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Description of the project

Telecollaboration refers to the application of online communication tools to bring together learners with the aim of developing their base knowledge and competences through collaborative tasks and project work.

Implementing telecollaboration world-wide entails engaging students in international communication and collaboration with partners of different cultures and in distant locations with the aim of developing both language skills and intercultural competence.

Research has also shown the potential of this activity for developing learner autonomy, pragmatic aspects through social relationships and multiple literacies.

The UAM-TELNETCOM research project has been designed to respond to the need for information on this new teaching/learning method, as it is being implemented in Higher Education.

The project started in the academic year 2005-06, and since that year we have collected spoken and written data from a variety of universities that include Universidad Nebrija, Universidad Carlos III, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, The Open University UK, Hogeschool Utrecht, University of Massachussetts Amherst, University of Hawaii and Columbia University.

By analyzing the data gathered from university lessons where telecollaboration is integrated, we intend to discover the impact it has on the development of key competences for lifelong learning. These competences include the use of the foreign language, digital competences, learning to learn competences, social competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and cultural awareness.