Does computer use make the difference? Some results from PISA 2006

Changing needs of economic and social development have been urging governments to emphasize the contribution of education to a wide range of newly required skills and competencies. ¿21st Century skills¿ are considered to be key enablers of responsible citizenship in a knowledge-based economy. It is, therefore, relevant to assess and compare how education systems are dealing with technology integration in education, particularly in terms of securing and improving access, enhancing a wide range of educational and managerial uses, and monitoring the effects and impacts on the development of critical technology-related skills and competencies. Based on these considerations, the current study focuses on the impact of students¿ computer use on their achievement in science controlling for students and school characteristics. Competencies in using new technologies differ across population clusters, e.g. gender (Mediappro, 2005) or SES (Pedrò, 2009). Computer use is introduced into the analysis considering three dimensions: the frequency of use, the experience in using this device as well as the place where the computer is used (at home, at school or both). In addition, following Witter and Senkbeil (2008), the paper aims at understanding whether the different ways students use a computer have different effects on their performance in science. The following questions will be addressed: 1. Has the use of a computer a statistically significant effect on students¿ performance in science? 2. Does the way in which students use a computer affect their achievement in science? The research questions are addressed using a hierarchical linear modeling approach to compare the variance within and between schools and countries. The primary source of data for our analysis is the PISA 2006 survey. Policy implications will be addressed.JRC.DG.G.3-Econometrics and applied statistic