According to Belz (2006), an expert on Telecollaboration, “in telecollaborative partnerships, internationally-dispersed learners in parallel language classes use Internet communication tools such as e-mail or snchronous chat in order to support social interaction, dialogue, debate, and intercultural exchange with expert speakers of the respective language under study. The underlying rationale is to provide the mebers of each parallel class with cost-effective access to and engagement with age peers who are expert speakers of the language under study in a n effort to increase intercultural awareness as well as linguistici proficiency, to increase the authentication of foreign lanugage use in the tutored setting, and to broaden the range of discourse options and subject positions available to classroom learners of language.”

There are different theories as to what languages students should use. According to the theory of the project Cultura based at MIT in the USA, students should only use their native language in order to provide their counterparts with accurate, authentic exposure to their target language. According to the Tandem theory, on the other hand, students should use their native language (L1) and target language (L2) in equal parts, i.e. 50/50, and be responsible for correcting their counterparts’ mistakes in their L1. This course mixes these two theories. According to the two instructors it should not be the students’ responsibility to correct each other’s language. The focus for students in this course is on communication. At times you will be asked to communicate in your L1, at others to produce wiki pages in L2.

We have decided to use a wiki for two reasons. First of all, the wiki is free and uses a remote server making it available via any normal Web browser (so you can work whenever, wherever ). Second, tasic characteristics of most wikis are: anyone can change anything, pages are easy to create and edit, and content is “ego-less, time-less, and never finished” (Lamb, 2004:38). This makes wikis an effective tool for collaborative authoring, collective learning and project-based work. Using a wiki should help students develop what Bruns & Humphreys (2005) call the “CCC literacies”, i.e. “a set of critical, collaborative and creative ICT literacies” which students need in today’s knowledge-based, networked economy.

You will engage in conversation with your foreign counterparts on fundamental cultural issues as well as the subject matter you are currently studying. You will have the opportunity both to record your voice and, hopefully, have a synchronous interview via Skype at some point during the exchange.

Audience

Students who choose to attend this course are expected to participate actively. This course is intended for students of the laurea specialistica who are able to express themselves well in English, able to autonomously take control over their own learning process as well as work in groups, and who are motivated and curious.

Course Objectives

Linguistic:

To improve students’ receptive skills in L2 via informal communication between students in L1 in wiki and odeo.
To improve students’ written production skills in L2 via formal production of contents in wiki.
To develop students’ oral abilities in L2 via interviews in Skype.

Inter-cultural:

To help students learn about various aspects of the culture of the language they are studying (Italian for Tulane students, English for Padova students), with particular reference to Italian literature and aspects of student life in respective countries.
To raise students’ awareness of cultural differences.

Other:

To develop students' competency in the use of wikis and collective authoring.
To develop students' practical research skills using online information networks as they look for, find and share online resources.
To develop students' reflective, critical and analytical thinking skills.
To help students learn to write an encyclopedia entry based on Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View (NPOV) policy, with its requirement to present both (or the many) sides of an argument.
To help students learn to negotiate meaning via the comment function of the wiki if and when conflict should arrive.

Required Books and Materials

All of our reading materials will by online resources made available by the instructor on the wiki or provided by the students themselves as a result of their online searches.

Course Environments

Tulane Padova Wiki: Here you will exchange information, converse, debate with your partners on your partner wiki pages. You will also create pages, edit each other’s pages, and add images and useful links.

Grading

This course is graded in continuous assessment, i.e. there will be no final exam but rather you will be graded on what you produce and how you participate during the course.

1. Participation (quantity): 25% This grade regards how much you actually contribute to the wiki and how many exchanges you have with your American partners.

2. Participation (quality): 25% This regards the contents of your contributions. You will be graded on how meaningful your exchanges and contributions were, e.g. if they created debate, reflection, considerations. I will consider whether you simply created new pages, added content and links to other people’s pages or actually edited the content.

3. Editing the Wiki: 25% This is a collective grade, i.e. I will grade the final wiki and give this grade to everyone in the class. As we will correct the language used on the wiki during class I will also take into consideration the linguistic accuracy of the contents in the final wiki (parts in English, obviously).

4. Final Paper: 25% At the end of the experience you will have to write a 5000-character paper on the experience. The paper should include both your reflections on the experience (what you learned about the other culture) and a more in-depth discussion of one specific topic of your choice for which you have (hopefully) been able to interview your counterpart on via Skype.

Rubrics for final paper assessment

Score	Task fulfilment(content)	Organisation: cohesion, coherence, paragraphing and punctuation	Vocabulary: range and accuracy	Grammar: range and accuracy
5	Very successful, convincing attempt to compare an aspect of American culture to the same aspect in Italian culture. Statements supported by facts contained in source texts. Captures reader's attention.	Highly cohesive text. Clear and relevant introduction and sentences ordered into a logical sequence. Appropriate use of conjunctions, linking adverbials, paragraphing and punctuation.	Very good range. Occasional minor errors, but no instances of incomprehensibility.	Very good range. Occasional minor errors, but no instances of incomprehensibility.
4	Most of the information included relevant to task, but opinion of writer too strong and not based enough on facts from outside sources. Too much emphasis on one culture or the other.	Relationships between sentences clear. Adequate introduction and sentences ordered into a logical sequence. Some use of conjunctions and linking adverbials and appropriate paragraphing and punctuation.	Good range. Little or no repetition, but a few inaccuracies (perhaps resulting from attempts to avoid using vocabulary from source texts), but these do not prevent comprehension of the message.	Good range. Minor errors, but these do not prevent comprehension of the message.
3	Overall message conveyed despite occasional irrelevancies and/or omissions. Opinion of writer not not always supported by facts.	Relationships between sentences mostly clear. Some organisational problems, perhaps with introduction and/or ordering of points. Some use of simple conjunctions and linking adverbials and generally appropriate paragraphing. Correct use of basic punctuation but some inaccuracies.	Sufficient range to complete task. Some repetition and inaccuracies such as “false friends” or incorrect use of collocation. Some attempt to avoid using vocabulary from source texts.	Sufficient to complete task. Some inaccuracies.
2	Some irrelevancies. Opinion not adequately supported by fact. Mere description of the aspect in both cultures with little to no direct comparison.	Confused use of reference items, complete lack of conjunctions and linking adverbials, organisational problems, and frequent misuse of basic punctuation. These lead to comprehension problems. Inappropriate paragraphing.	A great deal of repetition and/or reliance on vocabulary items supplied in source texts. Frequent errors, which may interfere with message reception.	Evidence of competence in only the most basic structures. Frequent errors in selecting appropriate structures to complete the task interfere with message reception.
1	Frequent irrelevancies. Whole clauses or sentences taken directly from source texts with little thought of task requirements. Little to no reflection on the comparison of the two cultures.	Very limited use of cohesive devices, making comprehension difficult. Little attempt to organise information into a coherent whole. Little or no attempt to organise message into paragraphs and incorrect use of all but the most basic conventions of punctuation (question marks, full stops).	Range too limited to complete the requirements of the task. Very frequent errors often resulting in incomprehensibility.	Range of grammatical structures too limited to complete the requirements of the task. Very frequent errors often resulting in incomprehensibility.

References:

Belz, J. (2005). TELECOLLABORATIVE LANGUAGE STUDY: A PERSONAL OVERVIEW OF PRAXIS AND RESEARCH. Selected papers from the 2004 NFLRC Symposium: Distance Education, Distributed Learning, and Language Instruction. Online at http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/networks/nw44/belz.htm (retrieved 13/10/2006)

Bruns, A. & Humphreys, S. (2005). Wikis in Teaching and Assessment – The M/Cyclopedia Project. Paper presented at The 2005 International Symposium on Wikis, October 16-18, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.

Lamb, B. (2004). Wide Open Spaces: Ready or Not. Educause Review, 39(5), 36-48.

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