The study presented here is interested in understanding the ways in which social interaction in technology-mediated institutional settings is constrained and afforded by what Pennycook defines as "critical moments" in the educational experience. Drawing on Social Learning Analytics and on the concepts of heteroglossia, contingency and…

Second Life is one of the many three-dimensional virtual environments accessible through a computer and a fast broadband connection. Thousands of participants connect to this platform to interact virtually with the world, join international communities of practice and, for some, role play groups. Unlike online role play games however, Second Life…

This article will utilise data collected during SLItaliano, an Italian language course run in the Virtual World (VW) of Second Life® (SL®) in 2012. The course was offered to third level students of Italian as a Foreign Language (FL) in an Irish college, the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). It was designed and coordinated by the researcher and…

Notwithstanding their potential for novel approaches to language teaching and learning, Virtual Worlds (VWs) present numerous technological and pedagogical challenges that require new paradigms if the language learning experience and outcomes are to be successful. In this presentation, we argue that the notions of presence and affordance, together…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…