Dr. Robert O'Dowd comes from Ireland and is Full Professor for English Studies at the University of León, Spain. He has taught at universities in Ireland, Germany and Spain and has numerous publications on the application of Virtual Exchange in university and pre-university education settings. He was the founding president of the UNICollaboration academic organization for telecollaboration and virtual exchange (www.unicollaboration.org) and has been invited to be plenary speaker at international conferences in the US, Asia and across Europe.