Cooperation between Universities in the digital age: videoconference within the project of the Directorate-General for Interpretation and Conferences of the European Parliamen
December 7th, within the project “Dissemination of best practices in conference interpreter training between EU and non-EU languages” one of the most large-scale videoconferences of this year was held. The conference covered the topic of universities cooperation in the digital age. Besides the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation, Universities of Ljubljana and Geneva, the Bosphorus University (Istanbul), took part in the mock-conference class. Interestingly enough, the event was entirely run by the students themselves: master students of the partner universities moderated the event, delivering speeches and interpreting them, while the trainers supervised the mock conference and evaluated the students’ interpretation and their organizational skills. In his opening speech, a student from the University of Geneva, Conor Martin, who was the moderator of the conference, emphasized that the chosen topic was important. He also introduced the participants to each other, pointed out some essential organizational issues and detailed the feedback and interpretation assessment rules. The first speech delivered by Charlotte Wren, a Geneva university student, was about the European University Association. It included the information on when and what for the Association was created, which problems it tackles and how it helps European universities. The next speech was delivered in Russian by a Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation student Polina Shelukhina.
Polina was speaking on advantages and disadvantages of information technology use in education. A Bosphorus University master student Semra Özdemir told the participants about some characteristics of MOOCs educational resource. The final speech was given in French by Roxane Saint-Anne from Geneva. Roxane spoke on Francophone University Association. The range of working languages at the mock conference was wide, as four universities took part in it. The speeches were interpreted consecutively into Russian, French, German and Turkish. As usual, on the final stage of the videoconference all the students of the participating universities gave their feedback. This kind of meeting is overwhelmingly important for the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation students, as they are given an opportunity to develop their interpreting, speaking and organizational skills under near-real-life conditions.
Photo: Courtesy of http://student.asu.edu.ru/