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Steffen Skowronek
The University of Potsdam consists of five faculties and has currently more than 16.000 students. Proof of the quality of the research carried out at Potsdam University is the steadily increasing funding through industry and other third parties and the financing of research groups and graduate seminars by the German Research Society (DFG). During the last ten years the university`s Language Center has been developing material for Virtual Learning Environments (WebCT, Lotus Learning Space and others), web sites and CD-ROMs for language learning. Examples include intercultural courses with the University of Berkeley, drama projects with the University of Rostow/Don and Spanish courses within the scope of a SOCRATES project.
The Language Center takes an active part in the EUROVOLT via VLE project by sharing the expertise already gathered in the field of VLE for vocational training. They develop, pilot and evaluate a new online module in a blended learning environment which is designed to significantly enhance the career opportunities of students of political science, public administration and sociology and which can be used as a model for various other post-secondary, including vocational courses and in the teacher training courses to be developed with the partner institutions. The project results are disseminated regularly within the institution and in the region through teacher training workshops and presentations at conferences, nationally and internationally through participation in conferences (papers, posters, stands) and joint publications with the EUROVOLT partners.
Steffen Skowronek, an experienced English teacher and trainer at university level, works for the Language Centre and, besides developing the exemplar language learning module, some work in the EUROVOLT teacher training course and an expert in "good/best practice" models, also takes the lead in the various dissemination activities of the EUROVOLT project.
Links:
http://uni-potsdam.de/spz/pro/goettvor.htm
http://uni-potsdam.de/spz/pro/kurspro.htm
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