An Approach for Doctoral Students Conducting Context-Specific Review of Literature in IT, ICT, and Educational Technology

ABSTRACT

Since 1980s the rate of technological change has been phenomenal, creating an impact on the information-seeking behaviors of doctoral students and other researchers. When searching the three fields of Information Technology (IT), Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and Educational Technology (EdTech), it is like opening a Pandora's Box; the variation in terminology is obvious. This makes searching, managing, and evaluating sources in these interdisciplinary fields challenging, and doctoral students trying to classify and analyze technology related studies can easily be overwhelmed. We offer a systematic, practical approach for reviewing and categorizing the literature by providing key search terms, a list of e-Journals, and an organizational structure for naming and framing studies. Doctoral students navigating their way through the literature review may find our resourcesa table-of-contents, an overview of the technology-related literature, and an annotated excerpt of an examined thesis—useful for writing a critical review.

KEYWORDS:

• IT
• ICT
• Educational Technology
• literature review
• doctoral research

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the expertise of our research librarians, Cameron Barrie and Jessica Cork, for their valuable contributions to our article.