Petra Hoffstaedter & Kurt Kohn (2014). Task design for intercultural telecollaboration in secondary schools, Insights from the EU project TILA. EuroCALL Groningen, 20-23 Aug 2014

Ta s k d e s i g n f o r i n t e r c u l t u r a l t e l e c o l l a b o r a t i o n i n s e c o n d a r y s c h o o l s

I n s i g h t s f r o m t h e E U p r o j e c t T I L A

Petra Hoffstaedter & Kurt Kohn Steinbeis-Transferzentrum Sprachlernmedien

www.sprachlernmedien.de [email protected] [email protected]

EUROCALL 2014, Groningen, 20-23 August 2014

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.


Our topics

Context and rationale

Rubbing shoulders with reality

Waiting for better days?

Effects of class organisation

“Notre tête est ronde”

Case study 1: tandem conversations in OpenSim

Case study 2: lingua franca conversations in BigBlueButton

Conclusion


Context and rationale

The EU project TILA explores the use of telecollaboration for intercultural foreign language learning in secondary schools – WHY?

1. Successful foreign language learning requires extensive small group communication practice in ordinary intercultural encounters

2. Telecollaborative communication facilitates authenticated intercultural FL learning Asynchronous: forum, wiki, blog Synchronous: sound/video conferencing (Skype, BigBlueButton), 3D virtual worlds

(SecondLife, OpenSim)

TILA task ensembles in blended learning settings preparatory: getting to know each other, knowledge development, familiarizing

face-to-face or online, synchronous or asynchronous, individual or collaborative main: intercultural communicative interactions embedding in overall class curriculum

in synchronous (BBB, OS) and/or asynchronous (forum, blog) environments follow-up: securing learning results

face-to-face or online, synchronous or asynchronous, individual or collaborative

Innovation focus = synchronous oral communication in the 3D virtual world of OpenSim in the videoconferencing environment BigBlueButton


Rubbing shoulders with reality

Technological infrastructures in secondary schools sufficient for synchronous (written) chat and asynchronous (written) forum, blog far less sufficient for synchronous oral (BBB, OpenSim)

Teacher feedback and participant observations (from first TILA pilots) poor sound quality (disturbances, breakdowns) survival communication (“Can you hear me?”)

Positive feedback from pupils YES: encouraging evidence of the high motivation potential of TC BUT: first-time effect (which will not last if problems persist)

Seemingly positive feedback must not distract from sound quality as a necessary condition for pedagogic success


Waiting for better days?

It would be a serious mistake to expect everything will be fine with just a little bit of more time and technological development

Technological development can take quite unexpected turns and will not necessarily move in our direction unless we voice our interests and needs loud and clearly

Availability of potentially powerful technological infrastructures is increasing BUT: effects of “light weight” mobile computing (private) BUT: insufficient coverage (in institutions) BUT: underuse of potential: lack of expertise and support (e.g. sound settings)


Effects of class organisation

The technological quality of synchronous oral telecollaboration is closely linked to class (group) organisation

Traditional face-to-face focus on class times, class locations and class-size groups not necessarily suitable for synchronous oral telecollaboration

Full-class exchanges with VC/data projector offer (only) limited communication options one-to-many one-to-one (with rest of class as observers or background support)

Small parallel telecollaboration groups in PC lab lack of communicative privacy reduced sound/video quality because of temporary network overload class organisation?


“Notre tête est ronde pour permettre à la pensée de changer de direction.”

Francis Picabia (1879-1953)

We need to

reconsider and adapt

our concepts and strategies of class organisation

to the conditions of telecollaboration


Case study 1: Tandem conversations in virtual worlds (OpenSim)

Four successive telecollaboration sessions between a French and a German class via school PC lab

Learning objective: communication practice in French and German; intercultural awareness

Thematic focus: waste disposal, vegetarian diet, fashion, and Europe

Pedagogical approach: tandem French/German learning stations with posters in French or German French/German pairs of pupils walk from poster to

poster and discuss a topic in the poster or session language BL arrangement: preparatory and follow-up activities in F2F, forum, blog or wiki

Level: A2/B1 Age: 14/15


Case study 1: OpenSim tandem sessions with PC lab support

Sessions A1 and A2 • 6 French/German tandem pairs in OpenSim via school PC lab • French pupils together in same PC lab • German pupils in one PC lab together with 6 classmates for background

support • 3 posters in French and 3 posters in German • French/German language shift within one session determined by poster • Topic: “waste disposal” (session A1) and “vegetarian diet” (session A2)

Session C • 4 French/German tandem pairs • Same PC lab setting as in A1/A2, but no “supporting” classmates in

German PC lab • Topic: “Fashion” (posters /pictures of participating pupils) • Posters & communication only in German (=> no language shift)

Session B • 4 French/German tandem pairs • Same PC lab setting as in A1/A2 • Topic: “Europe” (posters created by the German students) • Posters & communication only in French (=> no language shift)

Session variables: • Different topics • Language shift vs. no language shift • No. of students (6 vs. 4 pairs) • With/without “supporting” classmates

Developmental set-up: to find out what works best and make improvements from one exchange to the next


Case study 1: Teacher and student feedback

• Topics: preference to talk about personal experiences, likes, dislikes, habits and opinions (favorite topic: fashion)

• Posters: flexible means to provide stimuli for communication and discovery of intercultural differences and similarities

• Language of communication: preference for focus on one language

• Students as background support: distracting and causing language switches

• Lab situation: lack of communicative privacy (> disturbing background noise due to parallel telecollaboration pairs)

• Technical problems: network overload (> sound problems; avatars only visible as clouds)

• Class organisation: challenge to take care of the rest of the class

Topics

Posters

Language

Background support

Lab situation

Technical issues

Class organisation


Case study 2: Lingua franca conversations in BigBlueButton and forum

Telecollaboration sessions between a Dutch and a French class to explore outside-class exchanges using the videoconferencing (BigBlueButton), Skype) and forum

Learning objective: communication practice in German; intercultural awareness

Thematic focus: 10 topics to choose from, e.g. dress code in school, a day without mobile phone or computer, is it important to think about where our clothes are made

Pedagogical approach: Lingua franca German (i.e. German is the target language for both partners) Pair conversations in BigBlueButton or Moodle forum Telecollaborative homework, i.e. access to BigBlueButton and forum from home

BL arrangement: preparatory and follow-up activities


Case study 2: Task arrangements

Level: A2/B1 ; Age: 14/15 Time span: two weeks

Preparatory activities: • Decision on tool (BBB or forum) depending on

pupils’ preference and/or technological infrastructure (teachers formed matching pairs)

• Partner contact and BBB meeting arrangements by email (autonomous)

Telecollabration task: • BBB: “discuss 5 topics and take notes” • Forum: “discuss 3 topics in the forum”

Follow-up activities • Summarizing conversation protocols • Final discussion in class and/or presentation of

results in a wiki (could not be carried out due to time constraints)


Case study 2: Assessment – BBB vs. forum

Five pairs using videoconferencing: • 2 very successful exchanges in BBB • 1 switch to Skype (technical problems in BBB) • 2 switches to chat (1 partner with sound problem

Thirteen pairs using the forum • Contributions ranging between 1 and 11

posts

1

2

3

4

5

I enjoyed the online task

I found the online task

interesting for interaction with peers of other

countries

I found the online task

useful for my language learning

The online task helped me

discover new things about the other culture

I would suggest to a friend to

take part in this kind of online collaboration

I would like to use online tasks with students from other

countries more often

BBB

Forum

Questionnaire results • 7 BBB participants • 8 forum participants


Case study 2: Teacher and student feedback

Homework approach

Lingua Franca

Topics

Technical issues (BBB)

Organisational issues

• Students liked to communicate from home (BBB): more relaxed, no time pressure, no pressure from teachers

• According to teachers, this had a positive effect on pupils’ communication => natural and fluent conversations

• No disturbing background noise from other students (like in PC Lab)

• Students liked to talk to other learners of German • The French students were less worried to make mistakes • The Dutch students made an effort to communicate well and seriously • Very positive reaction from teachers

• Topics were suitable for spontaneous communication • Students choose topics they were personally interested in • Students could talk about own experiences and opinions

• Students helped each other with technical problems • They used written chat or a combination of sound and chat when sound did not

work for one partner • They switched to Skype when BBB did not work for them

• Making appointments for the telecollaboration in BBB was no problem • All students were involved in the task (BBB or Forum) • Students who did the forum discussion seemed to need more encouragement

to perform the task


Conclusion

Telecollaboration activities offer

motivating opportunities for natural communication and intercultural exchanges

. . . and acknowledgement

Our study would not have been possible without the creative expertise and enthusiastic commitment of “our” teachers

Cathérine Felce, College La Cerisaie, Charenton-le-Pont, France

Helga Frömming, Berlage Lyceum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Hajo Zenzen, Gymnasium Saarburg, Germany

Outside-class / homework activities are

pedagogicaly valid

technologically feasible

Education

Petra Hoffstaedter & Kurt Kohn (2014). Task design for intercultural telecollaboration in secondary schools, Insights from the EU project TILA. EuroCALL Groningen, 20-23 Aug 2014