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TitleAn Opportunity for Differentiation: Tiered Telecollaboration Project
SourceCASLS Activity of the Week
Body

by Adrienne Gonzales

Language: Any

Level: Variable

 

Objectives

  • Communicate with a native speaker (synchronous and/or asynchronous)
  • Ask questions to guide a conversation pertaining to a pre-determined topic of interest
  • Produce an artifact illustrating information gained in telecollaborative interactions

 

Instructor preparation

  • Instructors select a website or program to use for the telecollaborative exchange.  Tools are constantly changing and new programs come and go.  Things to keep in mind are cost, ability for different modes of communication, features, etc.  Some programs to explore include:
  • Instructors create a worksheet in the target language to help students document their telecollaborative exchange(s).  This worksheet might ask:
    • Name of conversation partner (and other biographical information)
    • Mode(s) of communication
    • Duration of communication (for synchronous) number of exchanges (for asynchronous)  
  • Instructors create guidelines rubrics for the students’ artifacts.  Some ideas include creating a travel brochure, using digital storytelling tools to create a short documentary, etc.

 

Procedure

  1. In class: In the target language, students independently write answers to the following questions, then discuss their answers in pairs:
    1. What country or region where the target language is spoken interests you?
    2. What aspect of the target language culture would you like to learn more about (food, holidays, daily life, politics, etc.)?
    3. What type of person could provide you with more information about this topic (gender, age, occupation, etc.)?
    4. What would be the most effective way to discuss this information (email exchange, chat, video chat, etc.)?
  2. In class: Instructor will provide students with information to register/get started with the program being used for this project.
  3. At home: Students use instructor-created worksheet to document their communication and make notes about what they have learned.
  4. Students follow pre-established instructor guidelines to produce an artifact that illustrates what they’ve learned through their telecollaborative exchanges and present this artifact to the class.
Publishdate2014-12-15 02:15:01