HOURS spent in front of a computer can help school students with their work — and it turns out that they’re not always playing games, either.
A report — Are Students Ready for a Technology-Rich World? — by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development looked at computer use by 15-year-olds and found that although computers were available in schools in most OECD countries, students may have only limited access to them.
The study, part of the 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment, finds that 15-year-old students use their computers at home more frequently than at school. For instance, nearly three out of four students in OECD countries use computers at home several times a week compared with only 44 per cent who use computers frequently at school.
But the assumption that teenagers just use their computers for games turns out to be misguided. Half of the students surveyed reported frequent use of word processing software and of the internet as a research tool, both of which the report identifies as having “educational potential”.
Computer use appears to have most impact on students’ performance in maths. Whereas those who don’t have access to computers or have been using computers for only a short time tend to lag behind their class, those who have used computers for years usually perform better than average.
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The report concludes that even when socio-economic disadvantage is taken into account, there is a “sizeable” positive effect from regular computer-use.
www.oecd.org