Technology doesn’t make school pupils smarter: study

Computers do not noticeably improve school pupils’ academic results and can even hamper performance, an OECD report said Tuesday that looked at the impact of technology in classrooms across the globe.

While almost three quarters of pupils in the countries surveyed used computers at schools, the report by the the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development found technology had made no noticeable improvement in results.

Conversely, in high-achieving schools in parts of Asia, where smartphones and computers have become an integral part of people’s everyday lives, technology was far less prevalent in the classrooms.

In South Korea, students used computers for an average of nine minutes at school and in Hong Kong, only 11 minutes — just a fraction of the 58 minutes spent in Australia, 42 in Greece and 39 in Sweden.

“Where computers are used in the classroom, their impact on student performance is mixed at best,” OECD’s education director Andreas Schleicher said in a foreword to the report, the think-tank’s first on the topic.

“Students who use computers very frequently at school do a lot worse in most learning outcomes, even after accounting for social background and student demographics.”

The report measured the impact of technology use at school on international test results, such as the OECD’s Pisa tests taken in dozens of countries around the world and other exams measuring digital skills.

It found that education systems which have invested heavily in information and communications technology have seen “no noticeable improvement” in results for reading, mathematics or science.

The OECD urged schools to work with teachers to turn technology into a more powerful tool in the classroom and develop more sophisticated software for experimentation and simulation, social media and games.

“The real contributions ICT can make to teaching and learning have yet to be fully realised and exploited,” it concluded.

Facebook working on long-sought ‘dislike’ button

Facebook, pressed for years by users to add a “dislike” button, says it is working on the feature and will be testing it soon.

“We’ve finally heard you,” CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg told a public town hall meeting in Facebook’s hometown of Menlo Park, California.

A question submitted online by a user asked the oft-repeated question of why there were no buttons along the lines of “I’m sorry”, “interesting” or “dislike” in addition to the classic thumbs-up “like” button, through which users show their support for posts by friends, stars and brands on the social network.

“Probably hundreds of people have asked about this, and today is a special day because today is the day where I actually get to say we are working on it and are very close to shipping a test of it,” Zuckerberg said.

“It took us a while to get here… because we don’t want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people’s posts. That doesn’t seem like the kind of community that we want to create.”

He said he understood that it was awkward to click “like” on a post about events such as a death in the family or the current refugee crisis and that there should be a better way for users to “express that they understand and that they relate to you.”

“We’ve been working on this for a while, actually. It’s surprisingly complicated to make,” Zuckerberg added.

“But we have an idea that we think we’re getting ready to test soon, and depending on how that goes, we’ll roll it out more broadly.”

Lil Wayne vs Drake – who’s the better hip hop artist?

Lil Wayne thinks he’s a better rapper than Drake.

The ‘Lollipop’ hitmaker claims he is responsible for the success of the ‘Take Care’ star by giving him a platform for his music, when he signed him to his label Young Money Entertainment in 2009 and helped launch his career, but admitted he isn’t worried he will out shine him because he is still the better hip hop artist.

Asked who is the better rap star he said:”I annihilate that guy. I don’t feel like I be deserving anything from him. Only thing I did was put him on a good platform.

“I discovered Drake. He left everything behind. At the time he was singing and rapping. His image was the Drake we know now, he never changed his image. But back then it wasn’t accepted too well. Singing and rapping at the same time. He was getting shunned by a lot of people. He was getting rejected.”

The 32-year-old star advised Drake not to “change anything” and to rap about whatever he wants and not to try and be like him and be true to his Canadian self.

He told ESPN Radio podcast ‘Giving Major Prop’: “I was the one to tell him, don’t change anything. Don’t think ‘cos you’re coming over here by me you gotta start rapping bout the things I rap about. Please rap about your little TV show, whatever you wanna rap about, rap about girls, do that. That’s what you’re good at.”

He added: “It’s only natural for you to come over and just think, if I’m wit Wayne, I gonna rock like Wayne. Don’t change anything. Don’t start singing about killing nobody, don’t start singing about the streets. Keep it Canadian man.”

#CarNews: Apple revving work on electric car

Apple aims to have an electric car on the road some time in the year 2019, according to a report on Monday in the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal report, which cited unnamed sources, came amid persistent rumors that Apple is secretly working to put its iconic brand on a high-tech automobile.

The California company has declined to comment on the reports.

Leaders of the Apple car project, code-named Titan, have gotten a green light to triple the size of the team to 1,800 people, according to the Journal.

While Apple is rumored to be interested in making computerized cars that can drive themselves, the first version will require motorists to be in control, the Journal reported.

The end of the decade could be an optimistic target, and Apple might wind up taking a bit longer or even partnering with an traditional auto maker on the project, according to reports.

Apple has been hiring talent away from electric car maker Tesla to boost its Titan effort, an AppleInsider website devoted to news about the company said in a story last week.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) on Friday said that it met with Apple to discuss rules of the road regarding testing self-driving cars.

“The Apple meeting was to review DMV’s autonomous vehicle regulations,” a department spokesperson told AFP in an email response to an inquiry.

Google and several major car makers have been pursuing autonomous vehicle technology.

Google has been testing self-driving cars in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

Toyota early this month announced plans to invest $50 million into building artificial intelligence into cars, an indication it could be joining the race to develop driverless vehicles.

The joint research with Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will take place over the next five years, Toyota Motor Corporation said.

While the Japanese automobile giant did not mention making cars that drive themselves, it did promise work on “intelligent vehicle technology.”