Mourad Majdoub

Education in high schools is evolving with the widespread adoption of digital technologies. However, digitalization is a complex process that still challenges teachers while they aim to implement technologies to meet learners’ needs and preferences. Further, the digital divide remains an important issue that should be addressed to provide learners with meaningful technology learning experiences that can engage and motivate them. To address these issues, the current study uses a qualitative descriptive approach and relies on semi-structured interviews with 17 high school teachers from different schools in Québec to examine the uses of digital technologies that address the needs of learners from the perspective of diverse high school teachers. Results revealed the existence of digital inequalities that still impact student engagement and the capacity of teachers to address learner needs. The study findings also emphasize the importance of providing teachers and students with adequate resources and training for the successful deployment of digital technology in the classroom.

In recent years, the popularity of gamification has gained momentum with the growing numbers of publications as well as the mass appeal among learners for its potential to stimulate motivation, engagement, and positive experiences. However, this vein of research has mainly focused on the effects of game mechanics and how they can be incorporated within a gamified learning context to enhance users' positive experiences. In L2 teaching and learning, the literature states that most studies on gamification lack theoretical principles that can guide the design of gamified learning experiences that promote learners' motivation and engagement. To make the picture more coherent, this chapter synthesizes the existing literature on gamification L2 learning, focusing on empirical findings related to factors affecting L2 learning, current L2 gamified design models, gamification affordances, and their inherent motivational and engagement outcomes. For this review, thematic and content analysis of 73 publications dating from 2017 to late 2022 were examined.

Digital technologies may play an important role in helping students from all walks of life to overcome barriers and benefit from teaching and learning. However, due to a lack of knowledge or skills related to educational technologies, K-12 teachers struggle to harness the full potential of digitalisation to support student learning and engagement, causing further marginalization and exclusion that put diverse group of learners at risk of being left behind in education (Chevalère et al., 2021). In response to these research gaps, the aim of this paper is to explore which high school uses of digital technology cater for learners’ needs and preferences for the sake of a more digitally inclusive environment that supports engagement and equitable learning opportunities for all students (Stenman & Pettersson, 2020). We adopted a qualitative approach to attend to the richness and depth in various contexts. We have conducted individual semi-structured interviews with 17 high school teachers, aiming to obtain in-depth qualitative data through open-ended questions. Then, a general inductive data analysis approach was followed to generate preliminary results on the research objectives, which are presented in this study.