Using the Computer as a Reward in the Classroom or at Home

Using computer time as a reward system is an excellent way to let the student know that they have done the right thing or have completed the assignment they have been given. The computer time should be monitored and the games chosen should have an educational theme to them. There are many sites that you can send the student in where the games are fun and challenging and they sneak education into them. A covert education system or concept can be found within these games and the students are none the wiser that you have tricked them into learning.

A good site for this is funbrain.com. It has several games that not only teach math and reading, but they make the children use there head while trying to figure out the problem. One game has bees that are supposed to carry the answer of a math problem. The bee flies to the right equation while trying to avoid flying lightning bugs. The game is challenging and lets the kids think they are playing an action game. If fact they are learning math.

A reading game acts in a similar way. You have to read a short paragraph and answer a question about the paragraph. If you get the answer correct the student gets about a two minute fun game with no education in it. After two minutes the game switches to another question. The student is so into the game, they will actually stop and read the question so they can go on. Mavis Beacon keyboarding CDs also work on this idea. The keyboarding assignment is given and the student will get about a five minute play of a game before going to the next assignment. The added feature is that the play buttons correspond to the letter or word that the lesson just covered.