Do information and communication technologies (ICT) improve educational outcomes? Evidence for Spain in PISA 2015

With the world becoming increasingly digitalized, determining the relationship between the use of ICT in the learning process and educational outcomes takes on special relevance for guiding educational policy decisions in a reasoned way. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect on academic performance of the use and availability of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) at school and at home. For this purpose, we apply a hierarchical lineal regression model approach with data from the Programme for International Student assessment survey (PISA) 2015. PISA 2015 contains a brief but specific questionnaire for ICT that is completed voluntarily in some of the countries participating in the survey, as is the case in Spain. The results show differences in the sign of the impact according to the ICT variable used. The positive impact of ICT use is associated with its use for entertainment at home and with the students’ interest in ICT. However, the use of ICT for schoolwork at home and the general use of ICT by students in schools have negative effects on the learning process. Another significant result is the magnitude of the coefficient for the relation between the starting age for using ICT on the scores in the three competences. The higher the age, the lower the score achieved. The results of the regressions by tertiles of performance show that ICT can also play an important role in improving the academic performance of the students with the worst results. Finally, some control variables related to students, home and location are also relevant in our models.