Digital Technologies in Education: Empowering Teachers and Learners for Collective Well-Being
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 June 2025 | Viewed by 1385
Special Issue Editors
Interests: digital futures; data literacy; sense-making; questioning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: teacher development; educational reform
Interests: educational technology; learning & cognition; learning science; multi-modal learning analytics; authentic learning; development of scientific temperament
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Historically, notions of collective well-being have been evident throughout many societies, both literate and non-literate. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, its implications came into sharper global focus, with digital technology serving as a lifeline for community connectivity. For many communities, resilience emerged as a shared experience. The experience of connectivity was not universal, however, with many populations left disenfranchised, existing divides deepening, and new divides forming. This raises a host of questions concerning the scope of innovation. What does this mean for teaching and learning? Adding further complexity, the disruption triggered by generative AI in this last year suggests that effective and sustained responses may take time to emerge.
In the contemporary context, sustainability has arguably emerged as the word of the decade, becoming a term that now has a much wider reach than environmental issues and the pivotal message of UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG4 commits to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. This is a clear goal, but such aspirations were articulated long before the change of the millennium. Moreover, digital technology has often been seen as part of the solution, as with one laptop per child, the hole in the wall and other related initiatives. The issue is that such initiatives have not been sustainable. What then might help create more durable solutions? And how is individual and societal well-being considered in the midst of ongoing advancements in digital innovation? How do we meaningfully prepare for future waves of disruption? Will the aggregate impact only widen existing divides? Are ‘lighthouse’ innovations emerging?
This Special Issue calls for papers that address these topics with an over-arching focus on promoting collective well-being. What is already working? What programs are positioned to achieve such goals? What ‘good news’ stories provide insight and evidence that might guide others?
Dr. Jon Mason
Prof. Dr. Maureen Robinson
Dr. Shitanshu Mishra
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.
Keywords
- well-being
- digital technology
- global citizenship
- SDGs
- innovation
- disruption
- education
- learning
- e-learning
- frameworks
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.