Virtual Exchange for Teacher Education

Project description

This project explored the implementation of virtual exchange at two higher education institutions in Turkey and in the UK. The TED University Scientific Research Projects (2019-2020) funded the project. Müge Satar was Co-Investigator, working with colleagues in TED University (Turkey) and The Open University.

We investigated the impact of virtual exchange on language teacher trainees' critical digital literacy within an internationalisation at home strategy. Students from both institutions participated in the exchanges which ran over 6 weeks. This included 46 students from:

• English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
• TESOL programmes

The exchanges involved a variety of modes and group sizes such as:

• whole group interactions on a multimodal bulletin board
• small group interactions on videoconference calls

Rich multimodal data of participants' multimodal outputs (such as self- and group identity representations, recordings of videoconference calls) and weekly reflective portfolios were collected. Data were analysed using thematic and social semiotic analysis.

The project outcomes involve a unique conceptualisation of critical digital literacy. Within the specific context of virtual exchange for language teacher training. Our findings show evidence of language teacher trainees' critical digital literacy in:

• collaboratively produced creative digital outputs
• synchronous online interactions

Learn more about the project at Newcastle University's Case Studies of Effective Practice blog