The State of Educational Technology Research and Practice

AbstractThe authors offer a brief overview of the state of educational technology (edtech) research and practice. They detail the current state of the field by reporting on trends in edtech scholarship and from analysis of social media data and website analytics. Topics of focus in the field change from year to year. For example, there was a shift among scholarly focus from virtual and augmented reality in 2021 to more attention on artificial intelligence in 2022 and 2023. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in more focus on emergency remote teaching and an increased interest in online and blended learning. There has also been more concern about increasing open educational resources (OER) and the use of technology to improve women’s and girls’ experiences in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning. The authors also put forth self-directed learning on social media and critical data literacy as illustrative examples of particular areas of study. Overall, the authors contend that the field can, at times, be constrained by a technophilic view that fails to account for downsides, such as prohibitive costs, loss of data privacy, or even discriminatory design or use. There is emerging scholarly interest in centering ethical issues with technology.