Individualised, Creative and ICT-enhanced: Passing the Baton to Learners
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | This paper presents practical examples of development and implementation of a creative ICT-enhanced language teaching approach focused on individualised learning in a university environment. In 2009-2012, Masaryk University Language Centre (Centrum jazykového vzdělávání CJV MU), the largest language centre in the Czech Republic, carried out the Compact Project with the aim to improve language education at Masaryk University in a complex and innovative way. It consisted of design, development, piloting, evaluation and implementation of testing, language and soft skills courses, and ICT tools focusing on areas such as CEFR, flexible materials format, authentic situations, creative processes and barriers, community-of-practice communication, or individualised ICT-enhanced language learning. The project resulted in almost one hundred new and innovated soft skills, academic and specific language courses, newly standardised system of testing and a “Virtual Study Space” (www.vjs.muni.cz), which serves as a new collaborative open learning resource with some social network features providing a great number of teaching and learning materials, methods and tools. The project outcomes indicated that the creative ICT-enhanced approach can play a fundamental role in improving language learning and in fostering an individualised learning environment; on the other hand, despite its potential and growing importance, its effectiveness depends on cultural shift of both learners and teachers. Therefore, a new Impact Project with the goal to facilitate such shifts on the national level starts in May 2012. The aim of this paper is to describe the role and the effective use of the creative ICT-enhanced approach; to provide suggestions on how to integrate this approach to university language education; and to stimulate discussion on which creative ICT-enhanced teaching methods can serve the learners' needs best. |
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