Calendar:

 

• Week 1: 16/10/06 Introduction to the wiki and the exchange; students prepare an audio file – presentation, choose image (themselves or a representative picture) and maybe a brief text with hyperlinks to their favourite websites or websites they visit often; explanation of the benefits of communicating not only in L2 (developing skills in target language) but also in L1 (developing receptive skills in target language through authentic communication)

 

• Week 2: 23/10/06 Introduction to notion of culture in class, filling out questionnaires on paper in class/online questionnaire from Padova (teachers then compile them together on the wiki)

 

• Week 3: 30/10/06 Together in class students discuss and analyze the responses to the questionnaires; they start formulating questions they would like to ask their counterparts for clarification/debate on the responses; students create wiki pages (one each if possible) on the topics they would like to discuss with their counterparts and post questions; students have a week to “(a) share their observations and hypotheses; (b) send queries for more details, clarification, and more in-depth understanding of the differences they observed; and (c) respond to whatever question was posed to them” (Furstenberg & Levet, Language Learning & Technology, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 2001, pp. 55-102) Students can open, edit and respond to questions on the wiki page(s) that interest them most. Teachers do not intervene.

 

 

• Week 4: 6/10/06 In class students discuss how the first week of communication went, what kinds of reactions students had to their comments, what they commented on, etc. Students choose a topic of interest to them and start searching the web for sites/info to back up what they are discussing; place these hyperlinks on the web for their counterparts to access as resources. Asynchronous discussion continues.

 

• Week 5: 13/10/06 In class students discuss if and how their opinions/impressions of some aspect of the other culture have changed. Students take notes on this and make an audio file (L1 or L2?) to upload onto the wiki describing this. Students decide which topics they would be interested in writing a collaborative essay on. Teachers post these topics on the wikis and students have to “sign up” for one of the collaborative essays in L1 and one in L2 by adding their name to the wiki pages. Discussion of what collaborative writing means. Students can continue to discuss in the topic pages.

 

• Week 6: 20/10/06 Hopefully students have started contributing to the essays. If so, focus on form (L2 essay) in class. If not, students start working on their essays. Start planning Skype interviews. Find out when students think they could access a computer. Students write their availability on a wiki page. Students sign up for a time when they could Skype. Students prepare questions for their Skype interview.

 

• Week 7: 27/10/06 Continue working on focus on form in class. Discuss Skype interviews if any have taken place.

 

• Week 8: 4/10/06 Debriefing of Skype interviews. Students add last touches to their essay pages. Students make audio recording in L2 of impressions of experience.

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