Why more research is needed

So many studies end with the admonition – more research is needed. I suppose this is the case because many studies only are able to resolve some of the questions that were originally posed or find results that do not match the findings of others.

This has long been true of investigations of technology in education. Just so I am not accused of being a technology fan boy, here is a cautionary report from NPR.

I cannot say that I have read the original studies cited here. I tend to follow specific journals and I have yet to see these findings in journals. This does not mean that the results do not deserve scrutiny.

One thing I would urge readers to note is the correlational nature of many of these findings. When things are related the nature of the relationship can be challenging to interpret from correlational data. This does not mean that correlational research has no value. Sometimes certain important variables are difficult or unethical to manipulate. I tend to start by trying to generate reasonable alternate explanations just to see if I can find other ways to interpret the statistics.

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