In This Together

This book provides a nexus between research and practice through teachers’ narratives of their experiences with telecollaboration. The book begins with a chapter outlining the pedagogical and theoretical underpinnings of telecollaboration (also known as Virtual Exchange), followed by eight chapters that explain telecollaborative project design, materials and activities as well as frank discussions of obstacles met and resolved during the project implementation. The projects described in the volume serve as excellent examples for any teacher or education stakeholder interested in setting up their own telecollaborative exchange.

Dr. Melinda Dooly is senior lecturer and researcher at the School ofEducation, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She has investigatedand published widely on issues related to teacher education and languageeducation mediated through technology. She is lead researcher of a SpanishMinistry funded project on 21st century competences in education(KONECT). She has taught in different countries worldwide, includingan honorary lectureship at the Institute of Education University CollegeLondon. She is co-editor, along with Dr. Robert O’Dowd, of the bookseries entitled: Telecollaboration in Education.

Dr. Robert O’Dowd is senior lecturer and researcher for English as aForeign Language and Applied Linguistics at the University of León,Spain. He has taught at universities in Ireland, Germany and Spain andhas published widely on the application of collaborative online learning inuniversity education. His most recent publication is the co-edited volumeOnline Intercultural Exchange Policy, Pedagogy, Practice for Routledge.He recently coordinated INTENT – an award-winning project financed bythe European Commission aimed at promoting Virtual Exchange in EuropeanHigher Education and is currently the lead researcher on the EuropeanCommission’s Erasmus plus KA3 project Evaluating and UpscalingTelecollaborative Teacher Education (EVALUATE). He is also presidentof the UNICollaboration academic organization for telecollaboration andvirtual exchange (www.unicollaboration.org).