Full CfP to be published on the second half of September
12th International Conference on Smart Learning Ecosystem and Regional Development
2027: design learning ecosystems: interactions, co-design, and adaptive futures
The unprecedented social, technological, environmental, and cultural transformations of our time call for a renewed understanding of learning ecosystems. As artificial intelligence, data-driven technologies, and hybrid physical-digital environments increasingly permeate our lives, future learning ecosystems should not simply become more intelligent. They should also become more ecological, equitable, ethical, inclusive, and capable of contributing to systemic transformation.
Future learning ecosystems need to cultivate adaptive relationships among people, technologies, institutions, communities, places, and the living world. Designing such ecosystems requires moving beyond isolated educational solutions towards a systemic understanding of learning as a relational, evolving, and situated process.
This perspective invites us to rethink learning not simply as an activity that takes place within classrooms or digital platforms, but as an ecological process emerging through interactions and interdependencies among human, technological, institutional, and living actors. Learning ecosystems are continuously shaped by the relationships, values, infrastructures, practices, and environments that enable people and communities to learn, adapt, and collectively imagine and shape desirable futures.
SLERD 2027 therefore promotes an ecosystem perspective on learning as a dynamic and evolving network of human and more-than-human actors, technologies, institutions, practices, values, and places. This perspective is articulated through four interconnected dimensions:
• Interactions. Learning does not emerge from isolated individuals or technologies, but from the quality of relationships among learners, educators, communities, institutions, intelligent technologies, and environments. Understanding and designing these interactions is essential for creating meaningful, inclusive, and transformative learning experiences.
The increasing presence of AI within educational contexts further expands the forms of interaction that shape learning. Human–human, human–AI, and increasingly human–AI–environment relationships call for new approaches to collaboration, participation, creativity, and knowledge creation.
• Interdependencies. Learning ecosystems are constituted by mutually interdependent living and non-living components: human actors, AI systems, digital infrastructures, learning spaces, policies, artefacts, communities, and natural environments.
Recognising these interdependencies requires moving beyond individual and technology-centred approaches towards systemic perspectives that acknowledge multiple forms of agency, intelligence, and responsibility. It also invites designers and researchers to learn from the organisational principles of ecological systems, where resilience emerges through diversity, cooperation, communication, and adaptation.
Co-design and Collective Agency. Learning ecosystems cannot be designed by a single actor. They are continuously shaped through the participation and collective agency of learners, educators, designers, institutions, communities, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Co-design, participatory approaches, Living Labs, and community-based initiatives can therefore play a fundamental role in creating learning ecosystems that are responsive to local needs while addressing broader societal challenges. Designing for learning increasingly means designing the conditions through which diverse actors can collectively shape, negotiate, and transform their shared environments.
• Continuous adaptation and Adaptive Futures. Learning ecosystems are never static. They evolve through feedback, experimentation, collective learning, technological change, and social transformation. Their resilience depends on the capacity of their actors and infrastructures not only to respond to emerging challenges, but also to anticipate, imagine, and collectively shape alternative and desirable futures. Designing adaptive learning ecosystems therefore requires approaches that support continuous transformation while preserving values such as equity, inclusion, sustainability, care, and responsibility..
Topic of Interest
Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes.
1. Designing Learning Ecosystems
• Design methods for learning ecosystem innovation
• Systemic design for education and lifelong learning
• Design for adaptive and resilient learning systems
• Learning ecosystems for regional development and social innovation
• Generative AI and the transformation of learning practices
2. More-than-Human and Ecological Perspectives
• More-than-human perspectives on learning and education
• Hybrid intelligence and distributed agency in educational contexts
• Values, ethics, trust, responsibility, and governance in AI-mediated learning
• Learning with and from ecological systems and living organisms
• Human–AI–nature interactions in learning ecosystems
3. Participation, Communities, and Places
• Co-design and participatory approaches for educational innovation
• Living Labs as learning ecosystems
• Place-based and community-centred learning
• Collective intelligence and collaborative learning
• Multisensory and embodied learning experiences
• Learning across physical, digital, and hybrid environments
Research Questions
We particularly welcome contributions that explore questions such as:
• How can design support the creation of adaptive learning ecosystems rather than isolated educational solutions, towards resilience, sustainability, inclusion, social and regional development?
• How do interactions and interdependencies among people, AI, institutions, communities, and environments generate new forms of learning, agency, knowledge creation and distribution?
• How can learning ecosystems, Living Labs, participatory and place-based initiatives support not only adaptation to change, but also the collective capacity to imagine and shape desirable futures?
• What new roles can designers play in cultivating relationships and co-evolution among humans, technologies, institutions, communities, and living systems?
• How can ecosystem thinking reshape educational design, policy, practice, and governance?
Important Dates
- Paper submission: 1st March 2027
- Notification of acceptance: 12th April 2027
- Camera-ready submission: 10th May 2027
- Conference dates : May 24th-25th, 2027
Submission Instructions
Accepted papers also presented at the conference will be published in a special issue of the IxD&A Journal (https://ixdea.org/; ISSN 1826-9745, e-ISSN 2283-2998) indexed by SCOPUS and Emerging Sources of Web of Science (Citescore: 2.50).
Papers should be written according to the Instruction for Authors available at https://ixdea.org/authors-guidelines/.
Accepted papers will be candidate to a best paper award in collaboration with IAALDE.
Submission categories:
• long papers: 13-24 pages
• short papers: 6-12 pages
Submission procedure:
Papers submission is handled through OJS – https://ojs.ixdea.org/index.php/ixdea/about/submissions (select section: SI: SLERD 2027 – long paper or SI: SLERD 2027 – short paper) SLERD and IxD&A follow a double-blind reviewing process, thus papers need to be fully anonymized.