Discussion lists have gained a significant popularity in professional development research over the past few decades for the opportunity they provide for asynchronous interaction. This article presents findings from a small-scale case study that aimed at exploring the nature of teachers’ asynchronous exchanges in a discussion list. The data comprised the archived log of the messages in a Yahoo Group discussion list by five in-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers who volunteered to take part in a hybrid computer-assisted language learning (CALL) teacher education course in a state university in Iran. The discussion list was incorporated into the course to engage participants in professional dialogue on topics related to technology/CALL. During the initial data analysis, participants’ asynchronous exchanges were grouped as suggestions, questions, unclassified, answers, and delivery, drawing upon Oriogun and Cave’s (2008) SQUAD categorization, following the constant comparative method of analysis. Through a follow-up computer-mediated discourse analysis, cognitive, social, and teaching presence functional moves were identified in the data. Participants used the space not only for socializing and peer instruction but also for constructing knowledge. Despite an uneven pattern of contribution, asynchronous exchanges provided opportunities for knowledge construction at different levels of cognitive presence on topics ranging from technology tools and their affordances/constraints to computer-assisted language testing, materials development, and classroom management. The findings provide CALL teacher education researchers and course designers insights into the potential of asynchronous interaction for online and blended language teacher education.

What factors affect users' perceptions of physical human–robot interactions? To answer this question, this study examined whether the skin temperature of a social robot affected users' perceptions of the robot during physical interaction. Results from a between-subjects experiment (warm, intermediate, cool, or no interaction) with a dinosaur robot demonstrated that skin temperature significantly affects users' perceptions and evaluations of a socially interactive robot. Additionally, this study found that social presence had partial mediating effects on several dependent variables. Important implications and limitations for improving human–robot interactions are discussed here.

Desktop videoconferencing (DVC) offers many opportunities for language learning through its multimodal features. However, it also brings some challenges such as gaze and mutual gaze, that is, eye-contact. This paper reports some of the findings of a PhD study investigating social presence in DVC interactions of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher trainees. The case study approach involved the exploration of online interactions of five cases (pairs) within an interpretivist paradigm. Data collection included interviews, questionnaires and analysis of DVC recordings. The study emphasizes the importance of eye-contact in online multimodal communication to facilitate the establishment of social presence. Five types of gaze that were observed in learner interactions and participants’ perspectives on eye-contact are reported. The conclusions include technical suggestions for the use of a webcam as well as pedagogical implications of online video interaction.