Little has been written about the impact of ephemeral messaging technologies such as Snapchat, Wickr and iDelete on learner identities. The authors explore how disappearing social media may enable young people to take up a range of discourses and demonstrate discursive agency in ways that support social mobility through shifting relationships with their peers. Much of this unfolds through the transmission of digital images that promote social flexibility. The visibility, of seeing and being seen, demonstrates a Foucauldian 'gaze' where power plays out through the capacity to be visible and recognisable to others and specific practices (e.g. selfies) become normalised. Social media technologies furnish emergent spaces for underlife activity that foster this gaze. Taking up the Foucault's concept of subjectivities as discursively constituted identity categories, the authors explore the relationship between disappearing media and youth identities.

Snapchat is one of the most popular social media applications among Australian young people. Its global impact has grown rapidly in recent years. Reported is a mixed methods case study located in New South Wales schools. An online survey was conducted with education practitioners to enquire into their experiences of Snapchat in their school settings. The researchers used survey responses and comments from follow up interviews to consider how networked affect is enacted through Snapchat. Networked affect can be seen as a visceral movement of emotion through the intra-action of social media and human bodies. Both corporeal affect and Snapchat have received increased attention by researchers over the last five years although little has been written to link the two. We highlight the importance of reading the affective social impact of Snapchat use among young people and the potential of looking beyond its abuses to the affordances of the application.

Professional experience (or practicum) is problematic within teacher education courses because preparation for, and the quality of, placements can be inconsistent. Preservice teachers can commence their first placement without some of the requisite skills and off-campus pre-service teachers do not always have opportunities to practise any ski lls at all pre-placement. VirtualPREX is an innovative approach to professional experience preparation, providing opportunities for practice in a virtual world such as Second Life . In this chapter the authors outline the rationale for this innovation and then report on the data from the pilot trials of the VirtualPREX role plays where pre-service teachers role-played the teacher and students in a Second Life virtual classroom. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the next steps in the project.

Research on youth subjectivities and disappearing media is still in its infancy. Ephemeral technologies such as Snapchat, Frankly and Wickr offer young people opportunities for discursive agency, harnessing teenage discourses of social positioning. These media facilitate social mobility in teen peer contexts by providing a medium for dynamic and shifting relationships. The transmission of digital images can enable a social flexibility that has a significant impact on youth subjectivities where discursively constructed relational identities are brokered through cyber technologies. We tackle the question 'what discourses are evoked and produced in the discussion of disappearing social media?' by exploring two parents' accounts of their children's use of this media. We also examine a discourse of innocence that surrounds teens' use of social media and, in particular, ephemeral applications, by sexting and cyberbullying. We engage in the debate on the use of ephemeral social media to consider the discourses influencing youth subjectivities and the nature of networked publics.

A virtual classroom and playground have been created in Second Life, which are replicas of real life classrooms and school playgrounds. This paper discusses the creation of a virtual classroom and playground and explains why the decision was taken to base them on exemplars from the real world rather than allow imagination to run riot. It outlines the journey of Jass Easterman and Tamsyn Lexenstar, avatars and our personae as educators in Second Life, as they began to create the environment. In particular, the paper discusses the rationale for the creation of this Second Life area: the need to be able to educate our distance education students in an interactive environment so that they can be engaged more fully as part of an education community. By utilising the Second Life environment, education students from the University of New England will be able to use resources within this virtual environment as they would if they were in a real-world classroom or playground. The opportunity to interact with other students and educators, use a variety of resources and undertake role-playing exercises has the potential to improve learning outcomes and to develop teaching skills. At present, students can only access online resources via one of two Learning Management Systems. This new scenario provides students with the opportunity to become immersed in a virtual environment, interacting with others so that it will seem like they are really there, all from their own home.

Higher education teaching traditionally occurred, and to some extent still does, in face-to-face physical settings (often lecture theatres) with an academic and a group of students. In recent decades, the emphasis has shifted to learning communities and the mode of delivery has evolved from traditional face-to-face to online. This occurs either blended with face-to-face or exclusively online, most commonly through the medium of a learning management system. For students who have been studying by distance education, this has frequently been an isolating, if not alienating, experience. At the University of New England, Australia, transformative learning spaces have been created in the virtual world of Second Life. These spaces have proven to engage students in their learning and provide opportunities for interaction that can span both time and space. In doing this, learning communities and a sense of belonging have been fostered. Data from four research projects are presented in this paper, demonstrating how virtual world learning spaces have transformed learning for students. From the data, it is argued that learning in a virtual world lessens the sense of isolation and heightens the sense of belonging to a learning community. It is also argued that virtual world learning increases engagement and provides opportunities for students removed from each other geographically to work together to meet learning outcomes. The paper is concluded with a discussion of how virtual world learning spaces have the capacity to provide for global sharing of both learning and teaching.

Gregory and Masters have been exploring the affordances of teaching in a virtual world since 2008, having taught more than 650 students between them. They have explored a variety of teaching strategies for use in Second Life and the students, from the University of New England, have always provided their perceptions of their learning either after an activity or at the end of their learning. Within this chapter is a comparison of two research projects, undertaken in 2009/2010 and 2011/2012, examining the use of role-playing in a virtual world. The authors present their findings from the data reporting student perceptions of their role-play experiences. The role-plays reported in this chapter were first conducted in Second Life with on-campus students prior to extending the teaching to off-campus students. This was to ensure that the learning experiences were appropriate and would work effectively when real-time trouble-shooting could be used. Both quantitative and qualitative data support the findings reported here. It can be concluded that role-play in a virtual world provides an authentic learning experience for students, particularly if they are not provided with the opportunity of experiencing this technique in a face-to-face setting.

Virtual worlds (VWs) continue to be used extensively in Australia and New Zealand higher education institutions although the tendency towards making unrealistic claims of efficacy and popularity appears to be over. Some educators at higher education institutions continue to use VWs in the same way as they have done in the past; others are exploring a range of different VWs or using them in new ways; whilst some are opting out altogether. This paper presents an overview of how 46 educators from some 26 institutions see VWs as an opportunity to sustain higher education. The positives and negatives of using VWs are discussed.

Over time, higher education has been repositioned in terms of the delivery of courses. While traditional face-to-face teaching still occurs, there has been a major shift to encompass not only some online teaching and learning approaches for on-campus (internal) students, but also the delivery of courses wholly online to off-campus (distance education/external) students. This has necessitated adjustments in the way higher education institutions use technology for teaching and learning. At the University of New England (Australia) the authors have been researching the efficacy of one virtual world, Second Life, for teaching and learning. Two research pilots have provided data to demonstrate that students were engaged in their learning and appreciative of this innovative approach to teaching and learning online. In 2010, the authors commenced a new research project to ascertain whether students learning via this virtual world environment performed better in their assessment tasks than those students who used a traditional learning management system. Data indicate that this is the case. In this chapter, the current research project is firstly situated within the range of research conducted by the authors in Second Life. Its aims are then outlined, the research methods described and one aspect of the data presented and analysed. Indications for future research are then explored.

Online teaching has become more pervasive throughout the 21st century, partly a result of new technologies allowing for interactive online learning environments and partly to meet the needs of students who cannot access traditional face-to-face classrooms for all or part of their schooling. Pre-service teacher education has lagged behind this uptake in online teaching, failing to prepare new graduate teachers for the possibility of teaching wholly online to students in a range of learning environments. Pre-Service Teachers Online is a website designed to address this gap by providing pre-service teachers with resources to assist in building online teaching skills. Current pre-service teachers' awareness of online teaching skills were sought, providing the foundation for the website. Presented is how the website was designed to meet identified pre-service teachers' needs allowing participants to reflectively consider how their current perceptions of teaching practices could apply in a blended or fully online classroom model.