Learning to share in the Language Box: a community approach to developing an open content repository for teachers and learners

• Main Authors: Borthwick, Kate, Arrebola-Sanchez, Miguel, Millard, David E., Howard, Yvonne
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Faroes
• Online Access: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/337946/; https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/337946/1/eurocall_2009_proceedings_borthwick_arrebola.doc

This paper will describe the evolution and usage of the Language Box, a simple, Web 2.0-style learning and teaching repository, which was designed and developed using direct input from the language teaching community. The Language Box was the focus of a JISC-funded project (Faroes) which sought, through the deployment of a simple, Web 2.0 enhanced teaching and learning repository, to foster a culture of resource sharing within the Modern Foreign Languages community in the UK, and to explore issues around the use and re-use of open educational resources by both teachers and learners. The initial creation of the Language Box was informed by the work of several previous repository projects focusing on the Languages community (JISC –funded L20, Claret, and MURLLO projects), which found that language teachers were enthusiastic about sharing their digital teaching and learning resources in a repository, but in practice, rarely did so. The Language Box sought to incorporate some of the best practice features of Web 2.0 sites in an attempt to use the successful social and technical elements of these sites to minimise the barriers to resource sharing within the language teaching community. Further technical development of the Language Box took place in direct response to input from the Modern Foreign Languages community through workshops held over the space of one year, and the repository has now become a living space designed for language teachers by language teachers. A pilot study analysing usage of the Language Box by both teachers and students reveals that while teachers still have misgivings about sharing and re-using educational material, students are much more willing to embrace these concepts. The paper will conclude with some indications of how the project team intends to develop the Language Box further and expand the community that has built up around it.