General Introduction

The Context
This project developed against a background of profound educational changes. The Information Age has had enormous impact on the way people learn and in it has opened new avenues to enhance the distance learning environment. The roles of the stakeholders in the teaching-learning process have evolved. Teachers have become facilitators, mediators, and enablers. Learners are encouraged to take control of their own learning and to be autonomous, although these qualities are not inherent to distance learning but rather skills that need to be developed.

The role of institutions in the integration of ICT tools in education should not be underestimated, as administrations often see these tools as the avenue for cheap and easy solutions to all problems. Educators feel they are being pushed into adopting them without being given the opportunity to analyse their implications or being able to devise strategies appropriate to their specific context.

The danger of this approach in connection with (distance) language learning is that the advances in communicative language teaching and learning achieved over the last decades may be overridden and replaced by retrograde practices caused by the use of technology for the sake of technology, instead of ICT being used for best pedagogical advantage. How this should be done isn't yet clear as research on the use if ICT in language learning although abundant it is currently trying to find its sense of direction.
The first phase of the project set out to find out the priorities in the integration of ICT into distance language learning given the educational context outlined above.

The introductory Think Tank
Six major problem areas were identified during the 3-day Think Tank:

1. The disparity of skills between material writers and computer experts;
2. The lack of objective criteria to assess the efficiency of ICT tools to contribute to the achievement of specific learning objectives;
3. The limited objective evaluation available to be able to ascertain what exactly is learned with ICT tools. Learning outcomes need to be formulated in a way that they reflect the new modes of learning, and in this case, the integration of ICT in distance language learning;
4. The isolation in which all those involved in distance language teaching and learning (teachers, teacher trainers, material writers and curriculum/course designers) often find themselves. This isolation prevents them from profiting from sharing their successes, failures and expertise;
5. The lack of tried and tested teacher-education courses for ICT in distance language learning;
6. The lack of systematic provision for speaking practice and socializing interaction between distance language learners to prevent a drop in learner motivation over time . This issue may be even more apparent when ICTs are the primary learning tools.

The Central Workshop
The central workshop was the 2nd event in this three-year project. Five of the six main areas identified above became the 'Strands' of activities that provided the framework for the workshop and of the Strand projects that began after the workshop.

Click here for a full and detailed report on the workshop
Click here for a link to the list of workshop participants

Strand projects

1. Collection of selected bibliography and webography on ICT in distance language learning;
2. Collection and presentation of case studies on the integration of ICT in (distance) language learning and in teacher education;
3. Evaluation of existing tools for ICT in (distance) language learning;
4. Design, development and piloting of a teacher training course module in ICT in (distance) language learning;
5. Creating an interactive platform for the exchange of ideas and experience between teacher trainers in different European countries.

After the workshop
After the workshop, since the different activities in the different strands overlapped, we gathered all the ideas and placed them in a three-tier continuum:
Tier 1: Teacher education and language learning (the major concerns in this project)
Tier 2: the different components of the teaching-studying-learning process, starting with the planning or designing and finishing with evaluation and assessment. In between there are teaching arrangement, curricula, technical aspects and a lot more.
Tier 3: BSCW and other groupware. This includes incorporating groupware in the teaching-studying-learning process and could be seen as a new technical or technological infrastructure on which teaching, studying and learning can be built.

Of course ICTs are also present as tools, new contexts and empowering mediators.

Outcomes of the project
For links to the different documents that comprise the outcomes of the project, click on:

Tier 1: Teacher Education and distance language learning
Tier 2: The teaching studying learning process
    (case studies)
Tier 3: Collaborative learning environment
Bibliography and Webography
Project evaluation and conclusions

Behind each title, you will find not only documents, but also further links to related documents and relevant web sites.