This text presents the results of surveys and interviews of Former Students (FSs) who have taken part in a teacher education course that began in 2004 (still on-going) and that includes Virtual Exchange (VE). The study aimed to look at the impact of two teacher education courses, imparted collaboratively between geographically-distanced…

This volume is based on an ERASMUS+ project that ran from 2017 to 2020. It aimed at empowering both prospective teachers and teacher educators to actively become agents of their own continuing professional development. It further intended to cooperatively establish a culture of self-reflection, as well as an intercultural network of professionals…

As seen in previous chapters of this volume, student involvement in the proPIC Europa project differed at each partner university. For some, engagement rewarded students with formal credits towards a Master's programme. For others, the project offered an opportunity to experience another education system and broaden their knowledge of mobile…

In order to discern how reflective practice functions in an interactive context, this chapter offers an initial approach to understanding how pre-service teachers construct and represent their teacher identities, using a series of interactions designed to stimulate joint reflection in the framework of the proPIC project. The analysis focuses on…

Chapters in this volume have reflected on the proPIC Europa project primarily through the experiences and views of the educators involved. This chapter combines extracts of student essays and includes a choice of vignettes that help examine the project from the perspective of the students themselves, exploring their reflections on their…

Undertaking a Virtual Exchange (VE) project for the first time is supported by introductory online training and mentoring offered through the European Commission's Erasmus+ programme, and can be a source of teacher Professional Development (PD). This study based on Exploratory Practice (EP) describes aspects of the planning and implementation of…

The claim to strive for greater internationalisation in the fields of academic education not only corresponds to the pressures of an increasingly globalised world but is also a response to the ever-growing challenges of cultural diversity that exist within one's own country. For students, however, the geographical space relevant to their education…

In this UniCollaboration plenary session, Barbara Moser-Mercer speaks on setting up education classrooms in refugee camps with University of Geneva students. She starts off with a video which speaks to the virtual exchange idea and how students from the University of Geneva are working together with students in Macau and how that could be…

At a recent TeCoLa3 project conference, Colpaert (2017) declared: "there is not enough evidence to suggest that technology has a direct effect on learning, not even virtual worlds. No, not even games… My hypothesis is… that the added value of technology depends on the designs of your learning environment on the one hand… and what I will talk…

This chapter discusses a form of intergroup dialogue, that is dialogue as a method of communication that can be used to explore shared issues between groups from diverse backgrounds, dialogue that highlights the importance of people's lived experiences. For language learners, this kind of dialogue is an opportunity to communicate about themselves…

This chapter examines practical issues regarding Virtual Exchanges (VEs) for educational purposes in the university context and covers language use, cultural differences, time management, teacher collaboration, technology-related issues, assessment, and context specific factors. It charts the establishment of three academic collaborations between…

Over the past few years, language teaching has progressively evolved from teacher-fronted classroom settings to more complex, learner-centered scenarios, allowing learners to explore authentic contents, work collaboratively, and create sophisticated and socially relevant products. In addition, these processes foster language learning, increase…

This chapter -- as the keynote at the InnoConf in September 2020 -- is set out as a call for action. Following a brief introduction focusing on the wider context of the skills and lifelong learning debate in the UK, the term 'transition' is defined and the commonly known (language education) transition points in the English education system…

This qualitative study provides baseline data on young learner attitudes towards the use of technology in primary schools. Through individual interviews, the students highlighted the importance of its application and acknowledged its potential in the education process. The benefits that they put forward are grouped into four categories:…

Computer-mediated communication tools facilitate international collaboration projects between foreign language learners and peers abroad (O'Dowd, 2018). Social Virtual Reality (VR) applications allow for synchronous interactions and task-based communication in which learners can experience telepresence and immersion and conversate in a foreign…