Informace o publikaci
Daring to Videoconference: Ideas for Teachers
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2018 |
| Druh | Kapitola v knize |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| Popis | The chapter describes a videoconference course which is run jointly between the University of Helsinki (Finland) and Masaryk University (Czech Republic). The chapter offers a detailed structure of the course, and discusses various methods that can be considered by the teachers. In addition, it gives examples of good practice in terms of videoconference usage, and discusses ways to deal with technical issues, timing, co-ordination and classroom dynamics with the number and maturity of students in mind. It is intended as a practical guide any teacher who is considering starting a similar project can apply, and although the course focuses on legal English, these guidelines are relevant for any teacher. Course development started in 2009, and the materials and methods have been regularly revised. The current structure of the course is based on a seven week core teaching period within which students meet via a videoconference once a week, while having the opportunity to prepare for the videoconferences and do other English for law work during six to seven other sessions, outside the videoconference sessions. This basic setting is different in Helsinki and Masaryk due to local structural constraints and will be described in greater detail in the chapter. The structure of the course has three layers. It is structured by soft skills the students practice, by topics they discuss and by means of communication they use both in and outside classroom. These skills include mainly mini-presentations via videoconferencing, negotiations, speeches, courtroom behaviour including cross-examination, small talk and mentoring. The topics cover both basic principles of some soft skills as well as presentations of legal issues. In the first area, students discuss general rules and recommendations relevant for soft skills practice. Legal topics concentrate on facts from a particular legal area or on procedures connected with law. The means of communication cover face to face, both group and individual communication, by videoconference during the session or Skype outside the session, and written communication via Wikispaces. Most of the sessions follow a partly loose structure which enables the groups to pursue a given goal while allowing space for student creativity, room for teacher-chaired discussion and autonomous decisions on the content of the session. The teachers’ role change throughout the course from a provider to facilitator and observer, as the students gradually take over the responsibility for the content of the sessions. Individual sessions are recorded and the corpus is used by one of the teachers, due to technical restraints, to find possible problematic areas that could help to improve methods as well as to identify examples of good practice which are worth developing This small scale research led to the introduction of some soft skills topics, linguistic issues at the pragmatic level that need to be addressed, the development of exercises that lead to active peer observations of strategies fellow students use in negotiations and to the idea of a role of a student-mentor which is connected with mixed skilled partners, in our case especially in terms of legal knowledge. The final section of the chapter discusses possible future developments of the course, as adjustments may be necessary to meet the changing circumstances in the different institutions and the needs of the students. In addition, it offers some areas for future research. |