Creativity and Emerging Digital Educational Technologies: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

In order to effectively use emerging digital educational technologies educators should reflect on how these technologies influence student learning, including student creativity. Existing research shows that creativity can be supported by emerging technologies, but recent research in this area has not yet been reviewed. The purpose of our systematic review was to identify and synthesize articles in the field of creativity and education concerning the use of emerging digital educational technologies and systems. To this end, we reduce an initial sample of 267 papers to 37 relevant articles. We assess those articles quantitatively and qualitatively to arrive at a clearer understanding of the state of the research. Our analysis reveals a new division between articles focusing on technologies themselves and articles focusing on curriculum developments in technology-related courses. We conclude that research related to educational technology and creativity has been handled with important issues in the field overall, but certain discrimination deserves to be addressed. Notably, we recommend additional research on the impact of technology on creativity in adult education and lifelong learning. Our synthesis will be of interest to both researchers and practitioners in the field of creativity and education, concerning the use of educational technologies and systems.