Here’s an article with a generalization that goes against the grain of everything most educators believe about access to computers for children from low-income homes. Randall Stross, in “Computers at Home: Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality“* (New York Times, 7.9.10), says that studies by economists indicate “little or no educational benefit” is gained.
Stross writes, “Economists are trying to measure a home computer’s educational impact on schoolchildren in low-income households. Taking widely varying routes, they are arriving at similar conclusions: little or no educational benefit is found. Worse, computers seem to have further separated children in low-income households, whose test scores often decline after the machine arrives, from their more privileged counterparts.” Continue reading
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: BREAD, Columbia University, Computers at Home, Cristian Pop-Eleche, Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality, Evaluation of the Texas Technology Immersion Pilot, Final Outcomes for a Four-Year Study (2004-05 to 2007-08), Helen F. Ladd, Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement, Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital, Jacob L. Vigdor, NBER, New York Times, Ofer Malamud, Randall Stross, Scaling the Digital Divide, Texas Center for Educational Research, University of Chicago | 2 Comments »