[Air-l] CfP: NRHM Special Issue on Studying the Users of Digital Education Technologies: Theories, Methods, and Analytical Approaches

[Cunliffe D J (AT)]

Call for Papers: New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia Special Issue
on Studying the Users of Digital Education Technologies: Theories,
Methods, and Analytical Approaches

Guest editor: Michael Khoo

National Science Digital Library, University Corporation for Atmospheric
Research, Boulder, Colorado, United States: mjkhoo at ucar.edu

Submission deadline: 16 May 2007
Acceptance notification: 2 July 2007
Final manuscripts due: 20 August 2007

Digital technologies are increasingly integral components of educational
settings and Digital Libraries, serving for instance as repositories, as
scaffolds to enhance face-to-face pedagogy, and as distance-learning
tools. How might we understand the impact of these technologies on
knowledge and learning, and what lessons might be learnt from their use,
that could be applied to future technologies? Addressing these research
questions requires recognition of the highly complex character of
digital education technologies: they vary in size from handheld PDAs to
large distributed digital library projects; they are used in a range of
formal and informal educational settings ranging from schools and
universities to hospitals, clinics, museums and art galleries; and they
serve learners of all ages. How may researchers approach this
heterogeneity and work towards useful research outcomes?

This special issue of NRHM addresses issues associated with the
qualitative understanding of the use of digital educational technologies
in real-life contexts (with a focus on digital libraries, broadly
conceived), by emphasizing the importance of contextual sociotechnical
studies of technology use and design. The issue will consider
educational technologies as complex mixtures of people, practices and
technologies, embedded in a range of institutional, technological and
social contexts. The editor therefore invites contributions that address
the qualitative and sociotechnical study of digital educational
technologies and users 'in the wild.' Relevant topics include, but are
not limited to:

-     Theoretical approaches
        Ethnographic, anthropological, sociological, sociotechnical,
activity theory, practice-based, and other approaches to the analysis of
digital educational technologies

-     Methodological approaches
        Ethnography
        HCI, user testing, scenarios, interviews, focus groups, etc.
        Discourse analysis
        Webmetrics and use models
        Etc.

-     Applications to particular domains
        Science education
        Medical
        Digital Libraries 
        User groups and use-in-context
        Etc.

-     Applied approaches
        Case studies
        Qualitative research and project evaluation strategies
        Communicating qualitative research results to digital library
developers and sponsors
        Etc.

The New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia (NRHM) is published by
Taylor & Francis and appears in both print and digital formats. For more
details and indicative topics, see the journal website:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/13614568.asp

Submissions should be sent by email to the guest editor, preferably in
pdf format. Questions and enquiries concerning this call should be
directed to the guest editor. Open topic papers meeting NRHM's scope in
general are also welcome (send to Editor, dstudhope at glam.ac.uk).