Review Article
Julia A. Krokhina, Irina I. Kruse, Elmira R. Khairullina, Gasangusein Ibragimov, Lyubov V. Kochneva, Olga V. Pashanova
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 16, Issue 4, Article No: ep542
ABSTRACT
Mobile learning presents many benefits to lecturers, students, and universities. It provides the opportunity for all to access information anytime and anywhere and also promotes learning autonomy and mobility. This paper aims to systematically analyze publications on mobile learning in higher education conducted over twenty years by providing knowledge to help researchers in this area. The data were obtained from the Scopus database. A total of 587 peer-reviewed publications were analyzed. The results show that the number of articles increased significantly after 2016, and there was an upward trend after 2018. Our results regarding prolific journals show that many articles in this field were published in several prominent journals. Our results revealed that 91 countries contributed to research worldwide, and the most productive institutions are from different continents. In addition, results indicated that recently published countries on the topic are India, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Germany. Regarding research trends, our results yielded three research clusters. The first cluster focused on building a learning environment for students, while the second cluster included research on mobile learning in medical education. In addition, the third cluster investigated young adults’ use and perceptions of mobile phones in learning through surveys and questionnaires. Moreover, the results we obtained demonstrated that recent studies also focused on academic performance and augmented reality was a trending topic before academic performance.
Keywords: mobile learning adoption, mobile learning, higher education, m-learning, research trends
Research Article
Ioannis Rizos, Evaggelos Foykas, Spiros V. Georgakopoulos
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 16, Issue 4, Article No: ep535
ABSTRACT
The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to have a profound impact on various aspects of human society, including mathematics education. Nevertheless, there is a noticeable lack of research, particularly in Greece, that focuses on the development and assessment of lesson plans and math worksheets tailored for students with special educational needs. To address this research gap, we designed and conducted a nine-hour teaching intervention in a general mathematics classroom in Greece, involving two 8th grade students with special educational needs as the subjects of the study. The intervention utilized worksheets generated by the ChatGPT 3.5 application, which were customized based on the current curriculum, as well as the special educational needs and interests of the two participating students. The data were collected through interviews, tasks, and e-questionnaires, and analyzed using a new theoretical framework based on the concept of mathematical familiarity. The results indicated that students were actively engaged in the educational process, felt safe and confident, satisfactorily met the learning objectives, and developed positive attitudes towards the mathematics course. The paper concludes with a list of good practices, teaching suggestions and restrictions that could be useful to teachers and education policy makers. The target audience for the current study is, mainly, mathematics teachers who serve at all levels of education and have students with special educational needs in their classrooms. Furthermore, the article may also prove of interest to students, parents and teachers who are interested in the interaction between mathematics education and generative AI.
Keywords: special educational needs, mathematical familiarity, math worksheets, ChatGPT, qualitative research
Research Article
Thuthukile Jita, Alice Dhliwayo
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 16, Issue 3, Article No: ep520
ABSTRACT
The role of higher education in improving educational practices and access through research in technology innovations across the wider spectrum of schooling has especially increased in the information driven 21st century lifestyle. Pre-service teacher training plays a significant role in this transformation. For South Africa, research in technology integration has not provided requisite skills for teacher educators to bring about this envisaged transformation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the affordance of the design-based research (DBR) when combined with community of practice (CoP) framework in mitigating context-based technology integration related challenges and professional development in teacher education through the social learning theory. The qualitative paper explores the experiences teacher educators had of using tablets in a DBR as technology integration tools for contextual pedagogical practices. Teacher educators (n = 10), in one university in South Africa were given tablets to use over a year before they responded to semi-structured interviews about their experiences and were also observed as they engaged in both the CoP and in classroom practice. After a thematic analysis, the main results were that the CoP provided space for teacher educators to improve their confidence and technology integration skills. The combination of DBR and the CoP was found to be complementary in bridging the gap between theory and practice for teacher educators. The CoP provided the much needed safe space for professional growth and confidence building for teacher educators. However, learning engagements were limited by inadequacy of ICT tools for the students. In light of this, the implication of the study is that professional development plans for teacher educators in technology integration skills must be context based and subject specific through DBR programs for practical results and sustainability.
Keywords: community of practice, design-based research, pedagogical practices, modelling, professional development, tablet
Review Article
Izida I. Ishmuradova, Alexey A. Chistyakov, Alexey D. Chudnovskiy, Elena V. Grib, Sergey V. Kondrashev, Sergei P. Zhdanov
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 16, Issue 2, Article No: ep508
ABSTRACT
This study looks closely at research papers about blended learning (BL) from the last 10 years (2014-2023). It pulls information from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). By using both, it gives a full picture of what is being published and what’s important in BL research. The search found 1,704 articles in Scopus and 1,545 in WoS. After putting them together and removing duplicates, there were 2,455 articles for the study. The study used a Bibliometrix R to look at who published a lot, which countries and schools did most, who worked together, and which articles got mentioned a lot. Each year, the number of articles grew by about 15.58%. Most of these, 93.00%, were articles. Universities in Australia were among those that wrote the most. “Education and Information Technologies” and “International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education” were often cited, which shows they have big roles in this research area. Some of the main researchers who connect a lot of the work are Zhu, Graham, and Jackson. It is found that keywords “higher education”, “online learning”, “students”, and “COVID-19” are very common in discussions and help shape the research being done. While much research comes from Australia and the West, there is also growing work from Asia and the Middle East. This shows that BL is becoming important in different parts of the world. But there’s a chance to get more research from less wealthy countries. This study puts together a clear picture of BL research. It looks at what’s been published, who talks to who, and which places are doing the work. The research has grown who the main people are, where there’s a gap between different regions, and what we should think about for the future. This can help make policies and change how we teach.
Keywords: bibliometrics, blended learning, higher education, research impact, knowledge mapping
Review Article
Lizzeth Navarro-Ibarra, Omar Cuevas-Salazar, Alan Robles-Aguilar
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 4, Article No: ep480
ABSTRACT
The aim of the present study is to find new emerging lines of research in education with the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). To this end, we carried out a meta-analysis selecting an index, which contained scientific articles, and which provided free access to complete documents. The search covered five years, 2017-2021 in which 748 were identified. For the analysis the articles were read in order to identify information and record it. Previously, categories were established such as the date, country, continent, language, level of schooling or demographics of the population of publication and the kind of study and area of research. With respect to the demographics we identified that the aged were the category, which had been studied the least. With reference to years of schooling, pre-school and graduate levels had the fewest articles. That said, we found that the majority of the articles were aimed at education and technology in general. However, it is important to point out that the areas with limited research such as autism, rural area, inclusive education, disabilities, cyberbullying, Indigenous affairs, social exclusion, and down syndrome. These findings show the emerging lines of research to which studies should be expanded with further knowledge.
Keywords: teaching and training, information and communication technologies, level of education, population, research of academic literature
Research Article
Carlos Enrique George-Reyes, Edgar Omar López-Caudana, Maria Soledad Ramírez-Montoya
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 4, Article No: ep478
ABSTRACT
Research competencies are skills that university students must develop to create and socialize scientific products during their academic live. In this research, an experience was implemented to improve the students’ competency levels through its imbrication with complex thinking and the use of Education 4.0 applications, such as remote team workflow development apps, web-based virtual reality, and social robotics. The study was sequential-quantitative and descriptive. A questionnaire was applied before and after the experience to know the perception of 105 Mexican university students, later a rubric was implemented for the teacher’s assessment. The results indicate that the students perceived an improvement in their research skills, however, the evaluation showed a difference between the student’s perception and the teacher’s regarding improvement in said skills. The experience can be scaled to other scenarios, where disruptive teaching strategies can support research skills development.
Keywords: higher education, Education 4.0, research, educational innovation, complex thinking
Research Article
Emily Hope Morrison, Dimitrios Vlachopoulos
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 4, Article No: ep473
ABSTRACT
Globally, schools were faced with mandatory shutdowns in the wake of the recent COVID-19 outbreak. To avoid disruption in the education process, teachers and students used alternative education strategies and solutions, switching to emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL). This change was completely unanticipated, and thus can only be perceived as a reactionary measure. The purpose of this basic qualitative study is to explore the experience of secondary students regarding ERTL, as well as their satisfaction with the tools used in the science curriculum. Challenging the assumption that the learning experience during ERTL would be similar in most subject areas, this qualitative study focuses on the aspects of the science curriculum that were complex to offer in an online setting, including experimentation and modelling of phenomena. To achieve this purpose, three focus groups with grade 8 students from an international school were conducted. Most of the participants described ERTL experience as having a predominantly negative affect on their engagement and academic performance, mainly because of their poor home learning environments, the duration of remote teaching, and the distractions that derive from the ongoing use of the Internet. At the same time, the findings revealed that, beyond the accessibility and interactivity appropriate technologies can offer, the use of tools like gamified pop-quizzes, video applications and interactive simulations can enhance the learning experience. The procedure followed for this research is easy to replicate at different contexts and, thus, generate enough data to reimagine science education from the lessons learned during ERTL.
Keywords: emergency remote teaching and learning, secondary education, science curriculum, qualitative research, technology for science curriculum, educational technology
Research Article
Katarina Zamborova, Blanka Klimova
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 3, Article No: ep445
ABSTRACT
The article presents the research of empirical mixed methods on the use of a modern mobile reading app compared to traditional forms of teaching in English business classes in higher education in Slovakia. The research belongs to the theoretical frame of the mobile assisted language learning field that has generated an interest since the early 1990 thanks to the development of mobile technologies, their features, and their functions all over the world. The research sample consisted of 40 freshman students from the University of Economics in Bratislava who were equally divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental treatment lasted one semester and was based on analyzing books on a biweekly basis from Blinkist, the reading app based on the protocol the authors created, where three higher-level thinking domains of Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) were identified. Students were also asked to read/listen to the books every week. Even though the current findings indicate no relationship between enhancing English reading skills and incorporating reading apps in a foreign language learning, SWOT analysis from focus group interviews shows different results. It is regarding the positive perception of working with the reading app in business English classes. Based on these findings, the authors make pedagogical implications about using reading apps as a part of the curriculum of blended learning in business English classes in higher education.
Keywords: mobile assisted language learning, reading apps, business English class, digital native students, mixed research methods, university setting, Slovakia
Research Article
Vincentas Lamanauskas, Rita Makarskaitė-Petkevičienė
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 3, Article No: ep434
ABSTRACT
It is obvious that the COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed learning and study processes. It has become a serious test for university students. Although distance study organization, implementation, effectiveness, and the like are actively researched, it is not entirely clear which way of organization studies is the most appropriate and prospective. Too little attention is still paid to the model of distance studies, its implementation and improvement, especially in the future development of distance and mixed distance study organization and implementation. An empirical qualitative study was conducted, the aim of which was to analyze first-cycle (bachelor study) university students’ position on the study quality issue. 132 students in the field of social sciences from three Lithuanian universities participated in the study conducted in January-May 2022. The verbal data obtained were analyzed using quantitative content analysis. The extracted semantic units were grouped into subcategories and categories. It was established that the main advantages of distance studies were convenience and cost-effectiveness, while disadvantages were the deterioration of the study organization and the deterioration of quality. The ways (directions) of quality distance study improvement can also be seen, i.e., the study process realization improvement (e.g., the content presentation improvement, an increase in interactivity), and study organization improvement (e.g., teacher competence improvement and optimization of the schedule). Despite the revealed shortcomings, more than two-thirds of students positively value the possibility of continuing the study process remotely after the pandemic. More detailed research is needed on the impact of the pandemic on university studies and the further organization and implementation of distance studies.
Keywords: distance education, quantitative content analysis, qualitative research, university students, university education
Research Article
Xiaoman Wang, John Hampton, Albert D. Ritzhaupt, Kara Dawson
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 4, Article No: ep383
ABSTRACT
As journal editors play an important role in defining and shaping academic discourse, knowing their opinions could likely prove beneficial for both current and future academic journal stakeholders. Within this vein, this study used the Delphi method to help build a profile on the trends and priorities within educational technology, from the unique perspective of the journals’ editors-in-chief. This expert panel—initially built from 117 national and international research journals—concluded with 25 editors-in-chief who finished all three rounds of the survey. Results indicated five emerging themes for trends and priorities: computer-focused, teaching and learning, online and digital education, societal, and research and theory. By exploring these current trends and priorities within educational technology, this study may provide meaningful insights to better understand the field as a whole and may also help scholars in their goal of publishing relevant, high-quality academic scholarship.
Keywords: educational technology research, trends, priorities, research journal editors, Delphi
Review Article
Francisco D. Guillén-Gámez, Raquel Rodríguez-Fernández
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 1, Article No: ep339
ABSTRACT
Studies analysing and comparing the attitudes of teachers towards Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based on gender have provided mixed results. In this work, we carried out a meta-analysis on gender differences in attitudes towards ICT, from a global perspective and exploring four dimensions: affective-emotional attitude, beliefs, self-efficacy, and mixed with each other. Through the collection of 55 studies providing 73 effect sizes based on a total sample of 21,325 working teachers, a negative effect was found, almost null (d= -0.0297) and not statistically significant. These results indicate that female teachers have a more positive attitude towards the educational use of ICT than male teachers. Independently, the dimensions affective-emotional attitude (d= -0.342), beliefs (d= 0.114), and self-efficacy (d= 0.273) produced significant effect sizes, although with small effects. The analysis of moderating variables showed that different moderators intervene significantly in the variability of effect sizes: continental origin of the teachers (emotional and beliefs dimensions); teacher’s workplace (dimension self-efficacy); type of publication (emotional dimension) and validity of the instruments (emotional and beliefs dimension). With this meta-analysis, it is possible to take another step towards a better measurement and explanation of the attitudes that teachers have towards the use of new technologies in educational contexts.
Keywords: technology, education, teacher, teaching, gender, meta-analysis, research methods
Research Article
Daniel Otto, Nadine Schroeder, Daniel Diekmann, Pia Sander
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 4, Article No: ep325
ABSTRACT
For almost 20 years, Open Educational Resources (OER) are an integral part of the debate about the digitisation of education. However, the empirical landscape of OER research is vivid and largely obscure. This article reviews the state of international empirical research on OER to reveal trends and gaps and, in this manner, identify possible desiderata for further research. We use a systematic mapping approach to examine the empirical English-speaking research landscape from 2015 to 2019. The results reveal that research primarily concentrates on the higher education sector while only a few studies are available for the school and other educational sectors. In terms of research methodologies, quantitative approaches are prevalent, with most of them being survey-based. The main research interests of the empirical studies lie in the perception of OER and the barriers to their use in educational practices. Open textbooks as a form of OER and their comparative cost advantages or qualitative comparability with traditional educational material constitute an emerging research field that is almost exclusively located in the U.S. Research gaps exist regarding the usability and user-friendliness of OER repositories. Addressing these gaps could support the numerous initiatives in different countries to establish and equip repositories. Additional gaps for empirical research were identified regarding the effects of the use of OER on pedagogical approaches and established educational practices.
Keywords: Open Educational Resources, OER, systematic mapping, empirical research, review
Research Article
Vincentas Lamanauskas, Rita Makarskaitė-Petkevičienė
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: ep309
ABSTRACT
Distance learning is not a new subject in university study practice. It is clear that a significant number of universities practiced this way of learning before the pandemic. In the case of distance learning, the emphasis is always not so much on the means used for teaching and learning, as on the very fact of the physical separation of the lecturer and the student. There is a reasonable concern about the quality of studies, their efficiency, the quality of the qualifications acquired by future specialists, etc. The new context creates the need to analyse and assess the distance learning situation that arose during the pandemic.
In January-February 2021, a qualitative study was conducted, in which 158 students from three Lithuanian universities participated. Most of the respondents were students of social and humanitarian study programmes. Qualitative data obtained on the basis of open-ended questions were analysed using the method of quantitative content analysis, i.e., semantic subcategories and categories according to four main variables were distinguished: advantages of distance lectures, disadvantages of distance lectures, and distance lecture improvement.
It has been established that the main advantages are the convenience of studying and the flexibility of the study process. Meanwhile, the most obvious shortcomings are deterioration of physical and mental health and non-realisation of social needs, deterioration of the quality of academic activities. Improving the design of lectures and improving their planning and organisation are considered the key areas of improvement.
Keywords: content analysis, distance learning, distance lectures, qualitative research, university students
Research Article
Olgun Sadik
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 1, Article No: ep285
ABSTRACT
This research was designed and conducted considering the theoretical and practical suggestions of design-based research (DBR) methodology and aimed to identify and address problems in a one-semester technology integration course at a Midwest university in the US. Community of practice (CoP) was used as the theoretical framework in this research to design and implement interventions, and improve the quality of the course. The researcher observed a community of teacher educators and aimed to make suggestions for building successful strategies for communities of practice in similar contexts. The study results showcased the connection between pedagogy, content and technology as an important theme for preparing future teachers in technology integration courses but also in all the teacher education courses. Furthermore, aligned with the previous literature, pre-service teachers’ beliefs and confidence were identified as important conditions for effective technology integration. CoP was found as a challenging but helpful model when all the members share ideas in a supportive and balanced environment. An experienced member of the community acting as a moderator and facilitating the discussions was helpful to address the communication issues in a community of teacher educators.
Keywords: community of practice, design-based research, teacher education, technology integration
Research Article
Ulas Ilic, Halil Ibrahim Haseski, Ufuk Tugtekin
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 9, Issue 2, pp. 131-153
ABSTRACT
The current study aimed to review studies on computational thinking (CT) indexed in Web of Science (WOS) and ERIC databases. A thorough search in electronic databases revealed 96 studies on computational thinking which were published between 2006 and 2016. Studies were exposed to a quantitative content analysis through using an article control form developed by the researchers. Studies were summarized under several themes including the research purpose, design, methodology, sampling characteristics, data analysis, and main findings. The findings were reported using descriptive statistics to see the trends. It was observed that there was an increase in the number of CT studies in recent years, and these were mainly conducted in the field of computer sciences. In addition, CT studies were mostly published in journals in the field of Education and Instructional Technologies. Theoretical paradigm and literature review design were preferred more in previous studies. The most commonly used sampling method was the purposive sampling. It was also revealed that samples of previous CT studies were generally pre-college students. Written data collection tools and quantitative analysis were mostly used in reviewed papers. Findings mainly focused on CT skills. Based on current findings, recommendations and implications for further researches were provided.
Keywords: Computational thinking, Research trends, Content analysis, Problem solving
Research Article
Monica W. Tracey, Michael Joiner, Sara Kacin, Jay Burmeister
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 9, Issue 2, pp. 186-205
ABSTRACT
Instructional design focuses on solving problems in a multitude of contexts. As such, designers are investigators, gathering evidence to optimally design solutions to learning problems within the identified context. The challenge described in this case study was the need to create an educational activity to promote interaction and collaboration among an interdisciplinary participant group comprised of physicians, radiobiologists, and radiation physicists. Based on the premise that interdisciplinary medical research collaboration requires a shared understanding of authentic problems from multiple perspectives, this design research case documents the design and implementation of an online case study incorporating collaborative inquiry in interdisciplinary teams with the intended outcome of building or strengthening interdisciplinary communication skills. Contextual factors – including the design team and design process – influencing the design of the activity are documented. Results indicate that using an interactive online case study as the basis for collaborative inquiry in small, interdisciplinary teams followed by a summative, large group discussion resulted in (1) evidence-based treatment decisions based on the data supplied in the case study and (2) participation of all disciplines in team interactions. Outcomes also indicated the building or strengthening of interdisciplinary communication skills and the understanding of the value and contribution of all three fields to radiation oncology treatment resulted in the participation of the online case study.
Keywords: Collaborative educational intervention, Design research, Instructional design, Conjecture mapping
Research Article
Richard A. Schwier, Jay R. Wilson
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 1, Issue 2, pp. 134-147
ABSTRACT
Students complete courses or entire programs in instructional design (ID) and enter the professional arena confident they are prepared to wrestle with the complexities and demands of ID. What many of those fresh to the profession discover is that in addition to applying what they learned in school, they are called upon to carry out a number of additional tasks, often in areas where they have no training or previous experience. This paper reports on the results of an investigation carried out with 22 instructional designers practicing in post-secondary institutions in Canada and the United States. The purpose was to reveal the aspects of professional practice that instructional designers felt were important, but that were outside the traditional boundaries and training of instructional design. Through focus groups and e-mail discussions, we identified several roles that instructional designers described as important, but were peripheral to the traditional standards of practice and competencies in instructional design.
Keywords: Instructional design, ID, Professional practice, Experience, Interviews, Research
Research Article
Steven M. Ross, Gary R. Morrison, Deborah L. Lowther
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 17-35
ABSTRACT
Today, the exponential growth of technology usage in education, via such applications of distance education, Internet access, simulations, and educational games, has raised substantially the focus and importance of educational technology research. In this paper, we examine the past and present research trends, with emphasis on the role and contribution of research evidence for informing instructional practices and policies to improve learning in schools. Specific topics addressed include: (a) varied conceptions of “effective” technology uses in classroom instruction as topics for research, (b) historical trends in research approaches and topics of inquiry; (c) alternative research designs for balancing internal (rigor) and external (relevance) validity; and (d) suggested directions for future research. Attention is devoted to describing varied experimental designs as options for achieving appropriate rigor and relevance of research evidence, and using mixed-methods research for investigating and understanding technology applications in complex real-life settings.
Keywords: Educational technology research, Technology and learning, Research designs and trends, Impact of technology on learning