From article in Slate:
New research by economists Ofer Malamud and Cristian Pop-Eleches provides an answer: For many kids, computers are indeed more of a distraction than a learning opportunity. The two researchers surveyed households that applied to Euro 200, a voucher distribution program in Romania designed to help poor households defray the cost of buying a computer for their children. It turns out that kids in households lucky enough to get computer vouchers spent a lot less time watching TV—but that’s where the good news ends. “Vouchered” kids also spent less time doing homework, got lower grades, and reported lower educational aspirations than the “unvouchered” kids.
Lucky thing kids grow out of that by the time they become adults!
3 Comments
The implication is that this is a lesson for American kids. But I would not recommend generalizing from Romanian children too poor to afford a computer, who suddenly get their first computer, to any American kids. That seems like cherry-picking a finding.
I was just being precious and alluding to the complicated relationship that Internet technology may have to the productivity of adults, especially those adults in, say, academia. So, yes, I’m guilty of cherry picking!
Lucky indeed! I sat down to work on a paper and thought I would glance at my feeds (first mistake).
Yeah, I ended up playing Space Invaders from the Slate link! Giggles poured from my kids room when they heard what I was up to because I told them I had serious work to do tonight!