The think tank says frequent use of computers in schools is more likely to be associated with lower results.
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The organisation reached those conclusions after looking at results of the 2012 Programme for worldwide Student Assessment (PISA), a multi-country effort to measure student performance in 59 nations.
However, it said that students who frequently use computers at school “do much worse” than those who rarely use them.
In Korea and parts of China, including Shanghai, where technology use is widespread, computers aren’t used in schools.
Schools should not simply provide and learn to children how to use computers or other high-tech devices, as this educational method doesn’t improve learning, an OECD report stressed today. In the USA many students, parents, K-12 teachers and administrators say they highly value computer science education, according to a separate nationwide survey released last month by research firm Gallup and commissioned by Google, although most do not perceive a high level of demand for computer science from students and parents.
Similar to traditional learning, a gap exists in digital learning based on how advantaged and disadvantaged students perform. The group recently looked at the availability and use of computers and Internet in school and compared it to how those countries were doing on worldwide tests.
Beefing up technology in the classroom doesn’t always lead to better education for children, according to a new study from an global consortium presented Tuesday.
The Australian government implemented a “laptop acquisition program” in 2011 with the aim of handing out a portable computer to every secondary school student in the country. Singapore had the top score, 567; the United States came in 12th with a score of 511. The best readers, as it happens, tend to be those who use computers slightly less than average.
Additionally, the study said students spending six or more hours on computers per weekday when out of school were at risk of feeling lonely at school, arriving late or skipping days.
The Wall Street Journal reports that when it comes to reading and mathematics, increase use of technology is actually harmful and grades begin to fall.
“It is endemic in society now, at home young people will be using technology, there’s no way that we should take technology out of schools, schools should be leading not following”.
“Great technology can not replace poor teaching”, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) wrote in its report.
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Professor Slotta said the data used by the OECD are vexing to researchers because they draw on education systems from different cultural contexts and can be hard to interpret, especially in relation to technology in the classroom.
