Why schools should provide one laptop per child

, Professor of Education and Informatics from the University of California, Irvine and ,  Assistant Professor from the Michigan State University, recently posted an article asking if there is a need to abandon attempts to integrate technology in schools due to a recent international study published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which found no positive evidence of impact of educational technology on student performance.

According to the article, Professor Warschauer and Assistant Professor Zheng, have conducted their…

…own extensive observations. We conducted a synthesis of the results of 96 published global studies on these programs in K-12 schools during 2001-2015. Among them, 10 rigorously designed studies, mostly from the U.S., were included, to examine the relationship between these programs and academic achievement. We found significant benefits.We found students’ test scores in science, writing, math and English language arts improved significantly.

And the benefits were not limited to test scores.

To find out about their conclusions and read the full article, please click here.

 

Disclosure statement

Mark Warschauer has received funding for his research from the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, the Carnegie Corporation, the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access, the Spencer Foundation, the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, and Google Research.

Binbin Zheng does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above

2 thoughts on “Why schools should provide one laptop per child

  1. There might not be any positive effect on learning using technology (which I doubt) but as Sven says above it has advantages.
    It’s surely cheaper to have all those ebooks in your school bag and of course it’s lighter to lift. Many school tent to force students carry bags that weight 2-5 kilos. A small laptop can weight at least 1/3 of the weight of a physical books. Laptop is a must, don’t know if they add positive effects on the educational procedure, but its surely is the best device to carry your resources.

  2. … and besides that. Do you know any cheaper way to bring books to kids? The OLPC costs about 27 euro/year.child inclucing PV panel and can carry some 500 eBooks. How do you beat that? Ever tried to keep books clean in a house / refugee camps in a damp, rainy place where you might not have cupboards and the sheeps and chickens walk in and out? The XO, you just wipe it clean.

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