The Handbook of Informal Language Learning

8Self‐Paced Language Learning Using Online Platforms

PANAGIOTIS ARVANITIS

Introduction

At a time of digital convergence, a vast array of software platforms, sophisticated technologies, and services – such as blogs, social networking applications, wikis, learning management systems, online games, 3D role‐play games, virtual worlds, and simulations – are overwhelming our everyday lives. Several of these new “emerging” digital technologies affect both the learning of young users/learners and the training of older users/teachers. In recent years, information and communication technologies (ICT) have been an important, almost integral part of the daily lives of millions of people. Having already brought about significant economic, social, and cultural changes, they also offer an ever‐increasing momentum for the whole educational process. As predicted since 1997 by M. Dertouzos, former director of MIT's Computer Lab, the new “information market” has not only changed the role of schools, universities and the educational community, “but even the teachers themselves and scholars” (Dertouzos 1997, p. 183). ICTs have the potential to provide technological solutions, effective methods, and best practices, all integrated into the learning process by dynamically expanding the skills of both learner and teacher in the acquisition of knowledge.

Vast technological changes have contributed to this development, including the emergence of internet technologies, services, and possibilities. ...