Milli mála - 2019, Side 64

64 Milli mála 11/2019
TELECOLLABORATION HI-UB
tences. In addition, the group of students of Spanish at HI was ex-
pected to develop their linguistic competence through the different
tasks and the help and support of the pre-service teachers at the UB.
2. Telecollaboration in higher education
Virtual exchange, also known as telecollaboration or Collaborative
Online International Learning (COIL), is a term used to describe
different methods of engaging students in online intercultural colla-
boration projects with partner classes within their programmes of
study and under the guidance of teachers or trained facilitators.4 The
exchange is based on student-centred, international, and collaborative
approaches to learning where knowledge is built up and shared
through interaction. This approach has been used in higher education
for more than 20 years 5 and has been used widely in subject areas
such as foreign language education, business studies, and initial
teacher education.6 As Luo and Yang7 hold, the development of
Internet technology makes direct communication between foreign
language learners and native speakers more possible than before. Web
2.0 technologies have opened new horizons for language learning and
teaching involving intercultural exchanges.8 With the rise of Web
2.0, a wide range of communication tools has emerged, such as blogg-
ing, podcasting, wikis, and social networking sites (e.g. Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram), creating a new generation of telecollaborative
exchanges.9 Concerning its effect on the learning process, various
4 Robert O’Dowd and Tim Lewis (Eds.). (2016). Online Intercultural Exchange: Policy, Pedagogy,
Practice. Routledge Studies in Language and Intercultural Communication. Routledge.
5 Mark Warschauer (Ed.). (1996). Telecollaboration in Foreign Language Learning. Honolulu, HI:
University of Hawaii. Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.
6 Robert O’Dowd. (2018). “From Telecollaboration to Virtual Exchange: State-of-the-art and the
role of UNICollaboration in Moving Forward,” 1, pp. 1–23.
7 Han Luo and Chunsheng Yang (2018). “Twenty Years of Telecollaborative Practice: Implications
for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.” Computer Assisted Language Learning, 31, pp. 546–
571.
8 Lina Lee. (2009). “Promoting Intercultural Exchanges with Blogs and Podcasting: A Study
of Spanish American Telecollaboration.” Computer Assisted Language Learning, 22 (5), pp. 425–443.
9 Sarah Guth and Francesca Helm (Eds.). (2010). Telecollaboration 2.0. Language, Literacies and
Intercultural Learning in the 21st century.