It's not the schools, stupid; it's the computers

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: kelley <kelley () rakfoundry com>
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 16:26:42 -0500
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: It's not the schools, stupid; it's the computers

Dave,

Oh. Dear. This ought to spark controversy. According to a recent study by
the Royal Economic Society, student performance declines as the use of
computers, at home and school, increases.


Kelley

--

Pupils make more progress in 3Rs 'without aid of computers'
By John Clare, Education Editor
(Filed: 21/03/2005)

The less pupils use computers at school and at home, the better they do in
international tests of literacy and maths, the largest study of its kind
says today.

The findings raise questions over the Government's decision, announced by
Gordon Brown in the Budget last week, to spend another £1.5 billion on
school computers, in addition to the £2.5 billion it has already spent.

Mr Brown said: "The teaching and educational revolution is no longer
blackboards and chalk, it is computers and electronic whiteboards."

However, the study, published by the Royal Economic Society, said: "Despite
numerous claims by politicians and software vendors to the contrary, the
evidence so far suggests that computer use in schools does not seem to
contribute substantially to students' learning of basic skills such as maths
or reading."

Indeed, the more pupils used computers, the worse they performed, said
Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Wossmann of Munich University.

Their report also noted that being able to use a computer at work - one of
the justifications for devoting so much teaching time to ICT (information
and communications technology) - had no greater impact on employability or
wage levels than being able to use a telephone or a pencil.

The researchers analysed the achievements and home backgrounds of 100,000
15-year-olds in 31 countries taking part in the Pisa (Programme for
International Student Assessment) study in 2000 for the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development.

Pisa, to the British and many other governments' satisfaction, claimed that
the more pupils used computers the better they did. It even suggested those
with more than one computer at home were a year ahead of those who had none.

The study found this conclusion "highly misleading" because computer
availability at home is linked to other family-background characteristics,
in the same way computer availability at school is strongly linked to
availability of other resources.

Once those influences were eliminated, the relationship between use of
computers and performance in maths and literacy tests was reduced to zero,
showing how "careless interpretations can lead to patently false
conclusions".

The more access pupils had to computers at home, the lower they scored in
tests, partly because they diverted attention from homework.

Pupils tended to do worse in schools generously equipped with computers,
apparently because computerised instruction replaced more effective forms of
teaching.

The Government says computers are the key to "personalised learning" and
computers should be "embedded" in the teaching of every subject.

Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, has said: "We must move the thinking
about ICT from being an add-on to being an integral part of the way we teach
and learn."


<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/21/nteach21.xm
l&sSheet=/portal/2005/03/21/ixportal.html>



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