Kick off meeting

The kickoff of the + Erasmus+ international grant project “Modernisation of University Education Programmes in Foreign Languages by Integrating Information Technologies” (DigiFLEd) was held at Tampere between January 30 and February 1.

This project aims to improve the quality of higher education in Ukraine by strengthening the foreign language-related curricula with information and communication technologies (ICT). Its objectives are: to address mismatches between the requirements of the labour market and the offer of higher education institutions (HEI); to provide foreign language teachers with the necessary training in ICT; to foster cooperation between partner universities; to strengthen the relationships between HEI, schools and other stakeholders; to enhance the international visibility of the Ukrainian language and culture.

The first meeting of the project participants started with a welcoming speech from the coordinator of the National Erasmus+ Office in Ukraine, Svitlana Shytikova, and the lecturer of Faculty of Information Technologies and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Kate Moore. The project coordinator, Yulia Shumilova, focused on the main aspects of the first project year (tasks, plans and expected deliverables).

The participants of the meeting who are the representatives of 10 universities from 4 European countries Tampere University, National University of Ireland Maynooth, University of Western Macedonia, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, V. O. Sukhomlynskyi National University of Mykolaiv, State Higher Educational Institution Donbas State Pedagogical University, Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, Vasyl’ Stus Donetsk National University presented their institutions and the working groups involved in the project, and outlined their areas of responsibility within the project.

At the end of the first day of the meeting, the speakers discussed working points about the project management. They agreed the project implementation plans and further events. We have successfully started, let’s move on!

On the second day several events took place. Among the offered events, along with important project management issues, there was a lecture by professor of the University of Tampere Päävi Pacht “World Englishes”. Another interesting event of the day was a ‘World café’ workshop – “Digitisation in teaching foreign languages: trends, challenges and best practices”. The workshop was held in the format of a round table discussion where participants discussed key issues related to the project topic and exchanged ideas of its implementation. At the end of the event the results of the discussion were summed up and, based on them, the directions for further actions and methods of work of the project groups were outlined. At the end of a productive working day, the participants were offered to get acquainted with evening Tampere.

On the final day of the kick-off meeting of the DigiFLEd Erasmus+ participants. Academics from Finland, Ireland, Greece and Ukraine attended the lectures by experts from Tampere University about “Post-editing Strategies for Academic Writing” (Kate Moore) and “Teaching Translation Strategies/Techniques” (Annamari Korhonen). Kaisa Koskinen from Tampere University shared useful information on “Community Translation Projects as Assignments” and Mija Santalahti offered her perspective on “Professional Tools and Practices in Teaching Translation”. The final day, like the entire three-day schedule, was a rich, multifaceted, productive event which directed and motivated all participants to further work within the scope of the assignments outlined by the project.