Toward Digital Equity in Global Education: A Systematic Hybrid Thematic–SWOT Review of Pedagogical Innovation Using AI, Gamification, and AR/VR

Despite global EdTech investment projected to surpass $400 billion by 2025, accelerating AI, gamification, and AR/VR adoption, evidence shows these innovations often amplify educational inequities—a phenomenon we term the digital equity paradox. This systematic review addresses this paradox by employing a novel Hybrid Thematic–SWOT (HT-SWOT) analytical framework. We synthesize findings from 71 peer-reviewed empirical studies (2018–2024) to concurrently examine the pedagogical impacts and the systemic drivers of (in)equity within AI-, gamification-, and AR/VR-based learning across diverse global contexts. The HT-SWOT synthesis reveals a core tension: although these technologies demonstrate substantive Strengths in personalizing instruction, increasing engagement, and developing skills, their equitable implementation is severely hampered by internal Weaknesses (e.g., educator preparedness gaps, algorithmic bias) and external Threats (e.g., platform commercialization, data surveillance, cultural homogenization). The analysis identifies critical Opportunities in participatory design, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and ethical governance frameworks. The study’s contributions are threefold. First, it introduces the HT-SWOT framework as a robust methodology for strategic educational research. Second, it derives an evidence-based Digital Equity Ecosystem Framework (DEEF) that conceptualizes digital inequality across infrastructural, pedagogical, and epistemic dimensions. Third, it translates these insights into a actionable roadmap for educators, policymakers, and technologists. We argue that moving beyond the digital equity paradox necessitates a decisive pivot from techno-solutionism toward justice-oriented, systemic redesign founded on ethical principles, inclusive co-design, and transnational collaboration.