Summary
– Main objectives of the Virtual Exchange
The goal of this project was to bring together English teacher candidates to collaborate on a sequence of tasks that fostered learning and reflection about issues of equality and diversity in different educational contexts. This collaborative was intended to encourage students to apply concepts from their courses (e.g. assessment practices, theories of language teaching and learning, equality in the classroom) in the discussion and development of teaching materials for future English classes. At the same time, this partnership offers students the chance to develop their linguistic and intercultural competence and collaborative and transversal skills.
– Targeted learning outcomes
Application of course knowledge, intercultural awareness, online collaboration skills. Developing understanding of Equality and Diversity.
– Global task description
Students were partnered into transnational teams to complete a sequence of three tasks: introduction, comparison of perspectives on equality and diversity in education, application of these perspectives in the collaborative development of teaching materials for future English classes.
Partners
| Partner / department | Course | Language of instruction | Number of students |
| University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA Education |
Theories of Language Learning in the ESOL Classroom | English | 7 |
| Malmö University (S) Culture, Languages and Media |
English Studies and Education: Language Development, Equivalence and Language Teaching | English | 19 |
Start and end date
27/01/2020 – 15/03/2020
Duration
7 weeks
Discipline
Education
Integration and assessment
There will be class discussions and the students will give an oral presentation of the task they created in the VE project. The students will include their telecollaborative experience when they write the Reflective Teaching Component of their Professional Plan.
Technology tools used
– Learning environment
Schoology
– Collaboration tools
Schoology discussion forum, ZOOM, Google Docs, Doodle
– Reflection tool
Students will keep a reflection portfolio in a word document that they will upload and share with their instructor at the end of the partnership.