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 (1):
4-28 (2011)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 metaanalytic 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 metaanalysis, 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.