openTEL are pleased to invite you to join our first Learning@Scale SIG in OpenTEL. In this first event, Anna will present her research about online volunteer translation. After her presentation, we will have a roundtable to discuss the agenda for our SIG in the future.

You are welcome to join any of the programs. Please email openTEL or ShiMin for an invite.

Programme (26 May 2021)
15.30 Introduction
15.40 Dr Anna Comas-Quinn presents Learning beyond the classroom: online volunteer translation (see info below)
16.30 Roundtable: What do we want for our SIG
17.00 End

Speaker Bio
Dr Anna Comas-Quinn is a Senior Lecturer at The Open University, UK, where she has been teaching languages and translation for the last 20 years. She has led teaching and research projects, edited two volumes on open practice in language teaching, and published on open education, technology-enhanced language teaching and the integration of online volunteering in language and translation education.

Abstract
Learning beyond the classroom: online volunteer translation
New translation practices have emerged in the last decade that are enabled by technology and powered by the crowd (Jiménez-Crespo, 2017). Known as crowdsourced or online volunteer translation, these span a variety of models that typically involve volunteers working on the translation of online content through digital, often cloud-based, platforms and tools. Examples include Wikipedia Translation, TED Translators, Facebook Translation and the Chinese platform Yeeyan.

Incorporating online volunteer translation in language learning and translation education is a way of capitalising on the potential of learning beyond the classroom (Benson and Reinders, 2011). Online volunteer translation projects can provide opportunities for language learners to discover translation and can constitute a rich learning environment in which to develop not only their translation competence but a wide range of language, digital and employability skills. For educators, online volunteer translation opportunities offer their learners a situated and authentic learning experience (Kiraly et al, 2016) as part of an open, collaborative and student-centred pedagogy.

This presentation reports on a doctoral research project (Comas-Quinn, 2020) that explored the experiences of a global sample of online volunteer translators, and two action research projects (Comas-Quinn & Fuertes-Gutiérrez, 2019; Cámara & Comas-Quinn, 2016) that piloted and implemented the use of online volunteer translation activities in language and translation teaching.

 References
Benson, P. and Reinders, H. (eds.) (2011) Beyond the language classroom, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Cámara de la Fuente, L. and Comas-Quinn, A. (2016). Situated Learning in Open Communities: The TED Open Translation Project. In Blessinger, P. and Bliss, T. J. (eds.) Open Education: International Perspectives in Higher Education. Cambridge, OpenBook Publishers, pp. 93–114.
Comas-Quinn, A. (2020). Experiences of Online Volunteer Translation and Implications for Translation Education. EdD thesis, The Open University.
Comas-Quinn, A. and Fuertes Gutiérrez, M. (2019). Working with online communities: translating TED Talks. In Comas-Quinn, A., Beaven, A. and Sawhill, B. (eds.) New Case Studies of Openness in and beyond the Classroom. research-publishing.net, pp. 101–113.
Jiménez-Crespo, M.A. (2017) Crowdsourcing and Online Collaborative Translation, Expanding the limits of Translation Studies, Amsterdam, John Benjamins.
Kiraly D. et al (eds) (2016) Towards Authentic Experiential Learning in Translator Education, Mainz, Mainz University Press.