The 13^th International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE 2005) is being held from 28 November to 30 December 2005 in Singapore. It is the latest in a longstanding series of annual international conferences held in the Asia-Pacific region, highlighting top quality research on the application of computers in education.

The theme of the 2005 conference is “Towards sustainable and scalable educational innovations informed by the learning sciences” with a subtitle of “Sharing good practices of research, experimentation and innovation.” This theme reminds us that we need to be cognizant of research that can inform and lead to sustainable and scalable models of innovation. In order to do so, we need to take an inter-disciplinary view of learning, such as that embraced by the learning sciences. One of the basic principles that underpin the learning sciences is to improve theories of learning through the design of powerful learning environments that can foster meaningful learning. Learning sciences researchers prefer to research learning in authentic contexts. They collect both qualitative and quantitative data from multiple perspectives and follow developmental micro-genetic or historical approaches to data observation. Learning sciences researchers conduct research with the intention of deriving design principles through which change and innovation can be enacted. Their goal is to conduct research that can sustain transformations in schools.

ICCE 2005 will also demonstrate that learning sciences exist in the Asia-Pacific context. We have researchers and young academics within the Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education (APSCE) community who are concerned with issues of conducting research that can be translated into practice. Changes in practice are especially important to Asian countries because their educational systems are more centralized. Therefore, we believe that there is a need to reform pedagogy in a more constructivist and social direction in a scalable way.

Overall, we received 271 submissions for full papers and posters, of which 75 (28%) were accepted as full papers and 87 (32%) were accepted as short papers. The conference also includes 9 interactive events, 2 panels, 9 papers in the Doctoral Student Consortium, as well as paper presentations in the Local Track in which teachers in Singapore share practices and experiences of using technology in the classroom. Also in the Proceedings are brief abstracts of the talks of the four invited speakers: Joseph Krajcik of the University of Michigan, Jeremy Roschelle of Stanford Research Institute International, Takashi Sakamoto of the Japan Association for Promotion of Educational Technology, and Stella Vosniadou of the University of Athens.

The work to organize a conference of this size is immense. We would like to thank many people who have helped to make it possible. We thank Seng-Chee Tan, the chair of the Local Organizing Committee, and in particular the committee members: Wenli Chen, Ching-Puang Chin, David Junsong Huang, Li-Ching Ng, Choon-Lan Quek, Shirley Seet, Qiyun Wang, Angela Wong, Sheryl Eunice Wong, Philip Wong, and Huay-Lit Woo.

The Program Committee is critical to having a strong program. Almost all full paper submissions had 3 reviews while every short paper had 2 reviews. Thanks to all the Program Committee members for completing their reviews. Thanks, too, to the reviewers who were recruited by Program Committee members to help out in this critical task.

The committees organizing the other events at the conference also have helped to make the conference richer and broader: Doctoral Student Consortium, chaired by Yam-San Chee and Kinsuk; Tutorials and Workshops, chaired by Gee-Kin Yeo and Tsukasa Hirashima; and Interactive Events, chaired by Mun-Kew Leong and Lung-Hsiang Wong. The local track programme, which is a platform for Singapore teachers to share best practices of using technology for learning, is chaired by Sai-Choo Lee assisted by Yew-Meng Kwan, Bee-Kim Lim, Elsie Mathews and Shoo-Soon Wee. Thanks to all these colleagues.

Finally, we would like to thank Ben Chang and Hercy Cheng who provided the excellent conference submission and review system, as well as helped us to construct the proceedings.

If you enjoy participating in ICCE 2005 or reading the Proceedings, we recommend that you consider joining the Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education (APSCE – http://www.apsce.net/), an active scientific community that helps to forge on-going interactions among researchers in the Asia-Pacific region. The Society organizes the annual ICCE conferences and will start its own journal, namely, Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning.

We certainly hope that you will enjoy the ICCE-2005 conference, and that you find it illuminating, stimulating, and enjoyable.

Programme Co-chairs, Chee-Kit Looi, National Institute of Education, Singapore, David Jonassen, University of Missouri, USA, Mitsuru Ikeda, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan