The shock caused by the pandemic on learning processes all around the world has no equal in the history of education. During previous pandemics the application of the social distancing has already led to the closure of schools but it was not possible to even imagine the continuation of teaching activities as it is happening in the present days, albeit within a virtual dimension. On average, in less than two weeks after the lock down all the actors of the educational processes – students, teachers and families – have been forced to use technologies that many of them would have never considered before as relevant for learning. In a short time, educational technologies that have always struggled to establish themselves as a significant support to the learning processes have become the standard. A so abrupt transition from physical to virtual has contributed to amplify the regret for the many opportunities lost in the past by several national and supranational educational systems in supporting and coordinating the development of technologies that could have generated a significant impact on the learning ecosystems. At the same time it has emerged the critical state of the tertiary education that has not been able to renew in depth pedagogical and didactic approaches to educate present and future teachers to significantly integrate technologies into traditional educational processes. Nonetheless, thanks to the many environments derived from the domain of the collaborative work, to the vast plethora of apps considered in the past as niche products, to the good will of many teachers, to a constant learning by doing (that in many cases has become a continuous field experimentation) schools and universities are accompanying their students towards the end of the school/academic year. This special issue aims at gathering the most significant studies and experiences that have been carried on during the pandemic period to make sure that at least a part of such body of knowledge will not be completely lost. We need them, and we need to reflect on them, hoping that they could guide us in the development of a new way of thinking about learning ecosystems and, more in general, about educational processes.
The indicative list of topics of interest for this special issue devoted to ‘Learning and learning ecosystems in the time of Covid-19′ includes, but is not limited to: Research and case studies on organizational aspects; Research and case studies on didactic aspects; Research and case studies on monitoring and evaluation aspects and strategies; Research and case studies on the unconventional use of conventional technologies, or on the use of unconventional technologies to support educational processes; Research and case studies on the functional rethinking of physical or phygital places for learning; Research and case studies on the transformation of learning ecosystems and of the perceptions’ of the main actors of the learning processes; Future visions.