Does ICT in schools affect residential adoption and adult utilization outside schools?

Abstract

Policymakers around the world are considering whether to invest in putting information and communication technology (ICT) in schools, and how. While educational impact is likely to be the primary objective, such investments can also affect residential adoption and adult utilization of ICT in the communities, thereby reducing the digital divide. Using a census survey of Thailand for a time when ICT was available in roughly half of the nation's schools, this study employs logistic regression and propensity score matching (PSM) to show that placing ICT in schools does have significant spill-over effects outside schools. This effect is larger for ICT in primary schools than secondary schools, and larger in schools with both Internet and computers than schools with just computers. The effects are observed in households of all incomes and educational levels. Considering these spill-over effects when allocating resources should lead to greater welfare gains for the amount of resources spent. The study also finds that there is a sizable portion of the adult population that chooses not to use ICT even after adopting this ICT in their households for their children, thereby eliminating any barriers to use related to cost and convenience. For this group, policy-makers should seek ways to decrease other impediments to ICT use, such as increasing ICT literacy through training. IntroductionPolicymakers around the world are considering whether to invest in putting information and communications technology (ICT) in schools. While the primary impact of this ICT is likely to be on the education that students get while at school, there may be spill-over effects that are worth considering, where any impact outside the school is considered a spill-over effect. This study measures the spill-over effects of bringing ICT to students in their schools on adoption of ICT in the households of these students, and on utilization of ICT by adults who live with these students. The specific ICT considered consists of computers and Internet access (either dial-up or broadband). Many believe it is important for a society to increase adoption and utilization of Internet and computers because this has benefits such as improving healthcare (Lua, Xiao, Sears, & Jacko, 2005), facilitating civic engagement (Norris, 2003), and improving education (Tinio, 2003). This paper presents an econometric study of how putting ICT in schools in Thailand (UNESCO, 2007) affected the adoption and use of ICT in the surrounding communities. This study also looks at how adult utilization of ICT is affected by living with students, and indirectly, by living with ICT that was likely brought into the households for those students.

Spillovers from Wiring Schools with Broadband: The Critical Role of Children

“…Age, gender, race and language also explain some variance in the adoption of ICTs (e.g., Chaudhuri et al, 2005;Ono and Zavodny, 2007). Closer to our paper, Tengtrakul and Peha (2013) showed a positive correlation between availability of ICTs in schools and Internet household adoption in Thailand.…”

“Bad Neighborhood” and Internet Adoption in Poor Countries: What is behind the Persistent Digital Gap?

“…Caselli and Coleman's (2001) study of computer diffusion found evidence that the attainment of secondary education and imports per worker strongly increases computer diffusion. More recent work by Cruz-Jesus, Oliveira, and Bacao (2012), Cruz-Jesus et al (2016), and Tengtrakul and Peha (2013) confirms the importance of school education for ICT adoption. Conversely, Chinn and Fairlie (2007) found no significant relationship between education and Internet diffusion, but highlighted the importance of telecommunication regulatory policy as a determinant of Internet diffusion.…”

Digital literacies as policy catalysts of social innovation and socio-economic transformation: Interpretive analysis from Singapore and the UAE

“…Tengtrakul and Peha [32] focused on whether the use of ICTs in schools affected residential adoption and adult utilization outside schools. The study was based on the SchoolNet project in Thailand, which supported the provision of Internet access to schools.…”