The guest editors and the ASLERD Association are proud to invite and welcome contributions from researchers and practitioners that foster the development of smart learning ecosystems and smart education to help learning places to recover their central role in the education of future citizens, and in the promotion of social innovation and territorial development. We welcome contributions from people that fight to reify the above vision and to achieve a better learning for a better world as a contribution to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is a particularly pertinent moment of uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic that still prevails with an enormous, still unmeasurable impact, on learning ecosystems. Papers that report on work that nurtures a post-pandemic view and strategy for a better learning world are specially welcome. This special issue is supported by the Association for Smart Learning Ecosystems and Regional Development (ASLERD) and welcome the submission of substantially extended version of the papers presented at SLERD 2020. Topics of interests can be grouped under three big themes: places for smart education, people in place centered design for smart education, supportive learning technologies and tools for smart education. All of which, can also include studies in the context of this Covid-19 pandemic period.
Places for smart education – future of institutional learning; interplay between formal and informal learning; new educational models and settings; continuity-discontinuity of time, technology, place/space, process in learning; role of and case studies of games and gamification in smart education; dual education and other alternate scheme approaches; monitoring and benchmarking of smartness (individual, institution, city, region).
People in place centered design for smart education – general frameworks and methodological advancement; design, data and other relevant literacies; literacies, skill and competences of smart citizens; communities and co-design in smart learning; sharing & participatory practices; open access to any resource and disparity; cultural influences.
Supportive technologies and tools for smart education – intelligent tutoring systems and interfaces; semantic web technologies and applications; text/opinion mining and sentiment analysis; real/virtual communities and social network analysis; interoperability and application of open/smart data and services; safety & security in education; IoT, ubiquitous and wearable technologies; adaptability to educational contexts and citizens; role of VR in education.