Funding Body
Co-funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union
About the Project
Ulster University is a partner in the CLIL Open Online Learning project, developing a free online tool to support CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning). Dr Caoimhín Ó Dónaill is the project’s lead investigator at Ulster.
The CLIL Open Online Learning project will develop a web3 service where a teacher can paste a text into our dedicated web interface, select the language of the text, add graphics and video, create or attach language exercises/assignments and then automatically create an online webpage with all the words linked to free dictionaries in +100 languages. The proposed web3 resource will enhance/improve the Clilstore tool developed in the TOOLS project (2012-2014), which has been selected as “one of the European Commission’s success stories”.
The project will involve a consortium of partners with a combined wealth of experience in language pedagogy and teacher education. The project aims to develop resources and training for teachers in the HE sector with a specific focus on increasing the uptake of the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) methodology, which has a proven record of accomplishment in other sectors, but has not yet been widely adopted in the HE sector.
Dissemination and Outreach
The project will last for 3 years and its outputs will include software solutions, training materials and case studies as follows:
- The project will focus on providing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training to student teachers and teachers in the field of Secondary and Higher Education. It will develop a training framework in the area of CLIL and disseminate this directly to groups of teachers in each of the partner countries’ practitioner networks (e.g. EUROCALL membership base).
- The project will assist student teachers and practising teachers in the field of Secondary and Higher Education to achieve better outcomes for their learners by upskilling them in multimedia learning materials authoring. This will enable teachers to easily produce and share bespoke materials that meet the needs of their students. Typically, the teachers who will avail of this training will be new to multimedia materials authoring and will be used to adapting their teaching around existing resources rather than adapting their resources to align with how they want to teach (in this case, through adopting CLIL).
- Each of the consortium partners have a strong track record in collaborating with individuals and institutions in other EU countries. Through the CLIL Open Online Learning project, the partners will learn of the issues educators are facing in other contexts within Europe and share good practices to help each other overcome methodological and resource difficulties. The expertise gained through this collaboration will enable the partners to plan their educational programmes with both local and wider European concerns in mind and therefore contribute to EU integration.
- In the final project year, the consortium will run a transnational training course for two teachers from each of the partner countries. These trainees will become ambassadors for CLIL and the ICT resources produced by the project consortium and will provide a one to one helpdesk support to teachers who have been newly trained in the use of the Clilstore platform. This support will be facilitated via an online user hub that will enable the exchange of good practice and resources within the wider network established by the consortium and ensure that the CLIL Open Online Learning project has a long legacy period