Guest editorial: Special section on learning through wearable technologies and the internet of things

The papers in this special issue are devoted to the topic of learning via wearable computing technologies considering the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is being touted as the next technological revolution and one that will be the most potentially disruptive we will see in our lifetime, surpassed only by the World Wide Web and universal mobile connectivity. It involves physical objects with embedded computational and networking capabilities communicating and interacting with one another, with other computing devices, as well as with users on the global Internet. With the advent and growth of the IoT, homes, workplaces, and educational institutions-even entire cities and countries-are becoming increasingly interconnected, which promises to substantially enhance or change the ways in which we live, play, work, and learn. Such technologies have now entered the mainstream [3] and products powered by them are becoming ever more readily available on the mass market, with consumer-level devices like smart glasses, smart watches, etc. These technologies and devices along with others still under development are able to augment human cognition, behavior, and interactions in powerful ways that were previously inconceivable.