Research - Global Online Education & Intercultural Competency
I love the idea of connecting a course with a course abroad through Virtual International Exchanges (VIE) projects or Virtual Mobility (VM).
Learning a language is one of the most beautiful culturally diverse experiences in a lifetime. A language learner has the opportunity to immerse themselves in another world and another culture. Through this project students can transcend a monolinguistic focused society and see the imperfections of language learning through the eyes of a native speaker observing a second language learner in action.
Language learners pass from one level to another through cultural experiences. With more exposure to the target language students become more fluent. Native speakers make mistakes and so do fluent speakers. This project enables the language learners to see the mistakes that other language learners have and vice versa. Cultural diversity and cultural awareness comes through slow exposure over time or by immersing yourself. It also provides the students the connection to allow a cultural diversity exchange.
Telecollaboration is a relatively new term. Julie A. Belz defines telecollaboration by defining the students and the process of what students do:
“…internationally-dispersed learners in parallel language classes use Internet communication tools such as e-mail, synchronous chat, threaded discussion, and MOOCs (as well as other forms of electronically mediated communication), in order to support social interaction, dialogue, debate, and intercultural exchange.” (2003a: 1)
Robert O’Dowd further describes telecollaboration as:
“The application of online communication tools to bring together classes of language learners in geographically distant locations to develop their foreign language skills and intercultural competence through collaborative tasks and project work.” (2010:Eurocall Symposium)
Learning a language is one of the most beautiful culturally diverse experiences in a lifetime. A language learner has the opportunity to immerse themselves in another world and another culture. Through this project students can transcend a monolinguistic focused society and see the imperfections of language learning through the eyes of a native speaker observing a second language learner in action.
Language learners pass from one level to another through cultural experiences. With more exposure to the target language students become more fluent. Native speakers make mistakes and so do fluent speakers. This project enables the language learners to see the mistakes that other language learners have and vice versa. Cultural diversity and cultural awareness comes through slow exposure over time or by immersing yourself. It also provides the students the connection to allow a cultural diversity exchange.
Telecollaboration is a relatively new term. Julie A. Belz defines telecollaboration by defining the students and the process of what students do:
“…internationally-dispersed learners in parallel language classes use Internet communication tools such as e-mail, synchronous chat, threaded discussion, and MOOCs (as well as other forms of electronically mediated communication), in order to support social interaction, dialogue, debate, and intercultural exchange.” (2003a: 1)
Robert O’Dowd further describes telecollaboration as:
“The application of online communication tools to bring together classes of language learners in geographically distant locations to develop their foreign language skills and intercultural competence through collaborative tasks and project work.” (2010:Eurocall Symposium)
Prior Virtual Intercultural Exchanges (VIEs)
- USA and Japan
- USA and Uzbekistan
- USA and Peru (2110)
- USA and Peru (1020)
- USA and Peru (2016)
- Colorado and Puebla (2016)
| vie_cu_boulder_and_shinshu_university_japan.pdf |
