Science Education in Countries Along the Belt & Road: Future Insights and New Requirements (Lecture Notes in Educational Technology)

This book aims to highlight science education in countries along the Belt and Road. It consists of 30 chapters divided into three main parts, namely Arab and African countries, Asian countries and European countries,. We invited science education experts from 29 “Belt and Road” countries to introduce the current status of science education in their countries and the new requirements with the rapid evolution of Information Technology. The major contributions of this book include: 

1) Provide the current status of science education in countries along the Belt and Road as well as the requirement for developing and improving science education in these countries; 

2) Discuss new insights of science education in future years; 

3) Inspire stakeholders to take effective initiatives to develop science education in countries along the Belt and Road. 

Dr. Ronghuai Huang is Professor in Faculty of Education and Dean of Smart Learning Institute in Beijing Normal University. He received “Chang Jiang Scholar” Award in 2017, which is the highest academic award issued to an individual in higher education by the Ministry of Education in China. He now serves as Director of the National Engineering Lab for Intelligent Cyber-Learning Technology and Director of Beijing Key Laboratory for Educational Technology. He is also President of International Association of Smart Learning Environments, Editor-in-Chief of Springer’s Smart Learning Environments and Journal of Computers in Education, as well as Editor-in-Chief of Springer’s series Lecture Notes in Educational Technology and Smart Computing and Intelligence. 

Ms. Xin Bing holds a Master of Laws and now is Researcher. She presently serves as Director General of Children and Youth Science Center of CAST. She is equipped with abundant theoretical knowledge and rich practical experience in the S&T education field, owing to her decades-long engagement in theoretical research on and practice in education management, S&T communication management as well as children and youth S&T education. 

Dr. Ahmed Tlili is Co-Director of the OER Lab at the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University (SLIBNU), China. He serves as Associate Editor of the IEEE Bulletin of the Technical Committee on Learning Technology and the Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society. He is Vising Professor at UNIR-Spain and Expert at the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO). He has been awarded the IEEE TCLT Early Career Researcher Award in Learning Technologies for 2020. He has edited several special issues in several journals. He has also published over 100 research works, including books, as well as academic papers in international referred journals and conferences. He is serving as General Program Chair,Local Organizing and Program Committee Member in various international conferences, and Reviewer in several refereed journals. He is Co-Chair of IEEE special interest group on “Artificial Intelligence and Smart Learning Environments” and APSCE's Special Interest Group on “Educational Gamification and Game-based Learning (EGG).” His research interests include open education, game-based learning, educational psychology, and artificial intelligence. 

Ms. Yang Feng now serves as Deputy Director of Division of Communication and Cooperation, Children and Youth Science Center of CAST (CYSCC). She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Renmin University of China and began to work in 2013. She is mainly responsible for promoting international youth S&T and cultural exchanges through organizing various scientific contests and communication programs for teenagers, science education forums, and teacher’s workshops under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative. She also facilitated the establishment of Belt and Road International Science Education Coordinating Committee (BRISECC) and now is responsible for the daily operation of BRISECC Secretariat. 

Dr. Xiangling Zhang is Lecturer of Beijing Institute of Education, China. Her research areas include smart learning environments, science education, technology-enhanced learning, open education resources, and open educational practice. 

Dr. Lixin Zhu is Senior Engineer of the National Engineering Laboratory for Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology and Co-Dean of the Design and Assessment of Learning Environment Lab, a branch laboratory of National Engineering Laboratory for Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology.  Previously, before joining the CIT laboratory, he was Postdoc and Research Associate of Michigan State University, Principal Architect of the Microsoft, and Engineering Manager of Intel. His research fields cover the artificial intelligence in education, educational robotics, virtual reality technology, and Internet of things in smart learning environment. 

Dr. Mohamed JEMNI is a Professor of Computer Science and Educational Technologies at the University of Tunis, Tunisia. He is the Director of ICT at The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization ALECSO (www.alecso.org). He has been the General Director of the Computing Center El Khawarizmi, the Internet services provider for the sector of higher education and scientific research in Tunisia, from 2008 to 2013. He is a Senior member IEEE, member of the Executive board of  IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology and he is co-editor of Springer Lecture Notes in educational Technology. At ALECSO, he is currently leading several projects related to the promotion of effective use of ICT  in education in the Arab world. His Research Projects Involvements during the last 30 years are Educational Technologies, High Performance andGrid computing and Accessibility of ICT to People with Disabilities. He published more than 300 papers in international journals, conferences and books, and produced many studies for international organizations such as UNESCO, ITU and ALECSO.
Prof. Jemni and his research Laboratory have received several awards, including the Silver medal of the International Fair of Inventions in Kuwait 2007, the UNESCO Prize 2008 for the e-learning curriculum they developed for visually impaired, President's Award for the integration of persons with disabilities 2009 and the "World Summit Award (WSA) - Mobile 2010" in the field of social inclusion. Prof. Jemni received the International Telecommunication Union Award: “ICT Innovation application challenge” during the WSIS Forum in Geneva in May 2013, and in May 2017, the project “ALECSO APPS” that he is leading at ALECSO received the Mohammed bin Rashid Arabic Language Award in the Technology topic.