli di
telecollaboration:

9. Due scambi online per studenti di Scienze
Politiche all’università di Padova
• Human Rights in Italy and
Guatemala - Telecollaboration
Exchange 2010-2011
– (con Universidad Rafael Landivar,
Guatemala)
• Soliya Connect Program
– United Nations – Alliance of
Civilizations

14. Qual’è l’impatto di progetti come Soliya?
Studenti dicono:
“Soliya allowed me to open the box that I was living in for a long
time and see the world around me. It taught me never to judge
people according to where they live…It made me discover my
personality all over again.”
-female student, University of Jordan, Jordan
• “Exchanging different views with people coming from so different
backgrounds was tantalizing me. Besides, I was conscious I had always
to learn more and more in an endless process. We are never enough
open minded we think we are. We should always improve ourselves by
facing new challenges and by accepting that our way of thinking is not
absolute. Our thoughts have to grow up with us always by putting them
under question. A good way to do it is searching conversations and, of
course, even some contrasts which bring us to reflection. What a better
occasion than Soliya?
– Female student, University of Padova, Italy

15. Docenti dicono …
“The Soliya program was phenomenal in terms of its impact on
the students' capacity to engage, learn, and quite frankly, be
transformed [...] Across the board, all of the students displayed a
heightened consciousness of the diversity and multiplicity of
perspectives. […] the aim is to open up minds and spur young
people to taking their responsibilities as global citizens more
seriously”
-Dr. Junaid S. Ahmad,
Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan
• “It is fine to talk about theories about ‘engaging the other’ or
‘increasing understanding across cultures’, but Soliya puts the
students on the front lines on intercultural relations. They will
learn more about themselves and their place in the world in
the Soliya sessions than in a semester in International
Relations classes.”
-Ambassador Cynthia Schneider,
Georgetown University, USA

16. INTENT
• Un progetto Erasmus multilaterale che promuove lo
scambio virtuale e interculturale tra gruppi di
studenti universitari in europa e oltre.
• Le università europee stanno prestando sempre più
attenzione al tema dell’ internazionalizzazione, della
mobilità studentesca e delle competenze linguistiche e
interculturali. Il progetto INTENT
(Integrating Telecollaborative Networks into Foreign
Language Higher Education) intende sostenere le
università in queste attività, sviluppando una rete di
telecollaborazioni tra università in europa e oltre.
•

17. La ‘squadra’
• Universidad de León, Spagna
– Robert O'Dowd e Mario Tomé
• Université Stendhal Grenoble, Francia
– Francois Mangenot e Elke Nissen
• Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg, Germania
– Andreas Mueller-Hartmann
• Wyzsza Szkola Lingwistyczna, Polonia
– Gosia Kurek
• Univesità degli Studi di Padova, Italia
– Francesca Helm e Sarah Guth
• Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Olanda
– Sake Jager e Steve Thorne,
• Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spagna
– Melinda Dooly,
• The Open University, GB
– Mirjam Hauck e Tim Lewis,

18. Le nostre attività principali:
• realizzare un sondaggio on-line su progetti di scambi interculturali
che sono attualmente in corso in tutta Europa;
• sviluppare una piattaforma virtuale (www.uni-collaboration.eu) dove i
docenti possano trovare classi partner, informazioni e materiale
formativo per i loro progetti di telecollaborazione;
• sviluppare diversi strumenti per docenti “telecollaborativi” tra cui un
e-portfolio per valutare i progetti degli studenti, banche dati di compiti
telecollaborativi e studi di caso che i docenti possono utilizzare per
organizzare e gestire i loro scambi.
• tenere vari seminari/laboratori regionali e una conferenza
internazionale sul tema della telecollaborazione per l'istruzione
universitaria.

19. Il sondaggio - Chi ha risposto?
Totale questionari completi:
• 210 docenti/insegnanti, soprattutto di lingua straniera o
formazione di insegnanti di lingua straniera
• da 142 università o equivalenti
• da 22 stati europei
• 102 di questi docenti con esperienza di telecollaboration
• 108 senza esperienza

20. Lingue insegnate
Catalano, Cinese, Olandese, Finlandese, Ungherese, Polacco,
Portoghese, Rumeno e Turko.
Anche docenti di traduzione, studi interculturali, informatica e
comunicazione, glottodidattica

21. Facoltà di provenienza

22. Esperienza di telecollaboration
Quanti scambi hai svolto negli ultimi 5 anni?

23. Quante lingue sono utilizzate?

24. Distribuzione geografica’ dei
partner

25. Di solito quanto dura uno scambio?

26. Come avete trovato i partners?

27. Valutazione dell’esperienza

28. A livello di ateneo
•
Docenti con esperienza Docenti senza esperienza

29. Mobilità reale e ‘mobilità
virtuale’
Docenti con esperienza Docenti senza esperienza

30. Argomenti ‘sensibili’, conflitto
Docenti con esperienza Docenti senza esperienza

31. Studentivécu lacommenti finali
“je n'ai pas vraiment
– télécollaboration sous l'angle d'une
rencontre inter-culturelle, mais d'une rencontre tout court.”
• Eine gute Idee, aber nur wenn sie sinnvoll geplant und durchgeführt wird.
• Gespräche in Echtzeit fände ich sehr hilfreich und auch spannender für die
Teilnehmer. Somit hätte man vielleicht eher die Möglichkeit auch persönliche
Gespräche mit den Austauschpartnern zu führen.
• I encourage all students to participate in a cultural exchange
• I think it was a great idea and experience. I think Skype would be a better way of oral
communicating.
• I think, it was fine and also, that it would be a necessary part in the degree of people
who are learning a foreign language.
• I will encourage everyone to participate in exchange programs
• Ich denke, dass interkultureller Onlineaustausch besonders für Studierende, die bisher
nur wenig interkulturelle Erfahrungen gemacht haben, sinvoll ist.
• Ich glaube, dass IOAes sehr eindrucksvoll sein können, aber leider habe ich es nicht
erlebt. Ich habe aber Ideen wie ich so eine Onlineaustausch organisieren würde.
• Its a useful too. I think that all the foreign language students should use it to realise
that studing a language involves more things than studing grammar and phonetics.
• Our University should organise more exchanges.
• Peut-etre Skype pour communiquer de plus.
• Si on organise la télécollaboration je'exigerais comme prof un laps de temps
obligatoire pour parler (p.ex. les élèves doivent avoir une conversation pendant une
heure par semaine..)
• They are so useful for students that they should be compulsory for everyone.
• We must do them mor than one term

33. Grazie!
Francesca.helm@unipd.it
http://www.intent-project.eu