EAIT special issue: Valuing individual and shared learning: The role of ICT

This special issue supports the conference ‘Valuing individual and shared learning: the role of ICT’ held by the Working Group 3.5 Informatics in Elementary Education in June 2008 in Prague, Czech Republic. The Editorial describes the focus and context of the conference. It draws attention to the wide variety of presentations by Czech colleagues, and the findings of two recent studies of policy and initiatives in Informatics education in the Czech Republic. The selected articles are described and represent the range of themes, including a theoretical model of teachers’ digital competence; a national study of the use of interactive whiteboards; a study of interactivity and dialogue with digital technologies in classrooms; dialogue in student teachers’ interactions with pupils in online environments; the use of virtual reality to support awareness of dyslexia; and a theoretical framework for the use of mediascapes in the curriculum.