The TeCoLa project brings together experts in the fields of foreign language education, intercultural telecollaboration, teacher education, and technology mediated pedagogy from six countries (Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and UK). Focus is on developing and testing innovative gamified telecollaboration approaches for secondary schools that address issues of learning diversity in intercultural and content integrated language learning and teaching. At the very heart of the learning process are authentic task-based interactions among peers from different socio-cultural, educational and language backgrounds using telecollaboration for communicating and collaborate internationally. More specifically, TeCoLa aims: (1) To empower pre- & in-service teachers to use telecollaboration and gamification in order to:-facilitate intercultural communicative competence development as a prime objective of foreign language learning and European citizenship building,-create conditions for real-life communication in a foreign language in lingua franca or tandem constellations with a potential for incidental language learning,-foster autonomous collaboration and authenticity as key principles of task-based learning,-strengthen personalized learning and learner agency as part of a differentiated pedagogy approach(2) To internationalise education by integrating telecollaboration at schools to innovate, enrich and make language teaching programmes more meaningful and effective.(3) To contribute to the integration of all pupils regardless of their background by promoting intercultural dialogue in telecollaboration events among diverse populations of pupils from secondary schools across Europe.(4) To exploit the possibilities web 2.0 applications, virtual worlds, serious games and gamification offer with a view to diversifying teaching and facilitating content integrated language learning alongside with intercultural dialogue and play in telecollaboration encounters. TeCoLa addresses two main target groups: (1) A diversity of secondary educational institutions including (a) schools that pay special attention to meaningful and intensified foreign language practice in their curricula (bilingual education, CLIL, LinQ schools in NL) (b) Dalton/Montessori schools(c) vocational education(d) schools where language learning and teaching is a challenge because of cultural, cognitive, social, or financial diversity(2) Teacher education institutions as carriers of pedagogical innovation and reform at secondary schools through professional development of both pre-service and in-service teachers. TeCoLa will develop a multimodular approach for professional teacher development around task-based gamified telecollaboration. The TeCoLa OER pool serves as an online one-stop shop with all educational resources created in the project’s lifetime to support teachers and teacher educators with an interest in gamified telecollaboration for improved foreign language learning at secondary schools. The following elements will be included:-teacher development modules covering gamified telecollaboration for intercultural communication and European citizenship building, content integrated and vocational language learning, differentiated pedagogical practices, and learner preparation;-telecollaboration tasks for intercultural communication, gamification, subject knowledge acquisition and sharing, and assessment;-online pedagogical video guides for teacher training and course support; -case study reports on piloting activities involving gamified telecollaboration for differentiated foreign language learning under conditions of learning diversity. TeCoLa will provide tailor-made pedagogical training activities to around 200 teachers and teacher educators to develop their competencies and get them started with their own telecollaboration-enhanced courses. 48 teachers in the six project countries will participate in piloting courses in connection with the TeCoLa case studies. The entire process of course creation, implementation and evaluation will be accompanied by a continuous coaching collaboration between the teachers involved and a TeCoLa telecollaboration expert.In addition to the project’s direct impact on the participating teachers, the project will also ensure a long-term impact on teachers and teacher educators through the combined effect of three measures: the open availability of tried-and-tested educational resources, a series of regional/national and European workshops, webinars and Multiplier Events, and the TeCoLa networking and community building facilities on the TeCoLa website.Finally, the TeCoLa team fully embraces open pedagogy approach ranging from open source tools to open content learning materials to an open attitude towards the pedagogic community. In this spirit, TeCoLa will reach out to members from the eTwinning community for whom TeCoLa activities will have complementary relevance.
The TeCoLa project addresses urgent needs in secondary foreign language education for strengthening and enriching intercultural communicative competence development through the pedagogical integration of virtual exchanges and telecollaboration. Partners from six countries - Utrecht University (NE), LINK: Linguistik & Interkulturelle Kommunikation (DE), University of Roehampton (UK), University of Antwerp (BE), University of Valencia (ES), Transit Lingua (FR), and 3DLES (NE) - combine their expertise in intercultural foreign language learning and teaching, virtual world development, telecollaboration technologies, instructional task design, and teacher education. The consortium aimed to develop, implement and evaluate an innovative and gamified telecollaboration approach for intercultural foreign language learning. Special attention was given to issues of authentication of foreign language learning, pedagogically mediated lingua franca communication, subject integrated language learning, learning diversity, cooperative learning, guided autonomy and scaffolding, learner agency and emancipation. Virtual exchanges among peers from different socio-cultural, educational and language backgrounds across Europe and beyond provided both a medium and a testbed for pedagogically implementing and evaluating a diversified range of intercultural foreign language telecollaboration encounters and activities. Successful transformation of teachers’ existing pedagogical practices was facilitated by a continuous coaching collaboration between TeCoLa experts and the teachers involved in virtual exchanges. Key project results are the TeCoLa Teacher Resources available for access and download in the TeCoLa OER on the project website (www.tecola.eu). The resources were developed and evaluated in close connection with 23 virtual exchanges involving 44 teachers and 860 students in secondary (regular, bilingual and technical), primary (regular and CLIL) and vocational schools from ten countries. They provide pedagogical and technological support for teachers and teacher educators with an interest in using gamified telecollaboration to enhance intercultural foreign language learning by taking the students outside and beyond the regular face-to-face classroom. The TeCoLa Teacher Resources include telecollaboration TOOLS (including The TeCoLa Virtual World and BigBlueButton video rooms through Moodle courses), 109 TASKS for intercultural telecollaboration in English, German, French and Spanish, pedagogical GUIDES, CASE STUDY REPORTS, and VOICES from teachers, students, and experts. Accompanying views on the TeCoLa approach and results are provided by video recordings from TeCoLa Seminars on "Gamified Intercultural Telecollaboration for Foreign Language Learning" in London, Bordeaux, and Utrecht and available from the TeCola website. The collaboration with teachers and teacher educators participating with their own TeCoLa virtual exchanges showed evidence of a strong short-term impact. Generally, both teachers and students involved perceived and appreciated the pedagogical opportunities of virtual exchanges and telecollaboration activities for strengthening intercultural communicative practice and learning outside and beyond the natural limitations of the face-to-face classroom. Encouraged by this highly positive reception the TeCoLa approach has received among its active participants, the project team endeavours to ensure a long-term impact with future TeCoLa virtual exchanges through the combined effect of four measures: (a) the TeCoLa website with tried and tested Teacher Resources, (b) the continuing availability of the TeCoLa tool ensemble including the TeCoLa Virtual World, BigBlueButton video rooms and Moodle, (c) ongoing support for TeCoLa virtual exchanges, and (d) dissemination for understanding and action through publications, conference presentations, workshops, and eTwinning webinars.