About SIMOLA

It is widely acknowledged that learning about the language and culture of another country is most effective in-situ, yet no technologies currently support learners' informal situated learning while in a target language country. The SIMOLA project aims to fill this gap by developing a collaborative mobile tool for learners to capture and share items of linguistic and cultural interest. Based on previous research with international students in the UK, the project explores the model on a European level with two different types of language learners, EU mobility students (Erasmus) and adult migrants (Grundtvig).

LingoBee

Lingobee is the collaborative language learning application developed by the SIMOLA project. It consists of a mobile app, a web site and a range of cloud services to collect, edit, browse and share language- and culture-related content found in everyday life. Besides offering a platform for in-situ language learning, Lingobee also supports learner communities through user profiles, user groups, content ratings and other social networking functionality that help to make language learning more collaborative and help to overcome isolation in a foreign country. To find out more visit the Lingobee website!

Consortium

• University of Brighton
• StudyGroup
• ROC van Amsterdam
• University of Molise
• Baltic Education Technology Institute
• Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• Hungarian e-University Network
• Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Grant

With 23 official languages and more than 60 minority language communities, the EU has put in place large-scale programmes to foster language learning and cultural understanding between European countries through mobility. Part of these efforts is the Lifelong Learning Programme, which seeks to foster exchange, cooperation and mobility between education and training systems within the European Union.

SIMOLA is funded as a Key Activity 3 (ICT) in the Lifelong Learning Programme with a focus on developing innovative ICT-based content, services, pedagogies and practices. It answers this call by:

• creating mobile and web-based tools and services that enable learners to create, share and access content with their mobile phone, via a web site, or through a widget on their preferred social network,
• exploring how these tools can support formal and informal language learning in universities, migrant support centres and language learning groups across six partner countries, and
• making available the created tools, services and materials and disseminating findings across and beyond member states with the aim to maximise impact and promote best practice.

The project started on 1st November 2010 and will end on 31st October 2012.

Project Number: LLP 511776-LLP-1-2010-1-UK-KA3-KA3MP.