1:1 in Peru Suggests Instruction is Important

The Inter-American Development Bank conducted an evaluation of the first 15 months of laptop deployment in 319 schools in Peru and found little benefit.  This was the first large scale review of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program.
A UNESCO analysis notes that OLPC “aims to improve learning in the poorest regions of the world though providing laptops to children for use at school and home. Since its start, the program has been implemented in 36 countries and more than two million laptops have been distributed.”  But, “there is little solid evidence regarding the effectiveness of this program.”
This cautionary tale comes with several important lessons.  The fact that “the program did not seem to have affected the quality of instruction in class” may be explained by “the lack of software in the laptops directly linked to Math and Language and the absence of clear instructions to teachers about which activities to use for specific curricular goals.”
OLPC aims “to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop. To this end, we have designed hardware, content and software for collaborative, joyful, and self-empowered learning. With access to this type of tool, children are engaged in their own education, and learn, share, and create together. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.”
Like 1:1 efforts I led in the 90s, the OLPC approach appears to be content-light and naive.  Kids appears to spend a lot of time on non-academic software (which may have some cognitive benefit) but there is no evidence that student spend more time reading.  Unlike top blended models in the states, UNESCO points out that “the time allocated to activities directly related to school does not seem to have changed.”  With no effort to change time and literacy and numeracy instruction it is not surprising that academic impacts appear to be weak.
 
Related links:

• What do Randomized Control Trial results from OLPC Peru mean for ICT4E?, by Wayan Vota
• BLOG: And the jury is back: One Laptop per Child is not enough, by Pablo Ibarrarán
• BLOG: What Can We Learn From Randomized Control Trials of OLPC Peru, by Wayan Vota
• BLOG: Let Us Discuss Results from a Randomized Control Trial of OLPC in Peru, by Wayan Vota
• BLOG: Evaluating The Best Ways to Give to the Poor: Guest post by Bruce Wydick