Invitation to an English monothematic issue for the year 2025

2024-07-27

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND (NEW) TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE POST-DIGITAL ERA

 

In recent years research, both empirical and conceptual, has increasingly focused on the field of artificial intelligence (AI). This also applies to the context of education, which focuses on two distinct but related areas, AI in education and education about AI. It is not good to confuse these areas and at the same time it is necessary to understand them not separately, but in their mutual context.

The exploration of the issue of AI in education gravitates around the use of AI technologies as a tool to improve and enhance educational practices, effective learning, and teaching itself. Researchers are applying AI methods to design and develop personalised learning systems to achieve better learning outcomes. They use the power of advanced data science applied to deep learning principles. The use of numerous different AI-based technologies can also be included here.

On the other hand, “Education about AI” explores the pedagogy around AI and its principles, mechanisms, ecosystems, or historical assumptions. This discipline forms a research agenda that also includes educational policy, proposals for the curriculum or content of teaching, and specific educational content aimed at equipping future generations with a comprehensive understanding of AI technologies and developing the necessary competencies and skills. This includes explaining the basic principles of AI, exploring its historically relevant causes and the societal implications now and in the future, and addressing the ethical and safety issues associated with its development and application, including prevention. Innovative educational designs and technologies are being developed to facilitate studentsʼ understanding of abstract AI concepts and mechanisms such as machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), natural language processing (NLP), and neural networks. The research is also interested in how and what students at all levels of education are learning about AI and how they are developing new multidisciplinary skills at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, a point in time when the boundaries of physical space and the school environment have dissolved into a digital virtual dimension.

 

Aims and themes

This monothematic issue focuses on the conflict between theoretical and practical knowledge. It aims to bring together educational researchers interested in AI and its use in education, and to lead a discussion on how AI affects educational processes and how to teach about AI in schools at all levels. Our goal is to broaden the discussion of a comprehensive, conceptual research agenda in the field of artificial intelligence and education. We welcome contributions from a diverse range of authors that focus on theoretical and conceptual understandings of the development of AI, empirical aspects of AI technology design for education, and practical experience of teaching and learning about AI in school settings.

We invite potential authors to strengthen their theoretical foundations by publishing theoretical-research articles and to provide practical guidance that goes beyond existing research by publishing practical, empirical studies.

We will also provide a space to reflect on how advanced AI technologies can be used to teach the basic principles of artificial intelligence in order to gain a better understanding of the potential of AI in education. Educational reviews with meta-analyses and meta-syntheses are also welcome in this monothematic issue to provide an overview of existing work and to provide directions for future research in this area. We are also looking for studies that use a consilience of knowledge and interdisciplinary knowledge and focus on application frameworks.

 

The main topics include the following, but are not limited to them.

 

AI and education:

  • Teaching and learning systems using AI
  • Precise and personalised learning using AI
  • Intelligent teaching and learning systems using AI
  • Ethical aspects of the use of AI in education and trends in research
  • Ethics and safety in the use of AI in education
  • Detection of emotions in education using biofeedback sensors (EEG, GSR, HRV...) and the possibilities of their processing by AI algorithms
  • AI and learning in the virtual dimension; the relationship between the physical and online classrooms
  • Policy challenges in implementing AI technologies in education and teaching
  • Learning different subjects (e.g. language, science, education or PE...) using AI
  • The design and development of technologies in education based on AI
  • Analysis of trends in educational practices and future developments in educational technology using AI
  • New feedback and assessment methods suitable for teaching using AI

 

Education about AI:

  • Suggestions for the content of education about AI for all levels of education
  • Suggestions for curricula and pedagogical approaches for education about AI
  • Evaluating education about AI
  • Teacher training and professional development for teachers in the sphere of education about AI
  • The history, present and future of childrenʼs cognitive and psychosocial development in AI environments
  • An interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach to education about AI together with other subjects such as language, mathematics, and the humanities

 

It is important to highlight the practical applications of AI and (new) technologies in education, to analyse the ethical aspects of their use, and to explore the implications for the educational environment. It is also appropriate to encourage research that explores innovative approaches to pedagogical practice and brings new insights to the field of educational technology.

 

The guest editors of this monothematic issue will be Martin Malčík and Tomáš Zemčík.

 

Timetable for the preparation of this monothematic issue:

  • By November 30, 2024, send abstracts in the range of max. 2 pages (3,600 characters) to the address pedagogika@pedf.cuni.cz with the note “English mono 2025”. In the abstract, please state: author(s) and title of the paper, its type (theoretical, overview, methodological, research study), and the expected scope, aim, and content of the paper.
  • Afterwards, the authors will be notified of the next steps.
  • Studies based on accepted abstracts should be submitted by April 30, 2025. Subsequently, the studies will go through a standard review procedure and the authors will be asked to modify their texts.
  • The monothematic issue will be published by the end of 2025.