Computer in education in the 21st century. A scientific mapping of the literature in Web of Science

Abstract

Computers have evolved over the course of history through successive generations. The impact of this technology on society has revolutionised the way we communicate, participate in the political life of a country or access education. The potential of the computer in the field of education has been highlighted by last year's global event. The objective of the study is to analyze the literature on the term computer in the field of education (COMPU-EDU) in the Web of Science database. For this, a bibliometric methodology based on a scientific mapping of the publications on the state of the question has been used. It has worked with an analysis unit of 10939 documents. The results indicate that research related to "computer" in education is mainly presented in English and in research articles. In addition, the journal with the most manuscripts on this line of research is Computer & Education. The analysis of the scientific evolution of this line of research shows that studies are mainly focused on teaching and learning processes, as well as on students' attitudes towards computer use. It can be concluded that the COMPU-EDU investigations are currently at an inflection point, given that there is a downward trend, as far as production volume is concerned. The scientific community is beginning to focus its research on other more specific branches of computer, such as augmented reality or robotics. In addition, the scientific production of COMPU-EDU in the 21th century focuses mainly on the attitudes of the members involved in the pedagogical act, on gender differences, on the elements of the teaching and learning processes - pedagogical methods and evaluation - and in the attention of students with special educational needs. Probably in the future the lines of research will begin to focus on self-regulation of learning, computational-thinking and gamification.