Concerned that poor youngsters aren’t learning basic computer skills, some school districts have begun purchasing laptops and distributing them to every high school and middle school student.Anyone who ever owned a computer could have predicted this. A computer is a great tool for the disciplined, but a unending distraction for the undisciplined. One thing that consistently helps poor students is setting up a quiet place where they can do their homework without distraction; why would anyone who had seen such a study think that adding a powerful distraction device (i.e., a laptop) would help?
A new study suggests the policy may be doing more harm than good. It finds public school students in North Carolina who gain their first regular access to a home computer between the fifth and eighth grades experience “a persistent decline in reading and math test scores.”
For disadvantaged youngsters, the positive impact of having access to online instruction “may be negated by counterproductive use of computers, particularly by students in unsupervised home environments.”
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Stop Giving Students Laptops
Should have seen this coming: