Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Digitalised learning with its promise of autonomy, enhanced learner choice, independence and freedom, is an intuitive and appealing construct but closer examination reveals it to be a rather simplistic proposition, raising the following questions.
What do we mean by autonomy?
What are we implying about the role of the teacher, the classroom, and interaction between learners?
What do we understand about the impact of technology on the ecology of the learning environment?

This book describes the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) by a group of advanced English language learners in Mexico, comparing what students thought and what they did in response to the technology. The theoretical aim of the book is to work towards the construction of a theory of the development of autonomy and virtual learning in an EFL context. Enhanced understanding about the relationship between autonomy and technology has the potential to inform academics, software designers, materials writers, teacher educators, and teachers and to help learners in their quest to acquire a foreign language." (Book Cover)

CONTENTS:

1. Paradox and Promise: Autonomy, Foreign Language Learning and Technology

2. Understanding Autonomy: An Overview

3. Technology: Virtual Promise or Virtual Reality -- the Pedagogical Challenge

4. Shadow Dancing: Autonomy in Action

5. Learner Reflections about Learning English as a Foreign Language and the Role of Technology

6. Perceptions and Reality 1: Students' Response to Using a VLE in Computer Room Lessons

7. Perceptions and Reality 2: Beyond the Classroom -- Students' Free Time Use of the VLE

8. Ecological Perspective of Autonomy, Foreign Language Learning and Technology

9. Looking Back, Thinking Forwards

Bibliography

Index

"Digitalised learning with its promise of autonomy, enhanced learner choice, independence and freedom, is an intuitive and appealing construct but closer examination reveals it to be a rather simplistic proposition, raising the following questions.
- What do we mean by autonomy?
- What are we implying about the role of the teacher, the classroom, and interaction between learners?
- What do we understand about the impact of technology on the ecology of the learning environment?
This book describes the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) by a group of advanced English language learners in Mexico, comparing what students thought and what they did in response to the technology. The theoretical aim of the book is to work towards the construction of a theory of the development of autonomy and virtual learning in an EFL context. Enhanced understanding about the relationship between autonomy and technology has the potential to inform academics, software designers, materials writers, teacher educators, and teachers and to help learners in their quest to acquire a foreign language." (Book Cover)

CONTENTS:

1. Paradox and Promise: Autonomy, Foreign Language Learning and Technology
2. Understanding Autonomy: An Overview
3. Technology: Virtual Promise or Virtual Reality -- the Pedagogical Challenge
4. Shadow Dancing: Autonomy in Action
5. Learner Reflections about Learning English as a Foreign Language and the Role of Technology
6. Perceptions and Reality 1: Students' Response to Using a VLE in Computer Room Lessons
7. Perceptions and Reality 2: Beyond the Classroom -- Students' Free Time Use of the VLE
8. Ecological Perspective of Autonomy, Foreign Language Learning and Technology
9. Looking Back, Thinking Forwards
Bibliography
Index