Rapid advances in technology during the last few decades have provided a multitude of new options for teaching and learning. Although technology is being widely adopted in education, there is a shortage of research on the effects that this technology might have on student learning, and why those effects occur. We conducted a comprehensive review of the literature on various uses of digital technology in educational settings, and the effects of that technology on students’ objective learning outcomes. We interpret these effects within the context of empirical research on effective principles of learning, and the extent to which the affordances of technology permit opportunities for increased engagement with the material, retrieval practice, and spacing. Results revealed that technology is neither beneficial nor harmful for learning when used primarily as a means of presenting information (e.g., information viewed on a computer screen vs. on paper), but can be beneficial when it involves unique affordances that leverage effective learning principles. We discues these findings in light of the ever-increasing availability of technology in education, and the importance of evidence-guided criteria in decisions about adoption and implementation.

在过去的几十年中，技术的飞速发展为教学提供了许多新的选择。尽管技术已在教育中被广泛采用，但对于该技术可能对学生学习产生的影响以及产生这种影响的原因，仍缺乏研究。我们对有关数字技术在教育环境中的各种用途的文献进行了全面回顾，并探讨了该技术对学生客观学习成果的影响。我们在关于有效学习原理的实证研究的背景下解释这些影响，并在多大程度上利用技术能力为与材料，检索实践和间距的增加接触提供了机会。结果表明，技术主要用于表示信息（例如，在计算机屏幕上还是在纸上查看的信息）时，对学习既无益，也无害，但当它涉及利用有效学习原理的独特能力时，则可能是有益的。鉴于教育中技术的不断普及，以及在采用和实施的决策中以证据为依据的标准的重要性，我们对这些发现进行了论证。