Dva profesora ekonomije (jedan sa Čikaga, drugi sa Kolumbije) su na VoxEU postavili tekst pod naslovom "
The Effect of Home Computer Use on Children Outcomes", u kojem su testirali mit da deca koja imaju kompjuter imaju i bolje ocene u školi.
Naravno, imam i ja par drugara koji su uspevali da ubede roditelje da im treba PC (sve sa najboljom grafičkom kartom) "za školu", ali mislim da je većini ljudi jasno da je PC pre svega IGRAČKA. Naravno, na Internetu se može naći gomila poučnih stvari, ali koje dete će pre koristiti PC da nešto sazna o detinjstvu Vuka Karadžića, nego da gleda smešne klipove na Jutjubu, igra poslednji GTA ili traći vreme na Fejsu?
Elem, u Rumuniji su mislili da će, samo ako država deci kupi kompjutere (u stvari, da vaučere), poteći med i mleko, da će se deca odjednom zainteresovati za nauku i da će Rumunija, kao pionir razvoja zasnovanog na ekonomiji znanja, brzo sustići Zapad. Malo karikiram, naravno, ali su svakako mislili da će kompjuteri pomoći u tome. Šta je rezultat? Evo citata:
Our analysis shows that providing home computers to low-income children in Romania lowered academic achievement even while it improved their computer skills and cognitive ability. How do we interpret these findings? The Euro 200 programme was extremely successful in increasing home computer ownership and use among low-income children.
Yet despite the efforts of the Romanian Ministry of Education to encourage the use of these computers for educational purposes, relatively few children have educational software installed on their computer, and fewer still report using their computer for educational purposes. This may have contributed to the decline in academic achievement. In other words, time spent on a computer may have displaced valuable educational activities. On the other hand, access to a home computer resulted in increased computer skills which may lead to improved labour market outcomes in the future.