Learner Voices
Learners share their experiences with the TeCoLa telecollaboration exchanges. They talk about the tasks they carried out, what they liked, what they learnt and the challenges they faced.
Students from San Enrique Secondary School in Quart de Poblet, Valencia were involved in virtual exchanges with the Alberdingk Thijm College, Hilversum in the Netherlands and the Hualien PE High School in Taiwan.
The videos with the students who participated in the virtual exchanges were created by the students' teachers, Alfredo Ibáñez and Amparo Mir together with the conversation assistant Jordan Benyon. The production and recording was made by Francesc Vicent Nogales Sancho.
The Spanish students, who wanted to practice their English, collaborated with students from the Netherlands learning Spanish.
The students are talking about the TeCoLa Virtual World, where they collaborated with their Dutch partners to solve the riddles of a treasure hunt.
Using English as their pedagogical lingua franca, the Spanish students collaborated with students from Taiwan. They communicated using video communication, Padlet, or meetings in the TeCoLa Virtual World.
A mainstream primary school from the UK (St Joseph's Catholic School, London) and a mainstream primary school in Spain (CEIP Gloria Fuertes school, Valencia) engaged in telecollaboration sessions using Padlet, Voki and the TeCoLa Moodle Chat. It was an ambitious project in which some of the older learners participated in international dyads from December 2018 to June 2019 to develop their intercultural and communicative competences in Spanish and English, the foreign languages being taught at their schools. Their enthusiasm was present in every session and they engaged with all the activities fully. These are the learners' voices.
A pre-vocational school from the Netherlands (Pleincollege Nuenen) and a mainstream secondary school in France (Collège Katia et Maurice Krafft, Pfastatt) engaged in telecollaboration sessions using the TeCoLa Virtual City of Saarburg. It was an ambitious project in which all classrroom learners participated in international dyads from December 2018 to May 2019 to develop their intercultural and communicative competences in German, a foreign language to all of them. These are the learners' voices.
Dutch learners from the Varendonck College, Asten, in the Netherlands present their telecollaboration experiences with German peers (Leibniz-Gymnasium, Rottweil) using English as a Lingua Franca.
Learners from a bilingual secondary school (Laar & Berg) in the Netherlands learning Spanish and a primary school (CEIP Laverde Ruiz, Outeiro de Rei, Lugo) in northern Spain, learning English, created Vlogs in Spanish & English, and shared them in their team's Padlet wall for the others to watch and respond to. This is an example of an easy to carry out & successful telecollaboration project. These are the learners' experiences.
Dutch learners' voices
What have you learnt?
That it is very difficult to learn a language. It was very good to have the opportunity to communicate. It is interesting to be able to talk to kids of a different school. It is very good that these projects are organised. (Emma)
How pupils learn English in other schools, in other countries. Our English is goed. They’ve just started to learn it. You hear their Spanish accent in their English. But their English is not so bad. I found the project interesting. It was great fun to make the videos with friends, but also complicated. Each one prepared a question to record. (Zoe Noa)
To listen very focused. (Mirjam)
What did you like most?
To watch the videos made by the other children in order to learn, and to see how they pronounce English. (Emma)
The process of making the videos. (Mirjam)
The possibility to make an activity in English and compare it with their English. And also listen and learn from their Spanish. (Zoe Noa)
How did you like the environment (Padlet)?
I liked it very much. It is very easy to use and it goes much quicker than sending letters abroad. (Emma)
Yes, I like that you didn’t need to write. I liked making videos. (Zoe Noa)
If the recording was too long, you couldn’t upload it to Padlet. It was good that each international team had their own Padlet, that we could see their videos, but ours as well. (Mirjam)
Would you like to continue with these kinds of projects?
Yes, you learn a lot about other cultures; you tell about yours. (Emma)
Yes, it is very nice. A little bit of variation with the normal classroom content. (Mirjam)
Yes, but it depends on the time available, but I found it interesting to participate. (Zoe Noa)