CAN'T DO IT ALONE: Making its way around the blogs this week is a study from National Bureau of Economic Research to see whether giving students computers at home made a difference in their school performance. The study involved 1,123 sixth to tenth graders, none of whom had computers. Half were given free ones (42% of this group had Internet service at home); the others served as the control. At the end of the school year, researchers found there were "no effects on any educational outcomes, including grades, test scores, credits earned, attendance and disciplinary actions." Of course, they also 'fessed up that "no training or assistance was provided." An immediate follow-up question might be: is anyone surprised?
