My role in the planning of the #teachex16 event was to provide opportunities for participants

to reflect upon the virtual dimension of teaching excellence. Increasingly a good deal of
teaching takes place through virtual spaces, allowing access to learning opportunities at a
distance, outside the face to face context. This is particularly important when contact time is
limited or when learners are spread geographically and unable to meet. The construction of
a virtual learning environment for our diverse learners became a priority for the Language
Centre some years ago and resulted in the creation of a moodle-based platform known as
Languages@Warwick. The development was supported by IATL and is documented in this
chapter of the LLAS subject centres good practice in their elearning symposium e-book.

Having discussed with my WIHEA and IATL collaborators, I identified virtual equivalents of
the Dark Would spaces and experiences which would be available in the physical
environment during the event and designed an online course which would encourage
exploration of the digital affordances of a range of virtual spaces. A crucial part of
understanding and embracing effective online teaching includes exploration of the
environments in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of the emotional challenges of
connecting and interacting with others. This area of study is known in the field of CALL
(computer-assisted language learning) as Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and
this has been my area of research since completing an M.A. at Warwick in 2009. This has
also led to our setting up a virtual exchange for French/English language learning, Clavier,
with Universit Blaise Pascal, Clermont Ferrand, an activity known as Online Intercultural
Exchange (OIE). Through this activity our students acquire the transversal skills needed to
manage an effective online identity in order to connect and collaborate internationally. Such
skills are also important for the professional development of practitioners.

Physical and virtual spaces can mediate learning experiences, causing us to confront our
expectations, review and reimagine the way we work. The aim of the session was to
encourage participants to re-evaluate the opportunities encountered in traditional learning
settings and experience for themselves the effective impact of different spaces. Participants
had been invited to bring their own device, ipads and Chromebooks were also freely
available. For those unfamiliar with online settings this would be particularly challenging.
Gilly Salmon illustrated the stages that make up the journey to effective interaction in virtual
spaces in her 5 stage model and, given that the social expectations in the session would be
very compelling to participants who would naturally prefer to interact with each other in the
physical spaces rather than through devices, I knew that it was unlikely we would get much
online activity during the session. However, several of the activities which bridged the
physical/virtual divide were accessed:

The touch screen displaying the virtual map proved a popular way to mediate
discussions of online affordances
The online classroom linking us to Polish teacher trainer Marcin Klebin provoked
some interesting discussion
Twitter was used to share experiences during the event using #teachex16 and we
aggregated this sharing here.

The virtual spaces and their equivalent physical spaces included:

 Virtual affordance Dark Would space

Profile creation Mask making table

Blogging Writing table

YouTubing Lego area

Online classroom, social media Den making

The course area remains available beyond the event. Hidden inside the course are two
digital open badges which can be earned by those who explore the tools and reflect upon
their experiences (illustrated below). Open badges are digital artefacts made of a digital
image file and hard coded metadata which refers back to the criteria for issue and the issuer.
These can be collected and displayed online as evidence of completed activity using such
tools as the Mozilla backpack.

Familiarisation with the demands and affordances of online spaces for teaching is an urgent
priority for todays practitioners. The 2016 Horizon report identifies blended learning as a key
trend which is driven by student expectation:
Students have expectations that higher education will mirror the information accessibility
and immediacy of their connected lives; a study by JISC indicated that technology impacted
university choice for 32% of surveyed students

The sort of learning design decisions required to make good use of technology are honed
through experience of those environments coupled with reflection and collaboration with a
supportive network of practitioners. The Association for Learning Technology (Warwick is an
institutional member) provided us with fliers so that participants could follow up on the
opportunities for connection offered by this well-respected professional body. The a nnual
conference for ALT will be hosted at Warwick this year and offers many opportunities to
investigate teaching and learning with technology.

Event photos https://goo.gl/photos/Uq3ezkhCB7HcyUeB8