Trends and Issues of Promoting Digital Learning in High-Digital-Competitiveness Countries: Country Reports and International Comparison

With the rise of digital technologies, digital learning (DL) has created new opportunities and challenges for traditional education. This book aims to: (1) strengthen the mutual understanding and connection between Taiwan and other countries with high digital competitiveness in promoting DL in primary and secondary schools, so as to facilitate the development of each country's DL promotion projects; and (2) provide opportunities for countries with high digital competitiveness to share their experience of promoting DL, so as to facilitate international reference and common prosperity. In this book, DL refers to the learning that is facilitated by digital technologies, and gives learners some control over time, place, path, and/or pace in an effective way, combining different elements such as blended or virtual learning. DL requires a combination of digital technology, digital content, and instruction. High-digital-competitiveness countries refer to the top 21 (or the first one third) countries listed in the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2022, which placed Taiwan 11th out of 63 major countries and economies in the world. The two editors-in-chief of this book developed manuscript guidelines, including comparison components, for each country report. They then invited 11 countries among the top 21 mentioned above to share their experience of promoting DL. After all country reports were received, reviewed, and necessary revisions were made, the two editors-in-chief and a doctoral student made a cross-country comparison. As a result, this book contains 12 chapters, including 11 country-specific reports and one chapter of cross-country comparison. The 11 countries are Australia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Israel, Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Twenty-six authors of the 12 chapters are listed in this book. [This book was published by Technological and Vocational Education Research Center (TVERC), National Taiwan Normal University, and K-12 Education Administration (K12EA), Ministry of Education, Taiwan.]