Martha Cleveland-Innes, Editor-in-Chief
Welcome to Volume 50, Issue 2, of the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology (CJLT). CJLT is a decades-old peer-reviewed journal that invites English or French submissions on the research and practice of education, technology, and learning. This bilingual journal is free-of-charge to anyone with access to the Internet, is multi-indexed, and is presented in accessible formats. There are no article submission/publication fees or access charges.
The Editorial team completed and released this issue as the calendar changed to 2025. CJLT’s scope covers all things relevant to education and technology use. The current state of Canadian and global education includes demands for change in response to social and economic challenges. According to a well-known GenAI program, the two biggest issues facing education in Canada are accessibility and quality. More distressing is that the Education in Canada Current Issues Report of May 1994 identifies those same two issues as education’s most critical. Despite significant contextual changes, and those in technology and education design, these two things continue to plague us. CJLT provides research addressing this changing education context, the same issues of accessibility and quality, and emerging education theories and practices.
A Book Review of Online by Choice: Design Options for Flexible K-12 Learning by Stephanie Moore and Michael Barbour is presented by Tim Dolighan of the Ontario Tech University, Canada. This excellent volume provides information on two essential areas of design for K-12 blended and online learning. Moore and Barbour draw from sound and practical research-based strategies for K-12 learners to distinguish between emergency remote online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic and appropriately designed online and blended delivery for diverse learners. In addition, they propose that successful online implementation requires collaboration between school administration and classroom teachers. Tim Dolighan identifies the book's usefulness for educators wishing to develop online teaching skills and suggests professional development opportunities in his review.
Each CJLT issue's Notes Section offers a space for applicable reports and discussion of germane current issues. The Notes Section includes non-empirical reviews of current and potential future states of the education field. This issue’s Note, Behaviourist-Constructivist Pedagogical Design Possibilities Within the Community of Inquiry Framework/Possibilités de conception pédagogique behavioriste-constructiviste dans le cadre de la communauté d'enquête, is presented by Sheriya Sareen and Sayantan Mandal of the Indian Institute of Technology Jammu, India. Sareen and Mandal consider the issue of pedagogical design from a behaviourist-constructivist lens, in reference to the community of inquiry. The authors offer this paper to spark discussion about the “impact of missing out on behaviourist designs on the CoI framework through the problem of epistemological untenability and that of assumed learning.” CJLT invites future discussion and empirical study that considers both the theoretical foundations and practical implementation of the community of inquiry framework, across disciplines and cultures.
Four peer-reviewed research articles make up the remainder of this issue. True to the current context, robot use in K-12 education is studied in the first two articles. The line between AI and robotics is still blurred, as we determine where one begins and ends, and what constitutes the overlap. Higher education and technology implementation links the other two articles. One informs university teachers about technology and formative assessment while the other evaluates a study-tracking application and the impact on student procrastination.
Article one, Formation initiale des enseignants : explorer le potentiel d’un robot de téléprésence/Preservice Teacher Training: Exploring the Potential of a Telepresence Robot, was created by a team of researchers from the Université de Moncton, Canada: Marc Basque, Xavier Robichaud, Robert Levesque, Lyne Chantal Boudreau, Mathieu Lang, and Viktor Freiman. According to Merriam-Webster, a telepresence robot is the label given to “technology that enables a person to perform actions in a distant or virtual location as if physically present.” According to Basque et al., teacher training experiences in the field were unavailable during the Covid-19 pandemic. As one remedy, 17 preservice teachers were able to practice teaching in local schools using a telepresence robot. The findings indicate that the preservice teachers could interact with the students and acquire pedagogical knowledge related to teaching. The reviewers and the CJLT Editorial team believe this kind of study contributes to our continuing quest for enhanced education quality through teacher training innovation and access to highly qualified teachers.
The Effects of Robotic Coding on Computational Thinking Skills of Secondary School Students/Effets du codage robotique sur les capacités de réflexion informatique des élèves de l'enseignement secondaire is written by Serhat Altıok and Memet Üçgül of Kırıkkale University, Turkey. Robotic coding activities refer to a much different set of learning activities and a much different type of equipment — but still fall under the lexicon of robotics in education. Altıok and Üçgül suggest that robotic coding activities among secondary school students could impact the self-efficacy needed for computational thinking skills. Lego Mindstorms EV3 Education Robots supported a total of 20 hours of coding. Serhat Altıok and Memet Üçgül used a quasi-experimental design and quantitative statistical analysis which identified “a significant increase in students’ self-efficacy perceptions of computational thinking skills.” This important research report includes directions for replication and further research.
Technology applications continue to support higher education student performance and instructional activities. Maya Murad and K.C. Collins of Carleton University in Canada are scholars of Information Technology. StudyTracker Self-Tracking App and its Relationship to University Student Procrastination/L'application d’autosuivi StudyTracker et sa relation avec la procrastination des personnes étudiantes universitaires is a quasi-experimental appraisal of procrastination and study habit tracking. A self-tracking digital app, created by the authors, provided feedback to the students in the form of text and charts. Maya Murad and K.C. Collins outline student interpretation of study tracking feedback and its impact on procrastination habits across the experimental and control groups.
A technology application in support of a different kind of feedback is the subject of the fourth article, Technological Tool for Formative Assessment in Higher Education: ZipGrade/Outil technologique pour l'évaluation formative dans l'enseignement supérieur : ZipGrade. Authors Bani Arora and Abdulghani Al-Hattami, University of Bahrain, offer descriptive results based the digital assessment tool, ZipGrade. Undergraduate education students are offered immediate formative feedback on quiz responses. Students describe their reports as positive based on ease of use, immediate feedback, and increased engagement. Bani Arora and Abdulghani Al-Hattami outline the benefits and challenges of this student assessment tool, suggest ways to overcome barriers, and give directions for future research.
We invite you to continue to support CJLT by submitting articles, providing reviews, and citing the research we rigorously evaluate and carefully publish. We continue to focus on education technology trends and beyond, to ensure that quality and accessibility continue to get space in CJLT. The UNESCO International Day of Education 2025 meeting is focused on "Artificial Intelligence and Education: Challenges and Opportunities." It will take place in New York this month. Along with the many predictions for education change in 2025, this UNESCO meeting will examine new and enduring AI applications along with the human experience of teaching and learning. These topics align well with CJLT’s focus on the research and practice of education, technology, and learning.