Call for Papers: “Teaching and Learning with Semantic Technologies”

[w.p.car...@ljmu.ac.uk]

Papers are invited for a special edition of the international peer-
reviewed journal 'Technology, Pedagogy and Education' exploring the
potential of the broad ‘semantic web’ vision and of specific semantic
technologies to enhance teaching and learning in different educational
sectors and settings.

Aims and Scope

The emphasis in this special edition will be on teaching and learning
practices and the discourses that accompany them, rather than on the
development of technical ontologies, semantic enhancements to resource
description or educational administration. This would be an edition
which promotes better understanding of how emergent semantic
technologies might support and enhance teaching and learning, and that
invites educators to consider how their own practice might be
transformed, what barriers might exist to adoption of these new
technologies, and their implications for learning environments,
relationships and outcomes.

Papers are invited that address questions including, but not limited
to:

* How are visions of a future ‘semantic web’ and the affordances
of its associated semantic technologies understood by teachers and
learners in different educational settings?
* How might access to a linked ‘web of data’ transform the nature
and scope of learning activities? What hitherto unrealised
opportunities for teaching and learning might now be realised?
* How can the opportunities to access large collections of
distributed data be reconciled with predetermined learning outcomes?
* How do teacher and learner roles, relationships and identities
change in teaching and learning environments enabled by semantic
technologies?
* What are the barriers to adoption of semantic technologies in
teaching and learning environments? Are these institutional,
epistemological or technological? Or some combination of these and
other factors?
* How can teacher and learner experiences of the introduction of
‘Web 1.0’ and ‘Web 2.0’ into teaching and learning environments inform
understanding and enactment of ‘Web 3.0’ – the semantic web?
* What are the implications of semantic technologies for
assessment, transitions into different learning environments and for
existing systems such as e-Portfolios or Virtual Learning
Environments?

Participation

Initial enquiries may be made to the edition editor, Professor Patrick
Carmichael, at w.p.car...@ljmu.ac.uk and a 500 word (maximum)
summary of the proposed paper should be submitted to the editor by 11
December 2009. Successful authors will be notified by 8 January. Full
papers will then be required by July 2010 for final submission
following peer review by November 2010.

Normal journal procedures and formatting requirements apply. All
papers will be double-blind peer reviewed. Submitting authors are
particularly urged to consider issues of copyright clearance in
relation to images and representations of other web content.