This book illuminates the lived experience of a group of primary school children engaged in virtual world play during a year-long after-school club. Shaped by post-structuralist theory and New Literacy Studies, it outlines a playful, participatory and emergent methodological approach, referred to as 'rhizomic ethnography'. This 'hybrid' text uses…

Surprisingly little has been written about the notion of virtual teams in schooling contexts and less on the role of virtual teams in the professional learning and development (PLD) of teachers. Virtual teams are groups that use technologies to collaborate to address common goals. Members may work at in different locations, in different…

Using data to generate a deeper understanding of collaborative learning is not new, but automatically analyzing log data has enabled new means of identifying key indicators of effective collaboration and teamwork that can be used to predict outcomes and personalize feedback. Collaboration analytics is emerging as a new term to refer to…

The need to virtually collaborate across distributed locations has drastically increased. Developments such as the COVID-19 pandemic and new IT platforms like the metaverse have spurred a host of new immersive social applications that are accessed through head-mounted displays. This is expected to stimulate a surge in research on extended…

Cybermentoring refers to virtual peer support in which young people themselves are trained as cybermentors and interact with those needing help and advice (cybermentees) online. This article describes the training in, and implementation of, a cross-national cybermentoring scheme, Beatbullying Europe, developed in the United Kingdom. It involved…

Looking at human communication from the perspective of semiotics extends our view beyond verbal language to consider other sign systems and meaning-making resources. Those include gestures, body language, images, and sounds. From this perspective, the communicative process expands from individual mental processes of verbalizing to include features…

This volume is intended as an argument for honors education in online spaces--an opportunity to demonstrate how courses and programming can operate virtually while maintaining the rigor, innovation, and community on which honors education prides itself. Online honors courses may not have been the most popular, but those invested in that work knew…

This article is based on a school experiment of three local makerspaces that connected and turned into a global makerspace online. The three municipal schools were from Australia, United Kingdom and Denmark and participated in "the Global Makerspace project," which was a part of the European Union project "Makerspaces in the early…

This article reports on a pilot undergraduate subject that incorporated a range of technology-enhanced learning approaches including online lectures, an online site for in and out of class communications, and strong encouragement for students to blog and use Twitter. This paper evaluates student engagement through the social networking sites…

Virtual exchange is a well-known pedagogical approach in foreign language (FL) education which involves engaging classes in online intercultural collaboration projects with international partners as an integrated part of their educational programmes. This paper begins by reviewing e-tandem and telecollaborative approaches to virtual exchange which…

In this article, we focus on a set of remote activities regarding simulated juries, judges' evaluations, communication of verdicts, and a post-discussion conversation. These activities aimed to promote learning of the preservice teachers about the differences between remote and in-person teaching in a chemistry teaching methods course. The set of…

Schools continue to purchase and install machines and practices from the world of communications technology. In turn, students and teachers are purported to be more "connected," and this connectivity is widely viewed as having a positive influence on teaching and learning. In this paper, however, the authors argue that not only are these…

Computer game play has been criticized for disrupting family life by some who claim digital fantasy play alienates individuals from everyday interactions, even as others hold that such play increases sociability among players and their families. The authors argue that the truth about game play is more complex. They draw on research using…

Background: Research into digital practices and cultures repeatedly calls attention to the complexity of communication spaces and meaning-making practices. With the blurring of boundaries between online and offline, these entangled practices involve the interweaving of human, material, semiotic, and discursive practices. Purpose: This introductory…

Traditional practical work for higher education in STEM subjects is under pressure from rising student numbers and a desired increase in active learning. Investing in more buildings and staff is financially challenging, while stretching existing resources affects outcomes, health, and participation. A more pragmatic approach is to embrace a less…