Aeolis Cultural Development Society o Lesvos Island is a partner organisation in the European project "JOYN2.0- Language Learning Champions in Social Networks and On-line Media", which is coordinated by the Non-profit Public Company " Latvian Television (LTV)" .
The partnership includes:
• The Social Innovation Fund, Lithuania, a non-governmental organisation that has know-how and experiences in organising e-learning courses using the social networks web 2.0 and learning activities with social disadvantaged groups
• Lesson Nine Gmbh, Germany, an organisation that has established Babbel, an on-line learning system for self-directed language learning in and for 7 languages
• Adult Education Center "Baltic Bright", Latvia, that offers language courses in Latvia and abroad (study travel), and intercultural communication training
• AAC Global Oy, Finland, the leading specialist company in multilingual communications in the Nordic countries offering a comprehensive range of support services, including language training, communication skills training, management and leadership training, translation, documentation and consultation services
• University of Hull, UK, Department of Modern Languages
The aims of JOYN2.0 consortium are:
1) developing learners' skills of "learning to learn languages": social networks allow to offer guidance for using on-line resources and for organizing learning, using collaborative learning for motivation, especially for people with little language learning experience.
2) strengthening cooperation between media, social networks, commercial providers of on-line resources and language teaching professionals;
3) promoting on-line resources and such reference and assessment tools as CEFRL and European Language Portfolio;
4) encourage language teachers towards role of informal facilitators of on-line language learning;
5) provide feedbacks from learners and teachers about effectiveness and successful learning pathways.
JOYN2.0 outputs will be:
1) new pedagogical approach: Language teachers act as moderators for virtual learning communities in social networks to support collaborative and autonomous learning and using on-line resources, as well as using CEFRL and European Language Portfolio;
2) new on-line language learning resources: videos produced by LTV and applicable to any language;
3) guidelines for language teachers in their role of moderators/facilitators in social networks;
4) Learners' success stories and reviews of experiences by moderators;
5) up to 15 trained teachers for the role of moderators;
6) at least 5-10 online learning groups for learning Latvian, Lithuanian, Greek, Russian, German, Finnish, Swedish, English;
The target languages that will be taught in the framework of the Project
Within the JOYN2.0 project target languages will mostly be less widely used and taught languages: Latvian, Lithuanian, Greek, Finnish, Swedish, and those which are important for international trade and for intercultural dialogue: Russian, German, English. Latvian, Lithuanian, Greek, Finnish, German, English are the languages of partner countries represented in the consortium. These languages are taught by consortium members. Russian is the language of large communities in Latvia and Lithuania, and is also taught by consortium partners. Swedish is taught by AAC Global, and this organization also has several affiliations in other countries, including Sweden and Russia.
All these languages will be offered in social networks for virtual groups of learners supported by moderators, that is, teachers and speakers of the above mentioned languages. The moderators will play the role of mentor and will offer guidance for collaborative and autonomous learning, introduce CERFL and European Language Portfolio to learners.
LTV will develop videos covering European Language Portfolio stages and corresponding to CEFRL levels A1 and A2. By adding or removing sound or subtitles functions, these videos will serve for learning of any language. Within JOYN2.0 the videos will be used for languages mentioned earlier.
