In the last decade or so, computers became omnipresent within most traditional school classrooms. Yet, even as school districts dedicated an increasing amount of their technology capital to funding classroom computers, educators wondered how to use this new technology to teach. Teachers already had books, visual aids, and tactile materials specially designed to teach students all they needed to know about just about everything. What good was this new technology that promised to help teach an expanded curriculum to children that already had everything they needed to learn?

The reality is that computers have opened a whole new world to students, both at home and in the classroom. When the personal computer was merely a word-processing box, there were opportunities to teach students limited reading and writing skills, but no real offer of an exciting new way to teach subjects such as science, social studies, and, above all, reading.

With the explosion of the personal computer into an advanced world of enhanced graphics and increasingly complex programs, the computer became more than a black screen with white words and a blinking cursor. Computers became true interactive tools for educators to use to stimulate the imaginations of their students. And, as computer software developers forayed into more than word processing and financial programs, games turned into age-specific programs, and age-specific programs morphed into educational opportunities.

One complaint voiced by many parents as computer software matured from adaptations of video game into real educational offerings, was that their children were spending excessive time in front of the computer. After all, there is little to smile about when a child trades his Nintendo for computer pinball or her Atari for a Barbie creativity program. But, most experts agree that computer software developers really stepped up to the plate when designing programs that not only presented children with real learning opportunities, but that appealed to a wide variety of interests at the same time. Now, many parents are actually pleased when their children want to use the computer.

Computer Software that Can Teach Children to Learn to Read

Relatively early on in the learning software game, developers worked to present learners with basic computer programs that focused heavily on A,B,C's and 1,2,3's. Early programs presented even preschool learners with simple reading programs based on traditional reading materials such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella, and the Dr. Seuss books. Subsequent programs could focus on specific reading skills.

Today's computer software programs incorporate reading into a variety of learning media and subject area content. Just as educators have traditionally used different subject areas to help teach reading and vice versa, computer software has grown to the point where programs present children of all ages with multi-pronged combinations of reading activities across subject areas in order to facilitate and enhance learning. Just as computer games adapted play to the skill level of the user some years ago, so too do sophisticated modern reading programs adjust to the capabilities and needs of the individual student. These new "learning" programs are so engrossing that students often tend to view them as "games." Now, even well-thought out computer games can be excellent ancillary learning opportunities for both moderate and advanced readers.

Careful software purchasing decisions by parents, coupled with flexible allocation of computer time devoted to instruction vs entertainment can maintain at a high level their children's interest and enthusiasm for both kinds of program.