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Newsletter do ECI - Edição Especial - Ano 2, nº 1 - Intercâmbio Virtual (versão em inglês)

 
 

 

Virtual Exchange / COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning)

 
Year 02, nº 01
May, 2022
What is Virtual Exchange?

“Virtual exchange involves the engagement of groups of learners in extended periods of online intercultural interaction and collaboration with partners from other cultural contexts or geographical locations as an integrated part of their educational programmes and under the guidance of educators and/or expert facilitators” (O'DOWD, 2018. p.5). Therefore, the development of these activities is part of  a teaching initiative.
 
What characterizes a Virtual Exchange/COIL?
 

 

Other than promoting an international experience at home (on campus), the collaborative learning mediated by technology allows the development of the intercultural competence through the cultural awareness, the recognition of diversity and, also, the improvement of linguistic competences, since the virtual exchange happens among participants of different international institutions whose official languages normally differ.

The collaborative learning mediated by technology allows, besides the international experience at home (on campus), the development of intercultural competence through cultural awareness, the recognition of diversity and, also, the improvement of linguistic competences, since the virtual exchange happens among participants of different international institutions whose official languages normally differ.
Figure 01 - Representation of COIL (Adapted from Drexel University)
Know some specific COIL characteristics:
 
  • Related subjects, not necessarily the same here and in the international context;
  • Use of simultaneous and non-simultaneous platforms for  interactions;
  • Development of global and intercultural perspectives concerning the worked content.
 
 
 
 
Did you know that UEM takes/took part in initiatives of virtual exchange?

Check out the interactions developed between UEM and international universities:
 

Prof. UEM/Department

Partner foreign university

Country

Teaching level

Claudia Hitomi Watanabe Rezende (Department of Environment - DAM - Umuarama)

Universidad Antonio Nariño - UAN

Colombia

Undergraduate

Gislaine Camila Lapasini Leal (Department of Production Engineering - DEP)

Universidad Antonio Nariño - UAN

Colombia

Undergraduate

Heloisa Toshie Irie Saito (Department of Educational Theories and Practices - DTP)

Universidad Tecnológico de Antioquia + Universidad Tecnológica de Izúcar de Matamoros

Colombia and Mexico

Undergraduate

Luciana Cabrini Simões Calvo (Department of Modern Languages - DLM)

Penn State University

United States of America

Undergraduate

Mauricio Reinert do Nascimento (Department of Administration - DAD)

Universitat Tubingen

Germany and China

Outreach course

Mayckel da Silva Barreto (Department of Nursing - DEN)

Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

Colombia

Specialization

Mayckel da Silva Barreto (Department of Nursing - DEN)

Universidad de Concepción e Universidad de Alicante

Chile and Spain

Graduate

Renato Leão Rego (Department of Architecture and Urbanism - DAU)

Universidade de A Coruña

Spain

Undergraduate
 
ACCOUNTS

 

Cláudia Hitomi Watanabe Rezende, Ph.D.
Department of Environment (DAM/UEM- Campus Umuarama)

"Through a call published by the International Cooperação Office (Escritório de Cooperação Internacional - ECI)), it was possible to carry out the first COIL experience of 2021. Initially information was provided to establish partnerships and an initial planning with the ECI's team. The activities were developed in the months of October and November, 2021, with students from the course of Environmental Engineering at the State University of Maringá from the Regional  Campus of Umuarama, subject of Ecotoxicology and students from the subject of Introduction to Nanotechnology and Nano-science from Colombia's Universidad Antonio Nariño under the responsibility of professor Daniel Llamosa Perez. The students took part in integration and interaction activities where they could introduce themselves and know a little bit more of the culture of both countries. In a second moment, the university faculty presented a short introduction of their subject's contents (Introduction to Nanotechnology and Introduction to Ecotoxicology) and, at the end, the students were able to integrate the contents developing a presentation of case studies involving the subject's themes. The experience brought cultural enrichment, stimulus to the knowledge of other languages as well as the perception of crossover knowledge  for all those involved."

Listen  to Anaely Caroline de Oliveira Locatelli's account below, a student that took part in the activities:
Play
Pictures sent by professor Cláudia.
 

 

Heloísa Toshie Irie Saito, Ph.D.
Department of Educational Theories and Practices (Departamento de Teoria e Prática da Educação - DTP)

"In the period of September to November,2021, I performed my first COIL experience that was also UEM's first COIL initiative, encouraged by ECI's public calling. It was a partnership that I organized with Colombia's Universidad Tecnológico de Antioquia, via professor Aida Shirley Murillo Posada, and Mexico's Universidad Tecnológica de Izúcar from Matamoros, through professor Angela Hernández Rios, involving 30 people from the course of Pedagogy and the Graduate Program in Education from Brazil, 50 people from the course of Psychology from Colombia and 40 people from the course of Languages Spanish - English from Mexico.
Despite being an initial experience, since I had a great support from the ECI's team andcareful and well articulated planning with the professors from Colombia and Mexico, it was a successful action. As a result, I highlight the following points: immediate reality knowledge expansion; establishment of new academic partnerships as much for the university as for the professors and students; it facilitated human education stimulus of present exchange actions and stimulus to the study of a foreign language. Surely, I will develop new COIL actions, because I improved my human and professional education with this first experience."
 

 

Lynn Hartle, Ph.D.  Professor of Education, The Penn State Univ, Brandywine
COIL partner of prof. Luciana Cabrini Simões Calvo (DLM - Department of Modern Languages in Portuguese/UEM)

“Hi all

I was so delighted to meet and then partner with Luciana in a VE of our pre-service teachers; she is such a delightful person and dedicated scholar. While my teachers were studying ways to teach children who immigrate to the US with limited English language (ESOL strategies), the Maringa students were studying to teach English to their Brazilian . We found our common ground in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), but as the students found by working in groups (some Maringa, Some PSU students), the issues of SLA are different in our countries. For example, the US perhaps because of the prevalence of English in the world, our schools don’t promote our students and teachers to learn another language than their native English. Because my class was asynchronous online, our students first met by sharing and commenting on each others’ Linguistic and Cultural Autobiographies on the platform VoiceThread (https://voicethread.com/howto/). Dr. Calvo and I created ours as well; here’s mine loaded to YouTube so you can e-meet me:
 
 

For some, this was their first time using this platform, but all rallied to the task and created interesting and engaging introductions.  Then with minimal guidance, our students took great initiative to work together in groups, do Cross-cultural research about Bilingualism, Teacher Education, and Language Teaching in their respective countries.  I was so impressed with the students’ collaboration skills to arrange meetings with group members, decide on digital platforms (ie. WhatsApp / Zoom) for meetings, use their organization skills to divide up the responsibilities, then plan and carry out their projects. We saw leadership skills emerge as well as our main goals for these teachers to develop Intercultural communicative competence (ICC), language local and global perspectives, and collaborative practices through information and communication technologies (ICT). 

This was Luciana’s and my first time collaborating, so we are looking forward to reading through and analyzing the students’ surveys of their experiences. I can’t wait to replicate this experience again next year with another group of students, using the feedback we get from those surveys.  Thank you UEM!”
 

 

Mayckel Barreto, Ph.D. Department of Nursing (Departamento de Enfermagem - DEN)/ Graduate Program in Nursing (Programa de Pós-Graduação em Enfermagem - PSE)

"In the second half of 2022 a subject will be developed in the COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) format to the graduate students of Nursing from the State University of Maringá (UEM) in partnership with the Universidad de Concepción (Chile) and Universidad de Alicante (Spain). The central theme of this subject will be ‘the health promotion of families in the context of planetary health’ and it will be taught by three nursing doctors, one from each university, who have large experience in the theme. Initially  30 vacancies will be offered (10 for each university) to allow easy interaction among students. Activities will be suggested based on problematization and case studies that shall be solved from multicultural students groups, leading to the discussion of aspects corresponding to the reality of the three countries’ health system (Brazil, Chile and Spain). We hope  that, with this activity, the graduate students can develop distinct abilities corresponding to communication, observation, leadership and teamwork, always guided by the inter and multicultural discourse that will be able to enlarge the participant's world view."
 

 

Renato Leão Rego, Ph.D. Department of Architecture and Urbanism (Departamento de Arquitetura e Urbanismo - DAU/UEM)

"Architecture students from UEM and Universidad de A Coruña, Spain, had the opportunity to share the results of an architectural project exercise from similar subjects, offered separately in both institutions. The proposed exercises answered different themes, but shared the same teaching/learning methodology. Every student was in a similar stage in the course. Among the students from the Spanish university there were some foreigners. The presentations took place in English, so that both parts weren't favored by their mother tongue. The attitude, performance and vocabulary from the foreigner students revealed personal and professional maturity, different from the Brazilian and Spanish students. This fact had an impact in the timid reaction of UEM students. Anyway, the interaction and the exchange of knowledge were positive. It was also valuable to notice,, a more professional and less pupillary attitude and the use of a more precise technical vocabulary. It was also an important learning experience to contrast how the works are graphically represented on both institutions. From the teacher's perspective, we realized that the students' difficulties and potentialities are pretty similar."
 

COIL opportunities
Universidad Católica de Colombia
The Universidad Católica de Colombia, a member of LatAm Coil network (Red Latinoamericana de Collaborative Online International Learning), announced the offered subjects for virtual exchange in the second semester of 2022. The subjects are offered in the areas of Law, Economic Sciences, Business Administration, Engineering and in the interdisciplinary areas of Humanities and Language Institutions. For more information, send an email to eci-iec@uem.br expressing interest in the opportunity. In this way, we can help you during the process.
Universidad del Norte
The faculty staff of Universidad del Norte, Colombia, are looking for international partners to develop COIL activities from August to November, 2022. The announced interest areas are: Engineering (Electric, Electronic, Mechanical, and Systems), Law, Psychology, Mathematics, and Statistics. For more information, send an email to eci-iec@uem.br showing interest in the opportunity. Hence, we can help you during the process.
 
Penn State University
Penn State University (PSU), via Edge Project (Experiential Digital Global Engagement), is a constant opportunity for the development of COIL activities. PSU and UEM have an ongoing cooperation agreement for these collaborative activities. Unlike the universities cited above, there are not semiannual calls for the development of these activities. Instead, the professor interested in these activities has to contact the Internationalization at Home department (Internacionalização em Casa - IeC) at ECI so that PSU will be notified of the interest. This way, IeC offers all the necessary support for the development of these activities during the process.
 
Are you interested in developing an international learning virtual exchange activity with your students?
 

Contact us through the email: eci-iec@uem.br. IeC offers all the support during the process of development of the collaborative activities. The international element will make a huge difference to our students' curriculum by giving them a diverse and intercultural experience.
 

 

References:
O’DOWD, R. From telecollaboration to virtual exchange: state-of-the-art and the role of UNICollaboration in moving forward. Journal of Virtual Exchange, v. 1, p. 1-23, 2018.

COIL Flowchart. Adapted from Drexel University: <https://bit.ly/3PzXVJk> Accessed May 19, 2022.
 

Newsletter Special Edition, with themes from Internationalization at Home Department. Designed by: Beatriz Machado Lima; Laura Pinhata Battistam; Luciana Cabrini Simões Calvo; Milena de Paula Oliveira Alonso; Pedro Sardeti Dantas.
 
 
Our mailing address is:
sec-eci@uem.br

Escritório de Cooperação Internacional
Avenida Colombo, 5790 - Bloco 123
87020-900
Maringá - Paraná