Project RITE
Recipients
Engaging Students in a True Intercultural Dialogue: Network-based Discourse Communities and Culture Learning in the FL Classroom
Download final report: PDFSebastien Dubreil
Assistant Professor, Modern Foreign Languages & Literatures, UT KnoxvilleFinal Report Abstract
This project was at the crossroads of teaching, research, and educational technology. Despite the challenges of setting up such a multi-faceted project, fortunately, the teaching side of the project was a resounding success. Students were motivated by the class, learned to navigate the difficulties of collaboration, negotiations, and intercultural communication to produce, in the end, high-quality work. In such projects, the technology has to be invisible and seamless. As amazing as it was to set up a room to establish weekly communication with another continent, students focus on the one moment when the technology fails. After the initial difficulties with Camtasia, it did not happen and students were able to enjoy a good educational experience. The research side of the project is the aspect that suffered and that we will hopefully be able to solve before next spring to add the important missing part of the data.This project is also a testimony to the fact that valuable research and teaching endeavors can take place despite the inevitable obstacles that one has to face, coming from access to technology and working with technology, to financial and political considerations. It allowed me to establish precious contacts throughout the university, to give instant visibility to culture-driven courses in the French section, to contribute to the internationalization of the curriculum and the campus (see the recommendations of the Ready for the World initiative), and, most importantly, to set up a line of research projects that will make worthy contributions to the field of TELL.