Special Issue "Opening Up Learning"

Guest Editor
Dr. Steve Wheeler
Faculty of Education, Rolle Building, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK
Website: http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/dynamic.asp?page=staffdetails&id=swheeler
E-Mail:
Phone: +44 (0)1752 585481
Fax: +44 (0)1752 233787
Interests: distance learning and teaching; integration and convergence of technologies; technology refusal/technophobia; benefits analysis of telematics; student perception and motivation; individual differences in learning; creativity and learning; Social Software (Web 2.0); ICT in primary education; cyberpsychology and cyberculture

Dear Colleagues,

This special issue of the journal Future Internet focuses on open educational resources (OER), open educational practices (OEP) and open scholarship. OERs, according to the definition supplied by UNESCO are characterised by “the open provision of educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes” (UNESCO, 2002). Open educational practices are those activities practices by educators to promote open learning through OERs, and also the practices adopted by students who are engaged in learning using OERs. Open scholarship is exemplified in the creation, repurposing and sharing of educational resources in a free and open manner including Open Access Journals (such as Future Internet), and is also often characterised by academics and content developers opening their content up to scrutiny and critique, with the view to improving it through constructive feedback received from relevant communities of practice and interest.

We therefore seek high-quality, original papers on any aspect of open education and open learning, where the use of Web 2.0 tools and services such as blogs, wikis, social tagging and filtering, Internet based delivery and online discussion is a central component. Papers can be either empirical, conceptual or theoretical in nature, or position papers that outline and/or evaluate any important existing or emerging aspects in the field, or issues, benefits and limitations of Open Educational Resources.

Dr. Steve Wheeler
Guest Editor

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Future Internet is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 300 CHF (Swiss Francs). English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.