As we indicated in Chapter 12, during the course of writing this book, we had a variety of thoughts about concrete steps that might help parents and children use their home computers for education. In this appendix, we present some of these ideas along with some readings that might be of assistance to them.

CREATORS AND PRODUCERS

The creators and producers of academic software could redouble their efforts to conceptualize role behaviors of parents that would facilitate children's use of their educational software at home. They could build these thoughts into “guidelines for the home” to accompany software. The design of the software itself could incorporate a structure that at least encourages parental involvement and support. Software companies could also provide effective in-service training of software salespersons, who in turn could better assist parents in the choice and use of academic software.

Producers might make children's educational software more appealing to adults as well. An excellent and familiar example is Children's Television Workshop's “Sesame Street,” which incorporates humor and information that parents appreciate. In this way, parents might be encouraged to watch and help children use educational software at home.

Producers and designers, with the help of educational researchers, could design products that would enable parents to structure learning experiences for their children. There are examples of teams of applied researchers and producers working together to produce multimedia learning environments. With the aid of such a team, product development can be shaped by the actual use of the technology in real social contexts.