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Digital Divide or Digital Provide? Technology, Time Use, and Learning Loss during COVID-19
The Journal of Development Studies
Abstract
COVID-19 school closure has caused a worldwide shift towards technology-aided home schooling. Given widespread poverty in developing countries, this has raised concerns over new forms of learning inequalities. Using nationwide data on primary and secondary school children in slum and rural households in Bangladesh, we examine how learning time at home during the early months of school closure varies by access to technology at home. Data confirms a significant socio-economic and gender divide in access to TV, smartphone, computer, and internet among rural households. However, the analysis of daily time use data shows only a modest return to a technology in terms of boosting learning time at home. The learning-grade gradient is shallow and insensitive to TV, smartphone, and computer access at home. We also find no evidence that technology access per se helps learning by boosting time spent in online schooling and private supplementary coaching/tutoring. While technology access matters in households where parents act as home tutors, the magnitude of such a complementary effect are not large. The results imply a loss of out-of-school learning time during school closure even in households with technology access. We consider additional hypotheses relating to institutional and socio-economic barriers to home-based learning in developing countries.
... In developing countries however, the long-term consequences of the same policies may be significantly different because of weaker state capacity to provide social protection to vulnerable segments of the population against the effects of lockdowns (Amirapu et al., 2022b;Asadullah & Bhattacharjee, 2022;Seager et al., 2022). Understanding the socio-economic consequences of the early policy responses to the coronavirus outbreak can help inform the design of future policy (Engzell et al., 2021;World Bank, 2020), not only with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic but other future epidemics and pandemics as well. ...
... Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a high number of studies on the first topic (see Brodeur et al., 2021, for a review). This includes a large and growing number of studies looking at the effects of the pandemic on learning loss, learning support, and time allocation of school-aged children, for Bangladesh as well as other developing countries (Amin et al., 2021;Amirapu et al., 2022b;Asadullah & Bhattacharjee, 2022;Baird et al., 2020;Radhakrishnan et al., 2021;Seager et al., 2022;Wolf et al., 2021) although few of the existing studies attempt to link economic shocks reported by households to child-related outcomes (Wolf et al., 2021, is an exception). A small number of studies have addressed the question using past epidemics. ...
... And thus, we assume that parents answered all the questions as a difference before and after the lockdown. We recognize that some recent studies on children's learning in Bangladesh explicitly used the cut-off date March 17 (Asadullah & Bhattacharjee, 2022;Seager et al., 2022), which is precise in terms of school closure. However, for the purpose of our study asking whether children regularly went to school before the lockdown, we assume that the difference in the cut-off date, March 17 or 26, does not make a difference in their answers. ...
... In some cases, online learning among children at home was not possible because of the inadequate technological environment. In some countries, particularly low-and middle-income countries, online learning among children was not taking place because of insufficient technological preparedness and readiness, lack of digital resources and lack of support at home [4]. ...
Although technology was considered the fundamental tool in enhancing learning during COVID-19, there have been several concerns about the excessive use of digital media among children, which in turn impacted their well-being. A lack of adequate evidence on the impact of excessive use of digital media during COVID-19 among children prompted the need for a bibliometric analysis. The study aimed to examine the effects of digital media on children through a bibliometric analysis. A total of 1738 empirical articles published between 2019 and 2022 from the Dimensions scientific database were analysed using the VOSviewer 1.6.16 software. The analysis aimed at establishing visualisation networks on the most influential authors, countries, universities and co-authorships. The occurrence of keywords was also analysed to identify the effects of digital media among children during COVID-19. The results indicate increased burnout, bullying and frustration among children as a result of excessive use of digital media and screen time. Children lacked parental control since parents had inadequate digital skills to control children's online learning at home. Although technology was used to enhance learning during the pandemic, it was necessary to highlight the need for digital safety guidelines to ensure children's mental, psychological and physical health are maintained. Enhancing digital literacy among educators and parents can significantly reduce the risks associated with children spending excessive time on screens. Having digital inclusion guidelines would also increase awareness among educational stakeholders on effective ways of protecting children from digital risks and improving their well-being.
... This indicated that gender was not a primary determinant in shaping home learning support. The study by Asadullah and Bhattacharjee (2022) aligned with these results, suggesting that demographic factors like gender may not significantly impact the learning support provided at home, highlighting the importance of exploring other influencing variables. Table 19 shows the difference between the learning support at home of the learning facilitators and their profile in terms of civil status. ...
The study examined the learning support provided at home and its impact on the outcomes of primary learners in private schools in San Narciso District, Schools Division of Zambales, during the School Year 2024–2025. It highlighted the essential role of home learning facilitators in shaping educational experiences. The research aimed to determine the nature of learning support and its relationship with learners' outcomes, offering insights for enhancing practices. A descriptive-correlational design was used, involving 53 facilitators selected via random sampling. A researcher-designed questionnaire measured home learning support and learners' outcomes, with excellent reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha: 0.987 for support, 0.998 for outcomes). Data analysis included percentages, means, Kruskal-Wallis Test, and Spearman Rho Correlation. Most facilitators were aged 30–39, female, married, with two children, and a family income of P25,000– P49,999. They were college graduates, spent less than an hour on lesson instruction, and attended one study support session. Learning support was consistently evident across dimensions like organizing the learning environment, emotional support, resource provision, and communication. Primary learners showed advanced cognitive, socio-emotional, creative, and practical skills. No significant differences were observed between learning support and facilitators' demographics, but a very high positive correlation was identified between home support and learner outcomes. The findings underscored the consistent and effective support provided at home and its strong link to advanced learner outcomes. These results informed the development of an enhanced learning support program to further improve home learning practices and learner success. The study contributes to understanding the role of home facilitators in education, offering evidence-based strategies for strengthening learning support programs.
... Second, evidence also shows that the closure of schools to contain the spread of the pandemic increased learning losses (Guariso & Björkman Nyqvist, 2023;Patrinos, Vegas, & Carter-Rau, 2022), even in households with access to digital learning tools (Asadullah & Bhattacharjee, 2022), but more so among schoolchildren from households with a lower socioeconomic status (Guariso & Björkman Nyqvist, 2023;Moscoviz & Evans, 2022). As most developing countries have dwindling fiscal space and lack social safety nets, COVID-19 containment measures may exacerbate barriers preventing vulnerable parents from allocating adequate time to interact at home with their children to enhance out-of-school learning. ...
... The spectrum of student reactions to the newly implemented online learning paradigm was notably diverse [26][27][28]. A considerable cohort of students expressed appreciation for the newfound flexibility and convenience of accessing educational materials. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has irrevocably altered the landscape of global education, catalyzing a swift transition from traditional classroom settings to remote learning modalities. This comprehensive paper provides a critical analysis of the reception and adaptation of academic staff and students within universities and higher education institutions to this abrupt pedagogical shift. It delves into the multi-dimensional challenges, including the adaptation to digital teaching methodologies, the repercussions on academic integrity and mental wellbeing, and the broader implications for the future trajectory of higher education.
... Despite these hurdles, many educators found innovative ways to adapt their pedagogy, incorporating interactive tools and asynchronous learning methods. However, this transition also highlighted the digital divide, where some staff faced difficulties due to lack of access to reliable technology and internet connectivity [26][27][28][29][30]. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to educational systems globally, prompting a swift and massive shift to distance education. This working paper explores the attitudes of staff and students in academic institutions and universities towards this sudden transition.
... These children are often stereotyped as unmotivated and lacking aspiration 37 and are targets of discrimination manifested from negative practices, attitudes and institutional policies 41 . For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, children living in poverty were disproportionately likely to experience less access to the internet, less access to school lunch programs, higher levels of food insecurity, and more unsupervised time [42][43][44] . Furthermore, although surveys indicate that regardless of income level, students perceive schools to be unsafe due to fear of school shootings and other forms of violence 45,46 , students in low-income schools are more likely to experience violence prevention measures such as random searches, metal detectors and police presence 47 . ...
The income-achievement gap is a significant and stubborn problem in the United States, which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. In this article, we link two emerging literatures that have historically been disparate: the neurobiology of poverty as a form of early life stress, and research on educational policies with the potential to reduce SES-based disparities in academic achievement. In doing so, we (1) integrate the literature on poverty-related mechanisms that contribute to early life stress, alter neurobiology, and lead to educational inequities, and (2) based on this research, highlight policies and practices at the school/classroom level and broader structural level that have the potential to address the problem of inequity in our educational systems. We emphasize that educational inequity is a systemic issue, and its resolution will require coordination of local, state, and national policies.
... Unequal gender norms and roles also persisted during the pandemic in terms of mobility and responsibilities: girls were involved in household chores 4-33 percentage points more than boys and only 39% of girls were allowed to go outside of home alone compared to 62% of boys 35 . Beyond India, female disadvantage in access to digital learning tools during the pandemic were also observed in other countries such as Bangladesh 37 . ...
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education delivery around the world, with school closures affecting over 1.6 billion students worldwide. In India, schools were closed for over 18 months, affecting 248 million students. This study estimates the effect of the pandemic on adolescent literacy and schooling outcomes in India. We used data from the National Family Health Survey. (NFHS-5) which covered 636,699 households across all districts of India from June 2019 to April 2021. We considered 15–17 year old adolescents who were surveyed after March 2020 as the post-COVID group while those surveyed earlier were included in the pre-COVID group. We used propensity score matching and inverse propensity score weighted regression methods to account for differences in socioeconomic characteristics between the two groups. Rates of literacy (ability to read a complete sentence) were 1.5–1.6% lower among post-COVID girls as compared with similar pre-COVID girls. Among post-COVID girls in the lowest wealth quintile, rates of literacy were 3.1–3.8% lower than similar pre-COVID girls. There was no loss in literacy among post-COVID girls in the highest wealth quintile. COVID-induced loss in literacy among girls was twice in rural areas as compared to urban areas, and substantially higher among socioeconomically disadvantaged caste groups as compared with privileged caste groups. Post-COVID girls also had 0.08–0.1 lower years of schooling completed than similar pre-COVID girls but there was no difference in out-of-school rates. In a smaller subsample of 15–17 year old boys, the post-COVID group had 2% lower out-of-school rates and there was no difference in literacy or years of schooling completed as compared with matched pre-COVID boys. While markers of vulnerability such as residence, caste, and poverty further amplified the risk of learning. loss for girls, they did not have the same effect on boys.
... Nowadays, providing high quality learning using technology has become more important (Konstantinidou & Scherer, 2022). The presence of technology has become essential in efforts to avoid the learning loss experienced by student Açıkgül & Şad (2021); Asadullah & Bhattacharjee (2022); De' et al. (2020); Engzell et al. (2020) as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, where the pandemic status has not yet been lifted by the government. In addressing learning loss, the government has been encouraging schools to utilize technology in the learning process. ...
The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the learning process, including the learning of mathematics. This situation has caused students and teachers not always be able to interact directly, which can result in learning loss. Therefore, efforts are needed to develop learning media that allow students to learn independently and actively. This study aims to develop a Mathematics E-Module that is different from most of the modules available, where students can interact with the E-Module. The E-Module was developed using the modified Plomp development model. The results of the study show that the developed E-Module meets the level of validity with a category of very valid, as well as the practicality of the E-Module. Other findings during the testing process showed that this E-Module can increase students' active and independent engagement in understanding the concept of derivative relationships with increasing functions, decreasing functions, and maximum/minimum values. Therefore, E-Module is recommended because it is very suitable for use in learning both online and offline. E-Module with GeoGebra applet can improve vocational school students’ ability to discover concepts independently.
... Equitable access to educational resources can also aid in bridging the digital divide between students from various socioeconomic backgrounds. Ensure all students have access to the tools and resources required to engage in the learning process (Asadullah & Bhattacharjee 2022). This is especially important where there is a digital gap, where some pupils might have access to the most recent technology while others do not (Van Dijk 2005). ...
The internet and other digital technologies, which provide students access to a prosperity of knowledge and allow them to explore their interests and learn at their own pace, will enable them to do both. The teaching and learning process has grown more effective and meaningful due to ICT's ability to support self-paced learning through various instruments, including assignments, computers, and other devices. Examining the digital divide between economics class 12 students in public and private schools based on access is the main objective of this study. This study used a cross-sectional quantitative survey as its sole data collection method. The researcher used a simple random selection procedure to select 125 respondents from the population as a sample. This study found that private school students have better access than community schools in terms of material access to ICT in school. By giving ICT access in the classroom and persuading parents that it is a fundamental necessity, schools (public and private) can develop highly ICT smartness students in Nepalese.
... There has been an explosion of distance learning and technology-based programs for crisis-time education service delivery. However, many of these efforts have been either too little or simply ineffective (Asadullah and Bhattacharjee, 2022;Reimers et al., 2022). The consensus view is that, despite many promising innovations, learning shortfalls have persisted or even increased, three years into the pandemic. ...
This study targets the quality of online and face-to-face education in the repercussions of the (Covid-19) pandemic from the point of view of the faculty of Education members at Kuwait University. The descriptive analytical method was adopted. A total of 90 faculty members of Kuwait University were recruited. The results reveal that the quality of education was higher in face-to-face learning in comparison with online learning. However, no statistically significant difference was found between the online and face-to-face evaluation methods according to the perceptions of the faculty members. The study encapsulates recommendations to increase the number of courses to train the faculty members and enhance their skills related to online education, and to redesign the educational curricula and pedagogical strategies to achieve educational outcomes. The findings of the study are helpful to improvise the quality of online learning and teaching and learning experiences of faculty and students of Kuwait University.
This study examines the effect of parental engagement on children's continued learning amid COVID-19-induced school closures in Uganda, where the government's distance learning program had limited coverage. The results show that children from households with more parental engagement are more likely to engage in learning activities at home when primary schools are closed. A significant effect of parental engagement is found in rural areas as well. Furthermore, we found that, in rural areas, the level of parental engagement is significantly more correlated with home-based learning among children from government schools than those from private schools.
This paper contributes to the scarce literature on factors affecting EdTech use in households. These factors were considered through exploratory mixed‐methods analyses of cross‐sectional data on Kenyan girls and caregivers, captured during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Quantitative analysis of the child dataset (n = 544) suggested the importance of both structural factors—such as technology hardware availability—and non‐structural factors—including caregiver permission. Findings were supported by a thematic analysis of interview data from girls' caregivers (n = 58), which emphasised the role they play in girls' use of EdTech. Interviews also highlighted numerous caregiver concerns with EdTech, related to the relevance and rigour of educational content, the possibility of children accessing age‐inappropriate material and child health (especially eyesight). Policy makers could alleviate these concerns by providing guidance on EdTech use and clearly signalling their approval of verified initiatives.
Practitioner notes
What is already known about this topic EdTech can benefit girls' education, yet there are various barriers to it being used.
Existing research shows clearly that EdTech use can be impeded by structural factors (eg, hardware ownership).
However, we find insufficient empirical evidence on the role of non‐structural or behavioural factors.
What this paper adds This paper addresses this gap, using a mixed‐methods approach to explore the influence of 33 different measures (including non‐structural factors) that could affect the number of hours girls spend using EdTech at home.
Findings from a quantitative sample of girls (n = 544) and a qualitative sample of girls' caregivers (n = 58) highlighted the importance of non‐structural factors, especially caregiver permission.
The variable most strongly associated with girls' EdTech usage in our selected quantitative model concerned whether this was sanctioned by their caregivers.
Our qualitative data suggested why caregiver permission to use EdTech might be withheld: caregivers emphasised perceived concerns about the risks and rigour of EdTech.
Implications for practice and/or policy Our findings suggest the viability of policy interventions that provide EdTech guidance to caregivers.
Caregivers uncertain about EdTech could be reassured of the appropriateness of verified initiatives, while those already convinced might be aided in their attempts to support EdTech learning.
Such guidance could provide a low‐cost means of further exploiting the benefits that household EdTech learning can provide.
Many developing countries are allocating significant resources to expand technology access in schools. Whether these investments will translate into measurable educational improvements remains an open question because of the limited existing evidence. This paper contributes to fill this gap exploiting a large-scale public program that increased computer and internet access in secondary public schools in Peru. Rich longitudinal school-level data from 2001 to 2006 is used to implement a differences-in-differences framework. Results indicate no statistically significant effects of increasing technology access in schools on repetition, dropout and initial enrollment. Large sample sizes allow ruling out even modest effects.
Schools across the UK were mostly closed from March to July 2020 due to Covid-19. Therefore, parents and children found themselves thrust into a prolonged period of home-schooling. In this study, parents (N = 2,122) reported on their children’s (N = 3,230) home-schooling experiences and its impacts on their children’s academic progress. Parental reports suggest that children spent around 3 hours each weekday doing schoolwork at home. Children enrolled in private secondary schools received 4 hours of virtual lessons each weekday from teachers, while state school children received just 1 hour. Parents, on the whole, reported concern for children’s academic progress. This is particularly so for children in secondary school and, most strikingly, those in school years antecedent to final exams (Years 10 and 12). Parents were less concerned about academic progress for those in Years 11 and 13, who had received their final exam grades shortly before the time of the survey. This study highlights the fact that children have been unequally affected by Covid-19 school closures, depending on their year group and school type, which should be considered in future research and policy.
This paper proposes a new reachability indicator to analyze the effectiveness of remote learning policies adopted by ministries of education in response to school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The indicator provides the share of students that can potentially be reached by remote learning policies given the availability of necessary household assets such as radios, televisions, computers and internet access. The results of this analysis outline the stark inequities in access to remote learning, suggesting that at a minimum, more than 30 % of schoolchildren globally cannot be reached by remote learning policies due to the high variation in access to assets for remote learning that exists within and between the world regions. The analysis finds that wealth and area of residence are key factors affecting the reachability of remote learning policies, suggesting that children who reside in rural areas and/or belong to the poorest households in their country are at the greatest risk of being left behind.
School closures due to teacher strikes or political unrest in low-resource contexts can adversely affect children’s educational outcomes and career opportunities. Phone-based educational technologies could help bridge these gaps in formal schooling, but it is unclear whether or how children and their families will use such systems during periods of disruption. We investigate two mobile learning technologies deployed in sub-Saharan Africa: a text-message-based application with lessons and quizzes adhering to the national curriculum in Kenya (N = 1.3 million), and a voice-based platform for supporting early literacy in Côte d’Ivoire (N = 236). We examine the usage and beliefs surrounding unexpected school closures in each context via system log data and interviews with families about their motivations and methods for learning during the disruption. We find that mobile learning is used as a supplement for formal and informal schooling during disruptions with equivalent or higher intensity, as parents feel responsible to ensure continuity in schooling.
The lockdown imposed during the spring of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic upset families lives, in addition to the health consequences of the virus, forcing parents to completely reorganize their labor, domestic work and childcare time. At the same time, school closures forced children to rearrange their lives and learning processes: in Italy, schools and nurseries were closed for four months, and the incidence and quality of distance learning activities was heterogeneous across education levels and among schools. Using real-time survey data on families with under-16 children collected in April 2020, which include information on parents’ market and household work, and their perception of their children's wellbeing, we estimate how the lockdown has affected children's use of time, their emotional status and their home learning, and whether the reallocation of intrahousehold responsibilities during the lockdown played a role in this process. Changes in the parental division of household tasks and childcare, mostly induced by the labor market restrictions imposed during the lockdown, point to a greater involvement of fathers in childcare and homeschooling activities. This positive variation in fathers’ involvement is accompanied by an increase in children's emotional wellbeing and by a reduction in TV and passive screen time. On the other hand, the quality of children's home learning does not appear to depend on which parent is overseeing their work, but rather on the type of distance learning activities proposed by their teachers.
Prolonged Covid-19-related school closures in the UK raised concerns that science teaching and learning at primary level would be negatively impacted. This paper reports the findings of phase 1 of a study that the authors are conducting with teachers and parents to explore this issue. We found that a significant proportion of teachers were providing less science during lockdown than in the normal school week. Teachers, particularly those working in more deprived areas, reported that translating the science curriculum for home learning had been difficult, with concerns around resources, internet access and parental ability to help. Some areas of the curriculum posed particular difficulties, leading to a narrowing of topics being taught. Both teachers and parents felt that schools prioritised English and maths above science. Meanwhile some parents reported that their children had engaged in sophisticated extracurricular activities, bolstered by resources available at home and knowledgeable adult help, but others said that their children had done no science at all. Parents who had studied science at post-compulsory level were much more comfortable in helping their children with science home learning. These factors combine to create conditions which may exacerbate existing inequalities as to who can access science education and careers.
Significance
School closures have been a common tool in the battle against COVID-19. Yet, their costs and benefits remain insufficiently known. We use a natural experiment that occurred as national examinations in The Netherlands took place before and after lockdown to evaluate the impact of school closures on students’ learning. The Netherlands is interesting as a “best-case” scenario, with a short lockdown, equitable school funding, and world-leading rates of broadband access. Despite favorable conditions, we find that students made little or no progress while learning from home. Learning loss was most pronounced among students from disadvantaged homes.
This paper uses a calibrated “pedagogical production function” model to estimate the potential long-term losses to children’s learning from the temporary shock of Covid-19 related school closures. It then models possible gains from two mitigation strategies. Without mitigation, children could lose more than a full year’s worth of learning from a three-month school closure because they will be behind the curriculum when they re-enter school and will fall further behind as time goes on. Remediation when children return to school reduces the long-term learning loss by half, but still leaves children more than half a year behind where they would have been with no shock. Remediation combined with long-term reorientation of curriculum to align with children’s learning levels fully mitigates the long-term learning loss due to the shock and surpasses the learning in the counterfactual of no shock by more than a full year’s worth of learning. Systems need to begin planning now for remediation programmes, and as they do so they should build programmes and train teachers in ways that can continue to produce benefits beyond the period immediately following reopening.
The distinction between effort and other factors, such as family background, matters for correcting policies and normative reasons when we appeal to inequality of opportunity. We take advantage of a purposefully designed survey on secondary schools in rural Bangladesh to offer a comprehensive view of the importance of overall effort when measuring inequalities of opportunity in education. The analysis comprises decomposition exercises of the predicted variance of student performance in mathematics and English by source (effort, circumstances, etc.) and subgroup (within-and between-schools) based on parametric estimates of educational production functions. Pupils' effort, preferences, and talents contribute between 31% and 40% of the total predicted variances in performance scores. The contribution of overall effort falls by 10% when the correlation between effort and circumstances is taken into account. These findings are robust to the choice of estimation strategy (i.e. combined within-and between-schools variation models versus multilevel random-effect models). All in all, these results advocate that social determinism in education can be mitigated by individual effort at school.
Recently, policy makers worldwide have suggested and passed legislation to ban mobile phone use in schools. The influential (and only quantitative) evaluation by Beland and Murphy (2016), suggests that this is a very low-cost but effective policy to improve student performance. In particular, it suggests that the lowest-achieving students have the most to gain. Using a similar empirical setup but with data from Sweden, we partly replicate their study and thereby add external validity to this policy question. Furthermore, we increase the survey response rate of schools to approximately 75 %, although at the expense of the amount of information collected in the survey. In Sweden, we find no impact of mobile phone bans on student performance and can reject even small-sized gains.
This paper presents some of the first evidence on the effect of information and communications technology (ICT) on college students’ labor market performance. Using a large, representative survey of college students in China, we examine outcomes before and after students were exposed to technology-aided instruction, compared with students who were not exposed to such instruction. The results indicate that the ICT program significantly increased students’ likelihood of obtaining a job offer in the labor market and the wage they were offered. The positive effect comes from students’ increased use of computers and the internet for job search. While most previous studies of the use of technology in education focus only on students’ academic achievement and find zero or negative effects, our study demonstrates that technology may be an effective tool for improving college students’ labor market performance, and that the potential benefits of technology might be underestimated if we focus only on test scores and ignore students’ career development.
Classrooms all over the world are becoming increasingly technologically advanced. Many schools today provide a personal laptop or tablet to each pupil for use both in the classroom and at home. The intent of these 1:1 programs is that information and communication technology (ICT) should be extensively involved in the teaching of all subjects. We investigate how pupils who are given a personal laptop or tablet, rather than having more limited computer access, are affected in terms of educational performance. By surveying schools in 26 Swedish municipalities regarding the implementation of 1:1 programs and combining this information with administrative data, we estimate the impact on educational outcomes using a difference-in-differences design. We find no significant impact on standardized tests in mathematics or language on average, nor do we find an impact on the probability of being admitted to upper secondary school or the students’ choice of educational track. However, our results indicate that 1:1 initiatives may increase inequality in education by worsening math skills and decreasing enrollment in college-preparatory programs in upper secondary school among students with lower educated parents.
Young people's use of mobile phones is expanding exponentially across Africa. Its transformative potential is exciting, but findings presented in this paper indicate how the downside of mobile phone use in African schools is becoming increasingly apparent. Drawing on mixed-methods field research in 24 sites across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa and associated discussions with educational institutions, public policy makers and network providers, we examine the current state of play and offer suggestions towards a more satisfactory alignment of practice and policy which promotes the more positive aspects of phone use in educational contexts and militates against more damaging ones. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This paper uses a clustered randomised field experiment to explore the effects of a computer assisted learning (CAL) programme on student academic and non-academic outcomes in poor, rural public schools in China. Our results show that a remedial, game-based CAL programme in math held outside of regular school hours with boarding students in poor rural public schools improved standardised math scores by 0.12 standard deviations. Students from poorer families tended to benefit more from the programme. However, CAL did not have any significant impact on either Chinese language standardised test scores or non-academic outcomes.
Internet-based educational resources are proliferating rapidly. One concern associated with these (potentially transformative) technological changes is that they will be disequalizing--as many technologies of the last several decades have been--creating superstar teachers and a winner-take-all education system. These important concerns notwithstanding, we contend that a major impact of web-based educational technologies will be the democratization of education: educational resources will be more equally distributed, and lower-skilled teachers will benefit. At the root of our results is the observation that skilled lecturers can only exploit their comparative advantage if other teachers complement those lectures with face-to-face instruction. This complementarity will increase the quantity and quality of face-to-face teaching services, potentially increasing the marginal product and wages of lower-skill teachers.
This paper uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effect of home computers on child and adolescent outcomes by exploiting a voucher program in Romania. Our main results indicate that home computers have both positive and negative effects on the development of human capital. Children who won a voucher to purchase a computer had significantly lower school grades but show improved computer skills. There is also some evidence that winning a voucher increased cognitive skills, as measured by Raven's Progressive Matrices. We do not find much evidence for an effect on non-cognitive outcomes. Parental rules regarding homework and computer use attenuate the effects of computer ownership, suggesting that parental monitoring and supervision may be important mediating factors.
Students in developing countries are often taught for only a fraction of the intended number of school hours. Time is often
wasted due to informal school closures, teacher absenteeism, delays, early departures, and poor use of classroom time. Since
the 1970s, attempts have been made in several countries to measure the use of instructional time in schools and its impact
on student achievement. Studies have been of variable quality and have used different definitions and methods. However, they
have consistently shown that significant amounts of time are lost and that the amount of time spent engaged in learning tasks
is related to student performance. The large losses in many countries raise issues of governance, monitoring, and validity
of economic analyses. It is important to take instructional time wastage into account when considering public sector expenditures
on education, teacher salary rates, unit costs, and the rates of return from graduates. Refining time-loss measurement methods
and disseminating policy implications may improve the efficiency of educational systems worldwide.
Using two RCTs in middle schools in Pakistan, we show that brief, expert-led, curriculum-based videos integrated into the classroom experience improved teaching effectiveness: student test scores in math and science increased by 0.3 standard deviations, 60 percent more than the control group, after 4 months of exposure. Students and teachers increased their attendance, and students were more likely to pass the high-stakes government exams. By contrast, providing similar content to students on personal tablets decreased student scores by 0.4 SD. The contrast between the two effects shows the importance of engaging teachers and the potential for technology to do so. (JEL I21, I28, J45, O15, O30)
This paper examines the evolution of 15-year-old students’ use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for fun and for learning at school and at home between 2009 and 2018. It also considers how the association between ICT use and reading achievement evolved over the same period. Results indicate that ICT use increased and that the increase was especially marked when considering ICT used for learning (both at school and at home). Boys increased their use of ICT for fun and for learning at school more than girls. Trends in ICT use did not differ by parental educational attainment. Over the same period, no quantitatively meaningful changes in reading achievement were observed. In line with the previous literature, we find that the association between different forms of ICT use and reading achievement takes an inverted U shape, with students engaging in low and high levels of use having lower levels of reading achievement than students engaged in medium levels of use. Over time, the association between different uses of ICT and reading achievement changed and became more positive at low levels and less negative at high levels of use. However, the large and rapid increases in levels of use observed between 2009 and 2018 led to more students being located in the ‘high levels of use’ category. The cumulative, contrasting effects of changes in levels of use and changes in the association between ICT use and reading achievement led to stable levels of achievement at the population level.
We model learning losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential for cost-effective strategies to build back better. Data from Early Grade Reading Assessments in Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania, and Uganda suggest half to over a year’s worth of learning loss. In modeling losses over time, we found that learning deficits for a child in grade 3 could lead to 2.8 years of lost learning by grade 10. While COVID-19 has stymied learning, bold, learning-focused reform consistent with the literature reviewed in this paper—specifically reform on targeted instruction and structured pedagogy—could improve learning even beyond pre-COVID-19 levels.
Learning loss is expected for millions of children who have been out of school as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, it is uncertain how much learning will be lost and how wide the gaps may be for disadvantaged children. This paper uses a unique longitudinal dataset to estimate learning loss during a three-month transition from Complementary Basic Education to government schools in Ghana. Our results show an average learning loss of 66 % of previous learning gains in foundational numeracy during this transition period. More importantly, we estimate widening gaps in learning loss according to lack of home learning support, as well as lack of home learning resources. Our results have implications for the provision of learning activities and support at home, not just during current school closures due to COVID-19, but also during transitions between academic years.
Purpose
Internet use has become particularly prevalent among adolescents, prompting much thought and concern about both its potential benefits and adverse effects on adolescent learning outcomes. Much of the empirical literature on the impact of Internet use on adolescent learning outcomes is mixed, and few studies examine the causal relationship between the two in rural China. In order to bridge these gaps, we use empirical analysis to investigate the effect of Internet use on the learning outcomes of adolescents in rural China.
Design/methodology/approach
We use fixed effect models with samples drawn from a large nationally representative dataset (the China Family Panel Studies—CFPS) to identify the causal impacts of Internet use on the learning outcomes of three cohorts (Cohort A ( N = 540), Cohort B ( N = 287) and Cohort C ( N = 827)) of adolescents in rural China.
Findings
The results of the descriptive analysis show a continued increase in the number of adolescents accessing the Internet and the amount of time they spend online. The results of the fixed effect models show that Internet use has positive (in many of the analyses), but mostly insignificant impacts, on the learning outcomes of adolescents. In the sets of results that find significant associations between Internet use and learning outcomes, the measured effects are moderate.
Originality/value
This study investigates the causal relationship between Internet use and adolescent learning outcomes in rural China. The findings claim that there is not a great need to worry about adverse effects of Internet use on adolescent learning development. Attention, however, should focus on seeking ways to improve the positive effects of the Internet use on adolescent learning outcomes. The study will provide a reference and experience for the development of education and the Internet in rural areas and promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas in China.
In recent years, there has been widespread interest around the potential for technology to transform learning. As investment in education technology continues to grow, students, parents, and teachers face a seemingly endless array of education technologies from which to choose—from digital personalized learning platforms to online courses to text message reminders to submit financial aid forms. Amid the excitement, it is important to step back and understand how technology can help—or in some cases hinder—learning. This review article synthesizes and discusses rigorous evidence on the effectiveness of technology-based approaches to education in developed countries and outlines areas for future inquiry. In particular, we examine randomized controlled trials and regression discontinuity studies across the following categories of education technology: (i) access to technology, (ii) computer-assisted learning, (iii) technology-enabled behavioral interventions in education, and (iv) online learning. We hope this synthesis will advance academic understanding of how technology can improve education, outline key areas for new experimental research, and help drive improvements to the policies, programs, and structures that contribute to successful teaching and learning. (JEL H52, H75, I20, O33)
The COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools around the world, forcing school systems and students to quickly attempt remote learning. We conducted a rapid response phone survey of over 1500 high school students aged 14 to 18 in Ecuador to learn how students spend their time during the period of quarantine, examine their access to remote learning, and measure their mental health status. We find 59 percent of students have both an internet connection at home and a computer or tablet, 74 percent are engaging in some online or telelearning, and 86 percent have done some schoolwork on the last weekday. Detailed time-use data show most students have established similar daily routines around education, although gender and wealth differences emerge in time spent working and on household tasks. Closure of schools and social isolation are the two main problems students say they face, and while the majority are mostly happy, 16 percent have mental health scores that indicate depression.
In this paper, we have employed data from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA, 2012 edition) on the EU-15 countries in order to investigate the effect of using ICT at home on achievement. By employing Propensity Score Matching, we provide robust evidence that in most countries there is a negative association between using computers intensely for homework and achieving lower test scores across all subjects. Such negative effect affects the achievement of both low- and high-performing students and is robust to a specification that consider unobservable self-sorting of students across schools. Our findings suggest that a more cautious approach should be taken with regards to the wide-spread use of digital innovation as a means to support students’ out-of-school work.
This paper explores the role of parental information and control on children's internet use in Chile. We designed and implemented a randomized experiment whereby 7700 parents were sent weekly SMSs messages that (i) provided specific information about their children's internet use, and/or (ii) offered assistance with the installation of parental control software. We find that providing parents with specific information changes parenting behavior and reduces children's internet use by 6–10%. Evidence from heterogeneity analysis and machine learning algorithms suggest that this information substitutes for the presence of parents at home and complements parents' capacity to be involved in their children's lives. We do not find significant impacts from helping parents directly control their children's internet access with parental control software. In addition, we find that the strength of the cue associated with receiving a message has a significant impact on internet use.
One of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-4) adopted by the United Nations focuses on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all. Most research on impact of technology on learning outcomes depends on designs that require low student-to-computer ratio and extensive retraining of teachers. These requirements make the designs difficult to implement on a large scale and hence are limited in terms of inclusivity and ability to ‘provide equitable opportunity for all’. Our paper is the first to evaluate an intervention design that is aimed at dealing with these concerns. We conduct a large-scale randomised field experiment in 1823 rural government schools in India that uses technology-aided teaching to replace one-third of traditional classroom teaching. Even with high student-to-computer ratios and minimal teacher training, we observe a positive impact on student learning outcomes. The study thus presents a low cost, resource-light design, which can be implemented in a developing country on a large scale to address the problem of poor learning outcomes, thereby making the intervention inclusive and equitable in line with the spirit of SDG-4.
As schools are making significant investments in education technologies it is important to assess whether various products are adopted by their end users and whether they are effective as used. This paper studies the adoption and ability to promote usage of one type of technology that is increasingly ubiquitous: school-to-parent communication technologies. Analyzing usage data from a Learning Management System across several hundred schools and then conducting a two-stage experiment across 59 schools to nudge the use of this technology by families, I find that 57% of families ever use it and adoption correlates strongly with measures of income and student achievement. While a simple nudge increases usage and modestly improves student achievement, without more significant intervention to encourage usage by disadvantaged families, these technologies may exacerbate gaps in information access across income and performance levels.
2019 American Economic Association. All rights reserved. Digital technology is the representation of information in bits. This technology has reduced the cost of storage, computation, and transmission of data. Research on digital economics examines whether and how digital technology changes economic activity. In this review, we emphasize the reduction in five distinct economic costs associated with digital economic activity: search costs, replication costs, transportation costs, tracking costs, and verification costs.
This paper provides experimental evidence for the impact of home internet access on a broad range of child outcomes in Peru. We compare children who were randomly chosen to receive laptops with high-speed internet access to (i) those who did not receive laptops and (ii) those who only received laptops without internet. We find that providing free internet access led to improved computer and internet proficiency relative to those without laptops and improved internet proficiency compared to those with laptops only. However, there were no significant effects of internet access on math and reading achievement, cognitive skills, self-esteem, teacher perceptions, or school grades when compared to either group. We explore reasons for the absence of impacts on these key outcomes with survey questions, time-diaries, and computer logs.
Most studies find little to no effect of classroom computers on student achievement. We suggest that this null effect may combine positive effects of computer uses without equivalently effective alternative traditional teaching practices and negative effects of uses that substitute more effective teaching practices. Our correlated random effects models exploit within-student between-subject variation in different computer uses in the international TIMSS test. We find positive effects of using computers to look up information and negative effects of using computers to practice skills, resulting in overall null effects. Effects are larger for students with high socioeconomic status and mostly confined to developed countries.
Based on the assumption that increased access to internet services boosts economic growth and improves the well-being of the poor, governments in both developed and emerging regions are heavily investing in internet connectivity projects. This article reviews the existing evidence as to the impact of internet technologies on various development dimensions, and articulates the empirical evidence into an analytical framework that seeks to identify the micro-linkages between internet adoption and poverty alleviation. The review suggests that the development pay-offs of internet technologies are ambiguous due to two interrelated effects. First, because effective appropriation requires a range of skills as well as complementary investment in human capital and organizational changes. This tends to favour well-educated workers and firms with more innovative capacity and access to finance. Second, because the positive effects of internet dissemination on market co-ordination and political institutions grow exponentially with adoption levels. As a result, while the evidence indicates that advanced economies are reaping significant benefits from internet investments, the returns for less advanced economies, and in particular for the fight against poverty in these regions, remain uncertain.
A substantial amount of money is spent on technology by schools, families, and policymakers with the hope of improving educational outcomes. This chapter explores the theoretical and empirical literature on the impacts of technology on educational outcomes. The literature focuses on two primary contexts in which technology may be used for educational purposes: (i) classroom use in schools and (ii) home use by students. Theoretically, information and communications technology (ICT) investment and computer-aided instruction (CAI) use by schools and the use of computers at home have ambiguous implications for educational achievement: expenditures devoted to technology necessarily offset inputs that may be more or less efficient, and time allocated to using technology may displace traditional classroom instruction and educational activities at home. However, much of the evidence in the schooling literature is based on interventions that provide supplemental funding for technology or additional class time, and thus favor finding positive effects. Nonetheless, studies of ICT and CAI in schools produce mixed evidence with a pattern of null results. Notable exceptions to this pattern occur in studies of developing countries and CAI interventions that target math rather than language. In the context of home use, early studies based on multivariate and instrumental variables approaches tend to find large positive (and in a few cases negative) effects while recent studies based on randomized control experiments tend to find small or null effects. Early research focused on developed countries while more recently several experiments have been conducted in developing countries.
This paper investigates the impact of schools banning mobile phones on student test scores. By surveying schools in four English cities regarding their mobile phone policies and combining it with administrative data, we adopt a difference in differences (DID) strategy, exploiting variations in schools' autonomous decisions to ban these devices, conditioning on a range of student characteristics and prior achievement. We find that student performance in high stakes exams significantly increases post ban, by about 0.07 standard deviations on average. These increases in performance are driven by the lowest-achieving students. This suggests that the unstructured presence of phones has detrimental effects on certain students and restricting their use can be a low-cost policy to reduce educational inequalities.
Boys are doing worse in school than are girls, which has been dubbed “the Boy Crisis.” An analysis of the latest data on educational outcomes among boys and girls reveals extensive disparities in grades, reading and writing test scores, and other measurable educational outcomes, and these disparities exist across family resources and race. Focusing on disadvantaged schoolchildren, I then examine whether time investments made by boys and girls related to computer use contribute to the gender gap in academic achievement. Data from several sources indicate that boys are less likely to use computers for schoolwork and are more likely to use computers for playing games, but are less likely to use computers for social networking and email than are girls. Using data from a large field experiment randomly providing free personal computers to schoolchildren for home use, I also test whether these differential patterns of computer use displace homework time and ultimately translate into worse educational outcomes among boys. No evidence is found indicating that personal computers crowd out homework time and effort for disadvantaged boys relative to girls. Home computers also do not have negative effects on educational outcomes such as grades, test scores, courses completed, and tardies for disadvantaged boys relative to girls.
There is a great degree of heterogeneity among the studies that investigate whether computer technologies improve education and how students benefit from them - if at all. The overall goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of computing technologies to raise educational performance and non-cognitive outcomes and identify what program components are most effective in doing so. To achieve this aim we pool the data sets of five separate studies about computer technology programs that include observations of 16,856 students from 171 primary schools across three provinces in China. We find that overall computing technologies have positive and significant impacts on student academic achievement in both math and in Chinese. The programs are found to be more effective if they are implemented out-of-school, avoiding what appear to be substitution effects when programs are run during school. The programs also have heterogeneous effects by gender. Specifically, boys gain more than girls in Chinese. We did not find heterogeneous effects by student initial achievement levels. We also found that the programs that help students learn math-but not Chinese-have positive impacts on student self-efficacy.
This paper examines the effects of providing broadband to schools on students' performance. We use a rich panel of data on broadband use and students' grades from all middle schools in Portugal. Employing a first-differences specification to control for school-specific unobserved effects and instrumenting the quality of broadband to account for unobserved time-varying effects, we show that high levels of broadband use in schools were detrimental for grades on the ninth-grade national exams in Portugal. For the average broadband use in schools, grades reduced 0.78 of a standard deviation from 2005 to 2009. We also show that broadband has a negative impact on exam scores regardless of gender, subject, or school quality and that the way schools allow students to use the Internet affects their performance. In particular, students in schools that block access to websites such as YouTube perform relatively better.
Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1770 .
This paper was accepted by Lorin Hitt, information systems.
This paper presents results from a randomized controlled trial whereby approximately 1,000 OLPC XO laptops were provided for home use to children attending primary schools in Lima, Peru. The intervention increased access and use of home computers, with some substitution away from computer use outside the home. Children randomized to receive laptops scored about 0.8 standard deviations higher in a test of XO proficiency but showed lower academic effort as reported by teachers. There were no impacts on academic achievement or cognitive skills as measured by the Raven's Progressive Matrices test. Finally, there was little evidence for spillovers within schools.
Using data from the American Time Use Survey between 2003 and 2010, we document that home production absorbs roughly 30 percent of foregone market work hours at business cycle frequencies. Leisure absorbs roughly 50 percent of foregone market work hours, with sleeping and television watching accounting for most of this increase. We document significant increases in time spent on shopping, child care, education, and health. Job search absorbs between 2 and 6 percent of foregone market work hours. We discuss the implications of our results for business cycle models with home production and non-separable preferences. (JEL D31, E32, J22)
Computers are an important part of modern education, yet large segments of the population – especially low-income and minority children – lack access to a computer at home. Does this impede educational achievement? We test this hypothesis by conducting the largest-ever field experiment involving the random provision of free computers for home use to students. 1,123 schoolchildren grades 6-10 in 15 California schools participated in the experiment. Although the program significantly increased computer ownership and use, we find no effects on any educational outcomes, including grades, standardized test scores, credits earned, attendance and disciplinary actions. Our estimates are precise enough to rule out even modestly-sized positive or negative impacts. The estimated null effect is consistent with survey evidence showing no change in homework time or other "intermediate" inputs in education for treatment students.
Across many different contexts, randomized evaluations find that school participation is sensitive to costs: Reducing out-of-pocket costs, merit scholarships, and conditional cash transfers all increase schooling. Addressing child health and providing information on how earnings rise with education can increase schooling even more cost-effectively. However, among those in school, test scores are remarkably low and unresponsive to more-of-the-same inputs, such as hiring additional teachers, buying more textbooks, or providing flexible grants. In contrast, pedagogical reforms that match teaching to students' learning levels are highly cost effective at increasing learning, as are reforms that improve accountability and incentives, such as local hiring of teachers on short-term contracts. Technology could potentially improve pedagogy and accountability. Improving pre- and postprimary education are major future challenges.
Does differential access to computer technology at home compound the educational disparities between rich and poor? Would a program of government provision of computers to early secondary school students reduce these disparities? We use administrative data on North Carolina public school students to corroborate earlier surveys that document broad racial and socioeconomic gaps in home computer access and use. Using within-student variation in home computer access, and across-ZIP code variation in the timing of the introduction of high-speed internet service, we also demonstrate that the introduction of home computer technology is associated with modest but statistically significant and persistent negative impacts on student math and reading test scores. Further evidence suggests that providing universal access to home computers and high-speed internet access would broaden, rather than narrow, math and reading achievement gaps.
IZA Discussion Papers 14009
- N Angrist
- P Bergman
- M Matsheng