From Contrarian finding: Computers are a drag on learning:
From a sample of 175,000 15-year-old students in 31 countries, researchers at the University of Munich announced in November that performance in math and reading had suffered significantly among students who have more than one computer at home. And while students seemed to benefit from limited use of computers at school, those who used them several times per week at school saw their academic performance decline significantly as well.
[...]
When [parents' education and working status] were removed from the equation, having more than one computer at home was no longer associated with top academic performance. In fact, the study says, “The mere availability of computers at home seems to distract students from learning.” Computers seem to serve mainly as devices for playing games.Still, there were a few exceptions: Academic performance rose among those who routinely engaged in writing e-mail or running educational software.
We’re supposed to be terribly surprised that owning a computer doesn’t improve math and reading skills; only using it to write e-mails or run educational software helps.