Virtual learning sites as transnational borderlands

The international symposium Virtual learning sites will be held at Örebro Univer­sity, Sweden, April 10 and 11, 2013. This multi­disciplinary symposium is being organized by the research group CCD, Communication, Culture & Diversity at the Academy of Humanities, Edu­cation and Social Sciences at Örebro Uni­versity, Sweden within the framework of project CINLE (Communication and identity processes in netbased learning environments)

The main objective of this international symposium is to, within the framework of project CINCLE, establish a forum for dialogue on language learning and identity formation in in virtual environments. Flexibility in time and space as well as the hybridity of languaging in online environments are afforded by the transnational and glocal nature of the mediascapes participants engage in, at the borderlands of different local and global communities. In such online communities, processes of identificationare shaped by the transnational, multilingual and glocal nature of participation.

This symposium is envisaged in terms of a discussion forum that will stimulate an exchange of ideas and experiences with the aim of contributing towards an understanding of the complexity of mundane interactions and students’ languaging activitiesin online virtual classroom environments, not least with regard to issues of inclusion and personal agency. Focusing social practices and ethnographically framed research, this critical multidisciplinary research arena has an important bearing on future collaboration, not least with regards to teacher education.

The focus on the first day of the symposium – April 10, will be on languaging (with a specific focus on language learning and multilingualism) and on April 11, on (virtual) borderlands in mediascapes. Featured presen­tations, each followed by invited commentaries and open discussions will be held on the two days. The symposium will be held in English with possible SSL interpretation available.

Confirmed national and international featured speakers and invited commentators(updates available weekly):

Sanne Akkerman, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Learning in transitions: crossing boundaries and dialogical identities

Fritjof Sahlström, University of Helsinki, Finland
Emic epistemic topicalization trajectories as evidence of learning?

Jonathan White, Dalarna University, Sweden
Language Economy as a Marker of a Community of Practice

Sylvi Vigmo, Gothenburg University, Sweden
Upper secondary students’ languaging frontstage and backstage – Exploring what and who is behind the scene

Russel Francis (Gothenburg University, Sweden)
Negotiating a cosmopolitan academy: how young adults are using social media to make horizontal developments across boundaries

Prof. Mariette de Haan (Utrecht University, Netherlands)
Commentator

Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta & Giulia Messina Dahlberg
CCD research group, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (HumEs), Örebro University

For administrative questions, please contact
Kicki Ekberg

Registration is closed

Preliminary programme outline
(Updated 2013-03-12)

The Symposium will be held at Östra Mark, Örebro University.

Info on how to get here and maps over the campus

We recommend that you stay at Livin´Hotel and Hostel.