The global pandemic which began in early 2020 accelerated the shift towards online education, and it looks likely that teaching and learning will continue to take place, at least partially, in virtual spaces in a postpandemic world.As we live our lives increasingly 'online', the lines between work, study, and play may become blurred.Educators need to create online spaces in which learners can express themselves without damaging their carefully curated online personas.In this small-scale study, the practitioner-researcher describes how English language learners at a Japanese university negotiated online interactions when collaborating with partner schools in the US.Data was collected through surveys and recorded and transcribed student focus groups.Analysis suggests that although learners are concerned about privacy and security, convenience and familiarity often take precedence in online tasks.However, participants report a diverse range of approaches to creating and protecting their online personas, which suggests that teachers should consider offering a variety of methods of working, rather than enforcing the use of specific applications or platforms, par ticularly private or commercial tools outside of the educational institution's infrastructure.
Darren Elliott (Sat,) studied this question.