The nature and building blocks of educational technology research

Highly cited educational technology journal articles: a descriptive and critical analysis

“…Evidence further shows that papers from (often Westernized parts of) Asia are common in the major edtech journals (Bodily, Leary, and West 2019;Bond, Zawacki-Richter, and Nichols 2019;Pérez-Sanagustín et al 2017;Zawacki-Richter and Latchem 2018). Lastly, research suggests that formal education, especially (primary and secondary) school and higher education are the most common research contexts of the studies published in major edtech journals (Bond and Buntins 2018;Bond, Zawacki-Richter, and Nichols 2019;Pérez-Sanagustín et al 2017;Valtonen et al 2022).…”

“…By context we mean both, geographical (country / continent) and educational (e.g., primary / secondary / higher education) contexts. Western and especially English-speaking countries are overrepresented among HCAs (Azer and Azer 2019), and there is indicative evidence suggests that this also applies to edtech research: contributions from South America, the Middle East, and Africa are underrepresented in edtech journals (Bond and Buntins 2018;Bond, Zawacki-Richter, and Nichols 2019;Pérez-Sanagustín et al 2017;Valtonen et al 2022;Zawacki-Richter and Latchem 2018). Evidence further shows that papers from (often Westernized parts of) Asia are common in the major edtech journals (Bodily, Leary, and West 2019;Bond, Zawacki-Richter, and Nichols 2019;Pérez-Sanagustín et al 2017;Zawacki-Richter and Latchem 2018).…”

“…Our research design complements the existing edtech-themed HCA research, which has focused on individual journals (Bond and Buntins 2018), as well as specific research topics (blended learning; Halverson et al 2014) and particular educational contexts (K-12 schools;Pérez-Sanagustín et al 2017). The few inclusive and cross-journal HCA analyses have been done for relatively small samples ranging from nine to 50 papers (Bodily, Leary, and West 2019;Valtonen et al 2022;West and Borup 2014). 1 Lastly, all the aforementioned reviews can be labeled descriptive as they outline the common features of the HCAs without a profound critical reflection of what kind of research is cited, where the research is from, where the research is published, and what do these things mean for edtech research.…”

“…Edtech is as an essentially positive project, which is present in the common terminology of the field, including phrases like computer-supported collaborative learning and technology-enhanced learning (Selwyn 2016), which both signal an optimistic and solutionist stance towards edtech (Mertala 2021). An illustrative, if anecdotal, example is that the most cited edtech paper identified by Valtonen et al (2022) explored 'e-learning success factors' (Selim 2007). Besides quantitative studies, review, method, and theoretical articles are also cited more than qualitative articles (Antonakis et al 2014), with reviews typically being overrepresented in HCAs (Aksnes 2003;Judge et al 2007).…”

Pupils’ experiences of learning analytics visualizations in supporting self-regulated learning in an elementary school classroom

“…Since ITSs were introduced, their development has continued rapidly with several overlapping research fields. Currently, learning analytics (LA) appears to be gaining a key position in this field (Valtonen et al, 2022). LA is typically defined as follows: "the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for the purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs" (LAK, 2011).…”