Beyond the AI spotlight: Mapping the broader landscape of educational technology research

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly become a dominant topic in educational technology research, raising questions about the visibility of other areas of inquiry that continue to shape the field. In this editorial we examine what the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET) has published alongside the growth of AI research. We reviewed 143 peer-reviewed research articles published from Volume 39, Issue 1 (2023) to Volume 42, Issue 3 (2026), first identifying articles in which AI was a central focus and then thematically coding the remaining non-AI articles. Fifty articles (35%) were AI-focused, while 93 (65%) addressed other areas of educational technology. These non-AI studies covered a broad range of themes, including professional learning and academic development, assessment and feedback, immersive environments and practice, learning design, learning analytics, collaborative learning, and digital wellbeing. Although non-AI research constitutes nearly two-thirds of the corpus overall, its share of AJET publications has declined as AI-focused research has increased. We argue that making this broader body of work visible matters because it reflects and sustains the conceptual, pedagogical, institutional, and methodological breadth of educational technology research.