5.2.2 Communication and Collaboration

Teachers’ beliefs about online communication indicate that OLEs offer significant advantages in terms of providing opportunities for meaningful communication from the classroom. Teachers in this study remarked that the Internet "provides avenues for real communication, be it in the form of key-pals, interactive projects, chat lines, net meeting". Students and teachers can make use of OLEs for "finding, sharing and exchanging information and ideas", for "authentic conversation", for "interaction and communication with students and teachers in French-speaking schools", for "correspondence by e-mail", for "contacting groups in other parts of the world" and for "journal correspondence with other schools".

The potential of online communication makes the Internet of special value to the teaching of foreign languages such as French. This potential for communication is described in the following excerpt as filling a void that existed up to now in second-language education programs:

I do believe that no one stands to gain more from les nouvelles technologies than foreign language classrooms. For years we have lamented the fact that our students have no concrete application of their language, and here we have, literally at our finger tips, a whole world of francophone kids, waiting for a chance to communicate with us. It is indeed, exciting.

Online communication also presents particular advantages to students living in isolated areas. As the experiences in the following excerpt illustrate, geographic isolation no longer presents a barrier to meaningful communication and conversation between Francophones and students of French as a second language:

The fact that I'm a primary French Immersion teacher in a somewhat isolated community on the south coast of Nova Scotia is further impetus for looking to give my students and myself better options in using the second language. Because of the school's location, it has been extremely difficult for our children to find meaningful opportunities to use their second language even though we are in a bilingual country. In essence, our students have had little opportunity to truly engage students from a French culture in honest conversations about who we are and who they are. While the Internet offered potential and promise in the early years, it has come to have real application in my teaching. My students are actually communicating/ interacting with other students. I now see it as a valuable and viable conduit to L2 success.

Resources and information can be found in a library or a book and as such in the regular classroom with or without access to the Internet. However, communication cannot: "E-mail and chat rooms provide an environment that cannot be duplicated in the classroom". Online communication provides a means of "meeting francophones", carrying on "authentic conversation" and participating in the reality of communication as it exists outside of the classroom-something which cannot be found in a book:

The realia is none other than real-life kids on the other end! For my young French immersion students, the written information available on the Internet is secondary. A good book or CD-ROM is usually far superior to anything they'd find on the 'Net. But the opportunity to communicate with kids their own age in real - or almost real - time is something we've been dreaming of for years.

This capacity of OLEs to provide a communication tool is of particular value to young children. In the following excerpt, a teacher argues that this capacity is what represents the important value of the Internet for learning:

With young children, the Internet is best used as a communication tool. There is little information available on the 'Net for elementary kids that a good book or CD-ROM couldn't do better. But for immersion kids to be able to communicate with francophone kids the world over - that's something entirely different.

A particular online communication tool described by participants in this study is that of chat rooms. Teachers described such ‘rooms’ as a popular means of facilitating communication while at the same time simulating real-life communication situations and environments. This feature of OLEs allows students to converse in French with classmates and presents particular advantages for certain types of students:

My newest adventure is into the chatrooms. We have a site on the Imaginet Page that has an empty room and we all sign into it, take on identities and chat with each other in French! I circulate around the room and give advice on grammar errors or expressions that I see on the screens without everyone else knowing who I'm talking to! Also, we debate certain topics and the anonymity lets the shyer kids who might not participate in an oral discussion express their comments.

The capacity of OLEs to facilitate communication is an important one. One of its greatest advantages is that it encourages participation from shier children. Chat rooms also offer teachers the opportunity to focus on grammar using a different approach:

... my kids sign into that chat room and take on ‘handles’ and chat with each other. I circulate around the room and correct/fine tune the grammar or suggest little phrases that might add some spice or be more comical...they love it! Sometimes the conversation degenerates and we're obliged to exit but usually, they respect the rules and we have a civilized chat! Sometimes I let them free chat, sometimes I assign a topic and we debate it. It allows the shyer students to express their opinions whereas in the oral setting, they might never dare to. It also allows me to clarify grammar as all my kids are looking at the screens and they all see what I am asking be corrected at the same time. Better than using an overhead! It's not perfect but it gets everyone participating and hopefully learning something.

OLEs need not be used only to offer opportunities for conversation within a classroom, but as well as outside of the classroom with native speakers. Such conversation provides students with opportunities to be exposed to other language models. The Internet "can provide interactive communication with native speakers. The teacher should not be the only model". Opportunities for communication can also be coupled with global, virtual visits to other countries or places where French is spoken. The following teacher describes her experience with such visits: "The Internet has been a great boon for me as a professor of French. It can work to the benefit of students in that they can now "visit" French-speaking countries and it's really not that expensive - if your school has the appropriate access". Students can participate in "virtual tours which allow the students to see parts of the francophone world". Online communication has represented a great advantage for this immersion teacher: "Of great value has been the communication that we have been able to carry on with other francophone classes and individuals. This provides a much needed personal exposure to the French language for my immersion students".

The exposure to the French language provides opportunities for communication as well as collaboration. Collaboration represents an important means of linking students to the realities of learners in other classrooms around the world so that they can share ideas and learn together online: "The Web makes possible new levels of individualization and encourages collaborations that take students far beyond the classroom; individual e-mail accounts enable students to initiate contact with other learners and resource people, take part in collaborative projects, and communicate with family and friends." Students can work on projects, carry on conversation and collaborate in OLEs with many added benefits: "Students have the opportunity to work on collaborative projects with other schools, other countries, resulting in a sense of international solidarity." Racial tolerance as well as international solidarity may be achieved through online communication:

I also believe in the world being a global community. My students correspond with people in other countries by e-mail, chat, icq whatever way they can! They are ravenous for contact with the outside world, and want to learn about and share themselves with as many people as will listen. That is why I am pushing e-palling. The more that our next generation learns about people in other countries and comes to accept other cultures while sharing their own, I believe we become one step closer to fulfilling the concept of a "global community" and one step closer to promoting tolerance for all races and cultures.

Online communication and collaboration can result in truly meaningful connections and communication particularly when friendships are formed between classes in different countries:

There's one particular school in France that I've been corresponding with since 1995. We've collaborated on many themes from Christmas rituals to preferred seasonal activities and have sent each other "care" packages with odds and ends (put together by the students) about our communities. We've also done and exchanged a video presenting our particular school. This has become a very special relationship, as you can appreciate. The Internet has certainly helped it to flourish.

Global communication and collaboration provide students with opportunities that might not otherwise exist in their classrooms. These opportunities provide for greater contact with the world outside of the classroom - the ‘real world’. Beliefs related to ‘real-world’ learning are described in the next section.