Publishing trends in JDLTE: A five-year perspective

Abstract

We thought it would be interesting to examine the last five volumes (33; 2017 − 37; 2021) of the Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education (JDLTE) to identify topics and trends that have emerged around publishing in this dynamic area. In the last five volumes we published 82 articles, compiled two special issues (Makerspaces in Teacher Education, 2018 and Computational Thinking in Teacher Education, 2020), and recorded 59,884 article views to date. Submissions have steadily increased these past five years, as interest around publishing about digital learning in teacher education continues to grow. Figure 1 represents a breakdown of the topics covered by research articles published in these last five volumes. We used very broad categories to classify and illustrate the distribution of topics in these issues. For example, one-third of the articles published involved pre-service (22%) and in-service teachers (11%) as participants. Several articles (17%) published during this time, a pivotal time in distance education, focused on online learning or online professional development. Technology specific topics like computational thinking/coding (12%), TPACK (8%), and makerspaces (5%) were also present. Articles with a technology/content area focus (11%), such as literacy, mathematics, or STEM, remain an important focus for JDLTE. The remaining articles (14%) covered various topics across technology and teacher education – like validating questionnaires, promoting school-university partnerships, and using technology for reflection. These five volumes also included JDLTE Outstanding Research Paper Awards that are presented annually at the ISTE conference. One article is selected from each volume that has a high probability to advance the field of technology and teacher education. It is worth listing the last five paper award winners here, noting the important and timely topics covered in these articles: