German teachers discuss digital technologies on language education and assessments
An online workshop was held on the 20th January, where German teachers discussed the impacts of digital technologies on language education and assessments
The workshop ‘Digitales Lernen und die Bewertung sprachlicher Leistungen im universitären DaF-Unterricht in Großbritannien’ brought together German teaching specialists from more than twenty universities in the UK, as well as colleagues from German and Austrian universities, the Goethe Institute and the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).
Thomas Jochum-Critchley’s from the University of York introduced the topic in the key note Machine translation literacy and language education.
The workshop was held on SpatialChat, a virtual space that recreates the experience of an in-person conference. The participants enjoyed the opportunity to meet and mingle with colleagues through their avatars, and to visit the music and games room, where they could watch German music videos, access accompanying teaching materials, or enjoy a language game with colleagues. This allowed attending lecturers to experience SpatialChat from the students’ perspective. As one participant pointed out in the feedback:
It is interesting to be in the shoes of a participant in a class who has to stick his/her head above the parapet and initiate conversation. It goes to show how important modelling is.
