Aprendiendo con las XO : el impacto del Plan Ceibal en el aprendizaje

This research estimates the impact of Plan Ceibal in students’ achievement at public primary school in Uruguay. Plan Ceibal is the first national model of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) which is being carried out in Uruguay since 2007 in some provinces, but reached national scale during 2009. The program consists in the distribution of one laptop to every child in public primary schools. We analyze the effects of the program on learning achievement on mathematics and language. We also evaluate effects on other important outcomes such as children’s satisfaction with school, parents and teachers’ perceptions towards children motivation, and teachers’ commitment with the Plan. Even though the effects of Information and Communications Technologies on learning have been debated and there is not a consensual conclusion, in this research we find that Plan Ceibal has a positive impact on children's achievement in mathematics in the regions of the country analyzed, but we did not find any impact on learning achievement on language. These results are verified in different specifications of the model, and also when we apply DD with PSM. It holds both when we evaluate all children and when the analysis is restricted to 6th. graders. The estimation of the incremental effect is close to one fifth of standard deviations from the mean.