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Hi Yama,<br><br>This study seems to be a different one from the one circulating on the olpc-sur list from the BID. Similar results, but interesting stats on computer use by the students in several Latin American countries. It was released in March and concentrated on Uruguay for much of its data. The WB study seems to concentrate on Colombia.<br><br>The BID study says students who feel more confident of their computer skills also do better in their subjects (tests?). Is this a "chicken and egg" situation? Probably!<br><br>Caryl<br><br><hr id="stopSpelling">Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:41:06 -0500<br>From: yama@netoso.com<br>To: educators@lists.laptop.org<br>Subject: [Educators] World Bank study on computer use, February 2009<br><br>
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Earlier this year it was announced there was a momentous
World Bank study to be published. We were warned it might be quite
negative to the OLPC project.<br>
<br>
If this is that study, I find it very tame, nothing new really, and
nothing we cannot improve - if we want and dare to see reality.<br>
<i><br>
</i><b><a class="EC_moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://tinyurl.com/d3gtto">http://tinyurl.com/d3gtto</a></b><br>
<a class="EC_moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&piPK=64165421&theSitePK=469372&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000158349_20090211111507">http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&piPK=64165421&theSitePK=469372&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000158349_20090211111507</a><br>
<br>
yes, computers in education are mostly useless, doh, unless they are
integrated to the existing process. Why don't people focus on that, I
don't know. (BTW, to integrate them to the teaching process, supporting
the teachers' work, is the approach we expect to use within OLE
Bolivia) (another BTW, talking with an international expert of UNICEF
in Bolivia I was told she had never seen something like that kind of
integration, ever, anywhere - go figure, seems <i><b>so</b></i>
obvious!)<br>
<br>
Just to spell out what I am talking about right here,
constructivism/ionism is <i><b>not</b></i> connected to the
educational process.<br>
<br>
My emphasis,<br>
from the abstract,
<br>
<i> "Overall, the program seems to have had little<br>
effect on students’ test scores and other outcomes. These<br>
results are consistent across grade levels, subjects, and<br>
gender. <b>The main reason for these results seems to be the<br>
failure to incorporate the computers into the educational<br>
process.</b>"</i><br>
<br>
from the text,<br>
"<i> <b>The main reason for these results may be the implementation<br>
of the program</b>. Surveys of both teachers and students suggest that
the program increases<br>
computer use among students and teachers by a surprising small amount,
and most of the<br>
use of computers by students is for the purposes of learning to use a
computer rather than<br>
studying language. Additionally, the extra computer use reported by
teachers is<br>
concentrated in the lower grades with older students’ teachers
reporting almost no<br>
computer use in both groups."<br>
<br>
</i><a class="EC_moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&piPK=64165421&theSitePK=469372&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000158349_20090211111507"></a></div></body>
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