This paper explores the knowledge and understanding of cyberethics held by preservice teachers across three European countries. The study was conducted via an online survey and yielded a total of 1,131 responses from preservice teachers in Spain, Norway, and Malta. The facets of cyberethics included in this study were specifically related to behaving responsibly online, safeguarding privacy, respecting copyright, seeking consent of third parties before posting images or videos on social media platforms, and considering their own professional identity as future teachers when posting images or videos online. The findings indicate that preservice teachers reported similar levels of competence in both applying copyright and respecting privacy rules. However, this varied across countries, with preservice teachers in Malta and Norway reporting higher levels of knowledge and awareness than their counterparts in Spain. Malta had the largest number of participants who reported that they ‘always’ considered the potential impact that posting media online may have on their careers, followed by Norway. Spain had the largest number of preservice teachers who stated that they rarely or never thought about this impact on their teaching career. Our findings highlight the need for student teachers’ knowledge of cyberethics to be prioritised during ITE, especially within the framework of developing a professional digital identity. In light of our findings, we recommend that all ITE programmes include digital competence and cyberethics components in their curricula. This would enable preservice teachers to develop an emerging professional and digital identity to face the challenges of becoming teachers in the 21st century.

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Background and RationaleThe rationale for this special issue is based on the increasing and now almost ubiquitous use of technology in teaching and learning. As the exposure to technology in the classroom increases, so too will the requirement for all teachers to be digitally competent in its use for classroom teaching and learning. This special issue aims to evaluate student teachers' attitudes towards ICT, their understanding of digital competence, and how teacher training institutions prepare them to work in an ever-changing and evolving digital classroom. This special issue will also examine "digital distractions" viewed as potential downsides in the digitisation of classrooms. Furthermore, this publication will propose a new digital competence framework that includes Pedagogical, Ethical, Attitudinal, and Technological (PEAT) elements. It will discuss the rationale for its creation and the affordances that this framework offers.The origins for this publication grew from an Erasmus+ funded project, Developing ICT in Teacher Education (DiCTE) 2017-2020. The project aimed to explore and investigate how five teacher education institutions in four European countries instill and build the necessary skills that allow student teachers to develop into professionally competent users of digital technology in the

Through the perspectives of early childhood educators (ECEs) working with under-fives, this article explores how play and learning featured when shifted abruptly to online spaces during COVID-19 in Malta. This work draws on Siemens’ connectivism learning theory which sees the integration of technology and social interactions as connections that empower learning in a digital age. The COVID-19 scenario called for immediately available data; consequently, a quantitative methodology was adopted. Two online surveys were held: in 2020 and 2021.  Two hundred sixty-three ECEs participated in the first online survey, while seventy-nine the second. Findings locate benefits, challenges, and opportunities for play and learning online, shaped by the development of three key changing patterns in Maltese ECEC: an uneven start for ECEs, e-interactions, and curricula and pedagogies in online spaces – a kaleidoscope of play and learning in COVID-19 times. Implications for pre-service and in-service ECEs’ support, monitoring, and training are discussed to facilitate effective play and learning in online environments.

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