Call for Chapters: Synergic Integration of Formal and Informal E-Learning Environments for Adult Lifelong Learners

The diffusing lifelong learning vision, emerging practices with social semantic computing technologies and research findings signal the need for more personal, social and participatory approaches that support learners in becoming active users and co-producers of learning resources, rather in gaining control over the learning process as a whole, and in pursuing personal life goals and needs. In particular, there is an increasing understanding that learning occurs for the most part outside the traditional formal situations, especially for adult lifelong learners. 

Emphasis on the shift from formal to informal eLearning through knowledge management and sharing has been placed, with particular attention to Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) as learner-centred spaces, against Learning Management Systems (LMSs) as organisation-centred platforms that neglect individual differences and potential. The dichotomy LMS vs PLE has been transformed into models of integration of the two in some research literature. However, the smooth integration of formal and informal learning environments for adult lifelong learners, on the background of a student-centred framework, requires an attentive design of the underlying technological architecture. Indeed, this change in perspective towards student-centred technology-enhanced learning environments has brought about a rethinking of knowledge, knowledge management, teaching and learning, networks and the individual. Information overload, diversity and distribution highlight the necessity for content and infrastructure applications to interoperate and exchange data in order to better support lifelong learners’ and educators’ needs. Personalisation, trustworthiness and assessment on the collection of resources are actual research issues. 

In relation to personalisation of learning, LMSs, the formal learning component of the integrated environment, are weak. Educational and psychological theories argue that learners have different ways in which they prefer to learn, and that students with a strong preference for a specific learning style may have difficulties in learning if the teaching approach mismatches it. On this basis, models for the detection of learners’ learning styles need to be evaluated, and adaptive educational systems that could be integrated in a LMS need to be investigated. 

Finally, trustworthiness and assessment on the collection of resources call for a thorough analysis of suitable Social Semantic Web tools to be adopted within the integrated learning environment.

This book will present an edited collection of accounts, issues and case studies written essentially by practitioners in adult education who have firsthand experience of attempting to define, develop, implement or evaluate personalised learning technologies in integrated formal and informal eLearning environments for adult lifelong learners within their practice in a vast range of scenarios. The accounts will describe, from a variety of perspectives, what the practitioner was trying to achieve through the use of such learning spaces and how and why they went about trying to achieve such personalisation exploiting the synergy of the integration of formal and informal eLearning. The accounts will also present reflections on what went well and what authors would do differently as well as providing grounded guidelines. The content will also include institutional and organisational changes and perspectives on the culture and management changes required as a consequence of introducing and implementing environments which are seen as counter institutional.

The book will have three main sections: Technological Issues, Pedagogical Issues and Infrastructural and Cultural Issues. The section on technological issues will present descriptions of the tools and platforms which practitioners are using, outline their strengths and weaknesses and highlight issues that need to be considered when planning to implement integrated formal and informal eLearning environments for adult lifelong learners. The section on pedagogical issues will present descriptions of the different ways in which practitioners have attempted to use integrated learning technologies and give personal examples which illustrate both the potential and drawbacks that the new learning systems provide as a consequence of integration. The third section will bring sections one and two together by considering the major infrastructural, cultural and organisational issues if integrated formal and informal eLearning environments are going to affect any change in the institutional regime. This third section will effectively bring together the pedagogical issues with the technical issues for consideration on an institutional level. It would be expected that chapters had a balance of theory, practice, methods and case studies.

The potential audience of this book will be academics, teachers, tutors, trainers, administrators, resource managers, learning technologists and researchers involved in or within the field of eLearning development, implementation and delivery. 

This book will be of particular value to learning technology practitioners in adult education who wish to inform their own practice. It will present pros and cons of the value of using integrated formal and informal eLearning environments within tertiary education and enable practitioners to make informed decisions about how they might change or expand on their own practice within this area.

Adult education and…

•lifelong learners’ characteristics and learning profiles 

•models for the detection of adult lifelong learners’ learning styles 

•scaffolded self-regulated and personalised learning 

•empowering adult lifelong learners

Integrated formal and informal eLearning environments for adult lifelong learners and…

•implications and challenges of the concept of PLE 

•implications and challenges of the shift from LMS to PLE 

•integration models 

•affordances, implications and challenges of their technological architectures 

•learning standards, metadata and interoperability of web-based educational systems

•adaptive mechanisms for implicit personalisation of learning

•Social Semantic Web tools for personalisation, trustworthiness and assessment on the collection of resources

•web services for knowledge representation, retrieval, creation

•learners' profiles sharing and portable personal profiles

•mobile and ubiquitous learning 

•synchronous learning 

•virtual worlds 

•augmented reality and environmental markers or sensors 

•evaluation 

•assessment 

•organizational and institutional issues

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before November 30, 2012, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by December 15, 2012 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by January 31, 2013. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Submissions website: http://www.elearningplace.it/call-for-chapters/ (please upload Word documents only).

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This book is anticipated to be released in 2013.

November 30, 2012:Proposal Submission Deadline

December 15, 2012:Notification of Acceptance

January 31, 2013:Full Chapter Submission

March 15, 2013:  Review Results Returned

May 15, 2013:Final Chapter Submission

June 15, 2013:Final Deadline