Emerging technologies present new possibilities for schools, but also present ethical issues for designers. Ethical issues arising from the design, accessibility, adoption, and implementation of emerging technologies in schools are intertwined with existing power dynamics, hierarchies, and decision-making norms that perpetuate entrenched…

The abrupt emergence and rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, transitioning from research labs to potentially all aspects of social life, has brought a profound impact on education, science, arts, journalism, and every facet of human life and communication. The purpose of this paper is to recapitulate the use…

Over the past decade, geospatial technologies have emerged as a tool for developing spatial reasoning and cognitive processes. While the foundational Learning to Think Spatially report from the National Research Center (2006) launched research into the use of geospatial technologies in isolation, more recently, cloud-based simulation software have…

Online discussions tend to be more effective when they are purposefully structured. In this article, we describe how the design of a photo-based protocol influenced community interactions within an online discussion in an undergraduate course. Students were asked to take and share a photo related to a course concept, respond to a peer's photo, and…

As more higher education institutions in the United States look not only to be designated as Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) but to serve their student population in languages other than English, learning designers who are native speakers or have fluency in languages other than English are utilizing their language and cultural competencies to…

This article reflects on the transformative nature of generative AI (GenAI) tools for teaching and teacher education, both reflecting on current innovation and consider future potentials and challenges. In that sense, we aim to position the field of education going forward with the implications of new technologies like GenAI for education…

There has been a great deal written about ChatGPT since its launch in late 2022. Many news stories specifically address the impact of ChatGPT on education. However, there has been little research showing what K-12 teachers are thinking about and doing with ChatGPT. This research article helps to fill that gap. A survey of Missouri teachers was…

Various theories and models discuss how instructional designers can develop systems that allow learners to engage in problem-solving. To date, many of these theories and models that guide design often describe how learners engage in meaning-making within a situated context; however, they do not address strategies instructional designers can use to…

The adoption by the African Union of its Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection in 2014 represented a step forward to protect personal data and to ensure that data remain private and secure. This is especially important for students, who often have no autonomy in the educational technology they use. Students cannot choose why…

The Peer Assessment Collaboration Evaluation (PACE) Tool is an original peer assessment tool designed and developed by the authors to address the prevalence of social loafing in group projects in online learning environments. Online group projects offer students collaborative opportunities to engage in critical thinking and problem-solving.…

Videos have been used in education for a long time. World War II ushered in a strong need for large scale training and instructional videos became the solution. Even after the war, using videos in education became normal practice. As with all technology use, there were problems and questions about their use in education which influenced…

One hundred years ago, Paul Weiss and Ludwig von Bertalanffy independently proposed that living organisms interact with their environment through systems. In the century that has followed, systems thinking and modeling have grown in tandem with discovery of the vast complexity of the universe at microscopic through astronomic levels. As our…

The history of the learning design and technology field for the length of the twentieth century is well documented, however, events after the year 2000, even our lived histories, are missing from important timelines and discussions. This article is an attempt to describe the history of events in the educational technology and research field from…

Primary sources are the foundations of historical research because they are artifacts representing first-hand accounts or connections to the event, time, or place being investigated. The reality is that many IDT researchers do not have training in historical source analysis, nor do many researchers know where to find primary sources in the field…

A name for the field of instructional technology has long been debated. Terms such as learning design, educational technology, instructional systems design and learning systems have been used to describe the field over the past 100 years. With an exploration of the history of the field, this article rebrands the field as Knowledge Systems Design…