Developing a Taxonomy of Edtech Products for Teachers: An Integrated Analysis from Research Literature and Product Landscape

Abstract

The COVID -19 pandemic has caused teachers across India to use Edtech products in teaching. But teachers face multiple challenges, ranging from selecting appropriate Edtech tools to developing their own teaching practice for teaching with E dtech. The currently available taxonomies and la ndscapes of Edtech products either address student -facing products or focus on a niche category of teacher -facing products like assessment tools or open- source tools. In this paper, we present a taxonomy of t eacher- facing Edtech products that contains a hierarchy of three levels with learner -centric activity tools and teacher professional development forming the base layer. Each category further spins off into multiple sub -categories based on various teacher o bjectives like products for conducting learner -centric activities, generating summative assessments, or developing their teaching competencies. This taxonomy emerged from a systematic literature review and a field- driven affordance analysis of a representa tive set of eighty products. Our analysis showed that the product landscape was skewed towards learner -centric activity tools (70% of the 80 Edtech products analyzed), revealing the need for more products that support teachers’ professional development (TP D). This taxonomy informs teachers about the pro ducts available under different Edtech categories. It also includes an affordance analysis that provides additional information about the affordances typical to that particular sub -category.