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These are the results from a project of the European Centre for Modern Languages within its "Empowering Language Professionals" programme 2008-2011.
This website results from a project run within the ECML's (European Centre for Modern Languages) Empowering Language Professionals programme entitled "Developing online teaching skills".
The project will develop an online platform for delivering teacher training at a distance. The pedagogical approach is informed by sociocultural and constructionist theories, in terms of pedagogy (Arnold & Schüßler 2003) and technology (Dougiamas 1998). Moodle was chosen for the virtual learning environment as it is based on constructionist principles. Promoting innovative, technology-based approaches to the teaching of languages necessitates a close consideration of the real life context of language teachers. In contrast to many existing ECML projects, the DOTS project will include the needs of teachers working part-time or freelance.
DOTS will bring together a group of specialists in teaching languages to adult learners of all backgrounds. Their pedagogic expertise will guarantee that the products are focused on best-practice use of ICT, using technology as a means to support the development of communicative and intercultural skills.
The network of institutions will build on its experience in
a) the teaching of different languages, b) open and distance learning, c) supported online language tuition, and; d) teacher training, in order to develop training materials.
Tangible project outcomes will include an online training kit of bite-size materials for independent use by language professionals hosted on a Moodle platform (“DOTS project website”).
The DOTS tool and website result from the work of an international network established within one of the ECML projects. We would like to thank all who worked on DOTS, in particular the project coordination team for their motivation and active involvement.