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Open research questions in Digital Education and Society

298 gap statements mined from Digital Education and Society papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 3,437 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • Second, future work should explore how Jonasian categories of life, organicity, and vul‑ nerability can enter into dialogue with emerging debates on AI sustainability, algorith‑ mic carbon footprints, and “green AI”, where a convergence between environmental ethics and AI ethics is already visible.

    The Heuristics of Fear in Hans Jonas: Connecting the Status of Nature and the Nature of the Digital Artefact in the Context of Artificial Intelligence as an Extension of Modern Technology—A Systematic Review · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research can extend these insights along three directions. First, empirical studies are needed to analyse how algorithmic infrastructures are embedded in governance regimes across institutional contexts and how they redistribute recognition and responsibility.

    Democratic Didactics in Digitalized Higher Education: The DEA Framework for Teaching and Learning · 2025 · DOI

  • Future research should examine how these processes vary across national contexts, institutional settings, subject domains and forms of assessment, and how society might shape algorithmic infrastructures rather than merely adapting learners to them.

    Generative AI as meaning-mediating infrastructure in education: a critical integrative review of inclusion, exclusion, and semantic transduction · 2026 · DOI

  • The mechanisms invoked to account for that asymmetry—externalisation, the weakness of public and regulatory discourse, the commercial interest in seamlessness—are not themselves objects of this study: no data were collected on manufacturers, regulation, or supply chains.

    The Socio-Ecological Black Box of Digital Media Technologies: An Invisible Sustainability Issue in Pre-Service Teachers’ Media Practices · 2026 · DOI

  • But the framework’s own concepts predict that the dyad is insufficient for accumulation.

    The relational–epistemic stance: generative AI as a dynamic transitional object · 2026 · DOI

  • They play a vital role in maintaining educational continuity for hospitalized children, yet their professional information and communication practices remain understudied in US settings.

    US Hospital Educators' Technology Needs: A Qualitative Study for Developing Action-Oriented Technology · 2026 · DOI

  • Caution is warranted in generalising the prevalence of specific alienation levels to other settings.

    Teaching in the AI Era: Sustainable Digital Education Through Ethical Integration and Teacher Empowerment · 2025 · DOI

  • The research identifies the need for educators and policymakers to consider the social and ethical implications of AI in education. The study notes the challenge of judging risks and benefits during the early diffusion of innovation.

    Media Framing of Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Content Analysis of US News Coverage · 2026 · DOI

  • The research highlights the need for empirical evidence on media framing patterns during the early diffusion of AI in education.

    Media Framing of Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Content Analysis of US News Coverage · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should explore the development of AI-supported transformative learning models that prioritize learner agency, critical digital literacy, and ethical dialogue. Future research should investigate the impact of AI on emancipatory and democratic learning futures.

    Transformative Learning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Critical Theory Debate · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in current approaches to AI in education, which tend to be instrumental and emphasize efficiency and performance over meaning-making and emancipatory learning. The paper highlights the need for critical pedagogical approaches that guide the use of AI in education.

    Transformative Learning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Critical Theory Debate · 2026 · DOI

  • The study suggests that future research should focus on promoting creative thought and critical depth of interpretation in scientific writing. The paper argues that future research should examine the potential implications of the automation of scientific publication production for academic employment.

    The Ghost of the Author: Mechanisation, Metricisation and Narrative Contraction in the Age of AI · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper highlights the need for a critical examination of the regulatory character of scientific discourse and the impact of academic capitalism on knowledge production.

    The Ghost of the Author: Mechanisation, Metricisation and Narrative Contraction in the Age of AI · 2026 · DOI

  • By bringing postdigital theory into conversation with lived experiences of war and peace, this article seeks to walk the talk of postdigital scholarship as a critical philosophy of practice—one that remains unfinished, contested, and oriented toward futures that are not yet known but urgently needed.

    Postdigital War and Peace · 2026 · DOI

  • The study highlights the need for constructive integration of GenAI in education. The findings suggest that AI detection is a particularly visible concern in UK higher-education communities.

    ChatGPT vs Teachers vs Students: Large-Scale Analysis of Generative AI Discourse in Education Communities on Reddit · 2026

  • Large-scale empirical evidence on how students and teachers perceive and navigate the shift to GenAI remains limited. Prior empirical Reddit work addresses only the launch period and early reactions in HE-only subreddits.

    ChatGPT vs Teachers vs Students: Large-Scale Analysis of Generative AI Discourse in Education Communities on Reddit · 2026

  • There is a challenge in balancing the benefits of GenAI with the need for human-centric education. The paper highlights the challenge of preserving humanity and human potential in the face of increasing automation.

    Finishing Each Other’s Futures: Collaborative Education Fiction Writing as Postdigital Inquiry into AI and Education · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of a philosophical understanding of AI literacy that challenges the common assumption of disembodied entitativity. The need for a novel approach to understanding AI literacy, focusing on the physicality of thought and the importance of experience. The gap in educational approaches that prioritize critically reflected experiences.

    The Relationship Between Body and AI Literacy as a Problem in the Philosophy of Education · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the current epistemological landscape, where the rise of algorithmic rationality and the datafication of social life have produced an epistemic crisis within the human sciences. The study argues that current data-driven models distort knowledge by detaching it from its historical and creative origins.

    Between Bacon and Descartes: Vico’s Methodology and the Critique of Algorithmic Reductionism · 2026 · DOI

  • Analytical Focus Political and ethical horizon of education; refers to voice, recognition, participation, legitimacy in collective life. Capacities for deliberation, recognition of marginalized voices, contestation, accountability, formation of civic agency.

    Democratic Didactics in Digitalized Higher Education: The DEA Framework for Teaching and Learning · 2025 · DOI

  • The study has shown that generative AI is not simply an auxiliary tool in HE but a structuring force that influences how learning, judgment, and recognition take form.

    Higher Education Under Generative AI: Biographical Orientations of Democratic Learning and Teaching · 2025 · DOI

  • The author argues that the political-economic dimension of generative AI may be incompatible with good education.

    How AI Will Monetize Education: Response to Dekker and Hermans · 2026 · DOI

  • The first limitation concerns its nature: as a theoretical contribution, this work requires empirical examination; future research may investigate whether and how the theorised cognitive mechanism emerges in interactions with texts characterised by epistemic opacity and surface similarity, and to what extent pedagogical moves that make…

    Epistemia in the classroom: the problem of evidence of understanding in education in the age of generative AI · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research could explore the implications of the 'Habermas Machine' for democratic politics and communicative action - It could examine the relevance of Habermas' ideas to contemporary social…

    Habermas as a thinker against Google's "Habermas Machine" · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in our understanding of the impact of digital technologies on the public sphere - It highlights the need for critical evaluation of technocratic…

    Habermas as a thinker against Google's "Habermas Machine" · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Digital Education and Society

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Future research should explore the development of AI-supported transformative learning models that prioritize learner agency, critical digital literacy, and ethical dialogue (“Transformative Learning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Critical…”, 2026); (2) The study suggests that future research should focus on promoting creative thought and critical depth of interpretation in scientific writing (“The Ghost of the Author: Mechanisation, Metricisation and Narrative Contraction…”, 2026); (3) The lack of a philosophical understanding of AI literacy that challenges the common assumption of disembodied entitativity (“The Relationship Between Body and AI Literacy as a Problem in the Philosophy of…”, 2026); (4) Large-scale empirical evidence on how students and teachers perceive and navigate the shift to GenAI remains limited (“ChatGPT vs Teachers vs Students: Large-Scale Analysis of Generative AI…”, 2026); (5) Future research can extend these insights along three directions (“Democratic Didactics in Digitalized Higher Education: The DEA Framework for…”, 2025). 298 gap statements have been mined from Digital Education and Society papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 3,437 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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