Milli mála - 2019, Blaðsíða 73
Milli mála 11/2019 73
PILAR CONCHEIRO
4.4. Projects
Throughout the first part of the calendar project, when students of
both universities had to collaborate and interact though the tasks
described above, they all became acquainted and generated a rela-
tionship of mutual trust. Through the different tasks that made the
first part of this telecollaboration project, the pre-service teachers
obtained information about the tastes and needs of their classmates;
they had the opportunity to find out who they were, where they came
from, which languages they spoke, when and where they had started
to practice Spanish, what language aspects they wanted to improve,
etc. This information was very important for the UB pre-service teac-
hers in order to create a meaningful project for the target students. A
meaningful final project had to connect with students’ interest and
with their reality, but which also would help to improve their
communicative competence according to their needs.
So, the first part of the telecollaboration project contributed to
developing an atmosphere of closeness, which is vital in learning in
general but essential in digital learning environments. This way of
making digital conversations closer and warmer26 is also known as an
electronic propinquity which has been described as the sense of
proximity, involvement and presence over any digital communication
environment, all of which leads to satisfaction towards interaction.27
In computer mediated communication, propinquity is expressed and
perceived in innovative manners: emojis, humor, ‘likes’ are relatively
new ways of making digital conversations closer and warmer.
Propinquity is strongly associated with satisfaction, communication
effectiveness, and task accomplishment.28
Therefore, as we have already mentioned, in this second phase of
the telecollaboration project, pre-service teachers had to take control
of the educational process and design a project tailored to their col-
26 Joseph B. Walther and Natalya N. Bazarova. (2008). “Validation and Application of Electronic
Propinquity Theory to Computer-Mediated Communication in Groups.” Communication Research,
35 (5), pp. 622–645.
27 Felipe Kozernny. (1978). “A Theory of Electronic Propinquity: Mediated Communication in
Organizations.” Communication Research, 5(1), pp. 3–24, here p. 7.
28 Joseph B. Walther and Natalya N. Bazarova. “Validation and Application of Electronic
Propinquity Theory to Computer-Mediated Communication in Groups.”