[AISWorld] CFP: Special Issue of the International Journal of Digital Literacy and Digital COmpetence

[Antonio CARTELLI]

Here follows the description of the call in the subject, for the  
special issue of the IJDLDC on "New literacy and competences for Smart  
City learning".

INTRODUCTION
------------

Although the smart city vision has been elaborated to include within  
the city's capital also the intellectual and social ones, most of the  
smart city's models aim exclusively to optimize the consumption of  
resources and to thin the flows (things, people, data).
Very often the present smart cities' models forget that cities are  
populated by people who act because driven by motivations and  
expectations, desires, needs; individuals who have their own styles  
and do not believe that quality of life can be reduced only to  
optimization of consumption and flows, although it is an important  
issue for the survival of the eco-system. People that also citizens  
that over the centuries, with their creative and productive actions,  
have contributed to the stratification of the cultural DNA that today  
marks the difference between European cities and those that are  
quickly developing in the New Worlds.
It follows, then, that public and private stakeholders have to put  
citizens at the heart of any Smart City project, counterbalancing  
technocratic visions of cold and inhumane cities, and that  
technologies will be able to really transform cities in smart ones  
only when these latter will be populated by "smart citizens", i.e.  
individuals who will feel smart not only because they have learned  
techniques needed to optimize resources' consumption and safeguard the  
city's capital - that is the environment in which they live and  
co-evolve to produce further cultural stratifications - but, rather,  
because, they experience high standard living from all points of view  
(i.e. all experiencial dimensions and personal styles).
For that reason, if the smart cities are to be constructed around  
people that are also citizens, the “cityzentric” condition for the  
inhabitants of the intelligent cities is achieved by playing a  
qualified role in the network of connected individuals, that is  
characterized by the civic engagement, the territorial commitment and  
the will of sharing knowledge of creativity.
Connectivity should not be considered only as a urban commodity but,  
rather, an incredible gift in the hands of individuals and groups that  
is strengthening their power as agents of change and making them fully  
aware of the city challenges and vehicles for spreading knowledge and  
innovation. The “cityzentric” role for active individuals is  
challenging and gets richer as the citizen itself act, learn and share  
with others.
Who assumes the responsibility for the education of “smart citizens?

Unfortunately, in the current smart city's models education is not  
seen as an enabling factor that can affect all aspects of the quality  
of life, but rather as an infrastructure delivering services:  
benchmarks, in fact, includes only density of schools, services that  
can be provided through the "wide-band", number of students per  
inhabitant, the ability to produce the "skills" needed to sustain the  
functioning of the system ... and so on.
Within a more human-centered vision - and, therefore, the  
consideration of more human centered city's experiences - horizontal  
to all themes relevant to a smart city, education should be considered  
as a pillar of future city smartness and thus it urges to reflect on:

• how the way of learning has changed, is changing and will change  
because of the smart city, and in particular what are the literacy and  
competences people need to learn and to live in a smart city  
environment;
• what places, or more generally environments, have to be designed and  
developed to answer the education request by citizens in smart cities;
• which transformation will undergone the learning places and, thus,  
which skills, abilities and competences the educators must have to  
support the education of future smart citizens;
• which “digital” competencies and skills will characterize the status  
of “smart citizens” and how to support their continuous acquisition,  
the integration of those learned in other formal, informal and  
non-formal contexts within specific urban areas and local situations ;
• how should change skills and competences of those who have to manage  
smart cities and smart citizens;
• How to integrate skills’ sets and strengthen the cultural profiles  
of individuals through active partnerships among institutions;
• and last but not least, how all this may depend on the  
characteristics of the environment and how much room there will be for  
personalization.

To these and related themes is devoted the special issue of IJDLDC  
that will be published on April 2013.

The special issue of IJDLDC follows the first workshop on "Smart City  
Learning" held in September 2012 in Sinaia (Romania) and represents a  
parallel, complementary and more focused reflection on literacy and  
competences, with respect to that proposed by the workshop "Horizon  
2020: smart city learning" which will be held January 28 to 30, 2013  
in Villard-de-Lans, Vercors.
http://www.mifav.uniroma2.it/inevent/events/scl13/index.php?s=156

Guest editors
-------------
Antonio Cartelli        cartan at unicas.it
Pablo Sanchez Chillon
Carlo Giovannella       mifav at roma2.infn.it
Antonella Nuzzaci       a_nuzzaci at hotmail.com


Important Dates
---------------
• November 30, 2012 -> Submission of papers
• December 30, 2012 -> Notification of evaluation results
• January 15, 2013 -> Submission of final version of papers
• April 2013 -> IJDLDC special issue publication




----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.