Computers and Student Learning: Bivariate and Multivariate Evidence on the Availability and Use of Computers at Home and at School

34 Pages Posted: 13 Nov 2004

See all articles by Ludger Woessmann

Ludger Woessmann

Ifo Institute for Economic Research; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research); University of Munich - Ifo Institute for Economic Research

Thomas Fuchs

Ifo Institute for Economic Research

Date Written: November 2004

Abstract

We estimate the relationship between students' educational achievement and the availability and use of computers at home and at school in the international student-level PISA database. Bivariate analyses show a positive correlation between student achievement and the availability of computers both at home and at schools. However, once we control extensively for family background and school characteristics, the relationship gets negative for home computers and insignificant for school computers. Thus, the mere availability of computers at home seems to distract students from effective learning. But measures of computer use for education and communication at home show a positive conditional relationship with student achievement. The conditional relationship between student achievement and computer and internet use at school has an inverted U-shape, which may reflect either ability bias combined with negative effects of computerized instruction or a low optimal level of computerized instruction.

Keywords: computers at home, computers at school, student achievement, educational production, PISA

JEL Classification: I2

Suggested Citation

Woessmann, Ludger and Fuchs, Thomas, Computers and Student Learning: Bivariate and Multivariate Evidence on the Availability and Use of Computers at Home and at School (November 2004). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=619101 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.619101

Ludger Woessmann (Contact Author)

Ifo Institute for Economic Research ( email )

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++49 89 9224 1460 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.cesifo.de/link/woessmann_l.htm

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

University of Munich - Ifo Institute for Economic Research

Schackstr. 4
Munich, 80539
Germany

Thomas Fuchs

Ifo Institute for Economic Research ( email )

Munich
Germany

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