New and Emerging Technologies for STEAM Teaching and Learning

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Background

The advent of new and emerging technologies and industries has highlighted the need to equip youth with a new skills set necessary for coping with the needs of a rapidly changing and complex digital era and for adapting to the demands of modern societies. This need has led to a paradigm shift from traditional educational philosophy towards innovative teaching approaches aimed at equipping students with creative and innovative skills and at preventing any possible future skills gap. This shift has fuelled the growth of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) Education; the term STEAM was coined by Yakman in 2008. She promoted the integration of each discipline into the standards of the other disciplines. Thus STEAM* is a truly integrated approach. For this issue, the focus is on this interdisciplinary approach to learning and skills development that transcends throughout cognitive fields and focuses on addressing authentic, real-world problems by means of the complex use of technological tools.

Current and emerging technologies can drive necessary and inevitable change throughout the educational landscape, leading to redefinition and reshaping of teaching and learning in accordance with the principles underlying the interdisciplinary STEAM approach, especially through the design of interactive, collaborative, and inquiry-based learning environments.

A continuously growing body of educational research literature indicates that mere use of technological tools cannot, in and of itself, directly change teaching or learning. Successful integration of technology in STEAM education, requires reconstruction of school curricula and methods of teaching, learning, and assessment to more closely align with the affordances of new technologies and with STEAM pedagogy. STEAM education should exploit the capabilities and possibilities of modern technologies to create high quality learning experiences that foster students' innovation, creativity, communication and collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

In order for STEAM education to effectively utilize the vast capabilities of new and emerging technologies, there is an urgent need for scholarly publications investigating these emerging technologies' infiltration into STEAM teaching and learning. This Research Topic aims to identify and publish international best practices in the design, development, and educational use of new and emerging technologies in support of students' STEAM learning processes and outcomes.

This article collection welcomes incisive contributions from scholars worldwide on the affordances and challenges surrounding the design and implementation of new and emerging technologies in a variety of STEAM learning contexts and domains: formal (K-12, higher education, continuing education), informal, and non-formal (vocational education, work-based learning, professional learning, etc.), open and distance education. Key themes of interest include, but are not restricted to, the following:

• Contemporary and emerging applications of ICT in STEAM education: Interactive e-books; Games and simulations; Educational Robotics; Dynamic visual representations; Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality; Social Media/Networking; 3D design and 3D printing; Mobile apps; Ubiquitous Computing; Artificial intelligence and learning analytics
• Pedagogical models and instructional approaches underlying the interdisciplinary STEAM approach (e.g. inquiry-based learning, collaborative learning, game-based learning, outdoor learning, situated learning, non-formal learning, play-based learning, learning in cultural sites) and the role of new and emerging technologies
• STEAM curriculum design for the integration of new and emerging technologies
• ICT-enhanced STEAM learning for all: Equity, accessibility, and diversity; personalized and adaptive learning; differentiated learning; Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in STEAM education
• Technology-supported assessment of STEAM learning (e.g. real-time student monitoring and assessment, use of learning analytics, etc.)
• Teacher Professional Development/Learning in ICT-Enhanced STEAM Education.

The articles should report on original empirical studies, which will demonstrate validated practical experiences related to ICT-enhanced STEAM teaching and learning. The Research Topic will also include conceptual essays contributing to future research and theory-building by presenting reflective or theoretical analyses, epistemological studies, integrative and critical literature reviews, or forecasting of emerging learning technologies and tendencies.

*STEAM is used as a summary acronym only, to summarise an interdisciplinary approach, and is not in any way connected to Yakman’s STEAM Education's techniques or materials, which are all copyrighted.

Keywords: emerging technologies, stem/steam education, technology-enhanced learning, creativity, innovation, critical thinking

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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