Maine's laptop program is generating more controversy in addition to the
accessibility problems raised earlier.  It seems that Maine education
officials cannot justify through rigorous peer reviewed research the
expenditure of $17 million to improve student performance through laptops
when the money could have been used to reduce class sizes or provide
additional teacher training which have well documented results.

Kelly

The Boston Globe

September 22, 2002

Questions arise over laptops' use as learning tool

Maine plugs them in; research casts doubt

By Hiawatha Bray,

Globe Staff,
9/22/2002

Even as every seventh-grader in Maine's public schools begins to learn
with laptop computers, new research from MIT casts doubt on whether such
access to computers will help children learn.

Joshua Angrist, an MIT professor of economics, and Victor Lavy, a
professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found that the
deployment of 35,000 computers in Israeli primary and middle schools in
the mid-1990s did not result in higher student scores on standardized
achievement tests. Indeed, they found a decline in fourth- and
eighth-grade math performance.

The report is scheduled for publication next month in the Economic
Journal of Britain's Royal Economic Society. Angrist and Lavy studied a
program launched in 1994 by Israel's national lottery. By 1996, the
program had provided enough desktop computers for 10 percent of the
country's elementary school children and 45 percent of its middle school
students.

But Angrist says the plan appears to have been a waste of money. ''The
evidence that I have so far is that it's not showing any benefit, and it
may even be doing some damage,'' said Angrist. He argues that education
funds would be better spent on reducing class sizes and providing more
training for teachers. By spending it on laptops, Angrist said, ''you're
taking money away from something that's proven and giving it to something
that's unproven.''

The Angrist report questions a growing nationwide campaign to provide
sophisticated computers to US schoolchildren. Personal computers have
been used in schools since their development in the late 1970s, usually
with a relatively small number of machines shared by many students.

But now many school districts want to try a ''one-to-one'' system, in
which they provide a computer for each student's full-time use. Districts
in California, Georgia, New York, and other states are launching such
programs. But Maine's $37 million laptop program is probably the most
ambitious.

This year, 16,000 machines were purchased and distributed to all
seventh-graders in the state's public schools. Another 20,000 will be
purchased next year so that all seventh- and eighth-graders will have
computers, as will their teachers.

Despite Angrist's skepticism, other education specialists defend the
Maine plan, saying there's plenty of evidence that contradicts Angrist's
study.

Alan Bain, associate headmaster of Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H.,
published his study in the International Journal of Educational Reform in
2000. Bain found the introduction of computers at Brewster led to higher
scores on the SAT college entrance exam.

''I would never be saying to you that that happened because we deployed
laptops here,'' said Bain. ''That happened because we made the school
more effective.'' But Bain is certain the laptops helped.

Bain said schools must train teachers in the uses of computer technology
and must redesign their educational methods to take advantage of the
Internet. ''It's what you do with it that matters,'' said Bain. ''Whether
this works in Maine or not is going to be about how it gets deployed.''

Duke Albanese, Maine's commissioner of education, said studies done in
Costa Rica and Australia found significant gains when students were given
their own computers for use in schools. He also cited a computer-based
education program launched in 1999 by MIT's Media Lab at the Maine Youth
Center, a juvenile jail in Portland. ''What happened with these kids,''
said Albanese, ''was nothing short of miraculous. They became motivated
to learn.''

But Angrist says most claims of benefit from computers in the classroom
are based on anecdotes, rather than hard scientific research. ''What
they'll do is they'll go in and interview people ... and say, `Did you
like having these computers?' And they'll say, `Yeah, it was great.'''
Angrist also says that previous scientific studies of the question have
not been well designed. But in the Israeli case, some students got
computers, while others didn't, allowing for a controlled experiment.

Angrist is skeptical about the idea that computers can help children
learn. ''The case for why computer-aided instruction is better is very
weak,'' he said. ''The burden of proof ought to be on people who say we
ought to spend a lot of money on this.''

Maine did conduct a pilot program last spring. Participants such as Paula
Smith, principal of Pembroke School, a middle school in Pembroke, Maine,
reported major improvements in attendance and student behavior, but
offered no evidence of better grades or test scores. Angrist said more
research is needed to justify the program, and argued that Maine should
have run a well-designed research program before committing itself to the
effort.

Albanese, the education commissioner, said the state will conduct such a
study once the laptops are distributed in schools, to determine whether
Maine is getting its money's worth.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at [log in to unmask]

This story ran on page B7 of the Boston Globe on 9/22/2002. © Copyright
2002 Globe Newspaper Company.