Virtual & Augmented Reality Innovations for Teachers, Teacher Education, and Professional Development

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid advancement of information and communication technology (ICT) has led to the emergence of manifold innovative systems and tools that can efficiently and effectively support both teachers in teaching and students in learning. However, in light of the recent world event (i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak), it became apparent that teachers’ skills in the integration of ICT solutions are mediocre, whereas their lifelong learning training is, in most cases, inadequate [1-3]. It is therefore, more than ever, necessary to identify ways and methods that can assist teachers in enhancing their digital literacy skills. Although, especially during this hectic period, various innovative teacher training schemes have emerged [4-6], very few efforts can be identified with regard to the use of solutions that stem from the cross-reality (XR) spectrum [7], despite the potential that virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have on teaching and learning [8, 9]. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to increase our knowledge about the potential of immersive technologies in the context of teacher education, training, and professional development. To prospect authors’ interest, we provide the following generic guidelines: (a) from the educational perspective, we are interested in receiving works that focus on the technical skills and/or the pedagogical competencies that teachers need to develop as well as the safeguards of ethical use [10], whereas (b) from the developers’ side, we are looking for frameworks that allow the mass adaptation and modification of VR/AR systems from the education practitioners’ end.

References

1. Christopoulos, A., & Sprangers, P. (2021). Integration of educational technology during the Covid-19 pandemic: An analysis of teacher and student receptions. Cogent Education, 8(1),
2. Hadar, L., Ergas, O., Alpert, B., & Ariav, T. (2020). Rethinking teacher education in a VUCA world: student teachers’ social-emotional competencies during the Covid-19 crisis. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 573-586.
3. Allen, J., Rowan, L., & Singh, P. (2020). Teaching and teacher education in the time of COVID-19. Asia- Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 48(3), 233-236.
4. Quezada, R. L., Talbot, C., & Quezada-Parker, K. B. (2020). From bricks and mortar to remote teaching: A teacher education program ‘s response to COVID-19. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(4), 472-483.
5. Dreesen, T., Akseer, S., Brossard, M., Dewan, P. Giraldo, J.P., Kamei, A.; Mizunoya, S., Ortiz Correa, J.S. (2020). Promising Practices for Equitable Remote Learning. Emerging lessons from COVID-19 education responses in 127 countries. Innocenti Research Briefs, 2020(10), UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, Florence.
6. Sepulveda-Escobar, P., & Morrison, A. (2020). Online teaching placement during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile: challenges and opportunities. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 587-607.
7. Chen, C. (2020). New Approach of Teacher Training: The Virtual Reality Simulation. Journal of Education Research, (313), 19-34.
8. Mystakidis, S., Christopoulos, A., Pellas, N. (2021). A systematic mapping review of augmented reality applications to support STEM learning in higher education. Inf. Technol. doi:10.1007/s10639-021-10682- 1.
9. Pellas, , Dengel, A., & Christopoulos, A. (2020). A Scoping Review of Immersive Virtual Reality in STEM Education. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 13(4), 748-761.
10. Christopoulos, A., Mystakidis, S., Pellas, N., & Laakso, M.J. (2021). ARLEAN: An Augmented Reality Learning Analytics Ethical Framework. Computers, 10, 92, doi:10.3390/computers10080092.

Dr. Athanasios Christopoulos
Prof. Dr. Stylianos Mystakidis
Guest Editors

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