Call for Papers 

The Interest-Driven Creator (IDC) Initiative is a theoretical synthesis effort undertaken by a group of scholars (i.e., the proposers and the program committee members of this prospective workshop) from the fields of learning technology, learning sciences and educational psychology in Asia. The intention is to co-construct a holistic developmental framework in which students foster their learning interests, capabilities in creation, and learning habits──the three anchored concepts of IDC Theory──with the support of technology.

This workshop aims to provide a platform for the colleagues involved in the initiative to articulate a synthesized theory of IDC as well as for eliciting responses from other scholars. It will be conducted in mini-conference style and apart from invited papers, interested scholars may submit their papers pertaining to nurturing of either learner's "Interest", "Creation" or "Habit" with technology. Accepted papers will be published in the Workshop Proceedings of ICCE 2015 2019 which will be indexed by ElseiverElsevier Bibliographic Databases.

This workshop invites submissions of conceptual or empirical papers on the investigations or nurturing of learners' interests OR creative activities OR habits, in the context of formal or informal learning, with (or without) the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The authors may either frame their papers according to the IDC Theory or offer alternative interpretations on interest/creation/habit in order to stimulate discussion. The scope of the call for papers will cover but not be limited to:

• Theoretical/conceptual reviews on "interest", "creation" and/or "habit" in learning
• Design of technological/learning environments and/or pedagogies to promote and optimize "interest", "creation" and/or "habit" in learning
• Understanding the ecological (i.e., systemic, pedagogical, epistemological, technological, and/or social) conditions that facilitate or hinder the promotion of "interest", "creation" and/or "habit" in learning
• Roles and development of teachers and/or parents in facilitating "interest", "creation" and/or "habit" in learning
• Evaluation or measurement of learners' "interest", "creation" and/or "habit" in learning (e.g., questionnaire studies)
• Community and cultural aspects of "interest", "creation" and/or "habit" in learning (e.g., collaborative learning, identity formation, etc.)

Introduction of IDC

The Interest-Driven Creator (IDC) Theory is a macro-level theory to guide the design and research, intending to impart a broad and lasting impact on educational practices that will lead to a form of quality education in the twenty-first century. The theory hypothesizes that, with the support of technology, driven by interest, our students can be engaged in creation of knowledge or things, and, by repeating this process in their daily learning activities, their learning habits are being developed, our future generations will become lifelong interest-driven creators. In short, IDC theory suggests how to nurture our young learners as lifelong interest-driven creators by engaging them to create with strong interests habitually.

In IDC theory, the three concepts──interest, creation, habit──are regarded as "anchored concepts", with which designers can begin a design while the detailed parts or components of these concepts are revealed and dealt with progressively in the design process. For each anchored concept, a loop illustrates its components in a circulated process. These three loops are interconnected in a variety of ways when designing learning activities.

The interest loop consists of three components, triggering interest, immersing interest, and extending interest (Figure 1). "Triggering interest" concerns designing a pre-activity that induces interest in the forthcoming learning activity. Because curiosity, mainly evoked in humans by gaps in knowledge, is a desire to know, arousing curiosity is perhaps the general design strategy for triggering interest. "Immersing interest" pertains to designing learning activities that engage the full attention of students. The main design strategy related to this component is enabling learners to be immersed in the learning activity. Thus, the learners will fully enjoy tackling the task at hand while devote more attention to stretch their skills to confronting challenges arisen, resulting in personal development and growth as well as feelings of competency and efficacy. "Extending interest" relates to designing a post-activity to extend student interest in the domain after immersion in the learning activity. It predisposes students to reengage in similar activities when the opportunity arises for deepening or broadening their knowledge or skills about the subject in the future.

For the creation loop, we view that learning is creating, and creating is learning. Creation or creativity is not mysterious capability, limited to a small group of people who are labeled as geniuses. Indeed, in the long history of human development, humans themselves are natural and genuine creators──observing how other people do things and then mimicking themselves; using tools and creating tools; communicating with each other via gestures (initially in the ancient times), then via oral language, then via written language, and, now, via digital media. Given this view of learning, "creation" consists of three components──imitating (observing others, adopting examples, or absorbing information through any means to mimic or emulate somebody or something), combining (synthesizing the thought or ideas of others and the self's own to form something different or new), and staging (displaying products, presenting new thoughts, or demonstrating achieved outcomes to others) ──forming the creation loop (Figure 2).

Habit loop is needed because learning driven by interest with process mimicking in the creation process will produce no lasting effect on students unless it is repeated regularly in daily learning activities. To exert a long-term impact on student learning, a natural way is to cultivate creation with interest as a habit, desirably a lifelong habit. "Habit", the third anchored concept of IDC theory, speaks of nurturing habits of creation. If students learn with interest incessantly and habitually (as when following a school timetable that regulates daily routines), and their learning process emulates the creation process, then students will become creators, lifelong IDCs. The habit concept consists of two components: routine (repetitive pattern of activities) and triggering environment (arrangement of place, time, people, or incidents), forming the habit loop (Figure 3).

With IDC theory underlying the design of the learning process, with proper support of technology in the 21st Century, we hypothesize that most students will become lifelong learners, enjoying and gaining a sense of achievement throughout life. Moreover, they will excel in cognitive performance, exceeding the standards in public examinations. Thus, if we can validate this hypothesis by designing compelling cases that embody the IDC theory, the disadvantages of examination-driven education will be lessened and school education will undergo fundamental transformation. At the least, a more favorable balance between examination-driven education and "quality education" in Asia will emerge.

Paper Submission

Researchers or students submit papers pertaining to the IDC Theory to the workshop, which will be subject to peer reviews. Authors of each accepted paper will be given 20 minutes for presentation (including Q&A). 

Important Dates

Submission deadline for workshop papers: August 16, 2019

Acceptance notification of workshop papers: September 6, 2019

Workshop Organizers

Zhi-Hong Chen, National Taiwan Normal University, zhchen@ntnu.edu.tw

Hercy N. H. Cheng, Central China Normal University, hercycheng.tw@gmail.com

Calvin C. Y. Liao, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, calvincyliao@gmail.com

Program Committee Members

Tak-Wai CHAN, National Central University, Taiwan

Lung-Hsiang WONG, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Chee-Kit LOOI, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Wenli CHEN, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Ben CHANG, National Central University, Taiwan

Heisawn Jeong, Hallym University, South Korea

Siu Cheung Kong, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong

Maggie Wang, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Su Luan Wong, Universiti Putra, Malaysia