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A laptop each, no learning gain
Peru's laptop experiment
Peru was one of the countries that joined One Laptop Per Child, a program where nonprofit groups and tech companies tried to put a laptop in the hands of every child. Students used computers more and got better at using them. Educational outcomes stayed where they were, and Uruguay found something similar.
The thin evidence
A report from UNESCO, the United Nations education agency, concluded a few years ago that there is little rigorous evidence that digital technology improves educational outcomes. Very few education technology studies are rigorous, and most of those are funded or done by companies that want to sell their tools to schools.
Teachers adopting new technology often do not ask to see a rigorous study showing the tool will improve outcomes.
How did the $100 laptop turn out?
Nicholas Negroponte of MIT's Media Lab announced One Laptop Per Child at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2005, promising a laptop for about 100 dollars. The green and white XO laptop that shipped in 2007 cost closer to 200 dollars to make. It was built for rugged use, with a screen readable in sunlight and a design meant to run on little power. Peru became one of the largest deployments in the world.
What did an earlier Peru evaluation find?
Researchers at the Inter-American Development Bank published a 2012 evaluation of the Peruvian rollout. They found that students with laptops used computers far more, but showed no gains in math or reading test scores. Some tests of cognitive skills showed modest improvements.
Why are rigorous ed-tech studies so rare?
A rigorous test randomly assigns some schools to get a tool and others to wait, which costs money and requires schools to accept being left out. Results can take years, while software is updated every few months. Companies often run their own shorter studies because they need evidence for sales. The U.S. Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse, created in 2002, rates studies against fixed standards.
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