The Use and Misuse of Computers in Education : Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Colombia
This paper presents the evaluation of the program Computers for Education. The program aims to integrate computers, donated by the private sector, into the teaching of language in public schools. The authors conduct a two-year randomized evaluation...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20090211111507 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4032 |
| Summary: | This paper presents the evaluation of
the program Computers for Education. The program aims to
integrate computers, donated by the private sector, into the
teaching of language in public schools. The authors conduct
a two-year randomized evaluation of the program using a
sample of 97 schools and 5,201 children. Overall, the
program seems to have had little effect on students'
test scores and other outcomes. These results are consistent
across grade levels, subjects, and gender. The main reason
for these results seems to be the failure to incorporate the
computers into the educational process. Although the program
increased the number of computers in the treatment schools
and provided training to the teachers on how to use the
computers in their classrooms, surveys of both teachers and
students suggest that teachers did not incorporate the
computers into their curriculum. |
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