Friday, November 14, 2008 COIL Conference:
Collaborations in International Online Learning Environments
– How to Make them Work!Missed the Conference? Look at Streaming Videos of the Conference Sessions! http://www.purchase.edu/COIL/videos.aspx Schedule information can be found: Here
Coil Calendar
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February 2010 |
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Home  Guth
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Sarah Guth Complete Abstract Text |
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One of the most common mistakes educators make when embarking on international collaborative exchanges for students is assuming that the exchange will have a sole focus and that that focus will be course content. Although finding a partner class is very often the first major hurdle, the second one is then agreeing on what students in both classes are supposed to get out of the exchange. Course content may often serve as the contents of the actual exchanges, be they text, audio or video, synchronous or asynchronous, but educators must also consider two other mutually dependent issues: collaboration and culture. It is a false assumption to think that students naturally know how to collaborate, particularly online and with people from another culture: the impact of culture on style of collaboration is often significant. Therefore, international collaborations should also focus on developing students' ability to collaborate as well as students' intercultural communicative competence (ICC).
This presentation will focus on why it is important to integrate learning how to collaborate and learning to communicate with people from other cultures into international collaborations. Based on the experiences of the presenter, an American EFL teacher in Italy, with American partners, it will provide practical examples of steps that can be taken when planning the exchange and during the exchange to make the project a success and to avoid common pitfalls. The presentation will demonstrate how contents, collaboration skills and ICC development can be integrated to lead to a truly effective learning experience for teachers and students alike.
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