Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 104, January 2017, Pages A1-A15
Computers & Education

Research on ICT in K-12 schools – A review of experimental and survey-based studies in computers & education 2011 to 2015

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.09.006Get rights and content

Introduction

What is the role of a journal? Is it to follow the research or lead it? For the former, it is to serve as an archival record of the scholarship in a field. It can serve to permit the research community to engage with each other via the written record. But, for the latter, it can serve the research community by pointing out gaps in the research based on the archival record. This review is intended to do just that.

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been used to enhance learning in schools. There are several reasons for this growing interest. Firstly, ICT has the potential to change the nature of disciplines – it changes the sorts of questions you can answer, the ways in which you go about answering them, and the ways in which you represent your understandings. Secondly, ICT provides new ways of supporting learners - it changes pedagogy. Thirdly, ICT opens up access to information, and some claim that it provides opportunities to widen access to education (OECD, 2015a, OECD, 2015b). Finally, ICT already forms part of the daily lives of children. There is therefore a need to develop learners who can work critically and function in an ICT-rich, connected society.

Many papers have been published by the educational technology research community regarding the needs and effects of using ICT in the classroom (Condie and Munro, 2007, Fu, 2013). Among the reported effects are an improvement in learning and the development of basic, transversal skills or competences. Some of these studies are more teacher-centered, focused on identifying the needs and barriers for ICT adoption at school; others are more student-centered, analyzing the effects that the use of technology has on learner performance. There is consensus among teacher-centered studies that successful implementation of ICT requires the involvement of students, teachers, senior leaders in schools and policy makers as part of the process (Fu, 2013, Mumtaz, 2000, Ringstaff and Kelley, 2002). In terms of educational policies, a recent review, developed by national and local governments of Norway, Flanders and England, analyzed the content features of educational curricula for primary education (Aesaert, Vanderlinde, Tondeur, & van Braak, 2013). The results of the aforementioned review suggest that curricula emphasize the need for developing a critical, safe and responsible use of educational technology. With regards to student-centered studies, the technical report by Condie and Munro (2007) analyzes the results from a literature review of over 350 published articles that reveal the positive impact of ICT use on student performance at school. This study highlights the fact that ICT has the greatest impact on student performance when it is included as a regular part of the classroom experience. Research has also shown that the use of ICT also improves motivation and engagement, resulting in greater persistence and a more profound understanding among students (Underwood, 2009). A positive impact on student performance has also been obtained with particular technologies. This is the case, for instance, of mobile technologies, according to the review by Wu, Jim, Chen, Kao, and Lin (2012).

However, and despite these positive findings regarding the use of ICT in schools reported in the literature, a major review of the impact of ICT in education across phases of education (Luckin, Bligh, Manches, Ainsworth, Crook, & Noss, 2012) found that “evidence of digital technologies producing real transformation in learning and teaching remains elusive” (p.8) and “much existing teaching practice may well not benefit greatly from new technologies” (p.64). This view was supported by a recent analytical report by the OECD (OECD, 2015a) that suggests that the embedding, and thus impact, of technology in education remains sub-optimal. The report by OECD presents a comparative analysis of the digital skills acquired by students in 64 countries (34 OCED countries and 30 partner countries). The main findings are that as currently used in these countries: (1) the use of computers in the classroom is still very low (only 72% of students reported that they use the computer in the classroom); (2) students who report a moderate use of computers at school achieve better learning outcomes than those who use them rarely, but worse than those who use them very often; (3) the use of computers at school does not lead to appreciable improvements in students' reading, mathematics or science skills; and (4) technology does not help bridge the skills gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. That is, this report points out that the ways in which ICT has been used so far are not having the expected beneficial impacts. Therefore, there is a need of exploring new approaches in which technology is embedded more effectively in education.

Computers & Education is considered one of the most influential journals in the field of educational technology (Zurita, Merigó, & Lobos-Ossandón, 2015) and is positioned in the top 5% in its category by Thomson Reuters through the Journal Citation Report in both Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index (SCI). Given the findings reported by the OECD, we contend that the educational technology community has the responsibility to open a debate and a critical discussion about how we address the study of the impact and adoption of ICT in schools, and how ICT has contributed to improving student learning, competences and skills development. To this end, this editorial presents a systematic, quantitative review (Green et al., 2006, Pan, 2008, pp. 1–5) of the studies published in Computers & Education over the last five years (from 2011 to 2015). Our aim is to learn from the most cited publications and shed light on how future research within the educational technology community should be conducted.

This systematic review of the impact and adoption of ICT in K-12 schools looks to provide an overview of current research in Computers & Education and address the problems reported by the OECD (OECD, 2015a). Specifically, seven research questions (RQ) that arise from the main research objective are addressed in this review:

  • RQ1. Which papers have been the most cited over the past five years?

  • RQ2. Where was the research carried out?

  • RQ3. Which disciplines were addressed?

  • RQ4. Which levels of education were addressed?

  • RQ5. Who are the study participants and what are the competences aimed to be improved of these participants?

  • RQ6. Which methods were used to analyze the impact/adoption of technology in school settings?

  • RQ7. How was this research funded?

Section snippets

Methodology

The methodological approach adopted for this paper consists of a systematic review (Green et al., 2006, Pan, 2008, pp. 1–5). Systematic literature reviews are a form of research that help bring a new perspective to the topic that is reviewed and generate new knowledge (Kitchenham, 2004, Torraco, 2005). Other studies on educational technology have previously used this methodological approach as a framework for organizing a literature review, especially in the field of science education (Gikandi

RQ1: which papers have been the most cited over the past five years? scopus & google scholar citations

Table 3 shows the number of publications selected for each year, and the range of citations according to Scopus and Google Scholar. Since Google Scholar not only includes citations in scientific publications but also in dissertations, books, pre-prints, and technical reports, among others, the number of citations per paper is greater than or equal to those in Scopus. In order to determine the most cited papers, we identified the papers that were responsible for 50% of the citations in both the

Conclusions and limitations of the study

Considering that the OECD found in a recent report (OECD, 2015a) that the embedding, and thus impact, of technology in education remains sub-optimal, our aim was to learn from the experimental studies published in Computers & Education over the last five years, and determine how we can conduct research that is more relevant to the education community.

Although mechanisms were used in order to ensure the consistency and the validity of the results that were obtained, there are certain limitations

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