Educational Design Research (EDR) employs a diverse range of methods to study learning, teaching, design, and technology--and new ones are shared in this special issue. We contend that a focus on methods inherently requires examination of the questions they are used to answer and the ways in which the resulting findings advance scientific…

The predominance of western paradigms and a frequent failure to consider and theorize the non-neutrality of schools and technology leaves an ontological and epistemological gap in educational technology studies. Specifically, it leads to thin research on the role of power, the collective, and the intersections with technology that can alter our…

How is the academic community conceptualizing and approaching the integration of AI in education, considering its potential, complexities, and challenges? This study addresses this fundamental question by employing a multifaceted approach that combines co-occurrence network analysis, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), and sentiment analysis on a…

The relationship between technology and educational processes is a complex one. At this moment, increased digitization as well as efforts to limit the use of digital tools can be observed. In view of (a) deepening our understanding of the relationship between technology and educational processes and (b) strengthening the productive educational use…

Mixed methods research is becoming more prevalent in educational technology due to its potential for addressing complex educational problems by integrating qualitative and quantitative data and findings. At the same time, a growing chorus of researchers laments the quality and rigor of research in this field. Mixed methods studies which…

This paper presents a comprehensive review of China's policy for the integration of ICT in basic education from 1988 to 2021 through a mixed-methods research on 179 policy documents. I identified three phases of China's evolving policy system for the integration of ICT in basic education. The policy focuses on the innovation of teaching, the…

Having stepped down as editor of Educational Technology Research & Development after 15 years of service, and having learned much from Steve Ross, who served as editor for 18 years, and from many of the leading scholars in the broad and multidisciplinary field of educational technology, I have been thinking of the value added by the research…

Considering the increasing importance of educational technologies and the debates about the role of technology in education, it is of great importance to reveal research trends in educational technologies. It is also possible to present the big picture of trends and the comparative role of the UK in this picture, which is one of the main countries…

Engagement has been recognized as one of the most important factors of learning and achievement in academic settings. Research on engagement has been gearing toward a "person-in-context" orientation, where both personal characteristics and contextual features in relation to students' engagement are considered. This orientation allows a…

Mathematical modeling describes how events, concepts, and systems of interest behave in the world using mathematical concepts. This research approach can be applied to theory construction and testing by using empirical data to evaluate whether the specific theory can explain the empirical data or whether the theory fits the data available.…

Researchers tasked with understanding the effects of educational technology innovations face the challenge of providing evidence of causality. Given the complexities of studying learning in authentic contexts interwoven with technological affordances, conducting tightly-controlled randomized experiments is not always feasible nor desirable. Today,…

Educational research is reflective of the nature and structure of national and regional education systems and their historical evolution. Educational technology research, as an area within educational research, reflects this case particularly prominently. Although individual countries and regions have varying research traditions, the publication…

Analyzing qualitative data from learning processes is considered "messy" and time consuming (Chi in J Learn Sci 6(3):271-315, 1997). It is often challenging to summarize and synthesize such data in a manner that conveys the richness and complexity of learning processes in a clear and concise manner. Moreover, qualitative data often…

Educational technology offers unique affordances as a learning tool and delivery system for enhancing and personalizing instruction. Over the past two decades, efforts by school districts and states to infuse technology into everyday K-12 education through one-to-one laptop initiatives have rapidly proliferated. In this paper, I examine such…

This paper provides a summary account of Activity-Centred Analysis and Design (ACAD). ACAD offers a practical approach to analysing complex learning situations, in a way that can generate knowledge that is reusable in subsequent (re)design work. ACAD has been developed over the last two decades. It has been tested and refined through collaborative…