one of the real growth areas over the next few years will be in the area of distributed learning and training. This is particularly relevant in contexts where the coats of a few computers and a good internet connection are far lower than the more traditional approach of transporting participants and tutors to a location for face-to-face training. in the training area, some organisations,such as the Cultura Inglesa school in Brazil,have already been using this system for some years to reach its teachers throughout the country,and with considerable success. other organisations such as the British Council and International House also use online training solutions for teacher training via a virtual learning environment (VI.E). What we expect to see happening is more online training,but combinning VLEs with the social tools mentioned in the Web2.0 section above and other virtual reality environments which add the feeling of actually 'being there' to what can otherwise be percevied to be a lonely experience for the trainee