Advances in mobile and sensor technologies, cloud computing, and related Internet technologies have been phenomenal in recent years. Worldwide, the number of people with access to mobile technologies is also increasing very rapidly. There are currently more than 1 billion smartphone users in the world. The number of mobile apps for supporting learning and education has grown exponentially. Due to their relatively affordable cost and ubiquity, mobile technologies enable educators to reach out to populations of people that do not have universal access to education.

These developments are altering the landscape of technological infrastructure for work, play, and learning. The potential for and the space of possibilities for enhancing or disrupting learning ecologies has been ever greater than at any other point in human history. It is now opportune to reflect on what research has informed us on where we are now in this journey of designing and implementing designs of seamless, ubiquitous, and contextual learning and developing and refining the underlying theories and supporting software applications and technologies.

Seamless, ubiquitous, and contextual learning are notions of learning which are motivated or enabled by the mobility, ubiquity, and contextual awareness of digital and networked technologies. In seamless learning, learning happens continuously and bridges contexts such as formal and informal learning via different technologies. In ubiquitous learning, learners draw from the pervasive and embedded technologies around us. In contextual learning, awareness of the context can be detected and supported by location-based and other sensor-based technologies.

In this special issue, we invite articles that demonstrate or discuss new developments in the field of seamless, ubiquitous, and contextual learning. A paper considered for this special issue must either describe original research or offer a critical review of the state of the art. Specifically, we especially welcome papers which:
‐ provide a critical review that articulates the theories in seamless, ubiquitous,and contextual learning have been or are being developed, and the evidence-based design principles,
‐ discuss learning designs that go beyond mobile technologies to embrace a wider ecology of technological and social resources,
‐ discuss empirical studies which impact real-world practices,
‐ discuss how seamless, ubiquitous, and contextual learning can encourage 21st century skills like critical thinking and collaboration, and
‐ discuss architectures, software solutions, and infrastructures for enacting seamless, ubiquitous, and contextual learning.

Prospective authors are invited to submit their manuscripts electronically after the “open for submissions” date, adhering to the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies guidelines (http://www.computer.org/portal/web/tlt/author ). Please be sure to select the special issue when submitting through ScholarOne Manuscripts. The manuscripts should not have been published or be currently submitted for publication elsewhere. Please submit only full papers intended for review, not abstracts, to the ScholarOne portal.

Important dates
Open for submissions: 15 January 2014
Closed for submissions: 15 April 2014
Reviews Due: 29 May 2014
Decisions Due: 27 June 2014
Any Revisions Due: 27 July 2014
Final Reviews Due: 11 August 2014
Final Decisions Due: 1 September 2014