As Director of Global Programs, I help a lot of my colleagues with the initial steps of starting a virtual exchange, and then help them work out the various snags and snares of the logistical process, help them navigate the many ways to implement virtual exchanges in the classroom, and finally act as a sounding board for ideas for improvement. I also run exchanges regularly and promote the usage of telecollaboration quite often to my peers in the education community. However, having now worked with Virtual Exchange Programs for several years, I often forget what teachers experience when first running one in their class. In order, then, to refamiliarize myself with first impressions, and the challenges associated with a maiden voyage on the seas of Asynchronous Video Responses, I thought it best to sit down with my newest initiate, Jaime, a Spanish teacher in my department and talk shop.
Me: What advice would you give a teacher in your position, just starting their first virtual exchange?
Jaime: I would recommend participating in an onboarding session, if possible. There’s a lot of information and frequently asked questions that will come up and save you an incredible amount of time. If you can’t attend the onboarding session, then watch the video of a taped one.
Trust me.
At first, there were things I was trying to figure out on my own and I thought, “It’s fine: I’ll just play around with it.” But actually, my questions were the same as many other teachers’ and once I looked at the materials offered, I realized that there’s a much easier way. Level Up Village gives you just about everything you need to get started. Instead of researching everything case by case, as it comes up, it will greatly decrease the amount of startup time to just utilize these resources.
Oh yeah, and if you have a question . . . someone else has probably had it, too . . ..
Me: Great! Would you do anything differently when starting your next virtual exchange?
Jaime: Yeah, in my next virtual exchanges, I’m going to reach out to my fellow teacher, the educator from the partner school, as soon as possible and set up a specific starting time. That and I’d talk to them about scheduling.
Unfortunately, I’ve learned more than I need to know about scheduling. I learned that some Mexican schools have their midterms scheduled just before the holidays, and in Peru there’s a time change and a season change around our wintertime…you need to be able to talk about schedule.
And I’d go a little further. The chat function on the Level Up Village software is great to kick things off, but to connect and talk about the scheduling and the pacing of the exchange, I would definitely recommend scheduling a Zoom meeting. There’s just too much back and forth when you’re trying to lay out a timeline for the next four to six weeks, and it’s just easier to connect to the other teacher and actually start getting to know each other that way.
Me: Yep, all sounds about right. What about with the kids?
Jaime: With your students, I would suggest setting up expectations ahead of time. First of all, there are some great examples of videos that the students can view beneath a prompt before they embark on making their own. I would definitely encourage them to watch these videos, so they know what’s expected of them, what’s possible within the framework of the assignment, and to spark their creativity. You definitely don’t want them to be making static, boring videos, so showing them good examples of other students’ work will start things off right. My first week’s videos were pretty uninteresting, and I quickly adapted my expectations of the students.
Me: How did you get them to make more interesting videos?
Jaime: I told them to be more personal and to add more of themselves in their videos. I encouraged them to take a tour of their home, share details about their lives by including visuals, and treat the person on the other side of the screen as a friend. Being open and authentic, I think, makes for the best quality of response.
Me: Do you think they enjoyed the experience?
Jaime: Yes, definitely. It’s perhaps not as deep and intense as having an exchange student visiting them, or having a Zoom meeting with one, but I think most students who are concerned with improving their language skills prefer this method anyway. As someone who very much would like the chance to think about how I respond to a question, and greatly appreciates having the opportunity to edit my response so that I can say exactly what I want to say, this method of asynchronous video conferencing really appeals to me and, I’m sure, to a great number of the students.
I think once you’ve established a good way for them to mix up their responses and reply to different students each time, they look forward to “meeting” new classmates from the partner school. It gives them a sense of variety and keeps things fresh and new for them to be interacting with a different handful of kids each week. Keeps thing from getting stale.
Me: And you? Do you think you enjoyed the experience?
Jaime: Yeah, it’s a lot easier and more convenient. Of course, I can’t say that kids are going to go as deep as they might with an exchange student they host for three weeks at their house, or someone with whom they facetime live every week, but for the ease and convenience with which the project comes together, it’s absolutely worth it.
Me: Wow, that’s awesome. Any other closing thoughts about doing your first virtual exchange?
Jaime: Yeah, I really like that something like this can be done in just about any level of Spanish. Like, with my AP class, it worked great, but if we’re paired with a less advanced class, we could totally do this same project. Of course, the responses might be simpler, the conversation less deep, but the best part is that you could use roughly the same prompts and discussion questions, even if it’s a beginner or intermediate level class.
Me: That’s true . . . it’s the great thing about teaching language: we just scaffold learning but the topics are cyclical.
Jaime: Absolutely. I hope these collaboration projects continue to connect classrooms and students all around the world. It’s really incredible that we can do these things with such ease.
Me: Yeah, Jaime. I hope so, too.
About Dan Pieraccini
Dan Pieraccini was born in Northern Italy, but was moved to the United States at the age of 6. Dan’s B.A. in English and M.A. in Italian literature have opened the door to over a decade of teaching high school and college students a second (and in some cases a first) language. It is likely that having traveled through 82 countries, 48 U.S. states, and three disputed territories somehow factored into the decision to make Dan Delbarton School’s first Director of Global Programs. In his spare time, he manages events at his local Elks Lodge, helps feed the hungry at a handful of food pantries, writes and performs rock and roll songs with his band Forget the Whale, plays in a Dungeons and Dragons game, and occasionally goes out to brunch.
