"This report is a scoping review that assesses state-of-the-art research on educational technologies (EdTech). Despite considerable investment in EdTech in schools, it remains unclear just what educational benefits are anticipated or desirable. This lack of clarity is partly conceptual – what is meant by ‘educational technology’ or by ‘learning benefits’ for children? It is also empirical – what evidence exists that EdTech brings educational benefits, using which methods, researched in which countries, evaluated against which outcomes, and so on? Hence, we first ask, what kinds of research have been conducted on the learning outcomes of EdTech used in schools? We then ask, what does the available evidence tell us about whether and how the use of EdTech is linked to children’s learning outcomes?
The report is intended primarily for policymakers, EdTech providers and the public who are concerned to understand ‘what works’ as EdTech is introduced into classrooms worldwide. Recognising the priority often given by policymakers to causal claims and demonstrable effects, our empirical lens focuses on peer-reviewed studies that employ causal or quasi-causal research designs. These designs seek to support causal inferences, typically by comparing children’s learning before versus after using EdTech, or by comparing those in experimental conditions (who used EdTech) versus control conditions (with no EdTech).
The findings are noteworthy for what they show, and also for their limitations. While the weight of meta-analytic evidence presented here indicates that many types of EdTech can, under specific conditions, produce measurable short-term gains in academic performance for children, the findings vary considerably according to context, age, pedagogy and EdTech design. Further, the findings reflect largely non-UK samples of children, often researched in experimental rather than natural conditions. Caution is vital when extrapolating to the real-world classrooms of any particular country, and in generalising about whether the observed learning outcomes represent a net benefit to children’s broader learning, development and rights." Preface, page 10)