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"SRI Announces Findings of World Bank Program to Prepare Students in Developing Countries for the Internet Age," SRI International.

http://www.sri.com/news/releases/02-16-00.html

Date of Study:

1999

Basis of Study:

The evaluation was conducted at the end of the 1999 school year in five of the currently 15 participating countries: Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Senegal and Uganda. In total, 26 WorLD schools with 20,000 students and 1,200 teachers and administrators were asked to evaluate the impact of the program upon student learning and the impact of computers within the WorLD program.

Focus of Study:

The World Bank's World Links for Development (WorLD) Monitoring and Evaluation Study is the first stage of a philanthropic pilot initiative aiming to provide internet connectivity to at least 3,000 secondary schools in 40 developing countries by the end of year 2004. The study consists of five components:

Internet connectivity for secondary schools in developing countries

Training in the use of technology to improve teaching and learning

School-to-school, regional, and global partnerships with public and private organizations

Telecommunications policy advice for the education sector

Monitoring and evaluation

The goal of SRI's Center for Technology in Learning's Monitoring and Evaluation component of the program is to provide the World Bank and educational ministries of participating countries with information about results and implementation of the program as well as the challenges faced by students, teachers and administrators.

Conclusions:

The highest rated impact of the program was students' ability to get better jobs upon graduation. Moreover, a large number of students indicated that they had acquired the technological and communication skills they needed to succeed in the information economy. A large majority of teachers agreed that students improved their information, communication, collaboration, technological skills, and attitudes as a result of their participation in the WorLD program. Teachers and administrators also concurred that they too acquired new skills and attitudes in both technology and pedagogy as a result of participating in the program.