Evaluating and Upscaling Telecollaborative Teacher Education (EVALUATE) Robert O’Dowd University of León robert.odowd@unileon.es

Why are we doing this European Policy Experiment? European Education Monitor: In European schools “…ICT is mostly used as a remedial tool” and “…few teachers report using ICT for communication in which students are involved, leaving untapped the potential to connect students together” (2015:59). ET2020 Working Group on Schools Policy: Need to promote innovative approaches to Teacher Education and “…shift away from isolated classrooms towards new methods based on broad collaboration” (Shaping career-long perspectives on teaching, 2015: 2). One solution…..Telecollaboration/Virtual Exchange: The engagement of groups of students in online intercultural interaction and collaboration…with partner classes from other cultural contexts or geographical locations….under the guidance of educators.

What is the aim of EVALUATE? This European Policy Experimentation will evaluate the impact of telecollaborative learning on student-teachers involved in the participating European countries and regions and (if successful) work with Public Authorities to upscale its use in Initial Teacher Education. Research Questions: Will telecollaboration have a positive impact on future teachers’ 1) digital-pedagogical competence, 2) intercultural competence and 3) foreign language competence? How will we carry out the study? Engage approx. 1000 students of Initial Teacher Education from institutions in Spain, Germany, Hungary and Portugal and across Europe in Telecollaborative Exchange projects with international partner classes. Carry out Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the development of students’ pedagogical-digital, intercultural and foreign language competences.

What is most challenging and innovative in your project? Innovation: Telecollaborative research to date has been limited to studies of one class / one exchange. This is the first large-scale study of the impact of telecollaboration on a large number of learners from different exchanges. This is also the first attempt to work with Public Authorities to mainstream Telecollaboration in Teacher education. Challenges: The complexity of the teaching set-ups at the participating institutions makes it difficult in many cases to include control groups for quantitative data collection. Coordination involved in setting up 15-20 bilateral telecollaborative exchanges and collecting quantitative and qualitative data.

Policy impact indicators Telecollaboration is taken on as part of Initial Teacher Education curricula in Teacher Training Institutions Participation in Telecollaborative training is explicitly mentioned in the “Additional Information” section of the European Diploma Supplement Public Authorities undertake to organise further teacher training programmes for teacher educators in their countries/regions Telecollaboration is incorporated into the Public Authorities’ other projects and initiatives Telecollaboration is mentioned and recommended in Public Authorities’ publications and strategy papers Telecollaboration is promoted by the participating Public Authorities to their counterparts in other regions/countries and to the Educational decision makers in EC

Contact: evaluateprojecteu@gmail.com More information: Contact: evaluateprojecteu@gmail.com Project Homepage: http://www.evaluateproject.eu/ Evaluating and Upscaling Telecollaborative Teacher Education (EVALUATE) (582934-EPP-1-2016-2-ES-EPPKA3- PI-POLICY) is funded by Erasmus+ Key Action 3 (EACEA No 34/2015). The views reflected in this presentation are the authors’ alone and the commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.