[IAEP] Worldwide OECD Education study published: Students, Computers and Learning

[James Cameron]

Thanks for your review, Sean.

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 11:39:40PM +0200, Sean DALY wrote:
> Their conclusion, in short: ICT in schools provide mixed results, at
> best; and intensive use of computers in developed countries (school
> + home) impacts negatively on reading.

Yes, I also see an impact on reading, but the immediate cause is not
ICT, but is a reduction in handwriting.

Handwriting skill is a neural network that acts as a scaffold for a
neural network used by reading.

A displacement of handwriting is _associated_ with ICT, because much
of the writing done by a student is converted to typing.

Sugar could compensate with activities focused on handwriting.

Here's audio and transcript of a related discussion on Australian
radio, with references to the problem:

	http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/does-handwriting-have-a-future3f/6738582

Figure 6.4 of the report shows a trend downwards for reading skill as
the browsing of internet for schoolwork at school increases.  Lots of
crap on the internet.  ;-)

The report you refer to also made mention of how mathematics is
infrequently associated with ICT.  On the one hand this may be because
it is a skill similar to handwriting, and on the other because
activities for teaching math are difficult to isolate.  Figure 6.3
shows a clear trend downwards in mathematics performance as more
computers are added.

Peru is not a member country of OECD yet; here's hoping.

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/