APVEA: dedicated to bringing the students of this vast region closer together through virtual exchange.
Aquinas and Rikkyo virtual exchange - click here
AGU and HDU virtual exchange - click here
The position paper on virtual exchange created by the INTENT project group states that "Virtual exchanges are technology-enabled, sustained, people to people education programs. These entail the engagement of groups of students in online intercultural exchange, interaction and collaboration with peers from partner classes in geographically distant locations, under the guidance of educators and/or expert facilitators."
APVEA aims to promote virtual exchanges within the Asia Pacific. APVEA also wants to work with educators to improve the quality of these exchanges and research the most effective ways for them to ensure language and cultural development and understanding occurs.
The fourth biennial APVEA conference will probably be held online but if the pandemic allows, we will have it face-to-face on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. Aquinas College has kindly agreed to be our venue. The choice of a high school for the
venue is on purpose as Virtual Exchange needs to urgently be incorporated into high school curricular too. It is wonderful to see Aquinas using VE in their Japanese classes.
The third biennial APVEA conference finished in May 2019. The book that eventuated from that conference was recently published and can be seen here.