"Significant gains in self-esteem were reported in a study conducted by Ryser (1990) in which computers were introduced into an experimental elementary school. A control group using traditional instruction methods in this same study reported no such gains."
It is my belief that once you have established confidence in a subject that a student will now be willing to invest the time to become better. If technology can help increase that confidence, then it is well worth the effort of the educator to implement computer use in the classroom.
I do believe the programs that are used are very important to help build that confidence. Programs that I have seen and used in my classroom follow a video game like format. The student acts as a character in the game and has to accomplish a set of tasks. Progress is tracked as the student navigates his or her way through some educational world. Student is given information through video and that information is then used by the student to move through different levels. Immediate feedback is provided given the student a chance to correct any mistakes or misconceptions.
My 6 year old son's school subscribes him to IXL, a math website, and ReadingEggs, a reading website. My son's class will go the compute lab and they will have an opportunity to work on these sites to improve their math and reading skills. We can also use these sites to at home in order to build and reinforce lessons from school. We used these sites this summer to help maintain concepts he learned during his Kindergarten year and to help prepare for his 1st grade year. He could easily stay on these websites for hours, but we kept it to set time to insure boredom didn't become a factor. He absolutely has a blast with the technology and he is learning at the same time. Thus far he has shown that he loves the sites and he loves to learn and that should be the goal of any educational tool and educator.
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