Educational Technology Research and Development
Special Issue on
“Technology enhanced learner ownership and learner autonomy through creation”
Special Issue Editor
Dr. Yu-Ju Lan, Special Issue Editor, Distinguished Professor, Department of Applied Chinese Language and Culture, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Important Dates:
Submissions of initial papers due: 30 September 2017
Decisions and reflection on the initial papers selected: 15 November 2017
Revised manuscripts due: 31 December 2017
Feedback on revised manuscripts: 28 February 2018
Final manuscripts due by the authors: 30 April 2018
Final manuscripts sent to the publishers: 31 May 2018
Special Issue Publication: August-September 2018
Submission Information
Please prepare your manuscripts following the ETR&D Instructions.
Submit your manuscripts via https://www.editorialmanager.com/etrd/.
Select “Special Issue: Technology-enhanced Ownership and Autonomy” as the article type.
Topics of Interest
Topics of interests include, but are not limited to:
Questions about relevance and potential topics should be directed to Dr. Lan at yujulan@gmail.com
Background
Learner autonomy refers to a situation where learners are reflectively engaged in their own learning. Autonomous learners learn more efficiently and effectively because they tend to regularly reflect on their own learning process and therefore they take control of their own learning. With the perception of learner ownership, autonomous learners are more independent and responsible. Thus, managing their own learning, they do not suffer from the lack of learning motivation. They are usually proactive and are willing to take risks during the learning process.
Furthermore, learning has been given brand-new features in the 21th century due to the advancement of technology. Learners therefore have started learning through different approaches, rather than the traditional teacher-centered and one-size-fits-all approach which has been used for several decades. The traditional teacher-centered and one-size-fits-all approach usually fails to identify and support learners’ individual differences and consequently it does not effectively cultivate students’ autonomy and learner ownership. As described above, the adoption of advanced technology in education brings new opportunities for providing learners with brand-new learning experiences. For example, with the open educational resources and Internet, learners are able to obtain rich information and learning resources. What’s more, they are able to be engaged in authentic learning through virtual reality. Through the integration of internet of things (IoT), wearable technology and mobile seamless computing, learning is no longer constrained by space and time.
However, in spite of the abovementioned potential applications of advanced technology in learning, challenges are inevitable because simply by introducing advanced technology to educational settings cannot guarantee effective and autonomous learning. The corresponding pedagogical theories and approaches, as well as appropriate evaluation methods and learning analytical technique, should be involved in the adoption. Furthermore, among the well-known student-centered approaches, learning by creation is an approach to moving learners from consumers to creators of learning contents and consequently increasing their awareness of learning ownership. In fact, creation is a kind of autonomous learning process during which learners are actively engaged in investigating matters, solving problems, reflecting ideas and producing contents. Based on the abovementioned benefits of learning by creating, it is clearly worth the effort of educators and researchers to investigate the effects of cultivating students to become creators in a technology-rich environment on learner autonomy and learner ownership.
To this end, this special issue aims at providing a platform for researchers to present their studies that may offer insights into the role of advanced technology in enhancing learner autonomy and learner ownership by honing their creative skills. These are open questions worth further explorations. The submitted papers will go through a double-blind review. We invite studies that provide research results and contributions that may help develop further understanding of potential and challenge of using advanced technology to enhance learner ownership and learner autonomy through creation.
Special Issue Guest Editor
Dr. Yu-Ju Lan
Distinguished Professor, Department of Applied Chinese Language and Culture
National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Email: yujulan@gmail.com
URL: http://tell.aclc.ntnu.edu.tw/index.php/en/