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PC use gives students an advantage in school
Tuesday, January 24 2006
by ElectricNews.Net


Students who use computers regularly are getting a headstart
on their peers when it comes to school subjects, according to
a new OECD study.

The report, "Are students ready for a technology-rich
world?", claims that school students who use computers
regularly perform better in key school subjects than those
with limited computer experience or a lack of confidence when
it comes to performing basic computer tasks.





This advantage can be seen clearly in mathematics
performance; the study found that those without regular
access to computers lagged behind their peers.





The study found that students who had been using computers
for less than a year scored significantly below the OECD
average, while students who had been using computers for more
than five years scored well above it. 





The poorer performance of those who do not have access to, or
have only recently accessed, computers can also be attributed
in part to their background. The report notes that students
with low access to computers at home are typically from
disadvantaged backgrounds. 





Meanwhile, Irish students are lagging behind in their
attitude towards computers, with the country rated as having
one of the least positive attitudes towards computers, along
with Japan, Denmark, Finland and Hungary. In contrast,
students in countries such as Austria, Canada and Germany
displayed a positive attitude towards computers. 





However, school hours are not the primary time for accessing
computers. Despite an increase in computer access in OECD
countries, most students are still getting more access to the
technology at home. Almost three quarters of students in OECD
countries use computers at home each week. This figure jumps
to nine out of 10 for Canada, Iceland and Sweden. This
compares with only 44 percent using computers frequently in
school.  





The report also found that access to computers is evenly
spread across both genders in most OECD countries. However,
in Ireland, Belgium  and Korea, a larger number of girls
than boys say they have access to computers at school. 





And girls have also emerged as less confident than boys when
it comes to performing computer functions, particularly
high-level tasks like programming or multimedia
presentations. They also use computers less frequently than
boys. 







The advantages of providing children with access to computers
have been heavily debated. In August last year, business body
IBEC called for the government to provide second level
schoolchildren with laptops, saying that they could be "an
important education enabler". 





However, this thinking clashes with a 2004 report from the
IFO, an economic research unit at the University of Munich,
which claimed that students' education levels have little to
do with computers in schools and more to do with effective
school management.