1. Communication and collaboration across social boundaries and academic disciplines In which ways a VLE can help to foster communication and collaboration between remote partners? UNTELE Conference Compiègne, France, 20 th March 2004

2. Communication and collaboration between… Charles Claxton, Teacher and Assistant Head, Archbishop Michael Ramsey Technology College Peter Wren, Learning Technologist LSE Centre for Learning Technology Hervé Didiot-Cook, Language Co-ordinator (French), LSE Language Centre

3. Communication and collaboration between… A group of 1 st year undergraduates at LSE….. AND A group of sixthformers at AMR, London  Mentoring scheme AND A visual artist based in Bordeaux, France  Artist in residence project

4. Communication and collaboration between remote partners Context for the mentoring scheme between AMR -LSE 26 th September 2001 European day of languages: EU funding for AMR Language and culture awareness workshops at AMR with the support of LSE staff Experience repeated in 2002: cooking in French, Flamenco… 2002-3 Mentoring scheme for French for business, presentation at the ALL annual conference, Bath 2003

5. Communication and collaboration between remote partners Aim for 2003-4 : development of a VLE to support the mentoring scheme Catalyst: key involvement of Peter as a learning technologist and the CLT Summer 2003 : Business French online within the LSE platform WebCT Sept 2003: launch of the VLE for AMR students Since, continuous development: discussion board, voice recording WIMBA…

6. Communication and collaboration between remote partners January 2004: Innovation Exchange project Joint proposal from the Association for Language Learning (ALL) and the University Council of Modern Languages (UCML) Funding for the Department of Education and Employment (DfEES) From January 2004 to March 2005 Key features: Innovative collaboration between schools and universities Innovative use of ICT

7. Communication and collaboration between remote partners Context for the artist in residence scheme 2004 centenary of the Entente cordiale treaty Integrate a graphic/ visual dimension into a French language course Promote/ develop interaction between artist and students through a VLE -> the FLIPPANT project with Michel HERRERIA, visual artist (Yoshiko Nagai, curator)

8. Rationale In which ways a VLE can help to foster communication and collaboration between remote partners? Mentoring scheme: Online access fostering learner autonomy at AMR LSE students can access AMR material and help their colleagues

9. Mentoring scheme ……….

10. Why WIMBA? I was happy to work with WIMBA, the LSE Language Centre and the Archbishop Michael Ramsay Technical College. 1.The LSE Language Centre is a cheerful, positive, innovatory, client-centred environment. 2.AMRTC outreach project useful to students and staff working in a very challenging environment. Good to support their learning with LSE (privileged) resources. 3.WIMBA very useful tool, not only for language learning, but also, I believe, would be very useful in at least the early stages of on-line discussion, encouraging student confidence, trust, and familiarity. 4.I wanted to learn to use WIMBA on a small scale prior to wider-scale implementation at the LSE, not only with our Language Centre.

11. Mentoring scheme/ artist in residence KEY ISSSUE from my perspective, attempt to define a collaborative model: “ADD ON” versus “ADD IN” ADD ON : easily/ universally replicable in any subject : Maths… Draw back : stop when students are not coaxed/ in front of the PC… ADD IN : total integration, week by week in curriculum… assigned, accredited… Drawback : won’t be bought by lecturers unless paid for the time they will spent on it.

13. How? 1.Layout of content pages is a product of Hervé’s experience as a Language Teacher and my experience in on-line learning support. Arrangement of material in WebCT likewise. 2.Copyright clearance advice from our Centre for Learning Technology Copyright and Digital material specialist. 3.Audio format, production, and streaming support and advice from another member of the CLT team.

14. We aimed for 1.Clarity in presentation and language. 2.Provision of resources such as worksheets, audio and WIMBA VoiceBoards at the point of need, reducing the need to remember resource locations. It’s enough to have to learn French without having to learn a maze as well. 3.The constant provision of navigational clues to support user orientation; the user should know before acting which resources a hyperlink will reach.

15. Problems 1.Access to WIMBA from outside LSE achieved by working with Charles, Hervé, and the IT Support people at AMRTC. This I believe needs to be a renewed focus for us next year; it needs to be more structured and frequent. 2.We upgraded the version of WIMBA. This required an upgrade to the Java Virtual machine on client PCs. This we arranged with AMRTC IT Support. 3.Their firewall precluded access to the LSE QuickTime Streaming Server, so we linked directly to the audio files. 4.General problems of client soundcards, headset and microphone availability and function need to be cleared up prior to student introduction to the system.

16. Future Prospects WIMBA is now partially integrated with WebCT; it is a PowerLink add-in, so in future, creation and administration of VoiceBoards will be far easier.

17. REFERENCES Association for Language Learning (ALL) http://www.all-languages.org.uk/ Association of University Language Centres (AULC) http://www.aulc.org http://www.aulc.org French at LSE, Mentoring scheme, Artist in residence project http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/language/French_main/L SE_FrenchMain.htm http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/language/French_main/L SE_FrenchMain.htm Innovation Exchange http://www.in-ex.net/http://www.in-ex.net/

18. To contact us Charles Claxton c.claxton@amrtc.southwark.sch.uk Peter Wren p.wren@lse.ac.uk Hervé Didiot-Cook h.didiot-cook@lse.ac.uk