How can effective digital learning communities be set up to bring together people from widely separate locations and divergent political and cultural backgrounds? How can we ensure that such common and synchronous spaces are effectively and appropriately mediated, using the combination of the virtual and natural worlds? How can we design learning processes that contribute to the broader objectives of education as a combination of personal benefit and public good? The Connected Learning approach advocates for a world in which all learners have access to participatory, interest-driven learning that connects to educational, civic and career opportunities. In turn, this approach builds on the progressive tradition of Freire and Dewey in prioritizing learning that advances social justice by attending to the needs of the individual within her economic and social contexts (Freire 1993; Dewey 2011). The significant opportunities offered by new digital technologies follow from these imperatives rather than being seen as determinants (Ito et al 2014). Archer’s critical realism complements Connected Learning in its focus on the subject’s reflexivity; the “inner voices” that we all have and with which we shape our relationship with the objective world and our sense, or absence, of projects that may, or may not, bring about our “ultimate concerns” (Archer 2007).