What Forty Years of Research Says About the Impact of Technology on Learning A Second-Order Meta-Analysis and Validation Study

Resource type
Journal Article
Authors/contributors
Title
What Forty Years of Research Says About the Impact of Technology on Learning A Second-Order Meta-Analysis and Validation Study
Abstract
This research study employs a second-order meta-analysis procedure to summarize 40 years of research activity addressing the question, does computer technology use affect student achievement in formal face-to-face classrooms as compared to classrooms that do not use technology? A study-level meta-analytic validation was also conducted for purposes of comparison. An extensive literature search and a systematic review process resulted in the inclusion of 25 meta-analyses with minimal overlap in primary literature, encompassing 1,055 primary studies. The random effects mean effect size of 0.35 was significantly different from zero. The distribution was heterogeneous under the fixed effects model. To validate the second-order meta-analysis, 574 individual independent effect sizes were extracted from 13 out of the 25 meta-analyses. The mean effect size was 0.33 under the random effects model, and the distribution was heterogeneous. Insights about the state of the field, implications for technology use, and prospects for future research are discussed.
Publication
Review of Educational Research
Volume
81
Pages
4-28
Date
March 2011
Library Catalogue
ResearchGate
Extra
shortDOI: 10/cg7r89
Citation
Tamim, R., Bernard, R., Borokhovski, E., Abrami, P., & Schmid, R. (2011). What Forty Years of Research Says About the Impact of Technology on Learning A Second-Order Meta-Analysis and Validation Study. Review of Educational Research, 81, 4–28. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654310393361