There’s research on OLPC, you know. I recall reading a… randomized Peruvian study? which found less than impressive results on scores in villages receiving laptops.
School is a huge, huge confounding factor in any study of education. Kids exhibit extreme reactance against anything pushed in school. The educational theories that OLPC is based on assume that kids will enjoy exploring and learning, but in a school setting, this is unlikely. A study like this (which is, of course, exploratory and thus mostly only as a guide to what to study next) is a better design, although of course it’s harder to perform.
Full disclosure: I have friends who have worked on OLPC, but we pretty much haven’t talked about the project.
How many of us learned to use computers for fun despite teachers who made us type assignments and parents who gave us educational games (I’m remembering “Math Blaster”)?
Everyone on this site enjoys learning (mostly despite schooling), but we’re not exactly typical. As far as I know, nobody has yet done a randomized study of unschooling (with educational resources available), against traditional schooling.
I did find that, but from what I could tell that focused on using them as supplements for traditional schools, with the vague conclusion being “teachers need to learn how to use the tablets effectively.” I can easily see bypassing teachers having a significantly different result (either in a good, bad or weird fashion).
From the looks of it, this experiment was only started a few months ago so we don’t have much information about it’s longterm viability. I’m hoping it eventually contributes to new approaches to education as a whole, not just third-world illiterate villages.
I thought the kids were allowed to take the laptops home in the Peruvian village study I was thinking of? If they can take them home and scores still don’t improve much...
I could see (potentially) there being a dramatic difference between a teacher saying “take this computer home and play with it” and finding a box that comes with no external social pressure from authority figures. Not sure if the latter would be replicable though (some teachers have told me the biggest problem with educational research is that all the most promising experimental schools turn out to only really work in their original context).
There’s research on OLPC, you know. I recall reading a… randomized Peruvian study? which found less than impressive results on scores in villages receiving laptops.
School is a huge, huge confounding factor in any study of education. Kids exhibit extreme reactance against anything pushed in school. The educational theories that OLPC is based on assume that kids will enjoy exploring and learning, but in a school setting, this is unlikely. A study like this (which is, of course, exploratory and thus mostly only as a guide to what to study next) is a better design, although of course it’s harder to perform.
Full disclosure: I have friends who have worked on OLPC, but we pretty much haven’t talked about the project.
How many of us learned to use computers for fun despite teachers who made us type assignments and parents who gave us educational games (I’m remembering “Math Blaster”)?
Everyone on this site enjoys learning (mostly despite schooling), but we’re not exactly typical. As far as I know, nobody has yet done a randomized study of unschooling (with educational resources available), against traditional schooling.
I did find that, but from what I could tell that focused on using them as supplements for traditional schools, with the vague conclusion being “teachers need to learn how to use the tablets effectively.” I can easily see bypassing teachers having a significantly different result (either in a good, bad or weird fashion).
From the looks of it, this experiment was only started a few months ago so we don’t have much information about it’s longterm viability. I’m hoping it eventually contributes to new approaches to education as a whole, not just third-world illiterate villages.
I thought the kids were allowed to take the laptops home in the Peruvian village study I was thinking of? If they can take them home and scores still don’t improve much...
I could see (potentially) there being a dramatic difference between a teacher saying “take this computer home and play with it” and finding a box that comes with no external social pressure from authority figures. Not sure if the latter would be replicable though (some teachers have told me the biggest problem with educational research is that all the most promising experimental schools turn out to only really work in their original context).