Robert O'Dowd
Dr. Robert O'Dowd comes from Ireland and is Full Professor for English Studies at the University of León, Spain. He has taught at universities in Ireland, Germany and Spain and has numerous publications on the application of Virtual Exchange in university and pre-university education settings. He was the founding president of the UNICollaboration academic organization for telecollaboration and virtual exchange (www.unicollaboration.org) and has been invited to be plenary speaker at international conferences in the US, Asia and across Europe.
Among recent activities, he was invited in 2019 to be co-editor of a special edition of the prestigious journal Language Learning & Technology on the theme of Virtual Exchange in Foreign Language Education. He also coordinated the Erasmus projects Integrating International Networks in Higher Education (INTENT) (2011-2014) and the European Policy Experiment Evaluating and Upscaling Telecollaborative Teacher Education (EVALUATE) (2017-2019).
He is currently coordinating the Erasmus+ European Policy Experiment Virtual Innovation and Support Networks for Teachers (VALIANT) (2021-2024). Robert’s publications are available here: http://unileon.academia.edu/RobertODowd and you can follow him on twitter @robodowd.
Among recent activities, he was invited in 2019 to be co-editor of a special edition of the prestigious journal Language Learning & Technology on the theme of Virtual Exchange in Foreign Language Education. He also coordinated the Erasmus projects Integrating International Networks in Higher Education (INTENT) (2011-2014) and the European Policy Experiment Evaluating and Upscaling Telecollaborative Teacher Education (EVALUATE) (2017-2019).
He is currently coordinating the Erasmus+ European Policy Experiment Virtual Innovation and Support Networks for Teachers (VALIANT) (2021-2024). Robert’s publications are available here: http://unileon.academia.edu/RobertODowd and you can follow him on twitter @robodowd.
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Papers by Robert O'Dowd
rightly observed the dramatic growth of interest in the pedagogical
activity of connecting students in structured online intercultural collaboration with peers in order to develop their foreign language, intercultural and digital competences. However, he also takes issue with the
gradual move away from the term ‘telecollaboration’ towards ‘virtual
exchange’ to describe this pedagogy. I found Colpaert’s article very
important as it challenges practitioners and researchers such as myself
to critically reflect on the terminology we use to describe what we do.
For that reason, I was both delighted and honoured when he invited
me to address some of the issues which he raises in his position paper.
I also take the opportunity here to review and look for commonalities
in the many ‘impact reports’ which have been published lately based
on large scale projects and initiatives related to virtual exchange. I then
conclude by looking to what the immediate future may hold for this
activity
together groups of learners from different cultural contexts for extended periods of online intercultural
collaboration and interaction. This is done as an integrated part of the students’ educational programmes
and under the guidance of educators or expert facilitators with the aim of developing learners’ foreign
language skills, digital literacies, and intercultural competence (Belz, 2003; O’Dowd & Lewis, 2016).
many questions remain around its relationship with physical
mobility and its place in institutional internationalisation strategies,
among other things. What’s needed now is more largescale
studies of the overall impact on students and teachers.
Alice Baroni, Melinda Dooly, Pilar Garcés García, Sarah Guth, Mirjam Hauck, Francesca Helm,
Tim Lewis, Andreas Mueller-Hartmann, Robert O’Dowd, Bart Rienties, and Jekaterina Rogaten.
Please cite as: The EVALUATE Group. (2019). Evaluating the impact of virtual exchange
on initial teacher education: a European policy experiment. Research-publishing.net.
https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2019.29.9782490057337
Journal of Virtual Exchange, 1, 1-23. Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2018.jve.1
Telecollaboration, or 'virtual exchange', are terms used to refer to the engagement of groups of learners in online intercultural interactions and collaboration projects with partners from other cultural contexts or geographical locations as an integrated part of their educational programmes. In recent years, approaches to virtual exchange have evolved in different contexts and different areas of education, and these approaches have had, at times, very diverse organisational structures and pedagogical objectives. This article provides an overview of the different models and approaches to virtual exchange which are currently being used in higher education contexts. It also provides a short historical review of the major developments and trends in virtual exchange to date and describes the origins of the UNICollaboration organisation and the rationale behind this journal.
This article reports
on the findings of a survey of 70 European universities carried out in
2014–2015 which provides an overview of current practices in the
training and accreditation of university teachers in EMI. The findings
reveal a very eclectic range of approaches to training and accrediting
teachers working in this area.
Communication Technologies in CLIL, Theory Into Practice, DOI: 10.1080/00405841.2018.1484039
In content and language integrated learning (CLIL)
contexts, online communication technologies have
great potential for supporting the development of
students’ foreign language skills and intercultural
competence, and for increasing understanding of
subject matter. One effective way of engaging CLIL
students in motivating and innovative online learning
is virtual exchange, or telecollaboration. Virtual
exchange involves engaging students in online taskbased
interaction and collaborative exchange
projects with partner-classes in other locations
under the guidance of their teachers. This article
explores in what ways virtual exchange can contribute
to CLIL approaches and presents various
examples from the literature of how this approach
to online learning has been applied in CLIL contexts.
Following that, some guidelines for good practice
are presented which educators can consider
when planning to introduce virtual exchange into
their bilingual classrooms.
With this in mind, in this plenary I take a critical look at both research and practice of telecollaboration over the past 20 years and ask various questions as to future trends.
the training and accreditation of university teachers who wish to teach their subjects through another language.
rightly observed the dramatic growth of interest in the pedagogical
activity of connecting students in structured online intercultural collaboration with peers in order to develop their foreign language, intercultural and digital competences. However, he also takes issue with the
gradual move away from the term ‘telecollaboration’ towards ‘virtual
exchange’ to describe this pedagogy. I found Colpaert’s article very
important as it challenges practitioners and researchers such as myself
to critically reflect on the terminology we use to describe what we do.
For that reason, I was both delighted and honoured when he invited
me to address some of the issues which he raises in his position paper.
I also take the opportunity here to review and look for commonalities
in the many ‘impact reports’ which have been published lately based
on large scale projects and initiatives related to virtual exchange. I then
conclude by looking to what the immediate future may hold for this
activity
together groups of learners from different cultural contexts for extended periods of online intercultural
collaboration and interaction. This is done as an integrated part of the students’ educational programmes
and under the guidance of educators or expert facilitators with the aim of developing learners’ foreign
language skills, digital literacies, and intercultural competence (Belz, 2003; O’Dowd & Lewis, 2016).
many questions remain around its relationship with physical
mobility and its place in institutional internationalisation strategies,
among other things. What’s needed now is more largescale
studies of the overall impact on students and teachers.
Alice Baroni, Melinda Dooly, Pilar Garcés García, Sarah Guth, Mirjam Hauck, Francesca Helm,
Tim Lewis, Andreas Mueller-Hartmann, Robert O’Dowd, Bart Rienties, and Jekaterina Rogaten.
Please cite as: The EVALUATE Group. (2019). Evaluating the impact of virtual exchange
on initial teacher education: a European policy experiment. Research-publishing.net.
https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2019.29.9782490057337
Journal of Virtual Exchange, 1, 1-23. Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2018.jve.1
Telecollaboration, or 'virtual exchange', are terms used to refer to the engagement of groups of learners in online intercultural interactions and collaboration projects with partners from other cultural contexts or geographical locations as an integrated part of their educational programmes. In recent years, approaches to virtual exchange have evolved in different contexts and different areas of education, and these approaches have had, at times, very diverse organisational structures and pedagogical objectives. This article provides an overview of the different models and approaches to virtual exchange which are currently being used in higher education contexts. It also provides a short historical review of the major developments and trends in virtual exchange to date and describes the origins of the UNICollaboration organisation and the rationale behind this journal.
This article reports
on the findings of a survey of 70 European universities carried out in
2014–2015 which provides an overview of current practices in the
training and accreditation of university teachers in EMI. The findings
reveal a very eclectic range of approaches to training and accrediting
teachers working in this area.
Communication Technologies in CLIL, Theory Into Practice, DOI: 10.1080/00405841.2018.1484039
In content and language integrated learning (CLIL)
contexts, online communication technologies have
great potential for supporting the development of
students’ foreign language skills and intercultural
competence, and for increasing understanding of
subject matter. One effective way of engaging CLIL
students in motivating and innovative online learning
is virtual exchange, or telecollaboration. Virtual
exchange involves engaging students in online taskbased
interaction and collaborative exchange
projects with partner-classes in other locations
under the guidance of their teachers. This article
explores in what ways virtual exchange can contribute
to CLIL approaches and presents various
examples from the literature of how this approach
to online learning has been applied in CLIL contexts.
Following that, some guidelines for good practice
are presented which educators can consider
when planning to introduce virtual exchange into
their bilingual classrooms.
With this in mind, in this plenary I take a critical look at both research and practice of telecollaboration over the past 20 years and ask various questions as to future trends.
the training and accreditation of university teachers who wish to teach their subjects through another language.