Presentation given at Innovation in Foreign Language Teaching Conference, 19-20 September 2014, Jagiellonian University Kraków

1. Sake Jager, manager eLearning / lecturer Applied Linguistics
University of Groningen
Innovation in Foreign Language Teaching, Krakow
19-20 September 2014
1
Where MOOCs won’t do: the affordances of
telecollaboration for language learning online

2. Outline
› Open Education (OE)
• MOOCS
• Open Educational Resources
• OE for language learning
› Telecollaboration (TC)
• What is TC?
• INTENT/UNICollaboration
• Benefits for language learning
• Challenges
› Linking TC and OE
› Conclusion
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Where horses won’t do:
the affordances of
dairy cows for milk
production in the
Netherlands

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NY Times, 11-12-2013
TechCrunch, 11-09-2014

5. More realistic views of MOOCs
› It’s not primarily about:
• course completion
• access to the non-privileged
› Face-to-face, on campus may be better
› Potential acknowledged:
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“the content developed has tremendous potential to advance
students’ critical thinking and problem solving abilities.”
“Udacity has brought to the table ways to make courses more
inquiry-based and added real-life context.”
http://www.sjsu.edu/chemistry/People/Faculty/Collins_Research_Page/AOLE%20Report%20-September%2010%202013%20final.pdf
› Not a replacement of, but complement to on-site courses

6. MOOCs for language learning (EUROCALL2014)
› UNED (Madrid):
• English vocabulary learning in preparation of reading
• Rubén Chacón-Beltrán
› OU (UK):
• Language and employability skills French
• Tita Beaven
› University of Limerick:
• Language learning potential of regular MOOCs
• Liam Murray
› Open University Catalunia, University of Barcelona:
• Connecting speakers of English and Spanish with NSs through
SpeakApps
• Cristine Appel, Joan-Tomas Pujolá
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7. Models for language learning
› xMOOC: instructivist, knowledge-transmission
› cMOOC: constructivist, connectivist (Downes and
Siemens)
› cMOOC preferred for language learning
• collaboration and interaction
• ‘guide on the side’ rather than ‘sage on the stage’
› New role for automated feedback
› Opportunities for meaningful interaction lacking or
add-on in many MOOCs
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8. Open Education in general
OER
(materials)
OCW
(materials in
context)
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Open Courses
(materials in
context with peers
and teachers)
› Progression, but one is not necessarily better than other
› Long tradition of sharing in CALL
› Linked to other disciplines through channels such as:
• MIT OCW: http://ocw.mit.edu
• CMU Open Learning Initiative: http://oli.cmu.edu/
• Connexions: http://cnx.org/
• Merlot: http://www.merlot.org/
• Specific for languages: e.g. LangOER (http://langOER.eun.org)
• Parallel: Open source, WEB 2.0 and cloud computing

9. Telecollaboration
› Learners from geographically distant locations work
together on learning tasks or projects using technology
tools
› Aka: Online intercultural exchange, virtual exchange
› INTENT Project (http://www.intent-project.eu) :
• Carry out a study of Telecollaboration in European HEI’s
• Develop tools & platform to support Telecollaboration in
European HEIs (http://www.unicollaboration.eu)
• Identify and develop strategies for Integration of TC
• Provide training through workshops & online resources
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11. Well-known models
› eTandem:
• Brammerts et al
• http://www.slf.ruhr-uni-bochum.
de/etandem/etindex-en.
html
• Late 90s/early 20s
• Two (or more) languages
• Focus on language
• Autonomy and reciprocity
• Primarily email
› Cultura:
• Fürstenberg et al
• http://cultura.mit.edu/
• Late 90s/early 20s
• Two (or more) languages
• Focus on culture
• Interacting and
communicating in foreign
language
• Questionnaires, films, articles,
online forums
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12. Competences and configurations
› Competences:
• Foreign language skills
• Intercultural
communication
• eLiteracy
• Subject knowledge
› Configurations:
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• Tandem
• Lingua franca
• Teacher-education

15. Telecollaboration and mobility
› 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
› Only 1% students on Erasmus grants in 2011/12; if successful, 80%
left without experience

16. eTwinning: http://www.etwinning.net

17. VMCOLAB:
http://vmcolab.eu/
PROVIP
http://provip.eu/

18. Overall benefits (INTENT)
› For students: to develop their FL competences,
intercultural awareness and electronic literacies
› For university educators: to open up their classrooms,
allow for authentic communication and project work and
to develop an international network of collaborators
› For mobility officers: to prepare for physical mobility or to
offer an alternative to physical mobility
› For university management: ‘low cost’ internationalisation
strategy, open up new university partnerships
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19. Critical aspects of SLA
› Meaningful, task-based interaction
› Authenticity and motivation
› Negotiation of meaning and focus on form
› Task-design is crucial for making the most of these
aspects
› Example:
• Chain stories task on UNICollaboration site
• http://uni-collaboration.eu/?q=node/840
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21. TC in ELC programme Groningen
› Teaching and learning innovation in European Languages and
Cultures (ELC)
› Telecollaboration project should:
• Increase number of hours for (oral) interaction in L2
• Enhance intercultural awareness and competences
• Prepare for study abroad
› Part of assessed course work
› Study abroad network (Erasmus) used for stable partnerships
› Pilots for Spanish, Italian, French in 2013-2014
› Structural use from 2014 on
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22. Overview projects
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Spanish French Italian
Universitat de Barcelona Université de Strasbourg Università degli Studi di
Padova
UB: Joan Tomas Pujolá
UG: Gerdientje Oggel
Carolina Fernández Royón
Juan Alba Duran
US: Wouter van der Veen
Tiemen de Jonge
UG: Simone Koster
Judith Jansma
UP: Heleen Mertens
UG: Maaike Dicke
Teacher education
UB: pre-service, UG: Spanish
Tandem
US: Dutch, UG: French
Tandem
UP: Dutch, UG: Italian
c. 25 students each c. 15 students each c. 7 students each
Blackboard (VLE, journals,
email, etc)
Blackboard Collaborate
Web 2.0 (Glogster, etc.)
Blackboard (VLE, journals,
email, etc)
Facebook
Skype, Skype recorder
Blackboard (VLE, journals,
email, etc)
Google Hangouts
Online movies

23. Evidence-based practice
› E.g. research by Jauregi et al:
• Greater growth in oral skills than in traditional teaching
• Videoconferencing group; Second Life group
-Silvia Canto, Kristi Jauregi and Huub van den Bergh (2013). Integrating
cross-cultural interaction through video-communication and virtual
worlds in foreign language teaching programs: is there an added value?.
ReCALL, 25, pp 105-121. doi:10.1017/S0958344012000274.
› NIFLAR project: http://niflar.eu/
› TILA project: http://tilaproject.wordpress.com/
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24. Some tools for TC
› Communication
• Email
• Chat
• Skype
• Google Hangouts
• Voicethread
• SpeakApps VideoChat
• FlashMeeting
• Adobe Connect
• Blackboard Collaborate
› Collaboration
• PBWorks
• Storybird
• Prezi
› Presentation
• Glogster
• About.me
• Sliderocket
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See also: http://uni-collaboration.eu/?q=node/440 (Gosia Kurek)

25. Telecollaboration and Open Education
› Interrelated and mutually supporting
› UNICollaboration platform: open resource for sharing
projects, tasks and finding partners
› Web 2.0 tools: free, cloud-based, useful for TC
› SpeakApps: open source, free tools, OER task
database
› MOOCs: complementary uses for cognitive aspects,
‘knowledge clips’, automated feedback
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26. Conclusion
› TC has a lot to offer for language learning
› Language teachers should follow OE principles to
enhance visibility and quality
› Management should recognize importance and work
towards integration in curriculum
› MOOCs may have a complementary role and combine
aspects of TC and OE (cf. Appel and Pujolá)
› Promote online intercultural exchange as Open
Educational Practice
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Thank you for your attention!
Sake Jager
s.jager@rug.nl
http://www.rug.nl/staff/s.jager