A selection of papers presented at the IX International GUIDE Conference are published in this issue of Formamente. The Conference, held from the 6th to the 8th of May 2015 at the University of Salvador, in Buenos Aires, was dealing with an argument very important: “Online Education and Society: The Challenges of the Digital Era”.
The quality of the papers and the high number of universities participating to the conference from Latin America, USA, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Turkey, Spain, UK, Italy, confirm the constant interest of the international academic world for both theoretical and operative aspects of the use of ICT for teaching and learning.
This issue of Formamente analyzes deeply the use of new technologies in the academic programs of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); the articles selected present objective experiences and research results together with the experimentation of dynamic tools such as video-lectures, virtual classes and interactive virtual laboratories, online discussion forums, compatible with the latest generation intelligent devices.
The theoretical reflection that arises from the experiences presented are dealing with the smartification of science and smart university, and the flipped classroom; on one side it is analyzed the role of universities for the development of innovation, sustainability and efficacy of the educational process, on the other side, the flipped classroom approach changes the traditional relation between educational activities, focusing on the individual study through online video-lectures followed by in-class exercises with teachers’ support.
The combination of these components – intelligent devices and smart technologies in flipped classrooms – represents the challenge of our digital era: cutting-edge pedagogies for a successful university to give students the best learning experience.