R. O'Dowd: Learning as they go" :in service teachers learning to collaborate

Robert O'Dowd on teacher competences for carrying out telecollaboration. There are some 40 competencies which raises the question how to teach teachers in a one-off workshop on to acquire the competencies needed for a successful telecollaboration (see O'Dowd 2013). When interviewing 4 novice teachers based in Argentina, USA and USA, Robert realised that all four had completely different issues that needed addressing, ranging from institutional issues to technological issues. No two exchanges are ever the same, so toil address this issue, the INTENT project is hoping to run a project which will take account of the need for teachers to become part of communities of practice through "critical friends groups" and "peer coaching". Teachers learn best when engaged in the activity.

How can this then be embedded into teacher training? The proposed project seeks to put together a training course that includes information on the educational cultures of partner institutions, and invites experienced colleagues to make guest appearances and share their knowledge with the trainee telecollaborators. It further hopes to give trainees the opportunity to read about previous exchanges in the form of case studies, and engage teachers in simulations of TC exchanges or mentor them through their first exchanges.