Linda Castañeda

Professor of Educational Technology in the Department of Didactics and School Organisation at the Faculty of Education, University of Murcia, and a member of its Educational Technology Research Group. She holds a European PhD in Educational Technology from the Universitat de les Illes Balears (Extraordinary Doctorate Award). She has been awarded three recognised research evaluation periods (“sexenios”) and three teaching evaluation periods (“quinquenios”). Her work focuses on understanding how people, ideas and technologies shape each other within learning environments, and how digital systems —including so-called “artificial intelligence”— are reshaping teaching, learning and curriculum design. Her research explores critical perspectives on educational technology, teacher digital competence, emerging pedagogies from sociomaterial approaches, personal learning environments, and digital and data literacies. She has led and collaborated on numerous national and international research projects. She leads the University of Murcia’s team in the European project CUTIE (Competences for Universities using Technology in Education and Institutional Empowerment), and previously served as principal investigator of the Joint Research Centre project Strategic Approaches to Regional Transformation of Digital Education, which resulted in the Science for Policy report JRC134282. She also led the University of Murcia’s contribution to the DALI (Data Literacy for Citizens) project, focused on critical data literacy through connected and game-based learning. In addition, she coordinated the adaptation of the DigCompEdu framework to higher education within the UNIDIGITAL DigCompEdu F&A project, involving 34 Spanish universities. Her research trajectory continues through her role as an international partner in AI LEARN – the Norwegian Centre for Research on Artificial Intelligence and Learning, dedicated to developing critical forms of intelligence in education. She contributes to research evaluation and science policy processes, serving on the Social Sciences Committee of AQU Catalunya and on the Advisory Committee for Education Sciences of the Basque Government for the evaluation of predoctoral and postdoctoral research funding. She has participated in the European Commission expert group for the update of the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp 3.0) and has been a member of the Steering Committee of DigiEduHack, a European Commission initiative promoting educational innovation at an international scale. In teaching, she has spent more than a decade lecturing on core modules in the Primary Education degree (Bilingual Group), including Resources & ICT and School Organisation, as well as Organisation and Management of ICT Use in Education in the Master’s in Educational Technology, e-learning and Knowledge Management. She has also delivered numerous specialist courses and seminars at universities in Spain and abroad. Throughout her career, she has held research stays at institutions such as the Knowledge Media Institute (Open University, UK), the Department of Education (University of Oxford), the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Centre for Education and New Technologies at Universitat Jaume I, among others. These experiences have shaped her international and transdisciplinary perspective on digital transformation in education. Overall, her work brings together critical reflection, empirical research and collaborative innovation, guided by a clear commitment: to contribute to building more human, inclusive and critically engaged educational systems capable of living well with technology.