Abstract:

The institutional strategy named ‘Aula’ Project (Classroom Project), implemented since 2009, is an effort of the University of Veracruz (UV), in Mexico, to operationalize the principles of its educational model in the teaching and learning processes that occur in all the subjects that constitute the diverse undergraduate programs. The implementation of this innovative 'Aula' Project expects that Task Based Learning combined with Action Research and the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) become promoted in all the subjects of the varied undergraduate programs offered at the UV, including the foreign language classes imparted at the Language Centers.
Since students from different majors and public in general (professionals, employees, housewives, etc.) compose the foreign language groups at the Language Centers, it becomes complicated that they coincide in their time availability and interests to work in teams in regard to the project and the established topic; in addition, some people do not know how to use ICT. As well, the teachers at the Language Center Veracruz, the same as in the rest of the Language Centers and all the other schools, do not have experience in doing the instructional design required in order to undertake this new Aula Project.
Due to the fact that at the Language Center-Veracruz (located in the Port of Veracruz), this didactic strategy was recently implemented and for this reason it constitutes a new form of working and studying in and out of the classroom, the current study, which underlies this poster, aimed to investigate how the students and teachers, involved in this work, designed, applied, perceived and experienced it throughout their courses. In other words, the objective of this study meant to look at how the operation of the Aula Project functioned.
This poster aims to show the findings of the study, which are divided in two broad themes and their respective three subthemes: Contribution of the Aula Project (ICT’s role; Impact on collaborative work; Impact on the students’ development of linguistic, socio-affective and attitudinal skills) & Appropriation of the Aula Project (Teachers as facilitators and promoters of research and autonomy; Students’ perceptions and experiences; Interculturality and recognition of ‘the other’). It also presents some of the evidence that supports and originated these themes and subthemes.

Keywords:

Project work, Action research, ICT, Appropriation of Innovations.