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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about the largest disruption to formal education in recent history and has resulted in school closures and the move to online teaching and learning across the globe. Using data from interviews with 25 teachers and head teachers in England and Greece, this paper aims to capture educators' experiences during emergency remote education (ERE) in spring-summer 2020 and contribute to current and future conversations about the post-pandemic school. Through a qualitative approach, the paper reports on the often improvised and compromised nature of online schooling during the first pandemic lockdown and presents the opportunities and challenges teachers experienced with the move to emergency remote education. It discusses how didactic modes of teaching prevailed, highlights the importance of parental involvement during ERE and argues that the move to online teaching and learning has accentuated digital inequalities. The findings of this study cast light on the hitherto unexplored area of ERE and offer original insights for future policy making, research and practice on how schools can develop readiness and resilience to face future closures in a post-pandemic world.

This paper explores how a legacy digital artefact can be adopted within formal education settings and looks at the pedagogical and other opportunities created by its use within three primary and secondary classrooms in the UK. Through a comparative case study, the paper investigates the potential of using a virtual 3D model of the 1938 British Empire Exhibition in formal educational settings and highlights a number of salient issues and challenges. As the data suggests, engagement with the model created opportunities for playful learning, facilitated motivation and collaboration, and enhanced student interest. However, participation was often compromised by technical inhibitors as well as the wider pressures of the curriculum, teacher time and assessment regimes. Last, the paper considers the range of actors and factors that influenced the experiences of teachers and students who engaged with the use of the 3D model and concludes by considering the implications of these findings.

The rapid and ongoing technological developments and the changes in societal practices require us to update our understanding and skills relating to digital technology use continuously. Various frameworks have been created in recent years to explore the different aspects of digital literacies or digital competencies and a range of newer concepts and dimensions have emerged in the literature aiming to capture the complexity of digital engagement. The main aim of this systematic literature review (SLR) was to map out which elements or issues of critical digital literacies (CDL) relevant for school education currently feature in the academic literature and international policy documents. The secondary aim was to use the findings of the SLR to inform the creation of a research‐based framework for school education. The review process followed a systematic protocol for answering specific research questions. Research articles were sought in two electronic databases—EBSCO (Academic Search Complete) and Web of Science—and policy documents were sought on the Internet using Google search. A total of 139 research articles and policy‐related documents were used for the analysis. The main dimensions based on the analysis were the following (in the order of most hits): E‐safety, Participation and presence, Digital literacy, Media literacy, Digital citizenship, Technology literacy, Information literacy, Data literacy, Digital game literacy, Online learning, Digital creativity and innovation, and Digital well‐being. The emphasis in the research articles was on negative issues, although publications also outlined several positive issues about digitality. The emphases of the research articles and policy‐related documents differed somewhat. The findings of this SLR have implications for researchers, policy makers and educators interested in the changing nature of critical digital literacies and the dimensions and subdimensions relevant for school education. Context and implicationsRationale for the study: This systematic literature review (SLR) identifies the key elements and issues of critical digital literacies (CDL) relevant to school education, as documented in academic literature and international policy documents. In addition, it utilises the findings of the SLR to develop a research‐based framework for CLD in school education.Why the new findings matter: Our findings contribute to capturing the different aspects of CDL in the context of compulsory education and offer original insights with regard to supporting the development of teachers and students' critical digital literacies in the future.Implications for researchers, practitioners and policy makers: This SLR has implications for research as it has highlighted the need to continuously update theoretical models and frameworks relating to CDL. Although certain accepted core dimensions can provide a stable foundation for representing emerging phenomena, it is essential to maintain flexibility to address the technological advancements. An implication for policy making is the recognition of the need for continuous professional development and pedagogical support for teachers and students. The value for educational practitioners is that it elucidates the emerging notions of CDL, and it enables educational institutions to enhance their practices and initiatives related to CDL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technologies now form an integral feature of the university student experience and there is a range of studies that explore digital technology use within a higher education context. However, very few of these studies focus on how doctoral students engage with digital technologies. This article aims to throw light on the digital practices of doctoral students and advance understandings of the changing nature of digital scholarship for them. Drawing on qualitative, in-depth interviews with 12 PhD students in a UK higher education institution, the article identifies seven distinct types of engagement with digital technologies and discusses the range of issues that underpin doctoral, digital scholarship practices. Furthermore, it argues that although the stereotypical portrayal of the PhD as a "lonely journey" is seen to be in decline, doctoral students at large exist and work "in a vacuum" rather than within interactive doctoral communities.

The idea of using digital technologies and in particular web 2.0 tools to enhance school collaboration has recently been received with great enthusiasm and a range of new collaborative initiatives has emerged. Through a comparative qualitative case study of four schools in the UK and Greece, this article analyses how online tools are supporting and facilitating school collaboration within the "eTwinning" programme--an EU initiative that seeks to promote web-based learning and collaboration between schools across Europe. In particular, it examines teachers' and students' compromised experiences of the tech-based eTwinning projects and highlights the factors that seemed to be undermining collaboration. It analyses whether the implementation of digital technologies for school collaboration has the potential to transform classroom practices or whether existing habits and "ways of doing" are brought into new contexts--leading to another case of "the old wine in new bottles" syndrome often attributed to the use of digital technology in education.

It could be said that in the fast-changing field of education technology the initial excitement for a tool or application usually fades away as the next technology emerges on the horizon--leaving little or no room for critical evaluation of how it may best be used in educational settings. Some critics have identified this endless "pursuit of the new" as a major reason why the promises of educational technology are rarely fully realised. This viewpoint article argues that there is currently a real danger that this pattern is being repeated with Web 2.0. Keen readers of the educational technology literature will already be sensing that the attention of educational technology authors and commentators appears to be shifting once again, away from the now-familiar potential of Web 2.0 applications and towards the more exotic promises and potentials of the "semantic web" and "Web 3.0" technologies. In light of these trends, this short viewpoint reflects upon how to prevent Web 2.0 applications repeating the well-worn pattern of hype, hope and eventual disappointment that has characterised the discussion of educational technology over the past 30 years or so. In particular, it suggests a number of ways that a sustained and rigorous academic study of Web 2.0 applications may move the debate forward in ways that may see the realisation of at least some of the promises of an educational transformation.

Digital systems are increasingly becoming central to the running of contemporary schools. A range of digital tools are also adopted by teachers to facilitate face to face teaching and learning and more recently to accommodate remote schooling. Similarly, digital technologies lie at the heart of how students support their learning but also interact with peers. These digital practices raise questions in relation to teachers’ own critical digital literacies as well as their role in developing students’ critical digital literacies. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study that aimed to develop an understanding of teachers’ current experiences and future needs relating to critical digital literacies within school contexts. Drawing on empirical data collected during focus group interviews with primary and secondary school teachers in Finland, Italy, Spain and the UK this paper looks at teachers’ perceptions of critical digital literacies and explores whether and how these are manifested in their practices. Findings revealed that different dimensions of critical digital literacies were more prevalent for each national group and highlighted the disjuncture between how Critical digital literacies (CDL) is defined and perceived in academic research with a stronger emphasis on the “critical” and between the more “twenty-first century skills” oriented policy agendas and curricula which inform teachers’ practice. The paper goes on to discuss the implications of these findings and identifies gaps in relation to teachers’ understandings of critical digital literacies. Last, it offers original insights for future policymaking, research and practice regarding the challenges of supporting teachers with developing critical digital literacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid‐19 pandemic has brought about the largest disruption to formal education in recent history and has resulted in school closures and the move to online teaching and learning across the globe. Using data from interviews with 25 teachers and head teachers in England and Greece, this paper aims to capture educators’ experiences during emergency remote education (ERE) in spring–summer 2020 and contribute to current and future conversations about the post‐pandemic school. Through a qualitative approach, the paper reports on the often improvised and compromised nature of online schooling during the first pandemic lockdown and presents the opportunities and challenges teachers experienced with the move to emergency remote education. It discusses how didactic modes of teaching prevailed, highlights the importance of parental involvement during ERE and argues that the move to online teaching and learning has accentuated digital inequalities. The findings of this study cast light on the hitherto unexplored area of ERE and offer original insights for future policy making, research and practice on how schools can develop readiness and resilience to face future closures in a post‐pandemic world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how a legacy digital artefact can be adopted within formal education settings and looks at the pedagogical and other opportunities created by its use within three primary and secondary classrooms in the UK. Through a comparative case study, the paper investigates the potential of using a virtual 3D model of the 1938 British Empire Exhibition in formal educational settings and highlights a number of salient issues and challenges. As the data suggests, engagement with the model created opportunities for playful learning, facilitated motivation and collaboration, and enhanced student interest. However, participation was often compromised by technical inhibitors as well as the wider pressures of the curriculum, teacher time and assessment regimes. Last, the paper considers the range of actors and factors that influenced the experiences of teachers and students who engaged with the use of the 3D model and concludes by considering the implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technologies now form an integral feature of the university student experience and there is a range of studies that explore digital technology use within a higher education context. However, very few of these studies focus on how doctoral students engage with digital technologies. This article aims to throw light on the digital practices of doctoral students and advance understandings of the changing nature of digital scholarship for them. Drawing on qualitative, in-depth interviews with 12 PhD students in a UK higher education institution, the article identifies seven distinct types of engagement with digital technologies and discusses the range of issues that underpin doctoral, digital scholarship practices. Furthermore, it argues that although the stereotypical portrayal of the PhD as a “lonely journey” is seen to be in decline, doctoral students at large exist and work “in a vacuum” rather than within interactive doctoral communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The notion of school collaboration has become widely recognised as an effective means of fostering cultural links and supporting communication between geographically separated schools. As shall be acknowledged in this paper, school collaboration follows on from a long history of collaborative initiatives across the past 50 years. However, the introduction of digital technologies and the internet in the 1990s has raised new challenges and created new opportunities for ‘telecollaboration’ whilst the growth of social media over the past five years is seen to have transformed the ways in which online collaboration is experienced by most end users. Based on a review of the existing body of literature, this paper offers a critical overview of current models of web-based collaborative programmes – attempting to map out the complex nature of school collaboration and consider the actors and factors that can shape successful implementation into educational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author discusses the emerging notion of disappointment to Web 2.0 applications by educators and critics as a potential educational technology. She is critical of the "faddish" trends in new technologies in education application as hype, hope, and disappointment which may be repeated to the Web 2.0 tools. The author says that due to the fast rate of education technology development, the potential of an application is never fully realized as the next technology emerges.