Smart Learning Ecosystems beyond 2030

Guest Editors

• Gabriella Dodero, ASLERD
• Carlo Giovannella, ASLERD & University of Tor Vergata, Rome
• Francesca Pozzi, ITD-CNR, Genoa

Important dates

  • Deadline: Deadline: April 15th, 2024 -> May 31st, 2024 (hard deadline)
  • Notification to the authors: July 30th, 2024
  • Camera ready paper: September 15th, 2024
  • Publication of the special issue: Winter 2024

Overview

Since 2016, the year during which ASLERD together with other associations promoted the Timisoara Declaration – “Better learning for a better world – Through People-Centered Smart Learning Ecosystems” [1] – a number of happenings have impacted considerably the evolution of the learning ecosystems to the point that it is deemed necessary to revise the Timisoara Declaration and promote a reflection on the configuration that learning ecosystems may take in the future, well beyond 2030, i.e. the year indicated by Unesco to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals [2].
The 2020 pandemic has left its mark and unveiled the real state of the art in the integration of digital technologies as an aid to the development of educational processes and, as well, on the entity of the digital divide; it has also unveiled the basis of the existing relationships between learning ecosystems, political power and society at large.
Overcoming the present transmissive model, sometimes referred to for the specifies of its organization as the school-factory model, would seem to call for a transition to smart learning ecosystems in which learning processes are expected to become competence-based and foster the “learning by being” [3], in which physical spaces are increasingly characterized by their affordances and functionality as well as becoming phygital and interconnected, in which learning processes are designed with increasing awareness having as aim the achievement of the wellbeing of all the actors of such processes, as well as that of the society that, in turn, feel fully co-responsible for the formation of young people, also as proactive inhabitants of a world that they should respect in all its components, also to preserve its state of health. A transition that cannot avoid to take into due consideration the growing pervasiveness of Artificial Intelligences and the need that young people have to learn to tame and filter them, strong in the acquired skills that will still make them inimitable and unique in their potential to critically design and innovate.
This special issue dedicated to “Smart learning ecosystems beyond the 2030s” is also the result of a debate that is taking place within IAALDE (International Alliance to Advance Learning in the Digital Era) [4] and which had an initial public discussion at the open debate held on occasion of SLERD 2023 [5] to which took part representatives of various associations such as APSCE – Asia Pacific Society for Computers in Education, ASLERD – Association for Smart Learning Ecosystem and Regional Development, GCSCE – Global Chinese Society for Computers in Education, L@S – ACM`s Learning at Scale, SoLar – Society for Learning Analytics Research.
The purpose of the special issue, therefore, in addition to collecting the contributions of those who participated in the debate, is to broaden the discussion to scholars and practitioners who are engaged in the development of future learning ecosystems and who would like to contribute with and share their own vision.

Topics of Interest

Topics of interest for this special issue include, but are not limited to:

• Future visions on and models of smart learning ecosystems
• Competence based and “learning by being” in future smart learning ecosystems
• AIs for humans in future smart learning ecosystems and processes
• Phygital spaces and their affordances in future smart learning ecosystems
• Social co-responsibilities and skills for future smart learning ecosystems
• Meaningful relationships among educational agencies to support future smart learning ecosystems and processes
• Benchmarking smartness and wellbeing of future learning ecosystems
• Literacies for future smart learning ecosystems
• Continuous training and qualification for future smart learning ecosystems’ teachers and stakeholders
• Policies and governance for future smart learning ecosystems.

Submission procedure 

All submissions must be original and may not be under review by another publication.
The manuscripts should be submitted anonymized either in .doc or in .pdf format.
All papers will be blindly peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers. Prospective participants are invited to submit a 8-30 pages paper (including authors’ information, abstract, all tables, figures, references, etc.).
The paper should be written according to the IxD&A authors’ guidelines .
Submission page -> link
(when submitting the paper please choose the section: ‘SI: Smart Learning Ecosystems beyond 2030’)

For scientific advices and for any query please contact the guest-editor:

• gabriella [dot] dodero [at] gmail [dot] com
• carlo [dot] giovannella [at] uniroma2 [dot] it
• francesca [dot] pozzi [at] itd [dot] cnr [dot] it

marking the subject as: IxD&A special issue on ‘Smart Learning Ecosystems beyond 2030’.

References

[1] Timisoara declaration: “BETTER LEARNING FOR A BETTER WORLD Through People Centered Smart Learning Ecosystems” –
http://www.aslerd.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TIMISOARA_DECLARATION_F.pdf
[2] Sustainable Development Goals, https://sdgs.un.org/goals
[3] Giovannella C.: “Learning by being”: integrated thinking and competencies to mark the difference from AIs, Interaction Design & Architecture(s) – IxD&A Journal, N.57, 2023, pp. 8–26, DOI: https://doi.org/10.55612/s-5002-057-001
[4] IAALDE (International Alliance to Advance Learning in the Digital Era), https://alliancelss.com/
[5] “Smart Learning Ecosystems beyond 2030”, https://youtu.be/RFDbDjq1Kyc