STATS
& THOUGHTS
Step-by-step guides on statistical approaches, the papers published which led me to them, and other problems that made me angry.
Rethinking “screen time”: How online play boosts students’ academic skills
Conversations about adolescent “screen time” often start and end with worry: time online must be stealing attention from school. Our new study asks a different question: What if some of that unstructured time on social media, video games, and general web browsing builds skills that help students do better in school?
When avatars shape us: VR makes the “Proteus effect” stronger
Synthesizing fifty-six experimental studies of the “Proteus effect” (meta-analysis), we examined what conditions make the proteus effect stronger rather than whether or not it exists. The cautious answer: the Proteus effect is robust but probably a bit smaller than headline estimates, and still stronger in VR.
Report: Gaps in students’ broadband and achievement across the pandemic
An overview of our study assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on home Internet connectivity, student achievement, and adolescent well-being for students across 18 schools, surveyed in 2019 to 2022. The focus is on middle and high school students enrolled in rural and small-town schools.