The Use of Technology in Geography Education Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

In recent years, as well as in various other fields, developments in technology have gained a prominent place in the field of geography education. The purpose of this study is to identify the trends in the use of technology in research on geography education and to provide guidance to researchers in this field. In this regard, a detailed search was conducted for the studies published in the Web of Science database. As a result of the search, a total of 621 academic studies, which analyse the use of technology in geography education research, in Education Educational Research Category was accessed. The metadata of academic studies were downloaded from the Web of Science database and analysed with the software MS Excel and VOSviewer. The findings obtained from the study demonstrated an increase in the number of publications and citations over the years, and it was identified that the number of publications and citations increased more rapidly as of 2006 in comparison to previous years. When the geographical distribution of the studies was analysed, it was revealed that most of the studies were conducted in the UK, followed by the USA, Brazil, Australia, and China. According to keyword analysis, the most popular topics in recent years are geographic information technologies, online learning, virtual reality and visual communication technologies.