Bit of background

I am a Professor of Distance Language Learning at the UK Open University. I have many years of experience in designing and implementing language courses for online study, involving extensive use of synchronous voice-enabled e-tutorials. I have researched extensively in the field of computer-mediated communication for language learning, with a particular interest in real-time group conversations in multimodal settings. Interests at the moment: methodologies for the description of online learning conversations, researching co-construction of group cultures by language learners in various online and social networking environments, and cultural hegemonies in computer-assisted language learning.