Computers ‘do not improve' student results, says OECD

Computers do not noticeably improve school pupils' academic results and can even hamper performance, an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report said yesterday that investigated the impact of technology in classrooms across the globe.

While almost three quarters of pupils in the countries surveyed used computers at schools, the report found technology had made no noticeable improvement in results. Conversely, in high-achieving schools in parts of Asia, where smartphones and computers have become an integral part of people's everyday lives, technology was far less prevalent in the classrooms. The OECD urged schools to work with teachers to turn technology into a more powerful tool in the classroom and develop more sophisticated software for experimentation and simulation, social media and games. "The real contributions ICT can make to teaching and learning have yet to be fully realised and exploited," the report concluded.