Dive Brief:

• In a new study released Tuesday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that technology use could positively impact student learning, but only in moderation.
• Overexposure to technology at home and in classrooms was associated with lower educational outcomes and social isolation.
• The study was based on an assessment in 2012 that surveyed students on computer use and tracked their educational progress.

Dive Insight:

The findings are a note of caution in the education field’s enthusiastic adoption of technology in classrooms. But they are not an outright condemnation of it. The study did find that increased access to computers improved educational outcomes up to a certain point. But beyond that point (average and higher), computer use in school had negative impacts on academic achievement in reading, and any computer use seemed to have a negative impact on math and science scores.

In fact, the study’s authors raised concerns that educators and supervisors have been grappling with recently: how to actually make tech-driven models work better than previous models.

“We have not yet become good enough at the kind of pedagogues that make the most of technology; that adding 21st century technologies to 20th century teaching practices will just dilute the effectiveness of teaching,” they wrote. “Despite considerable investments in computers, Internet connections and software for educational use, there is little solid evidence that greater computer use among students leads to better scores in mathematics and reading.”