Technology access alone does not equal increased achievement

Researchers from the National Bureau of Economic Research have published a new working paper that explores how important access to a home computer is to the educational achievement of children. They found no effects, either positive or negative, on a range of outcomes.

The authors conducted a randomized controlled trial with 1,123 students aged 11-16 without home computers from 15 schools across California in the largest ever experiment involving the provision of free home computers. Half of the students were randomly selected to receive free computers, while the other half served as the control group. The goal of the study was to evaluate the effects of home computers alone, so no training or other assistance was provided to the students who received the free computers. 

At the end of the school year, data from the schools was used to measure the impact of the home computers on numerous educational outcomes. Findings showed that, although computer ownership and use increased substantially, there were no effects on grades, test scores, credits earned, attendance, or disciplinary actions in the experimental group.

Robert Slavin, director of the Center for Research and Reform in Education, discussed a similar topic in a March blog post about Sugata Mitra's "hole in the wall" experiment, in which Dr. Mitra made a computer freely available to children in a Delhi slum. In his post, Slavin says, "If access to computers were decisive, middle-class children, at least, would be gaining rapidly. Admittedly, the technology itself keeps getting better and faster and easier to use, but from thirty years of experience in the developed world, it seems unlikely that access alone will lead children to become wise and capable."

Johns Hopkins University

School of Education

Center for Research and Reform in Education

Research in Brief