Online Intercultural Exchange

This volume provides a state of the art overview of Online Intercultural Exchange (OIE) in university education and demonstrates how educators can use OIE to address current challenges in university contexts such as internationalisation, virtual mobility and intercultural foreign language education. Since the 1990s, educators have been using virtual interaction to bring their classes into contact with geographically distant partner classes to create opportunities for authentic communication, meaningful collaboration and first-hand experience of working and learning with partners from other cultural backgrounds. Online exchange projects of this nature can contribute to the development of learner autonomy, linguistic accuracy, intercultural awareness, intercultural skills and electronic literacies. Online Intercultural Exchange has now reached a stage where it is moving beyond individual classroom initiatives and is assuming a role as a major tool for internationalization, intercultural development and virtual mobility in universities around the globe. This volume reports qualitative and quantitative findings on the impact of OIE on universities in Europe and elsewhere and offers comprehensive guidance on using OIE at both pedagogical and technological levels. It provides theoretically-informed accounts of Online Intercultural Exchanges which will relevant to researchers in Computer Assisted Language Learning, Computer-Mediated Communication, or Virtual Education. Finally, contributors offer a collection of practitioner-authored and practically-oriented case studies for the benefit of teachers of foreign languages or in other subject areas who wish to engage in developing the digital literacy and intercultural competences of their learners.

Robert O'Dowd teaches EFL and trains teachers at the University of León, Spain (www.unileon.es), where he is Director of International Training. He holds a PhD from the University of Essen. Tim Lewis has taught Languages and Cultures since 1980 in London, Sheffield and elsewhere. He is currently Director of Postgraduate Studies in the Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology at the Open University.

Part 1: Introduction and Background to Online Intercultural Exchange 1. Introduction to Online Intercultural Exchange and this Volume Tim Lewis and Robert O'Dowd 2. Online Intercultural Exchange and Foreign Language Learning: A Systemic Review Tim Lewis and Robert O'Dowd Part 2: Integrating Online Intercultural Exchange in University Education 3. Internationalisation and the Role of Online Intercultural Exchange Hans de Wit 4. Online Intercultural Education in Europe: State of the Art and Implications for the Future Sarah Guth 5. Internationalization, the Bologna Process and Online Intercultural Exchange: Seeking Common Ground Melanie H. Wilson 6. An Overview of Online Intercultural Exchange in the Australian Context Vincenza Tudini Part 3: The Pedagogy of Online Intercultural Exchange 7. Designing Tasks for University Online Intercultural Exchange Andreas Mueller-Hartmann and Gosia Kurek 8. Facilitated Dialogue in Online Intercultural Exchange Francesca Helm 9. Combining Classroom-based Learning and Online Intercultural Exchange in Blended Learning Courses Elke Nissen 10. 'Please Remove Your Avatar From My Personal Space': Competences of the Telecollaboratively Efficient Person Melinda Dooly 11. A New Approach to Assessing Online Intercultural Exchanges: Soft Certification of Participant Engagement Mirjam Hauck and Teresa MacKinnon Part 4: Online Intercultural Exchange in Practice 12. The Clavier Network Teresa McKinnon 13. The Teletandem Network Paola Leone and Joao Telles 14. The Cultura Exchange Programme GIlberte Furstenberg 15. The Cultnet Intercultural Citizenship Project Michael Byram 16. The COIL Network: Online Intercultural Exchange in the SUNY Network of Universities Jon Rubin Part 5: The Future of Online Intercultural Exchange 17. Learning from the Past and Looking to the Future of Online Intercultural Exchange Robert O'Dowd