Presented by Dr. Diana STANTCHEVA (AUBG, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria)
Dr. Gabriele DILLMANN (Denison University, Granville, OH, USA)
The language classroom is a most fruitful place for intercultural, global learning. Digital technologies allow us to make intercultural connections like never before and in the process language learning benefits from real communication about real issues. Connecting two language courses globally requires overcoming many obstacles and challenges (time difference, collaboration, technology, funding, resources, etc.) but a strong belief that the benefits outweigh the costs serves as a constant source for pushing on.
The goal of our project (started in Fall semester 2013) was – and continues to be – to enrich our connected courses with an intercultural perspective through the direct exchange between students and faculty members as we discuss shared small group assignments via Google Hangout and Google doc shared writing assignments (of course, “traditional” technologies such as email and skype compliment the exchanges) all the while expanding and enhancing student’s language skills in German.
Our paper will provide a research summary, describe in detail how we pursued the described goals with a special focus on the digital technologies we used and their pedagogical value, and will give a candid assessment of what worked well and what needs further exploration. We will also discuss the next step of the project, namely aligning the courses synchronously via video-conferencing technologies in addition to the Hangouts.
Find out more here.
For the conference overview go here.
GABRIELE DILLMANN 