General Trends of the Studies about the Sustainability of the Technology Usage in Education: A Thematic Content Analysis Study

The aim of this study is to determine general tendencies through bringing a cumulative perspective to research on sustainability of technology usage in terms of education. In this respect, certain articles were reviewed in SSCI and CPCI-SSH citation indexes located at the ISI Web of Knowledge database. A total of 87 full-text articles were filtered according to the purpose of the study and they were analyzed through meta-synthesis (thematic content analysis) according to the types of theories or models they based on, names of the journals they were published in, along with their years of publication, number of citations, research groups, examined technology and learning environment, data analysis technique, structures with significant or insignificant effects and dependent variables to be explained. Research findings display that the most frequently used model is the Information Systems Continuance Model. While a significant increase is observed in the number of publications in recent years, the three variables with the most frequently researched effects on dependent variables are found to be satisfaction, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. In research studies where continuance intention was focused for prediction, variety of independent variables due to rich theoretical basis has been of interest. In the light of the data obtained, certain suggestions have been developed. Conclusions of this research are believed to have theoretical contributions to the literature by displaying the current situation.