Online Socialisation (YES Stage 2)

STAGE 2: Online Socialisation: Building the Online Community

Stage 2 Overview:

In this stage you will receive the in-structions needed to complete the steps of the 2nd stage of the YES project: reading your foreign partners’ profiles to get to know them better, playing a Kahoot! game to learn about your partners’ country and institution, pre-paring and posting your introductory videos and watching your partners’ videos, designing the NGO interview, having your 1st synchronous online meeting with your foreign partners and writing your reflections about this first encounter.

 

 STAGE 2: Online Socialisation
YES 2 Online Socialisation English B1/B2 140 mins
STAGE 2: Online Socialisation: Becoming the Online Community

Dates: Week 2, from __________ to __________
Deadline: End of Week 2.
Theme & Goals: Building the online Community so that it becomes a non-threatening environment where students feel comfortable and are not afraid of participating nor making mistakes.
Step 1. Reading digital profiles: Read each other’s digital profiles on the Google+ Community.
Step 2. Playing a Kahoot! Game: (see list of possible questions below) Play a game on Kahoot! By https://kahoot.it/ and accessing and introducing the game pin[1]. The game aims to give you the opportunity to learn some interesting facts about your foreign partners’ country and institution[2].
Step 3. Forming Virtual Exchange groupings: You will get grouped together based on your common interests. Alternatively, you can get grouped together based on the placement test results.
Step 4. Introductions and ice-breaking questions: Post and respond to ice-breaking questions on the Google + Community.
Step 5. Personal introductory videos: Create and upload your personal introductory videos on the Google + Community and comment on the videos posted by your partners (home activity).
Step 6. 1st synchronous meeting: Meet with your foreign partners for approximately 20 minutes at Google + Hangouts[3] (home activity). In your conversation you may discuss the ice-breaking questions and personal introductory videos, the Kahoot! game, etc.
Step 7. Design of NGO interview Think about possible questions you may ask the NGO representative. The goal is to understand the mission and operations of the organization and identify the social challenges they face.
Step 8. Reflections on your 1st synchronous meeting: Write a personal reflective essay about your 1st synchronous oral exchange (around 400-500 words). (Home activity). (See list of possible Reflective questions below).

[1] Video tutorial about Kahoot! Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFFv6_6was4

[2] Sample Kahoot! games: ‘What do you know about Spain/Cyprus?’ https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/4fecd979-5332-452a-84ee-3a4ffd6b7d80 (Spain) and https://play.kahoot.it/#/lobby?quizId=4d7f60dc-55ff-40f8-9164-b99335dd7493 (Cyprus)

[3] Video tutorial about Google+ Hangouts available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6bLIPnAEiA

 

 

Possible questions for reflective essay:

(Reflective essay about 1st synchronous meeting, Step 7):

Question 1 Describe your first videoconferencing session (with your foreign students as part of your English/Spanish course at the University.
Question 2 What have you learned about your foreign partner(s)’ country and culture? What information about your own country and culture have you shared with them?
Question 3 What new words or expressions have you learned?
Question 4 What were the main challenges and what has gone smoothly in this meeting?
Question 5 How have you ensured effective communication? What technical, linguistic or cultural challenges have you faced and how have you addressed them?

 

 

Summary of tasks:
1) Respond to ice-breaking questions and write your own questions
2) Form groups
3) Create and upload introductory videos on Google
4) 1st synchronous meeting
5) Design interview to be conducted with the NGO representative
6) Write a reflective essay about your 1st synchronous meeting.

 

Suggested assessment criteria Task Completion.

Participation in the Google+ Community, including number of posts, length and quality of the interactions.

Language/Communication skills (e.g. written skills from the reflective essays, NGO interview questions and forum discussions, and oral skills from the introductory videos and synchronous meeting).

Reflective essays: content and depth, linguistic accuracy.

Teamwork.
Recommended tools Google+ or any other platform which facilitates group interaction.

Kahoot game (previously created by the teacher) available at: kahoot.it. Alternatively, other gamification and flipped teaching tools, such as Socrative or Plickers, might be used.

Hangouts or any other videoconferencing tools for synchronous meeting.

Moodle Tasks/Portfolio functionality or any other portfolio and file sharing tools for the written reflective essays
Resources Possible Kahoot! questions

Possible questions for reflection

Possible interview questions

 

Teacher’s notes (2- Online Socialisation: Building the Online Community)
Step 1 T explains the tasks to be completed by students, starting by reading each other’s digital profiles on the Google+ Community
Step 2 Launches the Kahoot! game from the «creators'» menu at www.create.kahoot.it and ask students to join the game by accessing https://kahoot.it either from their mobile phones or the computers. Then, provide them with the game pin and ask them to choose a nickname. Tell them that the purpose of the game is to give them the opportunity to learn some interesting facts about their foreign partners’ country and institution
Step 3 Gets students grouped together based on their common interests. Alternatively, they can get grouped together based on the placement test results
Step 4 Asks students to post and respond to ice-breaking questions on the Google + Community
Step 5 Tells students to create and upload their personal introductory videos on the Google + Community and comment on the videos of their partners (home activity)
Step 6 Explains that all participants are going to meet with their foreign partners for approximately 20 minutes at Google + Hangouts[1] (home activity). In their conversation they may discuss the ice-breaking questions and personal introductory videos, the Kahoot! game, etc.
Step 7 Tells students to think about possible questions to be addressed to the NGO representative. Explains that the questions should be targeted to the specific organization and should aim at obtaining as much information as possible in order to help them move further with the project goals. Helps students with interviewing techniques and issues of politeness and courtesy when visiting the NGO headquarters.
Step 8 Tells students to write a personal reflective essay about the 1st synchronous meeting (around 400-500 words) (home activity). This reflective essay should be uploaded in the university’s Moodle platform (See list of possible questions below)
Possible challenges Difficulty in organizing synchronous meeting due to students’ workload, academic timetable, technical difficulties, etc. Students’ anxiety and reservation in addressing their foreign counterparts for the first time and conversing in English.

[1] Video tutorial about Google+ Hangouts available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6bLIPnAEiA