The Study of Impacts of Information Technology (IT) on the Educational Achievement of Elementary School Students in Iran

The aim of this research was to study the role of IT, specially computer and internet in achievement of children in elementary schools in Khalkhal in the educational year of 2012-2013. IT is the technology of gathering, selecting, processing, storing, and using of information in the considered fields and transferring it through multi- media computers in order to plan and select educational materials, manage and organize the teaching- learning process in order to improve the educational success. For this purpose, from among the statistical universe, all elementary school children in Khalkhal, 1031 individuals were selected and divided into two groups: the control group consisting of 620 individuals without workshops and computers, and the experimental group consisting of 411 people with workshops and computers. Our research hypotheses were about the effectiveness of IT and use of computers on the educational performance of children. The study showed that the amount of F=9.01 for interaction in the workshop with material, and the number of P=.0002‹0.01 at the level of a=0.01 was meaningful, that is with 99 percent certainty it can be claimed that there is a meaningful difference between using and the manner of using IT and new strategies of instruction by the teachers in the improvement of students (girls and boys) comparing with those who attended in traditional classrooms without using IT. Of course it should be mentioned that this difference is not merely the result of technology and new equipments, but it is the manner of using the new strategies and equipments, combined with the experience of teachers that makes the difference and not technology by itself.