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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

In this Insights essay, we propose a new concept of "offlineness" that builds on current language around digital practices, yet addresses an element of young people's experience that is not adequately represented in current research or educational discourse. This work is informed by a recent cross-national arts-based research project…

This book details online academic collaborations between universities in Europe, the USA and Palestine. The chapters recount the challenges and successes of online collaborations which promote academic connections and conversations with the Gaza Strip, despite a continuing blockade imposed on Gaza since 2007, and forge relationships between…

On its website, APVEA reminds us that "virtual exchanges are technology-enabled, sustained, people-to-people education programs". This chapter addresses the question of what we exchange when we engage in virtual exchange by exploring the meaning and value of virtual exchange as intercultural dialogue, and by considering the impact of the…