Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom

Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom Laura Pihkala-Posti Introduction This chapter aims at presenting a sort of snapshot narrative of my current research, i.e. some central aspects of my interdisciplinary cumulative dissertation. The s pecial focus l ies on t he a spects t hat have been deeply influenced by both my teacher education studies in the early 90s at the University of Tampere and by my master’s studies in educational sciences starting in the year 2008. My purpose is to substantiate a few pedagogical intentions with the multimodal interactive language learning concepts I have been designing. I also introduce connections in my teaching interventions to learning approaches (or concepts), such as holistic conception of the human being, authenticity, experiential and situated learning, learner Eero Ropo & Riitta Jaatinen (eds), Subject Teacher Education in Transition: Educating Teachers for the Future Tampere: Tampere University Press, 137–177. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-359-016-8 138 Laura Pihkala-Posti eero ropo & riitta jaatinen (Eds) autonomy, agency and identity building, dialogue, collaboration, as well as intercultural encounters and communication. The snapshot approach means that the research procedures, different interventions and their results are not described in detail here. Several publications already completed and a few more in parallel preparation will complete the task, as well as the abstract, introduction and conclusion of my PhD dissertation (Pihkala-Posti 2011; 2012a, b, c; 2013; 2014a, c; 2015a, b; 2016; Pihkala-Posti & Uusi-Mäkelä 2013; Pihkala-Posti et al. 2014, Kallioniemi et al. 2014; 2015). Theoretical and conceptual frames A leading theme in my research is the concept of authenticity. This is thanks to Professor Pauli Kaikkonen who was the lecturer in language didactics for the students of German in 1993–1994, when I completed my subject teacher education studies in the University of Tampere. Authentic foreign language learning is enhanced through interactive and reflected encounters when using a foreign language. Observing and testing meanings in real-life linguistic-cultural situations play a significant role in authentic foreign language learning. (Kaikkonen 2002b, 40). [Translation from German original: Authentisches Fremdsprachenlernen wird durch interaktive und reflektierte Erfahrungen über den fremden Sprachgebrauch gefördert, wobei Wahrnehmung und Bedeutungsüberprüfung in wirklichen sprachkulturellen Situationen eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Translated by Pihkala-Posti]. In addition to the emphasis on the interaction with people of a target culture (native speakers) and the authentic media of a target culture (newspapers, books, radio, TV, films, websites) as a second dimension of authenticity, the authentic classroom communication and output of language learners, e.g. about their own lives, interests and experiences, that is, the communication about “something real Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom 139Subject teacher education in transition and present”, are also highly important. According to many studies concerning the brain, particularly those pertaining to learning and motivation research, for example, activating and strengthening the language users’ own meaning structures to enhance learning is essential (e.g. Garner 2007; Grein 2013). In the best-case scenario, discussions about “one’s own” lead to further reflections on one’s own culture, which is essential to be able to prepare for the encounters with otherness (Kohonen 2001; Jaatinen 2001). As a teacher, I have tried to develop my teaching and educational materials, pedagogical approaches as well as the local curriculum in order to implement language education that enables my students to experience authentic communication in the formal school context. My purpose has been to develop their language learner identities towards open-minded intercultural actors (Kaikkonen 2001; 2002a, b; 2012). As noted in this chapter, I have experimented and developed the use of online applications for this purpose for 15 years. The authentic approach in this research emphasises the role of dialogue, reflection and understanding in the hermeneutical sense, and represents a holistic view of the human being (cf. Lehtovaara 2001; Rauhala 1983). Learner autonomy (Korhonen 2016; Jiménez Raya & Lamb 2008; Kohonen et al. 2001), here, is present through the more visible/concrete concept of learner agency (van Lier 2010; Kohonen 2010). According to my understanding and experience, its development is crucial and also a prerequisite for the development of learner autonomy (cf. also Kaikkonen 2012). It is an active attitude of a person towards the others and the world, which is evident in the intension and willingness to engage in dialogue and interaction. Individual mental knowledge is generated in interaction with the environment, shaped by the quality of the interaction. The pupil has an active role in this process, constructing their subjective personal knowledge and meaning. Dialogue entails essentially openness to the other person and to the subject matter at hand, a willingness to understand the diversity of views and opinions. (Kohonen 2010, 4.) 140 Laura Pihkala-Posti eero ropo & riitta jaatinen (Eds) In the context of this chapter the interaction between the learners often happens virtually, sometimes between just a learner and a(n) (interactive) platform. Focusing on learner agency does not mean leaving the learners on their own, on the contrary. The role of the teacher merely changes from the traditional one. The teacher’s new role is that of a learning catalyst, regulator and organizer. The concept of co-operative learning, nowadays referred to as collaborative learning (see, e.g., Arnold 2003 for the differences between these concepts), plays a central role in my research and education. In the Central European context, the popular concept Lernen durch Lehren (Martin 1996) is parallel to this co-operative approach. The central idea is to activate and deepen the learners’ knowledge construction by letting them first learn something and then teach it to other learners. It is important to interchange the composition of the learning groups collaborating on the micro-level; sometimes it is good to study in heterogeneous groups where the more advanced learners teach those who are not as far yet and are challenged by the example of the more advanced. However, it is also important that the students who are enthusiastic about a theme, for example, are allowed to work in the same group and share their knowledge and passion together. Then, positive emotions that are activated promote learning (see Kohonen et al. 2001 and Grein 2017 concerning the role of emotions in learning). From the perspective of the Vygotskian zone of proximal development, working in homogeneous groups is also important. In this situation, the group members share a more equal zone of proximal development whereby they can promote each other’s learning by challenging each other in a reasonable way - as we know, too little and too much challenge are both detrimental for a learner. Therefore, both a suitable zone of proximal development as well as relevant scaffolding are of high importance. As a consequence, both peer support by the co-learners and by the didactic expert, the teacher, in particular, have a high value Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom 141Subject teacher education in transition in learning new things (Lantolf & Thorne 2006; Eskelä-Haapanen 2012). Online platforms offer various opportunities for learning dialogues and engaging in collaboration and peer support, which will be exemplified in this chapter. It should be noted that individual learning methods are needed, as well. Some students simply prefer to work alone and forcing them to always work outside their comfort zone would be discriminating. What is more, individual processing is always required for something to become part of the individual’s knowledge structures. Neither a strictly collaborative approach nor only working alone suffice as a balanced and fair pedagogical approach - both are needed. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages has played a central role in my thoughts when practising the different skill areas in communicative competence (Council of Europe 2001). On the one hand, the equal importance of/focus on spoken communication and action orientation in CEFR and, on the other hand, the lack of possibilities for oral practice in the first generation of web-based solutions have strongly influenced my research focus. In addition, it is an eternal challenge to be able to include real actionbased communication opportunities in the classroom, as important as it would be (cf. Pihkala-Posti 2014; 2015a, b; 2016; for the construction of action schemes, see also Aebli 1991). In this chapter, I will show and report about a few important solutions included in my research project. As a synthesis, I have connected central ideas of these streams to my own experiences with and knowledge of the mediamorphosis/changes in the media world (e.g. Luukka et al. 2008; Fidler 1997; Gee 2003; 2004; Prensky 2001; Carr 2010; Small & Vorgan 2008; Pihkala-Posti 2012a, b). This includes, among other things, the challenge of keeping students interested in learning several foreign languages while, at the same time, their workload is increasing in the compulsory school subjects (Pihkala-Posti 2012a, b). One factor that explains this is the growing 142 Laura Pihkala-Posti eero ropo & riitta jaatinen (Eds) gap between informal and formal information processing strategies. This leads to a situation in which e.g. strategies and routines of working with longer linear texts and memorising contents by heart have decreased, but their use in school context is still remarkable. This leads to a sort of capacity dilemma. (Rosén & Gustafsson 2016; Pihkala-Posti 2012a.) According to my reflections, in this type of situation, where pupils need to become more deeply motivated and involved in order to engage in a multilingual learning approach, the key issues are, among other things, creating an atmosphere of respect and support different types of learners as members of a learning community (Gieve & Miller 2006). Further goals are to support language learning as part of the learner’s personal identity building processes and to support the students reaching their own learning goals. Furthermore, the pedagogy of encounters and combining informal and formal learning play an important role here (Prensky 2001; Gee 2007; also Kohonen et al. 2001). Waypoints of the research journey In the following, the results of my interdisciplinary PhD research project are briefly described. My research methodology is based on the ideas of actionand design-based research but have their roots deep in the hermeneutic tradition. This means that the goal is to reach a deeper understanding of different aspects in foreign language learning and teaching that play a role in learning communities and learning identities of different types of learners. During my PhD project, multimodal, collaborative, experiential, action-based and authentic web-supported concepts have been developed for the context of foreign language education (Pihkala-Posti 2014c; 2019 manuscript). Ideas of gamification have also been applied (PihkalaPosti 2015a, b; Kallioniemi et al. 2015). The central issue has been to support the development of learner agency as well as skills for Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom 143Subject teacher education in transition intercultural communication (Pihkala-Posti 2012a, b; 2015a; 2016; 2019 manuscript). To find as realistic and authentic approaches as possible to develop the different areas of the communicative competence in a foreign language, several Web 2.0 tools and platforms have been used in various interventions on different school levels, from primary school up to university as well as in international co-operation (PihkalaPosti 2011; 2012a, b; 2013; 2014a, b, c; 2015a, b; 2016; 2019 manuscript). They are Wordpress blogs, Wikispaces-wikis, Wordle-wordclouds, YouTube-videos, various voice recording and videoconferencing platforms, the informal webgameworld Minecraft and, finally, the embodied, collaborative language learning environment Berlin Kompass created in our multidisciplinary project Active Learning Spaces at the University of Tampere. Also, CityCompass – a different user interface realization of the idea of Berlin Kompass was developed and tested. Special emphasis was placed on the development of oral communication skills which had been disregarded/ ignored in the first generation of the web-based approaches, where mostly written communication took place (cf. Pihkala-Posti 2011; 2012a, b; 2013; 2019 manuscript, Kallioniemi 2018). Both material and method triangulation have been essential elements in the research strategy. Student feedback, teacher observation, recordings of the learning situations on the platforms and student output have all served as my research data. (Pihkala-Posti 2011; 2012a, b; 2013; 2014a, b, c; 2015a, b; 2016; 2019 manuscript.) Step 1. Social media, videoconferencing and voice applications In the first part of my research project, I implemented teaching interventions with different web tools that enable oral communication in order to strengthen the role of oral communication. The said tools included videoconferencing with iVocalize and Adobe Connect Pro, in addition to other applications, such as Skype, Vocaroo, Voxopop, 144 Laura Pihkala-Posti eero ropo & riitta jaatinen (Eds) Voicethread and, not to forget, the most popular tool of all used in the teaching, at least according to my research (Pihkala-Posti 2012b; 2013; 2014c; 2019 manuscript), YouTube. Vocaroo, a simple tool enables the online recording and embedding of short oral comments to a web-page (e.g wiki, blog, Facebook) or emailing of recordings to a recipient. Comments related to different themes were recorded by the upper secondary school students. The themes had to do with the students’ own everyday life: their friends, hobbies, housework, etc. Voki-messages, i.e. (student) recordings spoken out by (speaking) avatars were also explored but not used extensively. One effect with using an avatar is to reach a certain distance to oneself just by hearing the voice but not seeing the speaker himor herself, which could minimize the social pressure of talking compared to personally presenting something in front of the class, for example. (Pihkala-Posti 2014c.) Voxopop is an online discussion forum platform where the discussion input is recorded as chains: an initial recording is made by someone and after that commented by others, or principally, also by the initial person himor herself (unfortunately the Voxopop platform was closed in autumn 2017). My aim was to create an asynchronous online dialogue between the teacher and the students, i.e. a discussion community. The supposed advantage of this platform was that it would be possible for the students to listen to the output and to consider in peace, how to react upon it. This would especially support the types of learners that need time to organize their ideas into words. A discussion chain including input both by the teacher and the students would hopefully enhance peer learning. In the spring semester 2012, Voxopop was used for the first time in GFL (German as a foreign language) teaching at the language centre of our university in three courses with a focus on oral communication. Different discussion tasks were assigned to students and the teacher recorded the assignment instructions. Each student listened to the recording and the possible previous comments recorded by the Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom 145Subject teacher education in transition other students in the course. Then the students added their own contribution to the assignment, and the teacher recorded a feedback comment on each student’s contribution. The students were then able to listen to the feedback. The students expressed their opinions on various topics; the discussions formed “chains” through which they practised argumentation in the target language. The topics of discussion included the role of mass media versus Internet, financial saving measures, student living, tobacco consumption, women and careers, etc. Also, the students made summaries of lectures given by a series of German language specialists and subsequently recorded oral presentations about them. The majority of the students saw that for the first time oral exercises could be done as homework, which was considered to be important and useful. The most common criticism that individual students expressed was related to technical problems that had occurred during recording. The students did not react negatively to the pedagogical setting, but nonetheless some students preferred face-to-face interaction. The teacher found that the short samples of oral speech provided her with a more versatile picture of what the students’ oral skills were like. In addition, the students felt that the personal oral feedback (asynchronously) was an advantage. Even if it proved to be time-consuming, the students found it personal and valuable. The next step could have been that, instead of the teacher, the students had started discussions on different themes. (PihkalaPosti 2014, 210) It was nice to do these exercises at home, and it was possible to record the task as many times as I wanted, until I was satisfied enough with the outcome. In addition, it was nice to listen to the presentations of others as long as they were not too long. My learning is enhanced by the use of different teaching methods and tools. Especially in speech production, and also in other oral exercises, the use of technology brings new opportunities. Too little speech 152 Laura Pihkala-Posti eero ropo & riitta jaatinen (Eds) nonverbal communication, which however, is an important part of communicative and intercultural competence. In a videoconference with a webcam, this is possible to a limited degree, even though the nuances of this interaction cannot be compared to face-to-face communication. Also, the use of videos makes the passive observation of nonverbal matters possible. (Pihkala-Posti 2012b, c; 2014c; 2019 manuscript.) Conclusions: Step 1 The students’ feedback on the use of different applications and platforms ¬was reflected in and combined with my own observations and in those cases where I was not the teacher of the group, but the interventionist researcher, with the feedback and observations of the actual teachers. It became rather clear that a relevant approach must include a pedagogically measured multifaceted combination of different types of applications and working styles in order to satisfy the different types of learners, support and challenge the whole language learning community in a versatile way (Allwright 2006; Kohonen et al. 2001; Pihkala-Posti 2013; Pihkala-Posti & Uusi-Mäkelä 2013; Pihkala-Posti 2014a, b, c; 2019 manuscript). Still, more variation and different approaches were added to meet these requirements even better (e.g. Schupmann 2015; Grein 2013; Coffield et al. 2004; PihkalaPosti 2014c; Pihkala-Posti 2019 manuscript). Based on the knowledge that I have acquired since my teacher education, action-based approaches seemed to be the most relevant ones in offering a holistic communication context, compared to, for example, the traditional textbook-oriented approach, but also with writing or speech applications used during the first part of my research project (Pihkala-Posti 2014c; Pihkala-Posti 2019 manuscript). Although praised as one of the most effective ways to enhance learning, the concepts such as learning by doing and experiential learning (Dewey 1915; Kolb 1984; Gee 2004; Aldrich 2005) have, Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom 153Subject teacher education in transition according to my experience, not managed to become the mainstream in schools (Pihkala-Posti 2015a; 2016; 2019 manuscript; Kallioniemi et al. 2015). They are occasionally used as an enriching method almost everywhere but seldom play a central role (Kallioniemi et al 2015). The practice of (oral) communication situations in a normal classroom environment still often remains at a relatively non-authentic level (Pihkala-Posti 2016). I mean hereby that far too often isolated phrases and sentences are produced, without any real possibility of proving their actual communicational relevance (Pihkala-Posti 2014 a, b, c; 2016; 2019 manuscript). This means that there are no experiential consequences, although e.g. advice was incorrect or misunderstood by the peer (Pihkala-Posti 2014a, b, c; 2016; 2019 manuscript). In reallife communication situations, the descriptions must be adequate in order to lead to a desired goal. New technology-supported actionoriented approaches seem to offer promising opportunities to create experiential and relatively authentic communication and action environments for the formal context (Pihkala-Posti 2014a, b, c; 2016; 2019 manuscript). Minecraft and Berlin Kompass which will be described in the next section are examples of such approaches. (Pihkala-Posti 2014a, b, c; 2015a, b; 2016; 2019 manuscript.) Step 2. Authenticity through informal, action-based and gamified approaches A central goal of my research work has been to find ways to bring informal learning into the instructed language classroom. Informal learning has, in my understanding, to do with the experience of authenticity in the learning contexts where the language is used. (cf. Kohonen et al. 2001; Kaikkonen 2001; Pihkala-Posti 2014a, b, c; 2019 manuscript; Pihkala-Posti et al. 2014). For example, my students have often been given a task to search for music in the target language from YouTube, the type of music that is as close as possible to their own music tastes and then share it with the entire language class e.g. via 154 Laura Pihkala-Posti eero ropo & riitta jaatinen (Eds) Wikispaces (Pihkala-Posti 2014c). The entire group then, respectfully, listened to the songs. The purpose of the task was to increase the tolerance of the students towards different (music) tastes, i.e. towards otherness and to support the target language becoming part of the learners’ identities. Based on my experience as a teacher, researcher and textbook writer, I have come to the conclusion, over the years, that the most promising use of new technology enables students to practise communication as authentically as possible, not the traditional oral exercises (PihkalaPosti 2014a, b; 2015a; 2016; 2019 manuscript). To create an actionbased multimodal communication environment with an informal connection, the popular web game Minecraft (https://minecraft.net/) was introduced and used in my research project. Minecraft is currently a very popular action-based virtual world building game in informal contexts (around 70 million licenses sold). This type of virtual world can be built alone or together with other people. The multiplayer mode Picture 5. A screenshot of a student’s favorite songs in the Wikispaces Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom 155Subject teacher education in transition enables many players to interact and communicate with each other within the same platform. Communication is possible while playing via the Minecraft chat or through an added speech application, e.g. Skype or Teamspeak. In the game blocks, cubes of different materials are used for building projects. They can be broken and placed to build different types of buildings and other objects. In addition to the blocks, there are other resources and features, such as plants and items that can be found and used in the game environment. (PihkalaPosti & Uusi-Mäkelä 2013; Pihkala-Posti 2015a, b; 2019 manuscript; Uusi-Mäkelä 2015.) A version of the game is available in many different languages. An essential part of playing the game is to follow or, rather, to participate in the discussions on the online player community platform (socalled Minecraft wiki). The Minecraft wiki has been created in all of the available languages in which the game’s user-interface exists. The Education Edition of the game (MinecraftEdu) was developed, which I used for the purposes of my research. To date, the game has been marketed primarily to other subjects, such as science education, but the author (myself) and her research group (Pihkala-Posti & UusiMäkela 2013; Pihkala-Posti 2015a, b; 2019 manuscript; Uusi-Mäkelä 2015) were especially interested in the opportunities it would offer to expand the opportunities for action-based approaches in foreign language teaching. The game was used by the author in upper secondary school in the teaching of German in an international project with the Finnish students playing with Russian students who were learning German. The task was to invent a mutual building project and execute it. Just a loose frame was given: they had to build something that had to do with culture. First, the students practised in small groups and then started the joint building project, which was to build a football arena for an international event. The students played on international teams, which prompted the need to use the target language while playing. In addition, the building collaboration offered a meaningful way to 156 Laura Pihkala-Posti eero ropo & riitta jaatinen (Eds) develop skills for intercultural dialogue. There was a clear need for these types of skills, as the student feedback revealed themes such as frustration with non-successful communication, for example. It was an evident problem that the communication with the eastern neighbours was not fluent. However, in the second intervention, the use of German was reasonably successful also within a Finnish teaching group when the students were playing together. Student groups built a dream school on the ruins of the old school destroyed by an earthquake. During that project, they embraced a variety of roles and acted quite autonomously from the very beginning. The teacher played the role of coach, supporting the use of the target language and helping with difficult expressions. (Pihkala-Posti 2014c; 2015a, b; 2019 manuscript.) Picture 6. A screenshot of the result of the building project in an upper secondary student group Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom 157Subject teacher education in transition According to the student feedback in the questionnaire answers, the authentic communication context and natural oral interaction opportunities, as well as the student collaboration were considered valuable: I liked it very much; to work together, and to speak German. I liked it very much. It was fun to play in the group of three people. Also, the writing task afterwards, a report on the group work in the target language, revealed positive student experiences (Pihkala-Posti 2015a, 121): I’ve learned new things with Minecraft and had fun. I [pupil’s name removed] built with [pupil’s name removed] a house, but we destroyed the house with lava and water. At that time, we were not so good at playing ... Luckily, [pupil’s name removed] rescued our house. Then we lost the house and our bridge because we flew too far away from them. Then we built a new house and the house is now much nicer than the old house. We killed some monsters and animals. Picture 7. A screenshot of the result of the international building project at upper secondary level 158 Laura Pihkala-Posti eero ropo & riitta jaatinen (Eds) I also made many mistakes because I never used to play Minecraft before. I find that to play Minecraft and to speak German with other people is now much easier. [A 16-yearold student of Finnish upper secondary school] From the other point of view, the gaming was criticised by some pupils in both groups (approx. 30 % of those who gave feedback). They seemed to feel that playing games is entertainment and a leisuretime activity that is not part of school. They preferred textbook and grammar oriented traditional teaching (Pihkala-Posti 2015a, 120): Not so good. I think we should first learn the textbook units and grammar, and then play Minecraft. I think that we just lose our lessons and don’t learn so much. It was great, but I do not know if playing Minecraft in German was so instructive. [A 17-year-old student of Finnish upper secondary school] The described approach seems meaningful, however, as some other students became highly motivated, especially because of this gaming possibility. For the most part, those who said they played video games in their free time also liked this approach. That could be interpreted as successful bridging between the informal and formal spheres. Indeed, a male upper secondary school student told me he was really motivated to speak German in this Minecraft building project for the first time in his seven years of language learning (Pihkala-Posti 2015a, b; 2019 manuscript). Teaching approaches that activate boys are on demand, because currently in Finland boys are becoming marginalised alarmingly often (2019 manuscript). On the other hand, the Minecraft sessions also motivated at least some successful girls who chiefly appreciated traditional teaching methods. They found that they learned and explored new things in the game environment, and enjoyed the freedom and authenticity of the communication. To benefit from this type of informal gaming in the formal context, I Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom 159Subject teacher education in transition suggest integrating target language learning and communication tasks in playing the game (didactic suggestions in detail, see PihkalaPosti 2015a, b). (Pihkala-Posti 2015a, b; 2019 manuscript.) Berlin Kompass The Minecraft results were promising, but a further variation of approaches was pursued to develop the interaction skills of language learners as diversely as possible (Pihkala-Posti 2014a, b, c; 2015a; 2016; 2019 manuscript). I had become acquainted with a few computer scientists of our university and managed to get them involved in a development project on digital language learning environments. The project was called Social Media, Games and Interactive Applications in the Foreign Language Classroom and it was part of a larger project, Active Learning Spaces, financed by the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (TEKES). The Berlin Kompass application project1 was based on my pedagogical idea of creating a multimodal, interactive, collaborative and experiential virtual learning environment for oral communication. Contrary to Minecraft, the multimodal application Berlin Kompass was originally designed for formal learning purposes, but it makes use of embodied and gamified learning experiences. The environment of a virtual target culture is enrichened with multimodal communication support and gameful elements2 (Deterding et al. 2011; Oksanen 2014; Pihkala-Posti 2014a, b, c, 2016; Pihkala-Posti et al. 2014; Kallioniemi et al. 2015). 1 Berlin Kompass development team: Laura Pihkala-Posti, Pekka Kallioniemi, Jaakko Hakulinen, Pentti Hietala, Mikael Uusi-Mäkelä, Markku Turunen, Tuuli Keskinen, Sanna Kangas, Jussi Okkonen, Roope Raisamo. 2 Gamification, is defined as the use of game elements and game thinking in non-game environments in primarily non-entertaining contexts (Deterding et al. 2011; Betts 2013; Kallioniemi et al. 2015; Pihkala-Posti 2015a). The goal can among other things be to enhance the level of engagement for learning or as in our case, to diminish the fear of speaking a foreign language by distracting the attention to other matters. 160 Laura Pihkala-Posti eero ropo & riitta jaatinen (Eds) With this multimodal language learning application, players make a virtual trip to the metropolis of Berlin. The Kinect device is used by the body and gestures in order to look around and to move in the 360 degree city panoramas. The application is used for technology mediated simultaneous interaction, negotiation and collaboration between two users, who are working in two separate spaces and use headsets for communication. The communication task is about finding the way to different places in Berlin. One (“tourist”) asks for a route to famous attractions and the other (“guide”) describes the optimal route. They both use the visual (and aural) information that can be found in the panoramic views. (Pihkala-Posti et al. 2014; Kallioniemi et al. 2014; 2015.) Picture 8. A user trying to find the correct route in Berlin (Kompass) Photo taken by the author Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom 161Subject teacher education in transition The users of Berlin Kompass can access multimodal support (text plus speech synthesizer voice synchronously) for vocabulary and phrases by showing the relevant objects literally by hand; these are “hotspots” in the cityscape. The “tourist” can move forward along the route by interacting with the “guide”. Primary communication involves interacting and collaborating with the other user, i.e. describing the (visual) environment as well as asking for and giving instructions and solving possible problems. The tourist moves forward in the panoramas by actually walking towards the correct (assumed) direction (embodied experience). If the choice is correct, both users land at the next crossing. When there are misunderstandings, the tourist ends up at a dead end where relevant communication needs to take place in order to get out and on the correct route again. The realistic panoramic images are intended to create a motivating sense of immersion. The purpose of the orientation task is to train oral skills to negotiate, engage in dialogue, collaborate and solve problems. To get ahead on the route, most learners learn quickly to clarify the instructions and questions until they reach their desired goal. (Pihkala-Posti et al. 2014; Kallioniemi et al. 2013; 2014; 2015; Pihkala-Posti 2014a, b, c; 2016; 2019 manuscript.) Our pilot studies at our university’s language centre and in the upper secondary school included a total of ~250 people. The observations during the pilots revealed that the system offers language learners of different levels an individual freedom to practise their oral communication and interaction skills in the target language. Considerable variation was found in the strategies used to proceed along the route, i.e. in the communication and description strategies, which enabled the users to reach the goal (Pihkala-Posti 2014a, b, c; 2016; 2019 manuscript; Pihkala-Posti et al. 2014; Kallioniemi et al. 2015). The information offered by the panoramic environment itself and the hotspots with vocabulary and phraseological help can be freely brought into use or disregarded. Some users actually got along with their language skills, while others wanted to learn something 168 Laura Pihkala-Posti eero ropo & riitta jaatinen (Eds) challenge and at the same time, a huge opportunity for education. The learning solutions presented here are elements which can be brought into connection with a meaningful pedagogical whole. However, without the pedagogical whole, they are not enough. 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Uusi-Mäkelä, M. 2015. Learning English in Minecraft: a case study on language competences and classroom practices. Pro gradu. Tampere: University of Tampere. van Lier, L. 2000. From input to affordance: Social-interactive learning from an ecological perspective. In J.P. Lantolf (ed.) Sociocultural theory and second language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 245–259. 176 Laura Pihkala-Posti eero ropo & riitta jaatinen (Eds) Aknowledgements I wrote this chapter as a university instructor in foreign language education at the same institution where I had studied to be a language teacher. I continued spreading the thoughts, the sprouts of which had emerged around 25 years ago and which I had developed, deepened and modified through the years as a reflective teacher and researcher. Thanks to the excellent teachers and the inspiring atmosphere at our university, I have almost been forced to go through these circles of trying to learn and understand more. The atmosphere among our teacher education at the University of Tampere was enthusiastic, passionate and innovative and we focused on reflection and critical thinking as well as the idea of teacher as researcher. Streams that radically changed the role of the teacher in learning processes played a crucial role in teaching, development and research work in teacher education. To mention a few: A holistic idea of the human being (e.g. Rauhala 1983), the significance of continental cognitive didactics (e.g. Aebli 1991) as well as action orientation and experiential approaches were emphasized, especially by Jorma Lehtovaara The central meaning of intercultural communication and authentic language learning was introduced in the Finnish context first by Pauli Kaikkonen. As our main instructor of didactics, he had a key role in opening his student teachers’ eyes to this essential perspective. Co-operative and reflection-based learning was introduced and applied to the Finnish context first by Professor Viljo Kohonen. Pirjo Pihlainen, who also taught us didactics, focused on action-based and creative foreign language teaching. My supervising teachers at the Tampere teacher training school, Tuula Pantzar and Kristiina Pekkanen played an extremely important role, too. The “second important theoretical reflection circle” became possible during my master’s studies in educational sciences starting in the year 2008. My earlier instructor of didactics, now professor in foreign language education, Pauli Kaikkonen, with his deepened concepts of Interactive, authentic, gameful e-learning concepts for the foreign language classroom 177Subject teacher education in transition intercultural communication and pedagogy of encounters, as well as Riitta Jaatinen, docent and university lecturer in language education and university lecturer Pekka Räihä and all the other participants at the doctoral research seminar of language education have been part of my closest “research family”. I want to extend a warm thank you to the other instructors and professors of the master’s studies: Eero Ropo, professor of educational psychology, narrative and identity studies and my mentor for the master’s thesis in educational sciences, Anna Raija Nummenmaa, professor of educational psychology, Tero Autio, professor of curriculum studies, Heikki Mäki-Kulmala, university lecturer, who taught me the societal role of education, philosophy and methodology, Vesa Korhonen, university lecturer who taught me qualitative research methodology, e.g. important aspects of case studies and action research which have been very helpful in my research work. Finally, Professors Eeva Hujala who taught me educational leadership and Harry Silfverberg who taught me quantitative research methodology. The media education expert, university lecturer Reijo Kupiainen has also played an important role since our first meeting at a conference in 2009. I am also grateful to my seminar colleagues Tero Korhonen and Sirpa Eskelä-Haapanen, and all other doctoral students from the research seminar on language education. Many thanks also for all my research colleagues, Deutsche Auslangesellschaft for intervention cooperation and the company TeacherGaming for the MineCraftEdu licences, Tekes, Emil Öhmannin säätiö, Emil Aaltosen säätiö and Tampereen tiederahasto as well as the University of Tampere for financial support for the research project. Finally, I want to thank university lecturer Olli Salminen who helped a lot by reading and commenting the first version of the manuscript.