elocALL
E-LOCAL for All

Period
November 1, 2013 to October 31, 2014
Duration
12 months
Abstract

The purpose of this project is to valorise the results of the E-LOCAL project by carrying out large-scale activities of dissemination and exploitation, which is implicitly suggested in the title “E-LOCAL for all”. E-LOCAL (Electronically Learning Other Cultures And Languages), a project developed from 2010 to 2012 by a consortium of HEIs and secondary schools coordinated by the University of Bologna, aimed at promoting multilingualism through the implementation of an online learning environment for 6 less widely used languages: Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Portuguese. The E-LOCAL courses were designed specifically for mobility students and focused on the concomitant acquisition of cultural competence and linguistic skills at breakthrough level, conveying the message that integration, even in a temporary mobility experience, always entails learning local language and culture.
Whereas the core activity of E-LOCAL was the implementation of online learning materials and their testing by a limited number of pilot users, this project meets the need to accompany and direct the systematization of the use of those courses with a view to maximizing their long-term impact. The concrete objective of “E-LOCAL for all” is to expand considerably the user base and to explore new forms of exploitation, both inside and outside the partnership, both with and without e-tutoring, thus providing examples of best practice for long-term exploitation. The core outcome of this project consists in the submission of the E-LOCAL courses to a high number of students: more than 200.000 people will be reached in the initial phase, and we can envisage that some thousands of them will enrol and take the courses autonomously, with a Web2.0-based support in a dedicated Facebook group; a fundamental innovation lies in the pilot sessions with the assistance of e-tutors, which will permit to evaluate the advantages of this form of exploitation in terms of motivations and proficiency.

Partners

Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna (Coord.), Italy

Istituto Tecnico Commerciale Statale “Rosa Luxemburg”, Bologna, Italy

Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań, Poland

ZESPOL SZKOL OGOLNOKSZTALCACYCH NR 2 IM. CHARLES DE GAULLE’A, Poznan, Poland

Debreceni Egyetem (University of Debrecen), Hungary

University of Lapland, Finland

KU Leuven, Belgium

Keywords
multilinguism, e-learning
Funding Entity
European Commission