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The aim of the Inter-Life Project was to investigate the use of virtual worlds to support transition skills development for young people to enhance their management of important life transitions. In particular, we have been investigating the role of the 'Inter-Life' virtual worlds in supporting the development of life transition skills in young people, some of whom were in the care of local authorities, and others in more widely distributed communities (Connelly and Chakrabarti, 2008). The Inter-Life project created an embryonic Virtual Social Research Laboratory in order tostudy how young people can use a virtual world creatively, working together asa research community to develop skills that will help them navigate their key lifetransitions (see the Inter-Life video at http://www.tlrp.org/tel/). The project focused on how participants acted and develop in Inter-Life, while engaged in co-designed creative and research activities. It also examined how the skills and understandingsacquired 'map' onto their 'real world' experience. The project environments (basedupon the commercial platform 'Second Life') incorporated 'in-world' data gathering tools (not the same as the 'transition tools' created for the participants' use) that support content analysis. Such data, collected in an unobtrusive manner, supported the analysis of complex activities in the virtual world (Sclater and Lally, 2009; Lally and Sclater 2010), supported by Activity Theory. The skills acquired, and the development of identities as young people engage in shared activities, are being reported and analysed. The discussion concludes by asserting the need for much more investigation of the potential of augmented 3D digital technologies to assist young people in the social, emotional, and political challenges of transition in their lives.

Symposium Title: Challenges to social justice and collective wellbeing in a globalised education system Symposium Abstract: (Symposium consisted of 4 papers) Access to educational opportunity is undoubtedly extended by the availability of open learning materials, networked learning communities, and forms of open accreditation. Networked learning has, in that sense, fulfilled many of the promises of its early pioneers. The evidence is weak, however, that access to digital opportunity translates into educational success for those without other forms of educational, social and cultural capital. The distribution of functional access to digital opportunity in fact mirrors other kinds of inequality very closely, so the proliferation of networked learning opportunities can actually amplify inequalities of outcome. Beyond individual cases, an open digital landscape for learning favours globally successful institutions, as shown by the scramble to form 'gold standard' open course networks among leading universities. A global market in educational content risks amplifying the hegemony of the languages, educational cultures and knowledge practices of the English-speaking global north. A parallel global market in the most able and motivated students puts further pressure on the local education systems that are most able to support those currently disadvantaged. This symposium examines the globalised educational landscape from a radical, critical perspective. Some of us write from within schools of education with the experience of research and publishing behind us. From this perspective we assert the value of theory-informed research to highlight the contradictions, the political negotiations and the vulnerabilities of hegemonic discourses, to encourage scepticism and to challenge determinist views of our technological future. Some of us write from situations of responsibility in practice and policy settings. From this perspetive we assert that there are no technological solutions to inequality, only political and emancipatory educational actions. What tools of resistance are at our disposal within the academic labour force and in the 'world of work' adjacent to it? Our discussions and the links among our papers represent the hope that the divide can sometimes be bridged, and that theory-based interventions in education are always possible, on the side of social justice and collective wellbeing. Paper Abstract: Critical TEL: The Importance of theory and theorisation Madeleine Sclater and Vic Lally This paper explores the role of theory in Technology Enhanced Learning, and the research community. We consider Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as an example, but we strongly feel that our argument has broader application to the use of theory as part of the intellectual 'self-defence toolkit' that researchers and practitioners in the critical TEL community need to consider if they are to 'resist' the crises arising from educational globalisation. Theory can offer us the language, history, scope, and power that we need to be reflexively aware of both our own interests and those of others who are actors in the settings in which we are working.