Does Computer-Aided Learning Work in Developing Contexts?
The Poverty Action Lab at MIT is an organization that seeks to:
“improve the effectiveness of poverty programs by providing policy makers with clear scientific results that help shape successful policies to combat poverty.” http://www.povertyactionlab.org/
This is important, because it is rare that poverty programs are rigorously evaluated or compared. The Poverty Action Lab is essentially about proving what works, and what doesn’t.
In 2003, J-PAL published a study about a randomized trial of computer-aided learning. They investigated the use of computer-aided learning programs (focusing only on math skills) across 100 different schools in the city of Vadodara, India, and found that it was highly successful in improving math competency. However, they concluded that the $1000 computers were not a cost effective way of improving education in this context. You can read about the study here.
So, the bottom line is: Computer-Aided Learning can be very effective. But can we make it effective on a computer that costs less than $20?