Few would argue with Bourdieu’s (1998) observation that the large part of social suffering stems from the limitations of people’s relationships to the educational system – a system that not only shapes their social destinies but also the image they have of their destinies. The socio cultural contextual factors in learning spaces and the Discourses that dictate them has been of increasing interest in broad educational research, especially with regard to their impact on the social identities of learners and learning. With the introduction of computer technology to learning contexts over the last decade, a new or “third” (Lefebvre, 1991) learning space has opened up. New questions arise: What are the Discourses taking root in these spaces? What role can computer technology play in responding to the tensions that exist in traditional socio cultural learning spaces? What influence does the use of technology have on investment in learning and identity construction?

This paper presents the story of the Partnerships for Learning Program, an ongoing study that began in 2001 as a doctoral qualitative research project (Charbonneau-Gowdy 2009) with groups of multicultural military officers from Eastern and Central Europe studying in a NATO-sponsored language immersion program in Canada and in Europe. The tensions that existed in their learning was examined and responded to with the introduction of various ICT technologies both in the Canadian and European sites. A Participatory Action Research approach was used in the initial inquiry to explore with the participants their experiences using computers for communication and language learning. Evolving findings indicating disappointing implications of solely writing-based technologies led to the use of a video-based Web 2.0 conferencing tool for multiple site participants in Europe and Canada. The author draws on Vygotsky’s (1978) socio-cultural approach to learning, Bakhtin’s (1991)concept of learning as dialogic and Weedon’s (1997) notion of identity as dynamic, constructed, and contested through Discourses. The work of these three theorists helps to frame an understanding of the historical, political, cultural, pedagogical and personal influences on the original groups of participants as they negotiated their learning in a traditional and in the unique webconferencing setting.

In a further stage of the research, the web conferencing sessions have expanded to include groups of learners in a public service regional and inter-regional setting within Canada and internationally, between Canada and a military university in the Czech Republic. A second doctoral study that was undertaken in 2007 by the co-author of the present paper, questions from a quantitative perspective, whether there are differences in language learning outcomes for groups of learners at the military university in the Czech Republic. Pre and post test results of learners exposed to traditional, self-study ICT software and guided conversations in the video-based web conferencing sessions guided by a teacher in Canada were examined. The statistical results that emerged combined with the qualitative data in the Canadian public service context to indicate the power that these communication-based sessions supported by video-based web conferencing technology have on learning spaces both within and beyond the classroom.

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