FOSTERING GLOBAL CONNECTIONS THROUGH VIRTUAL INTERNATIONAL PEER EXCHANGE

Fostering global connections is currently a major goal at many elementary and secondary level, and higher education institutions. Virtual peer exchanges provide students – and faculty – with motivating experiences that can improve their understanding of international languages and cultures.

This presentation will show how instructors at a university in Cleveland, Ohio, USA and a university in Temuco, Chile have developed a successful partnership leading to annual virtual exchanges for its intermediate level English and Spanish language learners. It will discuss how we have gone beyond classroom teaching, and are creating lifelong learners, as we see friendships develop across continents.

Many of these exchanges take place through videoconferences. While we’ve provided additional contact via social networks, and through the use of other technologies (Ning, email, Facebook, Voxopop were used at some point), we will show why there are some obvious benefits to real time videoconferences, and discuss the importance of social presence to language learning.

Topics to be covered include the role of the instructor in peer exchanges, instructional strategies, planning content, the organization with our counterparts, student preparation, the technologies used, student reaction, and the results of a pilot study.