Kristi Jauregi Ondarra is an Associate Professor and Senior Researcher at Utrecht 木瓜福利影视, where she is actively involved in both the Educational Minor and Master's programs in Languages, as well as in the field of Intercultural Communication. Her research focuses on the innovative integration of digital technologies in language education, with a specific emphasis on two interrelated domains. On one hand, she investigates the educational value of online intercultural collaborative projects (telecollaboration or virtual exchange) within language curricula. On the other hand, she explores the transformative potential of advanced technologies such as Virtual Reality for language acquisition and intercultural learning.
As an initiator and project leader, she has successfully coordinated multiple research projects funded by the European Commission. Her portfolio includes groundbreaking initiatives such as E-LIVE (Engaging Languages in Intercultural Virtual Exchange, 2022-2024), focused on integrating Virtual Exchange in schools and teacher training programs, and TeCoLa (Pedagogical differentiation through telecollaboration and gaming for intercultural and content integrated language teaching, 2016-2019), which examined gamified telecollaboration in secondary education. Earlier projects like TILA (Telecollaboration for Intercultural Language Acquisition, 2013-2015) and NIFLAR (Networked Interaction for Foreign Language Acquisition and Research, 2009-2011) pioneered the use of video communication and 3D virtual environments for language learning. She also contributed to EUROVERSITY (2011-2014), which investigated cross-border education in virtual worlds.
Recently, she led an innovative research project on Serious Games and Gamification within the Eindhoven2030 program, developing and testing game-based learning environments for language education. She also worked on the SURF-project Concourse, focused on collaborative writing in virtual environments.
Beyond her research activities, Kristi holds significant academic roles as an editorial board member for leading journals including ReCALL, EuroCALL Review Journal, and The Journal of Teaching English with Technology. Since 2023, she has been co-editor of the Series Language in the Digital Age (Peter Lang).
Since 2022, she has served on the Advisory Board of Unibasq, the Agency for Quality of the Basque 木瓜福利影视 System. Until 2019, she was actively involved in the Dutch national program Meesterschap in de Vakdidactiek (Mastery in Pedagogy) and the action plan Sustainable Humanities, aimed at enhancing the quality of language education in the Netherlands.
Previous leadership positions include serving as Chair of the EuroCALL Special Interest Group in Virtual Worlds & Serious Games (2015-2017) and holding a part-time Professorship in Foreign Language Didactics in a Changing Learning Environment at Fontys 木瓜福利影视 of Applied Sciences, Tilburg (2012-2015).
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