Pedagogical Methods and Practices with Digital Technology in Authentic Schools Contexts

Dear Colleagues,

Digital technology has been used in education since the 1990s, but rapid changes and advances in technology make the theme continuously topical. In addition, although this theme is widely investigated, studies of pedagogical methods and practices in authentic school settings need to be updated.

The aim of this Special Issue is to focus on research on pedagogical methods and practices using digital technologies for teaching and learning in authentic school contexts.  While the main emphasis will be on original empirical studies, we also welcome studies that present theoretical approaches, evaluations, and reviews concerning the pedagogical use of digital technology in education.

The focus of this Special Issue is on compulsory education and high school, and on teaching and learning in classrooms—not, e.g., on teacher learning. Studies can address any subject of the curricula, integrated entities, or compulsory or voluntary education. However, we prefer studies related to formal education. In addition, we will accept studies of different digital technologies, but studies in which some specific technology is tested per se, without sound pedagogical context and theoretical grounding, will not be published. Furthermore, studies of pedagogy-driven new and emerging technologies are welcome. We welcome any research methods.

The use of digital technology is widely investigated in relation to education, but the challenge of continuous change and the development of technology calls for studies which focus on the new practices, contents and contexts of classrooms. Learning to use digital technology—or computer skills—in the traditional sense is not enough anymore, or as relevant as before. The focus has shifted more to how different technologies can be used in a pedagogically meaningful and effective way to teach or learn a subject or topic (Selwyn & Bulfin, 2016). There are also many new themes and technologies to be investigated, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and learning analytics, which can be used for various pedagogical purposes in classrooms, e.g., artificial intelligence for supporting students to learn to write poems (Kangasharju, Ilomäki, & Toom, 2021), computer-based simulations (Veermans & Jaakkola, 2019), 3D models (Ng & Chan, 2019),  or various practices of maker-space pedagogy (Bower et al., 2020) for learning various STEM subjects.

Pedagogical focus is important, and we encourage studies of pedagogies with digital technology, e.g., studies concerning the following questions: How do students collaborate? Do these practices support metacognitive competence? Do practices with digital technology result in more independent, motivated or engaged learning? Does the use of digital technology help all students?

References

Bower, M., Stevenson, M., Forbes, A., Falloon, G., & Hatzigianni, M. (2020). Makerspaces pedagogy – supports and constraints during 3D design and 3D printing activities in primary schools. Educational media international, 57(1). 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2020.1744845.

Gouseti, A., Bruni, I., Ilomäki, L., Lakkala, M., Mundy, D., Raffaghelli, J., Ranieri, M., Roffi, A., Romero, M. and Romeu, T. (2021). Critical Digital Literacies framework for educators. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5070329.

Kangasharju, A., Ilomäki, L., Lakkala, M., & Tool, A. (2022). Lower secondary students’ poetry writing with the AI-based Poetry Machine. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence 3, 100048. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2022.100048.

Ng, O.‐L. & Chan, T. (2019). Learning as Making: Using 3D computer‐aided design to enhance the learning of shape and space in STEM‐integrated ways. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50, 294–308. doi: 10.1111/bjet.12643.

Selwyn, N. & Bulfin, S. (2016) Exploring school regulation of students’ technology use - rules that are made to be broken? Educational Review.;68(3):274-290. doi:10.1080/00131911.2015.1090401.

Veermans, K., & Jaakkola, T. (2019). Pedagogy in Educational Simulations and Games. In Y. Cai, W. van Joolingen, & Z. Walker (Eds.), VR, Simulations and Serious Games for Education (pp. 5–14). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2844-2_2.

Dr. Liisa Ilomäki
Dr. Tomi Jaakkola
Guest Editors

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• digital technology
• school
• teaching
• learning
• classroom practices