CALL FOR PAPERS

Digital technologies in K-12 schools in Sweden, China and Norway. A comparative perspective.

A special issue edited by Associate professor, Dr. Anders D. Olofsson, Umeå University, Sweden; Associate professor, Dr. J. Ola Lindberg, Mid Sweden University, Sweden; Professor, Dr. Jiao Jianli, South China Normal University, China; and Dr. Limin Gu, Umeå University, Sweden

To be published in Educational Inquiry, No 4 Dec 2013: http://www.use.umu.se/english/research/EducationInquiry

Education Inquiry is an international on-line, peer-reviewed journal with free access in the field of Educational Sciences and Teacher Education. It publishes original empirical and theoretical studies from a wide variety of academic disciplines. As the name of the journal suggests, one of its aims is to challenge established conventions and taken-for-granted perceptions within these fields. The aim of this special issue is to more deeply explore some aspects of the up-take and use of digital technologies in K-12 schools in Sweden, China and Norway. In relation to each other these three countries are interesting due to how they on a policy level have conceptualized and pointing out the direction for the up-take and use of digital technologies in K-12 schools. In addition their actual use of digital technologies in K-12 schools seems to have succeeded in different pace and with different directions. Another interesting aspect between the three countries is the extent and tremendous pace in which China right now takes up digital technology in its K-12 schools. Finally in all three countries different kind of 1:1 initiative (one student-one computer/digital divide) have been and are right now implemented in the K-12 schools.

With focus on a policy, teacher and student level respectively in relation to up-take and use of digital technologies in Swedish, Chinese and Norwegian K-12 schools we do believe that important lessons can be learnt. Such lessons can both advance research in this field and inform the educational practices in schools.

This call contains three topics to which we from a Swedish, Chinese and Norwegian national perspective welcome submissions. The special issue is aiming for publishing three articles within each topic.

Topic 1

This topic concerns a policy level in relation to up-take and use of digital technologies in K-12 schools. This topic especially welcomes submissions that concern policy aspects of ICT-skills in school (Sweden), information literacy (China) and digital literacy (Norway).

Topic 2

This topic concerns teacher´s beliefs/expectations, competences and skills, teaching practices in technology rich classrooms. This topic especially welcomes submissions that with a teacher perspective take the 1:1 initiative (Sweden and Norway) and e-school bags (China) into consideration.

Topic 3

This topic concerns students´ beliefs, competences and skills, learning practices in technology rich classrooms. This topic especially welcomes submissions that with a student perspective take the 1:1 initiative (Sweden and Norway) and e-school bags (China) into consideration.

Submissions

Submissions will follow the journal’s regular blind review process. The journal will make the final acceptance decisions. Guidelines for submitting articles for our special issue list below:

1. Please submit the article to anders.d.olofsson@pedag.umu.se. In the cover letter please specify that your article is being submitted for the Special Issue: Digital technologies in K-12 schools in Sweden, China and Norway. A comparative perspective.

2. Two electronic versions of the article must be submitted. One version (saved as “original article”) should include the full article, an abstract and a cover page containing the title, author’s name and full contact details. In the second version (saved as “for referees”), all information identifying the author(s) should be removed from files to allow them to be sent anonymously to referees. This includes all references to personally identifiable information such as references and footnotes. In the text, you can mark any information you have taken out by inserting words in brackets, such as: [information deleted to maintain integrity of the review process]. Please also make sure that all identifiers have been removed from electronic files. Personal or hidden information is stored by default and needs to be removed.

3. Articles should be between 6000-7000 words, excluding references, abstract and acknowledgements. An abstract not exceeding 150 words should be included. Please, also provide 4-5 keywords.

4. Articles must strictly conform to the formatting and writing style requirements of the APA Publication Manual (6th edition). If you need some example, you can download articles published in Edu.Inq.

5. Accepted articles that are not included in this special issue (due to space restrictions) would possible be published in a future issue of the Journal of Distance Education.

6. Inquiries regarding this special issue should be directed to Anders D. Olofsson.

anders.d.olofsson@pedag.umu.se.

Schedule

- Deadline for language edited article submissions to Guest editors: December 1, 2012

- Language edited articles submitted to EduInq: 1 Feb 2013, and then the journal sends them to two external referees

- Decision about acceptance from EduInq Editors: 1 May 2013,

- Final and revised versions submitted to EduInq: 1 Sept 2013,

- Proofs and publication: December 2013