Emerging Educational Technologies in Teaching and Learning: A Bibliometric and Thematic Analysis of Research Trends, 2010–2026

Emerging technologies such as blended and flipped models, MOOCs, mobile learning, gamification, immersive reality, learning analytics and the metaverse have reshaped teaching and learning since 2010. Research on them is large and fragmented, and most reviews examine one technology at a time. This study maps the whole field over 17 years to show how it has grown, who produces it, which themes dominate and how individual technologies have risen, plateaued or declined. Bibliographic data were retrieved from OpenAlex in November 2026. A query combining 22 technology terms in titles with pedagogical terms in abstracts identified 82,850 records. Records were screened for relevance to education and restricted to peer-reviewed journals in the CWTS core-source set, leaving 12,039 articles and reviews for analysis. Performance analysis covered output, countries, institutions, journals, authors and citations. Science mapping used keyword co-occurrence, association-strength normalization, Louvain clustering, Callon's centrality–density strategic map, technology trajectories and country collaboration networks. Annual output grew from 131 papers in 2010 to 1,263 in 2025, a compound annual growth rate of 16.3%. The United States (1,969 papers) and China (1,679) lead production, and Asia accounts for 46% of author affiliations. The field's h-index is 237. Six thematic clusters were identified. Gamified engagement and motivation and flipped and active learning are motor themes; blended learning, analytics and self-regulated learning is the basic theme; immersive technologies and teacher development is an emerging theme. Technology trajectories show three generations: early platforms (mobile learning, MOOCs) that peaked around 2020–2022 and are now declining; pedagogical models (blended, flipped) that have matured; and immersive and playful technologies (VR/AR, gamification, metaverse) that are still accelerating. Output on VR/AR/MR in 2021–2026 was 3.5 times the 2016–2020 annual rate. This is one of the few bibliometric studies to compare thirteen technology families over a 17-year window in a single quality-screened corpus. It shows a shift in the field's center of gravity from access technologies to engagement and immersion technologies, and it identifies under-studied areas: teacher readiness, equity in the Global South, and robust learning-outcome evidence. Keywords: emerging educational technologies; bibliometric analysis; science mapping; blended learning; flipped classroom; gamification; virtual and augmented reality; learning analytics; OpenAlex