LeaDS – Learning in a Digitalised Society
Digitalisation currently transforms our daily lives and society as a whole. Digital artifacts and resources affect how citizens at all ages work, study, consume and maintain social contacts. This places new demands on how to organise teaching and learning, not limited to any specific sector.
The research program addresses questions about how digitalisation changes the conditions for teaching and learning, the competences of people and organisations to manage digital environments.
The research program addresses questions about how digitalisation changes the conditions for teaching and learning, the competences of people and organisations to manage digital environments. The program also works with different methodologies to describe, analyse, and understand these competencies in terms of learning. The research focuses on issues related to the relationship between new learning environments and media. This includes how digital technology and media change processes for learning and knowledge development in society, and the implications of this development for learning at individual and collective level.
A point of departure in this research program is critical, ethical, and sustainable development and use of information and communication technologies where it adds value for learning.

Research questions
In the programme, following broadly formulated questions are addressed:
- How is the digitalisation of society changing the conditions for teaching and learning in schools, in higher education and in workplaces (industry and public sector)?
- How can digital technology be developed and used in educational environments and in other contexts to support learning, communication, and skills development?
- What processes and skills are required to manage a digitalised school, working life and society and how can these skills be described, analysed, and understood?
- What new learning opportunities are offered through the development and use of modern digital forms of interaction and automated systems based on artificial intelligence and machine learning?
Connection to focus area
The research program addresses the challenges of the digitalised society and aligns to the European Commission ambition of digital citizens and digital societies. The program is connected to focus area of Smart Cities and Communities (SCC) and the area of strength Smart Citizens and Communities, to support society in providing knowledge and solutions for creating and upholding smart, sustainable cities. Among the six dimensions identified in the focus area for designing the various aspects of addressing Smart cities within SCC, this research program combines three in particular; "Environment, people and living".
Within the program, in line with the strength of the focus area SCC, we address research issues on societal challenges with an interdisciplinary approach when we focus on dimensions of ”the smart city and its inhabitants".

Three central themes
- Digitalisation and learning in school and preschool
Contact: Per Högström - Digitalisation and learning in higher education
Contact: Jeanette Sjöberg - Digitalisation and lifelong learning
Contact: Mark Dougherty

Multidisciplinary research
The research program is multidisciplinary involving scholars from all academies at Halmstad university:
- Researchers from educational sciences (including subject didactics), pedagogy, media and communication sciences and sociology have specific expertise in how digitalisation affects teaching and learning (the use and evaluation of technology).
- Researchers from informatics, computer science and engineering have specific expertise in the development of new digital technologies, about evaluating and comparing existing methods and tools.
- Researchers from innovation management have specific expertise in knowledge management (individual and digitalisation), flexible developments and enhancing learning using technology involving academic and business audiences.
- Digital transformation and ethical consequences of digitalisation.
- From information technology and robotics, researchers have also expertise in applied artificial intelligence, simulation and modelling, data mining and social robots.
What's new?

Jeanette Sjöberg guest researcher at Aalborg University: Open lecture External link.

Andrea Resmini: workshop at the conference UXLX External link.

Chronicle by Pernilla Nilsson, in the magazine Curie (in Swedish): Pandemin kräver mer än medicinsk forskning External link.

Article: Research programmes for profiling
Participating researchers
School of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences
- Pernilla Nilsson, Professor
- Sylvana Sofkova Hashemi, Professor
- Claes Malmberg, Professor
- Jo Smedley, Visiting Professor
- Jeanette Sjöberg, Senior Lecturer
- Patrik Lilja, Senior Lecturer
- Kalle Jonasson, Senior Lecturer
- Anniqa Lagergren, Senior Lecturer
- Björn Sjödén, Senior Lecturer
- Emma Edstrand, Senior Lecturer
- Per Högström, Senior Lecturer
- Martin Viktorelius, Assistant Senior Lecturer
- Nina Bergdahl, Assistant Senior Lecturer
- Anne-Marie Cederqvist, Assistant Senior Lecturer
- Marie Bengtsson, PhD student
- Ludvig Sjunnesson,PhD student
- Maria Papantonis Stajcic, PhD student
- Annika Forsler, PhD student
- Per Blomberg, PhD student
School of Information Technology
- Mark Dougherty, Professor
- Maria Åkesson, Professor
- Susanne Lindberg, Senior Lecturer
- Martin Cooney, Senior Lecturer
- Andrea Resmini, Senior Lecturer
School of Health and Welfare
- Ebba Sundin, Senior Lecturer
- Elenita Forsberg, Senior Lecturer
- Maria Heintz, Assistant Senior Lecturer