Technology for learning: A critical review of the meta-analysis literature

From Skinner's teaching machines to adaptive learning or virtual reality, educational technology has continuously raised new expectations to individualise teaching and foster learning. As technology infuses classrooms with digital learning and teaching tools, their effectiveness is being widely debated. For the last forty years, many research projects have sought to assess the impact of educational technology on student learning and have been meta-analysed. After presenting these works' main results, this article analyses the contribution of this meta-analytical literature from a critical point of view. It aims to shed light on the digital education debate and to outline future research directions.