Milli mála - 2019, Blaðsíða 63
Milli mála 11/2019 63
PILAR CONCHEIRO
2013 and with the University of Iceland since the academic year
2016–2017. The participants were 22 Spanish pre-service teachers
from the University of Barcelona studying the subject ICT (Information
and Communication Technology) in the teaching of Spanish as a for-
eign language and 11 students of Spanish as a foreign language at the
University of Iceland. This telecollaboration project was based on
different communicative tasks that had to be completed collaborati-
vely using different formats of interaction (videoconferencing,
WhatsApp, Flipgrid). Moreover, Google classroom was used as a vir-
tual environment for the project participants from both educational
institutions, which means that all the documents, calendar, task inst-
ructions and products created were shared there and both students
and teachers could have easy access to them. The teachers in charge
of the project were Dr. Joan Tomás Pujolá and Dr. Olivia Espejel
from the University of Barcelona and Dr. Pilar Concheiro from the
University of Iceland. This project started thanks to a personal initi-
ative and contact and not through any institutional arrangement. It
must be noted that the project was carried out in parallel – and was
deeply imbricated – with the development of the classes of each
group from January to April 2019. Consequently, for the students of
Spanish as a foreign language at the University of Iceland, the tele-
collaboration project made up 50% of the final grade, while it repre-
sented 80% of the final grade for the pre-service teachers at the UB.
Furthermore, much of the content used during face to face classes at
HI was based on the virtual exchange project. All the multimodal
products2 generated during the project were incorporated into the
weekly class and used as input for language and intercultural learn-
ing. The three teachers in charge of the project agreed that the vir-
tual exchange had to be integrated into the courses at HI and the UB
and be evaluated as credit-bearing activities.
For clarification, this project can be typified as 2.0 telecollabora-
tion3 since it emphasizes the development of digital competences,
specially concerning digital communicative and intercultural compe-
2 In virtual exchanges, different communication channels can be used to create a learning space
where elements such as sound, images, emojis are used to foster communication and interaction
(Cope et al., 2011).
3 Sarah Guth and Francisca Helm (Eds.). (2010). Telecollaboration 2.0. Language, Literacies and
Intercultural Learning in the 21st century. New York: Peter Lang.