Conference Agenda

Over the past two decades, digitalization has increasingly influenced educational policy and practice (Norhagen et al., 2024). National strategies commonly frame digital competences as central to preparing students for participation in knowledge-based economies, democratic societies, and digitally mediated cultures. Internationally, both research and policy discourse emphasize that teacher preparation and teachers’ ongoing professional learning are critical to the meaningful integration of digital technologies in schools (Starkey, 2020). Within this global landscape, Norway represents a mature case of educational digitalization, characterized by early adoption of one-to-one devices, digital skills as a basic skill in the core curriculum and sustained investment in digital infrastructure.

Empirical research from Norway and the Nordic countries has provided important insights into how teachers navigate digital technologies in practice. Wollscheid et al.’s (2021) longitudinal study of teachers’ use of digital and analogue tools indicates that digitalization does not replace existing practices but is negotiated over time, with teachers balancing pedagogical goals, subject traditions, and classroom management concerns. Their findings underline teachers’ active role as mediators rather than passive adopters of technology.

Recent studies further highlight the complexity of teachers’ experiences of digital transformation. Aagaard et al. (2025) critically examine how digitalization initiatives in teacher education often rest on implicit assumptions about technological benefits, calling attention to tensions between policy-driven expectations and educational practice. Similarly, Stenbom and Geijer (2025), drawing on Swedish primary teachers’ perspectives, show that digital transformation reshapes teachers’ professional roles, requiring new forms of agency, coordination, and sense-making over time. Together, these studies underscore that digitalization is not a linear process but an ongoing, negotiated practice shaped by institutional conditions and professional judgment.

Aagaard et al. (2025) argue that teacher preparation for the digital age remains dominated by instrumental perspectives and call for greater attention to the epistemic dimensions of professional digital competence, including teachers’ professional judgment, transformative agency, and the institutional conditions shaping digital practice. These concerns resonate with affordance-theoretical approaches to examining technology as embedded in situated practices.

This study draws on affordance theory as its primary theoretical framework. Originating in Gibson’s (2015) ecological approach to perception, affordances refer to the action possibilities that emerge in the relation between an individual and their environment. Gibson’s work emphasizes that affordances are neither purely objective properties of artifacts nor subjective interpretations, but relational phenomena. Norman’s (2013) work on design furthers this perspective by highlighting how perceived affordances and signifiers shape users’ interpretations and actions. Together, Gibson and Norman provide a foundation for understanding affordances as relational, mediated, and context-dependent. However, Oliver (2005, 2011) argues that the concept has often been used too loosely, obscuring rather than clarifying how technologies shape practice, and critiques technologically deterministic accounts by calling for research that attends to the social, cultural, and institutional contexts of technology use. Aagaard (2018) offers a phenomenologically informed reinterpretation of affordances, emphasizing how technologies actively invite, inhibit, and mediate human action rather than merely offering neutral possibilities.

While policies increasingly emphasize teachers’ professional digital competence, existing research provides limited insight into how teachers experience and enact agency in relation to digital technologies, how they perceive and negotiate technological affordances in practice, and how organizational structures shape these processes. We address these issues through the following research questions:

1. How do teachers in Norwegian primary and secondary education experience and enact agency in relation to the use of digital technologies?
2. What affordances do teachers perceive digital technologies to offer for teaching and learning, and how are these affordances interpreted and negotiated in practice?
3. How do organizational support structures, decision-making processes, and implementation strategies influence teachers’ experiences of digitalization and their use of digital technologies?

This study is conducted within the scope of the MEFER (Metaverse Futures: Education beyond Realms) project, a European Union–funded initiative focusing on the responsible integration of immersive technologies in youth work contexts. Immersive technologies (e.g., virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed or extended reality) are commonly described as technologies that blend physical and digital spaces and enable users to engage with simulated or augmented environments (Milgram & Kishino, 1994). Research literature has examined the use of immersive virtual reality in learning contexts, with evidence drawn from meta-analytic and systematic review studies indicating its potential to support learning outcomes and learner engagement across educational settings (e.g., Coban et al., 2022; Conrad et al., 2024; Radianti et al., 2020).

In this study, youth workers are approached as current or potential users of immersive technologies operating within digital youth work contexts. Youth workers are recognised as key educational practitioners in non-formal learning environments, particularly in relation to supporting digital competence, participation, and social inclusion. The European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp) defines digital competence as a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to use digital technologies confidently, critically, and safely (Vuorikari et al., 2022). In parallel, European guidelines highlight the need for professionals working with young people to be equipped to address digital risks, including data protection, online safety, and well-being (Council of Europe, 2019).

Existing European reports and assessment tools indicate that the integration of advanced digital and immersive technologies into youth work remains uneven. Youth work organisations and practitioners face challenges related to access, infrastructure, training opportunities, ethical considerations, and institutional support (SALTO Participation & Information, 2023). These documents emphasise the importance of identifying practitioners’ existing capacities, perceived challenges, and professional development needs before implementing immersive technologies in youth work settings.

Building on this context, the present study aims to identify the professional needs of youth workers regarding the use of immersive technologies in youth work contexts, with a particular focus on their existing knowledge, competencies, perceived challenges, and support requirements. The study seeks to develop an evidence-based understanding of how immersive digital tools are currently perceived, accessed, and utilised by youth workers, as well as the structural and individual barriers shaping their integration into practice. More specifically, the research examines youth workers’ needs concerning digital literacy, digital safety and security awareness, and access to appropriate learning resources. In addition, it explores their preferences regarding training formats, learning materials, and digital platforms to determine priority areas for professional development.

As teaching has evolved from knowledge transmission to a design science in response to rapidly changing technological and cultural contexts (Laurillard, 2012), the diffusion of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), constitutes a major development within the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education. In Higher Education (HE), tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini, among others, have been rapidly adopted by students and teachers, often preceding the development of shared pedagogical frameworks, institutional guidance, or research-informed models for their educational use. Recent research on AI literacy in Higher Education has highlighted the need for conceptual frameworks that support educators in developing critical, ethical, and pedagogically grounded understandings of AI (Zhou & Schofield, 2024). However, current debates and emerging frameworks tend to remain at a conceptual or competence-oriented level, while less attention is given to how LLMs can be systematically integrated into learning design processes in pedagogically meaningful, inclusive, and ethically responsible ways (Celik, 2023). Recent work on AI literacy highlights that developing educators’ and learners’ conceptual and practical understanding of AI remains an emergent research area with complex definitions and pedagogical implications, requiring frameworks that move beyond competency descriptors toward structured integration within learning design processes (Biagini, 2025).

This paper presents the research and development of the LLM-ed Framework for Learning Design (Guàrdia et al., 2025), developed within the European-funded ADMIT project (Generative AI and Large Language Models in Higher Education). The framework addresses GenAI explicitly as an emerging educational ICT and aims to support teachers and instructional designers in integrating LLMs into learning design activities across different educational contexts. Unlike existing learning design models, the LLM-ed Framework explicitly operationalises the pedagogical role of LLMs across design phases, making teacher–AI collaboration visible, structured, and ethically grounded.

The study is guided by the following research question: How can Large Language Models, conceptualised as emerging ICTs, be systematically integrated into Learning Design processes in Higher Education in pedagogically sound, ethically responsible, and institutionally transferable ways?

The theoretical foundations of the framework draw on Learning Design (LD) as a research-informed approach to improving educational quality through coherent alignment between learning outcomes, learning activities, assessment, and learner experience (Laurillard, 2012). LD conceptualises teachers as designers and decision-makers who intentionally orchestrate pedagogical, technological, and contextual elements. Constructivist learning theories and principles of active learning underpin this approach, emphasising learner engagement, feedback, and collaboration.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is embedded as a transversal design framework to address learner variability, accessibility, and inclusion from the outset (CAST, 2024). In addition, the framework is informed by research and policy perspectives on ICT integration and AI in education, including UNESCO’s AI Competency Framework for Teachers (UNESCO, 2024) and European digital education strategies (European Commission, 2021), which position AI as a support for professional practice rather than a replacement for pedagogical judgment.

The development of the LLM-ed Framework was informed by a systematic review of literature on Learning Design models and on the educational use of digital technologies and GenAI. Building on this review, a comparative analysis of established LD models—including ABC Learning Design, Carpe Diem, enABLe, Iceberg, and ELDeR—was conducted. While these models provide robust foundations for technology-enhanced learning, they were not conceived to explicitly address the pedagogical affordances and risks associated with LLMs. The comparative analysis identified recurrent learning design activities and decision points where LLMs can provide pedagogical support, such as scaffolding learning, supporting constructive alignment, personalisation, and inclusive design.