It is necessary to introduce changes in teacher education in order to include the acquisition of competences necessary for the technology-enhanced learning process both organizing the learning process and developing new and innovative didactic means that promote learning as well as using digital technologies that nowadays has become an integral part of any teacher's and university lecturer's competence in the learning process to perform qualitatively their work. Despite the fact that teaching/learning methods used in the education system in the world have been explored, different studies on advantages and shortcomings of these methods have been performed there still are no serious reviews on the effectiveness of applying technology-enhanced learning methods in the contexts and environments of different school subjects. In order to close this gap serious research has been carried out using the latest scientific literature found in Web of Science data basis to work out a scientific review on the effectiveness of applying TEL in the educational environment.

In Spring 2020, due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, all educational institutions in Latvia, including the University of Latvia (UL), transitioned from face-to-face on-site learning to remote learning. After a short period of face-to-face on-site learning in autumn, UL returned to remote learning in November for the second time. This paper investigates the UL students’ perspectives on remote teaching and learning at the UL during the first and second COVID-19 periods. The research assesses several remote study organization aspects, including the lecturer’s and student’s digital skills, their access to information and support during the study process, planning and implementation of the study process, and students’ acquisition of the content. The study used an original questionnaire designed in the Spring 2020 semester. Seven questions from the first questionnaire were included in another follow-up questionnaire distributed in the Spring 2021 semester. A total of 2248 UL students from the Spring 2020 semester and 742 students from the Spring 2021 semester participated in the study, representing 13 faculties across all study levels. The survey responses were collected via a QuestionPro survey platform and then downloaded into an IBM SPSS 28 file for a reliability check. Next, descriptive statistical analyses were conducted for each reported survey item using Microsoft Excel 2016. The research presented here implies that, in general, students perceive positive improvements in almost all the investigated aspects of the organization of the remote study process when comparing the first and second COVID-19 periods, which could indicate a certain level of resilience in students and university lecturers when subject to COVID circumstances. However, the results reveal that students have, in one year, developed a more realistic approach in assessing their digital skills. The results lead us to believe that remote on-line learning is not just a short-term solution but could become a valuable element for providing qualitative education in the long term. It could indicate that the students and lecturers at university are ready for new and sustainable higher education study organization solutions in the future.

As technologies become more exciting, interactive, and reachable, various technological solutions are used in higher education. On the one hand, there is the conviction that technologies are indispensable, both for improving learning and for making learning process more effective, both in terms of learning outcomes and in terms of costs. Additionally, technology and technological solutions can provide sustainability of knowledge because students develop the competences that they will need in their future professional work. This chapter summarises the systematic literature review (SLR) carried out by the authors in analysing research that has been done on the impact of technology-enhanced learning on learning outcomes in order to understand what emerging research has been done, as the authors published a similar study one year ago. The SLR was conducted for the period of 2010 to 2018 by selecting peer-reviewed articles on specified terms. The selected articles were then analysed following sub-purposes. The descriptive analysis method was adopted for the data analysis.

In order to find out how 2–3-year-old children use smart devices and what the impact on children's development is, a systematic analysis of literature has been performed. Articles published in the EBSCOhost database during the period 2009–2019 have been selected for the analysis. They deal with studies focusing on 2–3-year-old children and the use of smart devices. The studies describe how 2–3-year-old children use touchscreen devices, as well as summarizing the benefits and risks of using touchscreen devices in the early years. It is concluded that the studies conducted are rather similar regarding form and content. Children use touchscreen devices for similar purposes and with similar time limits. Children under the age of two should not use smartphones and tablets; in turn, 2–3-year-old children should not be denied the technologies, though there should be awareness that use of the smartphone or tablet, along with positive benefits, also creates risks.

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