Introduction to: ICT Affordances and Higher Education: From Face-to-Face to Digital Learning Environments

The use of technological tools as an alternative to or in support of more traditional methods is no longer considered a novelty in the context of language learning (Isaías, Miranda and Pífano 2021; Lai 2017; Li 2017) and its evaluation (Arabaci and Akilli 2021,116; Purpura, Davoodifard and Voss 2021; Zechner and Evanini 2019; Weiner and Hurtz 2017). The potential of using digital tools for project-based learning and teaching has long been known. In fact, by the end of the 1980s several Higher Education (HE) programmes started to implement digital tools in their courses, as well as online communication or telecollaboration projects in their curriculum (Warschauer 2001). In those early stages individuals were mostly supposed to receive input, without being able to express any type of feedback. Indeed, it was only with the new generation of digital tools (Web 2.0),described as “network-centric” (Anderson 2008a, 227), that the user-tool interactions acquired new momentum.