Towards Sustainable Development Goals: Integrating Technologies into Education in the Digital Era

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable development is the organizing principle of global development and concerns the well-being of people and the planet. In September 2015, all member states of the United Nations adopted Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which sets out the global Sustainable Development Goals to ensure that everyone on the planet, now and in the future, can live a sustainable, peaceful, prosperous and equitable life. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a universal agenda, marking the first time in human history that all countries have agreed on a common set of time-bound goals for sustainable development. The Transforming Education Summit held at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly on 19 September 2022 made it clear that education must promote sustainable development, calling on countries to fully commit to the vision of ESD and the goals of the Green Education Partnership.

Technology has a long history of impacting education, going back to the early 19th century with that potent visualization and organizational tool: the blackboard. Two hundred years later, education is undergoing rapid innovation, driven this time by digital technology. Technology is impacting education today and is expected to do so in the future. Big data and artificial intelligence (AI), for example, are helping educators improve their efficiency and learning outcomes. Digital technologies also offer unprecedented opportunities for the sustainable development of education and for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals to complement, enrich and transform education to meet the new challenges facing humanity. Technology is also a key tool for promoting equitable and inclusive access to education, bridging the learning divide, opening up new perspectives for teachers and their profession, enhancing the quality and meaning of learning and improving educational administration and governance.

We encourage researchers from different countries to share their insights and research findings on integrating technology into education for sustainable development. It is expected that the academic discussions in this Special Issue will not only provide research-based knowledge to support education and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in these countries, but will also contribute to addressing broader global challenges on the topic.

We welcome papers that contribute to the discussion from a theoretical, methodological or empirical perspective. These papers may be of interest to educational researchers, policy makers, administrators and professionals. This perspective may even be crucial for the entire SDG approach. Specifically, we invite researchers to contribute in the following areas:

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

(1) The impact of students’ digital competencies on outcomes of various forms of technology-enhanced learning;

(2) The applications and integration of technologies (e.g., social media, gamification, metaverse, augmented and virtual reality, and mobile apps) in the process of learning and teaching

(3) Equity and inclusion concerns of integration of technologies in learning and teaching;

• Teachers’ digital competencies and readiness to integrate technologies in teaching;
• Applications and integration of learning technologies to develop 21st-century skills (e.g., critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving);
• Adaptivity and personalization issues in integrating learning technologies in learning and teaching. 

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Kun Dai
Dr. Jiani Ma
Dr. Feifei Han
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• education
• sustain development
• technology
• digital era

Title: Research on system usability and learning effect of virtual reality energy teaching material development -Take "Green Source Pursuit" as an example
Author: Su
Highlights: Research on system usability and learning effect of virtual reality energy teaching material development -Take "Green Source Pursuit" as an example

Title: E-Learning Canvases: Navigating the Confluence of Online Arts Education and Sustainable Pedagogies in Teacher Education
Authors: Pavlou, Victoria and Castro-Varela, Aurelio
Affiliation: Education Department of Frederick University, Cyprus
Abstract: Recent education policy debates, both at the national and EU levels, focus on adapting European education and training systems to modern societal needs. The emphasis lies in promoting competence-based education to cultivate essential competences among teachers and students, leading to personal fulfilment, employability, active citizenship, social cohesion, and lifelong learning. Notably, digital and sustainability competences, along with emotional resilience, empathy, and civic engagement, are regarded as pivotal for building sustainable societies. Within this context, arts education assumes significance due to its experiential nature, engaging learners not only intellectually but also emotionally and ethically. This article explores how teacher educators can provide quality arts education that embraces sustainable pedagogies through digital technologies. It delves into teacher educators' perspectives on the challenges and opportunities presented by digital technologies when teaching online arts courses (e.g., music, visual arts, theatre/drama). Conducted as part of the European-funded project ‘Critical Arts Education for Sustainable Societies’, the study involved interviews with 25 academics from five European countries (Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Malta, and Poland). Most of the challenges were related to how to make e-learning sustainable in the field of arts education. Subsequently, educators also have key challenges in converting course content for online delivery, maintaining online classes with ICT tools, ensuring access to high-quality resources, and actively involving students in the learning process. Conversely, educators have adapted arts education by revising teaching methods through digital technologies and developing new materials. Overall, while acknowledging the potential of media integration, they believed that a blended learning approach aligned better with the nature of arts education and sustained the socially engaged aspect of their courses.