Student well-being is important for inclusive societies and academic achievement. As studies have shown, well-being is associated with school success. Today, it’s common for schools to use different technologies to collect and analyse digital data with the purpose of improving educational outcomes. Generally, this collected data focus on student engagement, attendance, and results, with novel advancements being aimed at supporting student well-being. In this pilot study, we analyse teachers’ experiences to identify benefits and challenges during a spearhead integration of a data-driven tool for examining student well-being in upper secondary school. Using thematic analysis of teacher interview transcripts, we identified four themes: insight diversity, caring pedagogies, teacher leadership tools, and faculty transformation. The themes are discussed using the theoretical perspectives of orchestration, practice, process, and actors. Key results show that some high-value benefits teachers report on are gaining insights, saving time, and informing decision-making. The challenges include a lack of systematisation, guidance, and resources, and tensions related to defining the role and responsibilities of a teacher or mentor. We conclude that schools that work to support student well-being can benefit from the diversity of insights and practices related to the presented tool. However, an informed and systematic approach would be needed to leverage the benefit of spearhead integration. The contribution of the study is to provide insights on how a well-being tool can be used in an educational context to bring understanding of student well-being to teachers. Our results may inform decisions and guide integration and implementation practices in schools.

The “Real Classroom Lab” (RCL) is an innovative initiative for building teachers’ digital competence by inviting companies to try out new educational technologies together with real teachers and students in authentic classroom settings. The project was carried out in Sweden over the past two years and enrolled three schools in the same municipality, from primary to upper secondary school, with a focus on STEM learning. As the project is coming to an end, the purpose of this paper is to provide a researcher’s perspective from participating in an on-going evaluation of the full project (Sep. 2017 – Sep. 2019). The overarching challenge has been to develop a systematic approach, or method, for effective collaboration between schools, the edtech industry and the academy (which provided scientific support). The common objective was to create a meeting ground that facilitates knowledge exchange of innovative ICT solutions and how they work with the target users (teachers and students) that ultimately lead to increased digital competence among teachers, and better results in STEM subjects for students on all levels. The schools enrolled in the RCL project opened up as test beds for a variety of companies and products, ranging from AI-based software in math to activity bracelets and microbit computing. The present paper focuses on issues, lessons learned and experiences that can be brought together by some encompassing  research questions, such as: How is “digital competence” captured and developed by the project? What knowledge needs are made visible as teachers try out new technologies in practice? How can we measure learning from the project activities, such as by pilot studies and test protocols? What is the value of a scientifically based approach and how does research contribute to answering these questions for all parties concerned? Focusing on the last question, this is the first time the results of the RCL project are communicated to a wider community in education.

This paper describes the background and discussion points to a poster presentation, which aims to highlight and scrutinize good examples of educational software. The exploration of this question – in the exact formulation "What are good examples of educational software?" – dates back to 2015, when the author posted it for open discussion on ResearchGate, a social network for researchers. At the time of writing, this question has more than 6.800 reads and received 27 responses containing lists, examples, links, recommendations and motivations for 40 (types of) named software, from professional researchers and educators in the field. An attendant aim is to bring these suggestions into an overview that can tell something more precise about what makes for "good" educational software, taking into account both the research literature and the respondents’ motivations. For this purpose, the examples were categorized by their main instructional function as suggested in previous literature, and further assessed by applying my recently introduced concept of Integral Digital Values (IDV). The result is a concretization of how we can recognize the implementation of relevant cognitive and pedagogical principles in well-designed educational software. Some identified aspects were how the software made use of meaningful representations, effective feedback, adaptivity and novel social configurations. More complex software systems were suggested as "good examples" with reference to their use of AI-techniques, conceptual modelling and/or learning analytics. These non-conclusive results serve to inform the on-going work of formulating scientifically grounded criteria for identifying and assessing key features of educational technologies, such as the reviewed software. In order to pursuing this discussion further, a number of resulting questions are suggested.

This paper discusses teachers' critical knowledge needs for assessing the pedagogical potential of educational apps and similar software. A central point is that such software often have clearly identifiable features and functions that either support or hinder learning, depending on how they are implemented in the digital medium. Because these types of features, such as multimodality or automated feedback, are unique to digital technologies (they do not appear in traditional or "analogue" education material such as textbooks) I refer to them as the "Integral Digital Values" (IDV). Here, different IDV are discussed and sorted under three main headings: (i) Representation - how the software deals with representing the learning content in different modalities (i.e. what the student can see on screen in terms of visual, verbal, auditory information), (ii) Interactivity - how the student-software interaction works in terms of generating meaningful actions and feedback (i.e. what the student can or cannot do with the content), and (iii) Social Agency - how the software presents the student's social position by enabling and promoting different roles or approaches to the learning tasks (e.g. by using digital characters in different student/peer/mentor roles). Authentic examples of using different software applications in the classroom illustrate how an understanding of IDV can help identifying both pedagogical benefits and pitfalls in the design of educational software. Future research may address the role of IDV for existing evaluation rubrics and its incorporation into related theoretical frameworks, such as teachers’ TPACK.

If AI systems are to be used for truly human decision-making in education, teachers will need better support for deciding upon educational interventions and strategies on an ethically informed basis. As indicated by a recent call by the AIED Society to focus on the FATE (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics) of AI in education, fundamental issues in this area remain to be explicated, and teachers’ perspectives need to be accounted for. The paper offers examples of how AI may serve to promote learning but at the cost of presenting limited or untruthful information to the student. For example, false information about a student’s current progress may motivate students to finish a task they would otherwise give up; hiding information from the student that is disclosed to the teacher may decrease students’ cognitive load while supporting the teacher’s strategic choices, and deceiving the student as to the actual nature of the task or interaction, such as when using virtual agents, can increase students’ efforts towards learning. Potential conflicts between such scenarios and basic values of FATE are discussed, and the basis for developing an “augmented ethics” system to support teachers’ decision-making is presented. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Learning from visual and social media makes a complex area of study and a vital part of understanding the development of 21st century skills. The Active Video Watching (AVW) platform was developed in order to scaffold students’ active learning of soft skills from videos, by encouraging users to engage with the content (e.g. marking important aspects and writing comments). Previous studies of AVW used learning analytics to identify student comments which can be used in “intelligent nudges” for triggering reflection among others who watch the same video. Here, we describe the methodology and reasoning for conducting a qualitative thematic analysis of such comments, with respect to learning presentation skills. Our aim is to uncover additional learning opportunities from the data and how they might be explained within a broader theoretical framework of observational learning. As a basis for discussion, we present a preliminary thematic map of the results and how students’ remarks on good/bad examples in the videos relate to the types of knowledge they gain from it. We suggest several resulting topics for future study. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018

Hur kan vi på ett effektivt och engagerande sätt använda visualisering för elever som ska lära sig nya begrepp och ett helt nytt språk? Vi ställde frågan mot bakgrund av forskning som visat att man lär sig språk bättre i konkreta och autentiska sammanhang. Med Virtual Reality eller virtuell verklighet (VR) kan man gestalta miljöer som är mer verklighetsliknande än tryckta läromedel och böcker. Dessutom kan VR-tekniken hjälpa eleverna med att rikta fokus mot just det de behöver lära sig och i miljöer som inte finns omedelbart tillgängliga i klassrummet. Här utvärderar vi hur VR-teknik användes i flera undervisningssituationer, med fokus på språkundervisningen för nyanlända elever med mycket basala kunskaper i svenska. Att träna ord i VR erbjöd nya möjligheter att engagera eleverna genom att de själva producerade arbetsmaterial och medverkade i virtuella rundturer. Resultatmässigt gjorde detta störst skillnad för elever som föredrog att arbeta med VR framför traditionella läromedel. Sist i rapporten följer en begreppsordlista som förklarar tekniska uttryck om VR i undervisningen. 

The aim of this project is to examine the educational dimensions of esport as part of the course syllabi in secondary education. An increasing number of schools on the upper secondary level (in Sweden: gymnasium) are offering three-year programs with an “esport profile” within aesthetics and media. School marketing suggests that esport can work as a bait for potential students who are interested in playing computer games, but the scholastic values of computer gaming remain to be clarified. Whereas “gamification” is an established term for transforming educational (and other formal) practices into game-like activities, little has been said about its counterpart “schoolification”: how originally playful and informal practices are transformed to fit within school curricula and syllabi for achieving academic goals. A number of unanswered questions follow. For example, teachers have observed that students in the esport program are less motivated in schoolwork but are highly motivated gamers. Is this a question of what students learn, or how they learn? How do the students themselves perceive esport performance in relation to academic performance? What are their driving factors and can motivation in one domain transfer to another? How do students perceive fear of failure, gains of winning, competition and success, across esport and traditional school topics? Here, we address the challenges and procedures of setting up a practice-based research program where the practitioners (i.e. students, teachers, an esport coach and school leaders) collaborate with researchers in investigating the relationship between computer gaming and traditional teaching-and-learning activities in the classroom.

We aimed to develop and practice an inclusive and democratic pedagogy for involving preschool teacher students in the design of play-&-learn apps that meet the educational objectives of the Swedish preschool curriculum. Previous research has highlighted that many alleged “educational apps” fail to meet basic criteria for promoting children’s learning (Ginsburg, Jamalian & Creighan, 2013; Hirsh-Pasek et al, 2015). Recent reviews suggest that common apps treat children as passive recipients of information (Tärning, 2018), whereas evidence from learning science (e.g. National Academy of Sciences, 2018) show that children’s active learning is promoted by their own efforts, control and exploration. From a sociocultural perspective on the performative nature of learning (Säljö, 2010) we employed the Double Diamond design process model (British Design Council, 2005) for organizing and conducting a researcher-led workshop for facilitating mutual exchange between students and professional app designers. Our approach combined perspectives on situated learning and joint participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) in which the three parties effectively formed a “community of practice” over one day. Students were introduced to the Double Diamond model, then worked in groups for developing prototypes for play-&-learn apps starring a popular children’s book figure. A consent form and information sheet was provided to the participating students, whose prototypes became the objects of analysis. The results provided concrete and visible examples of what preschool teacher students considered important for children’s learning activities with digital tools. This has important implications for developing students’ and teachers’ acquisition competence and for novel educational interventions.

We aimed to investigate how young children's interactions with computer tablets (iPads) in preschool may constrain or scaffold collaborative and individualistic behaviour. Drawing from a contextual perspective on play (Edwards, 2013), our study combined perspectives on joint participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991, Wenger, 1998) and content analysis of apps based on learning science (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2015) in order to analyse how certain app characteristics (e.g. 'playful' vs 'learning' apps, apps supporting 'social interaction' vs 'minds-on activity') related to children's peer interactions. In our view, apps differ from other tools and toys primarily by providing 'pre-packaged activities', such as mathematical tasks, puzzle-solving or rule-based games, which constrain and direct meaningful actions through interactive functions and feedback. Two Swedish preschools (35 children, 3- 5 years old) participated. We openly filmed children's tablet use during free play sessions, totalling 19h of film. Ethical standards were assured through written informed consent by parents and personnel, and oral consent from participating children. Preliminary results indicate that children's activities were constrained and influenced not only by the use of tablets generally, but specifically by different types of apps. For example, apps with 'creative' learning goals, such as Gangnam Style, afforded collaboration, whereas more performance- oriented apps such as Hungry Fish afforded individualistic play and struggles for ownership of the tablet. Our results have important implications for how 'play time' with tablets is assigned in preschool and call for greater attention to varieties in app content for how children engage in social and cognitive activities.

In this paper we present Concept-Based Modeling (CBM), an innovative pedagogical method for problem-solving in engineering education, which combines analogue and digital tools. We outline the scientific rationale for CBM and discuss how it compares to traditional teaching with respect to optimizing the pedagogical value of both analogue and digital means. CBM is based on conceptual modeling of quantities derived directly from first principles and streamlined for the use of computer algebra systems (CAS). The method was evaluated in a pilot survey in a statics course for engineering students in their freshman year at Halmstad University. We conclude that CBM improves students’ problem-solving skills by the reciprocal action between conceptual understanding and modeling of a problem. Student evaluations suggest that CBM enables students to handle more realistic problems and that CAS as a professional tool prepares them for their future working life. Future studies will address CBM for more advanced courses, as the students’ knowledge develops over time. © 2022 The Authors. 

Learning in educational games is often associated with some form of competition. We investigated how students responded to winning or losing in an educational math game, with respect to playing with or without a Teachable Agent (TA). Students could choose between game modes in which the TA took a more passive or active role, or let the TA play a game entirely on its own. Based on the data logs from 3983 games played by 163 students (age 10–11), we analyzed data on students’ persistence, challenge-seeking and performance during gameplay. Results indicated that students showed greater persistence when playing together with the TA, by more often repeating a lost game with the TA, than a lost game after playing alone. Students’ challenge-seeking, by increasing the difficulty level, was greater following a win than following a loss, especially after the TA won on its own. Students’ gameplay performance was unaffected by their TA winning or losing but was, unexpectedly, slightly worse following a win by the student alone. We conclude that engaging a TA can make students respond more productively to both winning and losing, depending on the particular role the TA takes in the game. These results may inform more specific hypotheses as to the differential effects of competing and collaborating in novel, AI-supported social constellations, such as with TAs, on students’ motivation and ego-involvement in educational games. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017.

Hur kan datorspel bidra till att undervisa på nya sätt, som gör lärandet roligare och mer engagerande? I detta projekt ville vi undersöka hur klassrumsundervisningen kan ”spelifieras” – det vill säga, hur lärare kan använda sig av spelelement och konstruktioner från populära datorspel för att omforma traditionella skoluppgifter – med hjälp av ett digitalt verktyg. Speciellt var vi intresserade av hur spelifieringen av ett arbetsområde påverkade elevernas engagemang och kunskapsresultat, jämfört med mer traditionell undervisning i samma ämne. Ett unikt bidrag är att vi kunde följa upp vad elever och lärare i en klass fått med sig av den spelifierade undervisningen under två år. 

Praktiskt taget hundra procent av alla svenska ungdomar idag använder YouTube – en gigantisk källa till filmmaterial och kunskap som potentiellt skulle kunna användas mycket mer i skolan. Men lärande kräver aktiv bearbetning och att bara se på film är något i grunden passivt. Hur kan filmtittande göras till ett mer engagerande och meningsfullt inslag i undervisningen? I projektet Aktivt lärande genom film har vi undersökt hur filmtittande kan göras mer lärorikt med hjälp av det webbaserade verktyget Active Video Watching (AVW), som engagerar eleven att aktivt kommentera och bedöma innehållet i filmerna. I en unik fallstudie – den första av sitt slag i Sverige – har vi följt läraren från plane- ring till genomförande och utvärdering av ett helt undervisningsmoment med AVW. Därigenom fick läraren detaljerade översikter bland annat av vad eleverna tyckte var svårt, intressant eller otydligt. Elever som använde AVW lärde sig mer och läraren kunde anpassa sin undervisning på sätt som inte var möjliga i den vanliga klassrumsundervisningen.

The role of computer games in school is a controversial topic.An increasing number of upper secondaryschools offer three-year programs with an “esport profile” within aesthetics and media. Marketingsuggests that esport can attract students who are interested inplaying computer games, but the scholasticvalue of esport remains to be clarified. Whereas “gamification”is an established term for transformingeducational and other formal practices into game-like activities, little has been saidabout its counterpart“schoolification”: how originally playful and informal practices are transformed to fit within schoolcurricula and syllabi for achieving academic goals. We discussthe relevance of esport in secondaryeducation, a working hypothesis isthat the potential benefitsof esport in academic learning is moreabouthowstudents learn thanwhatthey learn. Specifically, we present and discuss and propose howself-regulated learning (SRL) asa framework can facilitate skills transfer from esport to academiclearning. Using examples from multiplayer games, we elaborate on how co-regulation through socialinteraction can be used as a means for developing SRL. We conclude by suggesting how esport andeducational researchers may usethe SRL framework to address empirical questions about esport inrelation to academic studies.

This study explored the effects of adding visual continuous feedback in the form of feedback bars to a teachable-agent based learning game in mathematics. Forty-five (45) children, 8- to 12-years-old, from three Swedish school classes used the game during four math lessons. The focus was on how feedback to the students regarding their teachable agents learning progression – and different detailedness of such feedback – affects how the students (in a teacher role) experience the learning game. The results suggest that students were positive towards receiving immediate and continuous feedback, but their preferences with respect to the detailedness of the feedback differed according to their age. We found a divergence as to the preferred number of bars, where the 3^rd and 5^th graders preferred 1 or 3 bars but where the 2^nd graders preferred the more detailed version (6 bars) despite their lack of understanding of what the different bars represented.