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Bulletin of the Technical Committee on Learning Technology (ISSN: 2306-0212) |
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Authors: Maiga Chang
, Rita Kuo, Ahmed Tlili, Jun Chen Hsieh, Danial Hooshyar, Jerry Chih-Yuan Sun
Bulletin of the Technical Committee on Learning Technology is the publication of the IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology. The first issue was published in July 1999 and has delivered most up-to-date information in the advanced learning technology area. The bulletin was temporarily closed in 2017.
IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology decided to reform the structure of the bulletin so readers can be aware of not only the latest research progress and outcome but also can get involved in terms of collaborating with others and attending important events this June. The bulletin invites articles submitted to the following four sections:
- Emerging Learning Technologies focusing on the up-to-date outcome of the emerging learning technologies;
- Book & Report Reviews commenting learning technology related books, instruments, and reports;
- Collaboration Opportunities bringing the collaboration opportunities of work-in-progress research ideas and projects; and,
- Event Info & Call for Event Host revealing information of upcoming activities that the learning technology community may interest.
After reviewed by associate editors, five articles were selected to publish in this issue, including one article in Emerging Learning Technologies section, one article in Book & Reviews section, two articles in Collaboration Opportunities section, and one article in Event Info & Call for Event Host section.
The section of Emerging Learning Technologies aims to provide a platform where researchers can share their research outcome offering insights into learning technologies, including systems, tools, apps, etc. The first article included in the current issue is entitled “Can YouTube videos facilitate teaching and learning of STEM subjects in high schools?” by Wilson O. Otchie, Margus Pedaste, Emanuele Bardone, and Irene-Angelica Chounta. This work introduced the use of YouTube STEM videos as effective learning resources for the teaching of science in high schools. The study reviewed previous studies and conducted an empirical study with selected Estonian high school teachers. Results show that YouTube videos are considered interactive and effective tools for STEM teaching and learning.
The second article is in the Book & Report Review section done by Xiaojing Weng, Morris S. Y. Jong, and Thomas K .F. Chiu. This report reviews the content of a book, entitled “Smart Learning Environments” published by Springer in its Lecture Notes in Educational Technology, and discusses the interconnection between the chapters of the book. It provides readers with a concise and brief summary of the book, a critical assessment of the content, as well as some suggestions. More explicitly, while multiple parts of the book have been highlighted as exemplary in its knowledge, judgments, or organization, some obstacles and challenges have also been underlined. According to the review, the book offers significant insights for both the educational technology development and technology-assisted pedagogical design in multi-disciplinary domains. Author’s thoughts and reflection on the book are also provided.
In the Collaboration Section, two articles were published in this issue. Tisoglu Secil and Mericelli Murat in the third article, “From traditional to open learning: digital transformation project”, proposed a project that aims to enhance rural education in Turkey by harnessing the characteristics of Open Educational Resources (OER). Particularly, their project has two phases, namely (1) develop policies and strategies related to the faculty members’ lack of digital literacy skills and lack of experiments in online learning environments; and, (2) improve the faculty members’ knowledge and experiences on open education and the ways of implementing open educational practices. At the end, they highlighted the needs for different collaborations in order to further advance the outcomes of their project, such as collaborate in a community of sharing practices, to reflect on new designs and to create an online environment on specific subject matters.
Fahriye Altinay, Zehra Altinay, Cengiz Hakan Aydin, Mehmet Altinay, Gökmen Dagli, and Mustafa Ozhan Kalac in the fourth article, “Networking and Collaboration in Service Quality for a Smart University and Society”, proposed an on-going project to enhance the quality and accessibly of education in general and inclusive education in particular. In line with this goal, several activities have been conducted, including producing instructional videos for teachers on how to develop quality courses, as well as increase the accessibility of the published online resources. At th end, they called for more collaborations in this project related, for instance, to the use of learning analytics in order to analyze learners’ online learning data and enhance the provided learning process and services.
As the world suffers from the Covid-19 pandemic, so do the academic events around the globe. Yet, the academia is not limited by the plight of such a disease. With conferences turning virtual, researchers as well as educational practitioners still have full access to in-depth communication and interaction. The last article written by the bulletin’s associate editor Jun Chen Hsieh introducing the 28th International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE 2020, https://icce2020.apsce.net/) which is organized by the Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education (APSCE, https://www.apsce.net/) and will be held as a virtual conference this year during 23-27 November 2020. Featuring keynote speeches, theme-based invited speeches, expert panels, seven interrelated theme-based sub-conferences, Workshops, Work-in-Progress Posters (WIPP), Doctoral Student Consortia (DSC), and Early Career Workshop (ECW), ICCE 2020 this year provides a virtual channel through which international research communities could interact and share ideas for research in the field of computers in education.
The current submission statistics, since the bulletin is resumed, show that authors get the first decision notification in 28 days in average and get the acceptance notification in 41 days. The articles have taken 65 days from submitted to publish.
A new section – Report from Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States – will start calling for article in short. The section is aiming to reveal the status of how learning technologies can help developing countries/small island developing states. The editorial board is looking forward to receive more submissions to these five sections in order to build the platform for bringing the up-to-date learning technology research, outcome, applications, and needs in every corners of the world to the community.