Bringing learners into the global classroom: Setting up and running online intercultural exchanges

This seminar will present the basic knowledge and skills necessary to set up and run an online intercultural exchange. It will be delivered by Dr Robert O’Dowd, who has published widely on the application of online technologies for the development of intercultural competence in learners. Attendees will first learn about various platforms where they can find partner classes, tasks, and training tools for collaboration adapted to primary, secondary and third level education. They will then go through the steps of setting up and running an online exchange and learn how to deal with the problems which may arise. Online participants and physical attendees will work in groups in order to simulate exchanges.
The target audience for this event is teachers and trainees at primary, secondary and third level education. While the focus is primarily the setting of intercultural exchanges for language learning, the content will also be relevant to practitioners in other disciplines as these exchanges can be adapted to the sharing of information between various groups in an international setting.