For at least three decades many educators have been convinced that potentially computers offer a ranged of necessary supports to learning.While many teachers and students have made use of of a range of computer based applications most teachers and students have not done so, even in developed countries.While the used of computers in schools has increased,ii is recognized that implementing computer based applications in schools to support learning is difficult.

In the integration of computer with the curriculum,the difficulty that teachers are facing is how to select scurriculum being being implemented by a teacher but fundamentally involves determining which applications will overcome problems identified within the curriculum and how to improve the productivity of students and teachers.

Historically, technology has been developed to solve problems,improved living standards and to increased productivity. Therefore, it is reasonable that we should expect educational technology to be developed  with similar objectives. Within the educational context those technological objectives become to increase productivity , solve problems in teaching and learning programs.

It is important that in choosing to use computers to support learning that we start by considering these two objectives starting with the concept of educational productivity.

Productivity is a concept most happily  found in economics text books where the productivity of a worker or the economic unit is defined by dividing the output (revenue) by the input (costs).This is more difficult to define for the education industry since the outpput is largely the quantity and quality of learning demonstrated by students, or learning outcomes

Productivty   =   Output Input                                                                                                                            =   Educational Outcome Costs

Outcomes          Quality and quantity of student learning.

Costs                   Teachers   and  student time, classroom materials, equipment , etc.

 From the formula above it is clear that to increase productivity either the outputs must increase, the inputs  decrease or both . Unfortunatelately, educational productivity is difficult to estimate the value of educatinal outcomes.

The use  of the computer as a support to teaching and learning can provide a number of advantages to both students and teachers in the classroom setting. The computer is unlike any

other technology available for use in the classroom. In providing  instruction it can accept responses  from students gauge prior learning and prefer learning styles and base further  instruction on this  information. It has a memory that enables it to record  a   student’s responses to provide information for the teacher concerning student’s progress. If it is not enough, the computer provides a variety of  presentation and interaction modes that  can stimulate and maintain  student interest and  motivation . As a tool  the computer provides the learners with the means to perform tedious and repetitive  task quickly and accurately. It provides the opportunity to increase knowledge and to develop higher order learning skills in an interactive fashion..