The field of education is not immune to advances in sophisticated information and communication technology (ICT). Going beyond the ICT-hype, the objective of this paper is to examine to what extent and how technology-enhanced teaching and learning (TEL) can enhance teaching and learning and, hence, turn them into levers of sustainable socio-economic growth and development. To address these questions, a multidimensional survey was developed and distributed internationally to lecturers/professors active in the field of higher education. The initial point of departure for this study was consistent with the well-referenced in the literature thesis that TEL has profound value added in view of enhancing the teaching and learning process. Yet, as the outcomes of the survey underpinning the discussion in this paper suggest, there is much more is at stake than that. Indeed, it is argued that several conditions need to be fulfilled if technology is to serve as a benefit, and not an obstacle to teaching and learning, and thus boost the delivery of quality education. This paper outlines them.

This study investigates the role played by parents as mediators of young children’s access and engagement with digital technologies. In Belgium, Germany, Latvia and Portugal, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 families in each country, including one child between 6 and 7 years old. Our findings show that parents of young children mainly play the role of ‘gatekeepers’ when it comes to facilitating and constraining access to and use of digital technologies. Parents’ perceptions of the efficacy of digital technologies as responsible entertainment and as educational tools influence the technologies available at home and accessible to the child. These perceptions in turn impact parents’ mediation strategies with regard to children’s actual use of digital technologies, with restrictive mediation – of time and less of content – and supervision applied most. The power exerted by parents over access and use may be understood as a limitation of the children’s rights. On the other hand, parents are not always concerned with the right of protection as they believe – sometimes incorrectly – that they are in control of the content their children are exposed to.

It has been quite a long time since S. Papert introduced the idea that children should be involved in the use of computers in the learning process to support the development of computational thinking. Nowadays, educational robotics is introduced in different dimensions of education, but mostly it is used as part of a compulsory educational process in nonformal educational activities, in activities to reduce the risks of early school leaving, and in initiatives introduced by some projects where different aspects of educational robotics are tested in activities with students who have diverse special needs. But till now robotics has mostly been associated with the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and outcomes of educational robotics are measured through the prism of improved knowledge in STEM subjects. In this special issue, journal researchers provide results on ER in the context of inclusive education.

This study investigates the key components of teachers’ self-assessed artificial intelligence (AI) literacy competencies and how they align with existing digital literacy frameworks. The rapid development of AI technologies has highlighted the need for educators to develop AI-related skills and competencies in order to meaningfully integrate these technologies into their professional practice. A pilot study was conducted using a self-assessment questionnaire developed from frameworks such as DigiCompEdu and the Selfie for Teachers tool. The study aimed to explore the relationships between AI literacy competence and already defined digital skills and competencies through principal component analysis (PCA). The results revealed distinct components of AI literacy and digital competencies, highlighting competence overlaps in some areas, for example, digital resource management, while also confirming that AI literacy competencies form a separate and essential category. The findings show that although AI literacy aligns with other digital skills and competencies, focused attention is required to professionally develop AI-specific competencies. These insights are key elements of future research to refine and expand AI literacy tools for educators, providing targeted professional development programs to ensure that teachers are ready for the opportunities and challenges of AI in education.

Virtual solutions for exhibiting museum collections are no longer a novelty, as such experiences already exist in the world, but the remote use of museum collections for learning purposes has so far not been widely used in the educational environment. This article analyzes virtual museum applications by evaluating them from a learning perspective, including 25 criteria in the evaluation rubric divided into three groups: (i) Technical performance; (ii) information architecture; and (iii) educational value. This will enable educators to select the most appropriate material for their specific learning purpose and to plan the most appropriate learning strategies by organizing training sessions to acquire knowledge that can be enhanced by museum information and teaching students digital skills in evaluating information available in the digital environment, analyzing its pros and cons to teach them how to develop new innovative solutions. The research is carried out from a phenomenological perspective; to be more precise, virtual museums are analyzed using the principles of transcendental design and a hermeneutic design is used to interpret the resulting data. A total of 36 applications of virtual museums were analyzed, whereupon the results were compiled using static data analysis software, while 13 applications were used for the hermeneutic data analysis. The results suggest that the strength of virtual museums is in information architecture, but less attention is paid to the educational value of the material, which points to the need to change the principles of virtual museum design and emphasizes the role of teachers in using virtual museums as learning agents.

Social networks research has grown exponentially over the past decade. Subsequent empirical and conceptual advances have been transposed in the field of education. As the debate on delivering better education for all gains momentum, the big question is how to integrate advances in social networks research, corresponding advances in information and communication technology (ICT) and effectively employ them in the domain of education. To address this question, this paper proposes a conceptual framework (maturity model) that integrates social network research, the debate on technology-enhanced learning (TEL) and the emerging concept of smart education.