AduLeT project and its community of practice: an insight into technology advanced use within higher education
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For the last two decades one cannot overlook the fact that there have been major
improvements in the area of educational technology. Schools and universities also try to
accompany the evolutional pace of this new technological stance introduced in the
teaching-learning process. The spread of tablets, smartphones and social networks has
accounted for an immersion into the technological world by both students and lecturers.
Hence, it has been most impossible to underestimate the value of these tools regarding
teaching methods. On the one hand, students, as digital natives, adhere enthusiastically
to these new teaching approaches. On the other, lecturers are sometimes bereft of ideas
when it comes to motivating the students and introduce innovative methodologies to their
in regard to the use of technologies in an advanced way. The aim of this paper is to
present the platform Community of Practice (CoP), the ultimate visible result of the
Advanced use of Learning Technologies in higher education (AduLeT) project, a
collaborative 3-year (2016-2019) research project funded by the European Commission,
involving seven partner countries. CoP meets the standards that teaching nowadays
requires aiming at providing higher education lecturers with a substantial matrix of tools
and methods combined. We shall demonstrate the use and effectiveness of the CoP by
showing some practical examples and by highlighting several insightful user experiences
within the Portuguese higher education context. To establish a connection with the main
target audience, we organized two workshops and a multiplier event to lecturers from
several higher education institutions, disseminating the results and involving more
lecturers in this community. Thus, we intend to materialize in this paper a summary of
the project, essentially in the Portuguese perspective. During the multiplier event, we
had very positive reactions from the lecturers regarding the CoP. After this event, the
participants were also asked to fill in a satisfaction survey on the use of the CoP. In the
paper, we shall then put forth and analyze the survey answers so that we shed some
light on the efficacy and applicability of the CoP.
For the last two decades one cannot overlook the fact that there have been major improvements in the area of educational technology. Schools and universities also try to accompany the evolutional pace of this new technological stance introduced in the teaching-learning process. The spread of tablets, smartphones and social networks has accounted for an immersion into the technological world by both students and lecturers. Hence, it has been most impossible to underestimate the value of these tools regarding teaching methods. On the one hand, students, as digital natives, adhere enthusiastically to these new teaching approaches. On the other, lecturers are sometimes bereft of ideas when it comes to motivating the students and introduce innovative methodologies to their own teaching. Therefore, technology enhanced learning tools can boost lecturers’ skills in regard to the use of technologies in an advanced way. The aim of this paper is to present the platform Community of Practice (CoP), the ultimate visible result of the Advanced use of Learning Technologies in higher education (AduLeT) project, a collaborative 3-year (2016-2019) research project funded by the European Commission, involving seven partner countries. CoP meets the standards that teaching nowadays requires aiming at providing higher education lecturers with a substantial matrix of tools and methods combined. We shall demonstrate the use and effectiveness of the CoP by showing some practical examples and by highlighting several insightful user experiences within the Portuguese higher education context. To establish a connection with the main target audience, we organised two workshops and a multiplier event to to lecturers from several higher education institutions, disseminating the results and involving more lecturers in this community. Thus, we intend to materialize in this paper a summary of the project, essentially in the Portuguese perspective. During the multiplier event, we had very positive reactions from the lecturers regarding the CoP. After this event, the participants were also asked to fill in a satisfaction survey on the use of the CoP. In the paper, we shall then put forth and analyse the survey answers so that we shed some light on the efficacy and applicability of the CoP.
Translator training is viewed as highly practical. However, future translators are also trained through theoretical approaches and with a strong focus on the acquisition of a set of competences which will make their future as professionals uncomplicated. One of these competences includes cultural knowledge. Cultural competence is a fundamental skill of communication in a multicultural world, revealing itself paramount in the understanding of any type of text the translator has to deal with. Therefore, developing and consolidating this competence should be a major concern when training future translators. The aim of this article is to shed light on the acquisition, use and practice of cultural competence. Based on the Task-based learning teaching (TBLT) methodology and taking into account the different learning styles of our students, several text types and genres were analysed in the English language course of a master’s degree in Translation in Portugal, namely through literary texts and the language of headlines. We shall then present some diagnosed and identified problems students felt during hands-on work focusing on this competence, convey some examples that have been worked upon and finally give recommendations on how to overcome this constraint in both learning and teaching perspectives.
